The Independent and Sovereign Fr

The Independent and Sovereign Freedom to be Dumb
Joseph Hitti
January 8, 2007

Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon is upset that Israel kidnapped a Lebanese shepherd on the Lebanese-Israeli border over the weekend, detained him for 24 hours and released him. Siniora’s government has lodged a complaint with the UN. There is no confirmation yet as to whether the kidnapping took place on the Lebanese side of the border, which would constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty by Israel, or on the Israeli side of the border, in which case the Israeli action is arguably justifiable.

The Lebanese constantly complain that Israel violates their territory, water and air, while the Israelis complain that the South of Lebanon remains an area in which Syrian-backed Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist militants operate, even under the nose of the Lebanese army and the UN troops of UNIFIL, thus justifying the Israeli actions of overland flight, incursions and such other acts as the latest kidnapping of the shepherd.

In principle, the “sovereign, independent and free” government of Siniora ought to have better control over its territory, with Hezbollah supposedly now north of the Litani River and the 15,000-strong Lebanese army heavily patrolling the area backed by 15,000 UN troops. But the untold reality is that the Lebanese government does not really want to control its territory, because it uses the instability in the south as a means to harass Israel into withdrawing from the disputed Shebaa Farms, itself a Syrian-concocted myth of a continued Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory following the 2000 withdrawal. The untold reality is also that Siniora and his March 14 consorts do not want to negotiate a civilized peace with Israel like Egypt and Jordan have done. Instead, Siniora, like Hezbollah, adheres to the pan-Arab pro-Islamist nationalist view that there ought not to be any negotiations with Israel, that Israel ought to withdraw without conditions and without negotiations, and that the next step after the liberation of Shebaa is the liberation of Jerusalem from the “Zionist entity”, even if this means the ultimate destruction of Lebanon.

After all, this has been the political platform, the modus operandi of all the Sunni-led Lebanese governments for decades – first with the PLO as the proxy in the 1960s and 1970s under pressure from the Arabs (when Siniora’s ilk were more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves, betraying their country and their fellow Christians to stand by Yasser Arafat), then with Hezbollah as the proxy under the Syrian and Iranian occupations (when Siniora himself, in his capacity as his boss Rafik Hariri’s top poodle, were the Assad regime’s supreme collaborators for 15 years), and now that Hezbollah has been “evicted” north of the Litani, that Syria has been kicked out of Lebanon, and there is no one really left to blame, mysterious Sunni Palestinian groups supposedly linked to Al-Qaeda and Syria suddenly appeared on the scene to perpetuate the charade that has decimated Lebanon for close to 4 decades.

Just as the shepherd was being released by Israel, two events took place demonstrating that the strategy used by the Siniora government and its Western backers is fatally flawed, if not outright criminal: Two UNIFIL civilian workers were bombed in broad daylight near Sidon, and two Katyusha rockets were fired from somewhere in the Lebanese south at Israel, right under the nose of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL, and prompting a massive mobilization of Israeli troops at this very moment along the border.

Notwithstanding the fact that the international “concern” for Lebanon was dormant for 30 years, endorsing year after year the Syrian occupation as a mere “presence” and “a factor of stability” in Lebanon while the Lebanese died in the hundred of thousands, it suddenly woke up circa 2003 and produced a couple of UN resolutions supporting Lebanon’s “independence, sovereignty and freedom”. What is negligent and criminal in that “concern” for Lebanon is the support given by the West to the Siniora government and the March 14 cohort, many of whom are former warlords and people who should themselves be put on trial for crimes against humanity, as well as heirs of big money and feudal families whose only claim to competence is their fathers’ gonads. What is missing in that “concern” is that the Siniora government is not being held accountable and responsible for the anarchy that persists in the country.

If Siniora is incompetent at restoring peace and security inside Lebanon because of the Syrians or Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah or Iran and all the other bogeymen out there as is widely claimed, then why are the US, the West and the international community not providing that government with the requisite material assistance ON THE GROUND to do the job? All the assassinations of political figures, all the bombings, all the attacks on Israel and the latter’s disproportionate retaliation in 2006, all this decomposition in the Lebanese body politic, the economic meltdown, Siniora’s begging for pittance at the Paris aid conferences, and not one person has ever been apprehended, brought to trial, or convicted. Not one investigation has led to any material finding that had tangible repercussions on the situation or on the morale of the Lebanese people. In spite of the absolute breakdown in government services, the continued corruption, cronyism and the feudal-religious control over every aspect of Lebanese life, the Lebanese are told by their friends in the US administration, at the UN and the European Union that their future deliverance will come from the Siniora government.

But nothing changes, ever. Who is responsible? If it is Syria, then why hasn’t the Lebanese government sealed the border with Syria and interdicted all exchange of commerce and trade between Syria and Lebanon? If Syria is the agent behind all the killings and all the anarchy, why hasn’t the Siniora government lodged formal complaints against Syria at the UN? Why isn’t anything being done ON THE GROUND to deter, interdict, or otherwise punish Syria for supporting Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda with weapons, money and men? Is it really that difficult to sever the Syrian lifeline between Hezbollah and Iran? Is it this difficult to monitor and control the 200 miles-long Lebanese-Syrian border against infiltration and smuggling? Where are all the tools used in the Balkans and the Gulf: Sanctions, no-fly zones, border monitoring? Why is the 70,000-strong Lebanese army put to fight 200 Fatah Al-Islam entrenched in a Palestinian camp, and not dispatched to the Lebanese-Syrian border to interdict weapons smuggling en route to Hezbollah from Syria? Why hasn’t the Lebanese administration been purged of the pro-Syrian remnants from the era of the occupation who continue to infest it and are probably coordinating and carrying out the bombings and the assassinations? All the military and security chiefs who run general security, intelligence and the army – including the anointed “consensus” candidate General Michel Suleiman – were all appointed to their posts by the Syrians. Why are these people still running the country? Why is it that the only weapons used against Syria’s 30-year old rape of Lebanon via the Palestinians and Hezbollah are two UN resolutions, an investigation that has yet to name one guilty party behind all the killings, and an International Tribunal that has yet to see the light of day?

Why doesn’t the West pressure “pro-Western” Siniora and his March 14 consorts into settling the territorial dispute between Israel and Lebanon through a negotiated process similar to the Palestinian-Israeli one? Why should Lebanon be kept hostage – as it has for 40 years now – to a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians on one hand, and between Syria and Israel on the other hand? Why can’t Lebanon be uncoupled from the regional conflict, like Egypt and Jordan were, the only two other Arab countries with borders with Israel? What “independence, sovereignty and freedom” are these that Lebanon has to wait for Syria to resolve its dispute with Israel on the Golan before it can settle its own dispute on the Shebaa Farms?

The charade of Lebanon’s “independence, sovereignty and freedom” is nowhere more obvious than with the masquerade of Lebanon’s presidential elections: While in the US there are upwards of 18 candidates fighting it out through every town, city, county and state to make it to the presidency, Lebanon has only one “consensus” candidate who is more like a dummy at the puppet show with the 18 hands of Syria, the US, Saudi Arabia, France, Egypt, Germany, the UK, the UN, and the Arab League up his behind parading him to the Lebanese people as their next hero. If this is the democracy that the Lebanese people believe to be their best hope out of the nightmare, then they are in for a huge and fatal disappointment.

The crime against Lebanon is now in its 40^th year. It continues in ever changing, adapting and evolving forms. Last year’s enemies are today’s friends, and today’s enemies will be our friends tomorrow. The trajectory from Kissinger to Rice remains unchanged: the goal seems to be to eliminate the weakest link in the region, namely Lebanon as we know it, and make place for a “new order” that will help many of Lebanon’s neighbors – Syria, Israel and the up-and-coming Palestinian State – settle their long-standing conflicts. Too bad the Lebanese are so dumb: They still think that murderous warlords, feudal fils-à-papas, illuminated generals, and divinely-appointed bearded religious patriarchs are worth following to the grave.