By Elias Bejjani*
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday 24/11/09 warned that Lebanon , not Hezbollah, would be the target of retaliatory attacks should the militant group escalate tension along Israel's northern border. "Lebanon grants Hezbollah permission to operate on its soil," said Barak. "We must clarify for the international community that we do not accept that a militia like Hezbollah exists in Lebanon, a sovereign country, and even sits in its parliament." Barak added that it holds Lebanon responsible for any conflict with Hezbollah. "Hezbollah is not our target," in such a case, said Barak. "Our target will be the state of Lebanon."
Mr. Barak made his comments at a meeting with regional leaders in the north, where he stressed that he holds the Lebanese government responsible for any conflict along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli defense minister added that Israel's deterrence power will last for some time. Earlier this month, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that Hezbollah guerrillas now possess tens of thousands of rockets, some capable of reaching up to 300 kilometers within Israel. These capabilities would put Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well cities much further south, into rocket range. "There is a war in the Middle East between two camps, the extremists and the moderates, which is pushing Iran to take radical steps. Without Iran's support to finance weapons and terrorist groups they would be lacking the means available to them today," said Ashkenazi. Israel, the United Nations and Hezbollah itself have all said that the militia is stronger today than it was during the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It is so sad and extremely disappointing that the Israeli government, the moderate Arab countries as well all the Western free world, including the USA and France are ignoring the essence and the core of the actual Lebanese peoples' ongoing agony and dilemma with Hezbollah.
All these countries are well informed that Hezbollah, the Iranian militant terrorist organization, has erected its powerful mini Iranian state inside Lebanon during the Syrian occupation era of the country that lasted from 1976 until 2005.
This mini state with its scattered cantons all over Lebanon is much stronger in all domains than the Lebanese central government. The Lebanese people in general and the Lebanese Shiite community in particular had no saying in this matter. The mini state was imposed on all of them by Syria and Iran.
All the free world countries, Arab states, and especially Israel are, with no shed of doubt, fully aware that Hezbollah's mini state controls and dominates directly and through proxies all the affairs of the Lebanese central government via cancerous infiltration, intimidation, oppression, corruption, drug trafficking, religious decrees (fatwas), murder, crime, bribing and multifold tactics of terrorism. Not even one decision could be made by the Lebanese government or any of its institutions without Hezbollah's approval.
It has become clear even to the blind that the Lebanese state is massively dominated by the Hezbollah mullah's leadership. This terrorist militant organization boldly dictates its Iranian decrees on all the Lebanese officials and institutions, manipulates their activities and greatly influences the whole country's decision making process in all fields and on all levels.
The Israeli and the western satellites that carry out round-the-clock very close surveillance over Lebanon, Syria and other Middle East countries have their own solid data that shows the ABC's of how Hezbollah receives its weapon openly from Iran through Syria under the eyes of the Lebanese army and with its blessings.
Hezbollah does not smuggle its weapons to Lebanon from Syria through the joint borders as the UN and many countries keep on parroting in their official statements and reports. All of them know for a fact that Hezbollah has its own free military routes via the Syrian-Lebanese border through which hundreds of its arms-loaded trucks travel on a regular basis from Syria to Lebanon.
The question is why when all these plain facts are cut and clear to these countries and especially to Israel that they still act as if there is actually an independent Lebanese government that controls the country's decision making process?
One wonders, when Iran and Syria have erected the Hezbollah mini state against the will of the Lebanese people, and when these two axis of evil countries keep on arming, financing, harboring, training and fully control Hezbollah's militia, why Mr. Barak is threatening Lebanon and not Syria, Iran and Hezbollah?
Mr. Barak as well as the whole world knows that the Lebanese people earlier this year and against all the odds did not give Hezbollah and its allies a majority in the parliamentary elections. They voted courageously against Hezbollah's mini state and its weapons.
BUT, unfortunately the elected majority up until this day is unable to effectively face Hezbollah and stop its gradual devouring of the state's authority, and as we all know, Syria and Saudi Arabia have recently cut a deal to give Hezbollah a right to veto in the new Lebanese government, and to keep in its ministerial statement with the same clause that the previous " Saniora" government used to legitimize Hezbollah's weapons and to give this organization control over the country's war-peace decision making.
Israel and all other countries are loudly and strongly addressing only the symptoms of Hezbollah’s hegemony over the whole of Lebanon, while deliberately overlooking the main disease that Iran and Syria have inflicted on the Lebanese people and on all the country's institutions.
In summary, Lebanon is still an occupied country and the occupier is Hezbollah. Mr. Barak should not threaten to punish the Lebanese people who in the majority are against Hezbollah, having bravely proved this stance in the last parliamentary elections.
The Lebanese people and their country must not be dealt with as scapegoats. The disease is Syria and Iran and their proxy, Hezbollah. If Israel really wants to deal with the problem that threatens its security and existence, the actual and long lasting solution is not by inflicting devastation on the Lebanese people and their country as was the situation during the 2006 war, but through addressing its serious problem directly with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
President Suleiman's Oath & Our People In Israel
By: Elias Bejjani*
In his inaugural speech that was delivered in the Parliament after his election as President for the Republic of Lebanon on 25 May, 2009, General Michele Suleiman promised to bring back our people from Israel who took refuge there in the aftermath of the Israeli army’s unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000. He said: "This day coincides with the anniversary of the national liberation and victory day, let us make it a motive for greater awareness for what awaits us, and to renew our commitment for freedom and democracy, which we offered sacrifices for them in a bid to safeguard the country. In this context, comes the hard work to release prisoners and detainees, disclose the fate of the missing, and to bring back our sons who fled to Israel; our country's lap has room for all of its citizens."
Almost two years have passed since President Suleiman's election, while his promise to bring back our people from Israel has not yet been fulfilled. It is an ethical obligation and a national legitimate right to ask what is hindering the president from taking the needed actions to put an end to this ongoing dilemma?
We wonder if Lebanon and its official decision making process that Hezbollah currently controls by force and terrorism is in fact able and willing to embrace all its citizens including those who are in Israel since May, 2000?
The wicked Lebanese politicians, clergy, officials and leaders who venomously hide behind fake and camouflaged lies of resistance and liberation, and whose conscience is dead, memories rotten and selective, especially the terrorist group, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian mercenary thugs and militias, MP General Michele Aoun who changed his skin to join the axis of Evil and many others all must be reminded that our people who fled to Israel are from the mosaic of all the Lebanese religious denominations, and that they were forced to do so following the notorious deal that was brokered between the Israeli government at that time, with the regional agreement of Hezbollah's masters in Iran and Syria and with international blessings.
The deal sacrificed our southern people, led to a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, gave Hezbollah full control over the South, including the joint border of Lebanon and Israel, and kept the Lebanese army and institutions out of the whole region.
In fact, Hezbollah did not liberate the South and according to MP General Michele Aoun (before he became Hezbollah's ally), who stated: "The Shebaa Farms is a big lie and not Lebanese. Hezbollah did not liberate the South, but on the contrary, it hindered its liberation for 14 years and forced its own residents to leave". Aoun labeled Hezbollah's joy of liberation in the year 2000 as a "drug addicts' ecstasy".
Based on facts, unveiled lies and fabrications, the mercenaries who unjustly accuse our people in Israel with treason, collaboration and betrayal should fear God's wrath and revenge. They need to witness the truth and repent. Our people in Israel were, are, and shall remain patriotic par excellence and totally loyal to their country and land.
We, wonder what is the actual agenda for the sudden re-opening of General Antoine Lahed's judicial (leader of the now defunct South Lebanese Army) case on 28 October 2009 and the issuance of a 15-year hard labor imprisonment verdict against him in absentia on charges of acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaborating with Israel, although General Lahed was sentenced in 2000 with a death penalty and also in absentia.
Apparently this new verdict has no judicial value at all because Lahed who now lives in Israel, has already has been haphazardly and unjustly sentenced in his absence with a death penalty. So what is the reason now for this questionable judicial reawakening?
The logic of this bizarre maneuver shows clearly that the verdict targets President Suleiman's inaugural speech, and in particular the section in which he promised to bring back our people from Israel. The Hezbollah-tailored verdict is in reality not against General Lahed, but against President Suleiman personally. It puts him on notice that the file of our people in Israel is closed and will remain so as long as he is in office. The two charges that were used in the new sentence against Lahed actually apply to almost all our people in Israel, i.e. acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaboration with Israel.
We genuinely hope to be wrong in our very serious fears and dire concerns. But the extensive cumulated traumatic knowledge of the mentality and the patterns of Hezbollah and its Syrian-Iranian masters in dealing with all matters since1982 to date allows us to maintain our analysis. All evidence based on past experience with Hezbollah and its two masters is too abundant and all of it consists of tragedies and calamities.
We call on President Michel Suleiman to fulfill his promise and work hard with courage and honesty to bring back our people from Israel with all due respect to their dignity, patriotism, sacrifices and loyalty to Lebanon, the homeland that they will never under any circumstances substitute with any other country.
President Suleiman, who was Lebanon's Army Chief Commander in the year 2000 when our people were forced into exile, is well aware of all the hidden secrets of that era. He knows too that these heroic citizens are more patriotic and more Lebanese in every aspect than those who are accusing them with treason and betrayal. Our people refused to abandon their land and courageously defended their towns and villages against all thugs of terrorism and fanaticism for 25 years while all the successive Lebanese central governments have merely abandoned them.
When the Israeli army unilaterally withdrew from the South in May 2000, our people declined from continuing the fight and chose to leave, not because of fear of combat or death, but to avoid more Lebanese bloodshed, while the central government did not dare to assume its national responsibilities and obligations.
President Suleiman knows more than anyone else in Lebanon that the Hezbollah mercenaries and the so-called resistance are hindering the dignified return of our people from Israel and falsely accusing them of treason and collaboration. It is the Hezbollah who are actually guilty of these charges and not our heroic Lebanese people.
Mr. President, please do not allow those who were behind this bizarre new sentence against General Lahed, and which in fact was a condemnation of your inauguration speech to achieve their schemes and fulfill their evil objectives. You are the guardian and the protector of the country's constitution. Do not back down or retreat from your promises, and do not abandon our people any longer in Israel . Above all, do not let the Israeli government be more concerned and caring for our people than you and the Lebanese authorities.
Mr. President, protect and safeguard the rights of our people in Israel and bring them back to their beloved Lebanon as soon as possible.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
In his inaugural speech that was delivered in the Parliament after his election as President for the Republic of Lebanon on 25 May, 2009, General Michele Suleiman promised to bring back our people from Israel who took refuge there in the aftermath of the Israeli army’s unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000. He said: "This day coincides with the anniversary of the national liberation and victory day, let us make it a motive for greater awareness for what awaits us, and to renew our commitment for freedom and democracy, which we offered sacrifices for them in a bid to safeguard the country. In this context, comes the hard work to release prisoners and detainees, disclose the fate of the missing, and to bring back our sons who fled to Israel; our country's lap has room for all of its citizens."
Almost two years have passed since President Suleiman's election, while his promise to bring back our people from Israel has not yet been fulfilled. It is an ethical obligation and a national legitimate right to ask what is hindering the president from taking the needed actions to put an end to this ongoing dilemma?
We wonder if Lebanon and its official decision making process that Hezbollah currently controls by force and terrorism is in fact able and willing to embrace all its citizens including those who are in Israel since May, 2000?
The wicked Lebanese politicians, clergy, officials and leaders who venomously hide behind fake and camouflaged lies of resistance and liberation, and whose conscience is dead, memories rotten and selective, especially the terrorist group, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian mercenary thugs and militias, MP General Michele Aoun who changed his skin to join the axis of Evil and many others all must be reminded that our people who fled to Israel are from the mosaic of all the Lebanese religious denominations, and that they were forced to do so following the notorious deal that was brokered between the Israeli government at that time, with the regional agreement of Hezbollah's masters in Iran and Syria and with international blessings.
The deal sacrificed our southern people, led to a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, gave Hezbollah full control over the South, including the joint border of Lebanon and Israel, and kept the Lebanese army and institutions out of the whole region.
In fact, Hezbollah did not liberate the South and according to MP General Michele Aoun (before he became Hezbollah's ally), who stated: "The Shebaa Farms is a big lie and not Lebanese. Hezbollah did not liberate the South, but on the contrary, it hindered its liberation for 14 years and forced its own residents to leave". Aoun labeled Hezbollah's joy of liberation in the year 2000 as a "drug addicts' ecstasy".
Based on facts, unveiled lies and fabrications, the mercenaries who unjustly accuse our people in Israel with treason, collaboration and betrayal should fear God's wrath and revenge. They need to witness the truth and repent. Our people in Israel were, are, and shall remain patriotic par excellence and totally loyal to their country and land.
We, wonder what is the actual agenda for the sudden re-opening of General Antoine Lahed's judicial (leader of the now defunct South Lebanese Army) case on 28 October 2009 and the issuance of a 15-year hard labor imprisonment verdict against him in absentia on charges of acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaborating with Israel, although General Lahed was sentenced in 2000 with a death penalty and also in absentia.
Apparently this new verdict has no judicial value at all because Lahed who now lives in Israel, has already has been haphazardly and unjustly sentenced in his absence with a death penalty. So what is the reason now for this questionable judicial reawakening?
The logic of this bizarre maneuver shows clearly that the verdict targets President Suleiman's inaugural speech, and in particular the section in which he promised to bring back our people from Israel. The Hezbollah-tailored verdict is in reality not against General Lahed, but against President Suleiman personally. It puts him on notice that the file of our people in Israel is closed and will remain so as long as he is in office. The two charges that were used in the new sentence against Lahed actually apply to almost all our people in Israel, i.e. acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaboration with Israel.
We genuinely hope to be wrong in our very serious fears and dire concerns. But the extensive cumulated traumatic knowledge of the mentality and the patterns of Hezbollah and its Syrian-Iranian masters in dealing with all matters since1982 to date allows us to maintain our analysis. All evidence based on past experience with Hezbollah and its two masters is too abundant and all of it consists of tragedies and calamities.
We call on President Michel Suleiman to fulfill his promise and work hard with courage and honesty to bring back our people from Israel with all due respect to their dignity, patriotism, sacrifices and loyalty to Lebanon, the homeland that they will never under any circumstances substitute with any other country.
President Suleiman, who was Lebanon's Army Chief Commander in the year 2000 when our people were forced into exile, is well aware of all the hidden secrets of that era. He knows too that these heroic citizens are more patriotic and more Lebanese in every aspect than those who are accusing them with treason and betrayal. Our people refused to abandon their land and courageously defended their towns and villages against all thugs of terrorism and fanaticism for 25 years while all the successive Lebanese central governments have merely abandoned them.
When the Israeli army unilaterally withdrew from the South in May 2000, our people declined from continuing the fight and chose to leave, not because of fear of combat or death, but to avoid more Lebanese bloodshed, while the central government did not dare to assume its national responsibilities and obligations.
President Suleiman knows more than anyone else in Lebanon that the Hezbollah mercenaries and the so-called resistance are hindering the dignified return of our people from Israel and falsely accusing them of treason and collaboration. It is the Hezbollah who are actually guilty of these charges and not our heroic Lebanese people.
Mr. President, please do not allow those who were behind this bizarre new sentence against General Lahed, and which in fact was a condemnation of your inauguration speech to achieve their schemes and fulfill their evil objectives. You are the guardian and the protector of the country's constitution. Do not back down or retreat from your promises, and do not abandon our people any longer in Israel . Above all, do not let the Israeli government be more concerned and caring for our people than you and the Lebanese authorities.
Mr. President, protect and safeguard the rights of our people in Israel and bring them back to their beloved Lebanon as soon as possible.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Syria not Lebanon is the Creation of the Sikes-Picot Agreement
By: Elias Bejjani*
Lebanon has been hit by an actual devastating curse since it became an independent country within its current borders in 1920. This curse is embodied in the avarice, envy, detachment from reality and hatred arising from neighboring, Syria, many of whose politicians, rulers and intellectuals have failed to date to accept the solid reality of Lebanon’s entity, distinguishable identity sovereignty and independence.
They have angrily and vengefully alleged for years - without any actual historical or geographical facts - that Lebanon is a part of their country. All Lebanon’s major and shocking problems during the last 70 years have invariably stemmed from this Syrian falsehood, a delusion which they concocted. Syrian officials and politicians seek every opportunity to loudly and brazenly proclaim this false allegation.
The latest mockery in this ongoing Syrian soap opera appeared in the contents of a very sinister op-ed that was published in the Saudi daily, Al Riyadh, on 12/10/09 and then reproduced on 14/10/09 in the Syrian government-run mouthpiece, Al Wattan, in which the argument was made for re-uniting Syria and Lebanon into the romantic entity that many Arab nationalists have salivated over for decades.
The Saudi journalist apologized two days after the publication of his opinion in Al Wattan on the basis that he was mistaken in both perception and expression. Al Wattan did not publish his apology. In his opinion he had uttered what the Syrians have been rhetorically parroting since 1916: “that Lebanon was the creation of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 through which France and the UK with the assent of Russia stripped it from Syria.”
It is really annoying and boring that we the Lebanese should live with this ongoing, shameful and deliberate Syrian twisting of the facts. They gave themselves a political historical identity that does not in reality exist and endeavor to impose their mockeries through propaganda that intends to stir emotions, but is devoid of all the required actual historical and geographical basis and facts.
A thorough review of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 that was reached between France and the UK with the approval of Russia negates all the Syrian allegations and unveils their lies. France and the UK which occupied most of the Middle Eastern countries in World War I divided among themselves the responsibilities and influence in these countries. Syria and Lebanon were among these countries. Their deal was known as the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, the League of Nations acknowledged the contents of this agreement in April 1922.
For the Syrians to reject the Sikes-Picot Agreement simply shows that they are actually rejecting the existence of their own state. One might comprehend from such a naive stance of rejection that the Syrians would prefer to go back to the Ottoman era and its provincial system.
That obsolete system offered as its top position a wali (local governor) instead of an Ottoman ruler. It also indicated that France and the UK dismantled certain existing Arab states to establish artificial ones, like the current Republic of Syria.
In fact, there was an Arabic plan to establish one big strong Arab State, but it did not take place for many reasons stemming from the will of both ruling powers at that time, France and the UK. This fact was taken into consideration when the borders of the current Middle East countries were decided on and demarcated.
The best response to the nonsensical false Syrian allegation would be through displaying historical facts according to their chronology in a bid to put an end to this bold Syrian forgery of history.
First fact: Lebanon, both the distinguishable political identity and people, has expressed itself in many forms. Without dwelling deeply into Lebanon’s remote history, we know that it was an independent entity at least at the beginning of this century, more specifically, in 1517 at the beginning of the Ottoman era. During that era, Prince Faker Eddine, known as Sultan Al-Baer (the master of the land), established the well-known Lebanese Maani Emirate.
Second fact: The Maani Emirate enjoyed self-autonomy, had its own army, as well as its own foreign independent relations. This Lebanese prince cut numerous accords with foreign countries and fought the Ottoman authorities to maintain a kind of independence. Meanwhile, the entire surrounding area, including the current state of Syria, were divided into provinces ruled directly by an Ottoman governor (wali).
Third fact: Syria as it is known today has never been a politically independent entity. The name Syria was given by the Greeks to a geographical area located between the Dejla and Euphrates rivers and Phoenicia. Syria was not a name for a separate state.
Fourth fact: In year 1920 the Lebanese entity was recognized as an existing state, and not as a newly established one. At that time the existing borders of the Lebanese Emirate were taken into consideration when the current Lebanese State borders were demarcated. The Lebanese regions that were annexed to the neighboring provinces were returned to the State of Lebanon.
Fifth fact: During that era the current geographical Syria was divided into four small provinces: the Alawi province, the Druze province, the Damascus province and the province of Aleppo. The same status prevailed until 1925 when the province of Damascus was integrated with that of Aleppo and both were given the name of the State of Syria. The four provinces were joined together in 1939 and called the Syrian Republic. The UN recognized this newly established republic in 1941 after it was liberated from the French Vichy troops.
Sixth fact: The current Syrian Republic is a product of the Sikes-Picot Agreement, and with the French occupation and the League of Nations the current Syria would have remained divided into four provinces fighting each other.
Seventh fact: One doubts very much that Syrian Alawi Baathist officials are not fully aware of the French documents that exhibit plainly the Alawi's stance in calling for an independent Alawi State. These officials are definitely fully aware of the names of the Alawi leaders who signed the documents.
Accordingly, based on these facts we can conclude that Syria and not Lebanon is a fake country created by the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, Lebanon is a country deeply rooted in ancient history, the earliest documented records dating back at least 7000 years.
Three quotations from the Bible (Old Testament) show with no shred of a doubt that Lebanon was throughout all historical eras recognized as a distinguishable entity. Even its borders are mentioned:
*Judges 3:3: “…the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.”
*Song of Solomon 4/7 &8: “You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”
*Joshua 13/5-7 “…and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”
The Syrians’ objection and rejection of the outcome of the Sikes-Picot Agreement is a mere empty propaganda tactic, and in case they are not happy with it, the Syrian Baathist regime will have to revert to its previous system of four provinces and dismantle the current Syrian state.
The core of the problem with Syria lies in the fact that its Baathist regime is oppressing and impoverishing its own people and depriving them of democracy and all kinds of freedoms. By publicly airing such baseless emotional strife with its neighbors, this regime strives to cover up all its hardships and failures and attribute to the Sikes-Picot Agreement, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, etc... It blames everyone else, but never recognizes its disastrous self-inflicted failures in all domains.
The Syrian regime has drifted towards dictatorial rule and has been camouflaging its evil axis of conduct and practices with a fake national ideology which in reality is no more than a set of empty, deceptive rhetorical slogans, and the allegation that Lebanon is a part of Syria is one of them.
Click Here to read the Sikes-Picot Agreement
http://www.clhrf.com/unresagreements/sykes-picot1916.htm
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Lebanon has been hit by an actual devastating curse since it became an independent country within its current borders in 1920. This curse is embodied in the avarice, envy, detachment from reality and hatred arising from neighboring, Syria, many of whose politicians, rulers and intellectuals have failed to date to accept the solid reality of Lebanon’s entity, distinguishable identity sovereignty and independence.
They have angrily and vengefully alleged for years - without any actual historical or geographical facts - that Lebanon is a part of their country. All Lebanon’s major and shocking problems during the last 70 years have invariably stemmed from this Syrian falsehood, a delusion which they concocted. Syrian officials and politicians seek every opportunity to loudly and brazenly proclaim this false allegation.
The latest mockery in this ongoing Syrian soap opera appeared in the contents of a very sinister op-ed that was published in the Saudi daily, Al Riyadh, on 12/10/09 and then reproduced on 14/10/09 in the Syrian government-run mouthpiece, Al Wattan, in which the argument was made for re-uniting Syria and Lebanon into the romantic entity that many Arab nationalists have salivated over for decades.
The Saudi journalist apologized two days after the publication of his opinion in Al Wattan on the basis that he was mistaken in both perception and expression. Al Wattan did not publish his apology. In his opinion he had uttered what the Syrians have been rhetorically parroting since 1916: “that Lebanon was the creation of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 through which France and the UK with the assent of Russia stripped it from Syria.”
It is really annoying and boring that we the Lebanese should live with this ongoing, shameful and deliberate Syrian twisting of the facts. They gave themselves a political historical identity that does not in reality exist and endeavor to impose their mockeries through propaganda that intends to stir emotions, but is devoid of all the required actual historical and geographical basis and facts.
A thorough review of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 that was reached between France and the UK with the approval of Russia negates all the Syrian allegations and unveils their lies. France and the UK which occupied most of the Middle Eastern countries in World War I divided among themselves the responsibilities and influence in these countries. Syria and Lebanon were among these countries. Their deal was known as the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, the League of Nations acknowledged the contents of this agreement in April 1922.
For the Syrians to reject the Sikes-Picot Agreement simply shows that they are actually rejecting the existence of their own state. One might comprehend from such a naive stance of rejection that the Syrians would prefer to go back to the Ottoman era and its provincial system.
That obsolete system offered as its top position a wali (local governor) instead of an Ottoman ruler. It also indicated that France and the UK dismantled certain existing Arab states to establish artificial ones, like the current Republic of Syria.
In fact, there was an Arabic plan to establish one big strong Arab State, but it did not take place for many reasons stemming from the will of both ruling powers at that time, France and the UK. This fact was taken into consideration when the borders of the current Middle East countries were decided on and demarcated.
The best response to the nonsensical false Syrian allegation would be through displaying historical facts according to their chronology in a bid to put an end to this bold Syrian forgery of history.
First fact: Lebanon, both the distinguishable political identity and people, has expressed itself in many forms. Without dwelling deeply into Lebanon’s remote history, we know that it was an independent entity at least at the beginning of this century, more specifically, in 1517 at the beginning of the Ottoman era. During that era, Prince Faker Eddine, known as Sultan Al-Baer (the master of the land), established the well-known Lebanese Maani Emirate.
Second fact: The Maani Emirate enjoyed self-autonomy, had its own army, as well as its own foreign independent relations. This Lebanese prince cut numerous accords with foreign countries and fought the Ottoman authorities to maintain a kind of independence. Meanwhile, the entire surrounding area, including the current state of Syria, were divided into provinces ruled directly by an Ottoman governor (wali).
Third fact: Syria as it is known today has never been a politically independent entity. The name Syria was given by the Greeks to a geographical area located between the Dejla and Euphrates rivers and Phoenicia. Syria was not a name for a separate state.
Fourth fact: In year 1920 the Lebanese entity was recognized as an existing state, and not as a newly established one. At that time the existing borders of the Lebanese Emirate were taken into consideration when the current Lebanese State borders were demarcated. The Lebanese regions that were annexed to the neighboring provinces were returned to the State of Lebanon.
Fifth fact: During that era the current geographical Syria was divided into four small provinces: the Alawi province, the Druze province, the Damascus province and the province of Aleppo. The same status prevailed until 1925 when the province of Damascus was integrated with that of Aleppo and both were given the name of the State of Syria. The four provinces were joined together in 1939 and called the Syrian Republic. The UN recognized this newly established republic in 1941 after it was liberated from the French Vichy troops.
Sixth fact: The current Syrian Republic is a product of the Sikes-Picot Agreement, and with the French occupation and the League of Nations the current Syria would have remained divided into four provinces fighting each other.
Seventh fact: One doubts very much that Syrian Alawi Baathist officials are not fully aware of the French documents that exhibit plainly the Alawi's stance in calling for an independent Alawi State. These officials are definitely fully aware of the names of the Alawi leaders who signed the documents.
Accordingly, based on these facts we can conclude that Syria and not Lebanon is a fake country created by the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, Lebanon is a country deeply rooted in ancient history, the earliest documented records dating back at least 7000 years.
Three quotations from the Bible (Old Testament) show with no shred of a doubt that Lebanon was throughout all historical eras recognized as a distinguishable entity. Even its borders are mentioned:
*Judges 3:3: “…the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.”
*Song of Solomon 4/7 &8: “You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”
*Joshua 13/5-7 “…and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”
The Syrians’ objection and rejection of the outcome of the Sikes-Picot Agreement is a mere empty propaganda tactic, and in case they are not happy with it, the Syrian Baathist regime will have to revert to its previous system of four provinces and dismantle the current Syrian state.
The core of the problem with Syria lies in the fact that its Baathist regime is oppressing and impoverishing its own people and depriving them of democracy and all kinds of freedoms. By publicly airing such baseless emotional strife with its neighbors, this regime strives to cover up all its hardships and failures and attribute to the Sikes-Picot Agreement, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, etc... It blames everyone else, but never recognizes its disastrous self-inflicted failures in all domains.
The Syrian regime has drifted towards dictatorial rule and has been camouflaging its evil axis of conduct and practices with a fake national ideology which in reality is no more than a set of empty, deceptive rhetorical slogans, and the allegation that Lebanon is a part of Syria is one of them.
Click Here to read the Sikes-Picot Agreement
http://www.clhrf.com/unresagreements/sykes-picot1916.htm
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Brazilian Samba & Hezbollah's Terrorism
By Elias Bejjani
On Thursday, 1st October a preplanned and scheduled Brazilian samba show was banned and torpedoed in the historical southern Lebanese city of Tyre after about 100 Shiite clerics under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ali Yassin, a powerful Hezbollah follower, met and issued a fatwa (religious decree) forbidding it and declaring it sinful.
A statement by the clerics condemned the open-air Brazilian samba display by a dance troupe that has been touring Lebanon and said: “The naked festival is incompatible with the religious and Islamic morals of Tyre”. The statement blamed the city's municipality for licensing the performance of the festival and held it accountable”. “We support tourism but are against obscenity,” said Sheikh Ali Yassin, who led the 100 Shiite clerics’ protest.
The troupe, including musicians and scantily clad dancers, performed last month in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square and in the Lebanese cities of Zahle and Joanieh without any kind of problems at all. On the contrary, they were greatly liked and admired by the public. Thousands of Lebanese and tourists from all over the world attended the shows and enjoyed them.
The Brazilian embassy officials in Beirut were saddened and shocked by the unjustified uproar raised by the Hezbollah clerics. The cultural attaché in the embassy told the French news agency that all needed measures were taken weeks ago by both the troupe and the embassy with regard to the religious sensitivities of the city that has a Shiite majority, including ensuring proper modest attire for the dancers rather than the traditional revealing “bal samba” costumes
The Tyre local city council was forced by all means of intimidation and terrorism to revoke its positive decision and had to cancel the show after consulting with politicians and security officials. The council’s statement said it all: “The Tyre municipality is keen to confirm to the public opinion that the Brazilian festival did not infringe on religious values or morals and was not pornographic as proclaimed by some people. Therefore and on instructions and directives from Tyre's Mount Amel Grand Mufti, Judge Sheik Hassan Abdullah, the municipality has decided to cancel the festival show in the city. Meanwhile, the council reaffirms its commitment to the genuine and well established Lebanese-Brazilian relationship and greatly thanks the Brazilian embassy in Lebanon”.
Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies issued a courageous statement of condemnation addressing Hezbollah's dictatorship. The statement said: “In support for civil liberties and freedom of opinion and expression, representatives of a number of Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies held a joint meeting and discussed the unjustified arbitrary cancellation of the Brazilian samba festival that was scheduled to perform in Tyre with the consent of the city's municipality and in numerous Lebanese regions in the realm of tourism and summer cultural activities. The representatives recorded the following observations:
1 - The ban harms Tyre’s tourism reputation, blemishes its civilized image and reflects negatively on its tourism activities.
2 - There is the fear that this ban will become a precedent to be followed by intrusions on freedoms in both Lebanon, the country of coexistence and Tyre, the city of openness.
3 - It is feared that this enforced cancellation is a sign and a forerunner for future measures that will affect individual and public freedoms and force Tyre to join the list of other cities that are shackled by measures of repression and religious decrees.
4 - The emphasis was on the right of all citizens to express their opinions without imposing them on others; the respect for others’ feelings and the inadmissibility of banning freedoms and transgressing on them in violation to what is guaranteed by the country's constitution.
We should offer tribute to the Tyre municipality council, NGOs, civil associations and cultural and trade union bodies for all of them refused to succumb to Hezbollah's terror and intimidation despite their blatant threats and religious manipulations.
They loudly and publicly voiced their strong peaceful condemnation with pride and dignity. They courageously witnessed for the truth without being deterred by Hezbollah's show of power, heretics or bragging.
It is so sad, frustrating and unfortunate that Hezbollah, the Iranian religious and armed fundamentalist militia, could time after time impose on the Lebanese people and authorities its dictates and stone age despotic lifestyle in such an oppressive and intimidating Stalinist and Nazi pattern. Last July Hezbollah through its bold terrorism and fanaticism tactics openly intimidated the famous French-Moroccan comedian Gad Elmaleh to cancel his participation in the Beiteddine Festival.
Noura Jumblatt, head of the festival's organizing committee, said the group had received threats against allowing Elmaleh to perform.
The Hezbollah terrorist organization challenges the Lebanese constitution on a daily basis and breaks by force all the laws and regulations that ensure and guarantee public freedoms. Its ongoing enforced endeavors to abolish Lebanon’s multicultural, free, democratic and mosaic society is dragging the country into havoc, poverty, isolation, and forcing thousands and thousands of Lebanese nationalists to emigrate.
The most threatening and frightening element in Hezbollah's daily criminal mercenary infringements lie in its preset vicious scheme to destroy the country's peaceful, civilized, and democratic educational system and replace it with the Iranian mullah's religious ideology of death, wars, jihad, invasions and suicide. It is worth mentioning that the majority of the Lebanese people reject such an islamist indoctrination, including the majority of the Lebanese Shiite community which Hezbollah controls by force.
Hezbollah bears the full responsibility for this deplorable repression of the artistic image of Tyre that is deeply rooted in history and civilization. Tyre throughout its 7000 years of history was a haven for multiculturalism, freedom, art, democracy and peace. It gave the world great leaders like Hannibal, famous poets like Miligar, Historians, artists, writers, thinkers, inventors, creators, geniuses and philosophers. Tyre will never be a city of fanaticism, awkwardness, insularity, intolerance or barbarism.
The great Tyrean poet, Mliqar (140-70 BC), told the whole world about Lebanon's openness, love of civilization, peace and tolerance and requested that the following message be carved on his gravestone (in Cyprus): “Yes, I am Mliqar, Tyre raised me, and I saw the light through its skies and Athens taught me. Dear, do not be surprised we live in one country, its name is the "world”.
The ongoing war of suppression and terrorism that Hezbollah is waging and forcing on Lebanon is escalating. This war confirms without any shred of a doubt that the current serious ongoing conflict in Lebanon is between two educational systems and cultures: the first is the Iranian mullah's evil teaching of jihad, death, suicide, fanaticism, oppression, terrorism, rejection of the other, awkwardness and isolation; and the second one is the historical Lebanese education and culture of peace, human rights, civil society, openness, multiculturalism, democracy and freedom.
In the event that the Lebanese yield with no heroic resistance to Hezbollah's derailed mullah's logic that torpedoed the Brazilian samba band, Lebanon is definitely very soon going to lose its identity, history, and civilization, as well as its freedoms, creativeness, education and the deeply rooted mosaic society of different cultures, religions and ethics.
Meanwhile, it is so sad and disgusting that some Lebanese politicians and leaders who rhetorically brag to be advocates for secularism, equality, human rights and freedom like MP Michel Aoun and MP Ghassan Mikieber, and many others have swallowed their tongues regarding Hezbollah's enforced ban on the Brazilian samba dance troupe. They were selectively blind, deaf and mute and cowardly refrained from criticizing Hezbollah's blatant infringement on the basic freedoms of Lebanese society.
May God protect Lebanon and its people from the ignorance, terrorism and fanaticism that Hezbollah is trying to force on them by all its means of money, power, cruelty, intimidation, threats and manipulation.
Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
On Thursday, 1st October a preplanned and scheduled Brazilian samba show was banned and torpedoed in the historical southern Lebanese city of Tyre after about 100 Shiite clerics under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ali Yassin, a powerful Hezbollah follower, met and issued a fatwa (religious decree) forbidding it and declaring it sinful.
A statement by the clerics condemned the open-air Brazilian samba display by a dance troupe that has been touring Lebanon and said: “The naked festival is incompatible with the religious and Islamic morals of Tyre”. The statement blamed the city's municipality for licensing the performance of the festival and held it accountable”. “We support tourism but are against obscenity,” said Sheikh Ali Yassin, who led the 100 Shiite clerics’ protest.
The troupe, including musicians and scantily clad dancers, performed last month in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square and in the Lebanese cities of Zahle and Joanieh without any kind of problems at all. On the contrary, they were greatly liked and admired by the public. Thousands of Lebanese and tourists from all over the world attended the shows and enjoyed them.
The Brazilian embassy officials in Beirut were saddened and shocked by the unjustified uproar raised by the Hezbollah clerics. The cultural attaché in the embassy told the French news agency that all needed measures were taken weeks ago by both the troupe and the embassy with regard to the religious sensitivities of the city that has a Shiite majority, including ensuring proper modest attire for the dancers rather than the traditional revealing “bal samba” costumes
The Tyre local city council was forced by all means of intimidation and terrorism to revoke its positive decision and had to cancel the show after consulting with politicians and security officials. The council’s statement said it all: “The Tyre municipality is keen to confirm to the public opinion that the Brazilian festival did not infringe on religious values or morals and was not pornographic as proclaimed by some people. Therefore and on instructions and directives from Tyre's Mount Amel Grand Mufti, Judge Sheik Hassan Abdullah, the municipality has decided to cancel the festival show in the city. Meanwhile, the council reaffirms its commitment to the genuine and well established Lebanese-Brazilian relationship and greatly thanks the Brazilian embassy in Lebanon”.
Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies issued a courageous statement of condemnation addressing Hezbollah's dictatorship. The statement said: “In support for civil liberties and freedom of opinion and expression, representatives of a number of Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies held a joint meeting and discussed the unjustified arbitrary cancellation of the Brazilian samba festival that was scheduled to perform in Tyre with the consent of the city's municipality and in numerous Lebanese regions in the realm of tourism and summer cultural activities. The representatives recorded the following observations:
1 - The ban harms Tyre’s tourism reputation, blemishes its civilized image and reflects negatively on its tourism activities.
2 - There is the fear that this ban will become a precedent to be followed by intrusions on freedoms in both Lebanon, the country of coexistence and Tyre, the city of openness.
3 - It is feared that this enforced cancellation is a sign and a forerunner for future measures that will affect individual and public freedoms and force Tyre to join the list of other cities that are shackled by measures of repression and religious decrees.
4 - The emphasis was on the right of all citizens to express their opinions without imposing them on others; the respect for others’ feelings and the inadmissibility of banning freedoms and transgressing on them in violation to what is guaranteed by the country's constitution.
We should offer tribute to the Tyre municipality council, NGOs, civil associations and cultural and trade union bodies for all of them refused to succumb to Hezbollah's terror and intimidation despite their blatant threats and religious manipulations.
They loudly and publicly voiced their strong peaceful condemnation with pride and dignity. They courageously witnessed for the truth without being deterred by Hezbollah's show of power, heretics or bragging.
It is so sad, frustrating and unfortunate that Hezbollah, the Iranian religious and armed fundamentalist militia, could time after time impose on the Lebanese people and authorities its dictates and stone age despotic lifestyle in such an oppressive and intimidating Stalinist and Nazi pattern. Last July Hezbollah through its bold terrorism and fanaticism tactics openly intimidated the famous French-Moroccan comedian Gad Elmaleh to cancel his participation in the Beiteddine Festival.
Noura Jumblatt, head of the festival's organizing committee, said the group had received threats against allowing Elmaleh to perform.
The Hezbollah terrorist organization challenges the Lebanese constitution on a daily basis and breaks by force all the laws and regulations that ensure and guarantee public freedoms. Its ongoing enforced endeavors to abolish Lebanon’s multicultural, free, democratic and mosaic society is dragging the country into havoc, poverty, isolation, and forcing thousands and thousands of Lebanese nationalists to emigrate.
The most threatening and frightening element in Hezbollah's daily criminal mercenary infringements lie in its preset vicious scheme to destroy the country's peaceful, civilized, and democratic educational system and replace it with the Iranian mullah's religious ideology of death, wars, jihad, invasions and suicide. It is worth mentioning that the majority of the Lebanese people reject such an islamist indoctrination, including the majority of the Lebanese Shiite community which Hezbollah controls by force.
Hezbollah bears the full responsibility for this deplorable repression of the artistic image of Tyre that is deeply rooted in history and civilization. Tyre throughout its 7000 years of history was a haven for multiculturalism, freedom, art, democracy and peace. It gave the world great leaders like Hannibal, famous poets like Miligar, Historians, artists, writers, thinkers, inventors, creators, geniuses and philosophers. Tyre will never be a city of fanaticism, awkwardness, insularity, intolerance or barbarism.
The great Tyrean poet, Mliqar (140-70 BC), told the whole world about Lebanon's openness, love of civilization, peace and tolerance and requested that the following message be carved on his gravestone (in Cyprus): “Yes, I am Mliqar, Tyre raised me, and I saw the light through its skies and Athens taught me. Dear, do not be surprised we live in one country, its name is the "world”.
The ongoing war of suppression and terrorism that Hezbollah is waging and forcing on Lebanon is escalating. This war confirms without any shred of a doubt that the current serious ongoing conflict in Lebanon is between two educational systems and cultures: the first is the Iranian mullah's evil teaching of jihad, death, suicide, fanaticism, oppression, terrorism, rejection of the other, awkwardness and isolation; and the second one is the historical Lebanese education and culture of peace, human rights, civil society, openness, multiculturalism, democracy and freedom.
In the event that the Lebanese yield with no heroic resistance to Hezbollah's derailed mullah's logic that torpedoed the Brazilian samba band, Lebanon is definitely very soon going to lose its identity, history, and civilization, as well as its freedoms, creativeness, education and the deeply rooted mosaic society of different cultures, religions and ethics.
Meanwhile, it is so sad and disgusting that some Lebanese politicians and leaders who rhetorically brag to be advocates for secularism, equality, human rights and freedom like MP Michel Aoun and MP Ghassan Mikieber, and many others have swallowed their tongues regarding Hezbollah's enforced ban on the Brazilian samba dance troupe. They were selectively blind, deaf and mute and cowardly refrained from criticizing Hezbollah's blatant infringement on the basic freedoms of Lebanese society.
May God protect Lebanon and its people from the ignorance, terrorism and fanaticism that Hezbollah is trying to force on them by all its means of money, power, cruelty, intimidation, threats and manipulation.
Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Harper's Courageous Anti-Ahmadinejad Stance
By: Elias Bejjani*
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proved once again that he is a great leader and that his dedication to worldwide peace and the fight against terrorists and terrorism in all its forms is genuine and committed.
Sincere thanks are offered to Mr. Stephen Harper from the Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council (LCCC) and all the members of the Canadian Lebanese community throughout Canada who fully share the Council's objectives, principles, love for peace and freedom, respect for democracy and the rule of law, and their commitment to human rights, tolerance, diversity and the acceptance of others.
Thanks for letting Mr. Ahmadinejad know what Canadians think about his inhuman and anti-peace rhetoric.
Iran's dictator, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, definitely does not deserve the ears of the world with his fanaticism, paranoia, so-called divine policies, pompousness, mad ravings, empty threats and evil advocacy for suicide, hatred and killing.
Well, the UN gives freedom to all world leaders to deliver their speeches and express their ideas, but at the same time it does not actually force any country's delegation to listen to leaders' speeches which they sense as a threat to peace, human rights and worldwide ethical codes and order.
Prime Minister Harper has taken the right decision to boycott Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN General Assembly. This deluded and fanatical man has said and done things that are absolutely repugnant, brutal, disgraceful and totally unacceptable. Accordingly it is improper that somebody like him should not be given any legitimacy to parrot his speech full of madness to the UN General Assembly.
This defiant man does not abide by any articles of the UN Charter of Human Rights, oppresses, persecutes, intimidates, kills and tortures his own people. Meanwhile he is challenging the whole free world and continuing with Iran's endeavors to develop nuclear weapons.
One can imagine what this lunatic leader would do once he gets his hands on nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that initially he would not hesitate for a moment to use these weapons of mass destruction in invading and occupying Iran's neighboring countries, and once he possesses long range missiles the whole world will be in real danger.
Ahmadinejad is currently a small Hitler in each and every aspect; the free world has an obligation to see that he does not grow to be another actual Hitler. All available ways and means MUST be used to stop this man from turning Iran into another Nazi power.
Because of Ahmadinejad's Iranian mullah's regime’s evil interference in Lebanon, the country and its people are severely suffering on a daily basis. Hezbollah, Iran's armed militia, has taken Lebanon and its people hostage and is hindering all efforts to reclaim independence, freedom, peace and democracy. Iran has turned Lebanon into an arena and battlefield for its wars not only against the Arab countries, Israel and the West, but sadly against the Lebanese people themselves.
As a Canadian - Lebanese, I fully sympathize with my people back home in Lebanon and hail their endurance and courage. Ahmadinejad's Iranian regime is behind all Lebanon's agony and turmoil. Hezbollah is devouring Lebanon piece by piece and if the Western world does not come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, Lebanon will very soon be lost as an independent and free country and transformed into an Iranian satellite state.
Meanwhile, let those who criticized Mr. Harper's stance know that Hezbollah is not a Lebanese party by any criteria, but rather an Iranian army in Lebanon. Its decision-making process, financing, ideology, training, supplies and weapons all come from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ headquarters and leadership. It has been well documented by several informed sources that Iran annually pays Hezbollah billions of dollars. This group was founded in Lebanon by the Iranian mullahs in 1982 and it is worth mentioning that Hezbollah's main mission was and still is to export, advocate and spread the Khomeini’s religious ideology to all Middle Eastern countries and cause chaos all over the world.
Hezbollah's Iranian mission has never been a secret and each and every Lebanese person is reminded of this Iranian agenda daily with posters and billboards of Hezbollah’s divinity on every street.
Many thanks to Mr. Harper's integrity, courage, moral responsibility, devotion, commitment and transparent stance against terrorism and terrorists.
From day one in office our Prime Minister has fulfilled all his promises with regard to the global war on terrorism and continues to practice what he preaches.
**Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proved once again that he is a great leader and that his dedication to worldwide peace and the fight against terrorists and terrorism in all its forms is genuine and committed.
Sincere thanks are offered to Mr. Stephen Harper from the Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council (LCCC) and all the members of the Canadian Lebanese community throughout Canada who fully share the Council's objectives, principles, love for peace and freedom, respect for democracy and the rule of law, and their commitment to human rights, tolerance, diversity and the acceptance of others.
Thanks for letting Mr. Ahmadinejad know what Canadians think about his inhuman and anti-peace rhetoric.
Iran's dictator, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, definitely does not deserve the ears of the world with his fanaticism, paranoia, so-called divine policies, pompousness, mad ravings, empty threats and evil advocacy for suicide, hatred and killing.
Well, the UN gives freedom to all world leaders to deliver their speeches and express their ideas, but at the same time it does not actually force any country's delegation to listen to leaders' speeches which they sense as a threat to peace, human rights and worldwide ethical codes and order.
Prime Minister Harper has taken the right decision to boycott Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN General Assembly. This deluded and fanatical man has said and done things that are absolutely repugnant, brutal, disgraceful and totally unacceptable. Accordingly it is improper that somebody like him should not be given any legitimacy to parrot his speech full of madness to the UN General Assembly.
This defiant man does not abide by any articles of the UN Charter of Human Rights, oppresses, persecutes, intimidates, kills and tortures his own people. Meanwhile he is challenging the whole free world and continuing with Iran's endeavors to develop nuclear weapons.
One can imagine what this lunatic leader would do once he gets his hands on nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that initially he would not hesitate for a moment to use these weapons of mass destruction in invading and occupying Iran's neighboring countries, and once he possesses long range missiles the whole world will be in real danger.
Ahmadinejad is currently a small Hitler in each and every aspect; the free world has an obligation to see that he does not grow to be another actual Hitler. All available ways and means MUST be used to stop this man from turning Iran into another Nazi power.
Because of Ahmadinejad's Iranian mullah's regime’s evil interference in Lebanon, the country and its people are severely suffering on a daily basis. Hezbollah, Iran's armed militia, has taken Lebanon and its people hostage and is hindering all efforts to reclaim independence, freedom, peace and democracy. Iran has turned Lebanon into an arena and battlefield for its wars not only against the Arab countries, Israel and the West, but sadly against the Lebanese people themselves.
As a Canadian - Lebanese, I fully sympathize with my people back home in Lebanon and hail their endurance and courage. Ahmadinejad's Iranian regime is behind all Lebanon's agony and turmoil. Hezbollah is devouring Lebanon piece by piece and if the Western world does not come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, Lebanon will very soon be lost as an independent and free country and transformed into an Iranian satellite state.
Meanwhile, let those who criticized Mr. Harper's stance know that Hezbollah is not a Lebanese party by any criteria, but rather an Iranian army in Lebanon. Its decision-making process, financing, ideology, training, supplies and weapons all come from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ headquarters and leadership. It has been well documented by several informed sources that Iran annually pays Hezbollah billions of dollars. This group was founded in Lebanon by the Iranian mullahs in 1982 and it is worth mentioning that Hezbollah's main mission was and still is to export, advocate and spread the Khomeini’s religious ideology to all Middle Eastern countries and cause chaos all over the world.
Hezbollah's Iranian mission has never been a secret and each and every Lebanese person is reminded of this Iranian agenda daily with posters and billboards of Hezbollah’s divinity on every street.
Many thanks to Mr. Harper's integrity, courage, moral responsibility, devotion, commitment and transparent stance against terrorism and terrorists.
From day one in office our Prime Minister has fulfilled all his promises with regard to the global war on terrorism and continues to practice what he preaches.
**Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Lebanon's “Madoff” : A Divine Bankruptcy
By Elias Bejjani*
08/09/09 Al Manar Hezbollah website: “On the businessman, Salah Ezzeddine’s, bankruptcy case, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pointed out that Hezbollah Party, its leadership and the organization had no association whatsoever with this issue from the beginning to the end, stressing that the leadership does not have any of the money claimed. He added that the aim of several media facilities which have shed light on this issue that is in the hands of the judiciary is to tarnish the image of many of the party’s cadres. Sayyed Nasrallah stated that his party is in the process of issuing a detailed release on this sensitive issue that affects the people's money”.
No matter how hard Sayyed Nasrallah or other Hezbollah mullahs try to camouflage, hide, justify, deny or twist facts, the bitter reality shows that an actual devastating financial earthquake has severely hit the Lebanese Shiite community in Lebanon and abroad. This shocking disaster took place earlier this month after the famed Lebanese Shiite financier, Salah Ezzeddine, filed for bankruptcy and was placed under arrest.
From wealthy Lebanese Shiite expatriates in the Arabian Gulf oil countries, Africa, USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries, to local villagers all over Lebanon, to top notch Hezbollah clergy, officials and MPs, Ezzeddine spared no one as he allegedly concocted a Ponzi scheme that saw almost USD 2 billion go up in smoke.
Tagged as “Lebanon's Bernard Madoff”, Ezzeddine made headlines earlier this month in the local and international press. His dubious bankruptcy has left many serious unanswered questions, all related to his very cozy and privileged relationship with the terrorist organization, Hezbollah. A shroud of mystery still surrounds the whole matter.
Any sane Lebanese citizen who has a free conscience and is familiar with the unfolding events in his country would take Nasrallah’s statement above as a personal insult to his intelligence and a flagrant infringement on the plain truth. There is no doubt that Nasrallah has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the simple fact that the majority of his Shiite community members are fully aware of the kind of intimate and very close relationship that Ezzeddine enjoyed with Hezbollah and its high ranking leadership, including Nasrallah himself, as well as his close associates.
The Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily reported on September 05/09 that Nasrallah himself and some of his family members were investing USD 2 million in Ezzeddine's businesses. According to the Lebanese media three other senior Hezbollah operatives were also among those who invested and lost funds with Ezzeddine. One of the three is Wafik Safa, chief of internal security. The other two as reported by Al-Arabiya were the leader of Hezbollah's parliament bloc, Mohammad Raad, and a member of the bloc, Amin Sherri. The report did not say whether they had lost their own private funds or those of the organization. Sources affiliated with Hezbollah have estimated Ezzeddine's losses at around USD 1 billion, and a Kuwaiti daily reported that the organization had lost USD 683 million.
A report published on September 12/09 also by the Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily said that many senior political and military Syrian officials had lost huge amounts of money with Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, and that they are now trying to recover a portion of it from the Hezbollah. The report stated that Hezbollah had collected about EUR 17 million from Ezzeddine before he was handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. According to the same report, the Syrian president's brother, Maher Assad, his uncle's sons, Rami Hafez Makhlouf, Vice President Faruq al-Shara, Major General Mohammed Nassif, Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, the family of the late Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, in addition to a number of senior army and intelligence officers had all invested with Ezzeddine and had lost their money. It is interesting to know that USD 200 thousand was the minimum amount of money that Ezzeddine would accept for investment.
According to anonymous Lebanese neutral financial and sociology experts' assessments that were based on actual facts and firsthand experience, Hezbollah was the sole predisposing and precipitating evil vehicle that stood behind Ezzeddine's scheme from day one until its deadly end. They all concluded that Hezbollah is to be solely blamed for the tragedy due to the simple fact that this armed Iranian militia fully controls the Shiite canton and runs its affairs with an iron fist. Nothing at all happens inside this canton without Hezbollah's approval and full awareness.
The worst part of the scandal for the Hezbollah party might not come in only dollars and cents but in the damage done to its faked and disguised reputation for honesty, competence and integrity especially among its own Shiite community. Journalist Ali Halawi in a report published by the Elaph website on September 16/09 said: “It seems that Hezbollah from the top of its hierarchy represented by its Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has made a serious decision to contain Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, which is described as very closely linked to the party. The bankruptcy is causing a great deal of embarrassment to the Hezbollah party due to the fact that a significant number of its political and security officials are among the thousands of Shiite depositors who invested their money in Ezzeddine's projects for annual profits that reached around 40 percent. In parallel with the decision of containment, some clerics in the party have issued a special religious decree (very close to a Fatwa) forbidding anyone to mention or relate the party to the bankruptcy under any circumstances in a bid that Israeli and American propaganda would not tarnish the party's reputation”.
Based on Hezbollah's suffocating grip on the canton's, residents, security, banks, media, schools, hospitals, communications, life style, businesses, and worship facilities, there is no way at all that Ezzeddine would have been able to run his very sensitive money business for so many years without not only the approval of Hezbollah, but also without being a member in this very rich organization. Numerous reports even claimed that Ezzeddine was investing for Hezbollah and not for himself.
It worth mentioning that Hezbollah does not approve or believe in the banking system of earning interest and considers it religiously unlawful. Instead its leadership and clergy advocate what they call a “business partnership”. Ezzeddine was using this religious doctrine and smartly manipulating it to his advantage. All those who put their money in his coffer presumably considered themselves partners in his investments. Ezzeddine was promising his so called “partners” annual returns of 40 to 50 percent.
More than 11 thousand Lebanese Shiites were hit by Ezzeddine's bankruptcy . Many of them can’t sue him or even file publicly for their losses because they live in countries like Canada, Australia and the USA where tax departments would expose them to very tough financial monitoring if their loses were officially declared. A Lebanese daily has stated that a Shiite family residing in Canada that had invested with Ezzeddine alone lost more than USD 1 million. According to the report, this family doesn’t even have a receipt from Ezzeddine for their money.
Meanwhile, many prominent Hezbollah members are also afraid to fully admit their losses to avoid questions about the origins of their questionable wealth.
Members in the Lebanese Shiite community placed their life savings with Ezzeddine because of his close connections with Hezbollah, which thus bears at least a moral responsibility for the bankruptcy scheme. The prominent outspoken Lebanese Shiite politician, Ahmad Alassad , blamed Hezbollah for the bankruptcy scheme. The Lebanese National News agency published his statement on September 11/09: "Ahmad Al Assad stressed Hezbollah's responsibility with regard to Ezzeddine's bankruptcy because he had a close relationship with them. Accordingly he said, “it is a crime if the party knew that his activities were wrong and kept silent. At the same time the party is accountable too if it did not know and did not carry out any kind of investigation to trace the sources of the high interest that he was paying to the investors. It is obvious that this man has invested in his relationship with Hezbollah to cover up his activities and to give the impression that he was supported by Hezbollah. Therefore Hezbollah's obligation was to carry out a probe into his activities at least for the benefit of the people for whose interests it claims to work”.
On September 14/09, Ezzeddine who has been under arrest since August 31/09, was formally charged by the Lebanese judiciary with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime, if found guilty, punishable for up to 15 years in prison. Five others have also been charged with involvement in the case, but all of them are on the run.
It is so sad, disappointing and frustrating for all of Ezzeddine's victims that because of Hezbollah's questionable and suspiciously friendly relationship with him, his bankruptcy case most probably will not proceed anywhere in the Lebanese judicial system, and he might even be found to be innocent, and subsequently not charged and released.
Hezbollah's role, intimidation and influence in the bankruptcy scandal are very obvious. This intimidation role is extremely noticeable in the fact that not even one investor from the 11 thousand Shiites that were hit did file a judiciary complaint against Ezzeddine yet.
Why? Because Hezbollah's mini state actually controls and runs the central Lebanese state and all its institutions by terrorism, crime, embezzlement, and corruption.
In conclusion, Lebanon will never be able to reclaim its independence, freedom, and sovereignty until Hezbollah is finally dismantled and disarmed, and whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
08/09/09 Al Manar Hezbollah website: “On the businessman, Salah Ezzeddine’s, bankruptcy case, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pointed out that Hezbollah Party, its leadership and the organization had no association whatsoever with this issue from the beginning to the end, stressing that the leadership does not have any of the money claimed. He added that the aim of several media facilities which have shed light on this issue that is in the hands of the judiciary is to tarnish the image of many of the party’s cadres. Sayyed Nasrallah stated that his party is in the process of issuing a detailed release on this sensitive issue that affects the people's money”.
No matter how hard Sayyed Nasrallah or other Hezbollah mullahs try to camouflage, hide, justify, deny or twist facts, the bitter reality shows that an actual devastating financial earthquake has severely hit the Lebanese Shiite community in Lebanon and abroad. This shocking disaster took place earlier this month after the famed Lebanese Shiite financier, Salah Ezzeddine, filed for bankruptcy and was placed under arrest.
From wealthy Lebanese Shiite expatriates in the Arabian Gulf oil countries, Africa, USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries, to local villagers all over Lebanon, to top notch Hezbollah clergy, officials and MPs, Ezzeddine spared no one as he allegedly concocted a Ponzi scheme that saw almost USD 2 billion go up in smoke.
Tagged as “Lebanon's Bernard Madoff”, Ezzeddine made headlines earlier this month in the local and international press. His dubious bankruptcy has left many serious unanswered questions, all related to his very cozy and privileged relationship with the terrorist organization, Hezbollah. A shroud of mystery still surrounds the whole matter.
Any sane Lebanese citizen who has a free conscience and is familiar with the unfolding events in his country would take Nasrallah’s statement above as a personal insult to his intelligence and a flagrant infringement on the plain truth. There is no doubt that Nasrallah has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the simple fact that the majority of his Shiite community members are fully aware of the kind of intimate and very close relationship that Ezzeddine enjoyed with Hezbollah and its high ranking leadership, including Nasrallah himself, as well as his close associates.
The Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily reported on September 05/09 that Nasrallah himself and some of his family members were investing USD 2 million in Ezzeddine's businesses. According to the Lebanese media three other senior Hezbollah operatives were also among those who invested and lost funds with Ezzeddine. One of the three is Wafik Safa, chief of internal security. The other two as reported by Al-Arabiya were the leader of Hezbollah's parliament bloc, Mohammad Raad, and a member of the bloc, Amin Sherri. The report did not say whether they had lost their own private funds or those of the organization. Sources affiliated with Hezbollah have estimated Ezzeddine's losses at around USD 1 billion, and a Kuwaiti daily reported that the organization had lost USD 683 million.
A report published on September 12/09 also by the Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily said that many senior political and military Syrian officials had lost huge amounts of money with Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, and that they are now trying to recover a portion of it from the Hezbollah. The report stated that Hezbollah had collected about EUR 17 million from Ezzeddine before he was handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. According to the same report, the Syrian president's brother, Maher Assad, his uncle's sons, Rami Hafez Makhlouf, Vice President Faruq al-Shara, Major General Mohammed Nassif, Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, the family of the late Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, in addition to a number of senior army and intelligence officers had all invested with Ezzeddine and had lost their money. It is interesting to know that USD 200 thousand was the minimum amount of money that Ezzeddine would accept for investment.
According to anonymous Lebanese neutral financial and sociology experts' assessments that were based on actual facts and firsthand experience, Hezbollah was the sole predisposing and precipitating evil vehicle that stood behind Ezzeddine's scheme from day one until its deadly end. They all concluded that Hezbollah is to be solely blamed for the tragedy due to the simple fact that this armed Iranian militia fully controls the Shiite canton and runs its affairs with an iron fist. Nothing at all happens inside this canton without Hezbollah's approval and full awareness.
The worst part of the scandal for the Hezbollah party might not come in only dollars and cents but in the damage done to its faked and disguised reputation for honesty, competence and integrity especially among its own Shiite community. Journalist Ali Halawi in a report published by the Elaph website on September 16/09 said: “It seems that Hezbollah from the top of its hierarchy represented by its Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has made a serious decision to contain Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, which is described as very closely linked to the party. The bankruptcy is causing a great deal of embarrassment to the Hezbollah party due to the fact that a significant number of its political and security officials are among the thousands of Shiite depositors who invested their money in Ezzeddine's projects for annual profits that reached around 40 percent. In parallel with the decision of containment, some clerics in the party have issued a special religious decree (very close to a Fatwa) forbidding anyone to mention or relate the party to the bankruptcy under any circumstances in a bid that Israeli and American propaganda would not tarnish the party's reputation”.
Based on Hezbollah's suffocating grip on the canton's, residents, security, banks, media, schools, hospitals, communications, life style, businesses, and worship facilities, there is no way at all that Ezzeddine would have been able to run his very sensitive money business for so many years without not only the approval of Hezbollah, but also without being a member in this very rich organization. Numerous reports even claimed that Ezzeddine was investing for Hezbollah and not for himself.
It worth mentioning that Hezbollah does not approve or believe in the banking system of earning interest and considers it religiously unlawful. Instead its leadership and clergy advocate what they call a “business partnership”. Ezzeddine was using this religious doctrine and smartly manipulating it to his advantage. All those who put their money in his coffer presumably considered themselves partners in his investments. Ezzeddine was promising his so called “partners” annual returns of 40 to 50 percent.
More than 11 thousand Lebanese Shiites were hit by Ezzeddine's bankruptcy . Many of them can’t sue him or even file publicly for their losses because they live in countries like Canada, Australia and the USA where tax departments would expose them to very tough financial monitoring if their loses were officially declared. A Lebanese daily has stated that a Shiite family residing in Canada that had invested with Ezzeddine alone lost more than USD 1 million. According to the report, this family doesn’t even have a receipt from Ezzeddine for their money.
Meanwhile, many prominent Hezbollah members are also afraid to fully admit their losses to avoid questions about the origins of their questionable wealth.
Members in the Lebanese Shiite community placed their life savings with Ezzeddine because of his close connections with Hezbollah, which thus bears at least a moral responsibility for the bankruptcy scheme. The prominent outspoken Lebanese Shiite politician, Ahmad Alassad , blamed Hezbollah for the bankruptcy scheme. The Lebanese National News agency published his statement on September 11/09: "Ahmad Al Assad stressed Hezbollah's responsibility with regard to Ezzeddine's bankruptcy because he had a close relationship with them. Accordingly he said, “it is a crime if the party knew that his activities were wrong and kept silent. At the same time the party is accountable too if it did not know and did not carry out any kind of investigation to trace the sources of the high interest that he was paying to the investors. It is obvious that this man has invested in his relationship with Hezbollah to cover up his activities and to give the impression that he was supported by Hezbollah. Therefore Hezbollah's obligation was to carry out a probe into his activities at least for the benefit of the people for whose interests it claims to work”.
On September 14/09, Ezzeddine who has been under arrest since August 31/09, was formally charged by the Lebanese judiciary with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime, if found guilty, punishable for up to 15 years in prison. Five others have also been charged with involvement in the case, but all of them are on the run.
It is so sad, disappointing and frustrating for all of Ezzeddine's victims that because of Hezbollah's questionable and suspiciously friendly relationship with him, his bankruptcy case most probably will not proceed anywhere in the Lebanese judicial system, and he might even be found to be innocent, and subsequently not charged and released.
Hezbollah's role, intimidation and influence in the bankruptcy scandal are very obvious. This intimidation role is extremely noticeable in the fact that not even one investor from the 11 thousand Shiites that were hit did file a judiciary complaint against Ezzeddine yet.
Why? Because Hezbollah's mini state actually controls and runs the central Lebanese state and all its institutions by terrorism, crime, embezzlement, and corruption.
In conclusion, Lebanon will never be able to reclaim its independence, freedom, and sovereignty until Hezbollah is finally dismantled and disarmed, and whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Late Bachir Gemayal: The Grain of Wheat & the Yeast
By: Elias Bejjani
John 12:24: "Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."
On September 14, 1982, on the day Lebanon was celebrating the Day of the Holy Cross, its President-elect, Sheik Bachir Gemayel, passed away into the hands of the Almighty God after carrying the cross of the country to heaven. He was not even 34 years old, but what he achieved for the freedom and dignity of Lebanon places him among the great men who left a stamp of glory on the history of Lebanon.
Bachir, the hero, dreamt of a sovereign, free and independent Lebanon, and his dream became the objective of all free-minded Lebanese men and women. And even as the hands of evil and hatred took him away through a cowardly assassination plot (14/09/82), his dream lives on in the fiber of our people and their conscience for as long as the Cedars of Lebanon tower over the country from their peaks.
Today we remember Bachir in our prayers. We also remember his fallen comrades who gave so much for our beloved country, and we learn from their sacrifice many a lesson. With this 27th remembrance day, our hopes are renewed, our determination is re-energized, and our commitment to the cause is re-confirmed.
Bachir’s bright star was high in the skies of Lebanon and with it the hopes of the Lebanese people. But the joy was killed and the hopes dashed when his star fell from the skies, a martyr to his noble ambitions aiming at building a strong Lebanon, confirmed in its sovereignty and independence.
Bachir believed that "the one Lebanon is the Lebanon of the 10,452 km2, that the Lebanese must win back completely so that it belongs to its sons and daughters in all their communities, creeds, and beliefs". But even as he departed, what he believed in remains in the hearts and minds of all the Lebanese people.
Bachir was raised on the cross of Lebanon on the day we remember the Cross. He was killed in a political act at the intersection of the interests of nations, individuals, and terrorist groups that feared for their own egotistical interests should a unified, free and sovereign Lebanon rise from its ashes. Bachir established the framework and then was unjustly taken from us too soon.
Those same regimes of evil, Syria and Iran, and groups and factions like the terrorists, Hezbollah, continue today to hold the Lebanese people and their country hostage to their greed, hatred, and savage schemes. They have mastered the art of subservience and bowing at the doorstep of the forces of occupation. They are shepherds of doom who have reneged on every pledge they made and abandoned their flock.
They are factions whose job is to drive wedges between the free people of the Land of the Cedars, assassinating their aspirations and hopes in deed, thought, decision and execution. They assassinate Lebanon every morning and every hour of their waking day, killing its sovereignty, its free decision-making, its democracy and culture.
Bachir's venomous assassination still lingers to this day in all its ugliness, its corruption and its neglect. It still lingers in its displacement and emigration, dhimmitude, apostasy, with economic, social, financial, political, security and patriotic decline.
It still lingers with the rule of personal over national interests. It still lingers with the dismemberment of the political parties; the politicization of the judiciary; the truncation of sovereignty with the imposition of foreign interference, and the abandonment of human, religious and ethical values.
Bachir’s dream is here to stay and will never disappear, because it is the dream of a people who want a dignified life, a dream that calls upon unity, sovereignty and peace.
We are today together to remember the martyrdom of Bachir and his 22 comrades, lifting our eyes and hearts in the midst of danger and trouble to the redeemer of suffering humanity, Jesus-Christ, who said "And if I were to rise above the earth, I shall take with me everyone" (John12/32). We ask Him for light, faith, strength, and hope to continue our march forward and lift ourselves, our homeland, and our people to victory, to peace, to righteousness, to freedom and to all that is good in this world. For Bachir is alive in our beings and in our minds.
Sheik Bachir, Lebanon's elected president who was assassinated before assuming his presidential responsibilities was and still is the patriotic blessed yeast that was brewed and produced solid foundations of freedom, sovereignty and independence, as well as perseverance and hope in all Lebanese minds and hearts.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0_NJaLhb4 .
Terrorists and powers of evil could not destroy the dream that Bachir left for us. Even the gates of hell shall not be able to shake our deeply-rooted faith in peace, love and democracy. Bachir is the grain of wheat and the yeast. Bachir's dream is alive and glowing. As expressed in Galatians 5:9: "A little yeast grows through the whole lump".
Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
John 12:24: "Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."
On September 14, 1982, on the day Lebanon was celebrating the Day of the Holy Cross, its President-elect, Sheik Bachir Gemayel, passed away into the hands of the Almighty God after carrying the cross of the country to heaven. He was not even 34 years old, but what he achieved for the freedom and dignity of Lebanon places him among the great men who left a stamp of glory on the history of Lebanon.
Bachir, the hero, dreamt of a sovereign, free and independent Lebanon, and his dream became the objective of all free-minded Lebanese men and women. And even as the hands of evil and hatred took him away through a cowardly assassination plot (14/09/82), his dream lives on in the fiber of our people and their conscience for as long as the Cedars of Lebanon tower over the country from their peaks.
Today we remember Bachir in our prayers. We also remember his fallen comrades who gave so much for our beloved country, and we learn from their sacrifice many a lesson. With this 27th remembrance day, our hopes are renewed, our determination is re-energized, and our commitment to the cause is re-confirmed.
Bachir’s bright star was high in the skies of Lebanon and with it the hopes of the Lebanese people. But the joy was killed and the hopes dashed when his star fell from the skies, a martyr to his noble ambitions aiming at building a strong Lebanon, confirmed in its sovereignty and independence.
Bachir believed that "the one Lebanon is the Lebanon of the 10,452 km2, that the Lebanese must win back completely so that it belongs to its sons and daughters in all their communities, creeds, and beliefs". But even as he departed, what he believed in remains in the hearts and minds of all the Lebanese people.
Bachir was raised on the cross of Lebanon on the day we remember the Cross. He was killed in a political act at the intersection of the interests of nations, individuals, and terrorist groups that feared for their own egotistical interests should a unified, free and sovereign Lebanon rise from its ashes. Bachir established the framework and then was unjustly taken from us too soon.
Those same regimes of evil, Syria and Iran, and groups and factions like the terrorists, Hezbollah, continue today to hold the Lebanese people and their country hostage to their greed, hatred, and savage schemes. They have mastered the art of subservience and bowing at the doorstep of the forces of occupation. They are shepherds of doom who have reneged on every pledge they made and abandoned their flock.
They are factions whose job is to drive wedges between the free people of the Land of the Cedars, assassinating their aspirations and hopes in deed, thought, decision and execution. They assassinate Lebanon every morning and every hour of their waking day, killing its sovereignty, its free decision-making, its democracy and culture.
Bachir's venomous assassination still lingers to this day in all its ugliness, its corruption and its neglect. It still lingers in its displacement and emigration, dhimmitude, apostasy, with economic, social, financial, political, security and patriotic decline.
It still lingers with the rule of personal over national interests. It still lingers with the dismemberment of the political parties; the politicization of the judiciary; the truncation of sovereignty with the imposition of foreign interference, and the abandonment of human, religious and ethical values.
Bachir’s dream is here to stay and will never disappear, because it is the dream of a people who want a dignified life, a dream that calls upon unity, sovereignty and peace.
We are today together to remember the martyrdom of Bachir and his 22 comrades, lifting our eyes and hearts in the midst of danger and trouble to the redeemer of suffering humanity, Jesus-Christ, who said "And if I were to rise above the earth, I shall take with me everyone" (John12/32). We ask Him for light, faith, strength, and hope to continue our march forward and lift ourselves, our homeland, and our people to victory, to peace, to righteousness, to freedom and to all that is good in this world. For Bachir is alive in our beings and in our minds.
Sheik Bachir, Lebanon's elected president who was assassinated before assuming his presidential responsibilities was and still is the patriotic blessed yeast that was brewed and produced solid foundations of freedom, sovereignty and independence, as well as perseverance and hope in all Lebanese minds and hearts.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0_NJaLhb4 .
Terrorists and powers of evil could not destroy the dream that Bachir left for us. Even the gates of hell shall not be able to shake our deeply-rooted faith in peace, love and democracy. Bachir is the grain of wheat and the yeast. Bachir's dream is alive and glowing. As expressed in Galatians 5:9: "A little yeast grows through the whole lump".
Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
