By: Elias Bejjani*
“Let no one ask us to tag as traitors our Southern “Lebanese” citizens who entered Israel at a certain period, because the “Lebanese” state has abandoned them. They are our brothers and we will definitely demand that they return to their homes, and families.” (Lebanese MP, Sami Gemayel 28/6/09).
We value, and greatly appreciate MP Sami Gemayel's courageous, genuine and transparent stance in regard to our Southern Lebanese citizens who because of serious and imminent fears for their lives and the fate of their children were forced in May 2000 to take refuge in neighboring Israel. These citizens are not traitors by any means, but patriotic, noble, decent, and Lebanese par excellence.
It is worth mentioning that in May 2000, the Israeli government after its occupation of the “Southern Lebanese Security Zone” for 25 years had decided for internal reasons to unilaterally withdraw its troops in accordance with UNSC Resolution 425.
In the aftermath of this withdrawal, more than 6,500 Southern Lebanese men, along with members of their families, had no option but to leave their towns, villages and abandon all their properties and to hastily run for their lives. While Israel was logistically preparing for withdrawal, Hezbollah waged a merciless and savage media campaign against the Southern Lebanese Citizens. The campaign was aired publicly on all local and international TV and radio stations. The most frightening threats were uttered personally by Hezbollah's General Secretary, Sheik Nasrallah, who savagely said, “We will enter their bedrooms, pierce their stomachs, slaughter them and slice their throats.”
Between 2000 and 2005, Syria which was still occupying Lebanon, accordingly had the sole and upper hand in appointing, firing, disciplining, exiling and fully controlling all the country's governments officials, officials, armed forces and members of the parliament, at the same time was intimidating and manipulating the judiciary to serve its schemes.
The Syrians not only fully hindered the dignified return of our people from Israel, but made hell the lives of those southern citizens who hesitated and did not escape to Israel. They were ripped of their civil rights and deprived of all governmental services while been tagged as collaborators and traitors. Many of them were exposed to arbitrary trials and sentenced harshly.
The 4000 Lebanese whose nostalgia made them take the risk, not consider the consequences and return from Israel to Lebanon were immediately arrested, tortured, humiliated, imprisoned and charged with treason, collaboration, contacting an enemy and living in an enemy country.
The trials that they had were a mere farce, biased, fabricated, false and void from all recognized standards of international laws. The military prosecutor tried all these cases, and in the majority of these trials, the accused Southern Lebanese citizens were not allowed to even hire lawyers to defend them. Most of the local and international human rights organizations have stated in their documented reports that each of these theatrical trials did not last for more than 10 minutes. Many of these victims were sentenced in absentia and more than seventy of them received death penalties.
In 2005, the Syrian army was forced to withdraw in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1559, and the Syrian occupation was over. Since then numerous attempts were initiated by the Maronite church, a few Christian MPs and other human rights bodies all aiming to secure a dignified and safe return for the more than 2,500 Southern Lebanese people who had remained in Israel. Unfortunately all these genuine attempts were aborted by Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militia who after the Syrian military withdrawal in 2005 had become the sole controlling military power in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's mullahs’ swollen and inflated egos and their mere detachment from reality have made them hostages and prey to a set of sickening grandiose delusions. They are damn mistaken to falsely believe that they can continue to forever block the return of our people from Israel to our Land of the Holy Cedars, and to unjustly deprive them from embracing the Lebanese soil that they, their fathers and their grandfathers have for the past 7000 years been safeguarding, plowing, planting, and enriching with their sweat, blood and sacrifices.
No matter what the hardships are or will be, the free people of Lebanon will not allow Hezbollah’s mullahs to topple the Lebanese regime
of multiculturalism, freedom and peaceful co-existence and replace it with a replicate of the Iranian mullah’s Islamic Republic. Iran’s denominational “Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine” of Khomeini has been stubbornly rejected by the majority of the Lebanese people and will never ever be forced on them.
Meanwhile, the ongoing suffering of our people in Israel is not that different from the kind of suffering that our people in West Beirut and Mount Lebanon went through last year when Hezbollah fighters, the “Mujahedeen” invaded their suburbs, destroyed their homes, vandalized, shut down and occupied their schools, hospitals, media facilities and institutions, kidnapped, humiliated, tortured and with cold blood murdered more than 100 innocent civilians.
It is both a shame and a crime for all of Lebanon's 18 mosaic communities dignitaries and members, and for all Lebanon's clergy, politicians, officials and intellectuals to be demoralized and scared by Hezbollah's rhetoric, and accordingly succumb to its derailed "Khomeini" criteria for treason and patriotism, as well as for good and evil. These criteria that Hezbollah tags as "divine" have been sadly hindering the honorable and safe return of our people from Israel.
We call on Lebanon's President, House Speaker, Prime Minster and all politicians and clergy to help in ending the dilemma of our people in Israel. Their return needs to be a priority, and it must be with honor, dignity, respect and definitely without any kind of farce trials. These people are heroes and not traitors, and every Lebanese with faith and conscience is fully aware of this reality and substantially unshaken tangible fact.
MP Sami Gemayel has taken the initiative in courageously and transparently addressing the dilemma of our people in Israel. Hopefully he with the help and support of other MPs from all Lebanon's religious denominations will soon see that an appropriate amnesty law is drafted and passed in the Parliament, for enough is enough.
History teaches us that nothing in this mortal, earthly life lasts except the face of God, and that all human wicked traits such as injustice, lying, heresy and arrogance, eventually hurt those holding on to them in the face of their fellow men.
We advise all those who evilly and intentionally are inflicting pain and injustice on our people in Israel and arrogantly blocking their return to their homeland, to read the following biblical verse and take notice on how Almighty God rewards the meek and how He takes revenge on the wicked:
“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 4:2 But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall. 4:3 You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies"). (Malachi 4/1-3”.
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
Monday, July 6, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Compromises with Hezbollah are Lethal
By: Elias Bejjani*
Time after time terrorist and fundamental groups like Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and all others, prove with no shed of doubt that they only comprehend, listen and respond to crystal clear means of decisiveness, overt offensive action and a strong show of strength and power. Their backward and destructive ideologies, as well as their fundamentalist nature and disrespect for all things unlike their own, reveal their true chauvinistic nature, as they look to humiliate, belittle and trample all those who ignore their threats and who do not bow to their logic and demands.
Before the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections, most of the March 14 (Cedar Revolution coalition) leaders and thinking tanks, were not sure that they would be able to win a majority and prevent Hezbollah and its mercenary pro-Syrian and Iranian allies, in the form of the March 8th Coalition, from taking over the country.
Most of the Western free world countries were also almost sure that the March 8th Coalition was on its way to control the Lebanese parliament and accordingly rule Lebanon and turn it into another Gaza conundrum. Some of these countries even issued official statements in which they addressed openly their future inclination to deal openly with Hezbollah when they would win the elections. At the same time the majority of the media facilities in the USA, Europe, Israel and some Arab countries published hundreds of studies, poll results and analytical reports and interviews, all predicting Hezbollah’s sure win.
The Lebanese peace loving people were not deceived, discouraged or influenced by all these negative predictions and polls. They held to their solid beliefs, optimism, deeply rooted faith and love for life and voted with their conscience with success. They chose with strong determination and perseverance to safeguard their beloved country and protect its democratic and multicultural nature. These Lebanese bravely headed to the polls, casted their votes and gave once more the March 14th coalition an overwhelming parliamentary majority. They stood tall like their country’s Holy Cedars and succeeded victoriously in usurping the expected endgame predicted by most of the world.
The Lebanese people, in spite of all the evil tactics of oppression, intimidation and bribery that Hezbollah and their allies inflicted on them on a daily basis, declared a resounding “No!”, and did not allow this Iranian armed terrorist organization to take over their country, uproot their identity, enslave them and downtrodden their dignity and pride.
Hopefully the Western Free World countries and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated, risky and costly mission alone.
Hopefully the Western Free World and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated task.
Hezbollah is an Iranian Army stationed in Lebanon that threatens not only the Lebanese and their state, but also Israel, all the Arab countries as well as peace and democracy all over the world. This fact simply means Hezbollah, yes is a Lebanese problem, but also and to a great extent it is a deadly regional and global real hazard too.
Hezbollah’s mini state in Lebanon, militarily, financially and organizationally is much more powerful than the Lebanese state itself. This reality is well known to all the Arab and Western countries. According to the France Press Agency, (June 17/09), the former USA head of homeland security, Mr. Michael Chertoff has said in a book that he will publish later this year: (“Hezbollah Could Surpass Al Qaida as Most Serious Long-Term Threat to the U.S. It is better equipped, better trained and better politically positioned than Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Al-Qaida and its network are our most serious immediate threat, they may not be our most serious long-term threat. Having operated for more than a quarter-century, Hezbollah has developed capabilities that al-Qaida can only dream of, including large quantities of missiles and highly sophisticated explosives. This group also has uniformly well trained operatives, an exceptionally well-disciplined force of nearly 30,000 fighters, and extraordinary political influence”).
According to Chertoff, Hezbollah was behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people. Despite its defeat in elections earlier this month, Hezbollah and its allies remain a major force in Lebanese politics. It is this power, along with Hezbollah's military weight and ties with Iran that are worrying, according to Chertoff. " Hezbollah shows what an ideologically driven terrorist organization can become when it evolves into an army and a political party and gains a deeply embedded degree of control within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon's democratic infrastructure," he warns. Chertoff argues Hezbollah poses a growing threat in the Western Hemisphere, despite limited attacks on U.S. targets. "While Hezbollah may not have carried out attacks in the United States itself, it has developed a presence in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in South America," Chertoff says, alleging that the group carried out bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Buenos Aires."These acts disturbingly underscore Hezbollah's reach into the hemisphere, notably the tri-border areas at the margins of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay." (AFP, 7 June 09)
Meanwhile Hezbollah is not hiding anymore its Iranian identity or it mere affiliation to the Iranian notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps). Its clergy leadership is boldly and loudly refusing to disarm or dismantle its mini state: Below is a verbatim fiery and scary statement uttered recently by one of Hezbollah’s prominent clergymen:
MTV - Sunday, June 14, 2009: " Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, the personal representative in Lebanon of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,, and Hezbollah's Party Shawra Council member: “Hezbollah will not give up its strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of its weapons. He who does not own weapons can’t live in this world". He added; "Others during the election period (Lebanese June 07/09 parliamentary elections), entered peoples’ houses to scare them from Waeleat Al Faqeah and (fool them) that Iran will come to Lebanon to turn it to an Iranian arena. To this extent the surge of militarization, communalism and sectarianism has reached. The whole world came (to Lebanon) to delude the people that if the opposition (8th of March Coalition) wins the elections, Lebanon will become another Gaza. The will and referendum were on the resistance. It (The resistance) has transformed from being weapons to a state of education and society. We will not give up this strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of our weapons. Our weapons are subject to our lives because we see that he who does not own weapons and power won’t be able to live in this life. Therefore we have to impose our existence via the strength that we own. This is why we are today better then ever before. Rest assured, you the honest, we are the victorious by God’s will because we call for what is righteous and do not)".
Now that the parliamentary election is over, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S, who were awarded the majority by the people, have a national, ethical and legal obligation to hold dear to their election’s platform and promises. The Lebanese gave them a mandate to stop Hezbollah from controlling the country, contain its weapons within the state’s institutions, put an end to its mini state, and find the appropriate ways and means to end its hegemony on Lebanon’s decision making process in regards to war and peace.
Any compromises the 14th of March Coalition cut with Hezbollah on the account of the law, constitution and UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701, will be fatal to the future of the Lebanese state as a democracy, and to the peace process not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region. What the people of Lebanon are looking for as a first step is that the 14th of March Coalition will not give to Hezbollah or its weaponry any legitimacy in the Ministerial Statement of the government that will be formed soon.
While dealing with Hezbollah, at any level, and with what ever issue, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S must never ignore that fact that the majority of Lebanese people from all nominations, and all walks of life, with no fear or hesitation have given them a mandate to say, No to Terrorism, No to Syrian and Iranian schemes against Lebanon, No to Hezbollah’s weaponry arsenal and mini state, No to the education of hatred, rejection of others, suicide and fanaticism
Any deviation from these NO’S shall mount to treason. Both MP’S, Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblat must tailor their stances with the framework of the peoples’ mandate and fulfill their electoral promises.
By God’s will, Lebanon shall never, ever be a replicate of the Iranian Mullah's oppressive Regime, and will never, ever adopt the Iranian denominational Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine as a substitute to its constitution, Multiculturalism, Human Rights, Democracy and openness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)
Congratulations to the Lebanese faithful and patriotic people for their peaceful and daring achievement.
Beloved Lebanese in Lebanon: We, The Lebanese in Diaspora are very proud of you
*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 M
ailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Time after time terrorist and fundamental groups like Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and all others, prove with no shed of doubt that they only comprehend, listen and respond to crystal clear means of decisiveness, overt offensive action and a strong show of strength and power. Their backward and destructive ideologies, as well as their fundamentalist nature and disrespect for all things unlike their own, reveal their true chauvinistic nature, as they look to humiliate, belittle and trample all those who ignore their threats and who do not bow to their logic and demands.
Before the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections, most of the March 14 (Cedar Revolution coalition) leaders and thinking tanks, were not sure that they would be able to win a majority and prevent Hezbollah and its mercenary pro-Syrian and Iranian allies, in the form of the March 8th Coalition, from taking over the country.
Most of the Western free world countries were also almost sure that the March 8th Coalition was on its way to control the Lebanese parliament and accordingly rule Lebanon and turn it into another Gaza conundrum. Some of these countries even issued official statements in which they addressed openly their future inclination to deal openly with Hezbollah when they would win the elections. At the same time the majority of the media facilities in the USA, Europe, Israel and some Arab countries published hundreds of studies, poll results and analytical reports and interviews, all predicting Hezbollah’s sure win.
The Lebanese peace loving people were not deceived, discouraged or influenced by all these negative predictions and polls. They held to their solid beliefs, optimism, deeply rooted faith and love for life and voted with their conscience with success. They chose with strong determination and perseverance to safeguard their beloved country and protect its democratic and multicultural nature. These Lebanese bravely headed to the polls, casted their votes and gave once more the March 14th coalition an overwhelming parliamentary majority. They stood tall like their country’s Holy Cedars and succeeded victoriously in usurping the expected endgame predicted by most of the world.
The Lebanese people, in spite of all the evil tactics of oppression, intimidation and bribery that Hezbollah and their allies inflicted on them on a daily basis, declared a resounding “No!”, and did not allow this Iranian armed terrorist organization to take over their country, uproot their identity, enslave them and downtrodden their dignity and pride.
Hopefully the Western Free World countries and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated, risky and costly mission alone.
Hopefully the Western Free World and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated task.
Hezbollah is an Iranian Army stationed in Lebanon that threatens not only the Lebanese and their state, but also Israel, all the Arab countries as well as peace and democracy all over the world. This fact simply means Hezbollah, yes is a Lebanese problem, but also and to a great extent it is a deadly regional and global real hazard too.
Hezbollah’s mini state in Lebanon, militarily, financially and organizationally is much more powerful than the Lebanese state itself. This reality is well known to all the Arab and Western countries. According to the France Press Agency, (June 17/09), the former USA head of homeland security, Mr. Michael Chertoff has said in a book that he will publish later this year: (“Hezbollah Could Surpass Al Qaida as Most Serious Long-Term Threat to the U.S. It is better equipped, better trained and better politically positioned than Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Al-Qaida and its network are our most serious immediate threat, they may not be our most serious long-term threat. Having operated for more than a quarter-century, Hezbollah has developed capabilities that al-Qaida can only dream of, including large quantities of missiles and highly sophisticated explosives. This group also has uniformly well trained operatives, an exceptionally well-disciplined force of nearly 30,000 fighters, and extraordinary political influence”).
According to Chertoff, Hezbollah was behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people. Despite its defeat in elections earlier this month, Hezbollah and its allies remain a major force in Lebanese politics. It is this power, along with Hezbollah's military weight and ties with Iran that are worrying, according to Chertoff. " Hezbollah shows what an ideologically driven terrorist organization can become when it evolves into an army and a political party and gains a deeply embedded degree of control within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon's democratic infrastructure," he warns. Chertoff argues Hezbollah poses a growing threat in the Western Hemisphere, despite limited attacks on U.S. targets. "While Hezbollah may not have carried out attacks in the United States itself, it has developed a presence in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in South America," Chertoff says, alleging that the group carried out bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Buenos Aires."These acts disturbingly underscore Hezbollah's reach into the hemisphere, notably the tri-border areas at the margins of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay." (AFP, 7 June 09)
Meanwhile Hezbollah is not hiding anymore its Iranian identity or it mere affiliation to the Iranian notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps). Its clergy leadership is boldly and loudly refusing to disarm or dismantle its mini state: Below is a verbatim fiery and scary statement uttered recently by one of Hezbollah’s prominent clergymen:
MTV - Sunday, June 14, 2009: " Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, the personal representative in Lebanon of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,, and Hezbollah's Party Shawra Council member: “Hezbollah will not give up its strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of its weapons. He who does not own weapons can’t live in this world". He added; "Others during the election period (Lebanese June 07/09 parliamentary elections), entered peoples’ houses to scare them from Waeleat Al Faqeah and (fool them) that Iran will come to Lebanon to turn it to an Iranian arena. To this extent the surge of militarization, communalism and sectarianism has reached. The whole world came (to Lebanon) to delude the people that if the opposition (8th of March Coalition) wins the elections, Lebanon will become another Gaza. The will and referendum were on the resistance. It (The resistance) has transformed from being weapons to a state of education and society. We will not give up this strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of our weapons. Our weapons are subject to our lives because we see that he who does not own weapons and power won’t be able to live in this life. Therefore we have to impose our existence via the strength that we own. This is why we are today better then ever before. Rest assured, you the honest, we are the victorious by God’s will because we call for what is righteous and do not)".
Now that the parliamentary election is over, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S, who were awarded the majority by the people, have a national, ethical and legal obligation to hold dear to their election’s platform and promises. The Lebanese gave them a mandate to stop Hezbollah from controlling the country, contain its weapons within the state’s institutions, put an end to its mini state, and find the appropriate ways and means to end its hegemony on Lebanon’s decision making process in regards to war and peace.
Any compromises the 14th of March Coalition cut with Hezbollah on the account of the law, constitution and UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701, will be fatal to the future of the Lebanese state as a democracy, and to the peace process not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region. What the people of Lebanon are looking for as a first step is that the 14th of March Coalition will not give to Hezbollah or its weaponry any legitimacy in the Ministerial Statement of the government that will be formed soon.
While dealing with Hezbollah, at any level, and with what ever issue, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S must never ignore that fact that the majority of Lebanese people from all nominations, and all walks of life, with no fear or hesitation have given them a mandate to say, No to Terrorism, No to Syrian and Iranian schemes against Lebanon, No to Hezbollah’s weaponry arsenal and mini state, No to the education of hatred, rejection of others, suicide and fanaticism
Any deviation from these NO’S shall mount to treason. Both MP’S, Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblat must tailor their stances with the framework of the peoples’ mandate and fulfill their electoral promises.
By God’s will, Lebanon shall never, ever be a replicate of the Iranian Mullah's oppressive Regime, and will never, ever adopt the Iranian denominational Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine as a substitute to its constitution, Multiculturalism, Human Rights, Democracy and openness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)
Congratulations to the Lebanese faithful and patriotic people for their peaceful and daring achievement.
Beloved Lebanese in Lebanon: We, The Lebanese in Diaspora are very proud of you
*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 M
ailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Sunday, May 24, 2009
May 25 sacrifices & Hezbollah The Dragon
By: Elias Bejjani*
Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating a so-called "Liberation & Resistance Day." Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.
On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425. The withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.
The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon. The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal. Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army's withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies. The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the "Shabaa Farms occupation big lie" and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.
Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both the Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of "Liberation & Reistance Day".
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region. In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.
Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track. This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel. This Iranian mullahs' terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion. Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples' lives, safety, security and livelihood. It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last four years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs' fundamentalist republic. Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah's current odd and bizarre status? Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005). During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.
But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner. If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 50 thousand missiles and force the Iranian "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate its decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah's emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah's schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them.
This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the "Taef Accord," which called for the disarmament of all militias. Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese - Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
A few days ago Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and threatened the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the "Security Zone" and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating a so-called "Liberation & Resistance Day." Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.
On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425. The withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.
The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon. The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal. Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army's withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies. The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the "Shabaa Farms occupation big lie" and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.
Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both the Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of "Liberation & Reistance Day".
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region. In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.
Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track. This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel. This Iranian mullahs' terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion. Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples' lives, safety, security and livelihood. It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last four years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs' fundamentalist republic. Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah's current odd and bizarre status? Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005). During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.
But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner. If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 50 thousand missiles and force the Iranian "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate its decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah's emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah's schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them.
This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the "Taef Accord," which called for the disarmament of all militias. Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese - Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
A few days ago Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and threatened the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the "Security Zone" and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Hezbollah: The World's Most Effective Terrorist Organization.
By: Elias Bejjani*
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing "- Edmund Burke - 17th century philosopher and author"
The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah, in its State Department report for 2008, as the world's most effective terrorist organization. The report said that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the same report, "Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy". It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm)
How can the US, the mightiest military and financial power in the whole world, officially recognize the serious and great dangers of Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, while expecting the Lebanese people and their crippled government and military institutions to tame, control and disarm this terrorist organization?
Hezbollah from day one of its creation by Iran in 1982 up until now, is a serious and deadly threat to all the civilized and free world countries. As such, it is not a mere Lebanese problem, but rather a serious problem, grave threat and challenge to global peace, stability and democracy.
What is unfortunate and shameful, is that the free world and surrounding Arab countries, are not showing enough determination, transparency, seriousness or persistence in dealing with the most dangerous terrorist organization in the whole world, Hezbollah. Unbelievably, some very influential Western countries, among which is England, are actively negotiating with this terrorist organization and providing its fanatic and extremist leadership with academic, media and political platforms to justify and spread the support of their doctrines of terrorism under the false pretext of ‘free speech’!
In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant organization on all levels and by every definition. Its’ Iranian mission, terrorist activities and objectives have become crystal clear, not only to the Lebanese people who are suffering on daily basis from its’ oppression, intimidation and dictatorship, but also to the majority of the Arab states, US, Canada and Australia. This intimidation, fear mongering and illicit fundraising activities extend also to many European, African and Southern American countries
The only positive element in this Pandora’s Box lies in the fact that Hezbollah can no longer fool the educated patriots and nationalists in Lebanon or in the Arab communities, that they are an indigenous resistance entity and liberation movement whose sole purpose is to defend Arab rights and Lebanese sovereignty. Its’ extremely active involvement in worldwide drug trafficking and terrorism activities have exposed Hezbollah’s hierarchy and Iranian dictated leadership, ripping off the seductive facade of ‘resistance’ that they so cleverly attempt to hide behind. Thankfully, most of Hezbollah’s devious tactics of camouflage and deceptiveness are no longer working, revealing their proxy Iranian destructive criminal agenda.
Many of Hezbollah’s own Shiite Lebanese community, which it dominates and controls by religion, money, bribery, intimidation and brute force, is losing its’ patience and quickly realizing the true color of the Hezbollah resistance cloak. Many are turning their backs on this militia whose loyalties and agendas are more Iranian and less Lebanese!
Hezbollah has nothing to do with resistance, liberation or any actual patriotic Lebanese or Arabic cause by any means. In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant brigade, a division of Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)
According to dozens of well documented and trustworthy reports, Hezbollah continues to run a vast, well organized and extremely sophisticated global network of drug trafficking, crime, terrorism and arms trafficking, infiltrating many Arab states, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Australia, United States, Europe, South America and numerous previous Islamic states of the USSR.
It is pathetic that the Free World in general, and the Arab world in particular, continue to appease and cajole Hezbollah’s leadership, inflate their already swollen egos, hail their fabricated and cleverly titled ‘divine victories’, and keep a blind eye to their ongoing activities of arms smuggling from Syria through the Syrian-Lebanese borders.
Since 1982, Hezbollah systematically has been devouring the state of Lebanon, destroying its’ military, judicial and financial institutions, crippling its legislature and democratic government and fragmenting and terrorizing its’ delicate social fabric, all the while solidifying the terrorist infrastructure and Iranian-modeled institutions of its mini-state and scattered cantons.
The looming devastating threat that Hezbollah poses on Lebanon and the Lebanese, will be an unfortunate and lethal reality if it wins a majority government in the upcoming June 7th parliamentary Lebanese elections with its pro-Syrian mercenary allies. If this nightmare comes to bare on Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran will have the upper hand in running the country's new government, imposing by force a replica of Gaza's terrorist Hamas government.
Prior to these elections, Hezbollah has already confiscated by force, money and intimidation, all the allocated Shiite seats in the parliament. It has also forced its’ candidates on Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims who live inside their cantons. Almost 100 out of the 128 elected MPs are going to win their seats uncontested because of both the biased electoral law and Hezbollah's terrorism and religious decrees (Fatwa and Takalief Sharia).
The 28 seats that will decide who gets the parliamentary majority or minority will be challenged in four constituencies where the Christian voters are the majority. Accordingly the Christian voters will hold in their hands the fate of Lebanon. Either they will vote against Hezbollah's allies and keep Lebanon a democratic, free and multi-cultural society of coexistence and peace or they will vote for Michel Aoun, the Christian ex-general egomaniac who entered into a self-serving alliance with Hezbollah in order to better his chances of obtaining the Presidency. This unholy alliance has furthered the legitimacy of Hezbollah and increased their tyrannical grip over Lebanon with their "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious Iranian religious doctrine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)
Hezbollah's essence and spiritual, cultural and political foundation are totally derived from the Iranian Mullah's doctrine of “Wilayat Al-Faqih”. The main pillars of this doctrine are zero tolerance for all others who are of different faith and culture and who do not fully submit to their control. It is a blatant rejection of the civil, democratic and free societies; a systematic, tireless effort to export the "Wilayat Al-Faqih", and impose it on the whole world through "Jihad" (holy war), deeply rooted hatred for the western democracies and cultures, staunch enmity and hostility towards the US and Israel all with a suicidal mentality. One of its prime aims is to destroy Israel and ‘liberate’ the Holy city of Jerusalem.
General Michel Aoun, Syria and Iran's mouthpiece, is a Maronite Christian whose personal ambitions and lust for power has completely allied himself with the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah agenda. He has negated all his previous pro-Lebanon, pro-sovereignty and pro-independence slogans and he has viciously turned his back on and attacked the Maronite Church and its’ Patriarch. He has betrayed every historic social, religious and national conviction of the Lebanese Christians.
Christian voters must vote for those who are committed to the holy cause of Lebanon's freedom, sovereignty and culture of peace, coexistence and progress. Voting for Aoun's tickets is voting for Iran's Mullah's and their project to swallow Lebanon and turn it into a dictatorship run by their proxy Hezbollah.
Nobody at the present time knows better than the Iraqi people what terrorism is, that Hezbollah imposes on Lebanon. I will end my piece with a quotation that I took from Mr. Noori Kamal Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq in his statement at the 62nd UN General Assembly:
“Terrorism kills civilians, journalists, actors, thinkers, and professionals; it attacks universities, marketplaces, and libraries; it blows up Mosques and Churches and destroys the infrastructure of State institutions. We consider terrorism an extension of the fallen dictatorship, whether it may vary in its outside form or by the gangs that carry it out. Terrorism aims at aborting the political process, and igniting sectarian dissension as a prelude to hijack Iraq back into the era of tyranny, oppression, and backwardness.”
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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing "- Edmund Burke - 17th century philosopher and author"
The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah, in its State Department report for 2008, as the world's most effective terrorist organization. The report said that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the same report, "Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy". It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm)
How can the US, the mightiest military and financial power in the whole world, officially recognize the serious and great dangers of Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, while expecting the Lebanese people and their crippled government and military institutions to tame, control and disarm this terrorist organization?
Hezbollah from day one of its creation by Iran in 1982 up until now, is a serious and deadly threat to all the civilized and free world countries. As such, it is not a mere Lebanese problem, but rather a serious problem, grave threat and challenge to global peace, stability and democracy.
What is unfortunate and shameful, is that the free world and surrounding Arab countries, are not showing enough determination, transparency, seriousness or persistence in dealing with the most dangerous terrorist organization in the whole world, Hezbollah. Unbelievably, some very influential Western countries, among which is England, are actively negotiating with this terrorist organization and providing its fanatic and extremist leadership with academic, media and political platforms to justify and spread the support of their doctrines of terrorism under the false pretext of ‘free speech’!
In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant organization on all levels and by every definition. Its’ Iranian mission, terrorist activities and objectives have become crystal clear, not only to the Lebanese people who are suffering on daily basis from its’ oppression, intimidation and dictatorship, but also to the majority of the Arab states, US, Canada and Australia. This intimidation, fear mongering and illicit fundraising activities extend also to many European, African and Southern American countries
The only positive element in this Pandora’s Box lies in the fact that Hezbollah can no longer fool the educated patriots and nationalists in Lebanon or in the Arab communities, that they are an indigenous resistance entity and liberation movement whose sole purpose is to defend Arab rights and Lebanese sovereignty. Its’ extremely active involvement in worldwide drug trafficking and terrorism activities have exposed Hezbollah’s hierarchy and Iranian dictated leadership, ripping off the seductive facade of ‘resistance’ that they so cleverly attempt to hide behind. Thankfully, most of Hezbollah’s devious tactics of camouflage and deceptiveness are no longer working, revealing their proxy Iranian destructive criminal agenda.
Many of Hezbollah’s own Shiite Lebanese community, which it dominates and controls by religion, money, bribery, intimidation and brute force, is losing its’ patience and quickly realizing the true color of the Hezbollah resistance cloak. Many are turning their backs on this militia whose loyalties and agendas are more Iranian and less Lebanese!
Hezbollah has nothing to do with resistance, liberation or any actual patriotic Lebanese or Arabic cause by any means. In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant brigade, a division of Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)
According to dozens of well documented and trustworthy reports, Hezbollah continues to run a vast, well organized and extremely sophisticated global network of drug trafficking, crime, terrorism and arms trafficking, infiltrating many Arab states, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Australia, United States, Europe, South America and numerous previous Islamic states of the USSR.
It is pathetic that the Free World in general, and the Arab world in particular, continue to appease and cajole Hezbollah’s leadership, inflate their already swollen egos, hail their fabricated and cleverly titled ‘divine victories’, and keep a blind eye to their ongoing activities of arms smuggling from Syria through the Syrian-Lebanese borders.
Since 1982, Hezbollah systematically has been devouring the state of Lebanon, destroying its’ military, judicial and financial institutions, crippling its legislature and democratic government and fragmenting and terrorizing its’ delicate social fabric, all the while solidifying the terrorist infrastructure and Iranian-modeled institutions of its mini-state and scattered cantons.
The looming devastating threat that Hezbollah poses on Lebanon and the Lebanese, will be an unfortunate and lethal reality if it wins a majority government in the upcoming June 7th parliamentary Lebanese elections with its pro-Syrian mercenary allies. If this nightmare comes to bare on Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran will have the upper hand in running the country's new government, imposing by force a replica of Gaza's terrorist Hamas government.
Prior to these elections, Hezbollah has already confiscated by force, money and intimidation, all the allocated Shiite seats in the parliament. It has also forced its’ candidates on Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims who live inside their cantons. Almost 100 out of the 128 elected MPs are going to win their seats uncontested because of both the biased electoral law and Hezbollah's terrorism and religious decrees (Fatwa and Takalief Sharia).
The 28 seats that will decide who gets the parliamentary majority or minority will be challenged in four constituencies where the Christian voters are the majority. Accordingly the Christian voters will hold in their hands the fate of Lebanon. Either they will vote against Hezbollah's allies and keep Lebanon a democratic, free and multi-cultural society of coexistence and peace or they will vote for Michel Aoun, the Christian ex-general egomaniac who entered into a self-serving alliance with Hezbollah in order to better his chances of obtaining the Presidency. This unholy alliance has furthered the legitimacy of Hezbollah and increased their tyrannical grip over Lebanon with their "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious Iranian religious doctrine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)
Hezbollah's essence and spiritual, cultural and political foundation are totally derived from the Iranian Mullah's doctrine of “Wilayat Al-Faqih”. The main pillars of this doctrine are zero tolerance for all others who are of different faith and culture and who do not fully submit to their control. It is a blatant rejection of the civil, democratic and free societies; a systematic, tireless effort to export the "Wilayat Al-Faqih", and impose it on the whole world through "Jihad" (holy war), deeply rooted hatred for the western democracies and cultures, staunch enmity and hostility towards the US and Israel all with a suicidal mentality. One of its prime aims is to destroy Israel and ‘liberate’ the Holy city of Jerusalem.
General Michel Aoun, Syria and Iran's mouthpiece, is a Maronite Christian whose personal ambitions and lust for power has completely allied himself with the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah agenda. He has negated all his previous pro-Lebanon, pro-sovereignty and pro-independence slogans and he has viciously turned his back on and attacked the Maronite Church and its’ Patriarch. He has betrayed every historic social, religious and national conviction of the Lebanese Christians.
Christian voters must vote for those who are committed to the holy cause of Lebanon's freedom, sovereignty and culture of peace, coexistence and progress. Voting for Aoun's tickets is voting for Iran's Mullah's and their project to swallow Lebanon and turn it into a dictatorship run by their proxy Hezbollah.
Nobody at the present time knows better than the Iraqi people what terrorism is, that Hezbollah imposes on Lebanon. I will end my piece with a quotation that I took from Mr. Noori Kamal Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq in his statement at the 62nd UN General Assembly:
“Terrorism kills civilians, journalists, actors, thinkers, and professionals; it attacks universities, marketplaces, and libraries; it blows up Mosques and Churches and destroys the infrastructure of State institutions. We consider terrorism an extension of the fallen dictatorship, whether it may vary in its outside form or by the gangs that carry it out. Terrorism aims at aborting the political process, and igniting sectarian dissension as a prelude to hijack Iraq back into the era of tyranny, oppression, and backwardness.”
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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Hezbollah: The World's Most Effective Terrorist Organization.
By: Elias Bejjani*
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing "- Edmund Burke - 17th century philosopher and author"
The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah, in its State Department report for 2008, as the world's most effective terrorist organization. The report said that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the same report, "Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy". It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing "- Edmund Burke - 17th century philosopher and author"
The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah, in its State Department report for 2008, as the world's most effective terrorist organization. The report said that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the same report, "Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy". It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm)
Monday, April 20, 2009
Arab Countries: Fight Terrorism Before It devours you!!
By: Elias Bejjani*
How superficial, naive, and childish are those Lebanese and Arab officials, clergymen and politicians who voiced their surprise and shock after the recent unveiling of a terrorist Hezbollah cell in Egypt. They are either deceiving themselves and their people, or are totally detached from reality, residing on Mars. and not in the Middle East in general, and in Lebanon in particular.
For heaven's sake, whom are these officials, clergymen and politicians fooling? Is there no concerned individual in the whole Middle East, and in the free world countries who is not yet aware of the fact that Hezbollah is merely an Iranian militant brigade connected directly, and on level to the Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)
Who in Lebanon and in its neighboring countries does not know that Syria during its occupation era of Lebanon (1976-2005), had forced the armed Hezbollah organization on both the Shiite community, and the Lebanese people under the false disguise of resistance against Israel? Syria and Iran jointly orchestrated, by brutal and criminal means, the erection of a mini Hezbollah state in the Shiite suburbs of Beirut, South and Bekaa, and accordingly exempted it from being disarmed in 1990, after all other Christian, Druze and Sunni Lebanese militias were disarmed in accordance with the "Taef Accord," that put an end to the civil war in Lebanon.
Hezbollah from day one of its formation by the Iranian Mullah's in 1982 was, and is still being used by its two masters, Syria and Iran, to destabilize peace, democracy and freedoms in Lebanon, to carry against the Lebanese and the Arab countries all Iran's and Syria's dirty jobs of assassinations, kidnapping, smuggling, intimidation, drug trafficking and havoc.
Hezbollah, is not a Lebanese party by any means, but a mere Iranian armed proxy occupying by force and against the will of the Lebanese people, a big portion of Lebanon, and at the same time crippling its central government and destroying all its institutions, on all levels and in all domains.
Hezbollah's terrorism is now targeting the biggest and mightiest Arab country, Egypt. According to the Egyptian judiciary, government, security authorities, and media, a Hezbollah cell was uncovered. It was planning to execute very serious sabotage attacks in both Egypt and Israel. Egyptian official reports stated that Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Sheik Naiem Qssiem were personally directing, monitoring and supervising the cell's activities that included also extensive campaigns to convert Sunni Egyptians to Shiite denomination, and smuggling of weapons, money and men to the Palestinian Gaza Strip in a bid to support their ally, Hamas.
According to Egyptian police, the Hezbollah cell is headed by Sami Shihab, a prominent Hezbollah militant. and a Lebanese Shiite national. Egypt has been detaining Shihab for the last six months, and recently arrested 49 nationals of various Arab countries on suspicion of being members of a terrorist network on behalf of Hezbollah. The accused have allegedly planned to carry out attacks inside Egypt, including tourist sites frequented by Israelis.
Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah admitted publicly that Sami Shihab is a member in his organization, and that he was assigned by its leadership, "to help the resistance of Palestine," and, "to move military equipment and members to help the resistance" in Gaza.
During his live television address, two days after the cell was uncovered, Nasrallah denied accusations that his group is trying to harm Egyptian security, or is planning attacks on Egyptian targets, saying such claims, "are meant to sully the image of Hezbollah among the Egyptian people."
Nasrallah portrayed Hezbollah's actions as meant solely to aid the Palestinian people, saying; "if helping our occupied, battered, and hungry Palestinian brothers is a crime, than I confess to this crime." During the last Hamas-Israel war Nasrallah had called publicly on the Egyptian armed forces and on the Egyptian people to topple the regime.
Since its formation in 1982, Hezbollah has carried several deadly attacks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian West Bank, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Turkey, Argentina, and South America. The bloodiest attacks against the USA and French troops were executed in Beirut by Hezbollah in 1982.
One wonders why it took Egypt, whose intelligence services are so efficient, so long to uncover Hezbollah's cell? Definitely, no one will believe the Egyptian authorities' claim that they did not learn for years that all Iranian weapons smuggled to the Gaza strip (to Hamas) are funneled through the underground secretive tunnels digged by the Gaza Palestinians on the Egyptian-Gaza joined borders.
There is also no slightest doubt that Egypt knew for years that Hezbollah men have been in charge of the Iranian smuggling of weapons to Gaza, via Sudan-Egypt, in cooperation with the Sinai Bedouin smugglers and drug traffickers, and at times through the Egyptian sea territorial waters.
The basic and actual problem for the increase of terrorism and terrorists in the Middle East lies in the "Ostrich" policy that the Arabic regimes have been adopting since the early fifties. The rulers of these regimes have been practically burying their heads in the sand and keeping a blind eye on the terrorists' activities as long as they did not target directly their countries.
Sadly, even the U.S. and Europe followed the same "Ostrich" policy, and watched from far away terrorism influence grow and spread in many countries, especially in Lebanon. The USA and many European countries even traded with Syria and Iran intelligence information and expertise, in spite of the fact that these two oppressive regimes sponsor, finance, harbor, train and use most of the terrorist organizations among which are, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fateh Al Eslam, Jond Al Eslam, Al Qaeda, and many other Palestinian and Muslim extremists and fanatics.
The USA took terrorism threats seriously only after Al Qaeda's September 11/01 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks), devastating attacks. Meanwhile Europe is still indecisive, and mostly cajoling and appeasing the terrorists. In the Middle East, the majority of the Arab countries still do not only have an actual anti-terrorism policies, but finance, glorify, harbor and support the most lethal terrorism groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.
It is worth reminding the Arabs and the Western countries with the wise warning that was uttered in the late fifties by Lebanon's famous politician, thinker and philosopher, Charles Malek ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Malik), at a time when Lebanon was being devoured by terrorists and extremists, while the whole world stood idly watching.
Malek cautioned the western world saying: "Help Lebanon defeat the terrorists, extremists and fanatics while you can, because if you don't now, they will soon attack Europe and after that target the USA it self."
Hezbollah would not have dared to send his terrorist cell to Egypt or to threaten another Arab country if the Arab regimes did not help to keep Lebanon a battle field and an arena for their own wars, or if the Arab countries had helped in the liberation of Lebanon and not sided with its occupier, the Syrian Baathist regime for 28 years, or if the Arabs had not cowardly cajoled and appeased Hezbollah and glorified its big fabricated delusion and lie of liberating south Lebanon in year 2000, or if the Arabs had stood openly against Hezbollah in year 2006 after instigated a devastating war with Israel, and if the Arabs had seriously pressured Syria not to supply Hezbollah with 50 thousand missiles and had stopped the smuggling of men and weaponry through its boarders to Lebanon, and if the Arabs had faced steadfastly the Iranian expansionism schemes with unity and decisiveness.
The time has come for the Arab countries to stand firmly against terrorism and to eradicate its Iranian-Syrian tools, Hezbollah and Hamas, once and forever. To effectively do so they should first stop appeasing, protecting and financing Syria.
At the same time they should unite together to fight and abort the Iranian expansionism's vicious scheme that is targeting all their countries.
The Syrian regime must be given two options, either to cut all its terrorism ties with Iran and stop harboring and exporting terrorism, or face very strict Arab economic sanctions plus complete political isolation and severing of diplomatic ties.
It is time also for the Arab countries to put Hezbollah, Hamas and all other terrorist organizations on their terrorist lists, and deal with them accordingly, like the USA, Canada, Australia and some of the European countries.
Arabic laissez-faire and avoidance-avoidance attitudes in the face of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas did not work and will never do. The Arab countries should talk with the Axis of evil countries and organizations the only language that they are able to comprehend, force and deterrence.
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
How superficial, naive, and childish are those Lebanese and Arab officials, clergymen and politicians who voiced their surprise and shock after the recent unveiling of a terrorist Hezbollah cell in Egypt. They are either deceiving themselves and their people, or are totally detached from reality, residing on Mars. and not in the Middle East in general, and in Lebanon in particular.
For heaven's sake, whom are these officials, clergymen and politicians fooling? Is there no concerned individual in the whole Middle East, and in the free world countries who is not yet aware of the fact that Hezbollah is merely an Iranian militant brigade connected directly, and on level to the Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)
Who in Lebanon and in its neighboring countries does not know that Syria during its occupation era of Lebanon (1976-2005), had forced the armed Hezbollah organization on both the Shiite community, and the Lebanese people under the false disguise of resistance against Israel? Syria and Iran jointly orchestrated, by brutal and criminal means, the erection of a mini Hezbollah state in the Shiite suburbs of Beirut, South and Bekaa, and accordingly exempted it from being disarmed in 1990, after all other Christian, Druze and Sunni Lebanese militias were disarmed in accordance with the "Taef Accord," that put an end to the civil war in Lebanon.
Hezbollah from day one of its formation by the Iranian Mullah's in 1982 was, and is still being used by its two masters, Syria and Iran, to destabilize peace, democracy and freedoms in Lebanon, to carry against the Lebanese and the Arab countries all Iran's and Syria's dirty jobs of assassinations, kidnapping, smuggling, intimidation, drug trafficking and havoc.
Hezbollah, is not a Lebanese party by any means, but a mere Iranian armed proxy occupying by force and against the will of the Lebanese people, a big portion of Lebanon, and at the same time crippling its central government and destroying all its institutions, on all levels and in all domains.
Hezbollah's terrorism is now targeting the biggest and mightiest Arab country, Egypt. According to the Egyptian judiciary, government, security authorities, and media, a Hezbollah cell was uncovered. It was planning to execute very serious sabotage attacks in both Egypt and Israel. Egyptian official reports stated that Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Sheik Naiem Qssiem were personally directing, monitoring and supervising the cell's activities that included also extensive campaigns to convert Sunni Egyptians to Shiite denomination, and smuggling of weapons, money and men to the Palestinian Gaza Strip in a bid to support their ally, Hamas.
According to Egyptian police, the Hezbollah cell is headed by Sami Shihab, a prominent Hezbollah militant. and a Lebanese Shiite national. Egypt has been detaining Shihab for the last six months, and recently arrested 49 nationals of various Arab countries on suspicion of being members of a terrorist network on behalf of Hezbollah. The accused have allegedly planned to carry out attacks inside Egypt, including tourist sites frequented by Israelis.
Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah admitted publicly that Sami Shihab is a member in his organization, and that he was assigned by its leadership, "to help the resistance of Palestine," and, "to move military equipment and members to help the resistance" in Gaza.
During his live television address, two days after the cell was uncovered, Nasrallah denied accusations that his group is trying to harm Egyptian security, or is planning attacks on Egyptian targets, saying such claims, "are meant to sully the image of Hezbollah among the Egyptian people."
Nasrallah portrayed Hezbollah's actions as meant solely to aid the Palestinian people, saying; "if helping our occupied, battered, and hungry Palestinian brothers is a crime, than I confess to this crime." During the last Hamas-Israel war Nasrallah had called publicly on the Egyptian armed forces and on the Egyptian people to topple the regime.
Since its formation in 1982, Hezbollah has carried several deadly attacks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian West Bank, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Turkey, Argentina, and South America. The bloodiest attacks against the USA and French troops were executed in Beirut by Hezbollah in 1982.
One wonders why it took Egypt, whose intelligence services are so efficient, so long to uncover Hezbollah's cell? Definitely, no one will believe the Egyptian authorities' claim that they did not learn for years that all Iranian weapons smuggled to the Gaza strip (to Hamas) are funneled through the underground secretive tunnels digged by the Gaza Palestinians on the Egyptian-Gaza joined borders.
There is also no slightest doubt that Egypt knew for years that Hezbollah men have been in charge of the Iranian smuggling of weapons to Gaza, via Sudan-Egypt, in cooperation with the Sinai Bedouin smugglers and drug traffickers, and at times through the Egyptian sea territorial waters.
The basic and actual problem for the increase of terrorism and terrorists in the Middle East lies in the "Ostrich" policy that the Arabic regimes have been adopting since the early fifties. The rulers of these regimes have been practically burying their heads in the sand and keeping a blind eye on the terrorists' activities as long as they did not target directly their countries.
Sadly, even the U.S. and Europe followed the same "Ostrich" policy, and watched from far away terrorism influence grow and spread in many countries, especially in Lebanon. The USA and many European countries even traded with Syria and Iran intelligence information and expertise, in spite of the fact that these two oppressive regimes sponsor, finance, harbor, train and use most of the terrorist organizations among which are, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fateh Al Eslam, Jond Al Eslam, Al Qaeda, and many other Palestinian and Muslim extremists and fanatics.
The USA took terrorism threats seriously only after Al Qaeda's September 11/01 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks), devastating attacks. Meanwhile Europe is still indecisive, and mostly cajoling and appeasing the terrorists. In the Middle East, the majority of the Arab countries still do not only have an actual anti-terrorism policies, but finance, glorify, harbor and support the most lethal terrorism groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.
It is worth reminding the Arabs and the Western countries with the wise warning that was uttered in the late fifties by Lebanon's famous politician, thinker and philosopher, Charles Malek ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Malik), at a time when Lebanon was being devoured by terrorists and extremists, while the whole world stood idly watching.
Malek cautioned the western world saying: "Help Lebanon defeat the terrorists, extremists and fanatics while you can, because if you don't now, they will soon attack Europe and after that target the USA it self."
Hezbollah would not have dared to send his terrorist cell to Egypt or to threaten another Arab country if the Arab regimes did not help to keep Lebanon a battle field and an arena for their own wars, or if the Arab countries had helped in the liberation of Lebanon and not sided with its occupier, the Syrian Baathist regime for 28 years, or if the Arabs had not cowardly cajoled and appeased Hezbollah and glorified its big fabricated delusion and lie of liberating south Lebanon in year 2000, or if the Arabs had stood openly against Hezbollah in year 2006 after instigated a devastating war with Israel, and if the Arabs had seriously pressured Syria not to supply Hezbollah with 50 thousand missiles and had stopped the smuggling of men and weaponry through its boarders to Lebanon, and if the Arabs had faced steadfastly the Iranian expansionism schemes with unity and decisiveness.
The time has come for the Arab countries to stand firmly against terrorism and to eradicate its Iranian-Syrian tools, Hezbollah and Hamas, once and forever. To effectively do so they should first stop appeasing, protecting and financing Syria.
At the same time they should unite together to fight and abort the Iranian expansionism's vicious scheme that is targeting all their countries.
The Syrian regime must be given two options, either to cut all its terrorism ties with Iran and stop harboring and exporting terrorism, or face very strict Arab economic sanctions plus complete political isolation and severing of diplomatic ties.
It is time also for the Arab countries to put Hezbollah, Hamas and all other terrorist organizations on their terrorist lists, and deal with them accordingly, like the USA, Canada, Australia and some of the European countries.
Arabic laissez-faire and avoidance-avoidance attitudes in the face of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas did not work and will never do. The Arab countries should talk with the Axis of evil countries and organizations the only language that they are able to comprehend, force and deterrence.
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Death: What Lessons Does it Teach Us?
By: Elias Bejjani*
Far from politics, terrorism, the mid-east crisis, and the current world financial difficulties, I have decided that my Easter editorial, this year, be a thorough and deep personal contemplation on death; this mystery that has puzzled and pre-occupied man since God created him with Eve.
How much of an awakening and spiritual realization would it be if each and every one of us attended a funeral at least once every year, and fully utilized this short yet precious and odd period of time to deeply meditate and contemplate the very human reality of this inevitable and irreversible journey?
During this short, internal procession of great solemnity and silence, from the funeral home to the church, and then to the cemetery, one should mentally and physically relax and release his self, putting aside all of his every day life burdens.
To truly learn and benefit from this spiritual experience, one must temporarily forget who he is, his fortunes, his poverty, all problems that he is encountering, his enemies and friends, physical ailments they he may be suffering from, and marital, or family difficulties he may be going through.
One needs to imagine that his body is so light, so clean, and innocent, and their mind and soul so pure, free of sin with no conflict of any kind or magnitude.
One needs to reminisce and go back in time to the period when he was an innocent child, not yet polluted with human evil deeds and thoughts, hatred, grudges, greed, selfishness and fear.
When one feels that every kind of evil feeling and venomous instinct inside him is numb, he needs to ask himself sincerely and honestly, what this dead person who is now just a cold corpse resting motionless and breathless in the coffin, is going to take with him from this mortal world to whichever world the dead go to?
No matter how rich, powerful, fearless, intelligent, famous, or mighty this dead person was while alive, would he now be able to carry with him any of his riches, or ask any of his beloved to join him in death, and be buried with him in the cemetery?
At this scary, terrifying, contemplative and somber moment, the individual needs to relate with the dead person and accept death, imagining himself actually lying in the casket!
By the end of the funeral procession, and after the coffin has been buried, the dead person who could not take anything with him, becomes just a memory and his body returns back to dust. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" Genesis 3:19 19
To be the actual creatures that the almighty God has created in His own image, and to be wise, humble and forgiving, we need to occasionally ask ourselves these simple questions:
Can we not die?
Can we not escape death's inevitable journey?
What can we take with us when leaving this mortal life?
These questions should be asked whenever we are engaged in bloody competitions, conflicts, disputes, grudges, hatred and struggle for power and money.
The one and only answer to all these questions is a definite, NO!
Attending funerals at least twice a year helps us to get back in touch with reality; to know who we are, and where we are going; to wake up and to always remember that God, on judgment day, will judge our deeds, and not the magnitude of our earthly riches, nor our earthly power.
Does any one of us, rich or poor, weak or powerful, sick or healthy, know when the almighty God will reclaim his soul? Definitely not! So let us live each day of our lives as if it were our last. Let us always be ready to face our Creator on the day of judgment with a set of righteous deeds.
While we are celebrating the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus, let us solidify our trust and faith in almighty God, and ask Him to lead our lives and grant us the graces of patience, humbleness, hope, love and forgiveness, so that we can carry with courage our life burdens.
Let us remember in the face of every difficulty and crisis what the Holy Bible teaches us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Matthew 11, 28-30).
Death, this mystery that has worried, perplexed and confused man since his first day on earth, has been defeated by Jesus' resurrection and made conceivable by man's mind. We do not die, but sleep on the hope of resurrection!"
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed", (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15 / 51-52).
Happy Easter
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Far from politics, terrorism, the mid-east crisis, and the current world financial difficulties, I have decided that my Easter editorial, this year, be a thorough and deep personal contemplation on death; this mystery that has puzzled and pre-occupied man since God created him with Eve.
How much of an awakening and spiritual realization would it be if each and every one of us attended a funeral at least once every year, and fully utilized this short yet precious and odd period of time to deeply meditate and contemplate the very human reality of this inevitable and irreversible journey?
During this short, internal procession of great solemnity and silence, from the funeral home to the church, and then to the cemetery, one should mentally and physically relax and release his self, putting aside all of his every day life burdens.
To truly learn and benefit from this spiritual experience, one must temporarily forget who he is, his fortunes, his poverty, all problems that he is encountering, his enemies and friends, physical ailments they he may be suffering from, and marital, or family difficulties he may be going through.
One needs to imagine that his body is so light, so clean, and innocent, and their mind and soul so pure, free of sin with no conflict of any kind or magnitude.
One needs to reminisce and go back in time to the period when he was an innocent child, not yet polluted with human evil deeds and thoughts, hatred, grudges, greed, selfishness and fear.
When one feels that every kind of evil feeling and venomous instinct inside him is numb, he needs to ask himself sincerely and honestly, what this dead person who is now just a cold corpse resting motionless and breathless in the coffin, is going to take with him from this mortal world to whichever world the dead go to?
No matter how rich, powerful, fearless, intelligent, famous, or mighty this dead person was while alive, would he now be able to carry with him any of his riches, or ask any of his beloved to join him in death, and be buried with him in the cemetery?
At this scary, terrifying, contemplative and somber moment, the individual needs to relate with the dead person and accept death, imagining himself actually lying in the casket!
By the end of the funeral procession, and after the coffin has been buried, the dead person who could not take anything with him, becomes just a memory and his body returns back to dust. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" Genesis 3:19 19
To be the actual creatures that the almighty God has created in His own image, and to be wise, humble and forgiving, we need to occasionally ask ourselves these simple questions:
Can we not die?
Can we not escape death's inevitable journey?
What can we take with us when leaving this mortal life?
These questions should be asked whenever we are engaged in bloody competitions, conflicts, disputes, grudges, hatred and struggle for power and money.
The one and only answer to all these questions is a definite, NO!
Attending funerals at least twice a year helps us to get back in touch with reality; to know who we are, and where we are going; to wake up and to always remember that God, on judgment day, will judge our deeds, and not the magnitude of our earthly riches, nor our earthly power.
Does any one of us, rich or poor, weak or powerful, sick or healthy, know when the almighty God will reclaim his soul? Definitely not! So let us live each day of our lives as if it were our last. Let us always be ready to face our Creator on the day of judgment with a set of righteous deeds.
While we are celebrating the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus, let us solidify our trust and faith in almighty God, and ask Him to lead our lives and grant us the graces of patience, humbleness, hope, love and forgiveness, so that we can carry with courage our life burdens.
Let us remember in the face of every difficulty and crisis what the Holy Bible teaches us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Matthew 11, 28-30).
Death, this mystery that has worried, perplexed and confused man since his first day on earth, has been defeated by Jesus' resurrection and made conceivable by man's mind. We do not die, but sleep on the hope of resurrection!"
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed", (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15 / 51-52).
Happy Easter
*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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
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