Has Hezbollah turned Lebanon into a Jihadist State?

By Elias Bejjani *
September 5/09All the unfolding destructive, shameful, terrorist and corrupting events that are currently hitting Lebanon and its peace-loving people illustrate with no shred of a doubt that the terrorist organization, Hezbollah, is merely grabbing hold of the Lebanese state and its institutions as hostages.

In reality, Hezbollah has completely assumed Syria’s notorious oppressive and murderous occupational role in the aftermath of the Syrian army’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005. This armed Iranian fundamentalist organization is currently the actual and primary obstacle to the country's cabinet formation, either through its huge arsenal and its powerful mini state, or through its threats to replicate its barbaric 7th of May 2008 invasion of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The following three recent documented reports clearly delineate and portray the extent of Hezbollah's deadly and cancerous influence not only on the state's decision-making process, but also on the social norms and fabrics that have been imposed on the Lebanese people in each and every aspect and issue of daily life.

Assafir Lebanese Daily published on 21/08/09 the report below under the title:" The Red Cross receives the body of a Lebanese from the occupied Palestine (Israel)": "The International Committee of the Red Cross received today from the Israeli occupational authorities at the gate of Naqoura the body of the Lebanese Nabil Hanna Asmar (45 years), who died in hospital in the occupied Palestinian territories (Israel) due to an incurable disease. The body was handed over to Asmar's family in the southern city of Jazine. Asmar had fled from the south to the Palestinian territories during the Israeli withdrawal (from South Lebanon) in 2000.

Al Mustaqbal Lebanese Daily, published this report on Friday, 28 August 2009, under the title: "Hezbollah buries a martyr in the Town of Yohmour-Ckeaf’: "The Islamic Resistance, Hezbollah and the Town of Yohmour-Ckeaf" residents laid to rest today Martyr Ali Hussein Aliek (28 years) who died while performing his duties. In the procession front line was Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, Hezbollah's in-charge-for-central social-activities and a military delegation from the leadership of the Third Brigade of the Lebanese army. The body was buried in the town's cemetery after prayers that were headed by Sheikh Obeid. Wreaths from the Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leadership of the Islamic Resistance, the Lebanese army, and Yohmour town were placed on the tomb.

The March 14 website had this story on August 29, 2009: In an interview that the site conducted with Mrs.Yvette Hanna, on the first anniversary of the assassination of her son, the Lebanese Army officer pilot, Samer Hanna, in the hands of the Hezbollah militia while on board a military helicopter in south Lebanon, she stated: "The blood of all the martyrs of Lebanon have gone in vain, all of Lebanon is wasted in vain, toHell with the country, its politician, its policy and everything that is in it. We are in a country that is going with the wind. Nothing more could be said because I am upset from all that is happening"

What a tragic paradox of malice, deceit, licentiousness and cowardice. Nabil Hanna Asmar, a patriotic Lebanese citizen, and a real nationalist who fought for years defending his southern Jazine city returned back from Israel to his beloved homeland as a corpse and in a coffin. The Lebanese state was completely absent during the funeral and not even one official sent a wreath of flowers. Why? Because Hezbollah with its evil and cancerous influence and power has been manipulating the Lebanese state's decision making process and obstructing the honorable return of our Southern Lebanese people who were forced to take refuge in neighboring Israel in 2005, in the aftermath of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from South Lebanon.

Thousands of southern citizens who fled to Israel at that time are all tagged as collaborators, agents and traitors due to the fact that they did not want to fight their own citizens and because of the serious and actual threats to butcher them that Hezbollah's leaders voiced publicly.

Meanwhile, another Lebanese citizen, Ali Hussein Aliek (28 years), that Hezbollah recruited, like many of the other tens of thousands of Shiite Lebanese, trained, armed and was dispatched to fight in one of its jihadist battles. The Lebanese state which did not have any role in this whole process, did not know where this jihadist was killed, by whom and on which frontier he was fighting, bowing to Hezbollah's terrorism and abiding by its criteria of treason, patriotism, nationalism and martyrdom. A delegation from the Lebanese Army participated in this jihadist’s funeral and decorated him jointly with Hezbollah with the title of a martyr.

Hezbollah is not only taking the Lebanese state a hostage and dictating its Iranian denominational religious jihadist doctrines on the Lebanese people, but it is also is murdering with cold blood the country's army officers and soldiers. In this context its jihadist fighters downed on 28/08/08 a Lebanese army helicopter in South Lebanon (between Sojod and Armati) and forced it to make an emergency landing. When on the ground its pilot, 1st Lt. Samer Hanna, was shot and killed, while the co-pilot officer was savagely assaulted. Hezbollah handed over to the Lebanese Military judiciary one of its gunmen alleging that he was the assailant and that the incident was a mere regrettable mistake. Surprisingly, the killer was released after only 10 months.

One wonders how the state of Lebanon could be that biased against its own citizens to the extent that it glorifies the killers and condemns their victims?

How could it abandon all its governing responsibilities, infringe on the constitution and all the country's laws, succumb to Hezbollah's terrorism and officially decorate a Hezbollah gunmen with the title of martyr while keeping a blind eye on the horrible atrocities it inflicts on our own people in Israel legally, ethically and morally? Has Lebanon become a jihadist state run and controlled by Hezbollah, and abiding by its Iranian religious jihadist war doctrines?

Aren't the Lebanese people entitled to know on which Arabic, regional or international frontiers Hezbollah is fighting? Aren't the Lebanese people entitled to know where Ali Hassan Aliek was killed and according to which criteria or law he was decorated as a martyr?

On the other hand, because of Hezbollah's dictates this same state has been constantly obstructing the honorable return of its own people from Israel, although every patriot and conscientious Lebanese knows very well that these abandoned citizens are the real and actual heroes.

There will definitely be no credibility or any kind of respect for all those Lebanese officials, politicians and clergy who obstruct the return of our refugees from Israel either because of hatred and revenge complexes, or because of cowardice and dhimmitude. All are committing a crime against their own people.

It is time for Lebanon to open wide its doors and welcome back with dignity, gratitude and apologies our people who have been living as refugees in Israel since May 2005.

I conclude with what Prophet Isaiah said about such evil people: " Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed" (Isaiah 33/1)

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
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