By Elias Bejjani*
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday 24/11/09 warned that Lebanon , not Hezbollah, would be the target of retaliatory attacks should the militant group escalate tension along Israel's northern border. "Lebanon grants Hezbollah permission to operate on its soil," said Barak. "We must clarify for the international community that we do not accept that a militia like Hezbollah exists in Lebanon, a sovereign country, and even sits in its parliament." Barak added that it holds Lebanon responsible for any conflict with Hezbollah. "Hezbollah is not our target," in such a case, said Barak. "Our target will be the state of Lebanon."
Mr. Barak made his comments at a meeting with regional leaders in the north, where he stressed that he holds the Lebanese government responsible for any conflict along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli defense minister added that Israel's deterrence power will last for some time. Earlier this month, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said that Hezbollah guerrillas now possess tens of thousands of rockets, some capable of reaching up to 300 kilometers within Israel. These capabilities would put Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well cities much further south, into rocket range. "There is a war in the Middle East between two camps, the extremists and the moderates, which is pushing Iran to take radical steps. Without Iran's support to finance weapons and terrorist groups they would be lacking the means available to them today," said Ashkenazi. Israel, the United Nations and Hezbollah itself have all said that the militia is stronger today than it was during the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It is so sad and extremely disappointing that the Israeli government, the moderate Arab countries as well all the Western free world, including the USA and France are ignoring the essence and the core of the actual Lebanese peoples' ongoing agony and dilemma with Hezbollah.
All these countries are well informed that Hezbollah, the Iranian militant terrorist organization, has erected its powerful mini Iranian state inside Lebanon during the Syrian occupation era of the country that lasted from 1976 until 2005.
This mini state with its scattered cantons all over Lebanon is much stronger in all domains than the Lebanese central government. The Lebanese people in general and the Lebanese Shiite community in particular had no saying in this matter. The mini state was imposed on all of them by Syria and Iran.
All the free world countries, Arab states, and especially Israel are, with no shed of doubt, fully aware that Hezbollah's mini state controls and dominates directly and through proxies all the affairs of the Lebanese central government via cancerous infiltration, intimidation, oppression, corruption, drug trafficking, religious decrees (fatwas), murder, crime, bribing and multifold tactics of terrorism. Not even one decision could be made by the Lebanese government or any of its institutions without Hezbollah's approval.
It has become clear even to the blind that the Lebanese state is massively dominated by the Hezbollah mullah's leadership. This terrorist militant organization boldly dictates its Iranian decrees on all the Lebanese officials and institutions, manipulates their activities and greatly influences the whole country's decision making process in all fields and on all levels.
The Israeli and the western satellites that carry out round-the-clock very close surveillance over Lebanon, Syria and other Middle East countries have their own solid data that shows the ABC's of how Hezbollah receives its weapon openly from Iran through Syria under the eyes of the Lebanese army and with its blessings.
Hezbollah does not smuggle its weapons to Lebanon from Syria through the joint borders as the UN and many countries keep on parroting in their official statements and reports. All of them know for a fact that Hezbollah has its own free military routes via the Syrian-Lebanese border through which hundreds of its arms-loaded trucks travel on a regular basis from Syria to Lebanon.
The question is why when all these plain facts are cut and clear to these countries and especially to Israel that they still act as if there is actually an independent Lebanese government that controls the country's decision making process?
One wonders, when Iran and Syria have erected the Hezbollah mini state against the will of the Lebanese people, and when these two axis of evil countries keep on arming, financing, harboring, training and fully control Hezbollah's militia, why Mr. Barak is threatening Lebanon and not Syria, Iran and Hezbollah?
Mr. Barak as well as the whole world knows that the Lebanese people earlier this year and against all the odds did not give Hezbollah and its allies a majority in the parliamentary elections. They voted courageously against Hezbollah's mini state and its weapons.
BUT, unfortunately the elected majority up until this day is unable to effectively face Hezbollah and stop its gradual devouring of the state's authority, and as we all know, Syria and Saudi Arabia have recently cut a deal to give Hezbollah a right to veto in the new Lebanese government, and to keep in its ministerial statement with the same clause that the previous " Saniora" government used to legitimize Hezbollah's weapons and to give this organization control over the country's war-peace decision making.
Israel and all other countries are loudly and strongly addressing only the symptoms of Hezbollah’s hegemony over the whole of Lebanon, while deliberately overlooking the main disease that Iran and Syria have inflicted on the Lebanese people and on all the country's institutions.
In summary, Lebanon is still an occupied country and the occupier is Hezbollah. Mr. Barak should not threaten to punish the Lebanese people who in the majority are against Hezbollah, having bravely proved this stance in the last parliamentary elections.
The Lebanese people and their country must not be dealt with as scapegoats. The disease is Syria and Iran and their proxy, Hezbollah. If Israel really wants to deal with the problem that threatens its security and existence, the actual and long lasting solution is not by inflicting devastation on the Lebanese people and their country as was the situation during the 2006 war, but through addressing its serious problem directly with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
President Suleiman's Oath & Our People In Israel
By: Elias Bejjani*
In his inaugural speech that was delivered in the Parliament after his election as President for the Republic of Lebanon on 25 May, 2009, General Michele Suleiman promised to bring back our people from Israel who took refuge there in the aftermath of the Israeli army’s unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000. He said: "This day coincides with the anniversary of the national liberation and victory day, let us make it a motive for greater awareness for what awaits us, and to renew our commitment for freedom and democracy, which we offered sacrifices for them in a bid to safeguard the country. In this context, comes the hard work to release prisoners and detainees, disclose the fate of the missing, and to bring back our sons who fled to Israel; our country's lap has room for all of its citizens."
Almost two years have passed since President Suleiman's election, while his promise to bring back our people from Israel has not yet been fulfilled. It is an ethical obligation and a national legitimate right to ask what is hindering the president from taking the needed actions to put an end to this ongoing dilemma?
We wonder if Lebanon and its official decision making process that Hezbollah currently controls by force and terrorism is in fact able and willing to embrace all its citizens including those who are in Israel since May, 2000?
The wicked Lebanese politicians, clergy, officials and leaders who venomously hide behind fake and camouflaged lies of resistance and liberation, and whose conscience is dead, memories rotten and selective, especially the terrorist group, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian mercenary thugs and militias, MP General Michele Aoun who changed his skin to join the axis of Evil and many others all must be reminded that our people who fled to Israel are from the mosaic of all the Lebanese religious denominations, and that they were forced to do so following the notorious deal that was brokered between the Israeli government at that time, with the regional agreement of Hezbollah's masters in Iran and Syria and with international blessings.
The deal sacrificed our southern people, led to a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, gave Hezbollah full control over the South, including the joint border of Lebanon and Israel, and kept the Lebanese army and institutions out of the whole region.
In fact, Hezbollah did not liberate the South and according to MP General Michele Aoun (before he became Hezbollah's ally), who stated: "The Shebaa Farms is a big lie and not Lebanese. Hezbollah did not liberate the South, but on the contrary, it hindered its liberation for 14 years and forced its own residents to leave". Aoun labeled Hezbollah's joy of liberation in the year 2000 as a "drug addicts' ecstasy".
Based on facts, unveiled lies and fabrications, the mercenaries who unjustly accuse our people in Israel with treason, collaboration and betrayal should fear God's wrath and revenge. They need to witness the truth and repent. Our people in Israel were, are, and shall remain patriotic par excellence and totally loyal to their country and land.
We, wonder what is the actual agenda for the sudden re-opening of General Antoine Lahed's judicial (leader of the now defunct South Lebanese Army) case on 28 October 2009 and the issuance of a 15-year hard labor imprisonment verdict against him in absentia on charges of acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaborating with Israel, although General Lahed was sentenced in 2000 with a death penalty and also in absentia.
Apparently this new verdict has no judicial value at all because Lahed who now lives in Israel, has already has been haphazardly and unjustly sentenced in his absence with a death penalty. So what is the reason now for this questionable judicial reawakening?
The logic of this bizarre maneuver shows clearly that the verdict targets President Suleiman's inaugural speech, and in particular the section in which he promised to bring back our people from Israel. The Hezbollah-tailored verdict is in reality not against General Lahed, but against President Suleiman personally. It puts him on notice that the file of our people in Israel is closed and will remain so as long as he is in office. The two charges that were used in the new sentence against Lahed actually apply to almost all our people in Israel, i.e. acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaboration with Israel.
We genuinely hope to be wrong in our very serious fears and dire concerns. But the extensive cumulated traumatic knowledge of the mentality and the patterns of Hezbollah and its Syrian-Iranian masters in dealing with all matters since1982 to date allows us to maintain our analysis. All evidence based on past experience with Hezbollah and its two masters is too abundant and all of it consists of tragedies and calamities.
We call on President Michel Suleiman to fulfill his promise and work hard with courage and honesty to bring back our people from Israel with all due respect to their dignity, patriotism, sacrifices and loyalty to Lebanon, the homeland that they will never under any circumstances substitute with any other country.
President Suleiman, who was Lebanon's Army Chief Commander in the year 2000 when our people were forced into exile, is well aware of all the hidden secrets of that era. He knows too that these heroic citizens are more patriotic and more Lebanese in every aspect than those who are accusing them with treason and betrayal. Our people refused to abandon their land and courageously defended their towns and villages against all thugs of terrorism and fanaticism for 25 years while all the successive Lebanese central governments have merely abandoned them.
When the Israeli army unilaterally withdrew from the South in May 2000, our people declined from continuing the fight and chose to leave, not because of fear of combat or death, but to avoid more Lebanese bloodshed, while the central government did not dare to assume its national responsibilities and obligations.
President Suleiman knows more than anyone else in Lebanon that the Hezbollah mercenaries and the so-called resistance are hindering the dignified return of our people from Israel and falsely accusing them of treason and collaboration. It is the Hezbollah who are actually guilty of these charges and not our heroic Lebanese people.
Mr. President, please do not allow those who were behind this bizarre new sentence against General Lahed, and which in fact was a condemnation of your inauguration speech to achieve their schemes and fulfill their evil objectives. You are the guardian and the protector of the country's constitution. Do not back down or retreat from your promises, and do not abandon our people any longer in Israel . Above all, do not let the Israeli government be more concerned and caring for our people than you and the Lebanese authorities.
Mr. President, protect and safeguard the rights of our people in Israel and bring them back to their beloved Lebanon as soon as possible.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
In his inaugural speech that was delivered in the Parliament after his election as President for the Republic of Lebanon on 25 May, 2009, General Michele Suleiman promised to bring back our people from Israel who took refuge there in the aftermath of the Israeli army’s unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000. He said: "This day coincides with the anniversary of the national liberation and victory day, let us make it a motive for greater awareness for what awaits us, and to renew our commitment for freedom and democracy, which we offered sacrifices for them in a bid to safeguard the country. In this context, comes the hard work to release prisoners and detainees, disclose the fate of the missing, and to bring back our sons who fled to Israel; our country's lap has room for all of its citizens."
Almost two years have passed since President Suleiman's election, while his promise to bring back our people from Israel has not yet been fulfilled. It is an ethical obligation and a national legitimate right to ask what is hindering the president from taking the needed actions to put an end to this ongoing dilemma?
We wonder if Lebanon and its official decision making process that Hezbollah currently controls by force and terrorism is in fact able and willing to embrace all its citizens including those who are in Israel since May, 2000?
The wicked Lebanese politicians, clergy, officials and leaders who venomously hide behind fake and camouflaged lies of resistance and liberation, and whose conscience is dead, memories rotten and selective, especially the terrorist group, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian mercenary thugs and militias, MP General Michele Aoun who changed his skin to join the axis of Evil and many others all must be reminded that our people who fled to Israel are from the mosaic of all the Lebanese religious denominations, and that they were forced to do so following the notorious deal that was brokered between the Israeli government at that time, with the regional agreement of Hezbollah's masters in Iran and Syria and with international blessings.
The deal sacrificed our southern people, led to a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, gave Hezbollah full control over the South, including the joint border of Lebanon and Israel, and kept the Lebanese army and institutions out of the whole region.
In fact, Hezbollah did not liberate the South and according to MP General Michele Aoun (before he became Hezbollah's ally), who stated: "The Shebaa Farms is a big lie and not Lebanese. Hezbollah did not liberate the South, but on the contrary, it hindered its liberation for 14 years and forced its own residents to leave". Aoun labeled Hezbollah's joy of liberation in the year 2000 as a "drug addicts' ecstasy".
Based on facts, unveiled lies and fabrications, the mercenaries who unjustly accuse our people in Israel with treason, collaboration and betrayal should fear God's wrath and revenge. They need to witness the truth and repent. Our people in Israel were, are, and shall remain patriotic par excellence and totally loyal to their country and land.
We, wonder what is the actual agenda for the sudden re-opening of General Antoine Lahed's judicial (leader of the now defunct South Lebanese Army) case on 28 October 2009 and the issuance of a 15-year hard labor imprisonment verdict against him in absentia on charges of acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaborating with Israel, although General Lahed was sentenced in 2000 with a death penalty and also in absentia.
Apparently this new verdict has no judicial value at all because Lahed who now lives in Israel, has already has been haphazardly and unjustly sentenced in his absence with a death penalty. So what is the reason now for this questionable judicial reawakening?
The logic of this bizarre maneuver shows clearly that the verdict targets President Suleiman's inaugural speech, and in particular the section in which he promised to bring back our people from Israel. The Hezbollah-tailored verdict is in reality not against General Lahed, but against President Suleiman personally. It puts him on notice that the file of our people in Israel is closed and will remain so as long as he is in office. The two charges that were used in the new sentence against Lahed actually apply to almost all our people in Israel, i.e. acquisition of Israeli citizenship and collaboration with Israel.
We genuinely hope to be wrong in our very serious fears and dire concerns. But the extensive cumulated traumatic knowledge of the mentality and the patterns of Hezbollah and its Syrian-Iranian masters in dealing with all matters since1982 to date allows us to maintain our analysis. All evidence based on past experience with Hezbollah and its two masters is too abundant and all of it consists of tragedies and calamities.
We call on President Michel Suleiman to fulfill his promise and work hard with courage and honesty to bring back our people from Israel with all due respect to their dignity, patriotism, sacrifices and loyalty to Lebanon, the homeland that they will never under any circumstances substitute with any other country.
President Suleiman, who was Lebanon's Army Chief Commander in the year 2000 when our people were forced into exile, is well aware of all the hidden secrets of that era. He knows too that these heroic citizens are more patriotic and more Lebanese in every aspect than those who are accusing them with treason and betrayal. Our people refused to abandon their land and courageously defended their towns and villages against all thugs of terrorism and fanaticism for 25 years while all the successive Lebanese central governments have merely abandoned them.
When the Israeli army unilaterally withdrew from the South in May 2000, our people declined from continuing the fight and chose to leave, not because of fear of combat or death, but to avoid more Lebanese bloodshed, while the central government did not dare to assume its national responsibilities and obligations.
President Suleiman knows more than anyone else in Lebanon that the Hezbollah mercenaries and the so-called resistance are hindering the dignified return of our people from Israel and falsely accusing them of treason and collaboration. It is the Hezbollah who are actually guilty of these charges and not our heroic Lebanese people.
Mr. President, please do not allow those who were behind this bizarre new sentence against General Lahed, and which in fact was a condemnation of your inauguration speech to achieve their schemes and fulfill their evil objectives. You are the guardian and the protector of the country's constitution. Do not back down or retreat from your promises, and do not abandon our people any longer in Israel . Above all, do not let the Israeli government be more concerned and caring for our people than you and the Lebanese authorities.
Mr. President, protect and safeguard the rights of our people in Israel and bring them back to their beloved Lebanon as soon as possible.
*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934
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