By: Elias Bejjani*
"You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared whose will they be?" - Luke12:20
There are very few people who did not experience at a certain point of their life a traumatic and disappointing encounter with a family member, a beloved person, a friend, or an acquaintance who loved money too much. Worship of money, better known biblically as Mammon, changes the thinking, emotions, conduct, relationships, and priorities of people.
These bitter changes are for the worse. They strip those who worship money of their humanity, numbing their consciences, and turn them into wild beasts. "But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows". -1 Timothy 6:9-10
Since his first ancestors Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise and sent to live on earth, man has been fooling himself. Suffering a kind of elective blindness to the transient and temporary nature of life’s journey on earth, choosing to entangle himself into its trap. Although life’s unfolding events tell him loudly to wake up each day, he remains too blind to see that his life is not his own property and that He who granted his life can take it away at any time.
Every day we witness people around us get sick and find no cure for their fatal ailments. We see other suffer and die because of age, sickness, accidents and so forth, leaving this mortal world empty-handed. Ironically, we turn our heads to the other side and fool ourselves through denial, while deep inside we know that we are going to face the same fate too and die. But stupidly we choose to rebuff this reality and continue to behave as if we are immortal and shall live forever. "How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God". - Mark 10: 22 & 25.
Man's selfishness and lack of faith drags him into temptation and inflates his ego to the extent that he ignores the dire consequences of being wicked. Because of his greed for money he falls prey to evil thoughts such as theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance and folly. He gives in to temptation, worships God's earthly treasures, and defies God's teachings. He ignores the fact that God created these riches and granted them to man, and not vice versa.
Sadly, the money-worshiper becomes a mere custodian to these treasures and a slave to his evil instincts. In death he will have no choice but to leave all his earthy belongings here on earth. Meanwhile, his body will decay and return to earth as dust. God, who grants the life to the soul on earth in an earthy body will call on it whenever He chooses to.
Man is fully aware that what is on earth will remain on it. And although he knows that no creature has ever has been able to take with him any of its riches when the hour of departure ensues, he stubbornly allows covetousness to dominate his life by making earthy riches his priority. Man turns a blind eye to the fact that God created his soul, granted it the grace of life, and that this soul is just a guest in an earthly body.
You man, remember that from dust you were made and to dust you will return
What happens to the body when God calls on the soul to return to him? It becomes cold, motionless and immediately starts to disintegrate. While worms from within it go on a hasty devouring process eating its parts one after the other until ultimately the body goes back to dust. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
What does man take with him on his departure from earth? Nothing but his deeds and he will be judged on them when facing Jesus Christ on The Day of Judgment. According to these deeds he will either return to his Father’s dwelling in heaven, or be cast to Gehenna where the fire is unquenchable and the grinding of teeth is continuous.
Everything on earth will remain on it
God might take back our souls at any time while everything on earth will remain on it. "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses. - Luke 12:15-20
Our lives, the earth, and all that is on it are gifts from God. Gifts that He wants us to use in a righteous manner that satisfies Him. He has a plan for each and every one of us and for each gift that he granted us there is a purpose. We are required to be generous with these Godly gifts and make them available to others, especially those who are most in need. If we become greedy and evil, holding on to these gifts as to deprive those brothers and sisters who are in need them, God our Father punishes us in His anger at the Day of Judgment by casting us into Gehenna.
God knows how much earthy treasures are tempting and how fragile and weak is our will. He warned us of this trap: "you can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and money both." - Matthew 6:24
Evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction which lead to its downfall
By turning money and all other possessions into a curse that also hurts others, we are made evil and Mammon worshipers. By doing so and defying biblical teachings, we distance ourselves from God and move toward Gehenna as evil people. But let us remember that Evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction which lead to its downfall, even at its moments of apparent triumph.
We either make these Godly gifts a grace or a curse
In conclusion, when money is abundant in our possession, we need to be constantly aware that God gave them to us as gifts and for a plan and a purpose. He expects us to use them wisely and righteously. We either make these Godly gifts a grace or a curse, but the choice is ours. "Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." - Luke 12:33 & 34
*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/.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Lebanese Diaspora and the Hezbollahisation of Lebanon
By Elias Bejjani*
Every time two Lebanese meet in any of the Diaspora countries, one of them usually starts the conversation with the same nostalgic questions. How is the situation back home in Lebanon? Are there any positive changes there or any progress to build on? Are there any hopes for a better future or are things still chronically chaotic, unstable and bizarre?
The same routine response is echoed in reply; No our beloved and beautiful country is going down the drain and things are getting worse every day as the armed Iranian militia Hezbollah is devouring the country piece by piece, dominating more of its institutions, forcing its stone age ideology on many people through money, intimidation and murder. Meanwhile, Arab countries and the free world watch idly from a distance, not taking any serious or decisive deterrent stance to put an end for this on going Iranian expansionism plot.
It is true that God has granted Lebanon, the Holy Land of the Cedars, all that He could endow to a country including beautiful nature, an attractive climate, and many blessed riches. But Lebanon has also been cursed being a pivotal geographical door to other countries in the Middle East region, causing it instability for thousands of years and to this day.
How could the Lebanese people back home live in peace when Syria, Iran, and the axis of evil countries continuously interfere with their domestic affairs in all domains, sponsoring armed terrorist militias that hold the country hostage as a terrorist base for Islamist expansionism and evil hegemony schemes?
So why do the Lebanese people allow Iran and Syria to destabilize their country? Sadly, because the majority of the Lebanese politicians are opportunists, chameleons and Trojans. They possess no solid convictions, are constantly groveling to foreign powers, and Lebanon makes no difference to them as long as their own individual interests are secured.
Corrupt Lebanese politicians and officials are blind in heart, soul, and conscience. Regrettably, many Lebanese citizens follow these leaders blindly because of the need for protection and other basic life necessities. Even worse is the sickening weakness of the central government that is dominated by bribery and corruption on all levels. The government is unwilling and unable to protect the interests of its citizens or provide them with the required services. The end result is a well-known axiom, when the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Returning to the nostalgic question and to the response there is no doubt that the question shows genuine concern along with anxiety on one side, and despair along with pessimism on the other. While it is normal to demonstrate concern for what is going on back home and be worried about the deteriorating situation, it is not acceptable at all for any Lebanese in Diaspora to be pessimistic and laissez-faire when it comes to the Hezbollahisation of Lebanon.
Lebanese, especially those in Diaspora, should never feel defeated or lose hope no matter what are the hardships in their mother country. In fact, Syria and Iran with their local proxies are working laboriously on a daily basis using every known psychological tactic to force the Lebanese into a state of hopelessness and helplessness. They want the people in Lebanon to lose all hope for any possible change in the imposed status quo. Their ultimate goal is to poison the Lebanese conscience with a submissive mentality. A mentality in which resistance becomes ineffective, confrontation an act of suicide, and lobbying for liberation a stance of madness.
It is a patriotic obligation for each and every person of Lebanese descent in the Diaspora to thoroughly apprehend the intricacies and complexities of the current status quo in Lebanon. It is an obligation to lobby for the Lebanese cause in every free democratic country and to make the world aware of the agony that the Lebanese are enduring in Hezbollahized Lebanon. Syrian-Iranian atrocities inflicted through Hezbollah against the Lebanese people must be exposed.
Arab and free world countries have been dealing with the Lebanese crisis with a double standard. On the one hand they admit that Lebanon is being devoured by a fatal Hezbollahisation scheme, while appeasing Hezbollah's sponsors Syria and Iran with the other hand. Even more foolishly, some of these countries allege that there is a politically moderate faction within Hezbollah that they recognize and communicate with.
We call on the approximately nineteen million Lebanese descendents living in the Diaspora and on all those who love Lebanon to lobby for a Lebanon that is not Hezbollahized. Lobbying will be fruitful when Lebanese in the Diaspora understand thoroughly the Lebanese crisis and the means needed to solve it. Accordingly, every Lebanese descendent should consider himself an ambassador for a free Lebanon in the country where he lives. An ambassador whose duty is to intelligently lobby for the Lebanese cause, knowing that this is the only possible way to generate worldwide support to pressure the Syrians and Iranians to leave Lebanon.
In this context, neutrality and indifferent attitudes from the Lebanese Diaspora is a crime committed against their homeland of Lebanon. A crime against the pride of their identity, ancestors, history, civilization and culture. For Lebanon has been impoverished, wronged, intimidated, harassed, humiliated, oppressed within a Hezbollahized state.
Brethren Lebanese in the Diaspora, with your genuine lobbying Lebanon shall be resurrected. There will be hope for a better future for your own oppressed people, freedom and dignity shall be reclaimed, your country shall again be an oasis for peace, and Lebanon shall prevail and be victorious.
The voices of our great people in Hezbollatized Lebanon can no longer speak freely for themselves. We, the Lebanese in the Diaspora, are now their voices. Our voices must be courageous, intelligent, well-informed, persistent and very loud for their sake. Let us not disappoint them
*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/.
Every time two Lebanese meet in any of the Diaspora countries, one of them usually starts the conversation with the same nostalgic questions. How is the situation back home in Lebanon? Are there any positive changes there or any progress to build on? Are there any hopes for a better future or are things still chronically chaotic, unstable and bizarre?
The same routine response is echoed in reply; No our beloved and beautiful country is going down the drain and things are getting worse every day as the armed Iranian militia Hezbollah is devouring the country piece by piece, dominating more of its institutions, forcing its stone age ideology on many people through money, intimidation and murder. Meanwhile, Arab countries and the free world watch idly from a distance, not taking any serious or decisive deterrent stance to put an end for this on going Iranian expansionism plot.
It is true that God has granted Lebanon, the Holy Land of the Cedars, all that He could endow to a country including beautiful nature, an attractive climate, and many blessed riches. But Lebanon has also been cursed being a pivotal geographical door to other countries in the Middle East region, causing it instability for thousands of years and to this day.
How could the Lebanese people back home live in peace when Syria, Iran, and the axis of evil countries continuously interfere with their domestic affairs in all domains, sponsoring armed terrorist militias that hold the country hostage as a terrorist base for Islamist expansionism and evil hegemony schemes?
So why do the Lebanese people allow Iran and Syria to destabilize their country? Sadly, because the majority of the Lebanese politicians are opportunists, chameleons and Trojans. They possess no solid convictions, are constantly groveling to foreign powers, and Lebanon makes no difference to them as long as their own individual interests are secured.
Corrupt Lebanese politicians and officials are blind in heart, soul, and conscience. Regrettably, many Lebanese citizens follow these leaders blindly because of the need for protection and other basic life necessities. Even worse is the sickening weakness of the central government that is dominated by bribery and corruption on all levels. The government is unwilling and unable to protect the interests of its citizens or provide them with the required services. The end result is a well-known axiom, when the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Returning to the nostalgic question and to the response there is no doubt that the question shows genuine concern along with anxiety on one side, and despair along with pessimism on the other. While it is normal to demonstrate concern for what is going on back home and be worried about the deteriorating situation, it is not acceptable at all for any Lebanese in Diaspora to be pessimistic and laissez-faire when it comes to the Hezbollahisation of Lebanon.
Lebanese, especially those in Diaspora, should never feel defeated or lose hope no matter what are the hardships in their mother country. In fact, Syria and Iran with their local proxies are working laboriously on a daily basis using every known psychological tactic to force the Lebanese into a state of hopelessness and helplessness. They want the people in Lebanon to lose all hope for any possible change in the imposed status quo. Their ultimate goal is to poison the Lebanese conscience with a submissive mentality. A mentality in which resistance becomes ineffective, confrontation an act of suicide, and lobbying for liberation a stance of madness.
It is a patriotic obligation for each and every person of Lebanese descent in the Diaspora to thoroughly apprehend the intricacies and complexities of the current status quo in Lebanon. It is an obligation to lobby for the Lebanese cause in every free democratic country and to make the world aware of the agony that the Lebanese are enduring in Hezbollahized Lebanon. Syrian-Iranian atrocities inflicted through Hezbollah against the Lebanese people must be exposed.
Arab and free world countries have been dealing with the Lebanese crisis with a double standard. On the one hand they admit that Lebanon is being devoured by a fatal Hezbollahisation scheme, while appeasing Hezbollah's sponsors Syria and Iran with the other hand. Even more foolishly, some of these countries allege that there is a politically moderate faction within Hezbollah that they recognize and communicate with.
We call on the approximately nineteen million Lebanese descendents living in the Diaspora and on all those who love Lebanon to lobby for a Lebanon that is not Hezbollahized. Lobbying will be fruitful when Lebanese in the Diaspora understand thoroughly the Lebanese crisis and the means needed to solve it. Accordingly, every Lebanese descendent should consider himself an ambassador for a free Lebanon in the country where he lives. An ambassador whose duty is to intelligently lobby for the Lebanese cause, knowing that this is the only possible way to generate worldwide support to pressure the Syrians and Iranians to leave Lebanon.
In this context, neutrality and indifferent attitudes from the Lebanese Diaspora is a crime committed against their homeland of Lebanon. A crime against the pride of their identity, ancestors, history, civilization and culture. For Lebanon has been impoverished, wronged, intimidated, harassed, humiliated, oppressed within a Hezbollahized state.
Brethren Lebanese in the Diaspora, with your genuine lobbying Lebanon shall be resurrected. There will be hope for a better future for your own oppressed people, freedom and dignity shall be reclaimed, your country shall again be an oasis for peace, and Lebanon shall prevail and be victorious.
The voices of our great people in Hezbollatized Lebanon can no longer speak freely for themselves. We, the Lebanese in the Diaspora, are now their voices. Our voices must be courageous, intelligent, well-informed, persistent and very loud for their sake. Let us not disappoint them
*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/.
Monday, August 16, 2010
God is Omniscient, He Knows Our Needs
By: Elias Bejjani*
"God is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him". (Nahum 1/7)
Have you ever been so upset, angry, and furious, that you refrained from praying and started questioning God's fairness, judgment and even existence?
Have you ever been stunned and not been able to explain difficult situations, wrongdoings, and ingratitude from a beloved one?
Have you been bewildered and felt helpless in the face of bizarre acts of treason, hatred and vendettas from those whom you love?
Have you ever been disappointed by selfish, greedy, and evil acts by people close to you?
Have you been hurt unjustly by those whom you gave your life to and built your hopes on?
Have you ever felt abandoned and betrayed by people on whom you depended and trusted?
I am sure you have been through such unhappy moments because every one of us faces such distressing times throughout life.
The question is, why do some of us hold back and refrain from irresponsible acts of revenge while others do not?
The reason is because some of us are the faithful who believe in God and obey His Biblical teachings. These faithful are confident that Almighty God knows what is happening and, as a loving and just father, intervenes on their behalf at the right time to straighten things out righteously. The faithful are fully confident that God relieves the oppressed and punishes the oppressors, and that He is the Holy One whose Divine Right it is to take vengeance and not man.
When we attempt to avenge ourselves, we can't do it without sinning. We tend to do it with a wicked spirit of vindictiveness and revenge. God's vengeance is never sinful, but a matter of justice. God is the only one who can bring about justice without committing sin. He alone knows all the circumstances and the motives of the hearts that are involved in a situation, and He knows how to bring justice in a way that is truly perfect.
"Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay". (Romans 12:19)
We are to love our enemies, pray for them, and leave the rest to God. This is exactly what Saint Paul had in mind when he said in his letters to the Romans 12: 20-21:, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"
God is the final authority to judge matters and decide what is right and what is wrong. We commit a fatal sin when we assume God's role and act as judges on the souls of men without examining our own souls first. “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you". (Matthew 7: 1-2)
In encountering hard and painful situations, our minds can be filled with panic and we accordingly fail to think straight. In such difficult times, we are supposed to ask God to intervene and carry our burdens and He is always ready to so. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
God is omniscient, which means he knows our needs even if we can't express them. He always sees things clearly and when we go to Him in fear or confusion, He has pity on us and takes us in. God wants us to trust in Him. He wants to be Our Protector and Our Guardian. Even if we can't figure out our own circumstances and hardships, God already has the answer and the right plan. There is no doubt that when we trust in Him we will live in content, harmony and tranquility no matter what hardships, pain, or persecution we might suffer.
It is helpful and comforting to put our lives in God's Merciful and Mighty Hands, and to leave every thing to Him. He wants us to be righteous in both faith and acts because faith without acts is dead. Faith without acts is like a body without a soul.
We must always remember that "God is a jealous God and avenges and is full of wrath. He takes vengeance on his adversaries, and maintains wrath against his enemies. God is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. God has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. God rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him. Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.” (Nahum 1:1-7)
God knows our needs and fulfils them all the time, but in His Own Way and at His Own Pace which our limited minds can't comprehend at times.
Let us put our lives in God's Hands and be joyful and always remember what says: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)
*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/.
"God is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him". (Nahum 1/7)
Have you ever been so upset, angry, and furious, that you refrained from praying and started questioning God's fairness, judgment and even existence?
Have you ever been stunned and not been able to explain difficult situations, wrongdoings, and ingratitude from a beloved one?
Have you been bewildered and felt helpless in the face of bizarre acts of treason, hatred and vendettas from those whom you love?
Have you ever been disappointed by selfish, greedy, and evil acts by people close to you?
Have you been hurt unjustly by those whom you gave your life to and built your hopes on?
Have you ever felt abandoned and betrayed by people on whom you depended and trusted?
I am sure you have been through such unhappy moments because every one of us faces such distressing times throughout life.
The question is, why do some of us hold back and refrain from irresponsible acts of revenge while others do not?
The reason is because some of us are the faithful who believe in God and obey His Biblical teachings. These faithful are confident that Almighty God knows what is happening and, as a loving and just father, intervenes on their behalf at the right time to straighten things out righteously. The faithful are fully confident that God relieves the oppressed and punishes the oppressors, and that He is the Holy One whose Divine Right it is to take vengeance and not man.
When we attempt to avenge ourselves, we can't do it without sinning. We tend to do it with a wicked spirit of vindictiveness and revenge. God's vengeance is never sinful, but a matter of justice. God is the only one who can bring about justice without committing sin. He alone knows all the circumstances and the motives of the hearts that are involved in a situation, and He knows how to bring justice in a way that is truly perfect.
"Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay". (Romans 12:19)
We are to love our enemies, pray for them, and leave the rest to God. This is exactly what Saint Paul had in mind when he said in his letters to the Romans 12: 20-21:, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"
God is the final authority to judge matters and decide what is right and what is wrong. We commit a fatal sin when we assume God's role and act as judges on the souls of men without examining our own souls first. “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you". (Matthew 7: 1-2)
In encountering hard and painful situations, our minds can be filled with panic and we accordingly fail to think straight. In such difficult times, we are supposed to ask God to intervene and carry our burdens and He is always ready to so. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
God is omniscient, which means he knows our needs even if we can't express them. He always sees things clearly and when we go to Him in fear or confusion, He has pity on us and takes us in. God wants us to trust in Him. He wants to be Our Protector and Our Guardian. Even if we can't figure out our own circumstances and hardships, God already has the answer and the right plan. There is no doubt that when we trust in Him we will live in content, harmony and tranquility no matter what hardships, pain, or persecution we might suffer.
It is helpful and comforting to put our lives in God's Merciful and Mighty Hands, and to leave every thing to Him. He wants us to be righteous in both faith and acts because faith without acts is dead. Faith without acts is like a body without a soul.
We must always remember that "God is a jealous God and avenges and is full of wrath. He takes vengeance on his adversaries, and maintains wrath against his enemies. God is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. God has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. God rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him. Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.” (Nahum 1:1-7)
God knows our needs and fulfils them all the time, but in His Own Way and at His Own Pace which our limited minds can't comprehend at times.
Let us put our lives in God's Hands and be joyful and always remember what says: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)
*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/.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Lebanon is a country that is unable to govern itself
By: Elias Bejjani*
ِThe current explosive situation in Lebanon is sad, unfortunate and very dangerous. Meanwhile, the Lebanese people are marginalized and exposed to all kinds of terrorism, oppression, poverty, persecution, foreign interferences and fear. The Lebanese government is just a shadow and a fancy tag with no actual content, backbone or teeth. It holds no power or authority and has no free say in any matter at all due to the fact that Hezbollah and Syria fully controls its decision making process.
Hezbollah, the Iranian armed proxy, controls by force, money and intimidation the whole country and is taking both its people and government hostages. Hezbollah, which is merely an Iranian army stationed in Lebanon, is dragging the country and its people as well as the whole Middle East into a state of havoc.
It is worth mentioning that Hezbollah and its affiliates have planned or been linked to a lengthy series of terrorist attacks against the United States, Israel, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf countries, Iraq, Yemen, Turkey, and other Arabic and Western targets. These attacks include: a series of kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon, including several Americans, in the 1980s; the suicide truck bombings that killed more than two hundred U.S. Marines at their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983; the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, which featured the famous footage of the plane's pilot leaning out of the cockpit with a gun to his head; two major 1990’s attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina--the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy (killing 29 people) and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center (killing 95 people); and a July 2006 raid on a border post in northern Israel in which two Israeli soldiers were taken captive. The abductions sparked the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war.
It is strongly believed that Hezbollah in 2005 was behind the killing of Lebanon's PM, Rafiq Hariri with 22 others in downtown Beirut. Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah has been publicly recently threatening to topple the Lebanese government by force and militarily invade Lebanese Sunni and Christian regions in case the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the Hariri crime indicts any of his men.
The West and the moderate Arab countries as well as neighboring Israel have an obligation to step in and offset the balance militarily. It is not a secret that Syria that occupied Lebanon for almost 29 years with an iron fist (between 1976-2005), at least since 1990 has been viciously Syrianizing all Lebanon's institutions, especially the armed forces, media, cabinet and parliament.
In addition, it unlawfully granted Lebanese citizenship to more than half a million individuals in 1994 which had a serious negative effect on the country's very delicate demography.
In 2005 when Syria was forced to leave and end its armed occupation in accordance with UN Resolution 1559 in the aftermath of the assassination of PM Rafiq Hariri, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian armed proxy, took over the job. Since then Hezbollah has been aggressively instigating an ongoing process of devouring the country and now fully controls Lebanon and all its institutions.
What is definite is that the Lebanese people alone are no longer able to reverse the Syrianization and HEZBOLLAHISATION of their country. They need Western military intervention Under the UN umbrella.
The feasible solution would be via a new UN resolution under chapter seven through which the UN troops stationed in south Lebanon (in accordance with UN Resolution 1701) will be given the upper hand not only in the southern region on the border with Israel, but all over Lebanon and specially on the Lebanese-Syrian border in a bid to stop the ongoing Syrian and Iranian massive transport of weapons and men to Hezbollah and to the other Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups. The Lebanese army needs to be put under the UN troops’ command and Lebanon declared by the UN a country that is unable to govern itself. I personally have called for such a solution in one of my recent editorials.
There is no doubt that losing Lebanon to the Axis of Evil means losing the whole Middle East and gradually the toppling of all the so called moderate Arab regimes. Lebanon has been for thousands of years a pivotal crossroad for the whole Middle East and history tells us that whoever controls Lebanon will control the whole region. The question is whether the West is willing to stay idle and leave Iran and Syria to fully control Lebanon and accordingly control the whole Middle East?
In fact the moderate Arab countries, Israel and West themselves will gain greater benefit than even Lebanon and the Lebanese people by helping Lebanon to be freed from the Axis of Evil countries and organizations.
No one should fool himself and say, “let the Lebanese solve their own problems”, or, “well, we tried to help them but they did not help themselves.”
No, not at all, because the Lebanese regardless of all the hardships and the Stalinist Syrian occupation fought and fought bravely for peace, independence and freedom more than any other people in the Middle East.
In conclusion, leaving Lebanon to fall prey to the Middle East’s Axis of Evil (Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas), will not only hurt the Lebanese people, destroy their freedom, multicultural and democratic system and enslave them, but will also destabilize the whole Middle East and threaten peace and democracy all over the world.
*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/.
ِThe current explosive situation in Lebanon is sad, unfortunate and very dangerous. Meanwhile, the Lebanese people are marginalized and exposed to all kinds of terrorism, oppression, poverty, persecution, foreign interferences and fear. The Lebanese government is just a shadow and a fancy tag with no actual content, backbone or teeth. It holds no power or authority and has no free say in any matter at all due to the fact that Hezbollah and Syria fully controls its decision making process.
Hezbollah, the Iranian armed proxy, controls by force, money and intimidation the whole country and is taking both its people and government hostages. Hezbollah, which is merely an Iranian army stationed in Lebanon, is dragging the country and its people as well as the whole Middle East into a state of havoc.
It is worth mentioning that Hezbollah and its affiliates have planned or been linked to a lengthy series of terrorist attacks against the United States, Israel, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf countries, Iraq, Yemen, Turkey, and other Arabic and Western targets. These attacks include: a series of kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon, including several Americans, in the 1980s; the suicide truck bombings that killed more than two hundred U.S. Marines at their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983; the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, which featured the famous footage of the plane's pilot leaning out of the cockpit with a gun to his head; two major 1990’s attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina--the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy (killing 29 people) and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center (killing 95 people); and a July 2006 raid on a border post in northern Israel in which two Israeli soldiers were taken captive. The abductions sparked the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war.
It is strongly believed that Hezbollah in 2005 was behind the killing of Lebanon's PM, Rafiq Hariri with 22 others in downtown Beirut. Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah has been publicly recently threatening to topple the Lebanese government by force and militarily invade Lebanese Sunni and Christian regions in case the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the Hariri crime indicts any of his men.
The West and the moderate Arab countries as well as neighboring Israel have an obligation to step in and offset the balance militarily. It is not a secret that Syria that occupied Lebanon for almost 29 years with an iron fist (between 1976-2005), at least since 1990 has been viciously Syrianizing all Lebanon's institutions, especially the armed forces, media, cabinet and parliament.
In addition, it unlawfully granted Lebanese citizenship to more than half a million individuals in 1994 which had a serious negative effect on the country's very delicate demography.
In 2005 when Syria was forced to leave and end its armed occupation in accordance with UN Resolution 1559 in the aftermath of the assassination of PM Rafiq Hariri, Hezbollah, the Syrian-Iranian armed proxy, took over the job. Since then Hezbollah has been aggressively instigating an ongoing process of devouring the country and now fully controls Lebanon and all its institutions.
What is definite is that the Lebanese people alone are no longer able to reverse the Syrianization and HEZBOLLAHISATION of their country. They need Western military intervention Under the UN umbrella.
The feasible solution would be via a new UN resolution under chapter seven through which the UN troops stationed in south Lebanon (in accordance with UN Resolution 1701) will be given the upper hand not only in the southern region on the border with Israel, but all over Lebanon and specially on the Lebanese-Syrian border in a bid to stop the ongoing Syrian and Iranian massive transport of weapons and men to Hezbollah and to the other Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups. The Lebanese army needs to be put under the UN troops’ command and Lebanon declared by the UN a country that is unable to govern itself. I personally have called for such a solution in one of my recent editorials.
There is no doubt that losing Lebanon to the Axis of Evil means losing the whole Middle East and gradually the toppling of all the so called moderate Arab regimes. Lebanon has been for thousands of years a pivotal crossroad for the whole Middle East and history tells us that whoever controls Lebanon will control the whole region. The question is whether the West is willing to stay idle and leave Iran and Syria to fully control Lebanon and accordingly control the whole Middle East?
In fact the moderate Arab countries, Israel and West themselves will gain greater benefit than even Lebanon and the Lebanese people by helping Lebanon to be freed from the Axis of Evil countries and organizations.
No one should fool himself and say, “let the Lebanese solve their own problems”, or, “well, we tried to help them but they did not help themselves.”
No, not at all, because the Lebanese regardless of all the hardships and the Stalinist Syrian occupation fought and fought bravely for peace, independence and freedom more than any other people in the Middle East.
In conclusion, leaving Lebanon to fall prey to the Middle East’s Axis of Evil (Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas), will not only hurt the Lebanese people, destroy their freedom, multicultural and democratic system and enslave them, but will also destabilize the whole Middle East and threaten peace and democracy all over the world.
*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/.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The Israeli-Hezbollah War is Inevitable
By Elias Bejjani*
Most Middle East analysts and political observers are more than sure that the war between Israel and the West on one side, and Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas and Iran on the other front is inevitable. Its occurrence has become just a matter of time. The Middle East is in the eye of the storm and, apparently, no one can avert the confrontation that has become necessary for the agendas of all parties involved.
According to observers, the predisposing factors that build for a war are precipitating in the Middle East. Ali Hmade, the renowned Lebanese political analyst, shed light on some of these factors in his last Tuesday's column published in An Nahar Beirut Daily. Meanwhile, other American, European, Arab and Israeli analysts have written extensively on these tensions and added other pivotal factors to the Israeli-Hezbollah war formula. Below are some of these factors:
The recent fiercest border clashes since 2006 on the Lebanese - Israeli border in which three Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist ,and an Israeli officer were killed accompanied by the loud threats made by Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah a few hours after the end of the clashes.
The serious internal conflict amongst Lebanese sparked by Hezbollah's bold attacks against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Hezbollah is threatening to retaliate against Lebanon and its people with a possible coup in case the unlawful and terrorist dictates of Hassan Nasrallah are not fulfilled by Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabia, and the United Nations (UN). Nasrallah is demanding that the tribunal be totally abolished. He alleges it is a tool of the Israeli-American conspiracy set to target his organization through indicting a score of its members and leaders in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.
The statement made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his country's Army Day in which he said: "The specter of real peace in the region is disappearing and the possibility of war is increasing."
Assad and the Saudi King made a joint visit to Beirut on July 30th 2010. Both officials held extensive meetings with the country's leadership in a bid to calm down the war rhetoric of Hezbollah in face of the STL. Meanwhile, Assad seems to be playing on many ropes and appears even more scared of the STL than Hezbollah. Reliable American sources unveiled this week that Syria is behind the so-called "STL leaks" and not Israel or other Arab countries.
Hamas' resumption of firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and the retaliation of Israeli warplanes by bombing Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the targeted killings of Hamas militants. In response, Hamas is threatening to reignite the cycle of violence.
Hamas' opposition to the direct negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israelis brokered by the United States, the Arab League, and the majority of the Arab countries. Hamas seems well -prepared to ignite a war against both Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to abort the negotiations.
The firing of rockets from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic militants have operated in the past, hitting the Israeli and Jordanian Red Sea port resorts of Eilat and Aqaba. These attacks killed one Jordanian civilian and injured three others. Israel claimed the rockets used were made in Iran.
The mysterious terrorist explosion aboard a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The renewal of skirmishes in Yemen between government forces and the pro-Iranian Houthis after a series of cease-fire violations and exchanges of accusations.
The increasingly loud calls on the US administration to be more decisive in its Middle East policies and the numerous recommendations for a pre-emptive war against Iran and Hezbollah. "The US should work to avoid another Hezbollah-Israel conflict, but could benefit from pre-emptive military action in Lebanon..." according to Israel’s former Ambassador to Washington. A report authored by Daniel Kurtzer, written for the US Council on Foreign Relations, warns that Hezbollah's proliferating weapons stockpile could bring Israeli aggression to far outweigh the bombardment of Beirut and southern areas during the 2006 summer war. “Hizbullah has steadily rearmed in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” Kurtzer wrote. “Israel could decide the security threat posed by Hezbollah has reached intolerable levels and take pre-emptive military action.”
President Obama's approval of recommendations for a European missile shield made by US military leaders to shift focus to defending Europe against Iran's short and medium-range missiles. "This new approach will provide capabilities sooner, build on proven systems, and offer greater defenses against the threat of missile attack." Under the new plan the U.S. would initially deploy ships with missile interceptors and in a second phase, would field land-based defense systems. The confirmation made by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to the NBC network: "The United States has a viable military plan to attack Iran and its nuclear facilities, though, such a strike was probably a bad idea." Mullen has often warned that a strike against Iran would have serious and unpredictable ripple effects around the Middle East. At the same time, he has said that Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) warnings of a devastating Middle East war. A new Israel-Lebanon conflict is likely to be far more violent, inflict greater damage to civilian and government infrastructure, and lead to the direct embroilment of other regional actors warned a new report released by the ICG. "A new conflict will also likely affect greater parts of the country, especially the Bekaa Valley, and will not be isolated to the south or the Shiite areas of Beirut which were systematically targeted in 2006," said the report entitled Drums of War: Israel and the ‘Axis of Resistance.’ The Lebanese Government is advised to take immediate steps to significantly increase troop numbers in the south and to improve the range and quality of military training and equipment available to its troops as a bulwark against a slide to war. Although conflict is far from imminent and many inhibiting factors continue to prevent the escalation of menacing rhetoric on both sides, the political roots which led to the outbreak of the 2006 war remain unaddressed and the regional situation could prove explosive. “Today, no party can soberly contemplate the prospect of a war that would be uncontrolled, unprecedented and unscripted,” said the Project Director Peter Harling of Crisis Group Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, “but the underlying dynamics of the logic of deterrence carry the seeds of possible breakdown.”
The alarming information leaked from high-level sources in Europe reporting that a number of prominent EU and Arab leaders foresee in the horizon a destructive regional war in the Middle East between Israel and "Axis of Evil" countries and organizations.
The ongoing Iranian threats to burn Israel and set the whole Middle East ablaze if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked by either the US or Israel. "If the Americans make the slightest mistake, the security of the region will be endangered. Security in the Persian Gulf should be for all or none," threatened the deputy head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Yadollah Javani. "Tehran will burn down Tel Aviv" in response to any attack, said Mohammed Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.
Based on all of the above facts, and on many other factors, another devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah that could also involve Hamas, Syria and Iran seems to be inevitable. Sadly, Lebanon is again going to be a battlefield in this coming war.
Hopefully, this time Israel backed by the Western and moderate Arab countries will push Hezbollah out of Lebanon as it did in 1982 with the PLO. The region deserves a lasting peace that cannot be achieved while Hezbollah holds the Lebanese people hostage, Syria breeds and exports terrorists while oppressing its own people, Hamas enslaves the residents of Gaza residents by aborting all peace initiatives with Israel, and Iran endeavors to own a nuclear bomb with dreams of reviving the Persian Empire by terrorism and mass destruction.
History tells us that peace prevails only in the aftermath of wars. This is what happened after the World Wars. Once again, peace will be the fruit of the coming Middle East war if Israel, the West, and moderate Arab countries stand tall and courageously execute a well planned war to defeat the "Axis of Evil" countries and their terrorist proxies.
*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/.
Most Middle East analysts and political observers are more than sure that the war between Israel and the West on one side, and Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas and Iran on the other front is inevitable. Its occurrence has become just a matter of time. The Middle East is in the eye of the storm and, apparently, no one can avert the confrontation that has become necessary for the agendas of all parties involved.
According to observers, the predisposing factors that build for a war are precipitating in the Middle East. Ali Hmade, the renowned Lebanese political analyst, shed light on some of these factors in his last Tuesday's column published in An Nahar Beirut Daily. Meanwhile, other American, European, Arab and Israeli analysts have written extensively on these tensions and added other pivotal factors to the Israeli-Hezbollah war formula. Below are some of these factors:
The recent fiercest border clashes since 2006 on the Lebanese - Israeli border in which three Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist ,and an Israeli officer were killed accompanied by the loud threats made by Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah a few hours after the end of the clashes.
The serious internal conflict amongst Lebanese sparked by Hezbollah's bold attacks against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Hezbollah is threatening to retaliate against Lebanon and its people with a possible coup in case the unlawful and terrorist dictates of Hassan Nasrallah are not fulfilled by Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabia, and the United Nations (UN). Nasrallah is demanding that the tribunal be totally abolished. He alleges it is a tool of the Israeli-American conspiracy set to target his organization through indicting a score of its members and leaders in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.
The statement made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his country's Army Day in which he said: "The specter of real peace in the region is disappearing and the possibility of war is increasing."
Assad and the Saudi King made a joint visit to Beirut on July 30th 2010. Both officials held extensive meetings with the country's leadership in a bid to calm down the war rhetoric of Hezbollah in face of the STL. Meanwhile, Assad seems to be playing on many ropes and appears even more scared of the STL than Hezbollah. Reliable American sources unveiled this week that Syria is behind the so-called "STL leaks" and not Israel or other Arab countries.
Hamas' resumption of firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and the retaliation of Israeli warplanes by bombing Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the targeted killings of Hamas militants. In response, Hamas is threatening to reignite the cycle of violence.
Hamas' opposition to the direct negotiations between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israelis brokered by the United States, the Arab League, and the majority of the Arab countries. Hamas seems well -prepared to ignite a war against both Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to abort the negotiations.
The firing of rockets from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic militants have operated in the past, hitting the Israeli and Jordanian Red Sea port resorts of Eilat and Aqaba. These attacks killed one Jordanian civilian and injured three others. Israel claimed the rockets used were made in Iran.
The mysterious terrorist explosion aboard a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The renewal of skirmishes in Yemen between government forces and the pro-Iranian Houthis after a series of cease-fire violations and exchanges of accusations.
The increasingly loud calls on the US administration to be more decisive in its Middle East policies and the numerous recommendations for a pre-emptive war against Iran and Hezbollah. "The US should work to avoid another Hezbollah-Israel conflict, but could benefit from pre-emptive military action in Lebanon..." according to Israel’s former Ambassador to Washington. A report authored by Daniel Kurtzer, written for the US Council on Foreign Relations, warns that Hezbollah's proliferating weapons stockpile could bring Israeli aggression to far outweigh the bombardment of Beirut and southern areas during the 2006 summer war. “Hizbullah has steadily rearmed in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” Kurtzer wrote. “Israel could decide the security threat posed by Hezbollah has reached intolerable levels and take pre-emptive military action.”
President Obama's approval of recommendations for a European missile shield made by US military leaders to shift focus to defending Europe against Iran's short and medium-range missiles. "This new approach will provide capabilities sooner, build on proven systems, and offer greater defenses against the threat of missile attack." Under the new plan the U.S. would initially deploy ships with missile interceptors and in a second phase, would field land-based defense systems. The confirmation made by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to the NBC network: "The United States has a viable military plan to attack Iran and its nuclear facilities, though, such a strike was probably a bad idea." Mullen has often warned that a strike against Iran would have serious and unpredictable ripple effects around the Middle East. At the same time, he has said that Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) warnings of a devastating Middle East war. A new Israel-Lebanon conflict is likely to be far more violent, inflict greater damage to civilian and government infrastructure, and lead to the direct embroilment of other regional actors warned a new report released by the ICG. "A new conflict will also likely affect greater parts of the country, especially the Bekaa Valley, and will not be isolated to the south or the Shiite areas of Beirut which were systematically targeted in 2006," said the report entitled Drums of War: Israel and the ‘Axis of Resistance.’ The Lebanese Government is advised to take immediate steps to significantly increase troop numbers in the south and to improve the range and quality of military training and equipment available to its troops as a bulwark against a slide to war. Although conflict is far from imminent and many inhibiting factors continue to prevent the escalation of menacing rhetoric on both sides, the political roots which led to the outbreak of the 2006 war remain unaddressed and the regional situation could prove explosive. “Today, no party can soberly contemplate the prospect of a war that would be uncontrolled, unprecedented and unscripted,” said the Project Director Peter Harling of Crisis Group Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, “but the underlying dynamics of the logic of deterrence carry the seeds of possible breakdown.”
The alarming information leaked from high-level sources in Europe reporting that a number of prominent EU and Arab leaders foresee in the horizon a destructive regional war in the Middle East between Israel and "Axis of Evil" countries and organizations.
The ongoing Iranian threats to burn Israel and set the whole Middle East ablaze if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked by either the US or Israel. "If the Americans make the slightest mistake, the security of the region will be endangered. Security in the Persian Gulf should be for all or none," threatened the deputy head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Yadollah Javani. "Tehran will burn down Tel Aviv" in response to any attack, said Mohammed Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.
Based on all of the above facts, and on many other factors, another devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah that could also involve Hamas, Syria and Iran seems to be inevitable. Sadly, Lebanon is again going to be a battlefield in this coming war.
Hopefully, this time Israel backed by the Western and moderate Arab countries will push Hezbollah out of Lebanon as it did in 1982 with the PLO. The region deserves a lasting peace that cannot be achieved while Hezbollah holds the Lebanese people hostage, Syria breeds and exports terrorists while oppressing its own people, Hamas enslaves the residents of Gaza residents by aborting all peace initiatives with Israel, and Iran endeavors to own a nuclear bomb with dreams of reviving the Persian Empire by terrorism and mass destruction.
History tells us that peace prevails only in the aftermath of wars. This is what happened after the World Wars. Once again, peace will be the fruit of the coming Middle East war if Israel, the West, and moderate Arab countries stand tall and courageously execute a well planned war to defeat the "Axis of Evil" countries and their terrorist proxies.
*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/.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Credibility
By: Elias Bejjani
It is strongly believed that the UN body, its General Assembly, and the international tribunals that fall under the UN umbrella and jurisdiction could all be in the hot seat, exposed to a very serious jeopardy and are up in the air with a questionable and blemished credibility.
This dim image of the UN and its judicial institutions could become a shocking reality if Hezbollah, the armed jihadist terrorist organization backed by Iran and Syria, succeeds in imposing its criminal threats and will on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) either by totally abolishing its mission or by forcing its judges to make certain detrimental concessions in a bid not to indict any of its (Hezbollah) men in the Beirut 2005 assassination attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, 22 other Lebanese nationals and injured many others.
It is worth mentioning that the Hariri crime took place when Syria was still occupying Lebanon with an iron fist and nothing in the magnitude of such a devastating incident could have happened without its direct involvement or at least its full approval. Meanwhile, it is strongly believed that Syria was responsible for numerous political assassinations that were committed after the Hariri's attack. Furthermore, no assassination or assassination attempt since 1976 has been solved because Syria was concurrently the occupier and the killer.
The following is a list of outspoken and active anti-Syrian politicians, MPs and intellectuals that were targeted and murdered in Lebanon since 2005 in the most bloody political assassinations:
February 14, 2005: Rafiq Hariri, PM;
June 2, 2005: Samir Qassir, journalist;
June 21, 2005: George Hawi, politician;
December 12, 2005: Gibran Tueni, MP & journalist;
May 26, 2006: 2006: Pierre Gemayel, MP;
June 13, 2007: Walid Eido, MP;
September 19, 2007: Antoine Ghanem, MP;
January 25, 2008: Wissam Eid, computer engineer.
The investigation of Hariri's fatal terrorist attack has been going actively since 2007 after the government of Lebanon requested the UN on 13 December 2005 to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) under chapter seven to try all those behind the attack. The tribunal was established in pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1664 (2006), and 1757 (2007) and implemented on 10 June 2007. Since then millions of dollars have been spent to cover the tribunal's budget of which Lebanon carries 47%.
Syria was and is still the main suspect and is politically blamed for the crime by the majority of the Lebanese people and the Arab countries based on its criminal notorious record. Other prominent suspects are Syria's militant armed tools in Lebanon, Hezbollah, numerous armed Palestinian militias, and a number of pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian armed groups. But no formal charge or indictment has yet been made. All Lebanese were impatiently waiting for the STL to indict the assassins and name those who masterminded, planned and financed the attack.
Many Syrian high ranking army, secret service, and police officers, as well as scores of Hezbollah men were interrogated by the STL investigators in Lebanon and Syria. Meanwhile, numerous Syrian officers who were considered main suspects by the STL either committed suicide or were assassinated, a well known method the Syrian regime has of getting rid of its opponents or those who are in any way a threat to the ruling Assad family.
The STL was expected to indict those charged with the attack before the end of this year, and while actually no one besides the prosecutor's tribunal knew the names of the suspects, Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah suddenly became loud, threatening, and insisted that the tribunal was politically motivated and an Israeli and American tool set up and fabricated to blemish the reputation of his group and unlawfully target his resistance. In three lengthy, fiery, detrimental, defiant, belligerent and very dangerous speeches, (15, 22 & 25 July, 2010) he called on PM Saad Hariri, the Lebanese government and Saudi Arabia to lobby for aborting the tribunal, or otherwise his group would replicate its bloody May 2008 Beirut and Mount Lebanon invasions. He and his leadership boldly made their threats and publicly promised much worse and widespread invasions and possibly a coup in case any of their men were indicted.
On July 29/10, spokeswoman for the STL, Fatima Issawi, rejected charges by Hezbollah that its work is politically motivated and said: "The experience of other international tribunals has shown that the results of the work of such institutions speak for themselves and contradict the unsubstantiated allegations of hostile interference and we are convinced that this will also happen in the case of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon”. She confirmed that the Office of the Prosecutor would issue an indictment when it is ready, and that legally the Lebanese government has an obligation to respond to the tribunal's requests. Issawi stressed the fact that the absence of an accused would not prevent the tribunal from conducting proceedings and examining evidence against those who may might be indicted and that the final results of STL's work, rather than unfounded allegations or speculation, can be the only basis for assessing its effectiveness.
On July 30 the Saudi king, the Syrian president and the Qatari prince made urgent visits to Lebanon and held talks with its leadership in a bid to avert and contain Hezbollah's threats, but Syria’s sneaky actual stance and role is not clear due to the fact that Syria is still a main suspect in the Hariri crime while its strategic alliance with Iran is still very strong in spite of the extensive Arabic, American and European appeasing and cajoling overtures towards its President Al Assad.
On Saturday 31 July/10, the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, a well known low standard Syrian-Iranian media trumpet and dulcimer, quoted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to have told the Saudi king and the Lebanese president during their tripartite Summit conference in the presidential Baabda Palace on Friday 30 July/10: "The international tribunal's work should come to an end. We in Syria feel the tribunal's investigation has become a heavy diplomatic burden on Lebanon and its stability. In addition, Syria's experience with the tribunal so far indicates that there are no encouraging bodies to support the continuation of the tribunal's work or prevent its politicization." According to the same source Al Assad warned that any ruling that would implicate Hezbollah might destabilize Lebanon and that his country would stand by the Shiite organization, Hezbollah, in any case, and considered that any blow to Hezbollah a line that should not be crossed. The daily also reported that Assad told the Saudi king the international tribunal has already nearly brought destruction on Lebanon and the region in the past. "Today, this attempt is being repeated with Hezbollah, which is being accused of assassinating Rafiq Hariri. This means Lebanon may once again be subject to destruction, and therefore, clear outlines should be determined to put this matter to rest." The Syrian president reportedly stressed to his Saudi guest that he supports Hezbollah's stance. "The resistance in Lebanon will not be satisfied with the international tribunal, since the tribunal will accuse it of the assassination. If there is insistence to move forward with the international tribunal, the resistance will rise against it, since it strives to harm it. We consider the resistance a red line and we will let no harm come to it," he said. Regarding Hezbollah, the Syrian president said, "It will not agree to the principal decision to implicate it and will not accept any such agreements. The international tribunal must seek the real killer."
According to the report, the Saudi king mainly listened to Assad and did not express any objection or reservations to what he heard. King Abdullah is a patron of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafiq Hariri's son. The paper reported that the two leaders tried to find a solution to the matter, in a way that would prevent an explosion in Lebanon, particularly after the Syrian president stressed that Hezbollah "will not remain silent if it is accused by the tribunal, and will do everything in its power to rise against it." It remained unclear what the two leaders agreed on.
It is strongly believed that Syria is covertly dictating Nasrallah's threatening rhetoric against the STL, the moderate Arab countries, the Lebanese people and their government. Syria as previously is using Hezbollah to scare the Lebanese mosaic ethnic communities, the Muslim Sunnis and the Christians in particular, and accordingly force them to call its army again to enter Lebanon, contain Hezbollah and stop him from taking over the country and toppling its democratic, multicultural and co-existence regime. Syria is playing this bloody and evil game and betting on this scary scenario in a bid to re-occupy Lebanon.
In conclusion, the Free World and Arab countries are required to stand tall with no fear or hesitation. They should strongly support the STL with all their available resources, including the use of force if and when needed; refuse any kind of concessions or compromises that Syria or Saudi Arabia suggests; not succumb to Hezbollah's threats and terrorism; not fall prey to the sneaky Syrian plot; and most importantly not commit their previous fatal mistake of giving Syria the green light to re-occupy Lebanon.
*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/
It is strongly believed that the UN body, its General Assembly, and the international tribunals that fall under the UN umbrella and jurisdiction could all be in the hot seat, exposed to a very serious jeopardy and are up in the air with a questionable and blemished credibility.
This dim image of the UN and its judicial institutions could become a shocking reality if Hezbollah, the armed jihadist terrorist organization backed by Iran and Syria, succeeds in imposing its criminal threats and will on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) either by totally abolishing its mission or by forcing its judges to make certain detrimental concessions in a bid not to indict any of its (Hezbollah) men in the Beirut 2005 assassination attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, 22 other Lebanese nationals and injured many others.
It is worth mentioning that the Hariri crime took place when Syria was still occupying Lebanon with an iron fist and nothing in the magnitude of such a devastating incident could have happened without its direct involvement or at least its full approval. Meanwhile, it is strongly believed that Syria was responsible for numerous political assassinations that were committed after the Hariri's attack. Furthermore, no assassination or assassination attempt since 1976 has been solved because Syria was concurrently the occupier and the killer.
The following is a list of outspoken and active anti-Syrian politicians, MPs and intellectuals that were targeted and murdered in Lebanon since 2005 in the most bloody political assassinations:
February 14, 2005: Rafiq Hariri, PM;
June 2, 2005: Samir Qassir, journalist;
June 21, 2005: George Hawi, politician;
December 12, 2005: Gibran Tueni, MP & journalist;
May 26, 2006: 2006: Pierre Gemayel, MP;
June 13, 2007: Walid Eido, MP;
September 19, 2007: Antoine Ghanem, MP;
January 25, 2008: Wissam Eid, computer engineer.
The investigation of Hariri's fatal terrorist attack has been going actively since 2007 after the government of Lebanon requested the UN on 13 December 2005 to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) under chapter seven to try all those behind the attack. The tribunal was established in pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1664 (2006), and 1757 (2007) and implemented on 10 June 2007. Since then millions of dollars have been spent to cover the tribunal's budget of which Lebanon carries 47%.
Syria was and is still the main suspect and is politically blamed for the crime by the majority of the Lebanese people and the Arab countries based on its criminal notorious record. Other prominent suspects are Syria's militant armed tools in Lebanon, Hezbollah, numerous armed Palestinian militias, and a number of pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian armed groups. But no formal charge or indictment has yet been made. All Lebanese were impatiently waiting for the STL to indict the assassins and name those who masterminded, planned and financed the attack.
Many Syrian high ranking army, secret service, and police officers, as well as scores of Hezbollah men were interrogated by the STL investigators in Lebanon and Syria. Meanwhile, numerous Syrian officers who were considered main suspects by the STL either committed suicide or were assassinated, a well known method the Syrian regime has of getting rid of its opponents or those who are in any way a threat to the ruling Assad family.
The STL was expected to indict those charged with the attack before the end of this year, and while actually no one besides the prosecutor's tribunal knew the names of the suspects, Hezbollah's General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah suddenly became loud, threatening, and insisted that the tribunal was politically motivated and an Israeli and American tool set up and fabricated to blemish the reputation of his group and unlawfully target his resistance. In three lengthy, fiery, detrimental, defiant, belligerent and very dangerous speeches, (15, 22 & 25 July, 2010) he called on PM Saad Hariri, the Lebanese government and Saudi Arabia to lobby for aborting the tribunal, or otherwise his group would replicate its bloody May 2008 Beirut and Mount Lebanon invasions. He and his leadership boldly made their threats and publicly promised much worse and widespread invasions and possibly a coup in case any of their men were indicted.
On July 29/10, spokeswoman for the STL, Fatima Issawi, rejected charges by Hezbollah that its work is politically motivated and said: "The experience of other international tribunals has shown that the results of the work of such institutions speak for themselves and contradict the unsubstantiated allegations of hostile interference and we are convinced that this will also happen in the case of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon”. She confirmed that the Office of the Prosecutor would issue an indictment when it is ready, and that legally the Lebanese government has an obligation to respond to the tribunal's requests. Issawi stressed the fact that the absence of an accused would not prevent the tribunal from conducting proceedings and examining evidence against those who may might be indicted and that the final results of STL's work, rather than unfounded allegations or speculation, can be the only basis for assessing its effectiveness.
On July 30 the Saudi king, the Syrian president and the Qatari prince made urgent visits to Lebanon and held talks with its leadership in a bid to avert and contain Hezbollah's threats, but Syria’s sneaky actual stance and role is not clear due to the fact that Syria is still a main suspect in the Hariri crime while its strategic alliance with Iran is still very strong in spite of the extensive Arabic, American and European appeasing and cajoling overtures towards its President Al Assad.
On Saturday 31 July/10, the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, a well known low standard Syrian-Iranian media trumpet and dulcimer, quoted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to have told the Saudi king and the Lebanese president during their tripartite Summit conference in the presidential Baabda Palace on Friday 30 July/10: "The international tribunal's work should come to an end. We in Syria feel the tribunal's investigation has become a heavy diplomatic burden on Lebanon and its stability. In addition, Syria's experience with the tribunal so far indicates that there are no encouraging bodies to support the continuation of the tribunal's work or prevent its politicization." According to the same source Al Assad warned that any ruling that would implicate Hezbollah might destabilize Lebanon and that his country would stand by the Shiite organization, Hezbollah, in any case, and considered that any blow to Hezbollah a line that should not be crossed. The daily also reported that Assad told the Saudi king the international tribunal has already nearly brought destruction on Lebanon and the region in the past. "Today, this attempt is being repeated with Hezbollah, which is being accused of assassinating Rafiq Hariri. This means Lebanon may once again be subject to destruction, and therefore, clear outlines should be determined to put this matter to rest." The Syrian president reportedly stressed to his Saudi guest that he supports Hezbollah's stance. "The resistance in Lebanon will not be satisfied with the international tribunal, since the tribunal will accuse it of the assassination. If there is insistence to move forward with the international tribunal, the resistance will rise against it, since it strives to harm it. We consider the resistance a red line and we will let no harm come to it," he said. Regarding Hezbollah, the Syrian president said, "It will not agree to the principal decision to implicate it and will not accept any such agreements. The international tribunal must seek the real killer."
According to the report, the Saudi king mainly listened to Assad and did not express any objection or reservations to what he heard. King Abdullah is a patron of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafiq Hariri's son. The paper reported that the two leaders tried to find a solution to the matter, in a way that would prevent an explosion in Lebanon, particularly after the Syrian president stressed that Hezbollah "will not remain silent if it is accused by the tribunal, and will do everything in its power to rise against it." It remained unclear what the two leaders agreed on.
It is strongly believed that Syria is covertly dictating Nasrallah's threatening rhetoric against the STL, the moderate Arab countries, the Lebanese people and their government. Syria as previously is using Hezbollah to scare the Lebanese mosaic ethnic communities, the Muslim Sunnis and the Christians in particular, and accordingly force them to call its army again to enter Lebanon, contain Hezbollah and stop him from taking over the country and toppling its democratic, multicultural and co-existence regime. Syria is playing this bloody and evil game and betting on this scary scenario in a bid to re-occupy Lebanon.
In conclusion, the Free World and Arab countries are required to stand tall with no fear or hesitation. They should strongly support the STL with all their available resources, including the use of force if and when needed; refuse any kind of concessions or compromises that Syria or Saudi Arabia suggests; not succumb to Hezbollah's threats and terrorism; not fall prey to the sneaky Syrian plot; and most importantly not commit their previous fatal mistake of giving Syria the green light to re-occupy Lebanon.
*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/
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