Elias Bejjani

President Suleiman's Oath & Our People In Israel

2009-11-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

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

Syria not Lebanon is the Creation of the Sikes-Picot Agreement

2009-10-22T03:13:00.001-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

Lebanon has been hit by an actual devastating curse since it became an independent country within its current borders in 1920. This curse is embodied in the avarice, envy, detachment from reality and hatred arising from neighboring, Syria, many of whose politicians, rulers and intellectuals have failed to date to accept the solid reality of Lebanon’s entity, distinguishable identity sovereignty and independence.

They have angrily and vengefully alleged for years - without any actual historical or geographical facts - that Lebanon is a part of their country. All Lebanon’s major and shocking problems during the last 70 years have invariably stemmed from this Syrian falsehood, a delusion which they concocted. Syrian officials and politicians seek every opportunity to loudly and brazenly proclaim this false allegation.

The latest mockery in this ongoing Syrian soap opera appeared in the contents of a very sinister op-ed that was published in the Saudi daily, Al Riyadh, on 12/10/09 and then reproduced on 14/10/09 in the Syrian government-run mouthpiece, Al Wattan, in which the argument was made for re-uniting Syria and Lebanon into the romantic entity that many Arab nationalists have salivated over for decades.

The Saudi journalist apologized two days after the publication of his opinion in Al Wattan on the basis that he was mistaken in both perception and expression. Al Wattan did not publish his apology. In his opinion he had uttered what the Syrians have been rhetorically parroting since 1916: “that Lebanon was the creation of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 through which France and the UK with the assent of Russia stripped it from Syria.”

It is really annoying and boring that we the Lebanese should live with this ongoing, shameful and deliberate Syrian twisting of the facts. They gave themselves a political historical identity that does not in reality exist and endeavor to impose their mockeries through propaganda that intends to stir emotions, but is devoid of all the required actual historical and geographical basis and facts.

A thorough review of the Sikes-Picot Agreement of 1916 that was reached between France and the UK with the approval of Russia negates all the Syrian allegations and unveils their lies. France and the UK which occupied most of the Middle Eastern countries in World War I divided among themselves the responsibilities and influence in these countries. Syria and Lebanon were among these countries. Their deal was known as the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, the League of Nations acknowledged the contents of this agreement in April 1922.
For the Syrians to reject the Sikes-Picot Agreement simply shows that they are actually rejecting the existence of their own state. One might comprehend from such a naive stance of rejection that the Syrians would prefer to go back to the Ottoman era and its provincial system.

That obsolete system offered as its top position a wali (local governor) instead of an Ottoman ruler. It also indicated that France and the UK dismantled certain existing Arab states to establish artificial ones, like the current Republic of Syria.

In fact, there was an Arabic plan to establish one big strong Arab State, but it did not take place for many reasons stemming from the will of both ruling powers at that time, France and the UK. This fact was taken into consideration when the borders of the current Middle East countries were decided on and demarcated.

The best response to the nonsensical false Syrian allegation would be through displaying historical facts according to their chronology in a bid to put an end to this bold Syrian forgery of history.

First fact: Lebanon, both the distinguishable political identity and people, has expressed itself in many forms. Without dwelling deeply into Lebanon’s remote history, we know that it was an independent entity at least at the beginning of this century, more specifically, in 1517 at the beginning of the Ottoman era. During that era, Prince Faker Eddine, known as Sultan Al-Baer (the master of the land), established the well-known Lebanese Maani Emirate.

Second fact: The Maani Emirate enjoyed self-autonomy, had its own army, as well as its own foreign independent relations. This Lebanese prince cut numerous accords with foreign countries and fought the Ottoman authorities to maintain a kind of independence. Meanwhile, the entire surrounding area, including the current state of Syria, were divided into provinces ruled directly by an Ottoman governor (wali).

Third fact: Syria as it is known today has never been a politically independent entity. The name Syria was given by the Greeks to a geographical area located between the Dejla and Euphrates rivers and Phoenicia. Syria was not a name for a separate state.

Fourth fact: In year 1920 the Lebanese entity was recognized as an existing state, and not as a newly established one. At that time the existing borders of the Lebanese Emirate were taken into consideration when the current Lebanese State borders were demarcated. The Lebanese regions that were annexed to the neighboring provinces were returned to the State of Lebanon.

Fifth fact: During that era the current geographical Syria was divided into four small provinces: the Alawi province, the Druze province, the Damascus province and the province of Aleppo. The same status prevailed until 1925 when the province of Damascus was integrated with that of Aleppo and both were given the name of the State of Syria. The four provinces were joined together in 1939 and called the Syrian Republic. The UN recognized this newly established republic in 1941 after it was liberated from the French Vichy troops.

Sixth fact: The current Syrian Republic is a product of the Sikes-Picot Agreement, and with the French occupation and the League of Nations the current Syria would have remained divided into four provinces fighting each other.

Seventh fact: One doubts very much that Syrian Alawi Baathist officials are not fully aware of the French documents that exhibit plainly the Alawi's stance in calling for an independent Alawi State. These officials are definitely fully aware of the names of the Alawi leaders who signed the documents.

Accordingly, based on these facts we can conclude that Syria and not Lebanon is a fake country created by the Sikes-Picot Agreement. Meanwhile, Lebanon is a country deeply rooted in ancient history, the earliest documented records dating back at least 7000 years.

Three quotations from the Bible (Old Testament) show with no shred of a doubt that Lebanon was throughout all historical eras recognized as a distinguishable entity. Even its borders are mentioned:

*Judges 3:3: “…the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.”

*Song of Solomon 4/7 &8: “You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”

*Joshua 13/5-7 “…and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”

The Syrians’ objection and rejection of the outcome of the Sikes-Picot Agreement is a mere empty propaganda tactic, and in case they are not happy with it, the Syrian Baathist regime will have to revert to its previous system of four provinces and dismantle the current Syrian state.

The core of the problem with Syria lies in the fact that its Baathist regime is oppressing and impoverishing its own people and depriving them of democracy and all kinds of freedoms. By publicly airing such baseless emotional strife with its neighbors, this regime strives to cover up all its hardships and failures and attribute to the Sikes-Picot Agreement, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, etc... It blames everyone else, but never recognizes its disastrous self-inflicted failures in all domains.

The Syrian regime has drifted towards dictatorial rule and has been camouflaging its evil axis of conduct and practices with a fake national ideology which in reality is no more than a set of empty, deceptive rhetorical slogans, and the allegation that Lebanon is a part of Syria is one of them.
Click Here to read the Sikes-Picot Agreement
http://www.clhrf.com/unresagreements/sykes-picot1916.htm

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Brazilian Samba & Hezbollah's Terrorism

2009-10-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

By Elias Bejjani

On Thursday, 1st October a preplanned and scheduled Brazilian samba show was banned and torpedoed in the historical southern Lebanese city of Tyre after about 100 Shiite clerics under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ali Yassin, a powerful Hezbollah follower, met and issued a fatwa (religious decree) forbidding it and declaring it sinful.

A statement by the clerics condemned the open-air Brazilian samba display by a dance troupe that has been touring Lebanon and said: “The naked festival is incompatible with the religious and Islamic morals of Tyre”. The statement blamed the city's municipality for licensing the performance of the festival and held it accountable”. “We support tourism but are against obscenity,” said Sheikh Ali Yassin, who led the 100 Shiite clerics’ protest.

The troupe, including musicians and scantily clad dancers, performed last month in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square and in the Lebanese cities of Zahle and Joanieh without any kind of problems at all. On the contrary, they were greatly liked and admired by the public. Thousands of Lebanese and tourists from all over the world attended the shows and enjoyed them.

The Brazilian embassy officials in Beirut were saddened and shocked by the unjustified uproar raised by the Hezbollah clerics. The cultural attaché in the embassy told the French news agency that all needed measures were taken weeks ago by both the troupe and the embassy with regard to the religious sensitivities of the city that has a Shiite majority, including ensuring proper modest attire for the dancers rather than the traditional revealing “bal samba” costumes

The Tyre local city council was forced by all means of intimidation and terrorism to revoke its positive decision and had to cancel the show after consulting with politicians and security officials. The council’s statement said it all: “The Tyre municipality is keen to confirm to the public opinion that the Brazilian festival did not infringe on religious values or morals and was not pornographic as proclaimed by some people. Therefore and on instructions and directives from Tyre's Mount Amel Grand Mufti, Judge Sheik Hassan Abdullah, the municipality has decided to cancel the festival show in the city. Meanwhile, the council reaffirms its commitment to the genuine and well established Lebanese-Brazilian relationship and greatly thanks the Brazilian embassy in Lebanon”.

Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies issued a courageous statement of condemnation addressing Hezbollah's dictatorship. The statement said: “In support for civil liberties and freedom of opinion and expression, representatives of a number of Tyre NGOs, civil associations, cultural and trade union bodies held a joint meeting and discussed the unjustified arbitrary cancellation of the Brazilian samba festival that was scheduled to perform in Tyre with the consent of the city's municipality and in numerous Lebanese regions in the realm of tourism and summer cultural activities. The representatives recorded the following observations:

1 - The ban harms Tyre’s tourism reputation, blemishes its civilized image and reflects negatively on its tourism activities.

2 - There is the fear that this ban will become a precedent to be followed by intrusions on freedoms in both Lebanon, the country of coexistence and Tyre, the city of openness.

3 - It is feared that this enforced cancellation is a sign and a forerunner for future measures that will affect individual and public freedoms and force Tyre to join the list of other cities that are shackled by measures of repression and religious decrees.

4 - The emphasis was on the right of all citizens to express their opinions without imposing them on others; the respect for others’ feelings and the inadmissibility of banning freedoms and transgressing on them in violation to what is guaranteed by the country's constitution.

We should offer tribute to the Tyre municipality council, NGOs, civil associations and cultural and trade union bodies for all of them refused to succumb to Hezbollah's terror and intimidation despite their blatant threats and religious manipulations.

They loudly and publicly voiced their strong peaceful condemnation with pride and dignity. They courageously witnessed for the truth without being deterred by Hezbollah's show of power, heretics or bragging.

It is so sad, frustrating and unfortunate that Hezbollah, the Iranian religious and armed fundamentalist militia, could time after time impose on the Lebanese people and authorities its dictates and stone age despotic lifestyle in such an oppressive and intimidating Stalinist and Nazi pattern. Last July Hezbollah through its bold terrorism and fanaticism tactics openly intimidated the famous French-Moroccan comedian Gad Elmaleh to cancel his participation in the Beiteddine Festival.
Noura Jumblatt, head of the festival's organizing committee, said the group had received threats against allowing Elmaleh to perform.

The Hezbollah terrorist organization challenges the Lebanese constitution on a daily basis and breaks by force all the laws and regulations that ensure and guarantee public freedoms. Its ongoing enforced endeavors to abolish Lebanon’s multicultural, free, democratic and mosaic society is dragging the country into havoc, poverty, isolation, and forcing thousands and thousands of Lebanese nationalists to emigrate.

The most threatening and frightening element in Hezbollah's daily criminal mercenary infringements lie in its preset vicious scheme to destroy the country's peaceful, civilized, and democratic educational system and replace it with the Iranian mullah's religious ideology of death, wars, jihad, invasions and suicide. It is worth mentioning that the majority of the Lebanese people reject such an islamist indoctrination, including the majority of the Lebanese Shiite community which Hezbollah controls by force.

Hezbollah bears the full responsibility for this deplorable repression of the artistic image of Tyre that is deeply rooted in history and civilization. Tyre throughout its 7000 years of history was a haven for multiculturalism, freedom, art, democracy and peace. It gave the world great leaders like Hannibal, famous poets like Miligar, Historians, artists, writers, thinkers, inventors, creators, geniuses and philosophers. Tyre will never be a city of fanaticism, awkwardness, insularity, intolerance or barbarism.

The great Tyrean poet, Mliqar (140-70 BC), told the whole world about Lebanon's openness, love of civilization, peace and tolerance and requested that the following message be carved on his gravestone (in Cyprus): “Yes, I am Mliqar, Tyre raised me, and I saw the light through its skies and Athens taught me. Dear, do not be surprised we live in one country, its name is the "world”.

The ongoing war of suppression and terrorism that Hezbollah is waging and forcing on Lebanon is escalating. This war confirms without any shred of a doubt that the current serious ongoing conflict in Lebanon is between two educational systems and cultures: the first is the Iranian mullah's evil teaching of jihad, death, suicide, fanaticism, oppression, terrorism, rejection of the other, awkwardness and isolation; and the second one is the historical Lebanese education and culture of peace, human rights, civil society, openness, multiculturalism, democracy and freedom.

In the event that the Lebanese yield with no heroic resistance to Hezbollah's derailed mullah's logic that torpedoed the Brazilian samba band, Lebanon is definitely very soon going to lose its identity, history, and civilization, as well as its freedoms, creativeness, education and the deeply rooted mosaic society of different cultures, religions and ethics.
Meanwhile, it is so sad and disgusting that some Lebanese politicians and leaders who rhetorically brag to be advocates for secularism, equality, human rights and freedom like MP Michel Aoun and MP Ghassan Mikieber, and many others have swallowed their tongues regarding Hezbollah's enforced ban on the Brazilian samba dance troupe. They were selectively blind, deaf and mute and cowardly refrained from criticizing Hezbollah's blatant infringement on the basic freedoms of Lebanese society.

May God protect Lebanon and its people from the ignorance, terrorism and fanaticism that Hezbollah is trying to force on them by all its means of money, power, cruelty, intimidation, threats and manipulation.

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Harper's Courageous Anti-Ahmadinejad Stance

2009-09-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proved once again that he is a great leader and that his dedication to worldwide peace and the fight against terrorists and terrorism in all its forms is genuine and committed.
Sincere thanks are offered to Mr. Stephen Harper from the Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council (LCCC) and all the members of the Canadian Lebanese community throughout Canada who fully share the Council's objectives, principles, love for peace and freedom, respect for democracy and the rule of law, and their commitment to human rights, tolerance, diversity and the acceptance of others.

Thanks for letting Mr. Ahmadinejad know what Canadians think about his inhuman and anti-peace rhetoric.

Iran's dictator, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, definitely does not deserve the ears of the world with his fanaticism, paranoia, so-called divine policies, pompousness, mad ravings, empty threats and evil advocacy for suicide, hatred and killing.
Well, the UN gives freedom to all world leaders to deliver their speeches and express their ideas, but at the same time it does not actually force any country's delegation to listen to leaders' speeches which they sense as a threat to peace, human rights and worldwide ethical codes and order.
Prime Minister Harper has taken the right decision to boycott Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN General Assembly. This deluded and fanatical man has said and done things that are absolutely repugnant, brutal, disgraceful and totally unacceptable. Accordingly it is improper that somebody like him should not be given any legitimacy to parrot his speech full of madness to the UN General Assembly.

This defiant man does not abide by any articles of the UN Charter of Human Rights, oppresses, persecutes, intimidates, kills and tortures his own people. Meanwhile he is challenging the whole free world and continuing with Iran's endeavors to develop nuclear weapons.

One can imagine what this lunatic leader would do once he gets his hands on nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that initially he would not hesitate for a moment to use these weapons of mass destruction in invading and occupying Iran's neighboring countries, and once he possesses long range missiles the whole world will be in real danger.
Ahmadinejad is currently a small Hitler in each and every aspect; the free world has an obligation to see that he does not grow to be another actual Hitler. All available ways and means MUST be used to stop this man from turning Iran into another Nazi power.

Because of Ahmadinejad's Iranian mullah's regime’s evil interference in Lebanon, the country and its people are severely suffering on a daily basis. Hezbollah, Iran's armed militia, has taken Lebanon and its people hostage and is hindering all efforts to reclaim independence, freedom, peace and democracy. Iran has turned Lebanon into an arena and battlefield for its wars not only against the Arab countries, Israel and the West, but sadly against the Lebanese people themselves.

As a Canadian - Lebanese, I fully sympathize with my people back home in Lebanon and hail their endurance and courage. Ahmadinejad's Iranian regime is behind all Lebanon's agony and turmoil. Hezbollah is devouring Lebanon piece by piece and if the Western world does not come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, Lebanon will very soon be lost as an independent and free country and transformed into an Iranian satellite state.

Meanwhile, let those who criticized Mr. Harper's stance know that Hezbollah is not a Lebanese party by any criteria, but rather an Iranian army in Lebanon. Its decision-making process, financing, ideology, training, supplies and weapons all come from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ headquarters and leadership. It has been well documented by several informed sources that Iran annually pays Hezbollah billions of dollars. This group was founded in Lebanon by the Iranian mullahs in 1982 and it is worth mentioning that Hezbollah's main mission was and still is to export, advocate and spread the Khomeini’s religious ideology to all Middle Eastern countries and cause chaos all over the world.

Hezbollah's Iranian mission has never been a secret and each and every Lebanese person is reminded of this Iranian agenda daily with posters and billboards of Hezbollah’s divinity on every street.

Many thanks to Mr. Harper's integrity, courage, moral responsibility, devotion, commitment and transparent stance against terrorism and terrorists.

From day one in office our Prime Minister has fulfilled all his promises with regard to the global war on terrorism and continues to practice what he preaches.

**Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Lebanon's “Madoff” : A Divine Bankruptcy

2009-09-20T15:26:00.001-07:00

By Elias Bejjani*

08/09/09 Al Manar Hezbollah website: “On the businessman, Salah Ezzeddine’s, bankruptcy case, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pointed out that Hezbollah Party, its leadership and the organization had no association whatsoever with this issue from the beginning to the end, stressing that the leadership does not have any of the money claimed. He added that the aim of several media facilities which have shed light on this issue that is in the hands of the judiciary is to tarnish the image of many of the party’s cadres. Sayyed Nasrallah stated that his party is in the process of issuing a detailed release on this sensitive issue that affects the people's money”.

No matter how hard Sayyed Nasrallah or other Hezbollah mullahs try to camouflage, hide, justify, deny or twist facts, the bitter reality shows that an actual devastating financial earthquake has severely hit the Lebanese Shiite community in Lebanon and abroad. This shocking disaster took place earlier this month after the famed Lebanese Shiite financier, Salah Ezzeddine, filed for bankruptcy and was placed under arrest.

From wealthy Lebanese Shiite expatriates in the Arabian Gulf oil countries, Africa, USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and other countries, to local villagers all over Lebanon, to top notch Hezbollah clergy, officials and MPs, Ezzeddine spared no one as he allegedly concocted a Ponzi scheme that saw almost USD 2 billion go up in smoke.

Tagged as “Lebanon's Bernard Madoff”, Ezzeddine made headlines earlier this month in the local and international press. His dubious bankruptcy has left many serious unanswered questions, all related to his very cozy and privileged relationship with the terrorist organization, Hezbollah. A shroud of mystery still surrounds the whole matter.
Any sane Lebanese citizen who has a free conscience and is familiar with the unfolding events in his country would take Nasrallah’s statement above as a personal insult to his intelligence and a flagrant infringement on the plain truth. There is no doubt that Nasrallah has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the simple fact that the majority of his Shiite community members are fully aware of the kind of intimate and very close relationship that Ezzeddine enjoyed with Hezbollah and its high ranking leadership, including Nasrallah himself, as well as his close associates.

The Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily reported on September 05/09 that Nasrallah himself and some of his family members were investing USD 2 million in Ezzeddine's businesses. According to the Lebanese media three other senior Hezbollah operatives were also among those who invested and lost funds with Ezzeddine. One of the three is Wafik Safa, chief of internal security. The other two as reported by Al-Arabiya were the leader of Hezbollah's parliament bloc, Mohammad Raad, and a member of the bloc, Amin Sherri. The report did not say whether they had lost their own private funds or those of the organization. Sources affiliated with Hezbollah have estimated Ezzeddine's losses at around USD 1 billion, and a Kuwaiti daily reported that the organization had lost USD 683 million.

A report published on September 12/09 also by the Kuwaiti Al-seyassah daily said that many senior political and military Syrian officials had lost huge amounts of money with Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, and that they are now trying to recover a portion of it from the Hezbollah. The report stated that Hezbollah had collected about EUR 17 million from Ezzeddine before he was handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. According to the same report, the Syrian president's brother, Maher Assad, his uncle's sons, Rami Hafez Makhlouf, Vice President Faruq al-Shara, Major General Mohammed Nassif, Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, the family of the late Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, in addition to a number of senior army and intelligence officers had all invested with Ezzeddine and had lost their money. It is interesting to know that USD 200 thousand was the minimum amount of money that Ezzeddine would accept for investment.

According to anonymous Lebanese neutral financial and sociology experts' assessments that were based on actual facts and firsthand experience, Hezbollah was the sole predisposing and precipitating evil vehicle that stood behind Ezzeddine's scheme from day one until its deadly end. They all concluded that Hezbollah is to be solely blamed for the tragedy due to the simple fact that this armed Iranian militia fully controls the Shiite canton and runs its affairs with an iron fist. Nothing at all happens inside this canton without Hezbollah's approval and full awareness.

The worst part of the scandal for the Hezbollah party might not come in only dollars and cents but in the damage done to its faked and disguised reputation for honesty, competence and integrity especially among its own Shiite community. Journalist Ali Halawi in a report published by the Elaph website on September 16/09 said: “It seems that Hezbollah from the top of its hierarchy represented by its Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has made a serious decision to contain Ezzeddine's bankruptcy, which is described as very closely linked to the party. The bankruptcy is causing a great deal of embarrassment to the Hezbollah party due to the fact that a significant number of its political and security officials are among the thousands of Shiite depositors who invested their money in Ezzeddine's projects for annual profits that reached around 40 percent. In parallel with the decision of containment, some clerics in the party have issued a special religious decree (very close to a Fatwa) forbidding anyone to mention or relate the party to the bankruptcy under any circumstances in a bid that Israeli and American propaganda would not tarnish the party's reputation”.

Based on Hezbollah's suffocating grip on the canton's, residents, security, banks, media, schools, hospitals, communications, life style, businesses, and worship facilities, there is no way at all that Ezzeddine would have been able to run his very sensitive money business for so many years without not only the approval of Hezbollah, but also without being a member in this very rich organization. Numerous reports even claimed that Ezzeddine was investing for Hezbollah and not for himself.

It worth mentioning that Hezbollah does not approve or believe in the banking system of earning interest and considers it religiously unlawful. Instead its leadership and clergy advocate what they call a “business partnership”. Ezzeddine was using this religious doctrine and smartly manipulating it to his advantage. All those who put their money in his coffer presumably considered themselves partners in his investments. Ezzeddine was promising his so called “partners” annual returns of 40 to 50 percent.

More than 11 thousand Lebanese Shiites were hit by Ezzeddine's bankruptcy . Many of them can’t sue him or even file publicly for their losses because they live in countries like Canada, Australia and the USA where tax departments would expose them to very tough financial monitoring if their loses were officially declared. A Lebanese daily has stated that a Shiite family residing in Canada that had invested with Ezzeddine alone lost more than USD 1 million. According to the report, this family doesn’t even have a receipt from Ezzeddine for their money.

Meanwhile, many prominent Hezbollah members are also afraid to fully admit their losses to avoid questions about the origins of their questionable wealth.

Members in the Lebanese Shiite community placed their life savings with Ezzeddine because of his close connections with Hezbollah, which thus bears at least a moral responsibility for the bankruptcy scheme. The prominent outspoken Lebanese Shiite politician, Ahmad Alassad , blamed Hezbollah for the bankruptcy scheme. The Lebanese National News agency published his statement on September 11/09: "Ahmad Al Assad stressed Hezbollah's responsibility with regard to Ezzeddine's bankruptcy because he had a close relationship with them. Accordingly he said, “it is a crime if the party knew that his activities were wrong and kept silent. At the same time the party is accountable too if it did not know and did not carry out any kind of investigation to trace the sources of the high interest that he was paying to the investors. It is obvious that this man has invested in his relationship with Hezbollah to cover up his activities and to give the impression that he was supported by Hezbollah. Therefore Hezbollah's obligation was to carry out a probe into his activities at least for the benefit of the people for whose interests it claims to work”.

On September 14/09, Ezzeddine who has been under arrest since August 31/09, was formally charged by the Lebanese judiciary with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime, if found guilty, punishable for up to 15 years in prison. Five others have also been charged with involvement in the case, but all of them are on the run.

It is so sad, disappointing and frustrating for all of Ezzeddine's victims that because of Hezbollah's questionable and suspiciously friendly relationship with him, his bankruptcy case most probably will not proceed anywhere in the Lebanese judicial system, and he might even be found to be innocent, and subsequently not charged and released.

Hezbollah's role, intimidation and influence in the bankruptcy scandal are very obvious. This intimidation role is extremely noticeable in the fact that not even one investor from the 11 thousand Shiites that were hit did file a judiciary complaint against Ezzeddine yet.
Why? Because Hezbollah's mini state actually controls and runs the central Lebanese state and all its institutions by terrorism, crime, embezzlement, and corruption.

In conclusion, Lebanon will never be able to reclaim its independence, freedom, and sovereignty until Hezbollah is finally dismantled and disarmed, and whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

The Late Bachir Gemayal: The Grain of Wheat & the Yeast

2009-09-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani

John 12:24: "Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."
On September 14, 1982, on the day Lebanon was celebrating the Day of the Holy Cross, its President-elect, Sheik Bachir Gemayel, passed away into the hands of the Almighty God after carrying the cross of the country to heaven. He was not even 34 years old, but what he achieved for the freedom and dignity of Lebanon places him among the great men who left a stamp of glory on the history of Lebanon.

Bachir, the hero, dreamt of a sovereign, free and independent Lebanon, and his dream became the objective of all free-minded Lebanese men and women. And even as the hands of evil and hatred took him away through a cowardly assassination plot (14/09/82), his dream lives on in the fiber of our people and their conscience for as long as the Cedars of Lebanon tower over the country from their peaks.

Today we remember Bachir in our prayers. We also remember his fallen comrades who gave so much for our beloved country, and we learn from their sacrifice many a lesson. With this 27th remembrance day, our hopes are renewed, our determination is re-energized, and our commitment to the cause is re-confirmed.

Bachir’s bright star was high in the skies of Lebanon and with it the hopes of the Lebanese people. But the joy was killed and the hopes dashed when his star fell from the skies, a martyr to his noble ambitions aiming at building a strong Lebanon, confirmed in its sovereignty and independence.

Bachir believed that "the one Lebanon is the Lebanon of the 10,452 km2, that the Lebanese must win back completely so that it belongs to its sons and daughters in all their communities, creeds, and beliefs". But even as he departed, what he believed in remains in the hearts and minds of all the Lebanese people.

Bachir was raised on the cross of Lebanon on the day we remember the Cross. He was killed in a political act at the intersection of the interests of nations, individuals, and terrorist groups that feared for their own egotistical interests should a unified, free and sovereign Lebanon rise from its ashes. Bachir established the framework and then was unjustly taken from us too soon.

Those same regimes of evil, Syria and Iran, and groups and factions like the terrorists, Hezbollah, continue today to hold the Lebanese people and their country hostage to their greed, hatred, and savage schemes. They have mastered the art of subservience and bowing at the doorstep of the forces of occupation. They are shepherds of doom who have reneged on every pledge they made and abandoned their flock.

They are factions whose job is to drive wedges between the free people of the Land of the Cedars, assassinating their aspirations and hopes in deed, thought, decision and execution. They assassinate Lebanon every morning and every hour of their waking day, killing its sovereignty, its free decision-making, its democracy and culture.

Bachir's venomous assassination still lingers to this day in all its ugliness, its corruption and its neglect. It still lingers in its displacement and emigration, dhimmitude, apostasy, with economic, social, financial, political, security and patriotic decline.

It still lingers with the rule of personal over national interests. It still lingers with the dismemberment of the political parties; the politicization of the judiciary; the truncation of sovereignty with the imposition of foreign interference, and the abandonment of human, religious and ethical values.

Bachir’s dream is here to stay and will never disappear, because it is the dream of a people who want a dignified life, a dream that calls upon unity, sovereignty and peace.

We are today together to remember the martyrdom of Bachir and his 22 comrades, lifting our eyes and hearts in the midst of danger and trouble to the redeemer of suffering humanity, Jesus-Christ, who said "And if I were to rise above the earth, I shall take with me everyone" (John12/32). We ask Him for light, faith, strength, and hope to continue our march forward and lift ourselves, our homeland, and our people to victory, to peace, to righteousness, to freedom and to all that is good in this world. For Bachir is alive in our beings and in our minds.

Sheik Bachir, Lebanon's elected president who was assassinated before assuming his presidential responsibilities was and still is the patriotic blessed yeast that was brewed and produced solid foundations of freedom, sovereignty and independence, as well as perseverance and hope in all Lebanese minds and hearts.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0_NJaLhb4 .

Terrorists and powers of evil could not destroy the dream that Bachir left for us. Even the gates of hell shall not be able to shake our deeply-rooted faith in peace, love and democracy. Bachir is the grain of wheat and the yeast. Bachir's dream is alive and glowing. As expressed in Galatians 5:9: "A little yeast grows through the whole lump".

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Has Hezbollah turned Lebanon into a Jihadist State?

2009-09-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr. President: Bring Back our People from Israel

2009-08-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

On August 06/09, the Lebanese official National News Agency published on its website, the following slanderous and desecrating report: “The International Red Cross received today from within the occupied Palestinian territories and via the Naqoura gate, (check post on the Lebanese-Israeli borders) the body of the agent, (Amiel) Elias Joseph Agiel, 52 years old, who died in one of the hospitals in the occupied Palestinian territories. The deceased entered occupied Palestine (Israel) in the aftermath of the Israeli army defeat in year 2000. The International Red Cross Committee handed over Agiel's body to his family in the town of Niha - Chouf district”. It is worth mentioning that the Arabic term "Amiel" means a traitor and conspirator.

For the record, the deceased was not neither a traitor, nor a conspirator, but a mere victim. In the aftermath of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000, he was among more than 6,500 southern Lebanese men, along with members of their families that had no option but to leave their towns, villages and abandon all their properties and hastily run for their lives. While Israel was logistically preparing for the withdrawal, Hezbollah waged a merciless and savage media campaign against the southern Lebanese citizens. The campaign was aired publicly on all local and international TV channels and radio stations. The most frightening threats were uttered personally by Hezbollah's General Secretary, Sheik Nasrallah, who savagely said, “We will enter their bedrooms, pierce their stomachs, slaughter them and slice their throats.”

It is sad, sickening and shameful that the official Lebanese National News Agency has resorted in its hostile, defaming, inhuman and defiling report to Hezbollah's jihadist lexicon and abided by its Iranian criteria of fundamentalism and terrorism for defining who is a traitor and who is a patriot.

The report did not respect or regard the fact that the deceased is a Lebanese citizen and a human being, and definitely not an agent or a traitor. By tagging him when he is dead as a traitor the news agency has openly and savagely annulled all the deeply rooted Lebanese cultural traditions that honor the sacredness of death. Meanwhile, it also violated all judicial laws that consider the accused innocent until found guilty by a court of law.

The question is: who runs this news agency that supposedly is an official department that belongs to the Lebanese Ministry of Information? Is it the Lebanese government or Hezbollah? There is no doubt that the journalist who worded the report and his superiors who approved it are all without any normal human feelings or otherwise how could they viciously dare to defy the sanctity of death?

The wording of the report incites a great deal of moral, ethical and religious vilification. It not only dishonors the sanctity of death, but also presents a flagrant violation on the deceased’s rights and dignity, as well as provoking blatant contempt, defamation, belittlement and threats on the deceased family, relatives and his hometown residents.

It would have been understandable if Hezbollah's, Al-Qaeda’s, or any of their jihadist proxy media facilities had worded and disseminated such a degrading and provocative report, because none of them recognize the UN Human Rights Charter or have any respect for the dignity of the living or the dead and are not states or members of the UN, and openly advocate their doctrines through terrorism. Meanwhile, too many questions need to be raised when the official Lebanese National News Agency adopts such a lexicon and such an approach!

It is worth mentioning that while for the past nine years, the Lebanese government on all levels has been abandoning its own citizens who took refuge in Israel, and unjustly insists on tagging them as agents and traitors, we find that Israel, the so- called enemy, is embracing them and doing its best to help them. In this context the Israeli cabinet appointed on August 02/09 Minister Yossi Peled as the responsible minister for the care of former South Lebanese Army members in Israel. Peled was assigned to head an inter-ministerial team that will address housing, employment, education, and citizenship needs of former SLA members living in Israel since 2000 when the IDF withdrew from Lebanon. Peled said, "The State of Israel has a moral obligation to the people of SLA, its allies, who fought alongside it shoulder to shoulder."

This notorious report is by all standards a very serious atrocity and an alarming sign because it shows clearly the depth and extent of Hezbollah's infiltration and penetration to all the Lebanese state's institutions, not only through its well trained manpower, but most dangerously through its jihadist doctrine, Iranian mullah's lexicon, and the escalating manipulation of the government’s decision making process including the last word on war and peace.

What about the deterrent judicial role the Ministry of Justice is supposed to play in accordance with the country's constitution, and what measures is it going to take? And in case it tries to play its role, will Hezbollah allow that to happen? Definitely not, because the Lebanese state's institutions including this ministry are actually and practically fully dominated and controlled by Hezbollah.

One wonders also why the main Lebanese Christian parties in both March 14 March 8 coalitions are burying their heads in the sand, although the majority of the South Lebanese Army were from their members. Could it be that they have been hit by the contagious dhimmitude ailment and are doing what the well known Chinese proverb says: I don't see, I don't hear, I don't talk?

It is time for these parties to get out of their self imposed coma and start to do their job.The ongoing humanitarian suffering and dilemma of the Lebanese refugees in Israel make every official, clergyman, politician and intellectual in Lebanon accountable, and accordingly they all have an obligation to speak out loudly and fairly for the preservation of their rights and dignity.

We strongly condemn the disgraceful and irresponsible conduct of the Lebanese government, the politicians and clergy are adopting with regard to the legitimate rights of our people in Israel. Justice is needed as well courage and conscience. We loudly call on Lebanon's President, Mr. Michel Suleiman, who had promised publicly in his inauguration speech on May 25/08 to bring back our refugees from Israel: "And here comes the role of perseverance to liberate our prisoners and uncover the fate of the disappeared and bring back our sons who have sought refuge in Israel. The nation is wide enough for everybody.", to move on and fulfill his promise.

Meanwhile, his Excellency, the president needs to take into consideration that these victims were forced by Hezbollah's terrorism to take refuge in neighboring Israel since May 2000. Therefore, their return needs to be a priority, and it must be done with honor, dignity, respect and definitely without any kind of farce trials. These people are heroes and not traitors, and every Lebanese with faith and conscience is fully aware of this reality and substantially unshaken tangible fact.

Elias BejjaniCanadian-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

Hezbollah Runs Lebanon's Foreign Ministry

2009-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

By Elias Bejjani*

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 through cancerous infiltration, intimidation, 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.

In this context, Hezbollah forced the Lebanese state to adopt all its derailed concepts, vicious justifications, bizarre explanations and plain fabrications in a bid to camouflage and cover up the actual causes of the massive series of explosions that occurred on July 14/09 in the southern Lebanese town of Khirbat Silm, located about 10 miles north of the Israeli-Lebanese border. In fact, Khirbat Silm was hit seriously due to a series of Hezbollah's huge underground weaponry caches.

Observers and local residents have confirmed that the Hezbollah militiamen did not allow the Lebanese army or the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to approach the scene of the blast until after they had removed all the burned weapons and ammunition, and transferred all the weapons that did not explode to nearby depots located in a number of civilian houses in the town itself.

The Hezbollah civilian militiamen with their families in the town attacked the UNIFIL soldiers (French contingent) with stones when they tried to search the houses close to the explosion location injuring 14 of them and aborting their search assignment.

At a time when Hezbollah leaders boast and brag openly that their stockpiles of missiles have doubled, their military capabilities are increasing and that they are militarily still as strong in the southern region adjacent to the Israeli borders as they were before the war in July 2006, the Lebanese state only buries its head in the sand and adopts stances that are childish, forged, naive and void from any kind of actuality or credibility.

Official statements issued by the UNIFIL forces confirmed clearly and explicitly that the weaponry caches that exploded in the town of Khirbat Silm belonged to Hezbollah and tagged the incident as a serious violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, notably the provision stating that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of its operations between the Litani River and the Blue Line.

In spite of the solid facts that the UNIFIL statements presented, the Lebanese authorities turned a blind eye on all the infringements that were committed by Hezbollah, not only in regard to the explosion of its weaponry caches, but also on the two others incidents that targeted the UNIFIL forces afterwards that were engineered and executed by Hezbollah.

In the first incident, about 100 of Hezbollah's civilians from the residents of the town of Khirbat Silm threw stones at the UNIFIL soldiers and injured 14 of them. In the second incident, a group of Hezbollah civilians crossed the Green Line of the Israeli-Lebanese border near Shabaa Farms and overran a non-guarded Israeli post. Meanwhile, the letter that the Lebanese Foreign Ministry sent to the United Nations regarding the Khirbat Silm explosions and the incidents that followed was void of any credibility, childish, and a mere mouthpiece for Hezbollah's stances. Anyone who had thoroughly read the letter would have known immediately that it was written by the Hezbollah leadership and not by the Lebanese Foreign Affairs diplomats.

The Lebanese political analyst, Bechara Charbel, described the letter as a "diplomatic joke" and said: "It would be great to know who is that genius diplomat that wrote the letter to the United Nations addressing the Khirbat Silm explosions because it is so bad and so fake that he in return deserves to be stripped of his university degrees, fired from his job, slapped on the face and kicked on the back".

The letter alleged that the explosions were due to a fire breaking out in an abandoned building that housed unexploded munitions from the summer 2006 war with Israel. It stressed that cooperation between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL was strong, adding that Lebanon was fully committed to the implementation of Resolution 1701, and that an investigation committee was formed by the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL officers to supervise the scene of the explosion.
According to the letter, the investigations had been launched the day after the explosion, “because experts judged working the first day to be too dangerous since explosions continued until late July 14”. The letter said that the Lebanese soldiers stayed on location despite possible hazards, adding that one soldier had been injured.

The letter goes on to say that the investigations had revealed that the unexploded ammunitions bore writings in Hebrew and were of the type used during the summer 2006 war. It slammed Israel’s claims that Hezbollah endangered civilians by storing its weapons in populated areas. “Israel is trying to justify any future deliberate attack on Lebanese civilians,” the letter said.

Regarding the July 18 incident in which a UNIFIL team investigating the blast was hampered by civilians from the Khirbat Silm town, the Foreign Ministry’s letter revealed the Lebanese Army had decided to investigate leaks that unexploded ammunitions might have been transferred to three houses in Khirbet Silim. “UNIFIL was informed and decided to crack down on the three houses without being escorted by the Lebanese Army,” the letter said. “Clashes with the residents ensued,” it added. "As a result, 14 UNIFIL personnel were slightly injured".

The letter is not only diplomatic nonsense, but also a stupid joke and a mere forgery of the facts. For heaven sake, is there any sane individual that would take such a report seriously and grant any kind of credibility to those who wrote it and to the Lebanese government that adopted it? Definitely no one if we exclude Hezbollah and its Iranian masters, the Mullahs.

It is sad, shameful and heretical that the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Fawzi Salloukh, is actually Hezbollah's Minister for Foreign Affairs and has nothing to do with Lebanon. He is Hezbollah's man and its diplomatic mouthpiece.

In conclusion, Lebanon will remain a mere hostage, and will not become a free, democratic, and independent country again until the terrorist organization Hezbollah is dismantled and disarmed

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

Hezbollah defies UN Resolution 1701

2009-07-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

The weird status of the Terrorist Iranian Hezbollah Militia in Lebanon has no precedent in the entire world, not in the contemporary era, nor at any time in the past. Presumably Lebanon is an independent democratic and multi-cultural country and an active founding member of both the United Nations and Arab league, while in reality and practicality it is not so due to the sad fact that its governing mechanism on all levels is mostly dictated and controlled by the Hezbollah leadership who run and dominate a mini Khomeini state inside the state of Lebanon with an army, financing capabilities, social services, educational body, organizational structure and weaponry arsenal that are all far stronger and far larger than those of the Lebanese state itself.

Hezbollah, the armed Iranian militia stationed in Lebanon, is totally affiliated to the Iranian notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Its leadership holds on solely to Lebanon's war-peace decision making process and imposes on the Lebanese and the country's institutions and officials by force and terrorism their Khomeini's denominational Islamic criteria with regard as to who is an enemy, who is an ally or friend, and who should be from the Lebanese tagged as a nationalist or a traitor.

On July 2006, Hezbollah instigated a deadly war with Israel that lasted for 34 days. The Lebanese legitimate authorities nor the people had any saying in the matter. Because of this insane war, the whole country has suffered huge financial loses that has exceeded 50 billion dollars with more than 1500 citizens and army men dead and with thousands injured. Hezbollah leadership came out of their underground dens and bunkers when the war stopped to declare a divine victory. A victory that in reality is a mere self deception and a sickening delusion according to all world-wide recognized scientific standards of military, loses, gains, reality and logic.

The war was ended in accordance to the UNSC Resolution 1701 that calls in its 8th clause for:Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements: Full respect for the Blue Line by both parties; Security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area; Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state; No foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government; No sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its government; Provision to the United Nations of all remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession.

Hezbollah did not abide by the UNSC 1701. Its Leadership did not put an end to its presence in the area that falls between the Blue Line and the Litani River. The Resolution stipulated that this area must be free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese Army and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the UNIFIL.

UNIFIL does not have the mandate to disarm Hezbollah nor to confiscate its weapons, while the field engagement rules that govern its military activities are limited to self defense only and when facing danger.

Meanwhile the Lebanese Army that was deployed in the South and whose higher command according to the Lebanese Constitution is the Lebanese government, was left in the cold with no orders to either disarm Hezbollah, engage with its men, limit their activities or to confiscate any weaponry of its depots located in the UNFIL working area.

Sadly the UNIFIL, Israel, Lebanese officials and politicians, United Nation, and all the countries whose troops are serving with the UNIFIL, have always been aware of this fact but hesitated, and failed, from taking any action to straighten out the matter and put the UNFIL troops under the UN Chapter Seven that gives the troops the power to carry enforcing and deterrent assignments that the Lebanese army is not allowed by the Lebanese government to implement.

UNIFIL troops have always been under the mercy of Hezbollah and were never able to carry out their assignments freely. In this context a series of underground explosions took place on Tuesday July 14/09 in an abandoned building near Lebanon's tense border with Israel. They were the result of a huge fire in a Hezbollah underground weapons depot. There were no casualties in the blasts, though widespread panic was caused among residents, some of whom mistook it for an Israeli air raid. The depot in the village of Khirbet Silim, about 10 miles north of the border, was housed in an abandoned building and guarded by Hezbollah militia men around the clock.

Following this incident, the Lebanese Army and the UNIFIL stated in their official statements that they have closed off the area and launched a joint investigation into the cause of the explosions. But according to media reports and local residents, Hezbollah deployed heavily in the area following the blast, preventing not only civilians, but also the UNIFIL and Lebanese Army from entering, the area.

Hezbollah in its camouflaging and distraction maneuvering tactics in regards to the Khirbet Silim incident has carried two more violations to the 1701 and tried to fabricate justifications for its so called resistance against Israel:

On July 17/09 a group of 15 Lebanese civilians, including children, crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel. The people were carrying Hezbollah and Lebanon flags. The group crossed the border at a spot where no fence exists, and walked to the Israeli side. IDF soldiers spotted them, but seeing they were unarmed, and had children with them, decided not to respond. Several minutes after crossing the border, the group turned back and returned to Lebanese territory.

Earlier on the same day Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah alleged that Israel is still holding a Lebanese prisoner and the remains of others despite a prison exchange a year ago in which all were to be returned and claimed that the family of the Lebanese soldier Yehia Skaff, say their son is still being held in an Israeli prison. He also alleged that Israel is also holding the "remains of martyrs." There was no immediate comment from Israel, but the government has said in the past that they believe Skaff was killed during the Palestinian terror attack he carried out in 1978 that killed 35 Israelis.

On July 18/09 fourteen UN peacekeepers were injured when Hezbollah civilians stopped by force a UNIFIL patrol that was trying to investigate into the Khirbet Silim arms cache explosion. During the confrontation around 100 Hezbollah civilians threw stones at the troops and damaged their vehicles.

The UNIFIL considered the Khirbet Silim incident a serious violation of Security Council Resolution 1701, notably the provision that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operation between the Litani River and the Blue Line," UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane said in a press statement issued on 15/07/09. The statement noted that UNIFIL's Force Commander Claudio Graziano had met with Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and LAF Commander Jean Kahwaji to brief them on the situation, adding that a "deposit of ammunition" had been discovered.

Observers believe that the warehouse that blew up was filled with rockets, artillery shells, and machine guns and that it is one of dozens of ammunition depots in southern Lebanon that Hezbollah still fully controls. Obscuring the situation further, a security source told the English language Daily Star that the site was an “arms assembly plant.” Local residents are fully aware that Hezbollah had turned hundreds of homes in the area into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets, but are afraid to officially complain.

Since the 2006 war ended and since the issuance of the 1701 Resolution, there has been no visible Hezbollah weapons in the UNFIL area, but at the same time there has been no confiscating of Hezbollah Arm depots, which clearly means that all its depots have remained intact where they were before the war. This fact becomes credible when we Nasrallah, bragging publicly that his arsenal has doubled 10 times after July 2006. The only thing that has changed is that Hezbollah fighters "Al Mujahedin" are not wearing any more their military attires, but instead civilian cloth. Otherwise they are still there, moving freely in all the South under the eyes of both the UNIFIL and Lebanese army forces.

The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, through a series of reports on the implementation of the Resolution 1701, had expressed his dire concern about the indications of both the continued presence of arms and armed men in the south and the smugglings of weapons through the Syrian-Lebanese borders. In his latest report issued last month he sated that the "Lebanese authorities have the primary responsibility to make sure there are no unauthorized armed elements and weapons in the region between the Litani River and the Blue Line, which serves as the border between Lebanon and Israel.

In conclusion, Hezbollah is still in control of South Lebanon, and still maintains there all its weaponry depots and armed men in spite of the presence of the UNIFI and Lebanese army troops, and accordingly remains capable at any time to instigate a war with Israel on the instructions of its masters, the Iranian Mullahs. At the same still manipulating the Lebanese government and obstructing its control and authority.

There will be no end to the bizarre, volatile and fragile situation in South Lebanon unless Hezbollah militia is dismantled and disarmed, not only in South Lebanon, but in the whole country. To achieve this goal the UNIFIL force in South Lebanon must have a new engagement mandate under chapter seven of the United Nations' charter in a bid to be authorized jointly with the Lebanese Army force to implement the 1701 and 1559 UNSC Resolutions

By the end of the day, for Lebanon to enjoy a long-lasting stability and peace, its government must engage immediately with Israel into serious negotiations in a bid to end the war status between the two countries and sign a peace treaty as was the situation with both Jordan and Egypt, or otherwise, Hezbollah and other terrorist and Jihadist groups will continue to use South Lebanon as a battlefield for their Jihad wars (Holy Wars) against Israel.

Elias BejjaniCanadian-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

Hezbollah's wickedness & Our People In Israel

2009-07-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

“Let no one ask us to tag as traitors our Southern “Lebanese” citizens who entered Israel at a certain period, because the “Lebanese” state has abandoned them. They are our brothers and we will definitely demand that they return to their homes, and families.” (Lebanese MP, Sami Gemayel 28/6/09).

We value, and greatly appreciate MP Sami Gemayel's courageous, genuine and transparent stance in regard to our Southern Lebanese citizens who because of serious and imminent fears for their lives and the fate of their children were forced in May 2000 to take refuge in neighboring Israel. These citizens are not traitors by any means, but patriotic, noble, decent, and Lebanese par excellence.

It is worth mentioning that in May 2000, the Israeli government after its occupation of the “Southern Lebanese Security Zone” for 25 years had decided for internal reasons to unilaterally withdraw its troops in accordance with UNSC Resolution 425.

In the aftermath of this withdrawal, more than 6,500 Southern Lebanese men, along with members of their families, had no option but to leave their towns, villages and abandon all their properties and to hastily run for their lives. While Israel was logistically preparing for withdrawal, Hezbollah waged a merciless and savage media campaign against the Southern Lebanese Citizens. The campaign was aired publicly on all local and international TV and radio stations. The most frightening threats were uttered personally by Hezbollah's General Secretary, Sheik Nasrallah, who savagely said, “We will enter their bedrooms, pierce their stomachs, slaughter them and slice their throats.”

Between 2000 and 2005, Syria which was still occupying Lebanon, accordingly had the sole and upper hand in appointing, firing, disciplining, exiling and fully controlling all the country's governments officials, officials, armed forces and members of the parliament, at the same time was intimidating and manipulating the judiciary to serve its schemes.

The Syrians not only fully hindered the dignified return of our people from Israel, but made hell the lives of those southern citizens who hesitated and did not escape to Israel. They were ripped of their civil rights and deprived of all governmental services while been tagged as collaborators and traitors. Many of them were exposed to arbitrary trials and sentenced harshly.

The 4000 Lebanese whose nostalgia made them take the risk, not consider the consequences and return from Israel to Lebanon were immediately arrested, tortured, humiliated, imprisoned and charged with treason, collaboration, contacting an enemy and living in an enemy country.

The trials that they had were a mere farce, biased, fabricated, false and void from all recognized standards of international laws. The military prosecutor tried all these cases, and in the majority of these trials, the accused Southern Lebanese citizens were not allowed to even hire lawyers to defend them. Most of the local and international human rights organizations have stated in their documented reports that each of these theatrical trials did not last for more than 10 minutes. Many of these victims were sentenced in absentia and more than seventy of them received death penalties.

In 2005, the Syrian army was forced to withdraw in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1559, and the Syrian occupation was over. Since then numerous attempts were initiated by the Maronite church, a few Christian MPs and other human rights bodies all aiming to secure a dignified and safe return for the more than 2,500 Southern Lebanese people who had remained in Israel. Unfortunately all these genuine attempts were aborted by Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militia who after the Syrian military withdrawal in 2005 had become the sole controlling military power in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's mullahs’ swollen and inflated egos and their mere detachment from reality have made them hostages and prey to a set of sickening grandiose delusions. They are damn mistaken to falsely believe that they can continue to forever block the return of our people from Israel to our Land of the Holy Cedars, and to unjustly deprive them from embracing the Lebanese soil that they, their fathers and their grandfathers have for the past 7000 years been safeguarding, plowing, planting, and enriching with their sweat, blood and sacrifices.

No matter what the hardships are or will be, the free people of Lebanon will not allow Hezbollah’s mullahs to topple the Lebanese regime

of multiculturalism, freedom and peaceful co-existence and replace it with a replicate of the Iranian mullah’s Islamic Republic. Iran’s denominational “Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine” of Khomeini has been stubbornly rejected by the majority of the Lebanese people and will never ever be forced on them.

Meanwhile, the ongoing suffering of our people in Israel is not that different from the kind of suffering that our people in West Beirut and Mount Lebanon went through last year when Hezbollah fighters, the “Mujahedeen” invaded their suburbs, destroyed their homes, vandalized, shut down and occupied their schools, hospitals, media facilities and institutions, kidnapped, humiliated, tortured and with cold blood murdered more than 100 innocent civilians.

It is both a shame and a crime for all of Lebanon's 18 mosaic communities dignitaries and members, and for all Lebanon's clergy, politicians, officials and intellectuals to be demoralized and scared by Hezbollah's rhetoric, and accordingly succumb to its derailed "Khomeini" criteria for treason and patriotism, as well as for good and evil. These criteria that Hezbollah tags as "divine" have been sadly hindering the honorable and safe return of our people from Israel.

We call on Lebanon's President, House Speaker, Prime Minster and all politicians and clergy to help in ending the dilemma of our people in Israel. Their return needs to be a priority, and it must be with honor, dignity, respect and definitely without any kind of farce trials. These people are heroes and not traitors, and every Lebanese with faith and conscience is fully aware of this reality and substantially unshaken tangible fact.

MP Sami Gemayel has taken the initiative in courageously and transparently addressing the dilemma of our people in Israel. Hopefully he with the help and support of other MPs from all Lebanon's religious denominations will soon see that an appropriate amnesty law is drafted and passed in the Parliament, for enough is enough.

History teaches us that nothing in this mortal, earthly life lasts except the face of God, and that all human wicked traits such as injustice, lying, heresy and arrogance, eventually hurt those holding on to them in the face of their fellow men.

We advise all those who evilly and intentionally are inflicting pain and injustice on our people in Israel and arrogantly blocking their return to their homeland, to read the following biblical verse and take notice on how Almighty God rewards the meek and how He takes revenge on the wicked:

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 4:2 But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall. 4:3 You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies"). (Malachi 4/1-3”.

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Compromises with Hezbollah are Lethal

2009-06-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

Time after time terrorist and fundamental groups like Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and all others, prove with no shed of doubt that they only comprehend, listen and respond to crystal clear means of decisiveness, overt offensive action and a strong show of strength and power. Their backward and destructive ideologies, as well as their fundamentalist nature and disrespect for all things unlike their own, reveal their true chauvinistic nature, as they look to humiliate, belittle and trample all those who ignore their threats and who do not bow to their logic and demands.

Before the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections, most of the March 14 (Cedar Revolution coalition) leaders and thinking tanks, were not sure that they would be able to win a majority and prevent Hezbollah and its mercenary pro-Syrian and Iranian allies, in the form of the March 8th Coalition, from taking over the country.

Most of the Western free world countries were also almost sure that the March 8th Coalition was on its way to control the Lebanese parliament and accordingly rule Lebanon and turn it into another Gaza conundrum. Some of these countries even issued official statements in which they addressed openly their future inclination to deal openly with Hezbollah when they would win the elections. At the same time the majority of the media facilities in the USA, Europe, Israel and some Arab countries published hundreds of studies, poll results and analytical reports and interviews, all predicting Hezbollah’s sure win.

The Lebanese peace loving people were not deceived, discouraged or influenced by all these negative predictions and polls. They held to their solid beliefs, optimism, deeply rooted faith and love for life and voted with their conscience with success. They chose with strong determination and perseverance to safeguard their beloved country and protect its democratic and multicultural nature. These Lebanese bravely headed to the polls, casted their votes and gave once more the March 14th coalition an overwhelming parliamentary majority. They stood tall like their country’s Holy Cedars and succeeded victoriously in usurping the expected endgame predicted by most of the world.

The Lebanese people, in spite of all the evil tactics of oppression, intimidation and bribery that Hezbollah and their allies inflicted on them on a daily basis, declared a resounding “No!”, and did not allow this Iranian armed terrorist organization to take over their country, uproot their identity, enslave them and downtrodden their dignity and pride.

Hopefully the Western Free World countries and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated, risky and costly mission alone.

Hopefully the Western Free World and the Arab States will seriously and effectively come to the rescue of the Lebanese people and help them find a final and lasting solution for Hezbollah’s mini state and its huge arsenal of weapons. Neither the Lebanese, nor their government can accomplish this sophisticated task.

Hezbollah is an Iranian Army stationed in Lebanon that threatens not only the Lebanese and their state, but also Israel, all the Arab countries as well as peace and democracy all over the world. This fact simply means Hezbollah, yes is a Lebanese problem, but also and to a great extent it is a deadly regional and global real hazard too.

Hezbollah’s mini state in Lebanon, militarily, financially and organizationally is much more powerful than the Lebanese state itself. This reality is well known to all the Arab and Western countries. According to the France Press Agency, (June 17/09), the former USA head of homeland security, Mr. Michael Chertoff has said in a book that he will publish later this year: (“Hezbollah Could Surpass Al Qaida as Most Serious Long-Term Threat to the U.S. It is better equipped, better trained and better politically positioned than Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Al-Qaida and its network are our most serious immediate threat, they may not be our most serious long-term threat. Having operated for more than a quarter-century, Hezbollah has developed capabilities that al-Qaida can only dream of, including large quantities of missiles and highly sophisticated explosives. This group also has uniformly well trained operatives, an exceptionally well-disciplined force of nearly 30,000 fighters, and extraordinary political influence”).

According to Chertoff, Hezbollah was behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people. Despite its defeat in elections earlier this month, Hezbollah and its allies remain a major force in Lebanese politics. It is this power, along with Hezbollah's military weight and ties with Iran that are worrying, according to Chertoff. " Hezbollah shows what an ideologically driven terrorist organization can become when it evolves into an army and a political party and gains a deeply embedded degree of control within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon's democratic infrastructure," he warns. Chertoff argues Hezbollah poses a growing threat in the Western Hemisphere, despite limited attacks on U.S. targets. "While Hezbollah may not have carried out attacks in the United States itself, it has developed a presence in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in South America," Chertoff says, alleging that the group carried out bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Buenos Aires."These acts disturbingly underscore Hezbollah's reach into the hemisphere, notably the tri-border areas at the margins of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay." (AFP, 7 June 09)

Meanwhile Hezbollah is not hiding anymore its Iranian identity or it mere affiliation to the Iranian notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps). Its clergy leadership is boldly and loudly refusing to disarm or dismantle its mini state: Below is a verbatim fiery and scary statement uttered recently by one of Hezbollah’s prominent clergymen:

MTV - Sunday, June 14, 2009: " Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, the personal representative in Lebanon of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,, and Hezbollah's Party Shawra Council member: “Hezbollah will not give up its strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of its weapons. He who does not own weapons can’t live in this world". He added; "Others during the election period (Lebanese June 07/09 parliamentary elections), entered peoples’ houses to scare them from Waeleat Al Faqeah and (fool them) that Iran will come to Lebanon to turn it to an Iranian arena. To this extent the surge of militarization, communalism and sectarianism has reached. The whole world came (to Lebanon) to delude the people that if the opposition (8th of March Coalition) wins the elections, Lebanon will become another Gaza. The will and referendum were on the resistance. It (The resistance) has transformed from being weapons to a state of education and society. We will not give up this strength no matter how much the USA and others dream of our weapons. Our weapons are subject to our lives because we see that he who does not own weapons and power won’t be able to live in this life. Therefore we have to impose our existence via the strength that we own. This is why we are today better then ever before. Rest assured, you the honest, we are the victorious by God’s will because we call for what is righteous and do not)".

Now that the parliamentary election is over, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S, who were awarded the majority by the people, have a national, ethical and legal obligation to hold dear to their election’s platform and promises. The Lebanese gave them a mandate to stop Hezbollah from controlling the country, contain its weapons within the state’s institutions, put an end to its mini state, and find the appropriate ways and means to end its hegemony on Lebanon’s decision making process in regards to war and peace.

Any compromises the 14th of March Coalition cut with Hezbollah on the account of the law, constitution and UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701, will be fatal to the future of the Lebanese state as a democracy, and to the peace process not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region. What the people of Lebanon are looking for as a first step is that the 14th of March Coalition will not give to Hezbollah or its weaponry any legitimacy in the Ministerial Statement of the government that will be formed soon.

While dealing with Hezbollah, at any level, and with what ever issue, the 14th of March Coalition MP’S must never ignore that fact that the majority of Lebanese people from all nominations, and all walks of life, with no fear or hesitation have given them a mandate to say, No to Terrorism, No to Syrian and Iranian schemes against Lebanon, No to Hezbollah’s weaponry arsenal and mini state, No to the education of hatred, rejection of others, suicide and fanaticism

Any deviation from these NO’S shall mount to treason. Both MP’S, Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblat must tailor their stances with the framework of the peoples’ mandate and fulfill their electoral promises.

By God’s will, Lebanon shall never, ever be a replicate of the Iranian Mullah's oppressive Regime, and will never, ever adopt the Iranian denominational Wilayat Al-Faqih doctrine as a substitute to its constitution, Multiculturalism, Human Rights, Democracy and openness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)

Congratulations to the Lebanese faithful and patriotic people for their peaceful and daring achievement.

Beloved Lebanese in Lebanon: We, The Lebanese in Diaspora are very proud of you

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com M
ailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
LCCC Face Book group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

May 25 sacrifices & Hezbollah The Dragon

2009-05-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating a so-called "Liberation & Resistance Day." Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.

On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425. The withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.

The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon. The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal. Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army's withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies. The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the "Shabaa Farms occupation big lie" and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.

Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both the Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of "Liberation & Reistance Day".

In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region. In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.

Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track. This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.

Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel. This Iranian mullahs' terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion. Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples' lives, safety, security and livelihood. It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last four years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.

Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs' fundamentalist republic. Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.

Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah's current odd and bizarre status? Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005). During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.

But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner. If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 50 thousand missiles and force the Iranian "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate its decision making process and freedoms.

Since Hezbollah's emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah's schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them.

This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.

Hezbollah would not have been able refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the "Taef Accord," which called for the disarmament of all militias. Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese - Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.

On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
A few days ago Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and threatened the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his orders.

Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the "Security Zone" and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.

We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Hezbollah: The World's Most Effective Terrorist Organization.

2009-05-05T11:53:00.001-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing "- Edmund Burke - 17th century philosopher and author"

The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah, in its State Department report for 2008, as the world's most effective terrorist organization. The report said that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the same report, "Iran's involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy". It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic's main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas. The Qods Force gave "weapons, training and funding" to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based militants and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm)

How can the US, the mightiest military and financial power in the whole world, officially recognize the serious and great dangers of Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, while expecting the Lebanese people and their crippled government and military institutions to tame, control and disarm this terrorist organization?

Hezbollah from day one of its creation by Iran in 1982 up until now, is a serious and deadly threat to all the civilized and free world countries. As such, it is not a mere Lebanese problem, but rather a serious problem, grave threat and challenge to global peace, stability and democracy.

What is unfortunate and shameful, is that the free world and surrounding Arab countries, are not showing enough determination, transparency, seriousness or persistence in dealing with the most dangerous terrorist organization in the whole world, Hezbollah. Unbelievably, some very influential Western countries, among which is England, are actively negotiating with this terrorist organization and providing its fanatic and extremist leadership with academic, media and political platforms to justify and spread the support of their doctrines of terrorism under the false pretext of ‘free speech’!

In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant organization on all levels and by every definition. Its’ Iranian mission, terrorist activities and objectives have become crystal clear, not only to the Lebanese people who are suffering on daily basis from its’ oppression, intimidation and dictatorship, but also to the majority of the Arab states, US, Canada and Australia. This intimidation, fear mongering and illicit fundraising activities extend also to many European, African and Southern American countries

The only positive element in this Pandora’s Box lies in the fact that Hezbollah can no longer fool the educated patriots and nationalists in Lebanon or in the Arab communities, that they are an indigenous resistance entity and liberation movement whose sole purpose is to defend Arab rights and Lebanese sovereignty. Its’ extremely active involvement in worldwide drug trafficking and terrorism activities have exposed Hezbollah’s hierarchy and Iranian dictated leadership, ripping off the seductive facade of ‘resistance’ that they so cleverly attempt to hide behind. Thankfully, most of Hezbollah’s devious tactics of camouflage and deceptiveness are no longer working, revealing their proxy Iranian destructive criminal agenda.

Many of Hezbollah’s own Shiite Lebanese community, which it dominates and controls by religion, money, bribery, intimidation and brute force, is losing its’ patience and quickly realizing the true color of the Hezbollah resistance cloak. Many are turning their backs on this militia whose loyalties and agendas are more Iranian and less Lebanese!

Hezbollah has nothing to do with resistance, liberation or any actual patriotic Lebanese or Arabic cause by any means. In reality, Hezbollah is an Iranian militant brigade, a division of Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)

According to dozens of well documented and trustworthy reports, Hezbollah continues to run a vast, well organized and extremely sophisticated global network of drug trafficking, crime, terrorism and arms trafficking, infiltrating many Arab states, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Australia, United States, Europe, South America and numerous previous Islamic states of the USSR.

It is pathetic that the Free World in general, and the Arab world in particular, continue to appease and cajole Hezbollah’s leadership, inflate their already swollen egos, hail their fabricated and cleverly titled ‘divine victories’, and keep a blind eye to their ongoing activities of arms smuggling from Syria through the Syrian-Lebanese borders.

Since 1982, Hezbollah systematically has been devouring the state of Lebanon, destroying its’ military, judicial and financial institutions, crippling its legislature and democratic government and fragmenting and terrorizing its’ delicate social fabric, all the while solidifying the terrorist infrastructure and Iranian-modeled institutions of its mini-state and scattered cantons.

The looming devastating threat that Hezbollah poses on Lebanon and the Lebanese, will be an unfortunate and lethal reality if it wins a majority government in the upcoming June 7th parliamentary Lebanese elections with its pro-Syrian mercenary allies. If this nightmare comes to bare on Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran will have the upper hand in running the country's new government, imposing by force a replica of Gaza's terrorist Hamas government.

Prior to these elections, Hezbollah has already confiscated by force, money and intimidation, all the allocated Shiite seats in the parliament. It has also forced its’ candidates on Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims who live inside their cantons. Almost 100 out of the 128 elected MPs are going to win their seats uncontested because of both the biased electoral law and Hezbollah's terrorism and religious decrees (Fatwa and Takalief Sharia).

The 28 seats that will decide who gets the parliamentary majority or minority will be challenged in four constituencies where the Christian voters are the majority. Accordingly the Christian voters will hold in their hands the fate of Lebanon. Either they will vote against Hezbollah's allies and keep Lebanon a democratic, free and multi-cultural society of coexistence and peace or they will vote for Michel Aoun, the Christian ex-general egomaniac who entered into a self-serving alliance with Hezbollah in order to better his chances of obtaining the Presidency. This unholy alliance has furthered the legitimacy of Hezbollah and increased their tyrannical grip over Lebanon with their "Wilayat Al-Faqih" religious Iranian religious doctrine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardianship_of_the_Islamic_Jurists)

Hezbollah's essence and spiritual, cultural and political foundation are totally derived from the Iranian Mullah's doctrine of “Wilayat Al-Faqih”. The main pillars of this doctrine are zero tolerance for all others who are of different faith and culture and who do not fully submit to their control. It is a blatant rejection of the civil, democratic and free societies; a systematic, tireless effort to export the "Wilayat Al-Faqih", and impose it on the whole world through "Jihad" (holy war), deeply rooted hatred for the western democracies and cultures, staunch enmity and hostility towards the US and Israel all with a suicidal mentality. One of its prime aims is to destroy Israel and ‘liberate’ the Holy city of Jerusalem.

General Michel Aoun, Syria and Iran's mouthpiece, is a Maronite Christian whose personal ambitions and lust for power has completely allied himself with the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah agenda. He has negated all his previous pro-Lebanon, pro-sovereignty and pro-independence slogans and he has viciously turned his back on and attacked the Maronite Church and its’ Patriarch. He has betrayed every historic social, religious and national conviction of the Lebanese Christians.

Christian voters must vote for those who are committed to the holy cause of Lebanon's freedom, sovereignty and culture of peace, coexistence and progress. Voting for Aoun's tickets is voting for Iran's Mullah's and their project to swallow Lebanon and turn it into a dictatorship run by their proxy Hezbollah.

Nobody at the present time knows better than the Iraqi people what terrorism is, that Hezbollah imposes on Lebanon. I will end my piece with a quotation that I took from Mr. Noori Kamal Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq in his statement at the 62nd UN General Assembly:

“Terrorism kills civilians, journalists, actors, thinkers, and professionals; it attacks universities, marketplaces, and libraries; it blows up Mosques and Churches and destroys the infrastructure of State institutions. We consider terrorism an extension of the fallen dictatorship, whether it may vary in its outside form or by the gangs that carry it out. Terrorism aims at aborting the political process, and igniting sectarian dissension as a prelude to hijack Iraq back into the era of tyranny, oppression, and backwardness.”

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Hezbollah: The World's Most Effective Terrorist Organization.

2009-05-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Arab Countries: Fight Terrorism Before It devours you!!

2009-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

How superficial, naive, and childish are those Lebanese and Arab officials, clergymen and politicians who voiced their surprise and shock after the recent unveiling of a terrorist Hezbollah cell in Egypt. They are either deceiving themselves and their people, or are totally detached from reality, residing on Mars. and not in the Middle East in general, and in Lebanon in particular.

For heaven's sake, whom are these officials, clergymen and politicians fooling? Is there no concerned individual in the whole Middle East, and in the free world countries who is not yet aware of the fact that Hezbollah is merely an Iranian militant brigade connected directly, and on level to the Iran's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps)

Who in Lebanon and in its neighboring countries does not know that Syria during its occupation era of Lebanon (1976-2005), had forced the armed Hezbollah organization on both the Shiite community, and the Lebanese people under the false disguise of resistance against Israel? Syria and Iran jointly orchestrated, by brutal and criminal means, the erection of a mini Hezbollah state in the Shiite suburbs of Beirut, South and Bekaa, and accordingly exempted it from being disarmed in 1990, after all other Christian, Druze and Sunni Lebanese militias were disarmed in accordance with the "Taef Accord," that put an end to the civil war in Lebanon.

Hezbollah from day one of its formation by the Iranian Mullah's in 1982 was, and is still being used by its two masters, Syria and Iran, to destabilize peace, democracy and freedoms in Lebanon, to carry against the Lebanese and the Arab countries all Iran's and Syria's dirty jobs of assassinations, kidnapping, smuggling, intimidation, drug trafficking and havoc.

Hezbollah, is not a Lebanese party by any means, but a mere Iranian armed proxy occupying by force and against the will of the Lebanese people, a big portion of Lebanon, and at the same time crippling its central government and destroying all its institutions, on all levels and in all domains.

Hezbollah's terrorism is now targeting the biggest and mightiest Arab country, Egypt. According to the Egyptian judiciary, government, security authorities, and media, a Hezbollah cell was uncovered. It was planning to execute very serious sabotage attacks in both Egypt and Israel. Egyptian official reports stated that Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Sheik Naiem Qssiem were personally directing, monitoring and supervising the cell's activities that included also extensive campaigns to convert Sunni Egyptians to Shiite denomination, and smuggling of weapons, money and men to the Palestinian Gaza Strip in a bid to support their ally, Hamas.

According to Egyptian police, the Hezbollah cell is headed by Sami Shihab, a prominent Hezbollah militant. and a Lebanese Shiite national. Egypt has been detaining Shihab for the last six months, and recently arrested 49 nationals of various Arab countries on suspicion of being members of a terrorist network on behalf of Hezbollah. The accused have allegedly planned to carry out attacks inside Egypt, including tourist sites frequented by Israelis.

Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah admitted publicly that Sami Shihab is a member in his organization, and that he was assigned by its leadership, "to help the resistance of Palestine," and, "to move military equipment and members to help the resistance" in Gaza.

During his live television address, two days after the cell was uncovered, Nasrallah denied accusations that his group is trying to harm Egyptian security, or is planning attacks on Egyptian targets, saying such claims, "are meant to sully the image of Hezbollah among the Egyptian people."

Nasrallah portrayed Hezbollah's actions as meant solely to aid the Palestinian people, saying; "if helping our occupied, battered, and hungry Palestinian brothers is a crime, than I confess to this crime." During the last Hamas-Israel war Nasrallah had called publicly on the Egyptian armed forces and on the Egyptian people to topple the regime.

Since its formation in 1982, Hezbollah has carried several deadly attacks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestinian West Bank, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Turkey, Argentina, and South America. The bloodiest attacks against the USA and French troops were executed in Beirut by Hezbollah in 1982.

One wonders why it took Egypt, whose intelligence services are so efficient, so long to uncover Hezbollah's cell? Definitely, no one will believe the Egyptian authorities' claim that they did not learn for years that all Iranian weapons smuggled to the Gaza strip (to Hamas) are funneled through the underground secretive tunnels digged by the Gaza Palestinians on the Egyptian-Gaza joined borders.

There is also no slightest doubt that Egypt knew for years that Hezbollah men have been in charge of the Iranian smuggling of weapons to Gaza, via Sudan-Egypt, in cooperation with the Sinai Bedouin smugglers and drug traffickers, and at times through the Egyptian sea territorial waters.

The basic and actual problem for the increase of terrorism and terrorists in the Middle East lies in the "Ostrich" policy that the Arabic regimes have been adopting since the early fifties. The rulers of these regimes have been practically burying their heads in the sand and keeping a blind eye on the terrorists' activities as long as they did not target directly their countries.

Sadly, even the U.S. and Europe followed the same "Ostrich" policy, and watched from far away terrorism influence grow and spread in many countries, especially in Lebanon. The USA and many European countries even traded with Syria and Iran intelligence information and expertise, in spite of the fact that these two oppressive regimes sponsor, finance, harbor, train and use most of the terrorist organizations among which are, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fateh Al Eslam, Jond Al Eslam, Al Qaeda, and many other Palestinian and Muslim extremists and fanatics.

The USA took terrorism threats seriously only after Al Qaeda's September 11/01 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks), devastating attacks. Meanwhile Europe is still indecisive, and mostly cajoling and appeasing the terrorists. In the Middle East, the majority of the Arab countries still do not only have an actual anti-terrorism policies, but finance, glorify, harbor and support the most lethal terrorism groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.

It is worth reminding the Arabs and the Western countries with the wise warning that was uttered in the late fifties by Lebanon's famous politician, thinker and philosopher, Charles Malek ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Malik), at a time when Lebanon was being devoured by terrorists and extremists, while the whole world stood idly watching.

Malek cautioned the western world saying: "Help Lebanon defeat the terrorists, extremists and fanatics while you can, because if you don't now, they will soon attack Europe and after that target the USA it self."

Hezbollah would not have dared to send his terrorist cell to Egypt or to threaten another Arab country if the Arab regimes did not help to keep Lebanon a battle field and an arena for their own wars, or if the Arab countries had helped in the liberation of Lebanon and not sided with its occupier, the Syrian Baathist regime for 28 years, or if the Arabs had not cowardly cajoled and appeased Hezbollah and glorified its big fabricated delusion and lie of liberating south Lebanon in year 2000, or if the Arabs had stood openly against Hezbollah in year 2006 after instigated a devastating war with Israel, and if the Arabs had seriously pressured Syria not to supply Hezbollah with 50 thousand missiles and had stopped the smuggling of men and weaponry through its boarders to Lebanon, and if the Arabs had faced steadfastly the Iranian expansionism schemes with unity and decisiveness.

The time has come for the Arab countries to stand firmly against terrorism and to eradicate its Iranian-Syrian tools, Hezbollah and Hamas, once and forever. To effectively do so they should first stop appeasing, protecting and financing Syria.

At the same time they should unite together to fight and abort the Iranian expansionism's vicious scheme that is targeting all their countries.

The Syrian regime must be given two options, either to cut all its terrorism ties with Iran and stop harboring and exporting terrorism, or face very strict Arab economic sanctions plus complete political isolation and severing of diplomatic ties.

It is time also for the Arab countries to put Hezbollah, Hamas and all other terrorist organizations on their terrorist lists, and deal with them accordingly, like the USA, Canada, Australia and some of the European countries.

Arabic laissez-faire and avoidance-avoidance attitudes in the face of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas did not work and will never do. The Arab countries should talk with the Axis of evil countries and organizations the only language that they are able to comprehend, force and deterrence.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Death: What Lessons Does it Teach Us?

2009-04-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

Far from politics, terrorism, the mid-east crisis, and the current world financial difficulties, I have decided that my Easter editorial, this year, be a thorough and deep personal contemplation on death; this mystery that has puzzled and pre-occupied man since God created him with Eve.

How much of an awakening and spiritual realization would it be if each and every one of us attended a funeral at least once every year, and fully utilized this short yet precious and odd period of time to deeply meditate and contemplate the very human reality of this inevitable and irreversible journey?

During this short, internal procession of great solemnity and silence, from the funeral home to the church, and then to the cemetery, one should mentally and physically relax and release his self, putting aside all of his every day life burdens.

To truly learn and benefit from this spiritual experience, one must temporarily forget who he is, his fortunes, his poverty, all problems that he is encountering, his enemies and friends, physical ailments they he may be suffering from, and marital, or family difficulties he may be going through.

One needs to imagine that his body is so light, so clean, and innocent, and their mind and soul so pure, free of sin with no conflict of any kind or magnitude.

One needs to reminisce and go back in time to the period when he was an innocent child, not yet polluted with human evil deeds and thoughts, hatred, grudges, greed, selfishness and fear.

When one feels that every kind of evil feeling and venomous instinct inside him is numb, he needs to ask himself sincerely and honestly, what this dead person who is now just a cold corpse resting motionless and breathless in the coffin, is going to take with him from this mortal world to whichever world the dead go to?

No matter how rich, powerful, fearless, intelligent, famous, or mighty this dead person was while alive, would he now be able to carry with him any of his riches, or ask any of his beloved to join him in death, and be buried with him in the cemetery?

At this scary, terrifying, contemplative and somber moment, the individual needs to relate with the dead person and accept death, imagining himself actually lying in the casket!

By the end of the funeral procession, and after the coffin has been buried, the dead person who could not take anything with him, becomes just a memory and his body returns back to dust. "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" Genesis 3:19 19

To be the actual creatures that the almighty God has created in His own image, and to be wise, humble and forgiving, we need to occasionally ask ourselves these simple questions:

Can we not die?
Can we not escape death's inevitable journey?
What can we take with us when leaving this mortal life?

These questions should be asked whenever we are engaged in bloody competitions, conflicts, disputes, grudges, hatred and struggle for power and money.

The one and only answer to all these questions is a definite, NO!

Attending funerals at least twice a year helps us to get back in touch with reality; to know who we are, and where we are going; to wake up and to always remember that God, on judgment day, will judge our deeds, and not the magnitude of our earthly riches, nor our earthly power.

Does any one of us, rich or poor, weak or powerful, sick or healthy, know when the almighty God will reclaim his soul? Definitely not! So let us live each day of our lives as if it were our last. Let us always be ready to face our Creator on the day of judgment with a set of righteous deeds.

While we are celebrating the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus, let us solidify our trust and faith in almighty God, and ask Him to lead our lives and grant us the graces of patience, humbleness, hope, love and forgiveness, so that we can carry with courage our life burdens.

Let us remember in the face of every difficulty and crisis what the Holy Bible teaches us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Matthew 11, 28-30).

Death, this mystery that has worried, perplexed and confused man since his first day on earth, has been defeated by Jesus' resurrection and made conceivable by man's mind. We do not die, but sleep on the hope of resurrection!"

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed", (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15 / 51-52).

Happy Easter

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Banning the British MP, George Galloway from entering Canada

2009-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

In my capacity as Chairman for the Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC), and on behalf of the Lebanese-Canadian Community members who fully share our Council's peaceful aims and objectives, love for Canada, commitment for safeguarding and defending freedom and democracy, honoring of the rule of law, tolerance, diversity and the acceptance of others, I strongly hail and applaud, the courage, wisdom, and decisiveness that was exhibited by The Honorable Minister of Immigration Mr. Jason Kenney, in banning the British MP George Galloway from entering Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Kenney, for declaring loudly and strongly Canada's firm stance against those individuals who encourage, adopt, advocate for, finance, or support by any means terrorists and terror organizations.

Thank you for saying a big NO to the British MP, George Galloway who openly and publicly expresses sympathy for the Taliban cause in Afghanistan, advocates for several terrorist groups, and who last week publicly called for a coup d'etat in Egypt, and the overthrow of the government there, while at the same time delivering aid and resources to Hamas, which is a banned illegal terrorist organization in Canada.

Thanks for saying clearly and loudly: "I believe folks that are supporting and promoting and helping terrorist organizations are not needed to visit Canada."

The LCCC greatly appreciates and strongly supports the Canadian government for its explicit stances and prompt actions it takes against individuals and organizations who glorify terrorism, and promote hatred like Mr. Galloway, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, we call on the Canadian government to amend its Anti-Terrorism Act and fix all the legal ambiguities that might allow for the open glorification of terrorism like posting, carrying and distributing terrorist groups' logos, flags or literature.

The LCCC extends its gratitude for the Canadian Government for its continuous, strong and effective support to the sovereignty, independence and freedom of 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/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Hezbollah and the Byzantine Lebanese National Dialogue

2009-03-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

By: Elias Bejjani

On Monday, 02/09/09, the fifth questionable Lebanese National Dialogue Round was convened at the Baabda Presidential Palace under the patronage of State President, General Michele Suleiman. After two hours of futile and intricate debates the 14 participants who represented the majority of the Lebanese mosaic and multi-cultural communities were only able to agree on setting a new date for the sixth round.

Unfortunately all the Taqiyya, (Deceptive) fake and theatric hand shakings, hugging and confabulations that took place between the participants in front of the cameras before and after the session were the only outcome of the gathering. The participants did not address in any meaningful way the "defense strategy", which was supposed to be the main topic of the dialogue.

During the session numerous hot topics were debated openly, but strikingly, not the defense strategy that was transiently mentioned by President Michel Suleiman at the opening of the session: "The national defense strategy requires time and it is based on a set of elements and components, including political ones, both internally and externally," A clear hint that very serious obstacles and threats hindered putting it on the session's agenda

It is no secret that the "Defense Strategy" item was omitted from the session's agenda by President Suleiman because of the blatant refusal of Iran, Syria and their militant tool in Lebanon, Hezbollah Militia, to put on the table for debate under any current given circumstances, the fate of Hezbollah's weaponry, power and authority. The axis of evil which runs and controls the mini state of Hezbollah in Lebanon has been hindering by force and terrorism the functionality of the Lebanese legitimate government and preventing it from reclaiming its sole authority through its own armed forces on all the Lebanese territory.

It is worth mentioning that on June 07/08, Hezbollah with other Lebanese and Palestinian pro Syrian and Iranian armed militias criminally invaded West Beirut and unsuccessfully attempted to take over Mount Lebanon. They put their invasion under the slogan: "Weapons, protects Weapons", and warned the Lebanese people and their legitimate government that they intend by force to hold on to their weaponry and authority against the will of all those who say otherwise.

During its deplorable occupation era of Lebanon (1976-2005), Baathist Syria had forced since1982 the armed Hezbollah Shiites organization on the Lebanese people under the disguise of resistance against Israel, as well as many other armed Lebanese and Palestinian militias. Syria, the occupation power, safeguarded the outlaw status quo of the Cantons it created for Hezbollah, and in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. During its occupation era of Lebanon Syria encouraged and was (and still after its army's withdrawal in 2005) a full partner with Hezbollah and all other armed militias in corruption, assassinations, kidnapping, fraud, knavery, treason, lying and cheating.

An Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia with cantons based in southern Lebanon, Beirut and Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah was and still is the only Lebanese armed militia allowed by Syria to remain armed since 1990 when Christian, Druze and Sunni Lebanese militias were all disarmed in accordance with the "Taef Accord." Syria also did not disarm any of the Palestinian militias and at the same time did not allow the Lebanese authorities to carry on this duty.

The question that imposes itself strongly: what are the justifications for this futile and time consuming Dialogue, and for what purpose is the presentation of the defense Strategy proposal, as long as Hezbollah leadership affirms publicly that they would not discuss with anyone their party's weaponry, but are only open to look into means and ways that facilitate the annexation of the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people into their resistance strategy?

Hezbollah leadership openly, arrogantly and blatantly, and in an ongoing basis, describe their weaponry as holy and sacred. They stridently tie its fate to the Holy Quran and Holy Bible; "our weaponry will and shall remain intact under our full control as long as the Bible and Quran remain. We will amputate the arms, decapitate the heads, cut the necks, and slice open the bellies of those who dare to attempt disarming us." On top of all these stone age slogans they also tie the fate of their weaponry with the existence of the State of Israel: "Our weaponry will remain in our hands as long as the State of Israel remains in the region."

So, why the dialogue with Hezbollah, and for what purposes are Lebanon's leaders, including President Michele Suleiman, cajoling and appeasing Hezbollah, giving the people false hopes and wasting time and resources when they all definitely know for sure that such dialogue will lead nowhere as far as disarming Hezbollah? Any Dialogue on any problem without the presence of a specific declared goal and without the means needed to implement its out come remains useless, ineffective and pointless. Accordingly, it is much better and more respectful for all parties not to engage in such a dead dialogue.

Numerous brave and well informed patriotic politicians have openly addressed this big deceptive lie that is given the "National Dialogue" slogan, and predicted even before the start of its sessions, that this kind of vague and indecisive approach is not going to work in disarming Hezbollah.

This dim, but realistic stance took in consideration the dire fact that Hezbollah is an Iranian Army in Lebanon, while its decision making process, as well as its finances, strategy, education, weaponry and aims all lie in Iran's Mullahs hands, and not in Lebanon.

Ahmad Al Assad, a patriotic Shiite Lebanese leader was one of these brave politicians: "It is naive for any Lebanese to delude himself that Hezbollah will hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state and give up its powers and authority through such dialogue mechanism. The problem lies in the fact that the state and the politicians did not create a mechanism to pressure Hezbollah to take such steps prior to the start of the dialogue sessions."

Hezbollah's bizarre imposed current armed status quo is in defiance of the Lebanese constitution and of both the "Taef Accord" and UNSC Resolution 1559 and 1701, as well as the "Armistice Agreement" that regulated the Lebanese - Israeli borders (signed in 1949). The UN Resolutions and "Taef Accord" all call for the disarmament of all militias, for the Lebanese army to patrol the Lebanese Israeli border and for the Lebanese government to enforce its control and authority on all the Lebanese territories through its own legitimate armed forces.

In the shadow of the sad current status quo imposed on Lebanon's state and the Lebanese by Hezbollah via force, terrorism, extortion, crime and intimidation, there should be no shred of doubt, that the fate of Hezbollah's weaponry will not find a practical and viable solution within Lebanon, and solely by Lebanon's leaders.

Therefore, and due to the fact that Hezbollah is actually an Iranian Army in Lebanon, and an Iranian foreign military occupation tool, its entire file must and should be brought to the UN Security Council.

The Lebanese President, if he can and is willing, and if not, the religious and political leaders of the Lebanese multi-cultural communities ought to call on the UN Security Council as soon as possible to step in and take full control of Hezbollah's arms problem. All what is legally needed is for the UN Security Council to proceed its mission by putting UNSC Resolution 1701 Resolution under Chapter Seven. The UN troops are already patrolling the Lebanese - Israeli border and the Lebanese shores.

Otherwise, every Lebanese community will have no option but to abandon the state's umbrella, that is non-functional because of Hezbollah's hegemony, and take the security of its territories into its hands as was the situation during the civil war.

Under such a status of instability and standstill, the Lebanese need to renegotiate peacefully and agree on the kind of state in which they can live in peace and security. Many Lebanese and non-Lebanese strategists see in the Switzerland Federation a viable model for Lebanon.

The Lebanese leadership are all required to take a clear-cut stance on this matter and declare publicly what kind of Lebanon they actually want.

After more than thirty years of turmoil, pain, and agony, the Lebanese people are entitled to enjoy peace and live freely in their own country without terror and the wars of others. It is time to put an end to Lebanon being a battlefield and the arena of constant non-Lebanese conflicts.

Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Hamas, Hezbollah & their Molochian Divine Victories

2009-02-06T05:21:00.000-08:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

In Arabic contemporary history, there are four disastrous, pointless, destructive, and Don Quixote wars:

In 1967 President Jamal Abdel Nasser led the Egyptians to a suicide war with Israel.

In 2003 Iraq's president Saddam Hussein's delusions of grandiose and stubbornness provided the USA with the needed pretext to invade and Liberate his country.

In 2006 Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, General Secretary for the Terrorist Shiite militia provoked Israel after his men crossed the Lebanese-Israeli border to kill and kidnap a number of Israeli soldiers. Israel responded by a massive military assault on Lebanon lasted for 30 day.

In 2008 Khaled Meshaal, the overall leader of Hamas replicated Nasrallah's uncalculated provocations and instigated a catastrophic war with Israel, Its cost to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was 1350 dead, more then 6000 injured and three billion dollars of loses.

The common denominators among these four wars were its precipitators (Nasser, Saddam, Nasrallah, Meshaal), fatal delusional over valued religious believes, faked self-inflated ego, dire military miscalculations, mere detachment from reality, failure in predicting the consequences, deadly demagoguism, recklessness in valuing their peoples' lives, generosity in providing innocent human sacrifice in self-inflicted massacres and holocausts one after the other and by the end of each war alleging divine victories.

It is worth mentioning that Nasser did not carry religious tags or claim divinity triumphs in any of his humiliating losing wars, although some of his over zealous followers saw in him a God. Meanwhile Saddam envisaged himself as a prophet with a holy mission to save his people, and Nasrallah with Meshaal have far excelled in their fantasies of holiness claiming against all odds, facts, loses and defeats, that their wars' outcome were all divine victories.

The leaders of Hamas, and Hezbollah, as well as Iran's Mullahs and Syria's Baathists rulers are all with no doubt divine in their sadism, cruelty, worship for power and influence, and deception, but only in accordance with the doctrine and rituals of "The Deity Moloch." Apparently this is the God they actually worship, affiliate to, and offer on his alters their own people as sacrifices.

Who is the "God Moloch"?
According to history books and religious references, "Moloch" was a well known notorious Phoenician Deity to whom child sacrifices were made throughout the ancient Middle East. Moloch's worship was the sacrifice of children, and the usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire," a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death. This ritual was popular in ancient Phoenician Carthage.

Moloch was represented as a huge bronze statue with the head of a bull. The statue was hollow, and inside there burned a fire which colored the Moloch a glowing red. Children were placed on the hands of the statue. Through an ingenious system the hands were raised to the mouth (as if Moloch were eating) and the children fell into the fire where they were consumed by the flames. The people gathered before the Moloch were dancing on the sounds of flutes and tambourines to drown out the screams of the victims.

With the criteria of reason, reality, facts, logic, science, statistics, and actual loses that the above mentioned four so called divine wars caused, one can not, but attribute and link them with their precipitators to the God Moloch's atheist doctrine and rituals. While the Phoenician worshippers of Moloch in Sidon, Tyre, and Carthage obscured the screams of their burning children whom they offered to this Deity through dancing on loud sounds of flutes and tambourines, the four Arabic leaders and their supporters resorted to media facilities to cover up, camouflage and hide the miseries, sufferings and pains they inflicted on their own people in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza.

Ahmed Said, the disreputable head of the Egyptian "Saout Al Arab Radio Station" defeated and destroyed the Israeli troops in 1967 from behind his studio microphone through empty rhetoric fabrications and lies, while the Israelis were on the outskirts of Cairo. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Sadam Hussien's Minister of Information assured the Iraqis in 2003, that Saddam's mighty army will bury the Western occupiers, and Saddam will, with God's blessings, be triumphant, while the American troops were entering Saddam's palace in Baghdad, and Saddam on the run hiding in a den 12 feet under ground.

Hezbollah's television, radio station, and owned newspapers, backed by all Syrian and Iranian media facilities played in the Hezbollah-Israeli 2006 thirty days war Ahmad Saied's and Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, role in deceiving and forging facts. The same scenario of camouflage was applied during the recent Israeli-Gaza war. Hezbollah claimed "Divine Victory" in 2006, while Lebanon and the Lebanese suffered horrible human and material loses. The whole country was devastated on all levels and in all domains.

Hamas with the same delusional and fundamentalism mentality and doctrine claimed also "Divine Victory" while reliable reports from Gaza confirmed the death of 1335, with more than 5000 injured, the destruction of 20 thousand homes and buildings, and damages that exceeds the amount of 3 billion dollars. Meanwhile the Israeli army's loses were only 13 dead and about 70 wounded.

Despite the heavy Palestinian losses, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran hailed the Hamas "Divine Victory". Nasrallah, Syria's president Bachar Assad and Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. all called Hama's leader Khaled Meshaal and congratulated him on the so called "Divine Victory."

One wonders what are the standards for winning and for losing in the eyes and minds of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran? No doubt, these are standards that fulfill God Moloch's doctrine and rituals. The Lebanese as well as the Palestinians were offered by Hamas and Hezbollah on Moloch's alter.

One wonders if these "Molochian" leaders, are actually connected to reality, sanity and the realization regarding the magnitude of the devastating losses that they with cold blood and numbed conscience inflicted on their own people and countries?

By human standards of logic, facts, reasoning, consequences and sanity, the "Molochian" leaders in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Iran are detached from reality and hunted by the plague of grandiose delusions. (A delusion is a false psychotic idea or belief that does not match the reality, powers, influence or capabilities of the person. A delusion can't be corrected by reasoning, logic or proof. The deluded person detaches himself from reality and lives in castles of fantasies)

For those "Molochians" and in particular for Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and as we have learned from the outcome of their two recent disastrous wars, the criteria for what is a victory, a divine one, and what is a defeat is very simple, but bizarre and completely derailed from the norms; For them they are divinely winners and victorious if they personally are not killed and remain in power, no matter how many thousands of their people are slaughtered, injured, and crippled, or what is the magnitude of the material loses or destruction.

To protect civilized communities all over the world from the dangers of such hazardous leaders, those of them who are psychotic ought to be certified and hospitalized against their will, and those others who are sane and committing such atrocities need to be arrested, charged and put on trial. Such lunatic leaders and politician must be contained.

Meanwhile those individuals who support the "Molochians," or keep a blind eye on their conduct of heresy, or are intimidated and do no stand for them, are all indirectly responsible and partners in all the damages they inflict on humanity. In Lebanon the proverb says: "He who do not witness for what is just is a silent devil".

Leaders can not continue to be so unless there are people whom they can lead. Accordingly it is the duty of each and every one of us to see that such "Molochian" individuals are not supported and not given any chance to lead or have any role in any country's decision making process.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Syria's Obstructive Strategy of Resistance

2009-01-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

The majority of Middle Eastern rulers and politicians are corrupt and deceptive hypocrites. They are experts at formulating empty rhetoric, while declaring illusory and misleading popular slogans, inventing false national stillborn causes and adopting demagogic attitudes, all the while fighting Don Quixote battles and wars.

They are merchants of blood and destruction and thrive and flourish only on miseries and disasters that they purposely inflict on their own people. Their tools and weapons are treachery, deceit, selfishness and opportunism. They worship power, thrive for total influence, and are ready to do any thing to pile more money into their coffers. Dignity, honor, sacrifice and benevolence are all foreign terms to them.

Since the establishment of the state of Israel in the forties, the majority of these Middle Eastern rulers and politicians along with their corrupt parties, militias and religious dictatorships, have been imposing on their people few bitter choices; either mere silence, absolute subservience, and blind, unquestionable loyalty to their oppressive regimes, or the risk of facing pre-fabricated serious accusation and charges of national treason and treachery.

They are specialists in all methods of brutal torture, oppression, persecution and organized crime, and use these to enforce the fabrication of false judicial cases and political assassinations against their own citizens.

For the last 70 years they have been killing their own people's spirit of freedom and peace, while abolishing all avenues of expression. They promote and spread in their own countries the education and culture of fanaticism, terrorism, ignorance and intolerance. These warlords aggressively fight all forms of democracy, freedom and justice, because these are their enemy. Their people have no say in any governance or decision making processes, and when any sort of election takes place, the results are predetermined and tailored to suit the master’s needs.

The most evil, repressive and notorious of all the Middle East regimes is the Syrian Baathist one. For the last thirty years, the rulers of this Stalinist regime have been murdering, persecuting and humiliating their own people and instigating chaos and strife in all neighboring countries; Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Israel.

The Syrian Baathist regime rulers are very skilled in deception and in creating false, heroic national slogans. Two of their most popular slogans are that of ‘resistance’ (mukawama) and ‘obstruction’ (momanaa). They allege that their ‘resistance’ is against the state of Israel, and that the obstruction of the ‘resistance’ aims to kill any peace or reconciliation with it. Under these two Mockery tags, the Syrian regime jointly works with the Iranian Mullahs and their proxy terrorist groups to abort any chances or opportunities for peace in the Middle East.

One may wonder against whom do they exercise these two big lies of ‘resistance’ and ‘obstruction’ and to what gain. In reality, the Syrian regime's rulers main target is not Israel, but rather their own people, and the stability and peace in all moderate regimes in the region. They invest much into the proliferation of these two deceiving concepts in order to further their own individual interests of wealth, authority and power.

They resist and obstruct all legal and peaceful efforts that aim to liberate their occupied Golan Heights which they lost to Israel in the 1967 war. Never has even one bullet ever been fired from the Golan Heights on the Israelis during the last 32 years. Instead, they harbor, arm, finance, train and facilitate Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihadistsm and several other Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist groups to spread chaos and destabilization. They do all this under the false pretext of fighting Israel with ‘resistance’ and ‘obstruction’.

Why? The Syrian Baathist regime ‘resists’ and ‘obstructs’ peace with Israel and holds on to the “no peace, no war” status with the Jewish state in order to remain in power and justify the oppressing governance of their own people under marshal law.

Syria's rulers ‘resist’ and ‘obstruct’ peace, security and stability also in neighboring Iraq. They run training camps, provide arms and corridors for Jihadi terrorists and fundamentalists who infiltrate from Syria into Iraq to kill Iraqi civilians, attack American and Iraqi solders, assassinate and kidnap locals and foreigners, destabilize security and blow up religious and public facilities.

The Syrian regime also abuses the Palestinian people, while ‘resisting’ and ‘obstructing’ the unity among their various political factions. They oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state and work jointly with the Iranian Mullahs through HAMAS to abort all global and regional endeavors aimed at erecting an independent Palestinian State in Gaza and the West Bank via an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.

Syrian Baathist rulers occupied neighboring Lebanon for almost 30 years. They murdered, oppressed, tortured, imprisoned, kidnapped, displaced, and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people, and assassinated tens of Lebanese politicians and intellectuals. They destroyed and impoverished the country and viciously armed numerous Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist militias and organizations; Hezbollah, Amal, Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) and many others. In full coordination and joint cooperation with Iran, they created the Hezbollah mini state and turned the 13 Palestinian refugee camps that are scattered throughout Lebanon into cantons, and a base for regional and global terrorism.

Although they were forced to withdraw their occupation army from Lebanon in 2005, they are still refusing to patrol their borders, or stop the smuggling of weapons and terrorists to Hezbollah and other Lebanese-Palestinian terrorist groups. At the same time and under the Palestinian flag, the Syrian Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat), still fully control and run three militia camps (Naeme near Beirut and Kosayia and Holwa in the Bekaa Valley).

Syria's rulers are ‘obstructing’ and ‘resisting’ the Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms, due to the fact that they have continuously declined to provide the United Nations with appropriate documents that recognize the ownership of these farms as Lebanese.

Syria's rulers are ‘obstructing’ and ‘resisting’ the release of hundreds of innocent Lebanese citizens arbitrarily detained in their Nazi-like prisons for the past 25 years. Meanwhile, Syria ‘obstructs’ Human Rights' organizations from inspecting its jails and refuses to hand over the bodies of dead Lebanese detainees to their families. Syrian rulers are ‘resisting’ and ‘obstructing’ Lebanon from reclaiming its independence, sovereignty and freedom.

Based on all of the above mentioned flagrant atrocities, violations and crimes, there is no doubt that Syria along with Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian mullahs are all resisting and obstructing their own people from enjoying a free, peaceful, safe and dignified life. They are at the same time resisting and obstructing the progress of modernization, peace, stability and prosperity in the whole Middle East. Their ‘resistance’ and "obstruction" are targeting the peace, law and order in the whole world.

Time has come for all free world countries, especially the new US Obama administration, to start speaking with the rogue countries and organizations; Syria, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and all other jihadists and terrorists in the only language that they know and understand; the language of strength and force. All other means are futile and a waste of time, especially with the Syrian Baathist regime and Hezbollah.

*Elias BejjaniCanadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator Email phoenicia@hotmail.comWeb sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.comMailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Hamas Is Perpetrating The death of its People

2009-01-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

By: Elias Bejjani*
January 05/09

The genuine sympathy and empathy with the civilian massive casualties, disastrous human sufferings and extensive material loses that are sadly taking place in Gaza, should not by any mean derail or blind the actual focus of the free world countries and Human Rights’advocacy organizations away from the prime causes of the actual problem that led to the current Israeli-Palestinian bloody confrontation.

What has been going on in Gaza for the last two weeks is an unfortunate tragedy that has been instigated by the Axis of Evil countries, Syria and Iran through their terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Gaza city, the impoverished Palestinian city has been turned into a theatre for a bloody tragedy.

This tragedy is a scheme planned and orchestrated directly by Syria and Iran. The tool in the implementation is fundamentalist Hamas.

A bloody and criminal tragedy holds the Palestinian people in Gaza and its suburbs mere hostages. The Gaza inhabitants are denied any say in this tragedy. The Axis of Evil countries and organizations are disregarding the security, destiny and livelihood for the people of Gaza.

The entire world knows that Syria and Iran totally control Hamas leadership, finance it directly and in secret, train its fighters, and supply it with weapons and equipment.

Yes, according to all standards, the people of Gaza today are hostages in Hamas' hands who bargain their blood mercilessly under the false slogans of resistance and liberation. Hamas’ conspiracy against its own people has been overt in all its provocative practices.

In reality, Hamas is mimicking Hezbollah, who, back in July 2006, murdered the Lebanese civilians and destroyed their infrastructure when it instigated, perpetrated and started its futile and destructive war with Israel to serve the interests, plans, and conspiracies of Teheran and Damascus, and then claimed the defeat of the Israeli army calling it a divine Victory.

This is precisely what Hamas has been doing and continues to do. It kept on provoking Israel through firing rockets and missiles on Israeli civilians and refused to renew a truce with the Jewish State that had been in effect for six months. It gave Israel all the justifications for waging its destructive and devastating on-going war against Gaza. Hamas has so far caused the death and injury of more than 4000 people and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian targets in Gaza.

Hamas and Hezbollah’s practices and slogans are directly ordered by Teheran and Damascus. They are nothing but military terrorists and bloody instruments in the hands of Iran and Syria in achieving the expansionist goals of these two countries.

It is crystal clear that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and all other moderate Arab countries are at the same main targets of the Axis of Evil countries (Syria & Iran) and their terrorist organizations tools (Hamas and Hezbollah).

Pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian demonstrators in Beirut uncovered this plot when they attempted to sack the Egyptian embassy while throwing shoes at it. At the same time and within the context of the same evil strategy, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s General Secretary openly and boldly called on the Egyptian people to demonstrate by the millions and open the Gaza-Egyptian crossings with their bare chests.

Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leadership also called for the Egyptian army officers and soldiers to pressure the Egyptian government into helping Hamas. They lashed at all Arab states and accused them of conspiracy against the Palestinian people, and to be sleeping in the same bed with the Israelis and the Americans.

The Iranian-Syrian loud anti-Israel rhetoric of theatrical threats and military boasting to destroy the Jewish state and send its people back to their countries of origin, as Iran's president Ahmad Najad keeps on uttering, has proved during the last two weeks to be just mere rhetoric that is void of any seriousness or actual military capabilities that backs the threats.

Therefore, the obvious question is, where are Iran’s missiles, navies, and bombs?
Why have Iran and Syria refrained from coming to the rescue of their tool, Hamas?
Where is this Syrian army that has destroyed our Lebanon and massacred our people?
Where is Hezbollah’s bravery and threats, and why don’t they rush to the aid of Hamas?

The answer remains as it was since the establishment of the state of Israel. Just mere demagogic empty speeches that are motivated with hatred, fundamentalism, lies, and a poisonous rejection of the other. The leaders of Iran and Syrian like many others in the Middle East, have been addicted to insulting the intelligence of their people. They say one thing and do just the opposite. Their verbal and paper claims of illusionary triumphs and divine victories had led their people into disasters, poverty, ignorance and fundamentalism.

We may have believed the sincerity and nationalism of those Lebanese politicians who made speeches, issued statements, and organized demonstrated in Beirut had they refused to be the stooges and propaganda drums of Iran and Syria. They have instead screamed against Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, burned Israeli and American flags, and attempted to ransack the Egyptian embassy.

It would have been more productive and honorable for them to witness the truth, and demand that Iran and Syria along with their terrorist instruments Hamas and Hezbollah, have mercy on the Lebanese and Palestinian people. To release them from bondage. To stop using them as hostages. To halt the murder of their young. To quit using Lebanon and Gaza as theatre of action for the wars of others.

It is sad and distressing that some political and religious leaders in Lebanon, and other middle East countries delivered speeches contrary to their convictions. For when they cheered Hamas and blessed its actions, they simply practiced Dhimmitude and committed a crime and a sin. For they surely know the destructive, terrorist, and criminal roles of Hamas and Hezbollah since they call for their disarmament and elimination in secret.

These leaders must honestly declare their stances, break out from the web of fear, and clearly state matters as they are. The only long lasting solution for the Lebanese-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli ongoing bloody conflict is a peace treaty through direct negotiations as already did Egypt and Jordan.

It remains, that Lebanon Gaza, and the whole Middle East will not know peace and security until the destructive Iranian-Syrian role is ended and the terrorist organizations of Hamas and Hezbollah are disarmed and their military teeth extracted.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
Phoenicia/Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

2008-12-30T21:16:00.000-08:00

New Year Wishes & the wickedness of Vengeance
By: Elias Bejjani*
December 31/2008

With the new year, let us all pray to be genuinely positive, hopeful, joyful, and relaxed.Let all put our burdens of pain, sickness, deprivation, persecution, separation, broken hearts,
disappointments, frustrations, bereavements, injustice, abandonment, and anger in the hands of Almighty God and follow the teachings of His Gospel.

God, with his gracious wisdom and abundant generosity, shall definitely see in every way possible that we safely overcome all our hardships and difficulties.

Let us all trust in God and recognize that we are all His beloved children that He has created us in his image. Romans 8:16-19: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."

We should not question or doubt God's deep love for each and every one of us. How could He not, as He sent his only son, Jesus Christ to defeat death, give us the eternal life, suffer and be crucified so we, His children, can become purified from the original sin and be helped to walk safely the path of salvation. John 3:2 : "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is".

Let us ask Almighty God to help us live in peace and harmony with ourselves and others.

Let us ask Almighty God to lead our steps into the righteous paths and grant us the strength of endurance and hold us back from the sin of hurting or hating others.

Let us ask Almighty God to grant us the graces of love, meekness, humbleness, transparency, honesty and forgiveness.

Let us ask Almighty God to maintain our hearts and minds pure, and free from hatred, grudges and selfishness.

With the new year let us remember that vengeance is evil and forgiveness is a Godly grace. Let us make a resolution that we shall not allow vengeance to take control of our lives.

Being faithful to God's holy teachings, is being loving and forgiving. For when we trust God and believe in His justice, we ought to leave Him punish those who are evil. Matthew 13:43: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear".

God's teachings in regards to vengeance is very clear . Romans 12:19-21: "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

This verse frees us from the burden of taking justice into our own hands. It tells us "Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ God will repay those who are righteous"..

Since God is going to take up our cause and see to it that justice is done, we should lay it down, work hard not to succumb to our human destructive instincts of hatred and grudges.

We don’t have to carry anger and bitterness and resentment and revenge no matter what is our burden. Indeed we dare not because Jesus warned that an unforgiving heart will destroy you in the end (Matthew 6:15; 18:35).

Saint Paul says leave it to the wrath of God. ”Then the wrath of God is defined further as God’s vengeance, “Vengeance is mine.” So wrath is connected with God’s response to something that deserves vengeance. And then it says, “I will repay.”

So God’s wrath is treated as a repayment to man for something man has done. This simply means that the wrath of God is God’s settled anger toward sin expressed in the repayment of suitable vengeance on the guilty sinner.

God will and shall see that justice is done on the Day of Judgment. So let us be forgiving and avoid any sort of vengeance. Daniel 12:2-3: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever".

With this new year, let us pray from the depth of our hearts for all those who hate and hold grudges against us. Let us ask almighty God to cure them from these evil ailments and grant us the grace of forgiveness and the strength with faith to keep loving them.

No one should forget that our live on this earth is too short, and that we must be righteous to deserve the eternal one in Heaven where there will be no pain or fights, but happiness and peace

Corinthians 2:2-10: "But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"--these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God".

Happy New Year

*Elias BejjaniCanadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/
Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

The Lebanese People: Faith, Hope & Perseverance

2008-12-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

By Elias Bejjani

General Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, in his strongly Syrian influenced conduct, has become another Lebanese Judas Iscariot. Judas betrayed his master, Jesus Christ and handed him over to his enemies for thirty pieces of silver and Aoun too follows suit in his Dhimmitude to Syria and his cheap price extracted by the Syrians for himself and his political party.

Aoun has become a paid slave to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah's anti-Lebanese schemes and he has become a loud and reliable mouthpiece for their heretical, anti-democratic, anti-human rights, and anti-west propaganda.

This week, the Syrian Baathist regime is arranging an official four to five day visit for Aoun as a reward for his subservience. The Iranian Mullahs made Aoun’s recent official visit to Iran a big deal and tried unsuccessfully through him, to sell themselves as a champion state in protecting religious minorities, to the contrary of the reality of their dismal record of religious and ethnic oppression, even going as far as murdering those who may sway the majority and oppose the current regime. The whole world needs to know that Aoun is an exception in Lebanese history and not the rule. Politicians like Aoun have historically ended their careers and lives in shame, humiliation and disgrace.

Aoun had established his political life and popularity back in 1988 as a fierce Lebanese advocate against the Syrian occupation of his country Lebanon and against terrorists, among which include Palestinian and Iranian militias. He portrayed himself as a hero in this domain for 18 years, but since his return from exile in Paris since 2005, he has changed his skin and drastically shifting his stances. The man, for mere personal gains and a delusional lust for power and authority, has sold himself to the Axis of Evil countries and terrorist organizations!

There should be no doubt that those minority Lebanese, who still believe in Aoun and support his pro Syrian-Iranian platforms, are committing a crime against both their country and their countrymen. They have consciously become blind followers of this man, ignoring the disastrous consequences of his policies. They have forgotten the Lebanese cause of freedom, sovereignty and independence and instead preferred to be an ignorant flock to a man who is driven only by his lust for power and securing his legacy.

Let us remind those Lebanese who have lost their better discretion and have chosen the dark path that history has taught us that few of the world's greatest nations have ever been defeated by their external rivals. All of them were first weakened and destroyed from within even before their enemies were able to bring them to their knees. Science teaches us that when the body loses immunity it becomes vulnerable to disease. This can be seen in the fall of the Ottoman and Roman empires and in this regard, those Lebanese who blindly provide a cover for Aoun's anti-Lebanese policies and alliances are knowingly or otherwise destroying the Lebanese model of coexistence, tolerance and democracy. These mislead Lebanese are destroying the Lebanese communities from within, through their shameless collaboration and subservience to the evil schemes of certain political parties, social and religious groups and individuals who are advocating against the essence and core of what actually is Lebanon and Lebanese.

"Everyone who sins is a slave of sin" (John 8-34), and every Lebanese who betrays his people to advocate the Syrian occupation is also a sinner too.

Leaders like Aoun are mercenaries and Pharisees. They are void of dignity or national honour. They steal, cheat, embezzle, betray, and change their skin for personal gain, all at the expense of the people and the country. They ignore Lebanon's deeply rooted history, unique identity and they have no respect for the sacrifices of the many thousands of Lebanese who offered themselves on the nation's altar to enable us to be proud, prosperous and independent.

These antagonists are thirsty for power and blood. They sold their souls and honour for thirty pieces of silver and they have no respect for Lebanon's 7000 years of civilization, culture and glorious history. They are masters in defeatism, ignorance and cowardice and faithlessness. Their deceptive camouflage, sweet words and cloaked lies are well known to all those who are witnesses to the truth. They have missed the fact that Lebanon's people have never knelt nor hung their heads before any tyrant, invader, occupier or conqueror.

Aoun, Hezbollah and all those revolving in the Iranian-Syrian orbit should, foretell their fate of ultimate failure. They will not be any better off than those, who like them, delude themselves and falsely believe they can destroy Lebanon and subdue its people. They have all left while Lebanon and its free and peace loving people still stand as proud and patriotic as they were 7000 years ago!

We remind the Lebanese Pharisees and Trojans, in particular General Michel Aoun that the people of Sidon in the year 350 BC, chose to burn themselves and their city rather than face defeat after their prolonged heroic resistance failed to safeguard their city against the Persian invader Artechtahta. They preferred to die with dignity rather than live with humiliation!

The people of Tyre also choose this martyrdom in 332 BC, when they resisted Alexander the Great's mighty army for seven months, refusing to surrender or kneel. Alexander, after capturing the city, crucified many of the brave Tyrians, while enslaving others in a bid to revenge his huge loss and demeaning humiliation.

The Maronite Patriarch Gabriel Hgola choose to be burned (1367 AD) in Tripoli in front of the Omari mosque in a bid to save his people from the Mamlouk's humiliation and torture. The same sacrifice was taken by Patriarch Daniel Al-Amshiti in the same place (1282 AD), for almost the same reasons and for the same cause.

We remind those who refuse to takes clear and noble stances in life, change their skin to suit their opportunistic interests and lack the courage to bear witness to the truth, that by doing so, they are committing the worst mortal crime. Imam Ali said in this regard, "He who accepts acts of others is considered their partner. He who is involved in evil acts commits two sins, that of performing the act and that of its acceptance."

My dear misled countrymen, strengthen your faith, repent for your cowardice, and witness the truth! Do not fall into the trap of opportunism and do not be deceived by the golden garments and illustrious schemes of those who have been assigned to divide our nation and communities, while spreading hatred and conflict among its members. To these shepherds of evil, I refer you to great words of our God, "God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to help them". (John 12-39).

The coward is a blind man in both sight and discretion whose conscience has turned numb. Shame on our people who live in democratic countries like Canada, where freedom of expression is sacred, yet they are still afraid to be witness for the truth and do not support their Lebanese sacred cause.

Shame on every Lebanese who keeps a blind eye towards their people imprisoned arbitrarily in the Syrian jails.

Shame on every Lebanese who does not support human rights, does not advocate for Lebanon's liberation, and shame on every Lebanese who does not carry with Lebanon's brave youth the flag of sovereignty, freedom and independence!

Shame on all those Lebanese politicians and clergymen who are scared to call for a dignified and honourable return of our refugees living in Israel since May 2000. There is no doubt that these politicians and clergymen have chosen the track of sin rather than that of righteousness. These Pharisees are destroying the country which is our holy temple.

"It was almost time for the Passover festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There in the temple he found men selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and also the money changers sitting at their tables. So He made a whip from the cords and drove all the animals out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins; and he ordered the men who sold the pigeons: Take them out of here, stop making my Fathers House a marketplace.” (John 3-13)

We call on those who have accepted slavery and to those who are afraid to be witnesses for the truth and feel defeated inside themselves.
We call on those who have deviated from the righteous track, camouflaging, cheating and betraying Lebanon.
We call on them to wake up and start thoroughly reviewing their dangerous acts!

Forgiveness is always there and Lebanon's open loving arms will embrace them once they repent. If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples, you know the truth, and the truth will set you free". (John 8-13)

*Elias BejjaniCanadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator Email phoenicia@hotmail.comWeb sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.comMailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/Face Book LCCC group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17974722934

Rogue States & Terrorists Respond Only To Force & Deterrence!!

2008-11-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

By: Elias Bejjani*

There have been numerous reports and analysis as well as vague and conflicting official statements issued by Damascus, Washington and Baghdad that have appeared in the regional and international media outlets, in regards to the U.S. helicopter-borne Special Forces raid that recently targeted the Syrian village of Sukkariya in the Abu Kemal region seven kilometers inside Syria on October 26th.A US counterterrorism official stated that the American Special Forces that executed the raid had killed the head of a Syrian terrorist network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq. He declared that the raid targeted the home of Abu Ghadiyah, leader of a key cell of foreign Jihadi fighters in Iraq.

Syrian villagers, where the raid took place, told reporters that US forces grabbed two men and took them away by helicopter back to Iraq.It is worth mentioning that this successful raid is the first in its accuracy and nature that US troops executed inside Syria since year 2003, although these troops have carried out several military operations in Iraqi territories just a few miles adjacent to the neighboring Syrian borders in pursuit of terrorist militant groups.

Several official US statements have said that the raid's main target was the home of Abu Ghadiyah, leader of a key cell of foreign fighters in Iraq and that he was killed in the armed confrontation.

According to these US officials, Abu Ghadiyah was centrally involved in smuggling militant terrorist fighters and weapons from Syria to Iraq.

Informed reports have stated that Syria has purposely declined to patrol its boarders with Iraq thus facilitating the infiltration of militants and weapons via its borders to Iraq. In Washington, an unnamed military official told the Associated Press that the raid targeted elements of a "foreign fighter logistics network". It was because of Syrian inaction, the official said, that the US was "taking matters into our own hands".

It is the first known US attack on Syrian soil.Damascus, on its part, alleged that the U.S. helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction and opened fire on the workers inside it causing the death of eight civilians and wounding one. Syrian television was not able to provide any convincing actual footage of these alleged civilian casualties.

It only showed a few scenes of a wounded child which according to many a/v experts were altered and even fabricated. The Syrian newspaper Tishrin called it a US war crime, while Syria summoned the US Charge D'Affaires in Damascus to explain the attack. Also in response, Syria called on the Iraqi government to prevent its airspace from being used in such a way. Sami al-Khiyami, the Syrian ambassador to London, told Reuters, "This is an outrageous raid which is against international law.

It is a terrible crime. We are expecting clarifications from the Americans". Ironically, Syria's outspoken and arrogant foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, was in London conferring with high ranking US and English officials when the raid occurred and continued his talks afterwards, while uttering on the sidelines empty threats of retaliation.Despite the hostile official statements and angry Syrian media coverage and statements of protest, the Syrian President Bashar Assad and his rogue regime surprisingly did not file any official complaint with the UN and nor did call for an emergency Arab league meeting at any level.

This US raid adds to at least five unexplained serious security incidents and breaches that have occurred in Syria over the last year. This begs to ask the question of ‘why’ has Syria remained relatively silent and ‘why’ have these incidents been hushed and swept under the so-called ‘diplomatic rug’? All these events have shaken the stability of the internal Syrian domestic scene and it has also lifted the air of invincibility and control that the Baathist Stalinist regime struggles to portray and exert.

The Syrian authorities have yet to announce the findings of the police investigations of any of these incidents, which are chronologically listed below:

1. The Israeli bombardment of a secret Syrian military base in Deir Al-Zour on September 6th of 2007, under the pretext that it was a Korean-style nuclear reactor.

2. The assassination of Hezbollah's number two man, the notorious terrorist Imad Mughniyeh on February 13th of 2008, by a car explosion in the middle of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

3. The assassination of Syrian Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman, security adviser for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, on August 1st of 2008. Brigadier Suleiman, 49, was shot dead at his chalet in the Rimal al-Zahabieh luxury resort nine miles north of the port city of Tartous on the Mediterranean.

4. The recent killing of a high rank Syrian officer who was extensively involved in Lebanon's late PM, Rafiq Al-Hariri's assassination. The officer was one of 17 other people who were killed and 24 injured by a devastating explosion that took place on the Damascus Airport highway this past September.

5. Bloody clashes in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus between Syrian security officers and what Syrian authorities described as a group of gunmen. Three of the gunmen and one security officer were killed, while another was injured as stated by the Syrian government.Observers questioned the timing of the US raid, speculated on its actual objectives and wondered why now and not before? Answers to this question varied according to their sources.

Many US and European media outlets interpreted the raid to be a fiery personal warning to President Assad saying that Syria's alliance with rogue Iran is no longer acceptable and that its harboring of fundamentalists and terrorists, notably al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, will not continue without a painful price and dire consequences.

Other western observers considered the raid to be a one-time operation that has no political motivation and came in the context of hundreds of similar military operations carried out by U.S. troops on the Syrian-Iraqi border since 2003.

The same observers were also puzzled by the disproportionate and unjustified Syrian media reaction and negative coverage.Some analysts even speculated that the Bush administration and the Pentagon aimed to give leverage to John McCain in his presidential campaign and warn the coming US president that certain restrictions and red lines should not be broken or overlooked if and when US negotiations with Syria and Iran take place.

Syrian and Iranian media as well their mercenary mouthpieces, the terrorists organizations in Lebanon and Gaza, notably Hezbollah and Hamas, alleged that the raid was a kind of psychological support for the US allies in the region. They interpreted it as a sign of weakness and a failure of the US Middle East democracy project!

Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians envisioned the entire US operation as a military pre-emptive deterrent for a Syrian plot to invade North Lebanon. This plot in the making was to attack anti-Syrian Lebanese masses and politicians under the guise of fighting Sunni terrorists that Syria alleges have taken refugee in North Lebanon.

In neighboring Israel, the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted an unnamed American source as saying: "The American raid was fully coordinated between the Syrian intelligence services and the United States in the realm of Syrian-US coordination in the ongoing war against al-Qaeda and its subsidiaries. The same argument was also adopted during the last few days by many other well known American and British media facilities.

(Sunday, November 02, 2008/News Agencies: BAGHDAD — Despite reports that Syria denounced a violent U.S. Special Operations raid that took place near the Iraq border last week, intelligence officials in Damascus may have approved the attack, the London Times reports. The operation, which was intended to be fast and bloodless, was meant to target Al Qaeda commander Badran Turki Hashim al-Mazidih — also known as Abu Ghadiya — an Iraqi-born terrorist in his late twenties, according to the paper. Syrian officials — who feared Ghadiya as a threat to the secular regime in Damascus — plotted to have U.S. forces kidnap him and take him to Iraq for questioning.

But the U.S.-led raid did not go as planned. A fierce gun battle broke out following the launch of a rocket-propelled grenade from a local American compound, blowing the cover on the covert operation. Eight people were reportedly killed in the raid, which Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem called an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression." Officials could not confirm whether Abu Ghadiya was among the dead.)"Many experts on terrorism in the region applauded the much delayed American military response against the rogue Syria and openly encouraged the US to execute more of such raids.

Personally, we fully agree with this argument and consider that the raid came five years too late and that it was not strong enough. Accordingly, no matter what the raid's military and political motives and objectives, it was a very clear message to the Syrian Baathist regime officials, cautioning them to come to their senses and stop harboring terrorists and fundamentalists or otherwise face the consequences.

We strongly believe that it is time for all the free world governments, Sunni Arab regimes, Israel and the USA in particular, to begin speaking to the Axis of Evil countries and organizations, namely Syria, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda, with the only language that they comprehend and understand; that being the language of force.

It is time to make the Syrian regime, the Mullahs of Iran, and all their proxy terrorist and fundamentalist organizations, understand very well and without any doubt that there will be dire prices and severe consequences for any criminal acts they commit, among of which is the change of the Syrian and Iranian regimes by force as was the situation with Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Had the free world and the Arab Sunni countries adopted and implemented the courageous, straightforward and firm stances in their dealings with Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda, including the use of strategic military force, the whole world would have been in a much better position of peace, thousands of lives would have been spared and trillions of dollars saved.

In the context of the global war against terrorism, it is worth shedding light on the Middle Eastern press trend of soft condemnation statement releases. These statements appear every time a rogue country, a terrorist group, or a terrorist individual or a leader is hit or captured.

These condemnations are trivial and are merely empty words and accordingly should not by any means be taken seriously by any country that is taking part in the waging of anti-terrorism war. Hundreds of such double standard releases were issued in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, Russia and other countries in the aftermath of the US raid on the terrorist camp inside Syria.

They all ignored the fact that Syria is a breeding centre for all kinds of terrorist, Jihadists and fundamentalists among of which are Hezbollah, Hamas, Jund Al-Sham, Fateh Al-Islam, Al-Qaeda and many, many others.

The righteous and ethical condemnation should in fact be targeting the USA administration because of its failure to destroy Iran's nuclear reactors, overthrow the Syrian Baathist regime nor did it eradicate fundamentalist organizations, especially Hezbollah, that has erected a mini Iranian state inside Lebanon, crippling by force all Lebanese efforts to rebuild the country and reclaim its independence, freedom and sovereignty.

The USA, Europe, Israel and all other free world countries, as well as the Sunni Arab countries should once and for all forget their hesitation, fear, procrastination and double standards in regards to Iran, Syrian and all the terrorist organization that revolve in their orbit.

All these countries, specially the new US Obama administration should speak to the Axis of Evil countries and terrorists organizations the only language that they comprehend; the language of power and deterrence. All other means are futile and time-buying especially for the Syrian Baathist regime.

*Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
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