Thanks to Jnoubiyeh

Re-igniting Lebanon’s Internal Fire

By D. Elias Akleh

Reports about the latest Lebanese conflict talked only about the symptoms of the conflict and ignored its root causes. The Lebanese political infrastructure was deliberately formed, since its independence in 1943, to set up the country for perpetual political conflicts. One also needs to consider the global and regional political dynamics to understand the Lebanese dilemma.

Lebanon was original part of Greater Syria encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Cilicia and Iskandarun Province of Turkey, historical Palestine, Sinai of Egypt, Cyprus, Iraq, Kuwait, and Ahwaz Khuzestan of Iran. After the Great Arab Revolution during WWI and the emancipation of the Arab World from the Ottoman Empire, the British broke their promises to Sherif Hussein ibn Ali to establish a single unified Arab State. They were afraid that such an Arab State with vast areas of land including oil could become a major global power. So they and the French divided the land according to Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Thus Arab land was divided into smaller chunks under the British and French mandates, and Lebanon was separated from Greater Syria and became a French protectorate.

Arab nations continued their struggle for freedom, and the Lebanese gained their independence in 1943. Yet, due to the lingering French political influence on the country, the Lebanese ethnic groups were still not completely in agreement, and thus a Lebanese confessional system of government, known as National Pact, was established. This form of government is allegedly meant to distribute political and institutional power proportionally among ethnic communities according to its demographic composition. The Pact’s real goal was to plant the seeds of division between the Lebanese factions to keep them divided, weak, and under the mercy of foreign interference.

According to the National Pact the President of the Republic will always be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister will always be a Sunni Muslim, the President of the National Assembly will always be a Shi’a, the deputy speaker of the Parliament will always be Greek Orthodox Christian, and the Parliament members will always be in a ratio of 6:5 in favor of Christians to Muslims.

The Pact did not, or intentionally was set up not to, take into consideration the different birth growth between the different groups, where the Muslim birth growth exceeds the Christian birth growth. Also the group holding the most political power, the Christians in this case, would have the opportunity to use government institutions to bolster its power and even to oppress rival groups. Such abuse of power had caused grief among Muslims, which led to modification of the ratio in the Parliament to 50:50 according to the Taif Agreement of 1990 reducing the power of the Maronite Christian president.

Lebanon flourished greatly and was considered the Paris of the Middle East. Yet this did not last long. In 1948 after the establishment of the state of Israel on Palestinian land the Israelis evacuated about 100 thousands of Galilee Palestinians and transferred them to Lebanon. In 1967 Israel occupied the rest of Palestine creating a second wave of Palestinian refugees, some of whom went to Lebanon. Feeling invincible, the Israeli army crossed the Jordan River to invade Jordan but was defeated by the Jordanian army with the help of PLO fighters in Al-Karameh battle in March 1968. To weaken the Palestinian/Jordanian alliance Israel and its American CIA support incited political conflict between the Jordanian King and the PLO. It seemed a deal was struck by which the Jordanian army, armed with Israeli-delivered Uzi machine guns, raided the PLO camps and booted the fighters out of the country during what is known as the Black September of 1970.

The PLO moved to Lebanon, buttressed its bases to avoid its Jordanian-like fate, and continued their struggle against the Israeli occupation. One more time Israel used the same trick to incite conflict between the PLO and the Lebanese. Israel used the Phalanges and the South Lebanon Army as its proxy army to inflame the Lebanese Civil War. The Arab League summit of 1976 in Riyadh proposed sending an Arab Deterrent Force under the leadership of Syria to disentangle the combatant sides. The small forces from other Arab countries soon withdrew leaving about 40 thousand Syrian troops to do the job.

Israel, on its part, invaded north Lebanon several times, and in 1982 reached the southern suburbs of Beirut. International forces intervened to stop the fighting and allowed the PLO to leave Lebanon heading to Tunis. Israel, though, did not withdraw from Lebanon and thus was faced with Lebanese freedom fighters spear-headed by Hezbollah. Eventually Israel was forced to retreat in 2000. Hezbollah became Israel’s number one enemy especially after Palestinian freedom fighters started following Hezbollah’s example in fighting the Israelis.

Rafiq Al-Hariri, a Lebanese self-made billionaire and a business tycoon, who made his wealth in Saudi Arabia, returned to Lebanon, and invested his wealth and loans from the World Bank to rebuild Beirut and make it a world financial center. Al-Hariri served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation in October 2004. He worked closely with the Syrian government, and refused to hand over members of Hezbollah, who were accused by the US of being terrorists. Protecting Israel the Bush administration had declared Hezbollah a terrorist group for their fight against the illegal Israeli occupation of Sheba’a Farms; parts of Lebanon. During his 2001 BBC interview Al-Hariri stated that Hezbollah were protecting Lebanon against Israeli occupation, and called for implementation of all United Nations Resolutions against Israel. According to Bush’s statement of “You are either with us or with the terrorist”, Al-Hariri was viewed as obstacle to American/Israeli expansions, which would set an example to the rest of the Arab leaders. Such an example had to violently disappear to send an intimidating message to the others. Through the use of the most advanced electronic equipment to disable Al-Hariri’s sophisticated motorcade alarm system and the use of explosives equivalent to around 1000 kg of TNT, Al-Hariri’s strongly armored motorcade was blown to smithereens. Syria was blamed for the assassination, although there was no evidence at all for such accusation, and was pressured to pull out its forces from Lebanon.

After the American invasion of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Palestinian Hamas were viewed as the remaining threats to Israel. The Bush administration directed Israel to attack southern Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah after sending an Israeli patrol through Lebanese border as a provocation to be attacked by Hezbollah. The attack and the capture of two Israeli soldiers were used as justification for Israel’s July 2006 war against Lebanon. Despite all the Israeli bombing using illegal rich uranium and cluster bombs, the American pressure to continue the fight, the American arms aerial bridge to Israel, and the accusations of Egypt and Saudi Arabia against Hezbollah, Israel was defeated by Hezbollah. The Israeli Winograd Commission, set up to investigate the causes of the Israeli defeat, pointed also to the incorrect intelligence about Hezbollah’s strength and positions that were supplied by some Lebanese party leaders of March 14th Alliance, who were opposed to the increasing national and political popularity of Hezbollah. These leaders include Saad Al-Hariri, leader of the Future Movement, Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, and the Israeli paid and operative war criminal Samir Geagea, leader of the right wing Lebanese Forces.

Defeating the so-called undefeatable Israeli army, a feat all the Arab armies combined could not accomplish, Hezbollah demanded a change in the Lebanese political structure that will give it a say in the affairs of the country. This victory angered Israel and the American administration. It angered the French, who wanted to get back to its old protectorate, Lebanon, and to play a role in the war on terror so that its military industries can flourish. Hezbollah’s victory had angered the Arab leaders most of all, for it highlighted their lack of political will and their loyalties to foreign countries rather than to their people. All of these were afraid that Hezbollah would become an example for the Arab nations to rise up against their corrupt leaderships and to defeat Israel.

Divide in order to conquer policy that had been used to split Palestinians into Hamas and Fatah combatant rivals has also been used to split Lebanese into Western backed anti-Syrian pro-government loyalists led by the March 14th Alliance vs government oppositional parties led mainly by Hezbollah, and to create Lebanon’s political crisis. The Western media tried to portray the crisis as Sunni vs Shi’a religious conflict even though there are Sunni, Shi’a and Christians on both sides. Hezbollah was accused of being a tool in the hands of Syria and Iran, whose goal is to return Syrian rule to Lebanon and to give Iran free access to the Mediterranean shores. It was also accused of arming and training Iraqi insurgents.

The Al-Manar Newspaper exposed an American/Israeli/French/Saudi plan to discredit and to weaken Hezbollah by inciting civil confrontation in Lebanon, and then sending international peace keeping troops under the justification of protecting foreigners. The paper had also reported that Israel has been training Lebanese militia loyal to Saad Al-Hariri, Walid Jumblatt, and Samir Geagea. American weapons, bought by Saudi money, have been smuggled through Lebanon’s Al-Hariri international airport to these militias. Israel had lately completed new war games in preparation for another war against Hezbollah anticipated during this summer.

Aware of the danger, Hezbollah had avoided civil confrontation through political process and dialogue with the Siniora government and with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Mousa. But when Siniora’s government was directed to issue orders to dismantle Hezbollah’s installed cameras in the airport to monitor the smuggling of weapons into Lebanon, and its updated pre-2000 ground communication systems, Hezbollah considered the orders a declaration of war and a threat to all Lebanon. It considered the orders as an attempt to sever its leadership from its military groups; a service to Israeli enemy. Al-Hariri’s Future Party militia attempted to ignite a civil war by throwing stones and shooting at civilians, but Hezbollah fighters swiftly and unexpectedly were able to occupy their headquarters, seized cache of weapons, ammunition, and alcohol, and turned them to the Lebanese army. They also surrounded Al-Hariri’s and Jumblatt’s homes causing the government to rescind its orders. One more time, Hezbollah had proved to be the real savior of Lebanon.

-Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer of Palestinian descent, born in the town of Beit-Jala. Currently he lives in the US. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Widespread Arab Stances Support Hezbollah

Hanan Awarekeh

Sixty Jordanian figures comprising heads of parties and syndicates, intellectuals and military veterans relayed a letter on Monday to Hezbollah General Secretary Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in his capacity as the leader of the Arab Resistance, former President Emile Lahoud and the Head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP General Michel Aoun, in which they stressed their support for the resistance against the Zio-American project in the region.

In their letter, the Jordanian figures refused to put the ongoing battle in Lebanon in the framework of a sectarian, religious or regional conflict since the real battle is for forming the Arab World and the Arab nation. The letter also stressed that the armed resistance is the strategic weapon in the hand of the whole Arab nation against the Zionist – U.S piracy and hypocrisy, confirming that Sayyed Nasrallah was chosen by the Arab people as their leader.

Stressing they fully understand what is taking place in Lebanon, the Jordanian figures said that they are honoured to voice out their position that they are part and parcel of the resistance led by Hezbollah and Sayyed Nasrallah against the Zionist – U.S scheme.

In a phone call to Al-Manar Channel, Secretary General of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Dr. Mohamad Salim al-Awwa said that the major problem is the possibility of Sunni – Shiite sedition and its unbearable consequences. Dr. Awwa praised Sayyed Nasrallah’s stance that “Sunni-Shiite sedition was behind us.” He stressed no one has the right to attack the resistance’s weapons whether it was its communications network or arms, given that the resistance is the sole Arab army that defeated the Zionist enemy twice. Dr. Awwa added that any attempt to assail this weapon or remove it “exposes a misunderstanding to the region and the nature of the conflict between us and the Zionist enemy.”

Sayyed Nasrallah’s call upon the Islamic World to be understanding, was echoed by a large number of Islamic scholars and figures who expressed their sympathy with the resistance and its conduct in Lebanon, especially after the U.S – Israeli hand assailed, through the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora, the weapon that liberated the country in 2000 and defeated Israel in the July war in 2006.

Muslim Brotherhood supreme leader in Egypt, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, said that the Lebanese resistance is the only group that determines what is good for the country in facing the Zionist – U.S plot that is penetrating deeply into Lebanon. Akef stressed that the resistance’s image stands unshaken, and even if it changes it would be for the better.

Islamic Labour Front’s stance in Jordan also stressed on supporting the resistance and the importance of preserving it to protect Lebanon and the opposition project in the region that proved to be the best way to confront the Zio – U.S hegemony project.

The head of the National Reform Movement in Algeria, Mohamed Boulahia said that the image of Hezbollah would never change because it is a resistant party working Zionist – U.S. schemes in the region.

For his part, al-Nahda Movement Chairman in Algeria, Fateh Rabie, said that Hezbollah represents the depth of the Lebanese resistance, adding that the party was not dragged into sectarian sedition or provocations though it has the military power to control all the country.

Israel on Alert; Downplays Fears of War with Hezbollah

Hanan Awarekeh

Israeli occupation security officials are playing down concerns of an imminent direct conflict with Hezbollah, Army Radio reported on Monday.

Israel has raised its intelligence alert after clashes erupted in Beirut and Mount Lebanon between Lebanese national opposition supporters on one hand and the authority’s militias (Saad Hariri’s Militiamen and Walid Jumblatt’s) on the other, in which the opposition’s supporters could take control on most of these areas and handing their security to the Lebanese Army.

On Sunday, Israel’s Vice Premier Haim Ramon told cabinet members that Lebanon must be viewed as a “Hezbollah state,” after what he claimed that the group seized control over the western part of the Lebanese capital over the weekend.

“Lebanon has no government. It is a fiction, there is only Hezbollah,” Ramon said during the weekly cabinet meeting. “Hezbollah is directly responsible for everything that happens [in Lebanon], and the organization completely controls the state.”

Later in the cabinet meeting, Minister Ami Ayalon called for an emergency meeting of the political-security cabinet to discuss the ongoing crisis in Lebanon and Gaza.

Ayalon said that “the critical situation in the north” and the impending lull in the fighting in Gaza require a special session.

Minister of Religious Services Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said that “Israel must immediately ask the [United Nations] Security Council to hold renewed discussions over resolution 1701.” The minister was referring to the resolution that stopped the Israeli actions against Lebanon during the 34-day between in 2006, maintaining a fragile cease-fire.

According to Cohen “the Lebanese army proved to be a doormat, stepped on by Hezbollah.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel was following the violence in Lebanon closely, but would refrain from intervening. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio Sunday that Israel was prepared for the possibility that the situation in Lebanon will deteriorate into another civil war.

Vilnai also said the current fighting could end with a Hezbollah takeover of the government. “We need to keep our eyes peeled and be especially sensitive regarding all that is happening there,” Vilnai told Army Radio.

“We shouldn’t get involved. We need to watch and should follow this very closely even when we are dealing with other fronts,” he said, referring to continued fighting against the Hamas resistance group in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has controlled Gaza since last June.[/b]

Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should not yet take any action, but warned that things could change if Hezbollah takes over Lebanon. “I think it’s very dangerous, the [possible] situation in which Iran is in fact sitting on our border, and controlling Lebanon,” Sheetrit said. “It’s really dangerous in the long term because now its plain to everyone that … Hezbollah is just the long arm of Iran and that’s the way we should relate to it.”

For the time being, Jerusalem has decided not to issue any official comment on the confrontations between Hezbollah and the Beirut government. But various officials have expressed concern over the escalation and the possible implications for Israel’s northern border.

Meanwhile Sunday, a Lebanese security official reported that Israel Air Force warplanes violated Lebanon’s airspace and flew over the southern part of the country. “More than four Israeli jets flew over areas near the port city of Tyre,” the official said.

IAF jets regularly overfly Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The United Nations has called on Israel to stop doing so. The organization says the overflights undermine the credibility of UNIFIL stationed in southern Lebanon to observe a fragile ceasefire in the area.

Galloway, who’s renowned for opposing the war on Iraq and defending the rights of the Palestinians, said in an interview with Al-Ghad daily that “Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and Hezbollah are protecting Lebanon and its sovereignty” adding that “without them Lebanon would have been another country; an occupied one.” “Some are propagating that Nasrallah is Iran’s ally, I think they are misguiding the people on the truth that some Arab leaders are backing the US and imperialist powers”, Galloway said.

“I see Hezbollah’s secretary general as a unique pattern. He is truthful, and I believe that what happened in Lebanon came as a result of the government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah without making consultations, what prompted them to protect themselves”, he added.

The outspoken British MP continues by saying that “Hezbollah doesn’t want to take control of Lebanon, although they can, but they know the Lebanese structure and diversity”.

“I find odd how some Arab leaders are concerned about Iranian control of the region, especially after the Iranians helped US-UK occupation forces and facilitated their entrance into Iraq,” Galloway said.

“Arabs want to discuss Hezbollah’s occupation of the Hamra street in Beirut, just because they are unable to discuss Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the US occupation of Iraq.,” he added.

Galloway concluded that there’s no government in Lebanon. “The Government is the powerful body that is capable of controlling a certain domain, but unfortunately, Saniora’s government is incapable of spreading its control on the street outside the government’s headquarters.”