mardi, juillet 25, 2006

Day 13

Today Condoleezza Rice arrived to Beirut and we went to welcome her. It was a hunt for Condi. We were not many and we were not organized – however a message had to be sent – of course to no avail.

The news from the field were centered on the battles on the Lebanese borders where the fighters of the resistance were making very good work the summary of the day was 4 soldiers killed, 23 injured, 1 apache Helicopter and 5 vehicles. The fighting is still centered in the village of Maroun el Rass – a strategic point the Israeli army is trying to secure. The village is on a hill that can see northern Palestine. However 13 days have passed and the Israeli army has not secured the area.

During the protest against Rice’s visit Israeli war planes were flying over our heads. The pictures of the protest and the planes will hopefully be posted tomorrow.

As for the questions raised by Andres about the Hezbollah, I will try to make some quick answers for the moment hopefully to elaborate more on the subject later – if I get the chance.

First of all one must ask one’s self what is the definition of terrorist. Then one must ask one’s self about the credibility of the EU and any other international or regional power (including Iran and the Arab summit). The thing is that reality and politics are subjected to power relations and when one talks about any judgment it is always relative to one’s interests. The Hezbollah was not on the EU terrorist list until recently and to put an organization on the terrorist list is simply a political decision (for years European countries – and until now some still – have refused to put this organization on this list). It is not to say that they should not be put or even that they should be put on the list but to point out to the fact that putting it on the list is simply a change of policy regarding Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The Hezbollah is accused to have exploded the American Marines HQ in Beirut an operation regarded as a terrorist one in US (which is normal) but as a heroic one in Lebanon (as the Marines were seen to be an occupying force). This is to summarize why and what is to be put on a terrorist list: A terrorist organization is an organization that is fighting the power that regards it as terrorist – that is when such an organization is seen on the other side of the conflict as a liberating force (which rules Al-Quaida as an absolute terrorist organization – but not Hezbollah or even Hamas).

Secondly to understand the resolution 1559 which demands the end of the Syrian presence in Lebanon and the disarming of the Hezbollah one must also look at how this resolution was adopted in contradiction to all the UN rules and laws. The UN has no right to make a resolution regarding the relation between one country and the other or any resolution that regards the internal politics of a country without one of the concerned countries having filed a complaint. In the case of the resolution 1559 Lebanon was not part of it; it was presented by the French and the American ambassador and was imposed on Lebanon. In fact the internal political problems in Lebanon in the last 2 years and the instability on security level was directly caused by this resolution which was refused by a majority of Lebanese people and politicians at first but was imposed on the government in a later time. When Hariri was killed (and I have reasons to think that he was killed to make way to its imposition) the resolution was back into debate and the first part of it (the end of Syrian presence) was accomplished. However the second part (disarming the Hezbollah) was refused by all the partitions of Lebanese society as being something that cannot be done as simply as that without resolving the cause of the presence of the Hezbollah until this day which is the occupation of the Chebaa Farms in southern Lebanon and the Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons and the maps to the landmines still present on Lebanese soil. That is without mentioning the whole issue of the 700 000 Palestinian refugees which are still living in camps in Lebanon and which the UN resolution 194 states clearly that they must get back to what is now Israel (however Israel has never even bothered to implement this resolution but did make a war to implement a resolution that concerns Lebanon and which is the 1559). Then there is the problem of the resolution 242 which demands Israel to give back all the territories they occupied in 1967 which include the Chebaa farms and the Golan heights this resolution can also solve the middle east issue but Israel refuses to implement it.

The 1559 was part of a new Middle East Rice is now talking about and Israel is now doing supposedly for the sake of Lebanon.

For the last point which is why Hezbollah killed and kidnapped ISRAELI (and not Jewish – please it is not a religious conflict it is a conflict of power) soldiers I would say simply that this is not the first time and this is something Hezbollah has announced as the only way to liberate the last Lebanese detainees (which by the way were supposed to be released with those that were exchanged after the last kidnapping of Israeli soldiers to release the former detainees some years ago – however Israel did not release the ones remaining and refused negotiations, since then Hezbollah decided to re-kidnap Israeli soldiers to make a new negotiation). One must also look at an important fact that there is a big difference between a military operation and terrorist one – by all standards the last Hezbollah operation is not a terrorist one as it was not aimed at civilians but at soldiers in an area of conflict. Of course I do not take stand in what concerns being with the operation or not however one cannot launch a destructive war and destroy a whole country because of such an operation. Another thing we must also look into is the fact that Israel has kidnapped Lebanese and Palestinian civilians (and also recently Palestinian deputies) from inside their countries and no one has ever resented such operations, not to mention the recent assassinations and the Mossad groups that were captured few months ago in Lebanon and who acknowledged the assassination of 3 people this year and the preparation for further assassinations. It is this tendency to always measure things in an uneven way that makes this struggle one of pride and human rights. And if one looks at the chronicles of the recent war you can clearly see that the Hezbollah did not start targeting civilians in Israel until Israel started bombing the southern Suburbs and killed more than 50 Lebanese civilians in a day of massacres. The first day the Hezbollah targeted only military posts in northern Israel.

What shows from such a big scale and high demand operation is that Israel was actually waiting for a reason to launch this war to implement the last part of the 1559 which Lebanon had agreed supposedly with the UN to solve it with an internal dialogue between the different political groups, however the talk about the defense strategy to be adopted by the government and which was proposed by the Hezbollah and was being accepted more or less made things complicated for US and Israel because if Hezbollah remains powerful Iran will always have a strong point of negotiation later on when the nuclear program will be in discussion, however this too is just one quick idea open to further discussion.

In short everything that happens in the world and especially in the Middle East and more precisely in Lebanon is always subjected to conflicts of power, energy and international politics. One must not misunderstand politics as an aim in itself, it is simply a tool.

And just to stress on Giorgos’s definition the common slogan to describe Israel is to say that it is Terrorist that is on the other side of the border. In here Israel is the symbol of terrorism for both its deeds in Lebanon and Palestine. The US entered the competition of high standard terrorism in its occupation of Iraq (and Afghanistan but Iraq remains the main scare in the Arab mind).

Finally to talk about the destruction of Israel one must first look at what Israel represents for those who lived on the land that was called Palestine not more than 60 years ago and see that yes some people believe that being kicked out of your land and having a new country created on it while your identity has been stolen and you are living in refugee camps for the whole of your life without a passport nor ID papers is something that would motivate you to call for the destruction of this country that was declared on your land. One must admit that Israel (with my respect to the Holocaust and all the crimes committed against Jewish people) was created by the eviction of a whole population more than 2 million Palestinians live in camps – and if you know these people even have legal ownership documents for their lands dated from the mandate period and some from the Ottoman empire. Their lands are now called in Hebrew names and no UN resolution gave them their right to live on their land. Israel is a piece of land that was populated by what is now called Palestinians, they were not peasants nor nomads, actually Palestine was the urban center of the region (my father was born their even though he is from Beirut because his father ‘immigrated’ to Palestine at the time when it was TO Palestine that people from Beirut used to go to make more money). Has anyone who lives in Israel now asked him/herself who used to live in these old houses from the pre-1948 period and why those who lived here left their houses? One does not really believe that people can leave their land to live in refugee camps with their own will. This does not mean Jewish people should be evicted but it means that you cannot occupy a land and declare a country after evicting those who used to live in this land and not expect these people to refuse this fact and do whatever to change it, after all they have nothing else in life but death. The Hezbollah along with many non-religious groups also believe in this cause and therefore call for the destruction of Israel. However this does not mean killing the Jews, but the creation of a long awaited Palestine, which was before 1948 the jewel of the orient. By the way an interesting fact is: there are still Jewish families living in Lebanon, they refused to go to Israel and they don’t even recognize the state of Israel however one disturbing detail is that they actually live in the Hezbollah districts, to be more precise the now destroyed southern suburb of Beirut, if this shows anything it is that the Hezbollah is not anti-Jewish but anti-Israeli.

14 Comments:

At 8:12 AM, Blogger uv said...

Beside the fact that you neglected to mention that the Jewish people have a few thousand years of history with Israel, I was wondering how the rejection of the UN's Partition Plan integrates with this story.

 
At 10:37 AM, Blogger Ayman said...

The kurds have also 6000 years of history related with kurdistan, The maronites 2000 years with mount lebanon, the druz 1000 years with the chouf... doesn't mean that all these minorities (ethnic or religious) need all to have a part of the east exclusively for them and make their own ethnic state... those who want to live in the east should know that the east belongs to everyone, all of it. The UN's partition plan was rejected on this principle, the secular state of palestine can accomodate easily different religions, especially that many sites are holly for all of them.

 
At 12:31 PM, Blogger walid said...

Well i have to point out to the fact that jewish people who were not already living in Palestine have the same relation with this land as christians who don't live in the Vatican, or Muslims who don't live in Mecca. Personaly i do not recognize old history as a right. If we do recognize thousands of years of history of the jewish people in Palestine - that is thousands of years ago, then why don't we recognize the thousands of years of history of the Arabs in Palestine tens of years ago, or to go beyond the region, the thousands of years of history of thousands of civilizations around the earth (which are often conflictual). What you are saying is that a polish jew who came to Palestine in 1948 has the right to claim a land that some 2000 years ago belonged to his ancestor and in order to claim it he can kill or evict the Arab who was still living there at that moment, because simply some thousands of years ago he had a history on this land, so thousands of years later he can call it a country. I do not want to seem aggressive nor do i want to offend but i think this does not even qualify as an argument for the state of israel.

 
At 4:29 PM, Blogger uv said...

I believe that you fail to understand the seriousness of attacks (no matter how insignficant or legitimate they seem to you) that are launched from your country. Personally, I think that it has nothing to do with terrorism, but because the western world has always solved its conflicts on a per-country basis. Attacking a country while relinquishing your authority and responsibility is tantamount to 'breaking the rules' at best, and declaring war at worst; in any case, it is unacceptable and cannot be justified by the world.

Furthermore, I think that this same attitude of 'erasing borders' and attempting not only to care for the entire Arab world, but also to solve the problem of the state of Israel at once, has proven destructive. One can learn from the fact that instead of solving anti-semitism in Europe, Israel has opened its borders to all Jews, while the Arab World has left the number of its Palestinian refugees to grow from hundreds of thousands to millions.

The reality, as un-humanitarian as it might seem, is that Israel, like most democratic nations, will attempt to protect its citizens more than it will try to not harm others. It is this simple logic that drives the current assault, and no amount of rhetoric, images or theories will change that.

I know that this will not bring you comfort, but it might change your point of view.

Peace,
uv.

 
At 7:34 PM, Blogger Ayman said...

The problem with you UV is that I respect your opinion, but strongly feel that is it not based on true information. For example, you qualify Israel as a democratic country, how come in a democratic country there is a minority that makes roughtly 34% of the population that is virtually not represented in the parliament?

You also argue that launching the attack is a declaration of war... I am sorry to tell you that war was already on... we have land that is still occupied and detainees in Israeli prison, and there is no accord between us and the Israelis, they violate constantly our borders, sometimes even bombard people who get close to the frontier and kill them... I don't see any sense behind assuming that capturing Israeli soldiers for exchange with Lebanese detainees is a declaration of war....

The western world never in history resolved disputes in a "per-country basis"... i hope you can provide a single example because i can send you tons of european and western history to see...

But what really seems out of bound in your statements is to assume that Israel is protecting its citizens by massacring Lebanese people in their houses... away from any values, the facts on the ground is that this strategy failed. There is no way to justify the murder of civilians and the massive destruction of their country. Hezbollah never done that... in 1996 Israel signed a statement recognizing that the attacks of Hezbollah at the time were in relaliation to the bombardment of civilians.

Finally, I have a lot of jewish friends and I can't accept to tie Israel to them as being the country of the jewish people. Zionists are to jews what Al Qaeda is for Muslims and Hitler is to Chirstians... they are all the same, check history and compare for yourself...

UV,

 
At 9:19 PM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

I think that UV meant under 'per-country basis' a simple fact. A country A is in war with a country B. In this case there just one country - Israel. The other party is not Lebanon, but Hezbollah.

Regarding the destruction of Lebanese infrastructure. The goal, I assume, is to destroy ways through which Hezbollah gets support (weapons, money etc.) from someone (possibly Syria and Iran). The fact that (Walid has written about it) Hezbollah has its quarters also in densely populated areas like suburbs makes this conflict very bloody .
What about this viewpoint?

I do not want to be offensive. I am just trying to uncover the nature of this ongoing tragedy.

Best
Andres

 
At 10:55 PM, Blogger walid said...

I am glad we got to the serious points – which are related to the idea of country, war and violence. First I would like to start with a small parentheses.

(The infrastructure and the suburbs that were bombed are in no way used to supply Hezbollah with their weapons, Israel knows that more than I do. Hezbollah does not import weapons from the airport nor do they import them from the sea ports, in best cases some car loads of weapons used to come in from the Syrian borders by land and they don’t even use the highway – which was also bombed by the way. Secondly when I say that the suburbs are the stronghold of the Hezbollah it is not to say that they keep their armed forces there, it means that during elections everyone living there will vote Hezbollah and these are not armed people but poor workers and their families. Moreover I can scarcely imagine that dairy product factories and other main industrial complexes which were bombed are of any use to the Hezbollah. Of course in all this I did not even mention the truck load of medical support sent by the Arab Emirates that was bombed, the civilian block buildings that were destroyed over their habitants, the convoys of refugees that were blasted by Israeli shells, the civil defense HQ that was destroyed, the UN quarters that were shelled, the church that was bombed and other self-defensive actions of the like.)

About Israel and the problem of anti-Semitism: I was struck by the statement that you wrote, ‘instead of solving anti-Semitism in Europe, Israel opened its borders to all Jews. First of all Israel was not there to open any borders and if some Jews thought that they can choose a land and call it their homeland without asking those who live in it about their opinion, but even inviting all the Jews in the world to come over and settle their. I think in non-political terms this can be called being impolite to say the least. How about if I put it in individual terms, lets say you used to live in my apartment some years ago and you left and settled in some other country for some other years, then you had kids and your kids had kids and then one of them had a problem with his landlord who started molesting him and calling him names and torturing him and everything you want. So he decides not to solve his problem with his landlord but instead goes back to were you used to live (and now theoretically I am living since a long long time) and breaks down the door kicks me out and invites all his friends who have similar problems to come and live at what I regard as my home and he regards as his because his ancestor, you, used to live here. If I was me in this story I would first go get the police (in this case the UN) and when the police tells me that I do not exist and that they can’t do anything to help I would not be so happily ready to go live at my cousin’s place for the rest of my life but I would either go get a baseball bat and kick you out or even better ask my cousin to help me do it.

My dear, it is not a lack of hospitality that made the Arabs refuse to give the Palestinians nationalities but it is first the fact that they do not want any other nationality than their own – the Palestinian one – and the fact that we still believe – and so does the UN in the resolution 194 – that they should be back to their homes. In short it is not up to the Arab world to take the responsibility to solve the initial crime of the state of Israel but it is up to Israel to bear the burden of kicking people out of their land to declare a country.

As for your view of what is a democracy I would like to point out to some things: first a democracy is not simply blond haired people nor is it the fact that one has a ‘democratic’ system of vote (which is not the case in Israel by the way). Democracy is a very ambivalent term, and to call Israel a democracy it is an offense to the Greeks who invented the term. In a UN approved form of democracy every citizen of a country has the same rights, and is equal in all domains, which is as you well know not the case in Israel as there are second and third degree citizens. Moreover a democratic state in UN terms has to respect and impose the human rights, which is, and I will not even bother to argue why, not the case for Israel. Let me also point out to the fact that protecting one’s citizens is not simply launching wars against their enemies and then making more enemies by doing immoral crimes it is – and this is a personal opinion – perhaps more logical to try to solve the initial problem of their conflict that is by admitting one’s crimes and assuming responsibility and not taking the position of the all powerful nation that will not confess any error it has done. Basically do you really think that the last operation that Israel launched against Lebanon really was in order to protect its citizens? Do you really think that the Hezbollah are so bloodthirsty to be attacking Israeli civilians just like that? Do you think that if Israel did not launch the war Hezbollah would have bombed northern Israel? Or is it not more the contrary that made the war such a large scale one?

The limit of Hezbollah operations and this is not my analysis but their declared goal is to make a military operation against Israeli army in order to do an exchange, that is it. If this seems like theories, rhetoric and whatever you want to call it then it is too bad for you.

Otherwise I would like to say one more thing, have you ever asked yourself what it is to live in Gaza? Or how it would feel to have your olive trees destroyed in order to build a huge wall that will keep you there? Or what it is like to have to cross the barriers?

My dear friend human suffering breads violence, and violence breads violence. Israel is far from being called anything like democracy, even the media has no real freedom, when the crew of Al-jazeera is targeted with army bullets in Israel and with missiles in Lebanon one asks about freedom of speech. And please don’t give me the excuse of Al-jazeera being a ‘terrorist’ channel, because simply there is no such thing as a ‘terrorist’ channel.

 
At 10:56 PM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

Ce commentaire a été supprimé par un administrateur du blog.

 
At 10:56 PM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

tu es fou walid...

 
At 12:47 AM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

Hallo Walid,

Although it may be irritating for you and maybe for me as well, I would kindly ask you not to delete any comments of people. Of course you are the administrator, so you choose...But even if the comments are expressed in explicit words, are insulting personally for you, for me or everyone here - for your country - for the situation etc, they should be published here uncensored in my opinion. There are not bad words. It merely exists bad thought, mind, and heart in someone and he/she should be punished but not in here...He/she will be, maybe, in real life and in many ways.
I am not doing a lesson about democracy to you, as I assume from your sayings that you may know this term better than me.
But I think that:
1) Everyone has the right to say what he thinks.(of course, he will be criticised for that), and
2) Whoever being expressed in such extreme ways, he/she will be isolated and eventually expelled from the highly intellectual level of the dialogue that you foster mainly in this blog.

Greets,
Yannis - Athens

 
At 11:14 AM, Blogger walid said...

my dear Yannis, i agree with your democratic stand. and i think i owe you an explanation, the comment that was erased was a repetition of the one that is after it - so basically i decided to delete one of them as the one who posted them did it twice - call it obssessive compulsive behavior but not censorship. And to make things even more explicit the comment says in french 'you are crazy Walid'. (notice the timing of both the comments)

 
At 12:45 PM, Anonymous Anonyme said...

Sorry walid I "surrender" (by your explanation).

Yannis - Athens

 
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