Battles are still going on very intensely on the borders; the resistance is making good scores. Today another truck load of medical supplies coming from the Syrian borders was destroyed by Israeli war planes killing the driver and injuring another civilian.
Interestingly enough 4 UN officers were killed during Israeli raids on their headquarters in the south of Lebanon; one Canadian, one finish, one Chinese and one Austrian. I never understood why Israel kills UN personnel, it can hardly be believed that it is an accident since usually UN headquarters are clearly marked as such, and in this case it was not one raid that killed them but a consecutive series of raids that took 6 hours during which calls were made to seize fire without response.
It seems that Israeli infiltration into Lebanon is facing serious misfortunes especially that they still did not manage to secure the closest village to the borders on which attacks are still being launched.
The Rome summit meeting was as disappointing and ridiculous as it should be, everyone present called for a seize fire but it was faced with a classic American no and therefore no seize fire was demanded. Ironically the Americans are still talking about their worries about Lebanon.
Otherwise I was struck today by the sight of the new Iraqi prime minister talking at the American congress and saying among many other things, that apparently ‘Iraq has been transformed from the land of mass graves to the land of freedoms’. I don’t know how pathetic such a statement can be, since if the prime minister or any of the great congressmen would open their TVs and see the news from Iraq they will be struck by the high scores of dead people and mass graves that are found everyday 3 years after democracy became the new oil of Iraq. Basically there is never less than 30 killed a day in the new land of freedom not to mention the dead bodies found on the streets on daily bases. Also the prime minister did not forget to point out to the fact that more than 20% of the deputies in the new Iraqi parliament are women – however in the land of the great poet of alcohol Abou Nawas women can no longer walk without the company of a male for fear of getting killed it was never so during the Saddam years (not that the were any kind of golden years, however as things are looking they were much better than the days of democracy). What a heaven has Iraq turned into, I am just curious to know why tourism has not yet become the main source of income instead of oil.
I just hope that the waves of democracy that Rice is expecting to arrive to Lebanon are not the same ones she brought to Iraq; this New Middle East seems to be similar to the one I heard described today in the American congress. I can just see our new prime minister doing the same in a few months.
10 Comments:
you say the resistance are making good scores, that still remains to be seen, since hizbollah are not giving clear figures on their guerilla losses and it is impossible for Israel to know exactly how much the enemy has lost from its arsenal; and that is a result from the fact that hizbollah is a guerilla implanted within lebanese cities and villages. Unfortunately hizbollah's well conducted propaganda gives aid and provides poor communities with education and hospitals, thus gains their favors. hizbollah is a milicia , a terrorist group, armed to the teeth, even stronger than the lebanese army. it is enough to say that there are places and regions in lebanon, in the south and in the north where even the lebanese army cant enter, because it is under control of the terrorists of hizb allah- party of god? a party that distorts the image of god given in the muslim religious books. hizbollah has no place in lebanon.
second of all, you say israel kills UN peacekeepers, and that with raids lasting 6hours??? your information must be faulty. there was more than one bomb indeed that fell on the UN headquarters, but the operation was instantly over and surely israel has no advantages in killing UN personnel. Classified as a mistake. the thing is that the UN personnel was asking the war planes to be careful because raids were falling close to their quarters, for more than 5h.
anyway, it is unfortunate that lebanon is always put in the middle of fights that are not its own, in the midst of a war that it did not want, a war forced up its civilians by the chief of the terrorist group, nasrallah. one morning, beirut woke up and found itself in the hands of hizbollah's will. one day, beirut woke up and its entire destiny was no longer its own.
and by the way, it's always 'a la guerre comme a la guerre'. in a war there will be deaths, there will be horror, blood, people, women children and men dying. and surely in this kind of war, where israel has to search for hizbollah's illegal arsenal and hidden weapons amidst civilians, because that is where hizbollah hides, among citizens, between buildings and commercial centers. there is nothing to rebel about, blood is blood, in this war that nasrallah wanted. so dont cry the deaths you asked for.
Thank you for a very well informed opinion. First of all I would like to ask everyone that will be writing on this blog – just asking of course – to be careful when using the term terrorist. And when anyone wants to use it please try to define it before doing so, and by defining I don’t want to hear ‘someone who kills civilians’ simply because you know it is bullshit. Secondly I would like everyone to make the effort of differentiating between a terrorist militia and a liberation movement (I don’t know how many still regard the Vietcong as terrorists, or Che Guevara as a terrorist). In Lebanon as you have very well seen opinions about the Hezbollah vary from those who carry a full-fledged hate towards them (and this is very much related to many underlying racist prejudices that the Lebanese society is filled with) that sometimes is even more radical than that of Israelis and those who support them blindly. In between there are those who try to be critical while supporting them nonetheless, or try to be critical and not support them. I would not want to live in a country ruled by the Hezbollah however this does not mean I would not vote them in the elections (since as very few know and many refuse to believe, the Hezbollah does not want to make an Islamic country out of Lebanon).
Otherwise I would like to testify as someone who has been to the south (I am originally from there) and knows the region and the people very well, and has basically traveled all around Lebanon and knows the country very well too, that this constant talk about the regions where the Lebanese army cannot enter is simply a media sentence. It is true that the Lebanese army has no big presence on the borders, however if you ever go to the south of Lebanon I think that you will be chocked by the number of army posts that you have to cross in order to get to any village. And I also have to say that yes the army is not the one who protects the south, but this is as you said because the lebanese army is weaker than the Hezbollah and is basically unable to sustain more than 3 hours of Israeli confrontation. And please don’t let me repeat the things why it is not because of the Hezbollah that Israel will attack Lebanon simply and if they were not here all would have been pink and filled with love. Maybe you should read the beautiful book by Robert Fisk about the Lebanese war – Pity the Nation.
An example is the way to go to my village, I will illustrate: first you take the highway south of Beirut, you have the first army blockade at the entry of Saida the biggest southern city, then another one at the exist of the city, then you take the highway further south towards Tyr, you have an army post at the turning point to go either to Tyr or to Nabatyeh. After you cross this one, and get to either Nabatyeh or Tyr (to get to Tyr you still have 3 more to pass – two of which were destroyed by the recent Israeli attack), every village further south from here has an army post at its entrance. To say even more, when you want to go to the ‘liberated territories’ you do not have to cross a Hezbollah barricade but you have to show your passport to an army officer and if you are not Lebanese you need to have a pass from the secret services of the Lebanese Army. This does not mean that the Hezbollah are not there (on the contrary they have a huge presence but it is not a milicia presence everyone you will meet there will be a Hezbollah, it does not however mean that he/she is armed to the teeth and ready to kill the first jew he/she will see, these people are simply supporters of this party like any other supporter of any other party) it means that it is not true that they do not allow army to go in, if one knows about Lebanese politics you would know that the Army General has very close ties with the Hezbollah and this does not make him a collaborator with the axis of evil. Anyway as for the north, there is no Hezbollah in the north; it is a Sunnite region (if we do not count the Christian population which is far from being a Hezbollah stronghold).
Otherwise it is true that the Hezbollah is stronger than the Lebanese army however this does not mean that they will have any power if one day they decide to attack the Lebanese army. Reality is not as simple as Bush describes it; it is not a Manichaean conflict between bad and good. And people do not make actions out of pure evilness. The Hezbollah has popularity now, if one day they decide to kill any Lebanese civilian I can assure you that their popularity will fade in not more than 2 weeks. Otherwise I still do not see why the UN attack is an accident, please read the UN report.
Another story I would like to tell is the story of the day of Liberation on the 25th of May 2000, when the Israeli army left Lebanon leaving behind some of their vehicles, and many of their collaborators (the Lahd Army, or the South Lebanon Army). It was not the Lebanese army that entered first, it was indeed the Hezbollah, however one thing that they did was to prevent a massacre of the collaborators (who by the way were responsible of the Khiam prison – which has now been destroyed by a recent Israeli raid – where many kinds of torture have been documented). If you go now to Khiam you will be surprised to see that the people who suffered from the torture are living as neighbors to those who were torturing them, when you ask them why, they reply the ‘Siyyid Hassan (Nasrallah) asked us to forgive them.
When you say that the Hezbollah has no place within Lebanon, I wonder about which Lebanon you are talking about. That is to say that if Lebanon is indeed made out of all the communities that are now part of it then isn’t it the least things about democracy that it is the majority that has the power? In this case when you say that the Hezbollah has no place in Lebanon you are saying that more than the third of the Lebanese population (in election terms, 90% of the voters in the southern mouhafazat, and 80% of the voters of the Bekaa mouhafazat, not to count those in Beirut and in Mount Lebanon, have no place in YOUR Lebanon). If I remember correctly it is for such chauvinistic opinions that the civil war lasted for 15 years. The Lebanon you are talking about has only room for you and maybe some right wing radicals. How can one be so bold to declare nearly 1 million citizen (they are as Lebanese as you are) and this is not to be exaggerating as having no place in Lebanon, who are you to decide who has a place and doesn’t? Isn’t democracy this ideal that says that the people should decide?
Today there was an opinion poll made by the ‘Beirut center for research and information’ (it was the main source of statistics during the elections and even the LBC was relying on their results – that is to say that they have no links to neither Hezbollah nor anyone else) The results are as follows (The sample represents all sects and regions and is also detailed by religious affiliation):
For the whole of Lebanon – in which the Hezbollah has no place as you say - the results are:
Question one: are you with the operation of the Hezbollah to kidnap the soldiers in order to exchange them? 70.1 % answered yes
Sunnite: 73.1
Chiite: 96.3
Druz: 40.1
Christians: 54.7
Question 2: do you support the Hezbollah’s resistance to the Israeli attacks? 86.9% answered yes
S: 88.9
C: 96.3
D: 79.5
C: 80.3
http://assafir.com/iso/today/local/3074.html
So if one wants to admit democracy as it is, two things appear from these results: firstly that the Lebanon you want does not represent what most of the Lebanese want and following the laws of democracy you have 3 choices: 1. to leave it 2.to respect the opinion of those who do not share yours and are the majority of your fellow citizens 3. to kill all those who do not share your opinion and who are unfortunately not only these soulless Shiites who terrify you but also a big part of the Christians, and in this case this can be done with what we already tried and the solution the Lebanese people know so well, the Civil War. But then you should not be complaining about the destruction of the country and the killing of the innocent.
Finally one last remark, one cannot build a country when he regards most of its citizens as terrorists without even taking the trouble to meet them. Ignorance and prejudice are something that transcends stupidity to become pretentiousness.
Elle, I think you are a bit harsh, to say the least.
I've been trying to learn these past few days the other side's point of view, and one of the sides I blame is the European. You read this right.
The Europeans and the UN have fostered in the past decades the dogma that civillians should never be harmed under any circumstances. Also, that the weak, powerless and the few are always right, and that the world should stand by them.
These are very powerful ideals and are indeed appropriate for Europe, which is at a different stage of international relations than the Middle East. The reasons for that, I think, are:
1. Most European countries have long formed their identities, and their collective identities, meaning their relations with each other and their place. Some of these countries even had their ups and downs regarding their own military power.
2. Most European countries have learned the lessons of civillians at war with blood and over a long time. They did not start with saying "hey, let's not kill civillians", but a slow change that began with destroying and pillaging, and ended a few hundred years later with defining battlegrounds.
What are your thoughts?
I was very saddened to read that, as you pointed out, the Hezbollah is indeed an authentic representative of the majority of the Lebanese people - and I am referring to the first question in the survey (as the second one is given). Which brings me to the choices you presented: there is a fourth one - to change the opinion.
Perhaps Israel does need to raise the price of attacks on it, and we'll see the change in those polls a month from now.
As for the accepted tactics of guerilla attacks from within a civillian population (which I'm sure we'll see videos of in the coming week), don't be surprised if the international community responds to this as well (such as more 'exports').
I don't know why you should be saddened by such opinions instead of trying to understand how they got formed. I don't think you can beleive that it is brain washing or terrorising that formes such opinions. Maybe, just maybe they do have a good point to support the Hezbollah.
as for the attacks from civilian areas, do you really think that a katyusha can be fired from a building?
I can tell you one thing, the fighters of the Hezbollah are the villagers and this is true, but this doesn't remind you of these villagers that fought in south america? However using the policy of erasing the village over the heads of the families and children that live in it can be a way to kill the supporters of the Hezbollah however it is also a way to give them more will to fight.
One thing is for sure however the military defeat of the Israeli army in Bent Jbeil yesterday was made by the hands of fighters who were not hiding behind civilians. And about the videos that will appear in a later time, i very much doubt they would, if such videos existed wouldn't the Israeli army have showed them long time ago at least to have a visual proof of their allegations?
and i agree with your point about European and UN dogmas. Very well said.
I am saddened because 70% support an action, that to be clear, is killing and kidnapping soldiers from inside the borders of a neighbouring country that has completely withdrawn from your borders, while bombing the civillian population as a diversion.
I am saddened because it was not a great a idea to do it to the strongest military power in the area.
I am saddened because the decision and action, though popular, were not carried out by the country itself. (what will happen when they'll do something that is less popular?)
I am saddened because the organization carrying out the operation, terrorist or not, does not want me around no matter what I do. To illustrate this last point, I'll ask you who said the following:
"There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel... Peace settlements will not change reality, which is that Israel is the enemy and that it will never be a neighbor or a nation."
Answer: not someone who just wants to exchange prisoners or to regain control of the Chebaa Farms (which are not in southern Lebanon, but are occupied Syrian land according to the UN).
Resist away,
uv.
First of all I want to reply to what you keep saying about the bombing of civilian population as a diversion, and the link you have on as a reference. I don’t know if you know what the Chebaa farms are, and if you know that these diversions you are talking about (and that the article states by the way if you read it more closely) are the military posts that exist in the Farms (which has no civilian population by the way, except in the Ghajar village which is on the borders and split in two between Lebanon and the occupied Farms, however the village was not the target of the diversion). That is first to stop repeating this wrong information.
Secondly to answer your question about the quote from Nasrallah (which dates from 1999, that is before the liberation of the south at a time when Israel was still occupying a relatively large amount of the country), I would say that yes it is true that this is part of the Hezbollah rhetoric, actually it is also part of many other political parties rhetoric in Lebanon I will state among others, the communist party, the Syrian nationalist party (which has nothing to do with Syria or the Baath party, in fact most of the leaderships if the Syrian nationalists were killed by the Baath), at a certain point the Socialist party, the Democratic party (it is actually the most stupid name of a party in Lebanon I think – but this is another subject), Amal party…
This does not mean that they will invade you – as you have very well put it Israel is the strongest army in the region, but this does indeed mean that they will not make your life easier (which is not by killing people – but can be done, as the Hezbollah very nicely put it – by a long economic and demographic struggle). And when you hear the sentence the destruction of Israel don’t go thinking that this means killing the Jews (which I presume is still a post-Holocaust syndrome for many Israelis) it means giving the Palestinians a Palestine and rights in it, and then in best cases living happily together ever after and in more realistic terms having the Jews become a minority once again and having the name of country changed to Palestine (they are basically counting on the fact that if Palestinians go back home to Palestine most of the Israelis that are there will go willingly – but don’t worry about it this will never happen because again as you said, and as Nasrallah also knows, Israel is here to stay – but this does not mean that one cannot call for rhetoric.) However I do understand your point and I partly agree with you, but I am just trying to give you another perspective – which is not necessarily mine.
I hope you got my point. As for the operation, I already said why it was done theoretically and why it is nothing but a military operation that falls in the context of gaining exchange values. And by the way the Chebaa farms are a controversy it is true but the Lebanese government has it as Lebanese, and regardless of that it is not he only problem between Israel and Lebanon as I said before there is the maps of the landmines, the detainees, and more importantly the Palestinian refugees. (by the way according to the UN - as you like to say - they should be back to their homes, maybe we can agree on something, take them back and keep the farms, then the UN would be really a reference)
Resisting
walid
Enregistrer un commentaire
<< Home