Syria Replies … with Impotent Anger

Today morning, I did not find references to Khaddam’s interview yesterday in the Syrian press that I usually look at. I did find an article by Charles Ayoub, in the Diyar which questioned Khaddam’s credibility. However, some TV stations are now, as I’m writing this, airing the discussion within the private meeting of the “Majlis Al-Shaab Al-Souri Lilrad Aala Itihamat Khaddam”. One member has just said

“Khaddam has discussed democracy, now that he is living in his grand palace in Paris. When he was in government, he wasn’t just some concierge. He was a ruler, along with the president, and he did nothing.”

Another member asked

"Has he become a partner in the pressure on and the consipiracies against Syria? … Has he become a lawyer for the international investigative commission?"

The members of the Majlis were called up one by one to comment on the situation. Have such meetings ever been aired live before?

Two other comments played with his name
“Khaddam has become nothing but a servant against his country, and has sold his family …”

as well as

“Khaddam was a servant to his nation, but now he has become a servant to others … these [Khaddam’s] accusation are refuted … he discussed poverty in Syria, yet he himself had a very expensive statue behind him during his interview”

One also suggesting crossing out the word “Sayid” from before all references to Khaddam … since

“As I can tell from your looks, he does not deserve to be called Sayid Khaddam”.

One speaker said that

“Khaddam has sold his soul to the Devil …”

Now, along the more insulting lines that Syrian officials have used before, one official called Al Moustaqbal (and another channel that I didn’t catch) Nawaha wal Raddaha.

They have also accused Khaddam of working with Israel.

Update: Khaddam has been accused, by the Majlis, of being a traitor. Legal action against him will be taken.

posted by Lazarus, 4:54 AM 2 comments

Where Does Khaddam Stand?

“I had to choose between the regime or the nation, and I chose the nation.”

Abdul-Halim Khaddam intends on returning to Syria, as he has stated during an interview tonight on Al-Arabiya. When asked the question “Who killed Rafik Hariri?”, he suggested that we wait for the investigative commission to release its verdict, describing the Mehlis report as professional, and not political – even though the crime was a political crime – but that it was politicized by others. He suggested the right question to ask would be with regards to the nature of the relationship between Syria and Hariri. However, he did say that the assassination could not happen unless the jihaz was both strong and capable, although he insisted that the Syrian jihaz could not do so on its own. In addition, he argued that only an idiotic person would believe the Abu-Addas story.

Several months before Lahoud’s extension, Hariri received harsh words from Bashar Al-Assad, such as “I will erase anyone who goes against our decisions.” Apparently, Khaddam discussed with Assad that this was not the way to converse with the prime minister of Lebanon, especially since Hariri had a nose bleed due to the stress of the conversation.

Khaddam also said that he had opposed placing Lahoud as president, and opposed the subsequent extension, because “Lebanon cannot handle a military regime.” Hariri spoke with Khaddam and asked for his opinion, to which Khaddam said “Extend, then resign.” In a meeting with Mohsen Dalloul several months before the assassination, he told Dalloul to advise Hariri to leave Lebanon because of his position in Syria, although he “never thought Syria would kill Hariri.”

He also blamed Lebanon for pushing Syria to the corner it is now in by stating that there was “planning on the Lebanese side” to do so. In his own personal reminisces, he began discussing Aoun in 1990, and claimed that Aoun’s demise was due to a Lebanese demand, even though he had asked Hraoui to place Aoun as the Minister of Defense. He admitted that Syria had intervened in the formation of Lebanese governments, and apparently is of the opinion that Syria should have implemented the Taef after the Israeli withdrawal. At that time, he could not seriously suggest these things because he had left the Lebanese realm in 1998.

Khaddam accused Rustom Ghazaleh of being a thief, of acting as if “he was the prime ruler of Lebanon, and of taking $ 35 million dollars from Bank Al-Madina. He had questioned Assad on the reasons for keeping Ghazaleh in Lebanon, and had asked him to change him, but Assad ended up rewarding Ghazaleh.

Surprising as it was to see an exclusive interview with Khaddam, he did not discuss anything new. Unless I’m mistaken, what is new is that this is the first time a Syrian official directly accuses Syria of intervening in Lebanese affairs, of threatening Hariri (both in the example above and with an example concerning Ghazaleh), and of corruption (he also gives examples of corruption within the Syrian regime). He did not directly blame Syria for the assassination, but that isn’t something anyone would expect him to do. I would have liked the interviewer to have asked him some other questions, such as “Who was responsible for the attempt on Marwan Hamade” (considering that a fair amount of air time was given to the issue of the presidential extension). Khaddam also mentioned several times that Asad spoke politely to people (excluding the threat mentioned above). Considering what Khaddam has said – which, although not harsh enough, strongly deviates from the typical Syrian Regime line – he seems confident that he will return. Why?

posted by Lazarus, 1:45 PM 1 comments

Can We Please Move On?

I don’t really want to discuss what has happened to Nazem Khoury. I just find it astoundingly shocking that he didn’t have bodyguards to protect him considering the previous deadly threats he had received. I suppose a foreigner who is out looking for something that will never really be found is more important that we are. Let’s face the reality. We may want the Truth. We may have an infallible notion of what the Truth is. However, we won’t get the Truth.

A while ago, Mehlis was quoted in several newspapers to have said “It's relatively clear that these [assassinations] weren't isolated attacks - even though I can't prove it” .

Because of his position in this investigation, I find that his public discussion of things being “relatively clear”, considering “he can’t prove it”, to be irresponsible. However, let’s just put that aside. An article by Der Spiegel (published on December 19, 2005) elaborates on the quote above, by stating that

“Mehlis believes he is close to the truth -- nevertheless, he was unable to find enough solid evidence to ensure that his case would hold up in court.”

It also discussed how Mehlis

“performed the function of an outside auditor of Lebanon Inc., of someone who examines the company's books and exposes the offences of its executives -- a role in which he felt increasingly uncomfortable. He repeatedly complained that every step his team took was politicized -- sometimes by pro-Syrian politicians, sometimes by the Hariri camp -- at times prompting Mehlis to wonder whether his investigation was doing the country more harm than good.”

Furthermore, even with the 37,000 pages of documents, Der Spiegel still concluded that

“The German prosecutor is convinced that this network of Lebanese and Syrian officials is responsible for the murder. But to this day, he and his staff have failed to prove who the spider in the web was and who issued the orders to kill Hariri, nor have been they been able to identify the killers themselves.”

Why am I blogging this now?

Simply because it is time we move on. This isn’t about letting blood go to waste, as the typical accusation goes. Let the investigation run its course. While it does, we should not forget that there is a whole county sitting on several potential time bombs which will not be reset by only waiting for the Truth. To be sure, there is a lot of commotion between the various parties as they try to heal the governmental crisis, but the statements the different politicians make can be distilled into three basic ideas (even after the attack on Khoury, and even after the attack on and by Israel):

We want the Truth.
We want National Unity.
We plan to have/are having discussions.

In the meantime …

posted by Lazarus, 4:47 AM 3 comments

Dora @ Rush Hour

posted by Lazarus, 1:48 PM 1 comments

A White Sunday

It snowed this weekend. Last night, it rained as if the skies were weeping for Lebanon. After sitting under the tree and opening gifts, there was an instance when the thunder was loud enough to make my family jump up in fear and run to the balconies and the windows to make sure that it wasn’t another explosion, making it a genuinely Lebanese Christmas. Today, as we do every year, we drove up to Ajaltoun to have Christmas lunch at my uncle’s house. The drive itself was beautifully serene, with everything around us glistening under the new sun. It is a necessary drive for those who want to enjoy Lebanon – in the same way that driving to Jbeil, Batroun, Baakline, and Sur is necessary. May you all have enjoyed your weekends, and hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

posted by Lazarus, 11:50 PM 0 comments

Even though the issue ...

... of hatred towards the Syrian regime being projected at the Syrian people might be understandable to a certain degree, it definitely isn't condonable.  Apparently, some people, like those who form the "Forces of Evil", don't agree … since they've decided to act as vigilantes and attack several Syrian workers … which has happened before …  

Of course, a question tags along with such behavior.  Is this hatred – misplaced as it may be – just a product of current events?  Or is there a more fundamental and latent cause for it – in which case … who will the next object of hatred be?

posted by Lazarus, 6:52 AM 3 comments

We must have our definition of ...

posted by Lazarus, 10:52 AM 1 comments

"Youth afraid for their homeland"

In my last post I mentioned briefly the "Youth Afraid for Their Homeland", and for the past week, they have been meeting once a day. This "movement", which has increased from the original 15, strangely appealed to me. Although I doubt their effect on the current situation will be substantial, their honesty and motivation in doing this was a breath of fresh air (especially compared to the camp freedom - which has almost finished being built). I went down today to Sodeco and joined them for a while. They gather every day starting at two in front of this building.

Today was their fifth declaration. I've taken pictures of the first four, and will go down after several more days to catalogue the rest. I would translate them, but their writing has a rhythm to it which I know I would not be able to preserve ...

posted by Lazarus, 6:02 AM 0 comments

An Assortment of Observations ... and an Interview with Aoun

First of all, Internet is not exactly conducive to frequent posts. My dial-up is unbearable ... I've adapted to the connection I have back in the States. Because of that, I'm going to lump different topics in one post every couple of days. I've tried using email option, but I still need to figure out how to control the formatting for that.

On My Neighborhood

There are no pictures of Gebran Tueni.

There are hardly any Lebanese flags hanging off balconies, which was not the case in June.

There are a few pictures of Bashir Gemayel, but these have always existed here over the past 10 years. There are some remnants of the election posters of Pierre Gemayel and Michel Aoun.

Compared to June, the amount of LF crosses spray painted on the walls has increased. Some of these may have been painted after Geagea was released, but quite a few looked fresher than that. In June, these crosses were usually lumped together, but now there are many more individual crosses. These can be seen next to the entrance of various houses - either next to the door, or next to the gate. There are also a few pictures of Geagea raising his fist, which is modeled as a source of light.

On Rumors

It seems there were some relatively clandestine activites going on in a few groups several months ago. I heard this from someone yesterday. Today I have heard it from another friend after I checked with him. And then tonight I got the "it's common knowledge" speech by a third person who proceeded to tell me why.

On Government

A consensual government contradicts democracy of the majority. We should decide on one, and then move on. This is related to one of the hypocricies inherent in confessional democracy.

On Sukleen

I felt ashamed when I saw today a Sukleen truck that had workers stuffed into the back like cattle.

On Youth Activism

Yesterday there was a small tribute to Tueni in AUB with candles and a few posters.

On NBN there was a talk show that involved some young "leaders". They represented how much we lack the capabilities of constructive dialogue.

I was only able to catch part of Zaven's show on Future TV, which also included young "leaders". It was more organized than the one on NBN, but there was very little originality, and alot of the comments were filled with empy rhetoric, unconstructive poetry, and bold patriotism. To be fair, I was not able to catch the beginning, so it is possible that something great had come out then.

On Camp Freedom

The above show by Zaven was about this camp. The camps during the first "revolution" were real tents. The sense of spontenaity they created deserved respect at some level. Today's camp is still not constructed yet. There are bulldozers and workers setting up this "Freedom Camp". Only then will it be occupied by the outh.

There is no real "mass" in this "uprising of the masses".

On the "Youth Afraid for Their Homeland"

I was happily surprised to read in Assafir yesterday a mention of the First Decleration of the "Youth afraid for their Homeland". According to this article, there were around 15 youth in Sodeco next to the destroyed building that is a remnant of the War. What was strange in the matter was first of all, that these youth did not carry Lebanese or party flags. Second of all, they decided to remain silent. Third of all, they did not use prepared tents, but just sat next to the building opposing Sodeco building, and they held cardboard signs that were written on with things such as "Remember ... where has gaining strength from the outside or hiding behind sects taken us", and "The Silent afraid for their country". and "Stop and take a breath and think to where are we heading." Moreover, the declaration that these youth passed out did not ask for removing the head of the security forces or the president of the republic, or use other phrases that we have heard lately, but only had on it "Declaration number one", with their name "Youth afraid for their homeland". I am looking forward for more declarations.

On Journalism

There doesn't seem to be a sense of investigative reporting in today's Lebanese newspapers. They are either some form of press release, or opinion editorials.

On Apple

Apple has finally invaded Lebanon. There are now (I think)two stores called "Mac Zone". It probably won't take too much time before the Ipod infiltrates the upper class elite.

On the Beirut Skyline

There few things as beautiful as the Beirut sky in winter.

On Santa

Only in Lebanon would you see Santa coming down from a helicopter.

On News

A Hezbollah member was released today from Germany. Was this really a gesture of goodwill?


Interview with Aoun (On Al-Manar - Hadeeth Al-Sa`a)

I've suspended my personal opinions on Aoun during his interview with Al-Manar on Hadeeth Al-Sa`a, and have kept a list of topic and quotes that he discussed. Although there were typical Aoun traits in the interview, he asked quite a few legitimate questions. His main point was that the current government is not capable of controlling the situation, not because it is inherently faulty, but because they haven't taken any necessary steps to diffusing the situation. As he said, "I am living within a country that can't protect my life, and if I die, it can't discover who killed me." He proposed an initiative for dialogue, the main premise of which was

"Instead of going on TV and shouting, what prevents us from meeting and discussing things face to face ... let them come to me and tell me General I don't trust you, you visited America for the presidency, you are sectarian ... "

The presenter didn't let things go and did ask about his aspirations for presidency:

- You are hiding some things. Your aspiration for the presidency ...
- Me? Lek, what can the presidency accomplish. What can he do. Can he whistle for a foul? ...
- On a personal level?
- Not necessarily.

He had previously commented on how much control the president actually has on the current situation.

- Till now, I haven't seen anything that was proposed that was opposed by Lahoud. Someone even said that it is as if he isn't there ... no one is complaining about him ... If Lahoud resigns today, what would happen? ... Be careful, the situation is dangerous ...
- So you have no other condition besides who would fill the gap?
- No, I do. What is their plan?

Aoun is planning on taking his role as the opposition very seriously, since to him "The majority doesn't have the support of the people ..". He then said

You will see the list of demands I will present to them ... I will ask for an explanation for everything they have said in the recent times, since Tueni's assassination ... not just about me.

He believes he has been patient with the government.

"Of course I'm being patient. the president is doing nothing, the government is crippled, and the parliament is watching."

He became slightly angrier since there have been "15 murders, and they don't have a shred of evidence? And you ask if I have the right to blame the government?"

He also asked "At the time of Mehlis, the Mkalles road was secure and protected. Why did that stop? When he was here, it was secure ... "

Moreover, he also accused the majority of planning to remove the president in order to gain more control.

- I am not defending the president ... They want to remove him so that they can put someone who is controlled by the 72 ...
- You are saying they are creating a president outside Lebanon?
- Yes, "shoubek". They all met in Paris ...

He has also claimed that "Those who don't have two thirds of the parliament don't have the right to have two thirds of the government", and went on to ask

"What I don't understand is how the majority that is currently governing is going down to the streets and demonstrating ... against whom? What a joke (maskhara)."

However, some of his typical attitude towards him being the main reason for the Syrian withdrawal came through when he insisted that

"We were the base ... We were there [in March 14], and they came after us ... it is part of our history ... they are the second child in it ... there were alot of people who had no right to talk about it, and they did. We didn't talk about it."

Some other topics that are worth mentioning as follows.

- Under the insistence of the presenter, he has given an official invitation to Walid Jumblatt for lunch, dinner, and even for a drink.

- He and the FPM have a thorough plan for Lebanese security, yet has not presented it because "no one talks with us".

- The meeting between him and Hassan Nasrallah is very close.

- Finally, he compared dialogue in Lebanon to that of the Tower of Babel.

During the interview, Aoun did present alot of issues that the government should be dealing with in real time. However, it will be interesting to see how Al-Moustaqbal and Annahar portray this interview. Will they stick the script that they have been putting forth with regards to Aoun, or will they this time, stick with the words he actually said?

posted by Lazarus, 1:37 PM 5 comments

Back in Lebanon

Yesterday, once I got home, we turned on the TV as a background. The first person I see speaking on TV was an Angry Aoun, who was considerably incoherent in his anger. Watching him wasn't exactly what I needed after an 18 hour flight. After switching channels to Future TV, I see the FPM members shouting "Aoun Rajei 'a Baabda" - which sort of fits in well with the Future TV's own agenda. When I went out today, the walls in Beirut have been plastered with Gebran Tueni's pictures, reminding me of June, when I saw Samir Qasir's portraits everywhere. Future TV plays on the theme of martyrdom with its commercial breaks. Each one has a short clip about Gebran - whether it is his funeral or some of his speeches - and end with one liners such as "They killed him once so that freedom is born a thousand times". There was another one that was directly against the constitution ammendment, which contains a juxtaposition of different phrases that people had said. This was slightly more propaganda oriented then the rest. Today, news had a slightly different flavor - with the lawsuit that Ghassan Tueni is planning to create with regards to the term "dog" that was used to call his son, and on LBC (I might have missed this on Future), quite a few crops in a Jbeil had been destroyed, with officials and citizens calling for governmental help. One person complained that Saida had received help after a few hours of asking for it, yet they are still waiting. After the news, there was an interview with Walid Jumblatt. Even though I usually see his commentary as sarcastic and nonchalant, today his sarcasm was caustically dark and despondant. Some of the things he had said are worth noting, so I'll jot some of those (but not all) down here individually.

On the assassinations:

"Their plan is to kill those MP's that were against the extension [of the presidency] ... to break the parliamentary majority ... that's their hellish plan ... it's a Stalinist regime." He also asked the legitimate question "What's wrong with officially drawing the boundaries between Lebanon and Syria?"

On Syria:

"After 30 years in Lebanon, they had the networks they needed, and had the money. They had the money, from Iraq's oil, from the Baath, from Saddam, and from Bank Medina - one of the reasons for Hariri's assassination is the Medina scandal." He also said, with regards to the Syrian Regime, that he does not believe in the phrase "either me or stability".

On the Point of No Return:

"There is no such thing as a point of no return ... but there is also no such thing as letting go of the assassination and turning the page."

On Shifting the Blame:

"Enough of blaming America or blaming Israel. Enough of blaming the Arab-Israel conflict ... Why should Lebanon remain hostage to the Arab-Israeli conflict? Open up the Golan front."

On Mysterious Threats:

"The Army General received a threat from Assef Shawkat", leaving his sources untold. He also asked "Why did Mehlis get frightened? Yes, he got frightened, and he left."

On Lahoud:

In a conversation that is typically Jumblatt, he said "Because of Lahoud, we can't change the head of security in the airport ... When people are killed in the parliament, the majority can become the minority, and then they [the new majority] can reelect him, extend his presidency." The interviewer asked "Is it possible that happens?" "Everything's possible".

On Why he asked for protection from Hezbollah::

"They have the best military strength. The Lebanese security forces aren't strong enough yet, so I asked for their help, at least for political protection ... I welcome Hezbollah to ask Syria 'To where' [ Ila Ein]"

The questions from the audience were relatively bland and overchewed, some leaning towards Syrian propaganda, others not, but I will quote one lady who said that "Walid is a zaim for all the Druze inside Lebanon and outside." For me, I've had enough with one sided zuama, regardless of how logical they may sound. We need a Leader (this time with a capital 'L').

posted by Lazarus, 1:33 PM 3 comments

Two days ago ...

... I had several email conversations. The first one began when a friend sent me the soon-to-be timeless quote by Ghassan Tueni, to which I replied with this. It went on for most of the day, she - who interestingly is NOT Lebanese - being the optimist, and I being the cynical realist/pessimist.

Another one of these conversations has a much longer history. Towards the end of February, a group of us decided here in the Bay Area to join together and attempt something ... what that something was depended on the person you spoke to. Some looked at it as a grassroots think tank, where some of the ideas discussed could potentially be presented through legal representatives to the Lebanese government, and others, such as myself, thought that for now, a forum to sound off and bake our half-baked ideas would be acceptable. Even though my gut told me that this would fizzle out, a few of us put in the time and the effort, and it grew in number - yet not in content. And it did fizzle out, but unlike what some have thought, this was not due to divisive attitudes - even though there were members from all backgrounds - but rather simply because life happened. How effective this would have been - given that executing ideas is on a much more strenuous level than coming up with them - is a question I do not have the answer to.

Two days ago, this group was reactivated with a plea from someone to reignite the flame. I sat on the sidelines in this conversation and watched as the support came in, until eventually someone sent the same quote I had sent in the first conversation. He went even further than I did and asked do you think we deserve a country given that after the war and the March 14 movement we still elected the same "politicians" as leaders (with a small 'l').

You see, I know we have a country - it isn't an issue of whether I think it or not - and the question of deserving it is relatively pointless, but it just is not enough to quote Patrick Henry (and to be fair, my friend did not quote him), and, although necessary, it also is not enough to hold up signs like this. One of my favorite childhood novels was Catcher in the Rye, and in it one of the characters wrote "The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one" (originally by Wilhelm Stekel) yet it seems that very few of us, if any, are "living humbly" for the "Lebanese cause". Those that have fallen were forced to fall, and it is time that our cause - which is now mainly an issue of survival - transcends all differences. Why this has not happened can be attributed by some to their lack of "faith in the masses", but this is as faulty as using "human nature" as an answer to other questions.

If this issue is to be internationalized, then we should go down that path fully accepting what consequences may later come after the issue of survival is shelved, and rogue elements should not later on insist on comments such as "we should have done that this way". There will be consequences, but for now, let it be so. However, shifting part of the burden to the shoulders of others does not diminish our share. There are things that only society can deal with - and whether you're an optimist who accepts that things might not turn out as great as you've imagined or a realist who is willing to work for something better than the current reality, we all have a responsibility to do something.

And in a third conversation, a friend decided to take an initiative that is a step in the right direction - in the long-term. I will take this opportunity to both thank this friend - who will read this - for taking this step, and to express a sliver of hope that this initiative does not fade as many others have. After all, the Lebanese cause isn't just about vindicating the lives of "martyrs", but also about ensuring the lives of everyone else. Khalil Gibran, who wrote Pity the Nation just over a century ago, also wrote in 1908 Spirits Rebellious, which serves as the literary vision of what we now need to follow with action.

As for me, my flight leaves in around 2 hours. I finished with the Special Alien Registration and went through the Puffer. San Francisco -> Paris -> Beirut -> Home, where I'll have a nice cozy dinner with my family, and enjoy the night sharing tales of abroad, and then plan on spending the next couple of weeks with them, friends (maybe even a few bloggers), getting work done, and seeing how things go.

posted by Lazarus, 1:33 PM 0 comments

Fisk on Gebran Tueni

In the past several months, Robert Fisk's articles on Lebanon have been extremely lacking in content. I will never forget one of them, in which he wrote about dinner he had with Jumblatt, who he described as a nihilist. However, he has written two good articles on Tueni.

Article one:

Ah yes, how many times must we be told that these Lebanese assassinations are not to Syria's benefit? The "moamara", the "plot", means that the Israelis killed Tueni to embarrass the Syrians, that the Americans wanted to get rid of so free-thinking a Lebanese (Greek Orthodox, as every Lebanese - who knows his sectarian dictionary - knows) now that the Syrian army has left. No, perhaps it was not President Bashar Assad of Syria, but what about the Baath party intelligence which most Lebanese suspect murdered Hariri on 14 February this year?

Standing on the narrow mountain road yesterday morning, the smoke still rising from the carbonised motorcade, the darkening blood still wet on the ground - how many times must I and Lebanese friends come back from these fearful places and wash, rather than brush, our shoes on the doormat - there were obvious lessons. This is a war. I repeat to myself: no-one is safe. Lebanon has tens of thousands of troops, thousands of cops and intelligence men and forensic scientists. They were there in their hundreds at Mkalles yesterday morning, patrolling, searching for bomb parts amid the pine forest, when they, and the reporters, should have been ordering cheese "manaouche" - sandwiches - from local shops and enjoying new freedoms.

But now what are they for, these thousands of soldiers? They can protect no-one. Or so it seems. Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, should, of course, have addressed the nation after so callous a crime. But there was only silence. In parliament, Marwan Hamade, the telecommunications minister who was also Tueni's uncle - he was himself badly wounded in a car bomb attack in October of last year - called for an investigation into all of Lebanon's prominent assassinations (messers Kemal Jumblatt, Bashir Gemayel, Rashid Karami, Grand Mufti Khaled, Danny Chamoun, Rafiq Hariri et al) to be investigated by an international tribunal. Some hope. Just over an hour after the assassination of Tueni - father of four, a one-time spokesman for the messianic General Michel Aoun - Hamadi turned up in shades, weeping, to see the place where his nephew died. "It's a new crime for Lebanon - there's nothing else to say," he snapped at us as we stood amid the blood. Later, he was to be more cold-blooded, blaming the "dictatorial hegemony" of Bashar Assad. "... if the Syrians want it this way, we know how to respond." How?

Article two:

They will bury Jibran Tueni today.

"You animals, you insects," the woman screamed in the Greek Orthodox church yesterday as his old father Ghassan leaned forward to shake our hands. "Jibran is still alive. He lives now."

Alas, the editor of An Nahar was assassinated on Monday - his few, atomised remains to be buried today - and his father received mourners in the Ashrafieh district of Beirut, bent over, his frog-dead cold hand gripping bravely each mourner’s clutch. What was one to say? To his young wife? A journalist’s life is not a happy one? No, indeed.

posted by Lazarus, 7:28 AM 1 comments

Australia and the "Wogs"

I usually check my hit counter once every day or two, and a couple of weeks ago, I began finding searches through google with the phrase "I hate lebanese". I quoted a friend once in a post below when he was complaining about the confessional system, and these searches were directed there.

However, lately, these hits have increased. I had only heard about the events there on Monday, but sadly, other events took shape in Lebanon.

Simplistically speaking, there have been anti-lebanese (and arab) riots, which - when I first heard about it - seem to have been initiated by some act done by Lebanese.

Usually, such riots do not begin with one event. I had a friend who lived in Australia (Sydney, I believe) for around 13 years, and she would tell me stories about how Lebanese were deprecatingly called "Wogs" (Wikipedia claims that Wogs is an ethnic slur against arabs). Apparently, they weren't that well behaved. (I have heard similar complaints by friends in Nigeria and Kenya - except these complaints were much more serious that just not "well behaved".)

According to one sociology professor:

More than 20,000 Lebanese migrants arrived in Australia over a two-year period in the late 1970s: an immigration wave that coincided with a dramatic downturn in Australia's manufacturing industry.

The job market they would have relied upon to build a new life in Australia simply wasn't there, Humphrey says.

By the late '80s and early '90s, unemployment rates in the Lebanese community, based mainly in southern Sydney and Melbourne, were up to five times higher than the national average. "There's a social path to this that has created a marginal second generation," Humphrey says. "We have an out-of-control teenage group. I wouldn't like to say material conditions equals bad behaviour, but it no doubt contributes."

Humphrey says world events have also contributed to the progressive stigmatising and alienation of the Lebanese community. "We have had this increasing association between international events and violence and the devaluation of [the Lebanese community's] status.
"September 11, the Bali and London bombings particularly and the way our government focused on the politics of fear around security heightened the fear we were hosting dangerous people within. I'm not saying you can reduce events in Cronulla to this, but it's a focus for a whole kind of cooking of a sense of anxiety and uncertainty."

I could probably copy paste the slurs that were shouted on both sides, but in the spirit of "unity", I would rather paste the following speech by the Australian Prime Minister:

"Attacking people on the basis of race and ethnicity is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians, irrespective of background and politics," he said.

"It is important that we reaffirm our respect for freedom of religion in this country, but it is also important that we place greater emphasis on integration of people into the broader community and the avoidance of tribalism."

posted by Lazarus, 10:28 PM 7 comments

Where to go from Here

Let me clarify the post below. It isn't about giving up. It is about needing a way to do things that are more productive then words, whether they are in a speech, a newspaper, or in my case, a blog. It is about the need to figure out what has happened in the Lebanese political structure in the past 6 months, and it is about coming to the real term on why Gebran Tueni was assassinated not much later than when he had returned from France.

As Michael Young wrote:

There is still little courage in Beirut. It took a lesser-known magistrate to sign the judicial order looking into the mass grave found in Anjar, most of his more senior colleagues not daring to do so. One very much suspects that somewhere in Tueni's investigation, someone will get cold feet and just let the matter slide. That's what happened with Marwan Hamadeh, Samir Kassir and George Hawi, lest we forget. Already, some politicians are mouthing banal generalities. Yesterday, for example, Michel Aoun showed remarkable reluctance in expressing his real hunch of who had killed his onetime devotee.

So the question I have is what can we do? Do we have to wait for the political class to take over the helm of action?

The Mehlis Report suggests that the investigation should continue, which means that even if an international court exists (which alone takes time), it will not be the truth that sets us free. We may know who it is, but knowledge doesn't save a country. And neither does moral outrage. Should we fully internationalize the issue? Maybe, but what keeps me from being fully enthusiastic about that are mainly memories of how internationalization affected us in the past. Do we focus on the security mechanism? Definitely. Do we try to continue look for national unity? Not now. Let democracy rule. The issues being contended are not those at the expense of the minority, so for now they shouldn't be taken into consideration. But one thing is for sure. "Talk" should stop being only "talk".

Michael Young ends with

None of this will bring Gibran Tueni back, nor his charm, elegance and perpetual dissent. Nothing will reassure us that the venerable An-Nahar can survive this latest crime. Ghassan Tueni will soon have to bury another child, the most heartbreaking duty of all. But deep down it's another wish we have: that the Tuenis, Ghassan but also Gibran's widow and children, will stick to their guns and demand that the truth come out. At the end of the day, his murderers remain most afraid of one thing: the truth.

None of what we do now will bring him back. But it could prevent someone else from falling to the ground. The mindset of the dictators responsible for this seems to be pointed at taking down all our symbols in the hope that when international pressue dampens, they can once again be kings. We can't accept that, and we have to work in order to shut the currently open coffin.

posted by Lazarus, 7:11 AM 0 comments

"Lebanon's Open Coffin"

My mind has been lost in a whirlwind of thoughts. Anger, Sadness, Disillusionment ... the future of Lebanon. The mistakes we have made. The treacherous hand Lebanon has been dealt since the very beginning.

A post below mentioned the necessity for a revolution if we are ever going to get past the quagmire that has envelopped us for the past 62 years. Due to various conversations, speeches, news, even the comments on blogs, I've realized that will never happen. It never will.

I hate seeing the future play out in my mind - the initial anger everyone has, the spewing racism and hatred, the arrogance, the certainty and uncertainty, the cheap talk that has settled on our airwaves since I can remember, and then the smiles and the duplicity that is inevitable in the world of realpolitik, and then ... another assassination ... and more anger ...

Gebran Tueni has been killed. The Mehlis report is out. This is probably the first real reaction I give, and yet, it is not about those two. It is about me. It is about this feeling of uselessness. The question which I cannot answer is: Can I be doing more?

In today's Assafir, Ibrahim El-Amine said the following:

I don't know him well, and I don't enjoy his leanings nor his stances nor the way he says things ... I feel deep sadness towards Ghassan Tueni, the journalist, the politician, and the father that lost his entire family. I feel the dreaded days that have made Lebanon into an open coffin ...

Today, I've read a certain poem several times. "City of Slaughter" was written by Haim Nahman Bialik, and is a tribute to the victims of the Kishinev pogrom. Correction. It lashed out at the victims of the pogrom. In the same he heaped blame on the victims, at this moment, I feel that we are responsible for what is happening.

And who has paid? Those who have been assassinated over the past 6 months.

Today, Gebran Tueni paid for our apathy. May he rest in peace.

The mentioned poem ends with

And so their sympathy implore.
For you are now as you have been of yore
As you stretched your hand
So will you stretch it,
And as you have been wretched
So are you wretched!

What is thy business here, o son of man?
Rise, to the desert flee!
The cup of affliction thither bear with thee!
Take thou they soul, rend it in many a shred!
With impotent rage, thy heart deform!
Thy tear upon the barren boulders shed
And send they bitter cry into the storm.

We have painted our flag red with our own blood. We bled, because of us. The issue isn't whether intervention exists or not, or if an international court exists or not ...

The issue is us.

But there is no point complaining right now. The picture below sums it up better than I ever could.

posted by Lazarus, 10:26 PM 0 comments

Mehlis Report - Brief Summary

The below are either paraphrases or direct quotes from the Report. Many details have been left out, so for a more complete picture, please refer to here.

52 witnesses have been interviewed since October 7 to December 2005, 69 investigator notes, eight suspect statements, and a total of 37,000 pages of documents are now in the case file. Yet, although the investigators have made steady progress on the Lebanese side, the same is yet to be matched on the Syrian side.

19 individuals have been identified as "suspects", and based on the gathered evidence to date, these individuals could have been involved in some degree in the planning or execution of the crime.

On Husam T. Husam: The Commission obtained "credible" informaiton that Husam disclosed similar information to close friends which he had given to them. Prior to his recent denial and appearance on Syrian TV, Syrian officials had arrested/threatened some close relatives in Syria.

The Commission is working on providing as "comprehensive and accurate a picture about the events which led up to and followed the explosion of 14 February 2005".

This is key (and was said in the previous report):

Given the extent to which the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence and security services infiltrated daily Lebanese life, and specifically the manner in which they monitored Mr. Hariri's movements, there was little probability that a third party could have undertaken the necessary surveillance of Mr. Hariri, and maintained the resources, logistics, and capacity needed to initiate, plan, and commit a crime of this magnitude.

Telephone transcripts paint a picture in which "the Lebanese security and intelligence apparatus conducted surveillance on high level officials in Lebanon, which was in turn shared with their Syrian counterparts, and particularly, the extent to which both the Lebanese and Syrian security services were closely monitoring Mr. Hariri."

Approximately 26,000 pages have been reviewed and screened.


The Damascus Protocol: The famous and alleged conversation between Bashar and Rafic Hariri, was followed (and is seen as further proof that the conversation did occur) with the following:

Ghazali: Your excellency, in follow up to the meeting that took place and the agreement that we reached concerning the truce and the exchanged political campaigns between you and the President, I have been reading the Future newspaper this (...) "officials protect the corruption". This talk is like a violation of the truce. Why is this subject, your Excellency? Didn't we agree to stop the subject?

Hariri: (...) statement was all over the newspapers, and in fact I was first ...

Ghazali: I would like to ask you a question, Your excellency, are you still committed to the agreement?

Hariri: Of course.

Because the Commission has not had time to complete a meaningfully investigate several lines of inquiries, they should be followed up.

"Extraneous events cannot, and should not be used to distract the Commission from the mandate given to it by the Security Council to help identify the perpetrators, sponsors, organizers, and accomplices in the terrorist act which took place in Beirut on 14 February 2005."

In order for all aspects of the case in question to fully investigated, the Syrian authorities need to fully and unconditionaly cooperate.

posted by Lazarus, 1:29 PM 0 comments

Mehlis Report has been Released

You can download it here.

Watch this space for a summary at a later stage.

posted by Lazarus, 11:43 AM 0 comments

News Roundup (Updated)

The following bloggers have posted on Gebran Tueni's Assassination.

Kais: here, here
Lebanese Bloggers: here, here, here, here
Lebanon Blogger Forum: here, here, here
OpenLebanon
Fouad: here
Delirious: here
Mustapha: here

More will be added later.

News:

10:41 am

DailyStar : God have mercy on Gebran and An-Nahar will remain the beacon for freedom," Jumblatt told LBC television, referring to An-Nahar newspaper of which Tueni was the general manager.

BBC : Mr Siniora said he would ask the Security Council to look the death of Gibran Tueni "and the others that have been committed... in order to take the necessary measures". "I will also ask for the formation of a court with an international character in the assassination of martyr Rafik Hariri because it has gone beyond personal assassinations," he said.

They also provide a timeline of the explosions, and as set of pictures.

CNN: Video can be accessed here.

10:55

Alertnet - Reuters: here, here

AFP: The bombing also followed the handover of a report by UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on his probe into the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, an attack blamed on Syria. International condemnation was swift, with the US embassy in Beirut branding it a "barbaric" killing of one of Lebanon's "greatest champions for liberty and freedom" and Annan describing it as a "cold-blooded" murder.

IHT: Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Druse community and an anti-Syrian member of Parliament, swiftly accused Syria of being behind the killing of Tueni. Jumblatt said in an interview with Al Jazeera television: "This is my reading of the situation. We've had enough killings, enough assassinations. He was targeted because he was the voice of freedom - him and others like him."

Haaretz: The Lebanese government now has no choice but to respond to Tueni's murder, which has brought Lebanese-Syrian relations to a nearly intolerable situation. The question now is how tightly Lebanon can draw connections between the UN report on the Hariri murder and Monday's Tueni killing. It is also unclear how determined the Americans are to place sanctions on Syria for what appears to be Damascus' failure to cooperate with international investigators probing the Hariri assassination.

11:40

Al-Jazeera: The 25-page report from German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis' team again accused Syria of trying to obstruct his inquiry when it demanded that he revise his findings after a crucial witness recanted his testimony. The report was delivered on the same day that a car bomb killed a prominent Lebanese journalist and lawmaker, Gibran Tueni.

"We have so far reconstituted half the puzzle," Mehlis told the newspaper, which is owned by al-Hariri's family. "There are still dark corners that we are shedding light on, but the inquiry is progressing."

More can be read here (in Arabic).

2:30

New York Times: In Lebanon, the attack on Mr. Tueni exposed a population that is increasingly frightened and fatigued. While protesters poured into the square outside An Nahar, the square that filled with orange flags and tens of thousands of people after Mr. Hariri died, the crowd was small and the tension was high. At one point protesters booed anyone perceived as pro-Syrian, while a student speaker encouraged Lebanese of all factions to stay united. "If Bashar Assad was watching you guys booing," a student leader said to the crowd, his voice amplified through speakers set up in front of the building, "he'd be laughing because he'd know he won. All the people have to stay together."

Washington Post: The White House condemned the assassination of a "Lebanese patriot." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "Syrian interference in Lebanon continues, and it must end completely." British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking for the European Union, said the perpetrators "who seek to destabilize Lebanon and the region through such cowardly attacks will not succeed." France indicated it would push ahead with efforts against Syria at the Security Council. In a letter to Tueni's widow, French President Jacques Chirac said the journalist's death "is the opportunity to redouble the efforts so that the Security Council resolutions are fully put to work."

10:30pm

Independent (Robert Fisk): "Ah yes, how many times must we be told that these Lebanese assassinations are not to Syria's benefit? The "moamara", the "plot", means that the Israelis killed Tueni to embarrass the Syrians, that the Americans wanted to get rid of so free-thinking a Lebanese (Greek Orthodox, as every Lebanese - who knows his sectarian dictionary - knows) now that the Syrian army has left. No, perhaps it was not President Bashar Assad of Syria, but what about the Baath party intelligence which most Lebanese suspect murdered Hariri on 14 February this year?"

Guardian: "He was a politician, he was a symbol of a courageous fighter for freedom," said Jihad Zein, the opinion page editor at An Nahar, the newspaper founded by Mr Tueni's grandfather. "This was a declaration of war but still the courageous people will insist on fighting peacefully alongside the international community."

This should be the end of updating the post.

posted by Lazarus, 10:37 AM 0 comments

Pity the Nation

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

*Caricature by Stavro (in February). The name has been edited.

posted by Lazarus, 9:15 AM 0 comments

Damaging Damascus?

Syria has claimed that the blast show an intention to damage the reputation of Damascus, and to direct accusations at Syria.

Yes. Maybe. Right now I don't care. Right now, I don't want it to damage Lebanon. Fuck "reputation".

I just got off the phone with my family in Lebanon. This is what my mother has said.

I am so upset. What is this? No one can say anything? I don't believe that this has happened. Bas we can't just go down to the streets everytime. We can't just pretend that walking around and shouting slogans is going to help. What kind of government is this? Either they know who did it, and then they should punish them. Or they don't know, and they should find out who it is. Look at Jordan. They figured it out in three days. What are we, sheep? They are killing us one by one. What do they want? He was on the list, and he just got back from Paris, and took a different route every day. They knew everything. Did you hear about the fortune-teller Hayek? A few days ago, he said that between the 10th and 12th of December, Beirut will bleed.

It is bleeding.
We are bleeding.
Lebanon is bleeding.

posted by Lazarus, 8:42 AM 1 comments

In Tueni's Memory

This site has been dedicated to Gebran Tueni's memory.

What are we going to do for his memory? What are we going to do for his memory, and for the memory of all the others who were brutally assassinated. This is not the time for petty differences and worthless discussions. This is definitely not the time for pointless speeches. A revolution has to take place. It must. We cannot "go gently into that good night". We must"rage against the dying of the light".

A group has taken responsibility. They are called "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant", and they have said:

We have broken the pen of Gebran Tueni and shut his mouth forever and transformed Al-Nahar into a very dark night.

This group might not exist. Regardless, something has to happen. We must "rage" in order not enter that dark night ourselves. What are we going to do for the memory of all those who were assassinated, and in order to prevent the assassination of Lebanon? What are we going to do?

posted by Lazarus, 8:04 AM 2 comments

Gebran Tueni Gone?

Gebran Tueni has been assassinated in a car explosion.

So far, at least 4 people have been killed.

You can read continuous updates on the LFPM forum thread.

Reuters:

A car bomb explosion killed staunch anti-Syrian member of parliament and journalist Gebran Tueni in Beirut on Monday, police said. Three other people also died and 10 were wounded in the explosion that blew up Teuni's armoured SUV car as it was driving in the Mekalis area of mainly Christian east Beirut. At least three people inside the car were killed, their bodies charred beyond recognition, witnesses said.

CNN:

The source said Tueni's cell phone and laptop computer were found at the site of the bombing. Journalist Anthony Mills called it "a scene of destruction," saying windows were broken in buildings for hundreds of meters. Video from the scene showed several burned-out vehicles along the roadway.

BBC:

Gibran Tueni's convoy was targeted as it travelled in the Christian-dominated eastern suburb of Mekallis.

I do not want to analyze any of this. All I remember now is a conversation I had with a friend two months ago, in which he said:

If I got the logic right, Gebran or Ali Hamadeh will be the next target. Think of it. The symbolism of Gebran is like that of May and Ali Hamadeh. I dunno, at some level it makes sense to me.

When he had told me that, Gebran was still in France.

Whatever equilibrium we may have had, has now been shattered. Le Chatelier's principle has practically no hope.

God bless. God bless Tueni. God bless Lebanon. Most importantly, God bless the Lebanese.

posted by Lazarus, 1:04 AM 1 comments

Rahbani's If You Knew

It's been a while since I've done this. There are a few Rahbani pieces that fit quite well with the current political environment, but due to time constraints, I've chosen the shortest one to translate.

However, there is one that I will probably never get to because of its length, yet I urge you to listen to it on your own. This "Letter from the Citizens of Lebanon" is both sobering and depressing to listen to. It worth keeping in mind that this show Ziad was part of was made in 1975 - 1978. What have we learnt since then? What has changed?

For now, I'll leave you with a skit on the ubiquitous "mu'amara" which permeates almost all Lebanese and Arab discourse. Let me know what you think, of this, and of the "Letter from the Citizens of Lebanon".

A: Leik, nothing is vague, ever. Even the conspiracy isn't vague. I'm going to tell you something. If you knew, why it shouldn't be known who killed Maarouf Saad, if you knew why it shouldn't be known who organized the Ain El-Roumaneh Massacre, and if you knew why Syria refused to attend a conference by the Arab League that Kuwait wanted for the sake of Lebanon, if you knew who withdrew the airplanes from the command of Aziz El-Ahdab, and if you knew why Amin El-Gemayel was going to sign the petition for Franjieh's resignation, and who stopped him, and if you knew why Syria refused to make Raymond Edde the president of the republic, and what the nature of the relationship between it and Lebanon is, to reject and elect a president, and if you knew how those who had seiged Zahle now provide it with security, if you knew why Syria tried to speed Sarkis's election, yet at the same time supported Franjieh in his position, and how much this contradiction benefits Syria. Leik if you knew why Abdel Halim Khaddam cared so much about us, then you'd know who is responsible for the conspiracy.

B: Well, I am just wondering, how come we don't know who killed Maarouf Saad and who was responsible for the massacre, for example.

A: Yes, it's known. Who said that it isn't known?

B: No, how is it known? We don't know.

A: Ahhh, us. Why should we know?

B: What do you mean why should we know? So why shouldn't we be able to know, I want to know.

A: We aren't supposed to know, so it isn't known who is responsible for the conspiracy. It's the most basic thing.

B: Oh, so it's not supposed to be known who is responsible for the conspiracy.

A: Of course not.

B: Why not?

A: So it stays a conspiracy. And so the person who started the conspiracy, can point to others as being responsible for the conspiracy.

B: What kind of conspiracy is this??

A: Exactly.

B: Eh, bas this is a big conspiracy, you know? We should at least know who is responsible for it. A conspiracy exists, and no one knows who is doing it? What a conspiracy.

A: La2, inno, if you knew who was doing this conspiracy, what would happen?

B: In that case, you at least would know who you are dealing with.

A: But ... it's a conspiracy. And a conspiracy is always this way. Something would go on, and you wouldn't know it.

B: But do you realize that this is a huge conspiracy?

A: Eh walla I know.

posted by Lazarus, 7:37 AM 4 comments

Links of the Day

• Indonesia Muslims to guard churches

  Volunteers from Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation will guard churches across the world's most populous Muslim nation on Christmas amid fears of terrorist attacks.

• Some buried bones are best left undug (Robert Fisk)

  After all, there are 17,000 Lebanese missing from the civil war. Are we to dig them all up? Or just those whose enemies or murderers happen to be on our current list of pet hates - Syria being pretty much at the top of America’s list at the moment - when a demonstration of Syrian bestiality would go down well with the State Department?

• Children killed in air crash

  An aeroplane has crashed in Nigeria, killing 103 people, mostly children returning from school for their Christmas holiday.

• IAEA chief calls for nuclear-free world

  "If we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security," ElBaradei said at Saturday's awards ceremony in Oslo.

• Berliners divided over fate of palace

  It's a conspiracy theory that chimes with a more general feeling of disillusion in eastern Germany with what followed unification - not only mass unemployment, but also the erasure of East German identity.

• Sunday Times: Sharon readying IDF to attack Iran

  According the report, military intelligence stationed out of northern Iraq has discovered secret uranium enrichment sites on Iranian soil. These sites have been reportedly disguised as civilian structures and have gone undetected by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Politics, Iraqi Style: Slick TV Ads, Text Messaging and Gunfire

  In a sense, it is the first full-scale political contest here since the fall of Mr. Hussein. The Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the January election, are now campaigning fiercely, and voter turnout is expected to be considerably higher as a result. All told, 226 political groups will compete in the elections, representing more than 7,000 candidates.

• 'Sesame Street' is adapting to appeal to local viewers

  Thirty-six years after the original "Sesame Street" made its debut in the United States, Elmo has left his familiar neighborhood for a fresh wave of globalization, bound for countries that are discarding dubbed American versions for local productions inhabited by denizens with names like Nac, Khokha and Kami.

posted by Lazarus, 7:23 AM 1 comments

On December 10

many things came about. One of those things was me :)

posted by Lazarus, 7:30 PM 6 comments

A Day Dedicated to Humans

Today is Human Rights day. It is one of the few days that focuses on the victims instead of the victimizers.

Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity. On this International Human Rights Day let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations.

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General (2004)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be read here. Below is a collage of different human rights violations. In this moment, I will be ideal enough to say that I hope one day, the pictures below will not represent the "present", whenever that may be.

posted by Lazarus, 8:15 AM 1 comments

Thank you Al-Moustaqbal

I wasn't going to post today, but I want to take this opportunity to thank Al-Moustaqbal, for being a beacon in darkness. Thank you for outlining the sexual depravity of the "maids" and "srilankias", and for your intensive research in the sexual escapades of these "people" and our young lebanese boys. Thank you for ignoring the real stories, such as the real rapes that do occur in households, and the real violence that is common in Lebanese families, and the real slavery that the treatment of these workers is akin to. Thank you. Thank you for continuing in pushing the envelope of journalistic pointlessness, and for the talented sugar-coating of fundamental flaws in parts of Lebanese society. Thank you for everything.

posted by Lazarus, 12:24 PM 8 comments

Links of the Day

- Israeli group joins Red Cross network
- Israel shuts door to Gaza, West Bank
- Acts of defiance against war turned ordinary people into criminals
- More Questions as Rice Asserts Detainee Policy
- In Iraq, Signs of Political Evolution
- Microsoft to offer aerial views on its maps

It's worth noting what has happened in Egypt - the beating, and killing of voters. This is the malaise of a dictatorship acting under the umbrella of democracy. Don't they understand what will happen? How short-sighted can you be? If the NDP doesn't like the Muslim Brotherhood, then killing Egyptians is not the right way to come out on top. They garner a win now, but tomorrow, supporters of MB will become even stronger supporters, and those who weren't will begin to tend towards the MB. For those who were killed, rest in peace.

posted by Lazarus, 8:42 AM 0 comments

Managing the Gathering Storm

I've put off reading the ICG report I had previously linked to until I had some time to actually go through it. It was carefully and well-written, and touched on alot of the major points that are in discussion now, and was not provocative in the sense that it did not deal with unsubstantiated statements. If anything, you should read at least the first two pages, which list a set of recommendations to the different parties currently involved in Lebanon.

In the conclusion, the report quotes Michel Samaha:

Can we return to normal after Mehlis and with the explosive issues shaking this part of the world? Can we immunize ourselves from blowback from the Middle East? We can, but for that we need a strong state, a solid economy, and genuine security. We cannot if our domestic issues become tactical instruments in a confessional struggle, and if the outside world uses this as an opportunity for manipulation.

Well, can we?

The ICG presents a rough answer in the beginning.

To weather the coming storms, the country needs sustained calm to design and implement reforms of the economy, judiciary, public administration, and security agencies as well as electoral law. For that, it desperately needs both economic and institutional support from the outside world and protection from the struggles in which that world is engaged. This is no easy task, as Iraq’s sectarian conflict spills over, the UN turns to Resolution 1559’s provisions on disarming Hizbollah and Palestinian militias, and Mehlis’s next report threatens to expose more Lebanese and Syrian complicity.

The U.S. and France have shown surprising unity, and have worked within a deliberately multilateral, UNcentred framework. It is a good formula to retain, which means focusing on supporting reforms, allowing the Mehlis investigation to run its independent course, and letting Lebanon deal with Hizbollah’s status without undue pressure.

With Syria’s withdrawal, Lebanon has turned an important page. But so many of the fundamentals that promoted Damascus’s intervention in the first place remain: deep sectarian divisions, widespread corruption, political gridlock, and a tense regional situation. Syria’s troops have left, but a stable, democratic transition has yet to begin.

posted by Lazarus, 5:07 PM 3 comments

Half a Day

Something yesterday reminded me of Naguib's Mahfouz's Half a Day that I had read around eight years ago in school. It in itself is a great short story, but after reading it again, I could relate to it in different ways than I had at the time. Here is an excerpt, although if you do have the time, the entire story (which isn't that long) is worth a read.

"This is your new home," said the woman. "Here too there are mothers and fathers. Here there is everything that is enjoyable and beneficial to knowledge and religion. Dry your tears and face life joyfully."

We submitted to the facts, and this submission brought a sort of contentment. Living beings were drawn to other living beings, and from the first moments my heart made friends with such boys as were to be my friends and fell in love with such girls as I was to be in love with, so that it seemed my misgivings had had no basis. I had never imagined school would have this rich variety. We played all sorts of different games: swings, the vaulting horse, ball games. In the music room we chanted our first songs. We also had our first introduction to language. We saw a globe of the Earth, which revolved and showed the various continents and countries. We started learning the numbers. The story of the Creator of the universe was read to us, we were told of His present world and of His Hereafter, and we heard examples of what He said. We ate delicious food, took a little nap, and woke up to go on with friendship and love, play and learning.

As our path revealed itself to us, however, we did not find it as totally sweet and unclouded as we had presumed. Dust-laden winds and unexpected accidents came about suddenly, so we had to be watchful, at the ready, and very patient. It was not all a matter of playing and fooling around. Rivalries could bring about pain and hatred or give rise to fighting. And while the lady would sometimes smile, she would often scowl and scold. Even more frequently she would resort to physical punishment.

posted by Lazarus, 7:32 AM 0 comments

Links of the Day

Samir and Sitrida sent this card to the media. What do you think of all the implicit and not-so-implicit details?

Ok, now back to the daily links.

- Nations shamed with fossil award at climate talks
- Baltimore's financially struggling schools close pools
- استقلال.. أم استغلال (this one is a few days old, but just sent to me by a friend)
- US professor cleared of terror charges
- Egypt polls slammed US
- Arab journalists call for freedom of Press
- Israel urges citizens avoid travel to Egypt's Sinai
- Haaretz poll: economy pivotal for 38% of voters
- Syria's Adonis meets Iranian poets
- Let's nullify the fact that there is just enough religion to hate
- Anjar mass graves still littered with human bones:

As the Lebanese government vowed a full scale investigation on Tuesday into the identities of the 28 bodies discovered in Anjar's mass grave, some of their remains were found carelessly left behind without any security at the site.

- The World's 5 most Bizarre Hotels
- Microsoft is ordered to revamp Windows
- Poems tell a tale of Chinese exclusion

If anyone is interested, the Naharnet webmaster posted the different comments he had obtained on one of their forums. You can join in the discussion here.

Oh, and on a sidenote that doesn't really deserve its own post, I watched Chicken Little yesterday - in 3D. Amazing :)

posted by Lazarus, 7:30 AM 0 comments

A Step in the Right Direction

I've said this several times - that a fundamental reconciliation has to occur between the different groups that were (directly and indirectly) affected by the war, and that this starts by accepting that the war is not just part of the past we can shut the door on. I'm glad to see that a conference on this has actually taken place, as pointed out by the Daily Star, which "looks at ways to come to terms with the past".

The article starts by asking:

Fifteen years after the end of Civil War, has Lebanon come to terms with the crimes of the past? Have a general amnesty and policy of "turning the page on the war" proved the most effective strategies in building a new democracy and ensuring long-term peace?

Those involved in the conference, which was organized by the International Center for Transititional Justice discussed "justice and prosecution, truth finding processes, reparation programs for victims, institutional reforms, reconciliation and peace building and, finally, memory and memorialization."

They point out that the governmental dealings with Israeli collaborators had a "political character, which neglected the victims' suffering". The recent banner of "national reconciliation" that the leading politicians waved at the crowds was actually appeasement. Starting from now, how can we work towards achieving a more lasting and more effective form of reconciliation?

posted by Lazarus, 7:05 AM 0 comments

Links of the Day

- U.S. rejects Israeli demand to pressure Lebanon on Security Council resolution
- Ex-US diplomat blames Israel for Pakistani dictator's death
- Elton to tie knot in Windsor
- Prince gives Sharon 'benefit of doubt'
- Al-Hariri inquiry questions Syrians
- Conference gathers Arab broadcasters in Beirut
- Mideast Arabs: Sharon worse than Bush
- Good display by Syria, Jordan
- 'Rendition' does not involve torture, says Rice
- Sarkozy makes early play for presidency
- U.S. saving Europeans, Rice asserts
- The art of elegance: Discreetly whimsical
- With love at Christmas - a set of stem cells
- In Mongolia, an 'Extinction Crisis' Looms
- U.S. Is Given Failing Grades By 9/11 Panel
- Try a new approach to fighting terror (By Salim Hoss)

This is a MidEast Report by the International Crisis Group:
Lebanon: Managing the Gathering Storm

and ...

... we have Egypt's march towards democracy. Well, not really. Last week the Muslim Brotherhood was put down by the NDP (by preventing supporters from voting). Bad. Today, a senior figure in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has argued against non-Muslims holding leadership positions in Egypt, including the presidency. Also bad.



And on a completely different note ... below is a scene of snow ... from Dubai.

posted by Lazarus, 7:00 AM 0 comments

Naharnet Replies

Last week, Kais pointed out an article by naharnet that was "misleading". That was followed by different and related posts (here, here, and here), and I decided to finally write them a letter, not really expecting a reply. I had sent my email to both Gebran and Ghassan Tueni, and it was in fact Gebran Tueni that forwarded my email to the "Naharnet Webmaster", whoever that may be.

The reply I got is posted below (I did change my name though ...) .

Dear Lazarus,

The story was simply trying to depict the general feeling in Lebanon about the showdown orchestrated by the two main Shiite factions in the Council of Ministers. We concede that Amal and Hizbullah do not represent the whole of the Shiite community but this is the feeling of the rest of the people in Lebanon.

Admittedly, the concluding paragraph of the story has inadvertently portrayed the whole Shiite community as acquiescent to the Amal and Hezbollah rhetoric. Although we are certain that this is not the case, we await the time when scores of independent Shiites would rise and give their opinion openly.

We sympathize with your outrage and share your feelings, but we do not think that an apology or retraction is warranted, because this reflected the general feeling in town that was generated by such action.

Thank you for your valuable comment.

Naharnet Webmaster

Note that Kais published the reply naharnet sent him, and the reply he sent back ... and although it's redundant for me to publish my letter now, this type of nonsense needs exposure.

What do you think? Is this what journalism should be? Also, I wonder how many others sent them a letter.

posted by Lazarus, 1:44 PM 3 comments

Kodak Moment?

I wonder how the judges felt at that moment. The first witness spoke today, but why focus on that? The defence lawyers questioned the proceedings, Saddam's half-brother shouted "Long live Iraq! Long live Arabs! Down with the dictators! Long live democracy!", someone else yelled "Why don't you just execute us and get rid of all of this!", and the lawyers acted as if they really care about Iraq when they said "Unless it is seen as absolutely fair, this trial will divide the people of Iraq". That's the stuff great movies are made of.

Besides all that, it is a great picture, no?

posted by Lazarus, 7:25 AM 0 comments

Links of the Day

- France starts to deport rioters
- Pope and Abbas discuss Middle East peace
- Kazakhs shun revolution for Soviet-era stability
- Pink pound boom as companies cash in on gay weddings
- Red Cross Bolstering Minority Outreach
- Five dead in Israel suicide bomb
- Gamers decry Amazon Xbox shortage
- Is Dubai's hotel boom unstoppable?
- Analysis: Bombing places focus of elections back on security
- America slowly confronts the truth
- Poem: That Sand Nigger Lying There On The Ground

posted by Lazarus, 7:14 AM 0 comments

March of the Penguins

I (finally?) watched it today, and all I can say is that this tale of life, love, death, hate, friendship, jealousy, hunger, patience, and loneliness was more eloquent and more moving than quite a few of the more "human" tales that I have watched lately. It is a tale of grandeur and victory, and of a journey to a "place so extreme that it supports no other life". It is a tale of those that risk starvation under the harshest conditions of icy winds and treacherous waters, a march of hundreds of miles, and a struggle that begins with the perfect mate ... all to find love.

posted by Lazarus, 9:04 PM 0 comments

Links of the Day

- Microsoft joins classified ad race
- Inside and outside the 'Sleeper Cell'
- European storm awaits Rice on CIA allegations
- Thousands march for HK democracy
- Militants' new tack in cyber war
- San Francisco: A city in waiting?
- Israel strikes Gaza after rockets
- Viewpoint: UK war reporter Robert Fisk
- Syrian forces 'clash with gunmen'
- On Syria's floating its currency
- Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake
- Crowd pelts Allawi at shrine

Oh, and I think this one deserves some recognition:

- Skiing in the desert

posted by Lazarus, 3:07 PM 0 comments

Once Upon a Farm

Current dynamics are changing, and one of these factors are Shebaa Farms. Quite a few people have said that they were part of the 10,452 km^2 Lebanon, but the history behind these farms is slightly grayer than such a decisive answer. There are also people, like Elias Bejjani, who mistakingly states that "Only one week after the Israeli withdrawal, Syria concocted the problem of the Shebaa Farms and made an issue out of it", but some of his other assertions are more correct.

On April 16, Israel announced its aim of leaving Lebanon, and the UN was involved in demarcating the line of withdrawal. Israel provided maps showing that the land was part of Syria before 1967, and the Lebanese government provided land deeds, tax reports, and government documents which were meant to show the lands were under Lebanese control.

We know that the Syrian-Lebanese border was never officially determined, and that the residents paid taxes to Lebanon. In fact, the French maps located the lands within the Syrian border, and did report this anamoly, but nothing was done by France, Syria, or Lebanon. In the late 1950's, Syria tried to force the residents to use Syrian identification cards instead of their Lebanese ones, and they were included in a state census. A few years before the 1967 war, an attempt was made to demarcate the borders, but without success.

After the 1967 war, the Lebanese government did not really press the issue. It was revived slightly in the 1980's (with Hezbollah), and in fact did become an important Lebanese issue before April 2000, but the government only made it an offical claim in May 4, 2000.

The issue of liberating this land (which is just over 20 square km) was agreed upon by most, if not all political groups, but the means for doing so were not. Several saw Hezbollah's actions in Shebaa as detrimental to the Lebanese interests, including Qornet Shehwan, Patriarch Sfeir, Gerban Tueni (at the time, through his editorials), and Shaheed Rafiq Al-Hariri, who had countered Hezbollah's actions several times (and who was "calmed" down by Syria). An interesting example comes from none else than Walid Jumblatt, who initially attacked Hezbollah's actions (arguing that Shebaa might not really be Lebanese), but after a short visit by Khaddam, Jumblat supported the continuation of the struggle (and for continued Syrian presence). After an incident in 2002 (when Palestinian militias attempted to join Hezbollah's attacks on Shebaa), Ghazi Aridi said that "We do not approve any [military] action if it is not within the framework of the Lebanese resistance." Part of Hezbollah's approach to this was to remark that it fights and protects Lebanese sovereignty, not realizing the contradiction that they also "challenge the sovereignty of the state by fulfilling its functions on the civil and military levels", something which is partly a result of the weakness of the state.

Shebaa can be seen through the lens of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Something I had not known before was that Shebaa farms also contain a religious aspect. There is a site in the center of the region where the "Covenant of the Pieces between Abraham and God" occured (for Islam and Judaism), and was a pilgrimage site for Muslims before 1967. Of course, since an Lebanese struggle is never claimed to be one sided, people also stated that parts of Shebaa belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church ... thus both religions have a stake in regaining Shebaa.

Three years ago, Asher Kaufman published a case study on Shebaa Farms (this was in fact the only publication I could easily get my hands on with regards to Shebaa - there were others, but they entailed wading through microfilm ... ), where he analyzes in more depth the nature of this conflict, how it entered and left Lebanese political discourse, and the unprofessional nature of the Lebanese government in all this. This may soon change with the recent public declaration that Shebaa is Lebanese - however, it is yet to be seen whether Israel will reciprocate and fulfill the resolution. Sharon did hint towards this, but provided a condition.

In this publication, Kaufman compares Shebaa to Taba (Taba is Egyptian land) and to the "Temple of Preah Vihear" (between Thailand - then Siam - and Cambodia). In the case of the Temple, which was originally Siamese, the ICJ ruled in favor of Cambodia (based on a 1908 French map that was accepted by both sides) since Siam was "not entitled to vitiate its consent now, given the fact that its very conduct had contributed to the perpetuation of the error". Let's hope Lebanon's case doesn't get framed like this.

posted by Lazarus, 8:33 PM 9 comments

Just a thought

One of the dangers of extremism is that it decides where the center is.

posted by Lazarus, 10:15 AM 0 comments

Links of the Day

- Third-grader makes pro pool tourney
- Peru wants Machu Picchu relics returned
- Former covert Israeli forces 'training Kurds in Iraq'
- U.S. Urges Continuation Of U.N. Probe
- Zionism brought them, but halakha rejected them
- Pardon my comparisons
- Beit-Mery municipality makes technological leap
- Despite stereotypes, Armenians are very much Lebanese
- Mehlis and rule of law in the Arab world
- Arab nations deeply suspicious of US motives -poll

posted by Lazarus, 10:00 AM 0 comments