Monthly Archives: July 2008

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And On The 14th Day, Will We Rest?

The government’s ministerial statement is scheduled to be born tomorrow. How much will it matter?

So finally, after 14 meetings (coincidence?), it seems the government will finally have a mission statement at hand. As soon as it will be published, a massive public scrutiny will follow. Here are some of the things we should be looking for:

- Is the statement a fudge that is heavy on spin and light on substance? Or is it really the result of a laborious soul-searching exercise as Mr. Mitri had suggested?

- Will the statement resolve the thorny issue of the “resistance and the state” or will it simply lay the framework for discussing the matter in the future?

- Will the statement discuss the relationship between Hezbollah’s weapons and the upcoming parliamentary elections? Or will it completely ignore it?

- Will the statement put an end to freelance diplomacy by Hezbollah and its allies, like recently supporting the Sudanese government and backing the Iranian nuclear program?

- In light of the upcoming Israeli change of leadership, will the statement establish ‘best practices’ for dealing with Israeli potential aggressions or overtures?

Those are just some points to look for in the statement. Did I forget to mention anything? What other things do you think we should be looking for?

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Who Needs Jumblat When You've Got…Mika ?

The “Lebanese born” star got his 15 minutes of fame and gave tens of thousands of Lebanese an outlet to reject politics.


Mika in Beirut (Reuters)

Eventually, someone’s going to take it upon himself to dig and find out to what sect Mica Penniman –a.k.a Mika– belongs to. If that person hits jackpot and find out that he belongs to his same sect, he will swiftly spread the fact via email to his/her coreligionists in a secret Lebanese ritual of tribal pride.

Other than that, Mika’s concert is that rare thing in Lebanese public life: A non political event that gives you an opportunity to ignore the fact that your country is falling apart. After all, why would you spend your night listening to politicians with multiple personality disorder if you can instead drink your night away and sing along:

Everybody’s gonna love today,Love today, love today.
Everybody’s gonna love today, Anyway you want to,
anyway you’ve got to, Love love me, love love me, love love.

Girl with a groove with the big bust on,Big bust on, big bust on.
Wait till your mother and your papa’s gone,Papa’s gone
Momma, momma papa, shock shock me,Shock shock me,
shock shock.

In Lebanon, oddly, those can come off as words of wisdom…

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Last Week Recap

Below is the list of posts I wrote last week, ordered from the most to the least controversial. Perhaps you’d like to revisit the responses to old comments you made?

“We Should Bomb All Of Lebanon, Not Just Hezbollah” Coexisting With Hebollah
Hezbollah’s Independent ‘Foreign Policy’ Forges Ahead The Army Should Be More Firm In Tripoli
Hezbollah’s Case For Itself Photos: Wild Fires In Lebanon, Aley, July 2008.
He’s Coming List Of Lebanese Detainees In Syrian Prisons
Photos: Mouallem’s Visit To Lebanon
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The Army Should Be More Firm In Tripoli

The only way to prevent an all out outbreak of violence in Tripoli is for the army to adopt a zero tolerance approach.


Families fleeing the violence hiding in Tripoli public school

There is already talk in Tripoli that the army cannot to be trusted with protecting the citizens, and that if you want to protect your family, you have to put some weapons in your house. That is a very dangerous line of thinking that is becoming more and more entrenched in the North.

So far, the army’s way of dealing with Lebanon’s warring factions has been to avoid angering any one side at any cost. But there’s another way, and that is to provoke all sides equally by confiscating all weapons and raiding the sources of all sniper fire.

If you look at this video, you see the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation interviewing three men, blatantly unmasked while showcasing their automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenade, brazenly claiming to be defending themselves. If the LBC can reach those men, there is no excuse for the army not to round them up and punish them severely to serve an example.

When bullets and rockets are doing the talking, the army’s job is to protect the unarmed children and the elderly, not to cover politicians’ behind.

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"We Should Bomb All Of Lebanon, Not Just Hezbollah"

The warm reception of Kuntar by the Lebanese has allowed Israeli nutjobs to publish hatred with abandon.

They don’t teach you this in journalism:

The only good thing that happened in the last war [July 2006] was the relative damage caused to Lebanon’s population. The destruction of thousands of homes of “innocents” preserved some of Israel’s deterrent power. The only way to prevent another war is to make it clear that should one break out, Lebanon may be razed to the ground.

You see, apparently women and children deserved to die because the Lebanese as a whole are engaged in a devilish good-cop bad-cop conspiracy against Israel:

What is the real reality in Lebanon? Reality is that Hizbullah and its “rivals” are highly coordinated when it comes to presenting a mirage whereby Hizbullah represents the “bad guys” while the Lebanese government represents the “good guys.” In case of war, Israel would only be allowed to fight the “bad guys,” but it won’t be allowed to target the interests of the “good guys.” The trouble is that it is almost impossible to only hit the “bad guys,” while the “good guys” are immune to us.

That is only matched by Hezbollah’s crazy supporters who say that little Israeli girls deserve to die because they’ll grow up one day to become soldiers and kill Arab children. That said, let’s hope Giora Eiland’s ideas don’t catch on in Israel:

Israel must first and foremost make this clear to its allies. The most effective way to convince anyone is to tell the truth, and the truth is we cannot defeat Hizbullah as long as it is being supported by the Lebanese state. Therefore, if there is again aggression on the part of Lebanon, Israel would have no choice but to fight against the state that is encouraging aggression in practice. Those who had any doubt about the position of the Lebanese state should be reminded of the warm reception for murderer Samir Kuntar on the part of the Lebanese president and government ministers.

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Hezbollah's Independent 'Foreign Policy' Forges Ahead

As the official government squabbles over its ministerial statement, the government of Hezbollah quietly conducts its own foreign policy.

hezbollah's flag

The party of God couldn’t care less about what the official government has to say about the indictment by the International Criminal Court of Mr. Omar Al Bashir, the Sudanese president . Instead, they decided to hold a meeting in Support of Mr. Bashir.

In that meeting, the political aide to the secretary general of Hezbollah had this to say:

“We in Hezbollah are honored to meet with you today in defense of a
national, pan-Arab, and Islamic cause, which is to stand side by side
with our brothers in Sudan – leadership and people. This is because
this beloved country is facing an ugly conspiracy to undermine its
unity, freedom, and independence.”

Hezbollah –which has taken to conduct its own negotiations with foreign bodies– didn’t even bother consulting with the government or with the rest of the Lebanese, who, perhaps in light of the international Hariri tribunal taking place, wouldn’t very much appreciate hearing what Hezbollah really thinks of international justice.

But then again, how can you blame them? The government itself still doesn’t know what it stands for.

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Hezbollah's Case For Itself

Hey, did you know that the “resistance’s” goal is to help “preserve sovereignty, independence, and freedom, and the liberation of all occupied territories?”

Hezbollah’s No 2, Sheikh Naim Kassem has given us a glimpse of how Hezbollah will be fighting for its relevance in the coming period. In a lecture to Arab university professors from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya, Mr. Kassem laid down his case for the “resistance”. For all those who really want to get into the heads of Hezbollah, this is a must read.

Basically, their case boils down to 3 points:

  • Diplomacy is good, but without resistance it is futile

  • Resistance is a “project” that makes Lebanon stronger and defends it against the “permanent Israeli threat”
  • The resistance and the state complement each other to achieve the highest goals of “maintaining independence and preserving our country

While I can see some of Hezbollah’s points (like for example the fact that Israel would never give anything back to Lebanon if it weren’t for Hezbollah’s hard edge), Hezbollah’s ideological “charm offensive” makes three dangerous assumptions:

  • The first is that the rest of the Lebanese will simply trust Hezbollah with all their guns and rockets and their opaque, foreign-funded structure, without any form of accountability.

  • The second is that Lebanon, as declared by Sayyed Nassrallah, can create a “third model”, a fudge between Dubai and Gaza, that can be both economically prosperous and violently militant.
  • The third is a firm believe that Israel will somehow “eventually disappear”; a state of denial that is unfortunately shared by millions of Arabs.

Hezbollah sees this speech as their way of being flexible and friendly with the rest of the Lebanese. That is very worrying.