The Lebanon Cauldron
Lebanon is our neighbor. The world is getting so small these days, what with the Internet, the blogosphere, MySpace and YouTube, we can experience the lives of people all over the globe. I think it's instructive from time to time to "go" to places that are the hotspots and see what the locals are thinking and doing. This can open up our minds and inform our thinking on politics and war and trade.
One of my commenters, Tarek El Khatib, a 23-yr.-old consultant in Beirut, Lebanon, authors a blog, rambling and blabbering, that is instructive because it gives the honest viewpoints of a young man caught up in war and its aftermath in a country that has a tradition of democracy. While this democracy is quite violent at times, people like Tarek are allowed to speak out. Yet, leaders get assassinated when their enemies grow intolerant of free speech and political movements they view as threatening to them.
Lebanon the Country
Lebanon is a country that very much wants to succeed as a democracy in the Middle East. Its difficulty is that its geography and political makeup make it a hotbed crossroad for the world's present political tensions.
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Lebanon:
officially the Lebanese Republic, is a small, largely mountainous country in the Middle East, located at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. The flag of Lebanon features the Lebanon Cedar in green against a white backdrop, with two horizontal red stripes on the top and bottom.
Until the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the country enjoyed relative calm and prosperity, driven by the tourism, agriculture, and banking sectors of the economy. It was considered the banking capital of the Arab world and was widely known as the "Switzerland of the Middle East" due to its financial power. Lebanon also attracted large numbers of tourists, to the point that the capital Beirut became widely referred to as the "Paris of the Middle East."
Immediately following the end of the war, there were widespread efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. By early 2006, a considerable degree of stability had been achieved throughout much of the country, Beirut's reconstruction was almost complete, and an increasing number of foreign tourists were pouring into Lebanon's resorts. However, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict brought mounting civilian and military casualties, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, and massive population displacement from July 12, 2006 until a ceasefire went into effect on August 14, 2006. As of September 2006, the Lebanese government has been acting out an early recovery plan aimed at reconstructing property destroyed by Israeli attacks in Beirut, Tyre, and other villages in southern Lebanon.
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Recent Assassinations
Rafik Hariri:
Rafic Bahaa Edine Hariri (November 1, 1944 to February 14, 2005), a self-made billionaire and business tycoon, was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation on 20 October 2004.
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He headed five cabinets during his tenure. Hariri played a leading role in the reconstruction of Beirut. Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 when explosives equivalent to around 1000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St George Hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The Syrian government is the focus of international suspicion of having committed the murder.
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Pierre Amine Gemayel:
(commonly known as Pierre Gemayel Jr., Pierre Amine or simply Pierre Gemayel; September 24, 1972 to November 21, 2006) was a Lebanese politician in the Kataeb Party, better known as the Phalanges. Lebanon's second-youngest MP, he was a rising star in his party. He was a vocal critic of Syria's military presence in and political domination of Lebanon, and an active member of the anti-Syrian and pro-Western parliamentary majority, the March 14 Alliance.
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He was serving as Minister of Industry when he was assassinated on November 21, 2006. He was the third member of his family to be assassinated in 25 years. His uncle Bachir Gemayel was assassinated in 1982, also at age 34, and Bachir's 1-year-old daughter was killed in a car bomb attack in 1981, initially supposed to target him.
Gemayal was known for being a young, outspoken member of the Lebanese government, opposed to the former occupation of Lebanon by Syria and its influence in the country. Gemayel was the fifth prominent anti-Syrian figure to be killed in Lebanon in the past two years.
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Lebanese Politics
Lebanese politics is complicated. Sunnis and Druze are supporting the government, and most Christians and Shiites (the politically and economically disenfranchised of occupied Lebanon) are uniting against it. As Sunni-Shiite antagonism engulfs Iraq in violence and stokes Iranian-Arab tensions, Lebanon is caught in political paralysis and disunity, subject to outside interference from Syria and Iran.
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Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora: was born into a Sunni Muslim family in Sidon in 1943, Siniora was a friend of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri for more than 45 years.
Siniora formed a government on July 19, 2005. It is the first government formed after the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and the first government to include members of Hezbollah. With regards to Hezbollah, the Siniora cabinet's official stance is that "The government considers the resistance a natural and honest expression of the Lebanese people's national rights to liberate their land and defend their honor against Israeli aggression and threats." On the other hand, the Siniora cabinet has also been working alongside the March 14 Alliance towards a peaceful disarmament of the Hezbollah military wing through an internal political process. Apart from General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, all mainstream political currents are represented.
Hezbollah is a Shiite party allied with Iran. The FPM (the Free Patriotic Movement) is a Christian party advocates secularism, the right to vote for Lebanese Abroad and economic forensic Audit. There are several other contentious parties, vying for a voice in this battling democracy.
Ten Days and Counting of Protest
Currently, there have been 10 days and counting days of protest against Prime Minister Siniora. This all began with internal politics, but then was sparked by the assassination of Gemayel. For more details on the protest, see 2006 Lebanese Anti-Government Protest. Whether Siniora can survive the unrest, is yet to be seen. The Lebanese future is unknown at this time.
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Tarek's Blog
Without further ado, here are two posts from Tarek's blog, rambling and blabbering, followed by a post from a blog that Tarek recommends for an understanding of the Lebanese situation.
Tarek's first post.
Government Under Siege
Government Under Siege
December 6, 2006
Just to update on my previous post, a new means of protection here in Lebanon includes electrically barbed wires!!!
I don’t have much to comment about what’s going on in Lebanon… My fellow Lebanese bloggers are all doing great jobs presenting their points of views and their analyses of the situation, which kinda dwarfs me and makes me wonder what to say!! I’ll just base the post on my own experience I guess…
When the week started on Monday, and I was exposed to people, I was boiling… Boiling with hate, with anger and with the will for vengeance… Everything going on caused the inflammation of these feelings towards Hezbollah and the herds following them in Downtown Beirut… I hated how these people were just flocking there and felt like I was being violated… But upon talking to my teammate and a colleague at work (a Aounist), and then later in the day meeting up with Ali (need I say: Shiite, Hezbollah) I realized that I was really being sectarian…
Just to update on my previous post, a new means of protection here in Lebanon includes electrically barbed wires!!!
I don’t have much to comment about what’s going on in Lebanon… My fellow Lebanese bloggers are all doing great jobs presenting their points of views and their analyses of the situation, which kinda dwarfs me and makes me wonder what to say!! I’ll just base the post on my own experience I guess…
When the week started on Monday, and I was exposed to people, I was boiling… Boiling with hate, with anger and with the will for vengeance… Everything going on caused the inflammation of these feelings towards Hezbollah and the herds following them in Downtown Beirut… I hated how these people were just flocking there and felt like I was being violated… But upon talking to my teammate and a colleague at work (a Aounist), and then later in the day meeting up with Ali (need I say: Shiite, Hezbollah) I realized that I was really being sectarian…
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If I wanna hate what’s going on, then I should hate them politically NOT religiously… It just so happens that the majority of the people are Shiites, but that does not mean that this political struggle should be allowed to turn into a Sunni-Shiite conflict… Sunday, when a demonstrator returning home was shot, CNN reported the news as: Peaceful protests in Beirut turn deadly as Shiite is killed by Sunni fire… I felt shocked hearing it that way as if they’re reporting news from Iraq… Unfortunately, Hezbollah are not doing anything about the rising tensions and are not asking their supporters to sticking to the peaceful demonstrations in Downtown and NOT roam about in Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut… Clashes are occurring EVERY night and blood is being spilt, and blood only brings more blood… Yesterday at the commemoration of the person who died, chants were being made “Death to Siniora, Death to Siniora…” If Siniora is really responsible for his death, then Nasrallah, is responsible for the 1,400 people who died during the July war initiated by Hezbollah… The latter party is not doing anything to calm its people down and its disgusting demagogue media is only spreading hate among its people… And its people would blindly follow a call for calm from Hassan Nasrallah… The Future Current, has been repeatedly wondering why this call has not been made.
But come to think about it, if Nasrallah officially acknowledges that sectarian tension is being caused by this protest, and therefore calls for calm, then in case this calm is not restored, it would look like the protestors are getting out of Hezbollah’s grip and therefore the latter will have to call the protests off… But as a fellow blogger said, the damage has been done… He was talking in more economic terms, but I think that the sectarian damage has been done, and the fragile accept-others sentiment has disappeared ESPECIALLY from the hearts of the Beirutis and Sunnis in general… They see the highest Sunni post being toppled by Shiites followed by our dear old Maronite General who was against the removal of the cancer Lahoud by street protests himself only a year ago… So assuming that Hezbollah’s intentions are good, and that all they want to do is modify the structure of the government, then the image they are presenting to all is that a Shiite militia followed by the anti-March 14 parties and the FPMers is trying to topple down the only thing that reminds us that a cedar revolution actually happened last year…
Today though, most of the newspapers seem optimistic that a solution is brewing; I sure hope so… I, and Lebanon, can’t take it anymore…
I miss just posting about my boring life and the worthless things that I would do, and I REALLY hate that all my posts are turning political, but I’m afraid that that is what Lebanon is all about right now, and I think that is the fundamental flaw in the Lebanese system: The people are too politicized and are just a bunch of herds…
But come to think about it, if Nasrallah officially acknowledges that sectarian tension is being caused by this protest, and therefore calls for calm, then in case this calm is not restored, it would look like the protestors are getting out of Hezbollah’s grip and therefore the latter will have to call the protests off… But as a fellow blogger said, the damage has been done… He was talking in more economic terms, but I think that the sectarian damage has been done, and the fragile accept-others sentiment has disappeared ESPECIALLY from the hearts of the Beirutis and Sunnis in general… They see the highest Sunni post being toppled by Shiites followed by our dear old Maronite General who was against the removal of the cancer Lahoud by street protests himself only a year ago… So assuming that Hezbollah’s intentions are good, and that all they want to do is modify the structure of the government, then the image they are presenting to all is that a Shiite militia followed by the anti-March 14 parties and the FPMers is trying to topple down the only thing that reminds us that a cedar revolution actually happened last year…
Today though, most of the newspapers seem optimistic that a solution is brewing; I sure hope so… I, and Lebanon, can’t take it anymore…
I miss just posting about my boring life and the worthless things that I would do, and I REALLY hate that all my posts are turning political, but I’m afraid that that is what Lebanon is all about right now, and I think that is the fundamental flaw in the Lebanese system: The people are too politicized and are just a bunch of herds…
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Tarek's second post.
Fort Lebanon
November 29, 2006
Lebanon has literally turned into one big security zone, sorta like a barrack... Added to the previous cement blocks around important buildings where people can't park, fences are now being placed at night in the middle of the streets to slow down any suspected car... It's a b**** trying to swerve around the fences in the middle of the night, and watch out if you missed one of them and you're speeding!!!
THIS IS NOT MY LEBANON... And nor is it the Lebanon that so many died for... Lebanon is a country of peace and a country of life, and all its citizens are supposed to be embraced like that... But unfortunately, the security situation deteriorated so badly that extra security measures had to be taken... There are cameras being installed ALL OVER Beirut, to capture the next assassin or the next bomber...
Fort Lebanon
November 29, 2006
Lebanon has literally turned into one big security zone, sorta like a barrack... Added to the previous cement blocks around important buildings where people can't park, fences are now being placed at night in the middle of the streets to slow down any suspected car... It's a b**** trying to swerve around the fences in the middle of the night, and watch out if you missed one of them and you're speeding!!!
THIS IS NOT MY LEBANON... And nor is it the Lebanon that so many died for... Lebanon is a country of peace and a country of life, and all its citizens are supposed to be embraced like that... But unfortunately, the security situation deteriorated so badly that extra security measures had to be taken... There are cameras being installed ALL OVER Beirut, to capture the next assassin or the next bomber...
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It's really pathetic, and it doesn't look like it's gonna get any better... The political deadlock reached looks like Hizbuallah are taking to the streets, leading behind them the Aounis and Amal, but I'm hoping that THAT will get it out of their system, and people would get back to being reasonable and look at Lebanon's interests.. Hehehehehe.. Ok fine, LIKE THAT WILL EVER HAPPEN?!
There's a campaign going on in Beirut with billboards saying, I love Life, and I want to live in peace and all that, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing the outcome of that campaign... But one of the billboards said the second uprising, so I fear that March 14 is behind this campaign... Now I’m for March 14 and everything, but I was kinda hoping a third stream would be created that is neither March 14, nor March 8; a non-sectarian party that people will start following because this third movement wants what's best for Lebanon NOT what's best for their own... You think that will ever happen? There's the 05amam movement; hope that goes somewhere...
Hope to write soon; i.e. hope I stay alive to be able to write something!
There's a campaign going on in Beirut with billboards saying, I love Life, and I want to live in peace and all that, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing the outcome of that campaign... But one of the billboards said the second uprising, so I fear that March 14 is behind this campaign... Now I’m for March 14 and everything, but I was kinda hoping a third stream would be created that is neither March 14, nor March 8; a non-sectarian party that people will start following because this third movement wants what's best for Lebanon NOT what's best for their own... You think that will ever happen? There's the 05amam movement; hope that goes somewhere...
Hope to write soon; i.e. hope I stay alive to be able to write something!
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Then, here is a post from the blog that Tarek recommended to me for learning about the Lebanese situation, by Abu Kais,
From Beirut to the Beltway:
December 9, 2006
Assad regime to Kill Berri if He Convenes Parliament
The Assad regime is in a hurry. Nasrallah hasn’t been able to deliver quickly enough. The Grand Serail is a fortress, and the Lebanese street is slowly turning against the protestors, who don’t even have safe passage back to their homes now. The orders from the Dark Lord’s council are to pack more people in downtown Beirut, and as soon as possible. The plan to occupy or lay siege to the Rafik Hariri International airport seems to be in full swing, although the Lebanese army will reportedly not allow it.
What’s the hurry for?
From Beirut to the Beltway:
December 9, 2006
Assad regime to Kill Berri if He Convenes Parliament
The Assad regime is in a hurry. Nasrallah hasn’t been able to deliver quickly enough. The Grand Serail is a fortress, and the Lebanese street is slowly turning against the protestors, who don’t even have safe passage back to their homes now. The orders from the Dark Lord’s council are to pack more people in downtown Beirut, and as soon as possible. The plan to occupy or lay siege to the Rafik Hariri International airport seems to be in full swing, although the Lebanese army will reportedly not allow it.
What’s the hurry for?
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This Sunday, the 15-day time limit for Lahoud to sign the Hariri tribunal plan expires. As of Monday, the cabinet can constitutionally send it to parliament for endorsement.
Nabih Berri is in a pickle. He was forced to declare the cabinet session that approved the tribunal unconstitutional after telling journalists days before, that it wasn’t. On Wednesday, when it appeared that there was a dim hope of reaching a settlement, the speaker of parliament received a death threat from Maher Assad, Bashar’s brother. According to al-Seyassah, Assad threatened to kill Berri if he calls parliament into session to approve the plan (Again, al-Seyassah is to be read with a grain of salt, although they've gotten it right in the past with regards to Lebanon. In any case, this isn't the first time we've heard this.)
That’s how Lahoud’s term was extended, by threatening even pro-Syrian ministers who hated Lahoud (including Suleiman Franjieh). And that’s how the Syrian security regime worked in Lebanon—a regime that Nasrallah found no shame praising during his infamous speech that followed the threat to Berri. In that speech, Nasrallah challenged his opponents to find him one incident where a protestor was killed on his way back from a protest during the Syrian reign. Aounists must have found this funny, or let it go over their heads like the many sick jokes and embarrassing insults their Napoleonic leader utters every day. They, of all people, should know how many of them were taken to Syrian jails, how many were tortured, killed, and threatened because they dared protest when protests weren’t even allowed. And why bring up the deep past when the recent past bears testimony to the murders committed by the Assad regime—a regime Nasrallah considers better than the Siniora government. So good that he thanked the Syrian army for its sacrifices in Lebanon less than a month after Hariri was killed.
Pretty soon, there will be no one left to remind Nasrallah’s worshippers of all these crimes. Not when Assad is allowed to complete the plan to assassinate anyone who speaks, let alone protests, against Hizbullah’s second favorite regime.
Nabih Berri is in a pickle. He was forced to declare the cabinet session that approved the tribunal unconstitutional after telling journalists days before, that it wasn’t. On Wednesday, when it appeared that there was a dim hope of reaching a settlement, the speaker of parliament received a death threat from Maher Assad, Bashar’s brother. According to al-Seyassah, Assad threatened to kill Berri if he calls parliament into session to approve the plan (Again, al-Seyassah is to be read with a grain of salt, although they've gotten it right in the past with regards to Lebanon. In any case, this isn't the first time we've heard this.)
That’s how Lahoud’s term was extended, by threatening even pro-Syrian ministers who hated Lahoud (including Suleiman Franjieh). And that’s how the Syrian security regime worked in Lebanon—a regime that Nasrallah found no shame praising during his infamous speech that followed the threat to Berri. In that speech, Nasrallah challenged his opponents to find him one incident where a protestor was killed on his way back from a protest during the Syrian reign. Aounists must have found this funny, or let it go over their heads like the many sick jokes and embarrassing insults their Napoleonic leader utters every day. They, of all people, should know how many of them were taken to Syrian jails, how many were tortured, killed, and threatened because they dared protest when protests weren’t even allowed. And why bring up the deep past when the recent past bears testimony to the murders committed by the Assad regime—a regime Nasrallah considers better than the Siniora government. So good that he thanked the Syrian army for its sacrifices in Lebanon less than a month after Hariri was killed.
Pretty soon, there will be no one left to remind Nasrallah’s worshippers of all these crimes. Not when Assad is allowed to complete the plan to assassinate anyone who speaks, let alone protests, against Hizbullah’s second favorite regime.
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Go to the site for more good stuff, From Beirut to the Beltway.
Thank you Tarek, and thanks to Abu Kais.
Rock
(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)
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Thank you Tarek, and thanks to Abu Kais.
Rock
(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)
Subscribe to my feed
Join me in the war on error, in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way! Support this site! Wanna swap links? It’ll help us both. Truth—The No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone
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3 comments:
Wow man... I'm really honored..
Thanks a lot for the exposure, and hope you get some positive feedback about what you posted on Lebanon... I already got a couple of new readers thanks to you..
Keep up the good work, and eventually truth SHALL prevail..
Rock, good job. You turned me onto Tarek's site a little while back when you started talking about him and I hope he can make a difference at some point. This is a double edged sword for him and he shows the courage to speak up and be heard, if only in the blogspere for now.
I'm checking him out also, oh by the way Rock, be sure you visit the Emperiss Bee, she did some funny stuff yesterday, you will get a smile.
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