Thursday, July 20, 2006

So Close, Worlds Apart!

Naseer el-As’ad in his Al-Mustaqbal editorial today laid out PM Seniora’s principles towards achieving a sovereign Lebanese state. First, the Lebanese government is the sole upholder of all the sovereign functions of the State and that the government is ready to exercise full sovereignty over the country once the Israeli attacks stop.

Second, PM Seniora is still committed to fulfilling UNSCR 1559, but with Lebanese conditions. The contested territory, the Sheba’a Farms, if delineated as Lebanese territory, the Israeli Army needs to free it. The Lebanese prisoners should be freed. And only then the Lebanese Army would assume its full duties of protecting the southern border (which means that Hizbullah’s military wing would be dismantled.)

El-As’ad of course noted that in order for Seniora to put his principles into action, he needs all the Lebanese, including Hizbullah, to designate the Prime Minister to be the official representative of the Lebanese when negotiating the terms of the ceasefire. Which is true, that is exactly the type of empowerment that the Lebanese government, especially the Prime Minister needs at that critical juncture.

However, today Sayyid Nasrallah, in his interview on Al-Jazeera, almost answered Al-Mustaqbal by already deciding what the role of the Lebanese government should be: namely to receive all the international mediators, to take notes of their ideas and then to relay those ideas to Hizbullah, for Hizbullah to say, "Yes or No!"

I once wrote a post on this blog that said something along the lines of how in such a tiny place like Lebanon, some people can be so close, yet worlds apart!

"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

13 comments:

arabeducoin said...

I proclaim Nasrallah fearless leader of Lebanon. I delegate all power over the choice of my future to him.

Unknown said...

Boris the Bullet Dodger - here is Israeli "semi-official" list of demands.


No War

Unknown said...

1) Israel must cease its aggression in Lebanon.
Sure. Just as soon as her citizens (kidnapped from her sovereign territory) are released, rockets stop being launched at civilian population centers with in Israel, and you start owning up to your responsibilities like a real country and not a bunch of sniveling cravens and disarm the illegal terrorist organization known as Hezballah that started all this mess.

2) Syria says Shaaba Farm is Lebanese, so Israel must leave it without delay.
Just as soon as Syria formally reliquishes their claim. Lebanon's been begging them to do so for years and they still haven't. Funny, that.

3) Israel must free all Lebanese and Arab prisoners. Israel's two soldiers can be freed.
Israel's kidnapped soldiers, Wasserman and Regev can be freed. Then negotiations regarding the disposition of child-murderers like Samir Kuntar can be conducted, though I suspect releasing a man who butchered an entire family -- including crushing the skull of a little girl -- is not going to happen.

4) A just and fair solution for the Palestinians must be reached.

Been there, done that. Arafat turned it down. Too bad for the Pals, but they never do miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Lebanon and Palestine and the Muslim nation is united in this. Palestinians in Lebanon must be allowed to return to their ancestors lands in Israel while a Palestinian state is established.

You can be united all you like. 'Return' is. not. going. to. happen. Period. Ever.

Israel's soldier in Gaza can be freed.

And, once that happens and the firing of Kassems stops, the Pals can humbly apologize for taking him and then maybe they can have some of their terrorist leaders back.

5) We can then begin to dismantle Hezbollah and the IDF simulteneously.

You can dismantle Hezbollah, as you should have done in the first place (and, if you had, you wouldn't be in the deep doo-doo you are now, but I digress). The IDF, being the legal military of an actual country, will stay just as it is.

In a time of peace both would be considered illegal organizations that committed war crimes.

Only if that peace were thorazine-induced.

Nice try, but the winner sets the terms and you guys are the biggest losers on the block. PM Olmert's already told you what you need to do. Best you get busy.

Bad Vilbel said...

Well, here's one Lebanese voice speaking as best it can.

I agree with all saying that Hezbollah is the root cause of this mess (well, really, Iran and Syria are, Hezbollah being the proxy). And i agree that Hezbollah should've been disarmed a long time ago. And failing that, that it should be disarmed now.

I can tell you I do not support a state within a state, nor do I support an armed militia, who can start its own wars whenever it pleases.

Having said that, and to those who ask why wasn't Hezbollah disarmed already? Why don't people speak up against them? and so on...I say that all things in politics take time. For us Lebanese, the clock started the day the Syrians left, barely a year ago. Before that, we were under occupation for 30 years. Our occupier was the same one who arms Hezbollah, and who assassinated any Lebanese politician who dared speak up against Hezbollah. Even after the Syrian withdrawal, the assassinations continued. Prominent Lebanese who spoke out against Hezbollah, were assassinated. So yes, these things take time. We were starting to talk about disarming Hezbollah, over the past year. We were starting to make some progress, with the support of UN resolutions, and the backing of the US and Europe.

I understand that when it comes to its security, Israel cannot wait. It cannot sit by idle and watch soldiers being kdinapped, just to give us more time. Fine. I get that. But the Lebanese WERE working towards exactly what you suggest. To say they weren't is outright false. And to have expected them to do it in less than a year is outright unrealistic.

I mean, it's taking Israel how long to "disengage" from the Palestinians? That stuff can't be done overnight.

Lirun said...

agression has to be renounced collectively by all parties.. israel is not responsible for the entire violence of the middle east.. it is basically a historical lie to suggest this.. its an easy lie to sell because no one easily believes that the weaker party can be an aggressor..

but this is a plainly stupid and unproductive view..

if we search for the origin of blame incessantly.. perhaps we should all erupt in a war against the divine.. maybe our creator is to blame for the original flaws in our human design?!

so rather than kill eachother over our own misfortune and more often than not kill ourselves why dont we just call it a millenium.. and put the guns down for a while.. not just physically but also mentally and spiritually.. i think the ground has soaked enough blood in this corner of the world..

lirun
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
"sign my petition for peace"

Lirun said...

now there is a "tunnel of friendship" right there.. ;)

i have posted a petition for peace in the east mediterranean.. im not blaming anyone and not offering any solutions.. but i think there would be great value in an overwhelming message to our governments that regardless of how - we do infact seek peace.. we may not be statespeople and may not have all of the answers - but we don't in fact enjoy war.. or appreciate violence..

if anyone supports this initiative could you please sound your voice on my blog..

salam/shalom/peace/paix

lirun
www.emspeace.blogspot.com

soulpole66 said...

i wish i believed that the majority of lebanese thought like bad vilbel.

Bad Vilbel said...

Shmulik said: "The main problem is Nasibend's point 4) "allowed to return to their ancestors lands in Israel". While it's sounds reasonable to an outside onlooker (hey, we all want justice, right?) It's a thinly veild threat on Israel's existance."

Not to go off on tangents (since we're discussing the Lebanon war, not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here), but I feel it is long past due that people throughout the world, and more importantly, people throughout the arab world, understand this point made here.

Just or not (and we could argue that one until Kingdom Come), there simply is no room for population displacement and the such in the modern world, and nothing will EVER get resolved by continually arguing over ancestral rights. At SOME point, people have to accept the reality of the 2 state solution (just or not) and MOVE ON. Enough living in the past. The future awaits, and we're all busy wasting it away.

It's probably easy for me to be saying all this, when I'm not Palestinian, and I haven't lost my homeland (although it's being bombed to pieces right about now). But the original poster is right, if we ran around trying to fix the wrongs done by one peoples to another ages ago, we'd NEVER live in peace. The American Indians would want the US and Canada back. The descendents of the Aztecs would want Mexico back. The arabs would want Southern Spain back. And who knows what other age-old claims can be made.

Bad Vilbel said...

rox_publius says: i wish i believed that the majority of lebanese thought like bad vilbel.

A lot more of them do than you think. Just look at these blogs. I'd say the number of "haters" pales in comparison to those of us who are willing to talk about some sort of peaceful solution to all this.

The danger here comes from those less fortunate than us. Those who lose their loved ones to a bomb, (or in Israel, to a missile) or lose their homes. Anger is such an "easy" emotion. And anger begets revenge (just or not). That's where extremists come from. You can almost SEE the anger polluting these very disucssions. 3 weeks ago, sane debate was for the most part the norm. Now, people are angry. On both sides.

That's what worries me. Some of us can get past our anger. But a lot of people, those affected more directly, can be consumed by it. And that, my friend, is where extremists are born.

Bad Vilbel said...

xor84 said:
if this is what lebanese think, why didn't we hear those voices earlier?
(even voices saying- we're trying to disarm Hizbullah, give us some time/help)
why haven't we co-operated during the last year since Syria's withdrew its army from Lebanon?


Xor, the voices were there. They've been around for some time. This very blog was created (i presume) around the time last year when the Syrians were being kicked out, for the very purpose of voicing this kind of opinion.

Numerous courageous journalists in Lebanon had started writing to this effect. They were murdered (Samir Kassir, Gibran Tueni). Like i said, we were in the process...we had just gotten to a point where we could start to talk about disarming Hezbullah without being called traitors (although some people would STILL use that word today). It was a PROCESS.

What is sad to me, is that people are now asking "Where were all the voices?" You know what? The voices were here. You (and by that i mean the international community at large) weren't that interested in listening and lending a helping hand.
There was brief interest, right when the Syrians were being kicked out. For a few months, Bush, Rice, the French, the Brits were encouraging Lebanese to speak up, kick out the Syrians, take control of their own country. They passed UN resolution 1559, aimed at disarming Hezbollah, got us talking about it. And then...left us to figure it out on our own. We could've used more help in that process. The lebanese state and army could've been made stronger. Everyone knew that it wasn't ready to take on Hezbollah (Condi Rice herself said that the disarming of hezbollah wasn't really feasible right away, last year).

So please, no more "Where were all the Lebanese voices?" We were here. No one was listening.

Bad Vilbel said...

Xor84,

You bet that the nascent Lebanese democracy was a threat to Hezbollah. I don't particularly think this is the forum to get into debating internal Lebanese politics: the effect Michel Aoun's alliance with Hezbollah, for personal gain, for instance, setting Lebanese democracy back. The ruling majority (March 14 movement)'s inability to properly deal with the issues at hand, and so on.
But suffice it to say, wheels were in motion. Things were moving in the right direction.
As I've posted elsewhere, I don't really expect Israel to sit by idly and watch their soldiers kidnapped, just because the Lebanese were "in a process". But still....it was moving in the right direction, and now it isn't.

You can bet that Hezbollah was more than glad to escalate things, ignite a war. That's why I keep saying they are the ones that stand to win the most from this (along with Iran and Syria):
- They can't be completly wiped out (you can never really wipe out a terrorist/guerilla type force).
- They get to prove to their Shia constituency that Israel is the bad guy, for having bombed their homes and children.
- They get to tell everyone within earshot "See. Lebanon needs the resistance armed. So we can defend it against Israel!" (or whatever other hubris of that sort).
- They get to weaken the Lebanese government. And maybe even start pushing for Syria to come back in (the pro-syrian camp will be quick to say "See. Without Syria, the Lebanese can't defend themselves!"

All this warmongering works out great for Hezbollah. It works out shitty for the Lebanese people at large.

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

I once wrote a post on this blog that said something along the lines of how in such a tiny place like Lebanon, some people can be so close, yet worlds apart!

That captures the essence and the sad truth of our human existence.

We are all human...living on one planet...must we seek to destroy them both... simultaneaously.

Lirun said...

tunnels of friendship.. calling all excavators to commence work without delay

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
east mediterranean sea deserves peace..