Saturday, August 26, 2006

Exchanging Roles?

This is an essay a close friend of mine - Hassan Harajli - wrote straight after the ceasefire... I thought I'd post it here for all of you to read and analyse...

Amongst other issues we Lebanese must address, Hassan discusses a solution to Hizbollah's military wing in the Lebanese Army which is truly insightful...
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Exchanging Roles?

I am not a political analyst or a historian in profession, yet there are some challenging questions out of this latest war between Lebanon and Israel. Who won? At what cost? Who was to blame? Is it over or would there be yet another conflict on Lebanese soil? What will happen next? Would Lebanon survive this Israeli aggression economically, and so on…?

Hizbullah has proven, as a local political party with a military wing, supported financially and militarily by its’ ideological strategic ally, Iran, that it could withstand one of the world’s mightiest and modern military machines through sheer internal organization, by coming from and fighting for the land they are on, by the knowledge of the enemy’s capacities and capabilities, the acquisition of appropriate military hardware (albeit missing the ground to air missiles) to resist, and a faith in God and in fighting on the cause of Justice.

In this aspect Hizbullah has come out more or less victorious. The victory is one that is both national in nature and yet more importantly regional. Regional in a sense that it has sent shockwaves across the Arab world whose leaders have all, more or less, been inflected by an inferiority complex when it comes to Israel from one angle, and been taken forever captive by economic and commercial interests with the U.S (to say the least), denying them the ability to maneuver politically to even dispel the Israel ambassador in their land (for example). Hizbullah has proven that the Israel army is not an invincible machine, yet with strenuous preparation, organization, proper armaments, and faith, it could be put to a stop, so not to say defeated.

Herein, Hizbullah has stood up to a nation that has flouted almost every UN Council Resolution, undertaken every possible atrocity against humanity throughout history, and has considered itself above international law, and more frighteningly, above all the peace negotiations with the Arabs, while the Arabs are left to moan about rights, international law, Council resolutions, justice, ‘but this, but that’… And Israel does whatever extremity it sees fit to ensure that the Arabs, including the Palestinians, stay weak and divided, within the so-called ‘New Middle East’ perhaps – all under the pretext of combating ‘terrorism’ and under their flawed terminology of ‘self defense’.

Yet in my opinion, the victory of Hizbullah is a victory for the Arabs only to the extent of emotion and semi-retrieved pride, yet is a potential defeat in that its accomplishments, especially of late, stem not from an Arab nation and its institutions as a whole, yet from an almost independently run political party with semi-autonomy from the central government (albeit it represents almost a third of the Lebanese population).

I say potential defeat because though the dichotomy between Hizbullah and the Lebanese Central Government served well in the past to limit Israel’s disproportionate firepower to Hizbullah and not the whole Lebanese state, it cannot proceed as it is, and as Hizbullah wishes it should, for two primary reasons.

The first reason is that this military achievement and self-confidence booster to the Arab peoples should be invested in the Lebanese government. Strength of nations surrounding Israel should no longer be viewed as a taboo or an impossibility. What harm would it bring if Hizbullah gave its important military arsenal to the Lebanese army and trained the army about its historic methods in combating Israel? Why not include a strong regiment (of Hizbullah soldiers) in the army that applies ‘guerrilla’ warfare tactics, especially when a ‘classical’ army is absolutely useless in front of Israel? Why not arm the Lebanese army the same way that it has been armed, and teach it the same perseverance and decentralized command system of the Hizbullah soldiers? Some may say that that would produce an Israeli aggression on all of Lebanon, but that has already happened in this July-August war. If Hizbullah does not give its victory and its assets to the Lebanese army, with an agreed upon time-frame, then it is a failure, nothing more and nothing less. A failure that entails that Hizbullah’s achievements are beyond the scope and ability of any Arab government. This duplicity of resistance and government should be replicated throughout the Arab world in order to defeat Israeli aggressions.

The second reason is economic. Herein perhaps my opinion is a little bias towards the type of class I belong to (a middle class citizen) and the profession category which makes for my living (the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises - SMEs). Yet no business activity in Lebanon has been spared this time around, and the numbers (including myself) who are now lined at embassies for immigration purposes are greater than they were before, and they were abundant before. Who will compensate? Inevitably every built house in the South, South of Beirut, Bekaa… would be given money for reconstruction, yet what about all those SMEs? Can they for example show their past yearly and monthly balance sheets and be compensated for the direct damage caused and compensated for opportunities forgone? These SMEs are after all, the economic backbone of any prospering nation.

On this note as well, it is totally unacceptable that Hizbullah or any other party be allowed to compensate for the damages of this war (through its regional allies) unless Hizbullah accepts to become the government and the government a political party. All aid to the Lebanese people affected by this war must be done through governmental channels or at least through coordination with the central government, of which Hizbullah is a part. No longer should Hizbullah hold a semi-governmental character, and all its assets, both financial and military should be transferred through the government. Or else why is there a government?

Finally, a further important issue to rise would be seeing Israeli politicians and generals fighting it out in Israel, blaming and criticizing each other for all their failures in this foolish war they initiated, and the expectation that their prime minister will fall. To some in Lebanon, this is seen as a victory, a victory that should ensure that such events do not occur, at least in public, between the Lebanese.
However, I see this as democracy. Israel is practicing democracy were actions are held accountable and though who have not done their jobs correctly, would be penalized by the system in place. In this sense, if the prime minister falls out in Israel, it is not a victory for us as much as a victory for their system of checks and balances.
In Lebanon, no voice should be silenced this way, silenced by blaming him or her of serving the Zionist state. This would be a crime in itself, a stopping of a nation that holds itself high in terms of discourse and harmony between sects and political parties - A crime against free expression of speech and progress.

I can only hope now that Hizbullah, and on whose southern lands they come from would rise to this golden opportunity to reveal its national character, which I always believed in, and play a vital role in strengthening the central government. Otherwise and again, Hizbullah should become the government and the government a political party.

Now the war should be next fought on lands which are still invaded, particularly Syria (as it is continuously in Palestine), and it is a message that Hizbullah takes to those lands that should be listened too and applied, not met by empty speeches praising Hizbullah and Lebanese blood as a model, and even getting political leverage from it, and yet go on in doing nothing for their own dignity, land and people except ensuring the survival of a Machiavellian elite.


HASSAN HARAJLI

9 comments:

JoseyWales said...

This duplicity of resistance and government should be replicated

Get real, this barely worked in Leb cuz the gvmnt. claimed ignorance and impotence.

How many times can you play that game and what other country could play it?

Next time it happens (in Leb or some other country), the airport, port, electricity and every other piece of military and civilian infrastructure would be destroyed from day one.

M. Simon said...

A few more Hizballah victories like this one and Hizballah will be out of business. A few more Israeli losses like the one they suffered in Lebanon and they will control all of Lebanon. Some victory. Some loss.

The Bitter Taste of Victory

As reality starts to intrude into the Middle East Amir Taheri in Opinion Journal (Hat Tip: Ted Belman of Israpundit) notes that Israel and the west may have lost the propaganda war but Hizbollah has lost the Arabs. Lebanese Shiit Arabs.

Hizbollah Beats Israel Loses Arabs

Lirun said...

i think that is a very poor essay that ignores reality - works heavy on stereotypes and manifests clouded thought..

just to answer a few of the points:

(a) no - israel is not and has not been the devil of all times.. we have been implicated in a shrinking regional conflict over the years but that does not make us the essence of all evil.. the self-exoneration in that essay is formidable..

(b) internal debate and vicious querying is not a new feature of israeli politics to any stretch of the imagination.. even around independence times we actively engaged our own people who we considered rogues and defiant of the main lines to ensure that our country's general regime was managed within the acceptable boundaries.. furthermore.. only a deaf and blind person can ignore our israeli arab MPs who always band with our extreme left to speak out ferociously against just about every policy we have.. and while in other countries this would be criminally considered treason - here is it perfectly legal..

(c) HA did not withstand the israeli military machine.. what withstood it was the lebanese people by sitting further behind HA rather than alongside.. this triggered grave concern for the safety of civillians (both lebanese and israeli) and forced us to decide how dirty we needed to get to respond to this dirty form of warfare.. fighting from civillian pockets is not "decentralised" its "illegal" "immoral" and "collectively suicidal".. if this was a conventional war we all know what the outcome would have been..

(d) you discuss immigration lines and how people are rushing to escape lebanon.. while throughout the conflict israel had thousands of families come to live here and many even chose the bombed areas as the locations of their new homes.. to which they are no doubt moving to right now while the ceasefire prevails.. this demonstrates an enormous sense of conviction.. it has not even been scratched..

we can slice and dice this war however we like..

i think point scoring is useless and the only valuable lesson to be learned is that our region doesnt need this silliness anymore.. we need to normalise and we need peace..

wishing it upon us all..

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
i wonder if flowers can grow out of such bloody soil..

M. Simon said...

Wait a minute. Correct me if I'm wrong. The defeated Israel is holding pieces of Lebanon and this is a model for driving the Israelis out of the Golan? Out of Palestine?

Um, OK.

The only way for Hizballah to get Israel to even agree to leave Lebanon was to stop fighting and shooting rockets. Even then Israel is taking its own sweet time.

Victory?


Oh, I get it. You are very good friends with that blonde Lebanese feller. Say hello to him for me. He used to be a friend of mine.

Uri Kalish said...

Been away for a while…

I’ve just came back from about 3 weeks of army service in the IDF including about 10 days of active war in the Israeli artillery forces.

There were nights it seems like a movie. I heard HA rockets whistling above my head hitting Israeli towns. I saw the forests of northern Israel burning, coloring the night sky with orange. I saw the MLRS firing back leaving a trail of smoke across the sky. I heard the machine guns, the tanks, the planes, the choppers, the cannons. I heard some kind of an explosion every 10 seconds. I saw HA rockets hitting 300 feet from me. We fired back. We destroyed one HA rocket launcher. We killed 3 HA fighters. We nailed one HA anti-tank unit. The war ended. I went home back to my family. I saw my wife and kids again. I survived this round.

p.s.
I met with many soldiers from different units in the front and talked to a lot of my friends that came back from the war. Everywhere I asked, Israeli combat soldiers describe the same thing – in many cases they were held back in order not to harm Lebanese civilians. Examples: A combat pilot friend of mine estimates 80-90 percent of his targets were empty fields. My artillery unit from time to time fired more than 100 shells to the same target (one spot on some empty field). A soldier I met on the front from another artillery unit said they saw HA fighters in a village bellow them but didn’t get a clearance to fire at them. 2 friends of mine (one from an anti-tanks unit, and one from an infantry unit) say the same thing. Everywhere you ask it’s the same story. It seems like the IDF was held back by the politicians in order to avoid Lebanese civilian casualties, many times increasing the risk to its own soldiers. I think that if the IDF was given a free hand, HA would have been reduced to Nasrallah and maybe another 10 people that are hiding in his bunker.

Glad to be home again.
Peace to all.

Lirun said...

that is so crazy..

all that money wasted.. lining the pockets of people who dont mind selling arms and sleeping at night..

soo many other things that could have been done with our taxes other than pounding empty fields..

enough of this insanity..

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
i want peace

Uri Kalish said...

Chas,

I vote for the Israeli left wing parties, a great supporter of the Palestinian state, peace with everybody, human rights etc.

Purity of arms really sounded good from my armchair at home.

I’m only human.

I admit.

When HA rockets started to hit 300 feet from me I though ‘screw civilian casualties, it’s us or them now, nuke that village’.

Purity of arms must be enforced by people sitting in air conditioned-offices, following the war on CNN, because if it’s left to the soldiers on the field of battle, it doesn’t stand a chance.

Anochi said...

Dear Nasrallah,

I am writing you this letter because I owe you sir an apology: I didn't support you or your blessed organization when this conflict started. Hell, even before that. And for that, sir, I was wrong, and I apologize. From this day forward I am the biggest Hezbollah supporter, ever. I will wear those T-shirts, I will wave your yellow flag, and go to every pro Hezbollah rally and chant with the chanters. I am converted now. You made a believer out of me, with your victory over Israel, which totally destroyed the legend of the Israeli army, just like it was destroyed in 2000 and 73. what a fuckin resilient legend, huh? It's like the Freddy Kreuger of legends. Everytime you kill it, it just keeps coming back. This is why I urge you to destroy it once and for all this time around, and not accept the cease-fire agreement.

read all the rest about the grael HA victory:
http://www.sandmonkey.org/index.php?s=wagon

Lirun said...

i tend to agree.. no one really looked very surprised about anything..

not a fan of conspiracy theories but it was almost as if they all had a big poker game and then said..

"guys - how about a war?"

"is july good for you?"

"hmm.. let me check.. summer! perfect.."

"ok seeya there.."

"yeah i'll be at the border.."

like some trashy low budget combat movie..

hopefully honey will emerge from the sting..

wishing us all peace..

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com