Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A Discourse of Immorality

So I refused to write for a while, just wanted to wait, wait until something worthy of commenting on appears on the Lebanese political arena. I didn't want to rush to conclusions or make faulty judgements. I wanted to see where the country will head after the war.

More and more the divide in the country grows; it's a divide on the vision. PM Seniora in his efforts during the war to reach out to the international community was successful, successful in pushing to end the Israeli aggression, successful in garnering plenty of funds to kickstart the reconstruction effort, and successful on a diplomatic level to set a course for the country following the war. His efforts reminded me of the late PM Hariri in 1996 when he rallied the world during the Israeli Grapes of Wrath campaign and manged to coin a new term for our resistance then, the Lebanese resistance.

Right after the war, Aoun unleashed a scathing attack on the Cabinet, then the "choir" followed. But the most significant of the calls for dismantling the government came from Hizbullah the past three days. Yesterday Sayyid Nasrallah accused Seniora of immoral acts and of colluding with the enemy on Al-Jazeera. I wonder what the vieweres were thinking while they watched Sayyid Nasrallah. Perhaps they were conflicted because Seniora was also a hero during that war in his own right. How easily people forget....

At any rate, Al-Mustaqbal daily today published an article reminding Sayyid Nasrallah that if Seniora's reception of Britich PM Tony Blair was immoral, then what about Qatar, for instance? Qatar, which her Emir's visit to Lebanon was trumpeted by Hizbullah, hosted on its airport runways the first batch of smart bombs that headed to Israel before the war.

Again, if Sayyid Nasrallah considered Seniora's reception of Blair as hurtful to many's feelings, then what about when Nasrallah presented a submachine gun as a gift to the Syrian Head of Intelligence in Lebanon Rustom Ghazaleh on the eve of their troop withdrawal from Lebanon, ignoring the feelings of many Lebanese who considered the Syrian regime as the culprit in PM Hariri's assassination (to say the least).

What about also when Parliament Speaker Berri, as Hizbullah's representative during the war (as claimed by Hizbullah then), met with U.S. State Secretary Condoleeza Rice while the fighting was still ongoing? Couldn't we consider that a meeting between the U.S. and Hizbullah? Wouldn't that be immoral in Sayyid Nasrallah's eyes?

When immorality becomes a concept used widely in political rhetoric, then in my view the political discourse has regressed to a dangerously low level, regressed to the olden days. And we all remember what those days were like....

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

12 comments:

Bad Vilbel said...

I've learned a long time ago, to stop trying to use logic and moral equivalence, when reading anything that's declared by most of our politicians. This is no exception.

Guys like Aoun, Nasrallah and everyone else, have no principles. Therefore no moral equivalence can be applied. The word du jour is "Double Standard".

I choose to look at the bigger picture instead.

Bravo 2-1 said...

You raise many good points. But at times like these, fierce rhetoric can exceed reason.

R said...

I don't understand the illusions we have about our politicians. They are not what we want or expect them to be, they are what they are. That statement might seem superfluous but my point would make more sense if we look at lebanon, pre-Syrian withdrawal and then post-Syrian withdrawal.

Before, HA did not NEED to show its true colors, it was happy doing its own "resistance" thing, and filling the role of the state in its areas. The Syrians provided the cover and the backing. On the other hand, with the exit of the Syrians, the vacuum created by the absence of the state in HA areas, is more obvious, and less acceptable.

Looked at from this perspective, HA is cornered (not by anyone in particular, but by the physical absence of the cover that the Syrians gave them). The anomalous status quo that they grew on, allowing them to have a security apparatus, an army, and the ability to provide social services is no longer there. Or at least is no longer justifiable.

That is why they NEEDED to launch the operation on July 12, and why they need to undermine the government of Siniora. Expecting any change in their behaviour is therefore naive.

If they concede they lose, so they won't willingly concede...

AM said...

Thank you Doha for the post, in a way fasshaytili khel2e. I was on the verge to explode when I read about it and just wondered until when are we gonna let these people play with the heads of our compatriots who seem to believe every word they say ... sigh ...

Lirun said...

while i hate the thought of HA lingering at my border with lebanon.. i also hate the thought of a lebanese civil war.. almost as much quite frankly..

how is this averted.. how can lebanon be preserved from the HA's undeclared battle for rule?

do you have any faith in the international forces?

wishing peace to us all

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com

Lirun said...

sherrii - dude.. amnesty just declared on bbc its opinion that HA is guilty of war crimes.. how does this affect the lyrics of your "i love HA - they are so peaceful and groovey!!" song that you have been rocken since the violence errupted?

;)

wishing us never to have to consider these issues again..

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com

Lirun said...

i had a trip today to the north of israel..

i was very close to the border..

it was like the war never existed..

we hiked up a waterfall actually through the water climbing the water thrashed rocks and then went kayaking in the jordan river.. all so close to th eborder of syria and lebanon..

it was soo much fun.. so surreal.. i havent enjoyed myself so much in so long..

driving past all of our beautiful towns on the way to lebanon i was chatting to my colleague about how nice it would be to have a holiday home in the north.. the prospects of a war and the recent history of violence seeming like but a dream..

as we drove towards the kayaking station a whole area of forest was cleared and charred to the root.. a katyusha had fallen right where we were now driving..

how quickly the world moves on..

israel is very focussed on rebuilding its north..

i pray that in the near future our work trip doesnt have to end there but can continue past our border and safely to our northern neighbour..

sick of this stupid animosity crap

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com

Lirun said...

i dont recommend mirvats blog for a perspective at all.. it is wholly one sided.. demonises israel without any control - whether of reality or history and certainly not of fairness.. all you can get from that blog is her emotional perspective..

we have not simply been standing by while lebanon has aspired to democracy.. thousans of comments have been posted about this.. we have extended a hand in peace repeatedly.. a peace deal was in fact signed and retracted by lebanon.. we stood firm while we absorbed countless rockets..

yesterday i was in the north of israel again.. and i suddeny became panic stricken when i noticed that a whole area of greenery had been burned to a crisp.. i found myself constantly scanning my surroundings looking for schrapnel and other unexploded devices and hoped none of those had fallen into the river bed i was walking in..

one of my friends yesterday.. a right winged guy who volunteers as a medic in his spare time was called to assist someone with a snake bite.. the guy was an arab farmhand and his employer was treating him unfairly by refusing to recognise the incident as a workplace incident which would trigger a better degree of coverage but increase the employer's premium.. my friend treated the wound with full loyalty.. and secured the work place classification of the injured guy.. my very very right winged counsin who is a surgeon in ER regularly sows together palestinian terrorists that have blown them selves us before reaching their targets "us" and then puts them on life support at a cost of tens of thousands of shquels a day.. these are just examples..

what i am trying to say - and anyone in israel who has ever seen a road accident will know that our insticts - from a cultural perspective are to help.. anything you see that looks different is either where help is not welcome or where circumstances have driven us to adopt a divergant course of action..

our post violence overtures to lebanon have been clearly rejected.. to some that may seem reasonable.. but it prevents us from assisting in a more practive way..

if you are suggesting that any future attack by HA on israel should simply be absorbed as it previously was for 6 years.. then i have no idea what to say..

wishing peace to us all

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com

turtlecurls said...

Sherri,
The issue of Israeli war crimes received more news coverage because it was published first. Wonder why it was...? A more credible move would have been to publish them together.

turtlecurls said...

Sherri,
The official post war evaluations were published on 8/23/06 for Israel & 9/14/06 for Hezbollah (based on their site). No assessment was made of Lebanon's actions. The article you mention is a during war cursory assessment without access to do the real research of the post war articles & was treated as such by the media.

You seem to take what you see at face value. In politics, especially in this part of the world, that's likely to have one believing the proproganda designed to support a viewpoint. Everything needs further evaluation to be understood & for a thoughtful conclusion to be had. For instance, the 1000 in Lebanon vs. less in Israel has been easily ascribed to the lesser accuracy of Hezb rockets & also to the extensive number of Israeli shelters. The Arab Israeli communities which has built less shelters (they didn't expect to be targets of other Arabs) had more casualties. Another factor described in this is that the Lebanon count didn't distinguish civilians from Hebz supporters who stayed in troubled areas to fight, i.e. had switched their civilian hats for militant ones. Also, I have seen lower counts of 600 saying the original numbers were inflated (often happens in crisis). I'm not saying that these facts are the absolute ones. What I'm saying is that there are more factors to consider than a number count -- and only considering the surface presentation looses much of the depth & complexity of coming to an understanding of what happened & what actions to support.

I can say that I do the same thing sometimes, but I'm always surprised, when I look, at how many other factors play in. You seem to looking for a thoughtful way to see the whole thing. (based on prior posts I've read) I hope you will start to do research beyond the front story you first see. The risk otherwise is to support the agenda or even propoganda (often fear or hate-based) of a specific group without realizing you are doing it.

Specific to the question of the Amenesty reports, Amenesty has a reputation of long history of critising Israel without commenting on other actions like suicide bombings. It's a vast improvement that they included a two part report. I do think it raises a question on why they chose to release them weeks apart instead of at the same time.

Lirun said...

chas

you know i am not a fan of violence but what you say makes no strategic or tactical sense..

the HA knows that we prize our life highly.. they know we will release 1000s of murderers for 3 dead bodies.. they know how loudly our pain echoes.. and it makes no sense to develop a currency of damage..

you hurt me 12345paineos worth 537637 in hizbapain and i need to fall within a range of 3% statistical regression.. doesnt work..

you do not deter someone shooting at you indiscriminately and randomly by tickling their underarm..

i hated the sloppiness of the last war - i thought it costly on human life.. it was slow and frankly such a war to me violates the rule of what is kosher..

but mirvat doesnt express anger or rage but mere blindness to issues.. her blog is agenda drivern.. she doesnt seek to enlighten you but rather to darken our views with her sentiment.. a personal unproductive sentiment..

while i blog there and banter with her.. it is choppy tide and dangerous surfing for a learning mind..

i say swim with caution..

www.emspeace.blogspot.com

Lirun said...

are you kidding?! we'd probably fall in love..

:D