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'Lebanon crisis an international conspiracy'
Tuesday 18 July 2006, 20:49 Makka Time, 17:49 GMT
The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict threatens to drag Syria, Iran and the US into a regional war.
As'ad AbuKhalil, author of Bin Laden, Islam, and America's New
'War on Terrorism' as well as The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty,
Fundamentalism, and Global Power, believes the recent violence is a symptom of
an international conspiracy under way to enforce UN resolution 1559, which calls
for the disarmament of militia groups in Lebanon - a reference to
Hezbollah. A professor of political science at California State University,
Stanislaus, and visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley,
AbuKhalil just returned from Lebanon. He also maintains the Angry Arab blogsite
(http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
). Aljazeera.net: Israel says its assault on
Lebanon is in self-defence against Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks and the
capture of two of its soldiers. Hezbollah says southern Lebanon has long been an area of
conflict with Israel occupying Lebanese land and that it wants indirect
negotiations to secure the release of its prisoners in Israeli jails. How did
the situation deteriorate so rapidly and so violently?
Hezbollah did not surprise Israel with the capture of the two
Israeli occupation soldiers. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah has repeatedly
warned that if Israel does not release its Lebanese prisoners, he will be
compelled to take Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips. And Israel has not been sitting idly by since its partial
withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000. It has not only
continued to occupy parts of South Lebanon, but also has been violating Lebanese
sovereignty, by air, sea, and land. Israel has also been kidnapping innocent Lebanese citizens:
fishermen and shepherds. And one fisherman from Tyre - my hometown - is still
missing, and at least one shepherd was killed last year. Furthermore, Israel has adamantly refused to give to Lebanon a
map of the more than 400,000 land mines that it left behind in South Lebanon,
and which continue to kill Lebanese children in the region. The recent crisis, as the article in the Washington Post by
Robin Wright pointed out yesterday, is an international/regional conspiracy to
implement United Nations Security Council resolution 1559. The groundwork for this aggression began with the work of Rafiq
al-Hariri [the slain former Lebanese prime minister] in 2004, when he worked
with the US and France to pass that resolution in the Security Council.
The plan has the full support of Israel and client Arab regimes
of the US: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. But it will not work, and
Hezbollah will not lay down its arms. If the Lebanese government, led by the Hariri camp, thinks that
it can now convince Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to trust the Lebanese
Army - which has been sitting idly over the last week - to take care of
Lebanon's defence, it is wildly mistaken. What are Israel's goals? What are Hezbollah's
goals? I think that Israel often acts in revenge. The Zionist movement
is a vengeful movement; it always has been. It wants not only to implement UNSC 1559 to disarm Hezbollah,
but it also wants, as it did in 1982, to pave the way for the installation of
American puppets as rulers of Lebanon. These plans never work: All grand plans
for Lebanon strike the rocks of deep sectarian divisions in the country.
I think that Hezbollah started by wanting to achieve a prisoner
exchange with Israel, and probably to ease the pressures on Palestine.
But now, they mostly and primarily want to retain possession of
their weapons, and they have in that at least the overwhelming support of the
Shia in Lebanon, the single largest sect in the country. Dozens of civilians have been killed on both sides but
there has been little movement in the international community. Is there a
feeling that mediation or efforts to bring about a ceasefire will be
fruitless? The silence of the so-called international community, which has
been under the control and in the service of the US government since the end of
the Cold War, has been most painful for those in Lebanon who have been told in
the last two years that the international community cares about Lebanon and its
people. Now people know better. I do believe that the same racist impulse that considers Israeli
lives worth more than Arab lives is at play here. I have no doubt that the lives
of Arabs never meant much for the descendants of colonial powers in the region.
And it is important that we don't allow Israeli propaganda to
present an image of symmetry between the two sides: There is no symmetry between
the two sides in this conflict. Not only in terms of Israeli military superiority, but also in
terms of massive killings by Israel of largely innocent civilians.
I think that all Lebanese blame Israel for the killing and for
the aggression. But the Saudi clients in Lebanon are trying to exploit the
events to build up resentment against Hezbollah. In Lebanon, there never are unified opinions on anything, and
certainly the sectarian divisions do not amount to a unified stance behind
Hezbollah. There are many Lebanese who don't support the ideology of
Hezbollah but who also believe that the party is now single-handedly defending
Lebanon against savage Israeli aggression. It is ironic to speak of John Bolton - the same person who was
honoured a few months ago by the Hariri ruling coalition in Lebanon. Yes, Hezbollah receives the support of Iran and Syria, just as
the Hariri coalition receives the support of US, France, Saudi Arabia, and
Jordan, and possibly Israel indirectly. It seems that Israel will avoid attacking Iran and Syria at this
stage. With the Israeli war on Palestine still proceeding unabated, the Israelis
may not find a need. The US/EU/UN will deal with both countries, on behalf of Israel,
through pressures and punitive measures. Iran has indirectly facilitated the US occupation of Afghanistan
and Iraq, and Syria has recently been co-operating with the US occupation in
Iraq. If attacked, both countries can easily make things worse for the
US, and that explains the reluctance of the US in endorsing attacks on Iran or
Syria. It depends on what happens. If Israel is permitted to continue
in the aggression, Syria and Iran may feel threatened, and that may unleash
their forces in Iraq against the US. Under such circumstances, American troubles in the region will
only increase. But no matter what happens, this carnage will have affects
thoughout the Middle East. Let us remember that the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
unleashed seismic changes and movements in the region, including the rise of
Hamas and Hezbollah. Those who think that when the dust settles, all will go back to
normal, are people who have not read the contemporary history of the Middle
East. In the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, this Israeli
aggression will go down as a watershed; it will have an impact on the course of
the conflict and also on the stability of the very regimes that the US spends
money and weapons to prop up. You have to be either ignorant or foolish or both to consider
the US interested in ending the current conflict. The US has clearly endorsed an
unconditional Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Palestine. The US will leave it
to Israel to decide not only the manner of killing of Arabs, but even to
determine the number of Arabs that Israel wishes to kill. Some Arab countries have criticised Hezbollah and its
backers for the recent crisis but Iran and some fighters in Iraq have firmly
stood by Hezbollah. Could we see a more extensive Shia-Sunni conflict on the
sidelines of an Arab-Israeli war? Yes, the Saudis have now officially endorsed a Shia-Sunni
conflict in the Middle East. And this plan has the support of the US and Israel.
This can easily, however, affect stability of several Arab countries, including
Saudi Arabia. So trying to manipulate the Sunni-Shia divide is like playing with
fire. We saw the fruits of American sectarian manipulation in Iraq.
The Hariri element of the ruling coalition will come out weaker
as a result of this crisis. That seems certain. They will either be seen as
incompetent, or as secret partners of the American/Israeli/Saudi plan for
Lebanon. But even at the humanitarian level, the Lebanese government has
failed miserably in meeting the basic demands of the refugees.
The Lebanese have been through a lot - the people of south
Lebanon have been through scores of savage Israeli invasions and campaigns of
aggression. Not only are the people known for resilience, but their ability to
reconstruct and resume normal life - as much as possible - has become well
known. But the funds needed for reconstruction will come at a high
price: It will be like Hariri's accruement of foreign debt which further eroded
the independence and sovereignty of
Lebanon. *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended: http://www.ikhwanweb.com http://www.islamonline.net http://www.islam-guide.com http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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