Hezbollah controls West Beirut - Robert Fisk

[shaayecanaan]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/">The Independent

Another American humiliation. The Shia gunmen who drove past my apartment in west Beirut yesterday afternoon were hooting their horns, making V-signs, leaning out of the windows of SUVs with their rifles in the air, proving to the Muslims of the capital that the elected government of Lebanon has lost.

And it has. The national army still patrols the streets, but solely to prevent sectarian killings or massacres. Far from dismantling the pro-Iranian Hizbollah's secret telecommunications system – and disarming the Hizbollah itself – the cabinet of Fouad Siniora sits in the old Turkish serail in Beirut, denouncing violence with the same authority as the Iraqi government in Baghdad's green zone.

The Lebanese army watches the Hizbollah road-blocks. And does nothing. As a Tehran versus Washington conflict, Iran has won, at least for now. Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader and MP and a pro-American supporter of Mr Siniora's government, is isolated in his home in west Beirut, but has not been harmed. The same applies to Saad Hariri, one of the most prominent government MPs and the son of the murdered former prime minister Rafik Hariri. He remains in his west Beirut palace in Koreitem, guarded by police and soldiers but unable to move without Hizbollah's approval. The symbolism is everything.

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[Scurrilous]

1. Hezbollah fighters start withdrawing from Beirut

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"Hezbollah TV announced Saturday evening that Hezbollah-led opposition forces would withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with the Lebanese army's request.

According to an opposition statement, the move comes after the army issued a statement calling on gunmen to get off the street and reopen the roads.

But the statement said a civil disobedience campaign will continue until the group's demands are met.

The announcement came after the Lebanese army overturned government measures against the group, which sparked clashes in and around Beirut that left dozens dead after four days of fighting."

more

[notfullofit]

2. Does anyone...

'But the statement said a civil disobedience campaign will continue until the group's demands are met.'

...know what these demands are

[shaayecanaan]

3. they havent said, specifically...

but gentlemen don't ask. Probably it relates to letting them have their choice of president. The Army has already let Hezbollah keep its communications network, etc.

Meanwhile:-

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strongly reaffirmed U.S. support for the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and reached out to key world leaders for ways to buttress his government. "We will stand by the Lebanese government and peaceful citizens of Lebanon through this crisis and provide the support they need to weather this storm," she said in a statement. Rice denounced the violence and singled out Syria and Iran for backing Hezbollah, which she accused of trying "to protect their state within a state."

The support they need to weather this storm, eh? Surely that will warm the hearts of government supporters on cold winter nights.

Fighting has spread to Tripoli. The Syrian Baath party offices there have been burnt and seven people are dead. Not the sort of thing to go unavenged:-

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/articlebr.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=91905

[Sezu]

4. Hezbollah's Virginity is gone

It has now tasted the blood of it's own countrymen and revealed its real reason for existing.

[notfullofit]

5. I will never

understand why they are so bloodthirsty, killing their own kind like this.

[shaayecanaan]

6. They tasted the blood of their countrymen for twenty years...

and we (by which I mean the Maronite Christians) did the same.

Technically, we "started it" I suppose. We also invited the Israelis to participate with us. Probably not the best move. According to legend, when Moshe Dayan first met up with commanders of the Maronite militia, they greeted him with a bag of human ears.

I suppose that's one way of making your intentions clear. The fact that we murdered more Palestinians in a single afternoon than the IDF did in a whole intifada is another (albeit that we did so with Israel's blessing and assistance). The fact is, Israel has been sponsoring terrorists in Lebanon for a lot longer than the Iranians have.

The latest war was started by the government, not because it had any hope of winning, but because it feared that Hezbollah's popularity means it is in danger of becoming a national movement, rather than purely Shia Muslim organisation.

Whether they succeeded in splitting off the growing band of Christian support for Hezbollah is too soon to tell.

[notfullofit]

7. Thank you but

I still don't get what makes a "terrorist" a terrorist, sadism perhaps?
It has to take a special kind of person to do as they do.

[shaayecanaan]

9. Weakness

and necessity. Virtually every family in Lebanon is affiliated, however loosely, to some kind of militia. The same would be true of most people from the former Yugoslavia.

The first terrorists were the Sicarii (the Jewish zealots that killed other Jews with Roman sympathies). The second terrorists were the Hashashins (the Arab anti-Saladin mercenaries, from whence we derive the word "assassin").

Whereever you have weakness, there terrorism lies. When you don't have enough conventional strength you push the British out of Palestine, or Israel out of Lebanon, you use terrorism.

The Ho Chi Minh rule applies: kill enough of them, and they will leave. It is a rule that is as universal as the sky. It strikes me as quixotic when I hear Americans say that no level of casualties will deter them in Iraq. In Vietnam, the price was 50,000 dead. All indications are that the American stomach for war has taken a battering since the Vietnam years, and that the public would simply not tolerate anything near that level of casualties. To say nothing of the impact of three trillion dollars in direct and consequential costs.

[notfullofit]

8. Re Maronite Christians, I am

woefully ignorant.

Just took a quick peek at Wiki and was fascinated by the history and resilience of these people.
I want to learn more about them, can you recommend any good readings?

Thank you by the way for mentioning them, I had never heard of them 'till now.

[shaayecanaan]

10. Apparently we were not quite as resilient as the Muslims

because we had our arses handed to us, even with Israel merrily bombing away on our behalf.

That favourite author of fridge-magnet manufacturers, Kahlil Gibran (author of The Prophet) was a Maronite. I feel better mentioning him than I do most other, recent political commentators.

I will have a good think about it, and post further. I do have some good books. To a large extent, the Chaldean Christians in Iraq, the Maronites, the Copts in Egypt, etc, are intertwined. I have some good books on the early Syriac church, and also the Lebanese civil war.

thanks for your post.

[notfullofit]

11. Thank you so much, I look forward to learning more. nt

[shaayecanaan]

12. A couple of books

I would recommend anything by Kamal Salibi, professor of history at the American University in Beirut.

In particular "The History of Lebanon reconsidered". "Maronite historians of medieval Lebanon" and "the modern history of lebanon"

They're all a bit on the expensive side, so I would try to see if maybe you can find any of them at a university library.

There is a popular history that you might be able to find in the bookshops. It is called Fire and embers: a history of the Lebanese conflict. Cant remember who the author is though.