Muslim Protest At Paris Book Fair
A book fair in Paris has become the subject of controversy with several Muslim countries announcing boycotts because the guest of honour is Israel.
Saudi Arabia has become the latest to withdraw, following Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim Protest At Paris Book Fair
Showing posts with label lebanon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lebanon. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
DAR AL HARB-U.K.: "THEY [HIZ B'ALLAH] APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU DID & SAY - YOU ARE PARTNERS IN VICTORY ! ! ! "
Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
By Kevin McCandless
London (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of anti-war activists attending a meeting here on Thursday night were told that their activism was appreciated by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizballah.
With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.
As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.
In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.
"They [HIZ B'ALLAH...ed. A.I.] appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory," he said.
Politicians from the opposition Conservative Party complained this week about Moussawi being allowed into Britain. Moussawi said it is simply part of a propaganda campaign against Hizballah.
...
"It's not that I want to see people killed, no matter what nationality they have," Moussawi said. "It's that I want justice to take place."
Moussawi, who will speak elsewhere in Britain over the next few days, was recently banned from speaking in Ireland.
Earlier in the evening, Ben Griffin, a former soldier with British special forces, accused his country's military of routinely handing over detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American army.
Based on what his officers in Iraq and his fellow soldiers had told him, he said, hundreds of these detainees were later sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to other holding centers under the process known as extraordinary rendition.
Griffin said the British government was violating the Geneva convention and other instruments of international law.
Griffin, who first made his allegations publicly earlier this week, told Thursday night's audience that the British government was seeking a gag order against him.
Another speaker, Hassan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi Oil Workers Federation, said the war had brought nothing but death and destruction to his country.
Speaking through a translator, the union leader charged that U.S. forces were as brutally repressive as the regime of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
A controversial bill now stalled in the Iraqi parliament aims to open up the country's oil industry to outside investment. Juma'a said this would only lead to exploitation by the West.
Lindsey German, one of the chief organizers of the coalition, defended her group's decision to bring Moussawi to Britain, saying it supported anyone who stood against American "imperialism."
...
"They're trying to silence them because we have been incredibly effective," she said. "We have made this a major political issue and we will not go away."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
By Kevin McCandless
London (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of anti-war activists attending a meeting here on Thursday night were told that their activism was appreciated by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizballah.
With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.
As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.
In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.
"They [HIZ B'ALLAH...ed. A.I.] appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory," he said.
Politicians from the opposition Conservative Party complained this week about Moussawi being allowed into Britain. Moussawi said it is simply part of a propaganda campaign against Hizballah.
...
"It's not that I want to see people killed, no matter what nationality they have," Moussawi said. "It's that I want justice to take place."
Moussawi, who will speak elsewhere in Britain over the next few days, was recently banned from speaking in Ireland.
Earlier in the evening, Ben Griffin, a former soldier with British special forces, accused his country's military of routinely handing over detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American army.
Based on what his officers in Iraq and his fellow soldiers had told him, he said, hundreds of these detainees were later sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to other holding centers under the process known as extraordinary rendition.
Griffin said the British government was violating the Geneva convention and other instruments of international law.
Griffin, who first made his allegations publicly earlier this week, told Thursday night's audience that the British government was seeking a gag order against him.
Another speaker, Hassan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi Oil Workers Federation, said the war had brought nothing but death and destruction to his country.
Speaking through a translator, the union leader charged that U.S. forces were as brutally repressive as the regime of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
A controversial bill now stalled in the Iraqi parliament aims to open up the country's oil industry to outside investment. Juma'a said this would only lead to exploitation by the West.
Lindsey German, one of the chief organizers of the coalition, defended her group's decision to bring Moussawi to Britain, saying it supported anyone who stood against American "imperialism."
...
"They're trying to silence them because we have been incredibly effective," she said. "We have made this a major political issue and we will not go away."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DAR AL HARB-U.K.: HIZ B'ALLAH'S PROPAGANDA TO BE AVAILABLE IN BRITAIN VIA SPEAKING TOUR
Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
By MATTHEW HICKLEY
The Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi from the UK, warning that he was "likely to foment extremism or promote violence".
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah's newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
By MATTHEW HICKLEY
The Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi from the UK, warning that he was "likely to foment extremism or promote violence".
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah's newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
Thursday, February 14, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM-ISRAEL/LEBANON: "OPEN WAR" ON ISRAEL, BLOVIATES NASRALLAH
Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared "open war" on Israel in a fiery speech at the funeral Thursday in the Lebanese capital of a top commander killed in a car bombing he blamed on Israel.
"If the Zionists want war, then they shall have it," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast at the funeral of Imad Mughnieh. "If you want an open war, then let it be an open war."
He added that the 2006 war between his militant group and Israel was not over and that his followers stood ready for combat.
"The July war is not over, it is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared," Nasrallah said "The blood of Imad Mughnieh will contribute to the disappearance of the Jewish state."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared "open war" on Israel in a fiery speech at the funeral Thursday in the Lebanese capital of a top commander killed in a car bombing he blamed on Israel.
"If the Zionists want war, then they shall have it," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast at the funeral of Imad Mughnieh. "If you want an open war, then let it be an open war."
He added that the 2006 war between his militant group and Israel was not over and that his followers stood ready for combat.
"The July war is not over, it is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared," Nasrallah said "The blood of Imad Mughnieh will contribute to the disappearance of the Jewish state."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Thursday, January 31, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/LEBANON: THE WINOGRAD REPORT
Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Members of the Winograd Committee leave after reporting the final results of the 2006 Lebanon War probe in Jerusalem, January 30. The committee concluded that the second Lebanon War ended without victory and suffered serious failures by the Israeli political and military leadership.
The release Wednesday of the much awaited Winograd Commission report on Israel's failures in the 2006 Lebanon war, which was sparked by a cross-border raid by Lebanese based Hezbollah guerrillas, was claimed as a victory by Lebanon's army chief and Hezbollah and emboldening by Palestinian Hamas.
And contrary to widespread expectations, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was let off lightly for his failures during the 34-day war.
Olmert can now breath easy as he is expected to weather the latest challenge of his tumultuous term after the key government report spared him from a major drubbing by refraining from the harsh language it used in its interim findings nine months ago, which blasted him for "serious failure."
The Shiite Hezbollah movement, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the raid that brought an Israeli invasion in response, welcomed the report's findings.
"Israel failed completely in achieving its goals and the Israeli army suffered a military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah," spokesman Hussein Rahal told AFP.
Hezbollah crowed that the report confirmed that its guerrillas had defeated the military might of Israel in a conflict that killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
The Palestinian Hamas movement echoed the sentiment, saying the report "reveals the weakness and the fragility of the Zionist entity."
"This report should embolden us to pursue our right of resistance in all its forms," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.
Lebanon's army chief, General Michel Sleiman, said from Beirut that the report was a victory for both the Lebanese army and for Hezbollah.
"We did not expect an official Israeli body to condemn publicly its government and army," Sleiman, who is tipped to become president, told As-Safir newspaper. "The Winograd report confirms that Israel ... is the one that took the decision to launch war on Lebanon without any justification.
"Israel's public admission that its army failed in Lebanon strengthens our confidence in ourselves as Lebanese ... and confirms the joint victory of the army and the resistance," he added, using a common term for Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Western-backed government issued a statement in which it warned that Israel "failed to learn its lessons and is preparing for a new war on Lebanon."
The Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli government to probe the war, said the war was a missed opportunity and a grave failure for the Jewish state.
But although it criticized the war as a "serious missed opportunity" for Israel, and listed a number of failures, it said the premier had acted in what he sincerely believed to have been in the country's best interest.
"Acquitted," said a headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper. "Olmert can breathe easy," said an editorial on the Ynet news Web site.
With most of its harsh criticism reserved for the military, the report by the government-appointed commission turned it "from a serious indictment to a public lifesaver for Ehud Olmert," Ynet said.
...
I am currently looking for a PDF file of the WINOGRAD REPORT...It will be posted as soon as I find it...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Members of the Winograd Committee leave after reporting the final results of the 2006 Lebanon War probe in Jerusalem, January 30. The committee concluded that the second Lebanon War ended without victory and suffered serious failures by the Israeli political and military leadership.
The release Wednesday of the much awaited Winograd Commission report on Israel's failures in the 2006 Lebanon war, which was sparked by a cross-border raid by Lebanese based Hezbollah guerrillas, was claimed as a victory by Lebanon's army chief and Hezbollah and emboldening by Palestinian Hamas.
And contrary to widespread expectations, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was let off lightly for his failures during the 34-day war.
Olmert can now breath easy as he is expected to weather the latest challenge of his tumultuous term after the key government report spared him from a major drubbing by refraining from the harsh language it used in its interim findings nine months ago, which blasted him for "serious failure."
The Shiite Hezbollah movement, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the raid that brought an Israeli invasion in response, welcomed the report's findings.
"Israel failed completely in achieving its goals and the Israeli army suffered a military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah," spokesman Hussein Rahal told AFP.
Hezbollah crowed that the report confirmed that its guerrillas had defeated the military might of Israel in a conflict that killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
The Palestinian Hamas movement echoed the sentiment, saying the report "reveals the weakness and the fragility of the Zionist entity."
"This report should embolden us to pursue our right of resistance in all its forms," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.
Lebanon's army chief, General Michel Sleiman, said from Beirut that the report was a victory for both the Lebanese army and for Hezbollah.
"We did not expect an official Israeli body to condemn publicly its government and army," Sleiman, who is tipped to become president, told As-Safir newspaper. "The Winograd report confirms that Israel ... is the one that took the decision to launch war on Lebanon without any justification.
"Israel's public admission that its army failed in Lebanon strengthens our confidence in ourselves as Lebanese ... and confirms the joint victory of the army and the resistance," he added, using a common term for Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Western-backed government issued a statement in which it warned that Israel "failed to learn its lessons and is preparing for a new war on Lebanon."
The Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli government to probe the war, said the war was a missed opportunity and a grave failure for the Jewish state.
But although it criticized the war as a "serious missed opportunity" for Israel, and listed a number of failures, it said the premier had acted in what he sincerely believed to have been in the country's best interest.
"Acquitted," said a headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper. "Olmert can breathe easy," said an editorial on the Ynet news Web site.
With most of its harsh criticism reserved for the military, the report by the government-appointed commission turned it "from a serious indictment to a public lifesaver for Ehud Olmert," Ynet said.
...
I am currently looking for a PDF file of the WINOGRAD REPORT...It will be posted as soon as I find it...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Monday, January 28, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./LEBANON/JORDAN: IT'S ALL AMERICAS FAULT
Jordan Islamists: US responsible for bloody downturn in Lebanon
Amman - Jordan's largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Monday held the United States 'responsible' for Sunday's deterioration in the Lebanese crisis when at least nine people were killed in protests over power cuts.
'Those who came from oversees should bear a great responsibility for what is happening in Lebanon,' the IAF said in a statement.
It contended that the 'anarchy and vacuum experienced by Lebanon at the time being' was a product of US President George W Bush's policies which was meeting 'failure' not only in Lebanon but also in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan.
...
It appears in the mind of moslems around the world the United States is just as powerful as GOD, we might as well just act like it & smite them...
At least we should have done something to have been on the receiving end of the blame...
Appeasing doesn't seem to work, perhaps smiting will...
Pertinent Links:
1) Jordan Islamists: US responsible for bloody downturn in Lebanon
Amman - Jordan's largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Monday held the United States 'responsible' for Sunday's deterioration in the Lebanese crisis when at least nine people were killed in protests over power cuts.
'Those who came from oversees should bear a great responsibility for what is happening in Lebanon,' the IAF said in a statement.
It contended that the 'anarchy and vacuum experienced by Lebanon at the time being' was a product of US President George W Bush's policies which was meeting 'failure' not only in Lebanon but also in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan.
...
It appears in the mind of moslems around the world the United States is just as powerful as GOD, we might as well just act like it & smite them...
At least we should have done something to have been on the receiving end of the blame...
Appeasing doesn't seem to work, perhaps smiting will...
Pertinent Links:
1) Jordan Islamists: US responsible for bloody downturn in Lebanon
Thursday, July 26, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND/LEBANON: THE AMBUSH OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS BY HIZ B'ALLAH, IN 2006, WAS 3 MONTHS IN THE MAKING
***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***
Op-ed is taken from Dar Al Hayat...
Hizbullah's Ambush
by Hassan Haydar
Standing on the very same spot from which he covered last summer's war in Tyre, South Lebanon, a reporter for an Arab satellite channel pans his camera out to the sandy shore of the beach to reveal swimmers of all ages cooling off in the water under the summer heat. This reporter proceeded to assure his audience that these people - among others in South Lebanon and the Lebanese in general - were "prepared to sacrifice once more if such a sacrifice would lead them to another victory." He made this bold assertion without bothering to ask any of the swimmers in the water - whose numbers included many women and children - the position he had just taken in their name.
Anyone listening to the recent speeches of Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah knows now that the ambush of Israeli soldiers that forced the Lebanese to make the sacrifices the reporter referred to was in fact three months in the making. Thus, the same Hizbullah that had been attending the famous national dialogue and reassuring the Lebanese that the summer and tourist season of 2006 would be a peaceful one was planning an operation that would inflict pain on Lebanon as a whole and not just on two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Throughout this planning, Hizbullah did not bother to grant others a say in the matter which would affect them - or to ask whether or not others were willing to pay the necessary price for Hizbullah's actions.
Hizbullah's reasoning bears a remarkable resemblance to the reporter's belief that he may speak freely on behalf of others without consulting them on his own plans for their future, and content himself with rallying them behind slogans of 'the road to paradise' - slogans fundamentally incompatible with the consensual democratic arrangement cemented in Lebanon's Taif Accords.
Sayyid Nasrallah went on to launch a scathing attack on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and on his insistence throughout last summer's ceasefire negotiations on a full resolution of the issue of Hizbullah's weapons and on the state's monopolization over armed force in Lebanon. Thus, Nasrallah is condemning Siniora for implementing the duties delegated to him by the Lebanese people: the establishment and preservation of the power of the state rather than that of factions and parties. Nasrallah seems to have forgetten that it was Siniora who was relaying the conditions expressed by Israel through the United States government. This was due to Hizbullah's decision to use the Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament as a conduit in negotiations owing to the party's own political taboos and security constraints. By that reasoning, why does Hizbullah not also accuse Speaker Nabih Berri of pushing for the creation of an enclave dominated by multinational forces in Southern Lebanon?
As for Nasrallah's defense of Syria - who stood idly by while Lebanon was pummeled with several thousand tons of explosives - on the grounds that Damascus threatened Israel with military action should it take the war to Syrian territory, his statement is more an indictment than a defense. For it indicates that Syria is concerned only with her own security and not with that of its neighbor whom it dominated for years and with whom it has signed many a defensive pact. In addition, if Damascus' threats really prevented Israel from taking the fight to Syria, why did Damascus not issue warnings against attacks elsewhere?
So it seems that twisting the truth and switching positions are part of the 'politics of ambush' embraced by Hizbullah both publicly and in secret. And anyone who buys into the idea that the national unity government demanded by Hizbullah and its allies will remove Lebanon from destructive regional axes and restore peace and stability in the country has fallen victim to the politics of perpetual ambush.
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizbullah's Ambush
Op-ed is taken from Dar Al Hayat...
Hizbullah's Ambush
by Hassan Haydar
Standing on the very same spot from which he covered last summer's war in Tyre, South Lebanon, a reporter for an Arab satellite channel pans his camera out to the sandy shore of the beach to reveal swimmers of all ages cooling off in the water under the summer heat. This reporter proceeded to assure his audience that these people - among others in South Lebanon and the Lebanese in general - were "prepared to sacrifice once more if such a sacrifice would lead them to another victory." He made this bold assertion without bothering to ask any of the swimmers in the water - whose numbers included many women and children - the position he had just taken in their name.
Anyone listening to the recent speeches of Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah knows now that the ambush of Israeli soldiers that forced the Lebanese to make the sacrifices the reporter referred to was in fact three months in the making. Thus, the same Hizbullah that had been attending the famous national dialogue and reassuring the Lebanese that the summer and tourist season of 2006 would be a peaceful one was planning an operation that would inflict pain on Lebanon as a whole and not just on two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Throughout this planning, Hizbullah did not bother to grant others a say in the matter which would affect them - or to ask whether or not others were willing to pay the necessary price for Hizbullah's actions.
Hizbullah's reasoning bears a remarkable resemblance to the reporter's belief that he may speak freely on behalf of others without consulting them on his own plans for their future, and content himself with rallying them behind slogans of 'the road to paradise' - slogans fundamentally incompatible with the consensual democratic arrangement cemented in Lebanon's Taif Accords.
Sayyid Nasrallah went on to launch a scathing attack on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and on his insistence throughout last summer's ceasefire negotiations on a full resolution of the issue of Hizbullah's weapons and on the state's monopolization over armed force in Lebanon. Thus, Nasrallah is condemning Siniora for implementing the duties delegated to him by the Lebanese people: the establishment and preservation of the power of the state rather than that of factions and parties. Nasrallah seems to have forgetten that it was Siniora who was relaying the conditions expressed by Israel through the United States government. This was due to Hizbullah's decision to use the Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament as a conduit in negotiations owing to the party's own political taboos and security constraints. By that reasoning, why does Hizbullah not also accuse Speaker Nabih Berri of pushing for the creation of an enclave dominated by multinational forces in Southern Lebanon?
As for Nasrallah's defense of Syria - who stood idly by while Lebanon was pummeled with several thousand tons of explosives - on the grounds that Damascus threatened Israel with military action should it take the war to Syrian territory, his statement is more an indictment than a defense. For it indicates that Syria is concerned only with her own security and not with that of its neighbor whom it dominated for years and with whom it has signed many a defensive pact. In addition, if Damascus' threats really prevented Israel from taking the fight to Syria, why did Damascus not issue warnings against attacks elsewhere?
So it seems that twisting the truth and switching positions are part of the 'politics of ambush' embraced by Hizbullah both publicly and in secret. And anyone who buys into the idea that the national unity government demanded by Hizbullah and its allies will remove Lebanon from destructive regional axes and restore peace and stability in the country has fallen victim to the politics of perpetual ambush.
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizbullah's Ambush
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: 'ARABS IN PALESTINE' (A.K.A. PALESTINIANS) ARE MAKING 'FRIENDS' ALL OVER
Lebanon camp war fuels anti-Palestinian sentiment
Tripoli - As the list of dead soldiers grows, anger mounts in villages of north Lebanon where the army has been locked in a deadly showdown with Islamist militants for more than two months.
Black-clad women shout angrily as men in sombre mood sit in heavy silence next to portraits of the "martyred" soldiers in impoverished villages in the remote north -- a main reservoir for the country's armed forces.
Elite unit soldier Bassam Jawhar, 29, was killed on July 14 during the ongoing battles around Nahr al-Bared refugee camp where Fatah al-Islam militants have been under army siege since May 20.
He was killed when a booby-trapped building collapsed on a patrol in Nahr al-Bared and it took the army six days to retrieve his body from under the rubble due to the intensity of the battles.
Like Jawhar, six other soldiers from Bebnin fell in combat in Nahr al-Bared in two months.
At his family home in the village, his widow Mariam, wearing a black dress and an embroidered headscarf, sits near the giant portrait of the "Shahid" (martyr in Arabic) standing proudly in full combat gear and holding a rocket-launcher.
"I delivered our baby the day he left, 50 days ago exactly," said Mariam, 23. "He only saw the baby twice."
In another room, the grandfather holds his newly-born granddaughter in his arms as an endless queue of men flock in to present their condolences.
The procession takes place in silence, but anger is boiling.
"Don't say Fatah al-Islam, it is an insult to Islam. Say 'the criminal gang of Shaker al-Abssi,'" the Islamist group's commander, said Mohammed Jawhar, a cousin of the slain soldier.
Across the dusty villages of the impoverished northern province of Akkar, the men enroll in the country's armed forces by local tradition but mostly by necessity.
"There is not a single house where there is no soldier," explained 42-year-old Zeina Sufain, who lost her 19-year-old son Firas on May 22.
"There is no work here. Even for those who go to school," she said.
The list of soldiers killed in Nahr al-Bared has painfully reached 116, including 27 servicemen on the first day of the clashes when the Islamist extremists attacked most of them in their beds.
Reports of "massacres" against off-duty soldiers by Fatah al-Islam, including harrowing stories of servicemen executed at gunpoint or slaughtered with knives seemed to have at least momentarily ended decades of good relations with the Palestinian refugee camp.
"Let them go to hell," shouted Sahar, Bassam's aunt.
"We will never let the camp be rebuilt. We will never accept that the Palestinians come back. We used to buy from their shops, but they are traitors. They harbored these criminals, they helped them," Mohammed Jawhar said.
"Some of them even married their girls to the terrorists" from Fatah al-Islam, shouted another man.
But despite their grief and great losses, Akkar villages continue to back the army and its military campaign on Nahr al-Bared.
"In Akkar we love the army," said a cousin of one of the slain soldiers in Bebnin.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon camp war fuels anti-Palestinian sentiment
Tripoli - As the list of dead soldiers grows, anger mounts in villages of north Lebanon where the army has been locked in a deadly showdown with Islamist militants for more than two months.
Black-clad women shout angrily as men in sombre mood sit in heavy silence next to portraits of the "martyred" soldiers in impoverished villages in the remote north -- a main reservoir for the country's armed forces.
Elite unit soldier Bassam Jawhar, 29, was killed on July 14 during the ongoing battles around Nahr al-Bared refugee camp where Fatah al-Islam militants have been under army siege since May 20.
He was killed when a booby-trapped building collapsed on a patrol in Nahr al-Bared and it took the army six days to retrieve his body from under the rubble due to the intensity of the battles.
Like Jawhar, six other soldiers from Bebnin fell in combat in Nahr al-Bared in two months.
At his family home in the village, his widow Mariam, wearing a black dress and an embroidered headscarf, sits near the giant portrait of the "Shahid" (martyr in Arabic) standing proudly in full combat gear and holding a rocket-launcher.
"I delivered our baby the day he left, 50 days ago exactly," said Mariam, 23. "He only saw the baby twice."
In another room, the grandfather holds his newly-born granddaughter in his arms as an endless queue of men flock in to present their condolences.
The procession takes place in silence, but anger is boiling.
"Don't say Fatah al-Islam, it is an insult to Islam. Say 'the criminal gang of Shaker al-Abssi,'" the Islamist group's commander, said Mohammed Jawhar, a cousin of the slain soldier.
Across the dusty villages of the impoverished northern province of Akkar, the men enroll in the country's armed forces by local tradition but mostly by necessity.
"There is not a single house where there is no soldier," explained 42-year-old Zeina Sufain, who lost her 19-year-old son Firas on May 22.
"There is no work here. Even for those who go to school," she said.
The list of soldiers killed in Nahr al-Bared has painfully reached 116, including 27 servicemen on the first day of the clashes when the Islamist extremists attacked most of them in their beds.
Reports of "massacres" against off-duty soldiers by Fatah al-Islam, including harrowing stories of servicemen executed at gunpoint or slaughtered with knives seemed to have at least momentarily ended decades of good relations with the Palestinian refugee camp.
"Let them go to hell," shouted Sahar, Bassam's aunt.
"We will never let the camp be rebuilt. We will never accept that the Palestinians come back. We used to buy from their shops, but they are traitors. They harbored these criminals, they helped them," Mohammed Jawhar said.
"Some of them even married their girls to the terrorists" from Fatah al-Islam, shouted another man.
But despite their grief and great losses, Akkar villages continue to back the army and its military campaign on Nahr al-Bared.
"In Akkar we love the army," said a cousin of one of the slain soldiers in Bebnin.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon camp war fuels anti-Palestinian sentiment
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: THE BOMBARDMENT OF FATAH AL-ISLAM JIHADISTS CONTINUES
Lebanese army close to eliminating Fatah al-Islam terrorists
Lebanese army troops unleashed a barrage of artillery and tank shells on the northern Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in an effort to seize the remaining pockets controlled by Fatah al-Islam militants.
Troops advanced towards fortified positions of Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday, in what political sources said was the start of a final assault to root out the gunmen.
In some of the heaviest bombardment of Nahr al-Bared in weeks, army cannons fired shells at a rate of 8 to 10 every minute at suspected Fatah al-Islam positions inside the camp. The shelling could be heard in the nearby port city of Tripoli, witnesses said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanese army close to eliminating Fatah al-Islam terrorists
Lebanese army troops unleashed a barrage of artillery and tank shells on the northern Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in an effort to seize the remaining pockets controlled by Fatah al-Islam militants.
Troops advanced towards fortified positions of Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday, in what political sources said was the start of a final assault to root out the gunmen.
In some of the heaviest bombardment of Nahr al-Bared in weeks, army cannons fired shells at a rate of 8 to 10 every minute at suspected Fatah al-Islam positions inside the camp. The shelling could be heard in the nearby port city of Tripoli, witnesses said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanese army close to eliminating Fatah al-Islam terrorists
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: THE U.N. MAY TAKE UP 'SYRIAN ARMS SMUGGLING'
UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and France want U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to pursue ways to stop weapons flowing into Lebanon over the Syrian border, according to a draft U.N. statement on Tuesday.
The policy statement, which its backers hope will be approved by the 15-member U.N. Security Council as soon as this week, also calls on Syria to do more to control its border with Lebanon and for Iran to abide by an arms embargo.
Unlike a resolution, all 15 members of the council have to agree to a statement, which means the text could be revised.
The U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Michael Williams, warned last week that Syrian arms smuggling to militant groups in Lebanon threatens implementation of a peace deal that ended last summer's war with Israel.
"The Council also calls for enhanced cross-border cooperation to secure the Syrian-Lebanese border," the draft statement said.
It welcomes a report by a committee of experts appointed by Ban that recommended a radical overhaul of border procedures which it said were largely incapable of preventing smuggling in their current state. The statement asks Ban to report back on implementing the recommendations.
"The Security Council ... expresses grave concern at persistent reports of breaches of the arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border," said the draft.
Syria has consistently denied smuggling weapons.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and France want U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to pursue ways to stop weapons flowing into Lebanon over the Syrian border, according to a draft U.N. statement on Tuesday.
The policy statement, which its backers hope will be approved by the 15-member U.N. Security Council as soon as this week, also calls on Syria to do more to control its border with Lebanon and for Iran to abide by an arms embargo.
Unlike a resolution, all 15 members of the council have to agree to a statement, which means the text could be revised.
The U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Michael Williams, warned last week that Syrian arms smuggling to militant groups in Lebanon threatens implementation of a peace deal that ended last summer's war with Israel.
"The Council also calls for enhanced cross-border cooperation to secure the Syrian-Lebanese border," the draft statement said.
It welcomes a report by a committee of experts appointed by Ban that recommended a radical overhaul of border procedures which it said were largely incapable of preventing smuggling in their current state. The statement asks Ban to report back on implementing the recommendations.
"The Security Council ... expresses grave concern at persistent reports of breaches of the arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border," said the draft.
Syria has consistently denied smuggling weapons.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: THE LEBANESE ARMY CONTINUES TO POUND FATAH AL-ISLAM
Lebanese Army besieges Fatah Al-Islam militias in small area
BEIRUT, July 25 (KUNA) -- Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp Wednesday witnessed fierce clashes between the Lebanese Army and Fatah Al-Islam militants who are now besieged in a 200 square-meters area.
A Lebanese military source told KUNA the Army's main aim is to force the militias to surrender, adding military operations will end "as soon as the Fatah Al-Islam phenomenon passes." He stressed the Army does not object to a solution through mediation, adding that the phenomenon will either end by military operations or mediation.
The source pointed out that 119 soldiers of the Lebanese Army were killed since the clashes began on May 20.
The Army is shelling the militias holed up in the refugee camp in the north of the country and is trying to seize the last remaining small area still controlled by the group.
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanese Army besieges Fatah Al-Islam militias in small area
BEIRUT, July 25 (KUNA) -- Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp Wednesday witnessed fierce clashes between the Lebanese Army and Fatah Al-Islam militants who are now besieged in a 200 square-meters area.
A Lebanese military source told KUNA the Army's main aim is to force the militias to surrender, adding military operations will end "as soon as the Fatah Al-Islam phenomenon passes." He stressed the Army does not object to a solution through mediation, adding that the phenomenon will either end by military operations or mediation.
The source pointed out that 119 soldiers of the Lebanese Army were killed since the clashes began on May 20.
The Army is shelling the militias holed up in the refugee camp in the north of the country and is trying to seize the last remaining small area still controlled by the group.
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanese Army besieges Fatah Al-Islam militias in small area
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: THE LEBANESE ARMY HAS BEEN WELL & TRULY INFILTRATED - - - IRAN FLOODING SOUTHERN LEBANON WITH WEAPONS
Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
TEL AVIV — The Lebanese Army has been quietly helping Hizbullah smuggle weapons from neighboring Syria.
Israeli intelligence said Hizbullah has infiltrated Shi'ite-dominated units of the Lebanese Army. The intelligence sources said Shi'ite soldiers were recruited by Hizbullah to facilitate weapons shipments from Iran through Syria.
"There was always cooperation between the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah," Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. "Now, this cooperation has intensified."
The intelligence sources said Hizbullah has been receiving a huge amount of weapons from Iran. They said the weapons were flown to Syria and then delivered to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley by ground transport.
The Lebanese Army has failed to stop the weapons shipments to Hizbullah facilities in eastern and central Lebanon. The sources said Shi'ite units have quietly allowed the smuggling of weapons to militia outposts along the Litani River and facilitated the flow of insurgents into southern Lebanon.
"Most, if not all, of the Lebanese Army units in the south contains a majority of Shi'ites," an intelligence source said. "They coordinate with Hizbullah and supply them with intelligence on Israeli and UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] movements."
The sources said Hizbullah has replenished its arsenal over the last year and maintains most of its rockets and missiles in the Bekaa as well as in bunkers just north of the Litani River. They said Hizbullah maintains a growing presence of operatives along the Israeli-Lebanese border that deal with intelligence, recruitment and logistics.
...
Excerpted from an article that is available in its entirety only to subscribers...
Pertinent Links:
1) Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
TEL AVIV — The Lebanese Army has been quietly helping Hizbullah smuggle weapons from neighboring Syria.
Israeli intelligence said Hizbullah has infiltrated Shi'ite-dominated units of the Lebanese Army. The intelligence sources said Shi'ite soldiers were recruited by Hizbullah to facilitate weapons shipments from Iran through Syria.
"There was always cooperation between the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah," Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. "Now, this cooperation has intensified."
The intelligence sources said Hizbullah has been receiving a huge amount of weapons from Iran. They said the weapons were flown to Syria and then delivered to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley by ground transport.
The Lebanese Army has failed to stop the weapons shipments to Hizbullah facilities in eastern and central Lebanon. The sources said Shi'ite units have quietly allowed the smuggling of weapons to militia outposts along the Litani River and facilitated the flow of insurgents into southern Lebanon.
"Most, if not all, of the Lebanese Army units in the south contains a majority of Shi'ites," an intelligence source said. "They coordinate with Hizbullah and supply them with intelligence on Israeli and UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] movements."
The sources said Hizbullah has replenished its arsenal over the last year and maintains most of its rockets and missiles in the Bekaa as well as in bunkers just north of the Litani River. They said Hizbullah maintains a growing presence of operatives along the Israeli-Lebanese border that deal with intelligence, recruitment and logistics.
...
Excerpted from an article that is available in its entirety only to subscribers...
Pertinent Links:
1) Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: HIZ B'ALLAH'S ROCKETS ARE NOW AMONGST LEBANESE CIVILIANS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
Beirut- Hezbollah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and U.N. troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.
The new moves are part of Hezbollah's reorganization after last summer's war, the officials said. During that 34-day conflict, Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers, and Israeli land and air assaults caused heavy damage to Lebanese towns and neighborhoods.
Lebanon criticized Israel for targeting civilian areas, while Israel said Hezbollah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.
Last summer, many of Hezbollah's rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said.
But the army's new intelligence indicates that those positions have now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group's activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the war expanded UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, to 13,000 troops, entrusting it with ensuring that Hezbollah is not rearming near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Yasmina Bouziane, a UNIFIL spokesman in Lebanon, refused to comment on the Israeli charges.
A Hezbollah official in Beirut also refused to comment on the allegations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said only that in the past Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Israel from valleys and mountainous areas and not from inside villages.
The Israeli officials said Hezbollah's postwar efforts also include the construction of new fortifications north of the Litani River, farther from the Israeli border and out of UNIFIL's jurisdiction.
Last summer's conflict began when Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. The fighting left 159 Israelis dead, including 119 soldiers, while in Lebanon more than 1,200 people died, most of them civilians, according to counts by human rights groups, the Lebanese government and The Associated Press.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
Beirut- Hezbollah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and U.N. troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.
The new moves are part of Hezbollah's reorganization after last summer's war, the officials said. During that 34-day conflict, Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers, and Israeli land and air assaults caused heavy damage to Lebanese towns and neighborhoods.
Lebanon criticized Israel for targeting civilian areas, while Israel said Hezbollah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.
Last summer, many of Hezbollah's rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said.
But the army's new intelligence indicates that those positions have now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group's activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the war expanded UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, to 13,000 troops, entrusting it with ensuring that Hezbollah is not rearming near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Yasmina Bouziane, a UNIFIL spokesman in Lebanon, refused to comment on the Israeli charges.
A Hezbollah official in Beirut also refused to comment on the allegations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said only that in the past Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Israel from valleys and mountainous areas and not from inside villages.
The Israeli officials said Hezbollah's postwar efforts also include the construction of new fortifications north of the Litani River, farther from the Israeli border and out of UNIFIL's jurisdiction.
Last summer's conflict began when Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. The fighting left 159 Israelis dead, including 119 soldiers, while in Lebanon more than 1,200 people died, most of them civilians, according to counts by human rights groups, the Lebanese government and The Associated Press.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: LEADING E.U. TROOP CONTRIBUTING STATES SEEK OUT HIZ B'ALLAH'S COOPERATION
UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
Beirut - MCpl. Fabio Carlone says his small, lightly armored, Puma vehicle is just the right size for patrolling the narrow, potholed lanes of southern Lebanon.
The flaw, however, is that the vehicle provides little protection against the kind of car bomb that killed six of his United Nations colleagues last month. And Master Corporal Carlone says that weighs on his mind every time he and his Italian co ades go out on patrol along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was increased from 2,000 to 13,300 peacekeepers after the month-long war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah. The UN peacekeepers are led by elite European troops and are charged with helping the Lebanese Army ensure that the tense border remained calm.
But a year on, UNIFIL still finds itself under threat, not from the Shiite Hezbollah, but from suspected radical Sunni militants possibly inspired by Al Qaeda. And in a bizarre twist, some UNIFIL contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the powerful Hezbollah, which also views militant Sunnis as a threat, to help provide tacit security for the peacekeepers, Hezbollah and UNIFIL sources say.
Last month, six Spanish and Colombian soldiers serving with UNIFIL's Spanish battalion were killed when a car bomb exploded beside their armored vehicle, the deadliest attack in UNIFIL's 29-year history.
Last week, a UNIFIL jeep was damaged when a small bomb exploded nearby, confirming fears that last month's bombing was not a random act. In both attacks, radical Sunnis are the prime suspects.
"We are facing threats, but not threats about our ability to carry out our mission," says Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, UNIFIL's commander, at his headquarters in the southern coastal village of Naqoura. "We are cautious, we are soldiers. We know the risk can be minimized but not completely eradicated."
As Lebanon's political crisis intensified in the wake of the war last summer, UNIFIL began receiving increased intelligence warnings of potential attacks by Al Qaeda-inspired militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, twice referred to UNIFIL in video-taped messages, describing the peacekeepers as "international crusader forces."
The growing threat of attack by Sunni radicals apparently spurred the leading European troop-contributing states to seek the Shiite Hezbollah's cooperation. According to UNIFIL sources, intelligence agents from Italy, France, and Spain met with Hezbollah representatives in the southern city of Sidon in April. As a result, some Spanish peacekeepers subsequently were "escorted" on some of their patrols by Hezbollah members in civilian vehicles, the UNIFIL sources say.
...
What a bunch of pansies...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
Beirut - MCpl. Fabio Carlone says his small, lightly armored, Puma vehicle is just the right size for patrolling the narrow, potholed lanes of southern Lebanon.
The flaw, however, is that the vehicle provides little protection against the kind of car bomb that killed six of his United Nations colleagues last month. And Master Corporal Carlone says that weighs on his mind every time he and his Italian co ades go out on patrol along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was increased from 2,000 to 13,300 peacekeepers after the month-long war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah. The UN peacekeepers are led by elite European troops and are charged with helping the Lebanese Army ensure that the tense border remained calm.
But a year on, UNIFIL still finds itself under threat, not from the Shiite Hezbollah, but from suspected radical Sunni militants possibly inspired by Al Qaeda. And in a bizarre twist, some UNIFIL contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the powerful Hezbollah, which also views militant Sunnis as a threat, to help provide tacit security for the peacekeepers, Hezbollah and UNIFIL sources say.
Last month, six Spanish and Colombian soldiers serving with UNIFIL's Spanish battalion were killed when a car bomb exploded beside their armored vehicle, the deadliest attack in UNIFIL's 29-year history.
Last week, a UNIFIL jeep was damaged when a small bomb exploded nearby, confirming fears that last month's bombing was not a random act. In both attacks, radical Sunnis are the prime suspects.
"We are facing threats, but not threats about our ability to carry out our mission," says Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, UNIFIL's commander, at his headquarters in the southern coastal village of Naqoura. "We are cautious, we are soldiers. We know the risk can be minimized but not completely eradicated."
As Lebanon's political crisis intensified in the wake of the war last summer, UNIFIL began receiving increased intelligence warnings of potential attacks by Al Qaeda-inspired militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, twice referred to UNIFIL in video-taped messages, describing the peacekeepers as "international crusader forces."
The growing threat of attack by Sunni radicals apparently spurred the leading European troop-contributing states to seek the Shiite Hezbollah's cooperation. According to UNIFIL sources, intelligence agents from Italy, France, and Spain met with Hezbollah representatives in the southern city of Sidon in April. As a result, some Spanish peacekeepers subsequently were "escorted" on some of their patrols by Hezbollah members in civilian vehicles, the UNIFIL sources say.
...
What a bunch of pansies...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/LEBANON: THE YOUTH OF HIZ B'ALLAH - - - "I MAY ASPIRE TO WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP..."
Hezbollah's Youth
By Fatima el Issawi
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- In a small office which also doubles as a temporary Hezbollah media center in the southern fringes of Beirut, Ali, 23, tries to explain the complexities of his relationship with Hezbollah's weapons.
Ali has witnessed the Israeli occupation firsthand and has remained loyal to the resistance movement. He carried food to the soldiers in their trenches, and helped them move weapons from one hiding place to another.
Next to Ali sat some of his colleagues in what is known as Hezbollah's "educational mobilization" department. There, they talked about the dual nature of Hezbollah's youth, which is what renders them capable of adapting to so many different circumstances, unlike other youth.
This is because Hezbollah's youth, according to these young men, are university students, employees, and professionals at the same time. All the while they are also Mujahideen [fighters for the cause of Islam] who are ever-ready to exchange their civilian clothes for a military uniform serving a greater military cause, the dimensions of which are not understood fully by everyone.
Hezbollah's youth are men who are capable of adapting to two lives, that of the military man and that of the civilian. The educational mobilization department is just one of Hezbollah’s organizations. It is a military organization that emerged in the 1980's during the Israeli incursion into Lebanon [summer of 1982] under the name "Islamic Amal," [it seceded from the Amal Movement and was led by Nabih Berri].
As the organization evolved, it expanded to resemble a basic military nucleus that offers a number of social and political services. It also assumes dual tasks in that it repairs the social fabric so that it complements Hezbollah's ideology and offers a myriad of social services, as well as assuming its military role.
However, the organization's military role is far less important than that played by those at the top of the pyramid, i.e. the veteran frontline fighters, or Hezbollah's Elite Fighters, as they are known. The Elite Fighters, according to consistent estimates, form a group that ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 members of highly-trained village dwellers who have no other job. These soldiers have accumulated much expertise in the field of fighting that goes back to the 1980's, (the average age of the members is 40 years old). It is most likely that these fighters played a key role in the most recent war's frontline, and hence made up the bulk of casualties.
Alongside the Elite Fighters, there are the men of the reserve apparatus, who are no longer active in the role of fighting. This is either due to old age or their occupation of other posts. Their previous experiences coupled with the intensified training courses that had taken part in allow these men to carryout sideline tasks in times of war. Such tasks include sending messages, weapons, and food to different units, as well as observation and communication tasks. These are significant duties that do not require physical fitness and military readiness, both of which are imperative for professional fighting.
The military dimension of Hezbollah is ever-apparent on all three levels, [the social, the military, and the Elite Fighters]. It manifests itself, however, according to the situation and how much military preparation is required.
In the small office where we met, the young men of Hezbollah's Educational Mobilization department, who introduced themselves as Ali, Husayn, Rida, and Bashar, avoided referring to the military dimensions of their posts. Whenever one of them slipped up and began to discuss security issues, for example, the female media official interrupted to kindly remind us of our agreement, namely to restrict this interview to personal experiences and nothing more.
When asked whether they participated in the most recent war, the young men decided to answer, “When it is time for studies, we study. But we are all trained and ready to confront our enemies if and when the need arises.”
The young men continued to dodge military questions so much that it would seem that they were living by the Arabic proverb, "Every situation hath its statement, and every incident its dialogue," which Husayn happened to repeat ardently. Instead, the young men decide to laughingly tell the story of an instance when they took their uniforms off and replaced them with that a janitors uniform. In those clothes, they say, they helped remove the rubble from the streets after the war ended. They believed that, when required, there would be no shame in carrying a broom. Still, they contended, carrying a rifle remains the "highest honor."
After I persisted to ask them military-related questions, the young men gave me a simple explanation: Hezbollah in its entirety is a society of resistance. Hezbollah's youth have the ability to adjust to many different circumstances. No one can match Hezbollah in this regard, they say.
"No one knows the full military structure of Hezbollah," explained the boys, "because no one knows absolutely everything about the other. For instance, one of our colleagues was martyred during the war while we did not even know he was fighting. Each one of us has a private side that no one else knows about, even though we are very close to one another."
The social backgrounds of these young men vary, despite the fact that share similar ages. Husayn comes from a family with close ties to the Shia political spectrum; he joined Hezbollah when he was 13-years old. His family was opposed to this and had even beaten him for his decision.
Bashar, on the other hand, did not perform his five daily prayers [Salat] until he reached the age of 17. He also claims to have been influenced, at one point in his life, by Marxist dialectics.
Rida, who despite having been brought up in Hezbollah's Imam al Mahdi Scouts [a youth wing of Hezbollah], claims that he only recently joined Hezbollah, after becoming more religious.
Lastly, Ali, who was born in the south, grew up in a home of resistance. His parents and neighbors have all fought in the war, some of whom he has had to say goodbye to throughout the years. In his own words, Ali claims he "defied and rebelled" when he was younger, until, as years went by, this rebelliousness turned him to religion.
Bashar, who holds a senior position in the educational mobilization department and is responsible for youth activities, describes belonging to Hezbollah as, "A bare necessity to survive, like eating and drinking. Hezbollah and I are inseparable."
This quiet young man, who barely speaks but whose colleagues never interrupt him when he does, says of his commitment to Hezbollah's ideology that he was inspired to join it upon hearing a story that one member wrote ‘Be free, O men of Hussein,’ in his own blood, before dying on the battlefield.
"I felt that this gave new meaning to concepts such as 'life' and 'freedom'. These people gave me new meaning even as they were dying," he explained. "It was a turning point in my life; I felt that I wanted to find God."
Ali, on the other hand, says that he experienced the suffering of occupation firsthand. His elder brothers were members of the resistance. His cousins were martyred in a battle. He passionately went on to explain that even his own mother was a mother to all members of the resistance. Ali soon became consumed by the ideology of resistance. As a young boy, he helped young soldiers move their weapons from one place to another. He waved goodbye to the soldiers as he watched them brave the battlefields, knowing that some if not many of them would never return.
Ali says that he joined the ‘Imam al Mahdi scouts’ when he was a child and grew up as part of it. "However, I reached a stage in life where I asked myself: Do I really want to join Hezbollah?" he explained. "I kept asking myself questions that challenge Hezbollah's ideology, in order to test my faith and identity. Instead of being mired with doubt, I found that my faith was only being reaffirmed." "Now, I thank God for an upbringing like mine, despite the fact that I was deprived of the delight of discovering Hezbollah, for the first time, like my friends,” Ali added.
“Unlike my colleagues, my relationship with the resistance is not merely that of a shared ideology. It is also a relationship of spirituality. I have experienced the suffering firsthand, and thus as a Lebanese from the south, I understand our need for resistance,” concluded Ali, a student of political science at Beirut's Universite Libanaise.
Still I had to ask, does the phrase "Lebanese resistance" still carry the same connotation now that the south has been liberated for over 7 years, and now that we hear talk of Arab states negotiating with Israel?
"This question irritates me!" snapped Husayn bitterly. "You say that Arab states do not care about the resistance. In that case, I shall be a role model for the Arabs. As a young Arab man, I do not accept to see our mothers being humiliated and the Israelis rape and humiliate them on a daily basis. My own aunts were raped and killed by the Israelis."
"My blood is boiling!" he continues. "I won't take this lying down. I will fight if I have to?" At this point, Husayn's colleagues try to calm him down, but their efforts soon prove futile.
"My problem with Israel," says Bashar, "is not only that it marched into Lebanon uninvited and stole parts of our land but is that we cannot survive as long as Israel exists. It is a foul entity that is consistently ever-ready to attack. I believe it to be the cause of all conflict in the Middle East."
"In fact it is because of Israel that a civil war erupted in Lebanon, and it is because of it that dictatorial regimes dominate the region. Shia-Sunni tensions are also a result of Israeli tactics. The weakness of the Arab world can thus be blamed on Israel," he concludes.
I couldn't help but ask, "Do you want to annihilate Israel in that case?"
Bashar quickly contains himself and says, "I may aspire to wipe Israel off the map, but I realize that this is not our responsibility. My responsibility as a young Lebanese is to liberate my land, and bring our prisoners of war back home."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah's Youth
By Fatima el Issawi
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- In a small office which also doubles as a temporary Hezbollah media center in the southern fringes of Beirut, Ali, 23, tries to explain the complexities of his relationship with Hezbollah's weapons.
Ali has witnessed the Israeli occupation firsthand and has remained loyal to the resistance movement. He carried food to the soldiers in their trenches, and helped them move weapons from one hiding place to another.
Next to Ali sat some of his colleagues in what is known as Hezbollah's "educational mobilization" department. There, they talked about the dual nature of Hezbollah's youth, which is what renders them capable of adapting to so many different circumstances, unlike other youth.
This is because Hezbollah's youth, according to these young men, are university students, employees, and professionals at the same time. All the while they are also Mujahideen [fighters for the cause of Islam] who are ever-ready to exchange their civilian clothes for a military uniform serving a greater military cause, the dimensions of which are not understood fully by everyone.
Hezbollah's youth are men who are capable of adapting to two lives, that of the military man and that of the civilian. The educational mobilization department is just one of Hezbollah’s organizations. It is a military organization that emerged in the 1980's during the Israeli incursion into Lebanon [summer of 1982] under the name "Islamic Amal," [it seceded from the Amal Movement and was led by Nabih Berri].
As the organization evolved, it expanded to resemble a basic military nucleus that offers a number of social and political services. It also assumes dual tasks in that it repairs the social fabric so that it complements Hezbollah's ideology and offers a myriad of social services, as well as assuming its military role.
However, the organization's military role is far less important than that played by those at the top of the pyramid, i.e. the veteran frontline fighters, or Hezbollah's Elite Fighters, as they are known. The Elite Fighters, according to consistent estimates, form a group that ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 members of highly-trained village dwellers who have no other job. These soldiers have accumulated much expertise in the field of fighting that goes back to the 1980's, (the average age of the members is 40 years old). It is most likely that these fighters played a key role in the most recent war's frontline, and hence made up the bulk of casualties.
Alongside the Elite Fighters, there are the men of the reserve apparatus, who are no longer active in the role of fighting. This is either due to old age or their occupation of other posts. Their previous experiences coupled with the intensified training courses that had taken part in allow these men to carryout sideline tasks in times of war. Such tasks include sending messages, weapons, and food to different units, as well as observation and communication tasks. These are significant duties that do not require physical fitness and military readiness, both of which are imperative for professional fighting.
The military dimension of Hezbollah is ever-apparent on all three levels, [the social, the military, and the Elite Fighters]. It manifests itself, however, according to the situation and how much military preparation is required.
In the small office where we met, the young men of Hezbollah's Educational Mobilization department, who introduced themselves as Ali, Husayn, Rida, and Bashar, avoided referring to the military dimensions of their posts. Whenever one of them slipped up and began to discuss security issues, for example, the female media official interrupted to kindly remind us of our agreement, namely to restrict this interview to personal experiences and nothing more.
When asked whether they participated in the most recent war, the young men decided to answer, “When it is time for studies, we study. But we are all trained and ready to confront our enemies if and when the need arises.”
The young men continued to dodge military questions so much that it would seem that they were living by the Arabic proverb, "Every situation hath its statement, and every incident its dialogue," which Husayn happened to repeat ardently. Instead, the young men decide to laughingly tell the story of an instance when they took their uniforms off and replaced them with that a janitors uniform. In those clothes, they say, they helped remove the rubble from the streets after the war ended. They believed that, when required, there would be no shame in carrying a broom. Still, they contended, carrying a rifle remains the "highest honor."
After I persisted to ask them military-related questions, the young men gave me a simple explanation: Hezbollah in its entirety is a society of resistance. Hezbollah's youth have the ability to adjust to many different circumstances. No one can match Hezbollah in this regard, they say.
"No one knows the full military structure of Hezbollah," explained the boys, "because no one knows absolutely everything about the other. For instance, one of our colleagues was martyred during the war while we did not even know he was fighting. Each one of us has a private side that no one else knows about, even though we are very close to one another."
The social backgrounds of these young men vary, despite the fact that share similar ages. Husayn comes from a family with close ties to the Shia political spectrum; he joined Hezbollah when he was 13-years old. His family was opposed to this and had even beaten him for his decision.
Bashar, on the other hand, did not perform his five daily prayers [Salat] until he reached the age of 17. He also claims to have been influenced, at one point in his life, by Marxist dialectics.
Rida, who despite having been brought up in Hezbollah's Imam al Mahdi Scouts [a youth wing of Hezbollah], claims that he only recently joined Hezbollah, after becoming more religious.
Lastly, Ali, who was born in the south, grew up in a home of resistance. His parents and neighbors have all fought in the war, some of whom he has had to say goodbye to throughout the years. In his own words, Ali claims he "defied and rebelled" when he was younger, until, as years went by, this rebelliousness turned him to religion.
Bashar, who holds a senior position in the educational mobilization department and is responsible for youth activities, describes belonging to Hezbollah as, "A bare necessity to survive, like eating and drinking. Hezbollah and I are inseparable."
This quiet young man, who barely speaks but whose colleagues never interrupt him when he does, says of his commitment to Hezbollah's ideology that he was inspired to join it upon hearing a story that one member wrote ‘Be free, O men of Hussein,’ in his own blood, before dying on the battlefield.
"I felt that this gave new meaning to concepts such as 'life' and 'freedom'. These people gave me new meaning even as they were dying," he explained. "It was a turning point in my life; I felt that I wanted to find God."
Ali, on the other hand, says that he experienced the suffering of occupation firsthand. His elder brothers were members of the resistance. His cousins were martyred in a battle. He passionately went on to explain that even his own mother was a mother to all members of the resistance. Ali soon became consumed by the ideology of resistance. As a young boy, he helped young soldiers move their weapons from one place to another. He waved goodbye to the soldiers as he watched them brave the battlefields, knowing that some if not many of them would never return.
Ali says that he joined the ‘Imam al Mahdi scouts’ when he was a child and grew up as part of it. "However, I reached a stage in life where I asked myself: Do I really want to join Hezbollah?" he explained. "I kept asking myself questions that challenge Hezbollah's ideology, in order to test my faith and identity. Instead of being mired with doubt, I found that my faith was only being reaffirmed." "Now, I thank God for an upbringing like mine, despite the fact that I was deprived of the delight of discovering Hezbollah, for the first time, like my friends,” Ali added.
“Unlike my colleagues, my relationship with the resistance is not merely that of a shared ideology. It is also a relationship of spirituality. I have experienced the suffering firsthand, and thus as a Lebanese from the south, I understand our need for resistance,” concluded Ali, a student of political science at Beirut's Universite Libanaise.
Still I had to ask, does the phrase "Lebanese resistance" still carry the same connotation now that the south has been liberated for over 7 years, and now that we hear talk of Arab states negotiating with Israel?
"This question irritates me!" snapped Husayn bitterly. "You say that Arab states do not care about the resistance. In that case, I shall be a role model for the Arabs. As a young Arab man, I do not accept to see our mothers being humiliated and the Israelis rape and humiliate them on a daily basis. My own aunts were raped and killed by the Israelis."
"My blood is boiling!" he continues. "I won't take this lying down. I will fight if I have to?" At this point, Husayn's colleagues try to calm him down, but their efforts soon prove futile.
"My problem with Israel," says Bashar, "is not only that it marched into Lebanon uninvited and stole parts of our land but is that we cannot survive as long as Israel exists. It is a foul entity that is consistently ever-ready to attack. I believe it to be the cause of all conflict in the Middle East."
"In fact it is because of Israel that a civil war erupted in Lebanon, and it is because of it that dictatorial regimes dominate the region. Shia-Sunni tensions are also a result of Israeli tactics. The weakness of the Arab world can thus be blamed on Israel," he concludes.
I couldn't help but ask, "Do you want to annihilate Israel in that case?"
Bashar quickly contains himself and says, "I may aspire to wipe Israel off the map, but I realize that this is not our responsibility. My responsibility as a young Lebanese is to liberate my land, and bring our prisoners of war back home."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah's Youth
DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT SETS ITS SIGHTS ON HIZ B'ALLAH BRANCH IN MICHIGAN
Treasury Department Targets Organization With Michigan Branch Linked to Hezbollah
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon.
The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.
The government also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial activity."
Two Lebanese people — Qasem Aliq and Ahmad al-Shami — also were covered by Tuesday's order.
The U.S. identified Aliq as a Hezbollah official who was once the director of the Martyrs Foundation's branch in Lebanon. The U.S. says he is currently a director of Jihad al Bina, a Lebanon-based construction company allegely formed and operated by Hezbollah.
Al-Shami had worked for the foundation in Lebanon, the department said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Treasury Department Targets Organization With Michigan Branch Linked to Hezbollah
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon.
The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.
The government also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial activity."
Two Lebanese people — Qasem Aliq and Ahmad al-Shami — also were covered by Tuesday's order.
The U.S. identified Aliq as a Hezbollah official who was once the director of the Martyrs Foundation's branch in Lebanon. The U.S. says he is currently a director of Jihad al Bina, a Lebanon-based construction company allegely formed and operated by Hezbollah.
Al-Shami had worked for the foundation in Lebanon, the department said.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Treasury Department Targets Organization With Michigan Branch Linked to Hezbollah
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND: HIZ B'ALLAH CLAIMS IT CAN HIT ANYWHERE IN ISRAEL
Israel dismisses Hezbollah claim it can reach targets in every part of country
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
A senior Israeli defense official on Monday dismissed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's claims that his organization is capable of striking all parts of Israel, saying the militant group does not have missiles that can reach the Gush Dan region north of Tel Aviv.
In an interview with the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera satellite television, which was broadcast Monday, Nasrallah said: "In July and August 2006, there wasn't a place in occupied Palestine that the rockets of the resistance could not reach, be it Tel Aviv or other cities."
"We could absolutely do that now," he added. "We can reach any target and any point in occupied Palestine."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Israel dismisses Hezbollah claim it can reach targets in every part of country
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
A senior Israeli defense official on Monday dismissed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's claims that his organization is capable of striking all parts of Israel, saying the militant group does not have missiles that can reach the Gush Dan region north of Tel Aviv.
In an interview with the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera satellite television, which was broadcast Monday, Nasrallah said: "In July and August 2006, there wasn't a place in occupied Palestine that the rockets of the resistance could not reach, be it Tel Aviv or other cities."
"We could absolutely do that now," he added. "We can reach any target and any point in occupied Palestine."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Israel dismisses Hezbollah claim it can reach targets in every part of country
Friday, July 20, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: OMAR BAKRI MOHAMMED - SHOWS MODERATION OR AT LEAST SOME TACT (TAQIYYA)
Muslim radical shows moderation, or at least tact
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: There was a time when Omar Bakri Mohammed embodied every stereotype of the jihadi extremist. From his perch in London, he threw around words like "kafir" - infidel - to describe Christians and Jews and openly praised the bombers of Sept. 11, 2001.
But sitting recently in his new library overlooking Mount Lebanon in this northern city, with a bloody battle raging between the Lebanese Army and the Qaeda-inspired Fatah al Islam at a Palestinian refugee camp a few kilometers away, Bakri presented himself as a changed man. Whether the shift is as meaningful as he asserts is an open question.
He speaks of peace, decrying the unnecessary use of violence and emphasizing the sanctity of life.
The death of innocents, he says, has to be curtailed.
"I want to support Muslims by saving their blood and their life," Bakri said, as he began outlining his efforts to help negotiate a settlement to the confrontation in the camp. "My job is to calm the fighting and to open a dialogue."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim radical shows moderation, or at least tact
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: There was a time when Omar Bakri Mohammed embodied every stereotype of the jihadi extremist. From his perch in London, he threw around words like "kafir" - infidel - to describe Christians and Jews and openly praised the bombers of Sept. 11, 2001.
But sitting recently in his new library overlooking Mount Lebanon in this northern city, with a bloody battle raging between the Lebanese Army and the Qaeda-inspired Fatah al Islam at a Palestinian refugee camp a few kilometers away, Bakri presented himself as a changed man. Whether the shift is as meaningful as he asserts is an open question.
He speaks of peace, decrying the unnecessary use of violence and emphasizing the sanctity of life.
The death of innocents, he says, has to be curtailed.
"I want to support Muslims by saving their blood and their life," Bakri said, as he began outlining his efforts to help negotiate a settlement to the confrontation in the camp. "My job is to calm the fighting and to open a dialogue."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Muslim radical shows moderation, or at least tact
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON/IRAN/SYRIA: AHMADINEJAD & NASRALLAH MEET IN DAMASCUS
Was it Nasrallah or Ahmadinejad that broke off the 'french kiss'?!?Ahmadinejad meets Lebanon's Hezbollah's leader in Syria
Damascus - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Syrian capital on Thursday, witnesses said.
Ahmadinejad is on a one day visit to Syria. Representatives of several Palestinian groups opposed to President Mahmoud Abbas, which have offices in Damascus, also attended the meeting, the witnesses said.
'
Iran and Syria are main backers of Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group that fought a war with Israel last year and holds two Israeli soldiers it wants to exchange for Arab prisoners held by the Jewish state.
Syria has denied Western accusations of an alleged flow through its territory of Iranian-supplied weapons to Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group but Damascus and Tehran regard as a resistance movement.
Links between Lebanon's large Shi'ite community and Iran go back for centuries. But it was in 1982 when Iran created the Hezbollah organization in Lebanon and continues to fund it , train it and arms it.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Ahmadinejad meets Lebanon's Hezbollah's leader in Syria
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON/SYRIA: FATAH AL ISLAMS' REAL MASTER
New charges against Syria, Fatah al-Islam’s real master
The day that the Lebanese army announces its final takeover of the terrorist headquarters in Nahr al-Bared, reports are published based on a captured leader’s testimony that claim that the group itself is a Syrian creation. Former Syrian vice-president makes similar allegations.
...
Syria's masters are found in Tehran...
Pertinent Links:
1) New charges against Syria, Fatah al-Islam’s real master
The day that the Lebanese army announces its final takeover of the terrorist headquarters in Nahr al-Bared, reports are published based on a captured leader’s testimony that claim that the group itself is a Syrian creation. Former Syrian vice-president makes similar allegations.
...
Syria's masters are found in Tehran...
Pertinent Links:
1) New charges against Syria, Fatah al-Islam’s real master
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