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ما تخافي يا ماما

2006-08-04T00:22:00.000+01:00

في حديقة الصّنائع في بيروت، حيث النّازحون ينامون في العراء، يجلس أطفالٌ في فيء شجرة، يرسمون طائراتٍ سوداء وقذائف.

في حديقة الصّنائع في بيروت، يركلون كرةً ويلعبون "اللّقيطة"، كي ينتقموا من الذّباب الذي يتآكلهم ليلاً.

في حديقة الصّنائع، صبيّ صغير رصدته الكاميرا. يصمت. يشيح النّظر. ينظر ثانيةً. ثمّ يتكلّم بخجل.

- وين الماما؟
- هونيك. عم تبكي.
- ليش عم تبكي؟
- لأنّو الطّيارات قصفت البيت. بيتنا وقع...

يطأطىء رأسه نحو الأرض ويضيف: "هي مفكرة إنو بطّل عنّا بيت."

ثمّ يدّس يده في جيبه، يخرج شيئاً، ويعلن بانتصار:

- بس أنا قلتلها ما تخاف... أكيد رح نرجع عالبيت. أنا جبت معي المفاتيح. حتّى شوفي!

Robert fisk new article!

2006-08-04T00:07:00.000+01:00

Robert Fisk

- The Independent

They wrote the names of the dead children on their plastic shrouds.

"Mehdi Hashem, aged seven - Qana," was written in felt pen on the bag in which the little boy's body lay.

"Hussein al-Mohamed, aged 12 - Qana"

"Abbas al-Shalhoub, aged one - Qana." And when the Lebanese soldier went to pick up Abbas's little body, it bounced on his shoulder as the boy might have done on his father's shoulder on Saturday. In all, there were 56 corpses brought to the Tyre government hospital and other surgeries, and 34 of them were children. When they ran out of plastic bags, they wrapped the small corpses in carpets. Their hair was matted with dust, most had blood running from their noses.

You must have a heart of stone not to feel the outrage that those of us watching this experienced yesterday. This slaughter was an obscenity, an atrocity-yes, if the Israeli air force truly bombs with the "pinpoint accuracy" it claims, this was also a war crime. Israel claimed that missiles had been fired by Hizbollah gunmen from the south Lebanese town of Qana-as if that justified this massacre. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked about "Muslim terror" threatening " western civilisation" -as if the Hizbollah had killed all these poor people.

And in Qana, of all places. For only 10 years ago, this was the scene of another Israeli massacre, the slaughter of 106 Lebanese refugees by an Israeli artillery battery as they sheltered in a UN base in the town. More than half of those 106 were children. Israel later said it had no live-time pilotless photo-reconnaissance aircraft over the scene of that killing-a statement that turned out to be untrue when The Independent discovered videotape showing just such an aircraft over the burning camp. It is as if Qana-whose inhabitants claim that this was the village in which Jesus turned water into wine-as been damned by the world, doomed forever to receive tragedy. And there was no doubt of the missile which killed all those children yesterday. It came from the United States, and upon a fragment of it was written: "For use on MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B". No doubt the manufacturers can call it "combat-proven" because it destroyed the entire three-storey house in which the Shalhoub and Hashim families lived. They had taken refuge in the basement from an enormous Israeli bombardment, and that is where most of them died.

I found Nejwah Shalhoub lying in the government hospital in Tyre, her jaw and face bandaged like Robespierre's before his execution. She did not weep, nor did she scream, although the pain was written on her face. Her brother Taisir, who was 46, had been killed. So had her sister Najla. So had her little niece Zeinab, who was just six. "We were in the basement hiding when the bomb exploded at one o'clock in the morning," she said. "What in the name of God have we done to deserve this? So many of the dead are children, the old, women. Some of the children were still awake and playing. Why does the world do this to us?"

Yesterday's deaths brought to more than 500 the total civilian dead in Lebanon since Israel's air, sea and land bombardment of the country began on 12 July after Hizbollah members crossed the frontier wire, killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others. But yesterday's slaughter ended more than a year of mutual antagonism within the Lebanese government as pro-American and pro-Syrian politicians denounced what they described as "an ugly crime".

Thousands of protesters attacked the largest United Nations building in Beirut, screaming: "Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv," and Lebanon's Prime Minister, the normally unflappable Fouad Siniora, called US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ordered her to cancel her imminent peace-making trip to Beirut.

No one in this country can forget how President George Bush, Ms Rice, and Tony Blair have repeatedly refused to call for an immediate ceasefire - a truce that would have saved all those lives yesterday. Ms Rice would say only: "We want a ceasefire as soon as possible," a remark followed by an Israeli announcement that it intended to maintain its bombardment of Lebanon for at least another two weeks.

Throughout the day, Qana villagers and civil defence workers dug through the ruins of the building with spades and with their hands, tearing at the muck until they found one body after another still dressed in colourful clothes. In one section of the rubble, they found what was left of a single room with 18 bodies inside. Twelve of the dead were women. All across southern Lebanon now, you find scenes like this, not so grotesque in scale, perhaps, but just as terrible, for the people of these villages are terrified to leave and terrified to stay.

The Israelis had dropped leaflets over Qana, ordering its people to leave their homes. Yet twice now since Israel's onslaught began, the Israelis have ordered villagers to leave their houses and then attacked them with aircraft as they obeyed the Israeli instructions and fled. There are at least 3,000 Shia Muslims trapped in villages between Qlaya and Aiteroun- close to the scene of Israel's last military incursion at Bint Jbeil -and yet none of them can leave without fear of dying on the roads.

And Mr Olmert's reaction? After expressing his "great sorrow", he announced that: "We will not stop this battle, despite the difficult incidents this morning. We will continue the activity, and if necessary it will be broadened without hesitation." But how much further can it be broadened? Lebanon's infrastructure is being steadily torn to pieces, its villages razed, its people more and more terrorised - and terror is the word they used - by Israel's American-made fighter bombers. Hizbollah's missiles are Iranian-made, and it was Hizbollah that started this war with its illegal and provocative raid across the border. But Israel's savagery against the civilian population has deeply shocked not only the Western diplomats who have remained in Beirut, but hundreds of humanitarian workers from the Red Cross and major aid agencies.

Incredibly, Israel yesterday denied safe passage to a UN World Food Programme aid convoy en route to the south, a six-truck mission that should have taken relief supplies to the south-eastern town of Marjayoun. More than three quarters of a million Lebanese have now fled their homes, but there is still no accurate figure for the total number still trapped in the south. Khalil Shalhoub, who survived amid the wreckage in Qana yesterday, said that his family and the Hashims were just too "terrified" to take the road out of the village, which has been attacked by aircraft for more than two weeks. The seven-mile highway between Qana and Tyre is littered with civilian homes in ruins and burnt-out family cars. On Thursday, the Israeli Army's Al-Mashriq radio, which broadcasts into southern Lebanon, told residents that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired from them. But anyone who has watched Israel's bombing these past two weeks knows that, in many cases, the Israelis do not know the location in which the Hizbollah are firing missiles, and - when they do - they frequently miss their targets. How can a villager prevent the Hizbollah from firing rockets from his street? The Hizbollah do take cover beside civilian houses just as Israeli troops entering Bint Jbeil last week also used civilian homes for cover. But can this be the excuse for slaughter on such a scale?

Mr Siniora addressed foreign diplomats in Beirut yesterday, telling them that the government in Beirut was now only demanding an immediate ceasefire and was not interested any longer in a political package to go with it. Needless to say, Mr Jeffrey Feltman, whose country made the bomb which killed the innocents of Qana yesterday, chose not to attend.

Message from Lebanon!!!

2006-08-04T00:02:00.000+01:00

J'ai trouvé ce passage dans un autre blog libanais

Israel proved it again; the forces of Armageddon took over the forces of God. They came, flew over our heads, targeted our bridges, violated our privacy and killed; they killed those who never killed a cat, they killed our children. In 1996, Israel bombarded UN base in Qana and killed tens of innocent people that looked for shelter.

Back then, it was considered as a strategic mistake and Israel stopped its attack. Now, ten years later, Israel is proving to the whole world that, what was a strategic mistake ten years ago, is now a phase in a pseudo-unstoppable attack. Qana is back.

The "brave" Israeli soldiers killed 37 children. We say "brave" because killing a child is hard; when u think of those innocent helpless faces wishing only to eat play and sleep, killing inoffensive children becomes a hard target. To kill a child you should be heartless, and being heartless is an excellent quality of a brave soldier. Brave soldiers are those who act with no regret, killing is an act of no coming back, thus an act of no regret. They killed the children of Lebanon, the "Lebanon", the small but huge country, the country of trade and goods, the country of tourism and leisure, the gate to the middle east, the cradle of civilization.

Killing children in our society is not an act of bravery, killing women is no act of manhood, killing elders is out of our ethics.

We say to Israel, you will never kill us, you cannot frighten us, you will never conquer us, you will always be looked down-on as cowards. Leave your planes and weapons, and like in the old times, fight like men. Body to body, spear to spear, shield to shield; then, only then you will realize how weak you are. But you will never take that risk, you will never jeopardize your souls, you are a bunch of cowards. A clay footed giant...

Every child you killed is a curse upon your heads; every curse is an enemy you made. Like for the battle between heaven and hell we say that men are the ones who created evil on earth it is the choices they make that enslaved their souls forever, life is the test and you failed.

As for us, people of Lebanon, we are asked to stay united, to free our souls from hatred, to forgive our mutual mistakes, to forget our minor differences and always remember that we are Lebanese… and only Lebanese. Together we stand, divided we fall.

loubnan sayabka! Lebanon will stay

2006-08-03T22:44:00.000+01:00

non seulement il restera mais en plus il vaincra!
A l'heure de ce carnage et de cette guerre aveugle qui s'est abbatue sur nous, nous tenons à affirmer, à répeter que le Liban, par la force de ses citoyens, de sa résitance se lévera plus fort et plus déterminé que jamais!

Pour le Liban, nous résistons! Samidoune

2006-08-02T23:52:00.000+01:00

Voilà 21 jours déjà que le Liban, son peuple, et surtout ses enfants subissent de plein fouet une attaque des plus sanglantes, des plus meurtrières…
Jamais dans l’histoire de tous les conflits, récents comme anciens, la communauté Internationale n’a mis autant de temps pour parvenir, du moins formellement, à un cessez le feu.
L’ONU, présentée comme la voix des sans voix à la fin de la 2e GM, gardienne de la paix dans le monde, paraît inerte…elle est devenue elle même une sans voix, victime de son excès de zèle et de sa soumission à une bande d’illuminés qui dirigent la plus grande puissance de ce monde !!!
Sa voix, si jamais elle s’exprime, ne parvient même pas à dépasser le mur du silence qui hante et qui hantera pour toujours sa tour de verre… et de honte…

Les enfants tués, ceux qui seront tués dans les jours avenirs, ne pourront jamais pardonner ce silence pesant qui a conduit à leurs morts sans aucune raison. Ils hanteront à jamais nos esprits, nos jours et nuits. Nous les garderons dans nos mémoires, et jamais, o que jamais, nous ne les oublieront… comment peut-on oublier ces jeunes enfants qui, hier encore remplissaient notre pays de joie et de bonheur, comment pourrait on oublier leurs sourires innocents, leurs rêves (comme celui des gens qui les ont précédés) d’un Liban meilleur. D’un Liban vert, d’un liban joyeux, regardant l’avenir mais sans jamais oublier son passé glorieux par ses citoyens, macabres par les actions des barbares qui l’entourent…

Triste journée que de voir le pays des cèdres de Dieu en ce début août… pauvre Liban, tu es, tu étais et tu seras toujours victime de ta différence, de ta grandeur, de ta splendeur…

O mon liban,
On cherche une nouvelle fois à t’asphyxier en assassinant ta seule richesse, ta seule fierté, ton seul atout… tes enfants !!!!!

Mais sois sure, tes enfants, malgré la barbarie de l’ennemi et l’indifférence des amis, ne t’abandonneront jamais. Ils vivront ou mourront à tes cotés… Pour eux, la vie dans toute sa splendeur n’a ni goût ni saveur…

N’est pas peur mon liban, le jour viendra ou tu te lèveras, tu t’en sortiras de ce combat macabre plus fort, plus déterminé que jamais.

Qu’ils sont cons ces israéliens ! qu’ils sont cons ces américains ! qu’ils sont lâches ces arabes !!!!!
En 1982, ils ont essayé de te détruire et c’est la génération 68 qui étais là pou leur faire face… en 1996, ils ont fait de même et c’est la génération 1982 qui étais là pour te défendre…. En 2006, ils essaient de nouveaux de te détruire et c’est la génération Qana 1996 qui, nchala, les vaincra !!!

Qu’ils sont cons ces israéliens ! Qu’ils sont haineux ! tous les 10 ans, ils s’acharnent sur toi et tous les 10 ans c’est la génération de leur dernier acharnement qui se lèvent, tel ton cèdre, pour te défendre.

Nous te défendrons jusqu’au dernier souffle, car sans toi, sans le sourire et les cris de tes enfants qui remplissent chacune de tes petites ruelles, la vie, toute la vie n’a vraiment aucun sens pour nous !!!!

Alors lève-toi !

la liste des terroristes!!!!

2006-08-02T00:14:00.000+01:00

Caricature publiée dans al Nahar

Va Comprendre....

2006-08-02T00:10:00.000+01:00

No comment

2006-08-01T23:52:00.000+01:00

J'ai adopté le cèdre du Liban

2006-07-31T15:44:00.000+01:00

Arbre de Beyrouth agrippé au cratère
Où la bombe fissura les ruines et les pierres,
Broyant les roses du Liban, je te nomme prière,
Témoin des décombres de cette triste Terre.

A nouveau l'étoile du peuple élu
A élu domicile dans ton ombre suppliciée.
Ce soir, les explosions des cieux perdus
Secoueront le croissant fertile et dru.

Terre des druzes, terre des maronites,
Champs de sunnites et des chiites,
Ton cèdre a penché sa tête devant l'épée
Qui périra par le glaive ensanglanté.

J'aime le Liban dit l'enfant perdu,
Suppliant la nuée de nuages orphelins.
La goutte d'eau a renoncé à naître rosée -
Arbre de Beirut, le silence s'est renversé.

Je pleure pour le Liban dit l'enfant égaré,
Mon été s'est appauvri au seuil de la mort.
Mes mains ont campé devant le péril imminent,
L'envahisseur tout-puissant sur la flaque de mon sang.

Liban aimé, dit l'innocent, j'ai adopté ton cèdre arraché
Par le semeur des maux ; j'ai confié mon avenir à la Bekaa.
La Palestine s'est élargie en génocide et le Liban en holocauste,
Le vent s'est tranché sur la faux des damnés.

L'amour de ma terre s'est emparé de tes racines,
Le cèdre centenaire s'est confié à l'olivier.
L'enfant triste court dans ton jardin oublié,
Les monstres conjuguent le verbe sécuriser pour tuer les jardiniers.

J'ai adopté le cèdre, ô pays libanais,
Répondit l'olivier, et je serai le garant de ta paix !

Qana 1 et 2!!!! la série de la barbarie israèlienne contre les Civils

2006-07-31T00:05:00.000+01:00

Qana Massacre II
30 July 2006
55 Civilians massacred including 27 children in a shelter (Early reports)

Qana is the place where, according to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus performed his first miracle, the turning of a large quantity of water into wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1-11)

Qana Massacre I
18 April, 1996
The Israeli Air force bombed and killed 106 Lebanese civilians (almost all either women, children or old men) who had taken refuge in a UN shelter in the village of QANA. A further 110 civilians were injured

Israel attacks the UN...again.

2006-07-30T23:51:00.000+01:00

An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations post in southern Lebanon late Tuesday, killing at least two of the agency's observers, according to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. Two other missing observers are feared buried in the rubble of the building.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply distressed" by the "apparently deliberate" strike.

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would be spared Israeli fire," he said in a statement.

"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the U.N. force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."
(Source: CNN)

Did the international community got it at last? Did they understand the nature of this horrible agression?

Maybe civilian Lebanese blood was not loud enough...maybe UN blood is louder?

Now more than any other time, Israel is losing this war.

Qana par Nizar Abeni

2006-07-30T23:48:00.000+01:00

By Nizar Qabbani (written in 1996)

1.

The face of Qana
Pale, like that of Jesus
and the sea breeze of April…
Rains of blood.. and tears..

2.

They entered Qana stepping on our charred bodies
Raising a Nazi flag
in the lands of the South
and rehearsing its stormy chapters
Hitler cremated them in the gas chambers
and they came after him to burn us
Hitler kicked them out of Eastern Europe
and they kicked us out of our lands

3.

They entered Qana
Like hungry wolves
Putting to fire the house of the Messiah
Stepping on the dress of Hussain
and the dear land of the South

4.

Blasted Wheat, Olive-trees and Tobacco
and the melodies of the nightingale
Blasted Cadmus in his bark
Blasted sea and the gulls
Blasted even hospitals
even nursing moms
and schoolboys
Blasted the beauty of the Southern women
and murdered the gardens of the honeyed eyes

5.

We saw the tears in Ali's eyes
We heard his voice as he prayed
under the rain of bloody skies

6.

Who ever will write about the history of Qana
Will inscribe in his parchments
This was the second Karbala

7.

Qana unveiled what was hidden
We saw America
Wearing the old coat of a Jewish Rabbi
Leading the slaughter
Blasting our children for no reason
Blasting our wives for no reason
Blasting our trees for no reason
Blasting our thoughts for no reason
Has it been decreed in her constitution,
She, America, mistress of the world,
In Hebrew .. that she should humble us al-Arab?

8.

Has it been decreed that each time a ruler in America
wants to win the presidency that he should kill us ..
We al Arab?

9.

We waited for one Arab to come
pull this thorny prick from our necks
We waited for single Qureishite
A single Hashemite
A single Don Quixote
A single local hero, for whom they did not shave the moustache
We waited for a Khalid .. Tariq .. or Antara
We were eaten chatter (while engaged in vain talk)
They sent a fax
We read its text
after paying tribute
and the end of the slaughter

10.

What does Israel fear from our cries?
What does she fear from our faxes?
The Jihad of the fax is the weakest of Jihads
It is a single text we write
for all the martyrs who left
and all the martyrs those who will come

11.

What does Israel fear from Ibn al-Muqaffa'?
Jarir and .. Farazdaq?
And Khansa throwing her poems at the gates of the cemetery
What does she fear if we burn tires
Sign communiqués
And destroy shops
And she knows that we have never been kings of war
But were kings of chatters

12.

What does Israel fear
from the beating of the drums
the tearing of clothes
and the scratching of cheeks
What does she fear
when she hears
the stories of `Ad and Thamud?

13.

We are in national comma
We did not receive
Since the times of conquest
a single mail

14.

We are a people of made of dough
The more Israel increases in her killing and terrorism
the more we increase in idleness and coldness

15.

A Smothering Dominion
A regional dialect that increases in ugliness
and a green union that grows in isolation
Summer trees, growing barren
And borders .. whenever the whim strikes
erase other borders

16.

Israel should slaughter us, and why not?
She should erase Hisham, Ziyad and ar-Rashid, and why not?
[Why not?] and the Banu Taghlab lusting after their women
[Why not?] and Banu Mazen lusting after their slave boys
[Why not?] and Banu Adnan dropping their trousers to their knees
debating .. necking and .. the lips!

17.

What should Israel fear from some of al-Arab
When they became Yehuda???

QANA. la barbarie frappe à nouveau!

2006-07-30T23:33:00.000+01:00

..who chooses to stay, when all the rest have left

to the brave men and women who lend a helping hand for nothing in return

to the volunteers who risk their lives every hour of every day to rescue what remains

we say THANK YOU.

you are our true heroes.

2006-07-30T14:16:00.000+01:00

Olmert : killing UN monitors a mistake

bridges distroyed part 3

2006-07-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

bridges distroyed part 2

2006-07-29T14:35:00.000+01:00

bridges distroyed part 1

2006-07-29T14:27:00.000+01:00

Lebanon under attack! Map of locations bombed

2006-07-29T14:16:00.000+01:00

2006-07-29T14:15:00.000+01:00

l'acharnement israélein Part 2

2006-07-29T14:03:00.000+01:00

According to the initial estimates, the total amount of losses reached about 2071 million dollars, distributed in the following way:
1. Infrastructure: 721 million dollars.
2. Residences and commercial enterprises: 953 million dollars, with an estimate margin of 20% (191 million dollars) in losses which could not be evaluated and which amounts to a total of 1144 million dollars.
3. Industrial enterprises: 180 million dollars.
4. Fuel distribution stations: 10 million dollars.
5. Military installations: 16 million dollars.
Those estimates show that losses in commercial and industrial buildings represent around 65% of the total losses, and losses in infrastructure represent 34.81%.

Infrastructure
Losses in the transportation sector were estimated at 386 million dollars or 18.63% of the total losses and 53.53% of the infrastructure losses.
Losses in this sector were distributed between the roads and bridges network (331 million dollars), and airports (55 million dollars). The destruction of the Mdeirej bridge which cost 65 million dollars is the biggest loss recorded for bridges. The biggest loss in the road network was on the Dahr El Baidar road, the international road (Soufar) and the Homs-Baalbeck main road, apart from many roads in the south.
Losses in the electricity sector reached around 180 million dollars, out of which 80 million dollars were a result of the destruction of the airport and Jiyeh tanks. The distribution network recorded losses of 100 million dollars. Losses in the electricity sector represent 69% of the total losses and 24.96% of the infrastructure losses.
The telecommunications sector losses are estimated at 85 million dollars while the losses in the water sector are approximately 70 million dollars.

Residences and enterprises
The Israeli aggression caused losses in residential and commercial buildings over 1144 million dollars, more than half of which is in the southern suburbs of Beirut. This estimate did not include losses that accrued in the past two days when more buildings were hit (around 12 residential buildings). Losses in Nabatiyeh and Bint Jbeil were estimated at around 110 million dollars. The loss in residential and commercial buildings (excluding the interiors) amounts to around 55.23 % of the total registered losses.

Industrial sector
Losses in the industrial sector as a result of the complete destruction of ten industries were valued at 180 million dollars. In addition, 22 destroyed fuel distribution stations were estimated at 10 million dollars.

Losses from Israeli aggression until 24/7/2006

Initial estimate in millions of dollars
Infrastructure – Estimate cost of losses
1. Transport sector 386
1.1. Road system 331
1.2. Airports 55
2. Electricity sector 180
2.1 Production 80
2.2. Transport and distribution 100
3. Telecommunications sector 85
4. Water sector 70
TOTAL 721

Residences and commercial enterprises
Saida District 15
Tyr District 60
Nabatiyeh District 105
Bint Jbeil District 105
Marjaayoun District 75
Hasbaiya District 15
Baalbeck and El Hermel District 60
Zahleh and the West Beqaa District 8
Baabda District (Southern Suburbs) 510
TOTAL 953
*Approximate estimates of losses that were not evaluated (20%) 191
Industrial enterprises 180
Fuel distribution stations 10
Military installations 16
GRAND TOTAL (millions of dollars) 2.070

N.B: Please note that these figures were lastly updated by July 26-2006, and it doesn’t include the incalculable loss of Human lives and the irreparable damage of the society

Un nouveau sport national...pourvu que ca s'arrete!

2006-07-29T13:01:00.000+01:00

We all saw the israeli kids signing the bombs "with love"... Today we have adult men doing the same...

Photo caption : An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man writes on artillery shells at a position in the northern village of Fassuta, near the Lebanese border, July 24, 2006. -- REUTERS /Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL)

The Axis of Intervention

2006-07-28T20:09:00.000+01:00

an other valuable study on what's going on in the Middle East...good lecture!

* The Axis of Intervention
*By John Feffer, IRC

There is a new force in foreign policy: the â€œaxis of intervention.â€ Two
allies are official members: the United States and Israel. With its
recent invasion of Somalia, Ethiopia has joined the grouping. A fourth
nation, Japan, is petitioning for membership.

The new axis of intervention targets not only sovereign states like
North Korea and non-state actors like Hezbollah and the Islamic Courts.
With the news of Israeli attacks against Red Cross vehicles and a
clearly marked UN observation post in Lebanon, the real target of the
axis of intervention becomes clear: the institutions of international
law. By resorting to military force and scorning diplomacy, both Israel
and the United States have undermined the United Nations and key global
agreements such as the Geneva Conventions.

/John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus (online at
http://www.fpif.org) for the International Relations Center
(http://www.irc-online.org)./

Let's declare victory and start talking

2006-07-28T19:56:00.000+01:00

_{By Ze'ev Sternhell, Haaretz}

It's a widely accepted idea that an Israeli who returns home, even after a short period of time, feels as if he has come to another country. But the opposite is the case: He returns to the same situation, the same problems, the same thought patterns and mainly, the same solutions. Apparently, we did not learn a thing from the first Lebanon War or from the American defeat in Iraq. If the definition of Israel's strategic goal given by the head of Military Intelligence at the beginning of the week reflects the government's position, we are in big trouble.

If Israel really did embark on the war in order to force Lebanon to impose its authority on the south, which is in Hezbollah's hands - or in other words, to force the Lebanese government to begin a civil war in the service of Israel - that is a sign that it is dominated by thinking even more primitive than the thinking that led Ariel Sharon to Beirut about a quarter of a century ago.

But this time, we have exacerbated the problem: At the beginning of the third week of fighting, in spite of the determination and courage of the attacking soldiers, the war seems only to be beginning. That is why we should achieve a cease-fire before the campaign gets out of control, claims victims in vain and, in the long run, even turns into a strategic failure. In the more distant future, it will be necessary to carry out a fundamental structural reform of the government's work procedures and to examine its dependence on the Israel Defense Forces' General Staff. These are truths that are not pleasant to voice at this time, but that is the reality, and we are obliged to confront it.

And in fact, considering the means that the IDF is employing and the ratio of forces in the field, any outcome less than the elimination of Hezbollah as a fighting force will be considered an Israeli failure and a great achievement for the enemy. But since it is impossible to uproot Hezbollah from among the Shiites without destroying the population itself, wisdom requires us to refrain from positing goals that are unachievable.

The inability of a major power to put an end to a guerrilla war is not a new phenomenon: From Napoleon in Spain, through his successors in Algeria, to the Americans in Vietnam and now in Iraq, well-organized armies equipped with modern technology have always failed in attempts to defeat irregular forces. The latter know how to adapt themselves to their surroundings, they are an inseparable part of the population and they serve its material, religious and emotional needs.

When there is fighting, guerrilla organizations want the entire population to be harmed. When everyone is a victim, the hatred will be directed at the enemy more forcefully. That is why bombing residential neighborhoods, power plants, bridges and highways is an act of folly, which plays into Hezbollah's hands and serves its strategic goals: An attack on the overall fabric of life creates a common fate for the fighters and those standing on the sidelines. At the same time, the greater the population's suffering, the greater its alienation from the formal ruling institutions - the government, the parliament and the various security forces that are powerless to save them.

It is an illusion to hope that the 700,000 Lebanese refugees will direct their fury at their government, or that the population that still remains in place will evict the Hezbollah members from among it. As far as the population is concerned, responsibility for its catastrophe lies entirely with Israel, and failure to cooperate with whoever fights against Israel would be considered national treason. It was foolish to assume that the Lebanese political elite would dare to confront Hezbollah and use force against it. And anyway, who was even capable of using force? The Lebanese Army, whose bases were bombed as well?

That is why Israel's interest must be to isolate Hezbollah, to strike a hard blow at its bases and camps, but to avoid harming the infrastructure of life for the general population, even when its gives refuge to those bearing arms. This is not a matter of military ethics, but of a cold practical considerations.

The goal of the war is to restrain Hezbollah, because nobody is dreaming any longer of destroying it. As things look today, at best, Israel will make do with removing it from the border. There, behind the back of an international force, which in the Arab world will in any case be seen as protecting Israel, Hezbollah will be able to reorganize, train, equip itself with more modern weapons and prepare for the next round.

There is no military solution for this situation. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has already implied that the solution is political. The prime minister, who bears overall responsibility and will be required to give an accounting in the future, would do well not to lag behind the person who in any case will pass him the hot potato.

And a word about the price of American support. Sometimes it seems as if U.S. President George W. Bush wants Israel both to destroy Lebanon and to sustain painful losses. That way, Israel provides him with an excellent alibi for the war in Iraq: The fight against terror is global, the blood price is the same, the methods of operation and the means are identical, and the time needed for victory is long. The Israeli vassal is serving its master no less than the master is providing for its needs.

2 semaines d'acharnement

2006-07-27T16:52:00.000+01:00

Israel continue d'enregistrer des nouveaux records dans sa sale guerre contre le Liban. En deux semaines de bombardements... Plus de 600 morts, plus de 1000 bléssés et pas moins de 1 million de déplacés! Jusqu'à quand la communauté internationale restera immobile face à ce carnage israelien... Il est temps de stopper ces TERRORISTES!!!!

... les images de la barbarie...

جريمة العص

2006-07-27T11:04:00.000+01:00

Note: cet artcile a été publié ce matin, 26 juillet, dans un journal libanais (AL Safir). Ecrit par un ancien premier ministre libanais, il fait état du crime du siècle qui se déroule sous nos yeux contre les peuples libanais et palestiniens. Je compte publier une version francaise dans les prochaines heures... bonne lecture pour les arabophones!

سليم الحص

يُحكى عن جرائم في حق الإنسانية، تُسمى إرهاباً. وما تعرض له لبنان منذ 12/7/2006 كان شريطاً لجريمة من أفظع الجرائ
م التي تُرتكب ضد الإنسانية، متميّزة بحجمها واستهدافاتها والأدوات والأساليب المستخدمة في تنفيذها، وكذلك بأصدائها وارتداداتها على مراكز القرار في العالم وردات الفعل حيالها داخل بلدنا وفي الجوار العربي كما في سائر أقطار العالم.
المنطلق كان عملية فدائية نظيفة: فريق من المقاومين من حزب الله يجتاز الخط الأزرق في الجنوب اللبناني فيهاجم آلية عسكرية إسرائيلية فيُردي بعض أفرادها ويلقي القبض على جنديين يعود بهما أسيرين برسم المبادلة مع أسرى لبنانيين في السجون الإسرائيلية بينهم سمير القنطار الذي انقضى على وجوده في غياهب المعتقلات الصهيونية 27 سنة، ولا أمل يُرجى في الإفراج عنه في الأفق المنظور. كان يمكن أن يقضي ورفاقه بقية العمر في السجون الإسرائيلية.
أعلنت إسرائيل، ومعها حليفتها أميركا، أن ما جرى هو بمثابة عمل حربي أو إعلان حرب. فأطلقت آلة الإبادة والتدمير الجامحة في وجه لبنان واللبنانيين، فسقط مئات القتلى في صفوف المدنيين، بينهم الأطفال والنساء والشيوخ والعجزة، وكان تدمير منهجي للمرافق والبُنى التحتية فما سَلِم جسر أو طريق أو مزرعة أو معمل أو شاحنة أو سيارة إسعاف، وانصبّت الحمم على الأحياء الآهلة فقوّضت المنازل على رؤوس قاطنيها، واستهدفت هوائيات وسائل الإعلام للحؤول دون وصول صور ما يدور من فواجع إلى مرأى العالم. فإذا بالقتلى في صفوف العزّل الأبرياء الآمنين بالمئات، وإذا بالجرحى بالألوف، منهم من قضى تحت الأنقاض ومنهم من لم يحظ بالوصول إلى مستشفى أو مستوصف أو الحصول على أدنى عناية طبّية. وإذا بالمهجّرين من منازلهم بمئات الألوف نازحون إلى حيث لا يعرفون، طلباً للنجاة، بعضهم يأوي في العراء، وبعضهم في مبانٍ مدرسية وبعضهم في مبان مهجورة، يفتقرون إلى لقمة العيش وشربة المياه والدواء، وكثير منهم يفتقد أنسباء وأصدقاء لا يدرون ما حلّ بهم.
سرت بين الناس في لبنان أقاويل تُحمّل المقاومة، حزب الله، مسؤولية الكارثة التي حلّت. فلولا خطف الأسيرين لما كان ما كان. وكان في هذه الأقاويل ضمناً تبرير وأعذار للعدو الإسرائيلي في ما ارتكب من جرائم في حق الإنسانية. وبعض الدول المحابية لإسرائيل والمتربّصة بلبنان سمّت العملية عملاً حربياً أو إعلان حرب.
عجباً! كان لبنان قبل الحادثة يتعرّض بوتيرة شبه يومية لاعتداءات يومية من جانب سلاح الجو الحربي الاسرائيلي، فيخرق جدار الصوت ويروّع الآهلين ويصوّر ما شاء أن يصوّر من المنشآت والمرافق اللبنانية استعداداً لمثل العدوان الذي يشنّه علينا في اللحظة التي يختارها.
وهتكت ساحتنا الداخلية بشبكات تجسس ارتكبت جرائم منكرة في لبنان بهدف إشعال الفتن، وقد وضع الجيش اللبناني يده على شبكتين منها تمتلك تجهيزات متطورة.
وما كنا نسمع مسؤولاً في العالم المتحضّر يستنكر الخروقات الإسرائيلية، أو يبدي حراكاً لوقفها. وما كان مسموحاً للبنان تقديم شكوى بها أمام الأمم المتحدة. فالدولة العظمى بالمرصاد، جاهزة للحيلولة دون طرح الشكوى أو تعطيل مفعولها باستخدام حق النقض ضد أي قرار قد يصدر بإدانة الدولة العبرية.
وكانت مياهنا الإقليمية معرّضة دوماً للانتهاك من أسطول إسرائيل البحري يومياً. ولبنان ساكت ليس من حقه أن يشكو أو يتظلّم.
إلى كل ذلك بقيت إسرائيل رابضة فوق أرض تحتلها في مزارع شبعا ونقاط أخرى، متذرّعة بفنّيات أخرجت تلك المناطق من حيّز القرار 425 الذي أعلن مجلس الأمن إتمام تنفيذه عند التحرير في عام ,2000 وأدخلتها في حيّز القرار 242 بحجة أن تلك الأراضي احتُلّت في الظروف التي احتلت فيها إسرائيل الجولان السوري عام 1967 ولم تحتلها مع احتلال الجنوب اللبناني عام ,1978 فيما سُمّي عملية الليطاني، ولذلك فهي تخضع للقرار 242 ولا تخضع للقرار .425
هكذا كان لبنان، ولا يزال، في حالة حرب مع إسرائيل وكانت بعض أرضه محتلّة، وكان يتعرّض لاعتداءات شبه يومية جوّاً وبحراً وأحياناً برّا. وما كان العالم يرى في شيء من ذلك عملاً حربياً أو إعلان حرب. خطف الجنديين الإسرائيليين فقط كان عملاً حربياً وبمثابة إعلان حرب.
قيل إن خطف الجنديين كان خطيئة تسببت بكل هذه الكوارث. أما الحقيقة فهي أن لا سبيل إلى تحرير الأسرى اللبنانيين إلا بالتبادل. وإسرائيل لا تعفّ عن التبادل. فقد سبق أن أجرت عمليات تبادل مع حزب الله غير مرة في الماضي، بادلت فيها أسرى بأسرى لا بل أيضاً أسرى بجثث لقتلى إسرائيليين.
خُطف جنديان إسرائيليان فكان ما كان من كوارث صُبّت على لبنان. ماذا لو قتل مجرم لبناني أحد الإسرائيليين؟ ماذا كان سيحصل؟ هل يُباد شعب لبنان وتُدمّر منشآته ومرافقه وممتلكاته في المقابل؟ هل كانت عملية قتل، يشهد العالم مثلها يومياً في كل مكان، ستكون سبباً لعقاب جماعي يتعرّض له الشعب اللبناني بمنتهى القسوة والوحشية؟
والواقع أن أحداً لم يقتل، بل وقع جنديان في الأسر بقصد المبادلة مع أسرى لبنانيين في المعتقلات الصهيونية. وقد تعهّدت الحكومة اللبنانية القائمة في بيانها الوزاري العمل على تحرير الأسرى اللبنانيين في السجون الإسرائيلية، ولكنها لم تستطع شيئاً في هذا السبيل.
لا يجوز للبنان أن يأسر جنديين من أجل مبادلتهما، فيما إسرائيل تحتفظ بأكثر من تسعة آلاف سجين عربي، بينهم فتيات وأحداث، وبينهم مواطنون من شتى التابعيات العربية، وبينهم لبنانيون.
اختطفت المقاومة الفلسطينية جندياً إسرائيلياً، في عملية فدائية نظيفة لم يُصب فيها مدني يهودي واحد بأذى، والجندي كان يرابط على حدود غزّة يمارس في حق أهل الأرض كل ألوان المضايقة والتنكيل وحتى التجويع. فكان هذا أيضاً في نظر العالم المتحضّر عملاً حربياً لا بل إعلان حرب. فإذا بقطاع غزّة يتعرّض لعدوان إسرائيلي غاشم هتكت فيه الدولة العبرية حقوق الإنسان بأبسط مفاهيمها وارتكبت من الجرائم في حق الإنسانية ما لا يوصف. كل هذا مبرر بأسر جندي يُراد مبادلته بأسرى فلسطينيين من الفتيات والأحداث.
هكذا، كما في لبنان، كذلك في فلسطين. والحكّام العرب في الحالتين أكثرهم غافلون أو غير عابئين أو متواطئون.
الجرائم التي تنفّذها إسرائيل في لبنان وفلسطين تندرج في باب العقاب الجماعي لشعب بأسره، وهذا من المحرّمات في القانون الإنساني الدولي، تحظّره اتفاقيات جنيف لعام 1949 التي وقّع عليها لبنان كما وقّعت عليها إسرائيل. وإسرائيل تنتهك حقوق الإنسان بأبسط مفاهيمها في كل ما ترتكب من جرائم ضد الإنسانية. مع ذلك فالعالم يتفرّج. ولا يُبدي حراكاً. أمّا الدولة العظمى، أميركا، التي تعطي العالم دروساً يومية في القيم الحضارية، وتحديداً في الحرية والديموقراطية والعدالة وسائر حقوق الإنسان، فإنها تشجع إسرائيل وتحرّضها على المضي قدماً في حربها الشعواء على لبنان، أو في جرائمها المنكرة ضد الإنسانية، ونسمع الرفض لوقف إطلاق النار من مسؤولي الدولة العظمى. فإذا بالمندوب الأميركي الدائم في الأمم المتحدة جون بولتون يقول تكراراً: لم يحن أوان وقف النار. وإذا به يقول أيضاً أنه لا يجوز <أخلاقياً> المساواة بين ضحايا القصف الإسرائيلي من اللبنانيين وبين ضحايا القصف اللبناني من الإسرائيليين. كأنما الإسرائيليون من بني البشر أما اللبنانيون فمن البعوض. وصاحب هذا الرأي، ويا للمفارقة، حظي منذ فترة من الزمن بتكريم من فريق لبناني أهداه درع الأرز على إنجازاته.
المأساة اللبنانية وحّدت بين اللبنانيين. كان القصد من الحرب إثارة فئات لبنانية على فئات أخرى توصّلاً إلى إشعال فتنة، على غرار ما هو حاصل في العراق الشقيق، أملاً بتعميم الانقسام والفتنة على المنطقة العربية برمّتها. يسمون ذلك الفوضى البنّاءة أو الخلاقة، ويجدون فيها السبيل إلى تفتيت شعوب المشرق العربي وصولاً إلى إعادة لمّها في ما يُسمى شرق أوسط كبيراً أو جديداً يرمي إلى القضاء على رابطة العروبة نهائياً من جهة وتسليط إسرائيل على المنطقة بأسرها من جهة ثانية.
برهن الشعب اللبناني بصموده وصبره وتشبّثه بأهداب الوحدة الوطنية أنه ليس لقمة سائغة. فالمقاومة للعدوان كانت أسطورية، والتضامن الوطني في مواجهة المحنة بين شتى الفئات كان رائعاً. والوحدة الوطنية هي أقوى من قنابلهم النووية.
وكان التضامن العربي مع لبنان في محنته رائعاً على مستوى الفرد العربي والشعوب العربية. أما الحكّام العرب فبعضهم لم يكن على مستوى المسؤولية والبعض الآخر، ومنها دول لها وزنها دولياً، كانت إما متخاذلة أو متواطئة. يا للعار.

اجتمع وزراء الخارجية العرب ليختلفوا. ولم يجد الحكام العرب حاجة لعقد قمة عربية توحّد الموقف في الضغط على المجتمع الدولي لإنقاذ لبنان وفلسطين من براثن الوحش الإسرائيلي. ولمّا بلغت المأساة أقصاها، بدأنا نسمع من بعضهم دعوات ولو متأخّرة لوقف النار وإقامة ممرات للإغاثة والنجدة الإنسانية.

Israel is using chemical weapons against civilians!

2006-07-26T22:54:00.000+01:00

U.S. military intelligence sources have told WMR that the artillery shell shown below being used by an Israel Defense Force member in Lebanon, is a type of dual and multi-use weapon the neocons falsely accused Saddam Hussein of possessing. Although the canister artillery shell is marketed as an anti-land mine fuel-air bomb, its payload can also include the chemicals used in thermobaric bombs, white phosphorous weapons, and chemical weapons. Thermobaric bombs contain polymer-bonded explosives or solid fuel-air explosives in their payloads. Thermobarics use a fuse munition unit (FMU) such as that seen on the nose of the Israeli artillery shell. The shell penetrates buildings, underground shelters, or tunnels, creating such a blast pressure that all the oxygen is sucked out from the spaces and the lungs of anyone who happens to be in proximity. Israel's use of such "vacuum" weapons has been reported from across Lebanon.

The artillery shell below, with its FMU penetrator, can also be used to deliver chemical weapons, the use of which is also being reported from southern Lebanon. In addition, it can deliver white phosphorous, a substance that literally melts through skin but leaves clothing relatively intact. In Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. forces have used white phosphorous on civilians, leaving grotesque corpses as a psychological warfare reminder to the civilian population to surrender or evacuate an area. The photo from Sidon of a burnt and badly disfigured young Lebanese girl is a telltale sign of white phosphorous use by the Israelis. Similar photos from Fallujah were shown to this editor by a top investigative reporter for Italy's RAI television network.

U.S. military intelligence experts believe the ease at which the Israeli soldier is handling the artillery shell is an indication that the payload contains light-weight gas and not a fuel-air mixture or thermobaric bomb components. WMR continues to receive reports from Lebanon of depleted uranium shells being used by the Israelis. The New York Times today is reporting that the U.S. is stepping up its delivery of "precision-guided" munitions to Israel (see article [at website] on Bush administration pre-planning for the Israeli invasions of Lebanon and Gaza).

Israeli dual/multi-use WMD (left) and badly burnt body of young Lebanese girl with telltale signs of white phosphorous attack.

Source: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com -- July 22/23, 2006

In The Meantime stay asleep and never wake up!

« Ne pouvant fortifier la justice, on a justifié la force»

2006-07-26T12:01:00.000+01:00

En ces moments charnières dans l’Histoire de l’Humanité, ou la politique du « deux poids deux mesures » voudrait nous faire croire en l’absurdité suivante : «L’Action du Hezbollah libanais est un acte de « terrorisme » - il enlève deux soldats israéliens en vue d’échange de prisonniers libanais), alors que la réponse israélienne est un acte de légitime défense –bombardements massifs de tout le pays, de sa population, de ses villes, de son infrastructure…

La Guerre meurtrière que nous impose Israël, depuis bientôt une semaine, est dirigée contre toute la population civile libanaise. Elle dépasse de loin la question des deux soldats enlevés, et révèle les « plans de la mort » que préparait l’Etat hébreu et qui visait, en outre, à saper la confiance qu’ont les libanais dans leur avenir.

A l’heure actuelle, le peuple libanais affronte seul la machine de Guerre qui s’abat sur lui, et ce dans l’indifférence la plus totale.

La Communauté Internationale, Etats-Unis en tête, estime qu’Israël a le droit de se défendre, la réunion du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU, s’est terminé vendredi soir sans appel à un cessez-le-feu…

L’union Européenne, exception faite de certaines positions « timides », justifie le droit d’Israël de se défendre.

Il est vrai qu’Israël a le droit de se défendre, tout pays a le droit de défendre sa population en cas d’« agression », mais contrairement à tous les pays du monde Israël nous a habitué à un déferlement d'actions démesurées face à une escarmouche. Ces « actions démesurées » violent toutes les normes et tous les principes juridiques et moraux qui régissent les relations entre les Nations.

Son impunité, sa non-conformité aux Résolutions du Conseil de Sécurité l’encourage jour après jour à mener ses « plans de la mort » sans craindre d’être poursuivi un jour. Et ce, à la différence de tous les autres pays sur la planète.

Et l’Europe? Oừ est l’Europe à « visage humain » et tout son cortège culturel, démocratique et des droits humains?

Ou se trouve l’ « humanité » toute entière à l’heure oừ plus de 7000 ans d’histoire et de culture se font pulvériser sous les bombes israéliennes?

Sont- elles devenues soudainement sourdes et aveugles (les images sont épouvantables) face à la souffrance des libanais?

Christian Bobin disait jadis, « L'indifférence est une épreuve. Le succès est une épreuve que l'on réserve à ceux que l'indifférence n'a pas su tuer ».

Vivant la première, face à l’indifférence du comité international, je souhaite que mon Liban vive également la seconde la seconde !

Rappelez-vous le 10 décembre 1948, les représentants des 56 pays membres de l'ONU à cette époque, s'étaient réunis au Palais Chaillot, à Paris, dans le cadre de l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies, pour proclamer la Déclaration des droits de l'homme. Trois pays étaient présents à la tribune : La France; les Etats-Unis et le Liban en la personne de Charles Malek.

Lui, qui a accompagné la naissance du Liban moderne et a souvent répété que le Liban se devait d'être le pays des libertés : " Sans quoi, le Liban perdrait sa raison d'être ».

Aujourd’hui, au pays de Charles Malek, les libertés sont écrasées et les droits humains, qu’il a tant défendus, bafoués sous l’effet de la Guerre aveugle que mène Israël.

De Genève, ville des Conventions non respectées, nous appelons l’ humanité, toute l’humanité, à sauver le pays des cèdres et à le faire sortir de la spirale de la mort qui l'affaibli jour après jour.

The west must recognise that Israel's agenda is in conflict with its own

2006-07-26T11:51:00.000+01:00

The Olmert government, Hizbullah and Hamas are tacitly united in rejection of any moves towards a compromise peace

David Clark
Monday July 17, 2006
The Guardian

Whatever else can be said for or against Israel's escalation of military action against Lebanon, there is little prospect that it will achieve its stated objectives. If Israel couldn't defeat Hizbullah after 18 years in which its army occupied large swaths of Lebanese territory, it is not going to succeed with air strikes and blockades, or even another occupation. The same point applies even more forcefully in the case of Gaza. Every time Israel applies the iron fist in an effort to beat the Palestinians into submission, their resistance simply re-emerges in a more extreme and rejectionist form. Far from fearing Israel's wrath, Hizbullah and Hamas must be rather pleased at their success in provoking it into the sort of over-reaction from which they have always benefited.

Nor does it seem plausible that military action will enable Israel to secure the release of its captured soldiers. The civilian victims of Israel's indiscriminate retaliation have no real influence over the militias that hold them, while the militias themselves are untroubled by the spectacle of public suffering. On the contrary, they thrive on it. In the case of Lebanon, it is possible that acts of collective punishment, such as the destruction of Beirut airport and yesterday's killing of yet more civilians, might divide Hizbullah and its supporters from the rest of the country, but only at the risk of triggering another civil war and creating a vacuum that Israel's enemies in Syria and Iran will find easier to exploit.

In view of all this, it is valid to ask what Israel thinks it is doing. Indeed, this question is implicit in the statements of world leaders at the G8 and elsewhere who have called on Israel to use force proportionately, avoid civilian casualties and refrain from acts that might strengthen Hamas or destabilise Lebanon's fragile political settlement. No one quibbles with Israel's right to defend itself, but doesn't it understand how irresponsible and immoral it is to deliberately escalate the conflict in this way?

The problem is that the premise of the question is false. It assumes that Israel shares our view that a de-escalation followed by negotiation is the best route to a settlement. It assumes, therefore, that when Israeli ministers complain of having "no partner for peace", they actually want one. A much more sensible approach would be to credit them with having the intelligence to know exactly what they are doing and to work backwards from there.

If so, it might become apparent that far from wanting a partner with which to negotiate, the Israeli government is acting with the specific intention of forestalling that possibility. There is nothing particularly new in this. The extremists on both sides have always formed a kind of tacit alliance, with the supporters of "greater Israel" and "no Israel" understanding their joint interest in preventing any moves towards a compromise peace. That is the main reason why Israel encouraged the growth of Hamas as it emerged in the 1980s. Unwilling to negotiate with the secular nationalists of Fatah, even as they were moving towards support for a two-state solution, the Israeli authorities thought it would be a clever idea to promote their Islamist rivals.

In the case of the current crisis, it is no accident that it occurred at precisely the moment when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was gaining the upper hand in the latest round of that struggle. By using the threat of a referendum to force Hamas to accept the existence of Israel as the basis for a final settlement, Abbas had created the most promising opening for peace in six years. Faced with internal division and the loss of political initiative, Hamas militants understood that the only way to prevent it would be to trigger another cycle of violence. In turn, the Israel government, whose interests were also threatened by the Abbas initiative, recognised that it had an equally good reason to oblige. The effect of Hizbullah's intervention and Israel's over-reaction has been to put peace even further down the agenda.

The plain truth is that Israel thinks that it can get more by imposing a solution through force than by negotiation and is not interested in any kind of peace process. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, pays lip service to the road map, but he has already received American endorsement for his fallback position, artfully dubbed "unilateral convergence". George Bush has described it as a "bold idea". Armed with the knowledge that he will continue to enjoy American patronage if the road map fails, Olmert has set out to ensure that it does just that. Bush's diplomacy has been truly inept.

It's high time western governments grasped the fundamental truth that Israel is pursuing an agenda that conflicts directly with their own. In the context of the fight against terrorism and the need to promote international cooperation, the west's interest must be to remove the Palestinian question as a source of grievance among mainstream Muslims in a way that guarantees justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel. A settlement of this kind is perfectly feasible and has been outlined in countless documents and initiatives over the years, most recently in the Geneva accords. But the main reason it has proved illusive is that Israel is not, and never has been, prepared to make the territorial compromises required. It still believes that it is entitled to the victor's spoils by annexing large tracts of Palestinian land.

This situation will persist as long as the west remains in denial about the reasons for the ongoing conflict and until the Israeli political establishment is forced to pay a price for its obstinacy. Yet the US remains entirely complicit in its role as Israel's main strategic ally. In the midst of last Friday's onslaught, in which Israeli bombers killed dozens of Lebanese civilians, the Pentagon announced the export of $210m of aviation fuel to help Israel "keep peace and security in the region". Even Britain and other European countries indulge in a form of diplomatic misdirection by focusing one-sidedly on the roles played by Syria and Iran.

The key to resolving the situation in Lebanon lies, as it did throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in finding a solution to the Palestinian question. A viable and successful Palestinian state would rob Hizbullah and its sponsors of the conceit that they are defending helpless Muslims and make it easier for those in the region who oppose them to gain the upper hand. Mahmoud Abbas is the only leader currently working for the kind of negotiated two-state solution the Middle East and the wider world desperately need. But he is being let down by the west at the moment when he had earned the right to expect better. The Palestinian president needs a partner for peace. If Israel will not play that role, the international community must.

· David Clark is a former Labour special adviser at the Foreign Office dkclark@aol.com

Le Nouveau Moyen Orient!!!

2006-07-26T11:44:00.001+01:00

Israel Has a War to Win!!!

White House needs to help its ally take a hard line against Hezbollah, Palestinians and Iran.

By Daniel Pipes, DANIEL PIPES director of the Middle East Forum, will be the William E. Simon distinguished visiting professor at Pepperdine University in 2007. www.DanielPipes.org
July 20, 2006

A LEADING ISRAELI philosopher some years back referred to his countrymen as "an exhausted people, confused and without direction." Before he became prime minister, Ehud Olmert publicly declared these extraordinary words: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." In that demoralized spirit, the state of Israel retreated twice in five years under fire, from Lebanon and from Gaza — and now, as a consequence, is fighting wars in precisely those places.

Individual members of Congress have noticed this problem; I suggest that the executive branch take Olmert at his word and buck up this fatigued but exceptionally close ally. Even if Israel can very capably defend itself (as recent events have confirmed), it lacks the will to make the protracted efforts to defeat its enemies. And Israel's enemies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran — are also America's enemies.

Building on this assessment, I suggest that the administration make the following requests of Tel Aviv, to protect American interests. Specifically:

• Do not engage in exchanges with terrorist groups, such as the 2004 trade of one rogue Israeli civilian and the remains of three soldiers for 429 living terrorists and criminals. This returns terrorists to the field while encouraging further abductions.

• Do not allow Hezbollah to acquire thousands of Katyusha rockets from Iran and station them in southern Lebanon. The estimated current arsenal of nearly 12,000 Katyushas not only threatens all of northern Israel, as recent days have proved, it provides Iran with a strategic threat with implications for the entire region.

• Do not permit arms to reach the terrorist Fatah organization, as recently happened, according to the Jerusalem Post, when an estimated 3,000 American rifles and a million rounds of ammunition were delivered to it out of a misguided ambition to help one Palestinian faction beat out another.

• Do not turn the West Bank over to Hamas terrorists. This endangers U.S. interests in several ways, notably because it would threaten Hashemite rule in Jordan.

Israel has a significant role in the U.S.-led war on terror; it can best defend itself and help its U.S. ally not by aspiring to agreements with intractable foes but by convincing them that Israel is permanent and unbeatable. This goal requires not episodic violence but sustained and systematic efforts to change regional mentalities. Therefore, U.S. policymakers might suggest to Olmert that he view the current fighting not as a momentary exception to diplomacy but as part of a long-term conflict.

With the emergence of an aggressive and perhaps soon-to-be nuclear-armed Iran, the strategic map of the Middle East is in the throes of fundamental change. This overarching threat should provide the backdrop for every Israeli decision going forward — whether to retake territory in Gaza, what to target in Lebanon and whether to launch military actions against Syria.

Paradoxically, developments of the past week bring good news: Many Middle Easterners, not just Israelis, fear Iranian ambitions. Worries about Iran prompted the Saudi kingdom to take the lead in condemning attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel as "rash adventures." As the Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh has documented, Israel's counterattacks have prompted "an anti-Hezbollah coalition." Sound Israeli policies will greatly influence the evolution of this nascent force.

As Arabs worry more about Iranian Islamists than Israeli Zionists, a moment of opportunity presents itself. Close coordination between Washington and Jerusalem is needed, including timely reminders to Israelis that they have a war to win.

Le Chaos constructeur des Néocons!

2006-07-26T11:36:00.000+01:00

Le Liban comme nouvelle cible

Les néo-conservateurs et la politique du « chaos constructeur »
par Thierry Meyssan

À Washington et à Tel-Aviv, on se réjouit des opérations militaires en cours au Moyen-Orient. Selon l’expression de Condoleezza Rice, les douleurs du Liban sont les « contractions de la naissance d’un nouveau Moyen-Orient ». Pour les théoriciens du « chaos constructeur », il est nécessaire de faire couler le sang pour imposer un ordre nouveau dans une région riche en hydrocarbures. Planifiée de longue date, l’offensive de Tsahal contre le Liban est supervisée depuis le département de la Défense des États-Unis.

Au cours de son point de presse au département d’État, le 21 juillet 2006, Condoleezza Rice a été interrogée sur les initiatives qu’elle comptait prendre pour ramener la paix au Liban. Elle a alors répondu : « Je ne vois pas l’intérêt de la diplomatie si c’est pour revenir au status quo ante entre Israël et le Liban. Je pense que ce serait une erreur. Ce que nous voyons ici, d’une certaine manière, c’est le commencement, les contractions de la naissance d’un nouveau Moyen-Orient et quoique nous fassions, nous devons être certains que nous poussons vers le nouveau Moyen-Orient et que nous ne retournons pas à l’ancien » [1].

Vu de Washington, ce qui se passe aujourd’hui au Liban n’a aucun rapport avec la récupération de soldats capturés par le Hezbollah. Ce dont il s’agit, c’est de la mise en pratique de la théorie longuement murie du « chaos constructeur ». Selon les adeptes du philosophe Leo Strauss, dont la branche médiatique est connue sous la dénomination de « néo-conservateurs », le vrai pouvoir ne s’exerce pas dans l’immobilisme, mais au contraire par la destruction de toute forme de résistance. C’est en plongeant les masses dans le chaos que les élites peuvent aspirer à la stabilité de leur position.

Léo Strauss

Toujours selon les adeptes de Leo Strauss, ce n’est que dans cette violence que les intérêts impériaux des Etats-Unis se confondent avec ceux de l’État juif.

La volonté israélienne de démanteler le Liban, d’y créer un mini-État chrétien et d’annexer une partie de son territoire n’est pas nouvelle. Elle fut énoncée, en 1957, par David Ben Gourion dans une célèbre lettre, publiée en annexe de ses mémoires posthumes [2]. Surtout, elle fut insérée dans un vaste projet de colonisation du Proche-Orient qui fut rédigé en 1996 sous le titre : Une rupture propre : une nouvelle stratégie pour sécuriser le royaume [d’Israël] [3]. Ce document, rédigé au sein d’un think tank néo-conservateur, l’IASPS, a été préparé un groupe d’experts réuni par Richard Perle et remis à Benjamin Netanyahu. Il est représentatif de la pensée du sionisme révisioniste de Vladimir Jabotinsky [4]. Il prévoyait :
l’annulation des accords de paix d’Oslo,
l’élimination de Yasser Arafat,
l’annexion des territoires palestiniens,
le renversement de Saddam Hussein en Irak pour déstabiliser en chaîne la Syrie et le Liban,
le démantèlement de l’Irak avec création d’un État palestinien sur son territoire,
l’utilisation d’Israël comme base complémentaire du programme états-unien de guerre des étoiles.
Ce document inspira le discours prononcé le lendemain par Benjamin Netanyahu au Congrés des États-Unis [5]. On y trouve tous les ingrédients de la situation actuelle : menaces contre l’Iran, la Syrie et le Hezbollah, avec en prime la revendication d’annexion de Jérusalem-Est.

Ce point de vue rejoint celui de l’administration états-unienne. Le contrôle des zones riches en hydrocarbures que Zbignew Brzezinki et Bernard Lewis appelaient « l’arc de crise », c’est-à-dire l’arc rejoignant le Golfe de Guinée à la mer Caspienne en passant par le Golfe persique, suppose une redéfinition des frontières, des États et des régimes politiques : un « remodelage du Grand Moyen-Orient », selon l’expression de George W. Bush.
C’est ce nouveau Moyen-Orient dont Mlle Rice prétend être la sage-femme et qu’elle regarde naître dans la douleur.

L’idée est simple : substituer aux États hérités de l’effondrement de l’Empire ottoman des entités plus petites à caractère monoethniques, et neutraliser ces mini-États en les dressant en permanence les uns contre les autres. En d’autres termes, il s’agit de revenir sur les Accords conclus secrètement, en 1916, par les empires français et britanniques, dit Accords Sykes-Picot [6] et de consacrer la domination désormais totale des Anglo-Saxons sur la région. Mais pour définir de nouveaux États, encore faut-il détruire ceux qui existent. C’est ce à quoi s’emploient l’administration Bush et ses alliés depuis cinq ans avec un enthousiasme d’apprenti sorcier. Qu’on juge du résultat :
La Palestine occupée a été rognée de 7 % de son territoire ; la Bande de Gaza et la Cisjordanie ont été séparées physiquement par un mur ; l’Autorité palestinienne a été ruinée, ses ministres et ses parlementaires ont été enlevés et sont séquestrés.
L’ONU a enjoint le Liban de se désarmer en expulsant les forces syriennes et en dissolvant le Hezbollah ; l’ancien Premier ministre Rafic Harriri a été assassiné et l’influence française a disparu avec lui ; les infrastuctures économiques du pays ont été rasées ; plus de 500 000 réfugiés supplémentaires errent dans la région.
La dictature de Saddam Hussein a été remplacée en Irak par un régime plus cruel encore qui fait plus de 3000 morts par mois ; en pleine anarchie, le pays est prêt à la fragmentation en trois entités distinctes.
Le pseudo-émirat taliban a laissé place à une pseudo-démocratie où sévit toujours l’interprétation la plus obscurantiste de la charia, la culture du pavot en plus. De facto, l’Afghanistan est déjà divisée entre seigneurs de la guerre et les combats se généralisent. Le gouvernement central a renoncé à se faire obéir y compris dans sa capitale.

À Washington, les disciples de Leo Strauss, de plus en plus impatients, rêvent d’étendre leur chaos au Soudan, à la Syrie et à l’Iran. Dans cette période transitoire, il n’est plus question de « démocratie de marché », juste de sang et de larmes.

Jacques Chirac, qui souhaitait intervenir au Liban pour y défendre les derniers intérêts français et y avait envoyé son Premier ministre Dominique de Villepin, a dû déchanter : lors du sommet du G8 à Saint-Petersbourg, George W. Bush lui en a fait interdiction en lui disant qu’il ne s’agissait pas d’une opération israélienne approuvée par les États-Unis, mais d’une opération états-unienne executée par Israël. Du coup, M. de Villepin n’avait d’autre chose à déclarer à ses interlocuteurs à Beyrouth que de bonnes paroles et son impuissance.

Plus précisémment, le projet de destruction du Liban a été présenté par Tsahal à l’administration Bush, il y a un peu plus d’un an, comme l’a révélé le San Francisco Chronicle [7]. Il a fait l’objet de discussions politiques au cours du Forum mondial que l’American Enterprise Institute organisait comme chaque année, les 17 et 18 juin 2006 à Beaver Creek. Benjamin Netanyahu et Dick Cheney s’en sont longuement entretenu en compagnie de Richard Perle et Nathan Sharansky. Le feu vert a été donné dans les jours suivants par la Maison-Blanche.
Les opérations militaires de Tsahal sont supervisées par le département états-unien de la Défense. Celui-ci détermine l’essentiel de la stratégie et le choix des cibles. Le rôle principal est imparti au général Bantz Craddock en sa qualité de commandant du South Command. Craddock est un spécialiste des mouvements de blindés, comme il l’a montré durant Tempête du désert et surtout lorsqu’il a commandé les forces terrestres de l’OTAN au Kosovo. C’est un homme de confiance de Donald Rumsfeld, dont il a dirigé l’état-major particulier et pour le compte duquel il a développé le camp de Guantanamo. En novembre prochain, il devrait être nommé commandant de l’European Command et de l’OTAN. À ce titre, il pourrait diriger la force d’interposition que l’OTAN pourrait déployer au Sud-Liban en plus de celles qu’elle a déjà installées en Afghanistan et au Soudan.
Les généraux israéliens et états-uniens ont appris à se connaître, depuis une trentaine d’années, grâce aux échanges organisés entre eux par l’Institut juif pour les affaires de sécurité nationale (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs - JINSA), une association qui oblige ses cadres à suivre des séminaires d’études de la pensée de Leo Strauss.

[1] « But I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante. I think it would be a mistake. What we’re seeing here, in a sense, is the growing — the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we’re pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one ». Source : Special Briefing on Travel to the Middle East and Europe, Département d’État, 21 juillet 2006.

[2] « Lettre de David Ben Gourion à Moshe Sharett sur la constitution d’un État maronite au Liban », document consultable dans la bibliothèque électronique du Réseau Voltaire.

[3] A Clean Break : A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, IASPS, 8 juillet 1996. Une version abrégée est disponible sur le site de l’IASPS. Le contenu complet du document est connu par les compte rendus que le Guardian en fit à l’époque.

[4] Le père de Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Zion Netanyahu était le secrétaire particulier de Vladimir Jabotinsky, fondateur du sionisme révisionniste. Ehud Olmert appartient au même courant.

[5] Discours au Congrès des Etats-Unis par Benjamin Netanyahu, 9 juillet 1996.

[6] Ce traité secret fut signé le 16 mai 1916 par Sir Mark Sykes et François Georges-Picot, pour le Royaume-Uni et la France, puis approuvés par l’Italie et la Russie.

[7] « Israel set war plan more than a year ago. Strategy was put in motion as Hezbollah began gaining military strength in Lebanon » par Matthew Kalman, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 juillet 2006.

Bush vision of a new Middle East????

2006-07-25T20:57:00.000+01:00

Blasted by a missile on the road to safety

Family ordered to flee were targeted because they were driving minivan

Suzanne Goldenberg in Kafra, Lebanon
Monday July 24, 2006
The Guardian

li Sha'ita, 12, is distraught as he tries to comfort his mother, who was wounded when an Israeli missile hit their vehicle, killing three and injuring 16. Photograph: Sean Smith

The ambulanceman gave Ali the job of keeping his mother alive. The 12-year-old did what he could. "Mama, mama, don't go to sleep," he sobbed, gently patting her face beneath her chin. Behind her black veil, her eyelids were slowly sinking. "I'm going to die," she sighed. "Don't say that, mama," Ali begged, and then slid to the ground in tears.

On the pavement around mother and son were the other members of the Sha'ita family, their faces spattered with each other's blood. All were in varying shades of shock and injury. A tourniquet was tied on Ali's mother's arm. A few metres away, his aunt lay motionless, the white T-shirt beneath her abaya stained red. Two sisters hugged each other and wept, oblivious to the medics tending their wounds. "Let them take me, let them take me," one screamed.

Their mother was placed on a stretcher, and lifted into the ambulance. "God is with you, mama," Ali said. She reached up with her good arm to caress his face.

The Sha'itas had thought they were on the road to safety when they set out yesterday, leaving behind a village which because of an accident of geography - it is five miles from the Israeli border - had seemed to make their home a killing ground. They had been ordered to evacuate by the Israelis.

But they were a little too slow and became separated from the other vehicles fleeing the Israeli air offensive in south Lebanon. Minutes before the Guardian's car arrived, trailing a Red Cross ambulance on its way to other civilian wounded in another town, an Israeli missile pierced the roof of the Sha'itas' white van. Three passengers sitting in the third row were killed instantly, including Ali's grandmother. Sixteen other passengers were wounded. In recent days, families like the Sha'itas are bearing the brunt of Israel's air campaign and its efforts to rid the area of civilians before ground operations. A day after Israel's deadline for people to leave their homes and flee north of the Litani river, roads which in ordinary times wind lazily through tobacco fields and banana groves have been turned into highways of death.

Plumes of smoke rise in the distance, and the road in front of us offers up signs of closer peril: car wrecks, still smoking after Israeli strikes, and abandoned vehicles with shattered rear windows. Some were direct hits by Israeli aircraft. Others were drivers who had lost control. Overhead is the menacing roar of Israeli warplanes and the buzz of drones tracking every movement.

With bridges on the main coastal roads severed by Israeli air strikes, and secondary mountain routes scarred by craters, the means of escape for Lebanese trying to follow Israel's orders are limited. "All the smaller roads leading to the coastal roads are destroyed," said a spokesman for the UN in the border town of Naqoura. "In some areas you have people pushing cars by hand through obstacles made by a rocket or a bomb." By yesterday afternoon, for many villagers, there was truly no way out.

Death came crashing into the Sha'ita family soon after 10am, in the form of an Israeli anti-tank missile, seemingly fired from an Israeli helicopter high overhead, in Kafra, about nine miles from their home. Those passengers who were not killed or injured by shards of burning metal were hurt when the van plunged into the side of a hill.

In their village of et-Tiri, the Sha'itas were an extended clan of 54 people. Between them they had three cars. When the Israeli evacuation order came, in leaflets shot out of aircraft, the family planned at first to stay. "We were at home living our lives," said Musbah Sha'ita, Ali's uncle.

By 7pm on Saturday night, the deadline set by Israel for people in about a dozen villages in south Lebanon to leave, the Sha'itas were close to panic. "Whoever could run was running," said Mr Sha'ita. "I pushed them to go."

One of their fleeing neighbours said he would send transport for them, and the next morning all 54 of the Sha'itas set out in a convoy of three white minivans. That choice of transport proved a fatal mistake.

In their leaflet campaign, the Israelis have warned repeatedly they would consider minivans, trucks and motorcyles as targets. "The minivans are a target for Israel because they can take Katyusha rockets for Hizbullah, so they do not contemplate too long," the UN official said. "They just shoot it."

Dozens of others have met a similar fate as Israeli F-16 jet fighters and attack helicopters intensify a campaign meant to cut off the supply of Hizbullah rockets, and the movement of its fighters.

But Israel's offensive is being felt across a much wider swath of south Lebanon. The Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre said 10 cars carrying civilians and three or four motorcycles had been hit by Israeli missiles yesterday. Red Cross ambulances were no safer; a spokesman said an ambulance had narrowly escaped a missile near the village of el-Qlaile, south of the city. A number of the dead, including the three members of the Sha'ita family, remained trapped in their cars because it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies.

In Tyre, south Lebanon's main town and a stopping point on the flight to the north, the hospital received a steady flow of injured. By late afternoon there were three dead and 41 injured, two critically."They are bombing them all in their cars," said Ahmed Mrowe, the director of Jabal al-Amal hospital.

Those who choose not to flee - the UN estimates that 35%-40% of villagers are too poor or too frail to make the journey - are being left stranded.

That was the predicament facing the Sha'itas when Musbah Sha'ita urged them to flee. In a car on the way to the hospital, his ear was welded to his phone, trying to find out where his wounded relatives were, and he could not stop blaming himself.

"We put a white flag. We were doing what Israel told us to do," he says. "What more do they want of us?"

Break the Silence: the Human Face of a Nation under Attack

2006-07-25T15:30:00.000+01:00

Note.

This article was written on an individual basis by Miriam Azar, a half Lebanese half finish girl who is actually living in Geneva.

In her article, Miriam express the incomprehension of our nation with regard to the silence of the International community toward all crimes Israel is committing against Lebanese people. As Miriam said, I also think that it is huge time to smash down the wall of silence which is smashing the dream of All the Lebanese nation…

Also, I would like to thank Miriam for her valuable article, and look forward to hosting her in Lebanon…the Country that will shine for ever!

Break the Silence: the Human Face of a Nation under Attack

We must speak out: stop the killing; stop the carnage of civilians. The main victims are the vulnerable: children, women, elderly and the disabled. The excessive bombardment of innocent civilians in their homes, villages, towns and cities, and in their vehicles fleeing from the indiscriminate air strikes, must be stopped. There is no justification for destroying a nation, who never wanted, nor started this war. This is Lebanon: a country that has flourished and bled in turn; tragically used to fight proxy wars; a battleground for political games; a land whose geographical location has been both its blessing and its curse. Yet again, the nation is paying the price of being Lebanese, while the Government that was not aware of and did not adopt Hizbollah’s operation of kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers, pleas for a cease-fire and for humanitarian assistance to be allowed into the country. In the words of the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, echoed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Israel has “torn the country to shreds”. The attacks on civilians must be stopped immediately.

The heavy human toll of the crisis that started on the 12^th of July has affected both sides but has been ten times higher on the Lebanese side than on the Israeli. In Northern Israel, 37 Israelis have been killed and around 300 wounded; in Lebanon, there has been over 370 killed - of these 45% have been children and two-thirds women and children - thousands wounded; 700,000 are now internally displaced; another 150,000 Lebanese, 1,000 Palestinians, 20,000 Third Country Nationals have fled the country to neighboring Syria; and over 100,000 people from 20 different countries living in Lebanon have been affected. The UN has been warning of a looming humanitarian crisis and is seeking $150 million to assist 800,000 people over the next three months and to avert a humanitarian disaster. Access to vulnerable populations is a major concern. With the Israeli imposed air, maritime and land blockade on Lebanon as well as the widespread destruction of the country’s public infrastructure - including hospitals, schools, road networks, bridges, power stations, airports, main seaports, fuel storage tanks, factories, churches and mosques, communication networks and media stations - the country is being cut off from food and medicine, and the passage of ambulances to affected areas and people is being seriously curtailed. The Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Nayla Moawad, has underlined the disastrous situation of the shortage of water and food supplies. Humanitarian assistance has also been impeded by the targeting of convoys carrying badly needed supplies. The Lebanese Government has asked for a humanitarian corridor to be established and the UN has been negotiating with Israel for a safe passage to allow assistance for those in need. The total population stranded in the south with little or no access to the outside world is in the couple of hundred thousands. The universal principle of unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access must be respected and assistance allowed to be delivered to those in need – notably to the most affected area in the south of Lebanon.

The excessive bombardment of Lebanon is a violation of International Humanitarian Law, as stated by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland during his visit to Beirut. It is a fundamental rule of IHL that parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants and between military objectives and civilian objects. Neither the civilian population as a whole, nor individual civilians may be the object of attack. Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians is unjustifiable. The duty to implement international humanitarian law lies first and foremost with states, which have a collective responsibility under Article 1 common to the Geneva Conventions to “respect and to ensure respect for” the Conventions “in all circumstances”. Despite the Israeli Government’s statements, this is NOT about “surgical strikes”: the scale of the attacks across the country is indisputably disproportionate in reaction to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and is a collective punishment of the whole population - parallel to Israel’s ongoing shelling of Gaza - violating the state’s sovereignty, International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has said, war crimes could have been committed in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza. International Law poses an obligation on all parties to respect the “principle of proportionality”. The British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells in Lebanon highlighted that the aim to crush Hizbollah does not require going against the entire Lebanese nation.

A major concern is that children are bearing the brunt of this conflict in terms of deaths, physical injuries, and the psychological trauma of witnessing deaths and injuries of those around them and the destruction of homes and communities. The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, has called for the protection of children in the Middle East crisis through a cessation of violence and an immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor for assistance to civilians in Lebanon. “Killing and maiming, the denial of humanitarian access for children as well as attacks on schools and hospitals are considered grave violations of children’s rights by the Security Council in its resolution 1612 (2005). Those crimes are also condemned by International Law including the Rome Statute, the Geneva Conventions as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The violence must stop to avoid any further harm to children on both sides.

The ongoing bombardment of Lebanon has also inflicted damage on the country’s economy. According to the Finance Minister Jihad Azour, several billion dollars of damage has been done in just 10 days. This is at a time when the Lebanese economy was showing positive signs of flourishing notably in terms of attracting international investors, becoming a regional business centre, job creation for talented people, and increasing tourism. In the first half of the year, Lebanon attracted a sharp rise in capital inflows to about $5 billion; tourism has been one of the main sources of income accounting for 15% of the economy with a rise of 50% in tourism, and had been expected to raise $2.5bn over the course of the year. It has taken 15 years of rebuilding the country after its long and painful civil war, and now the people are witnessing these efforts and hopes being torn down in a matter of days. In the aftermath of this crisis, the direct economic costs in rebuilding the will be in the billions of dollars, while the indirect costs will be even higher with the lack of opportunities leading to a brain drainage and inefficiency. The damage has been done. Israel has taken away its neighboring country’s competitiveness in terms of tourism, banking and financing, for the next 15-20 years. The flattening of Lebanon’s infrastructure must be halted.

The disproportionate number of Lebanese casualties, the destruction of the entire country’s infrastructure, the destabilization of its Government and thus its nation, amount not only to a local disaster, but destabilizes the entire region, posing a risk for global security in the long-term. The bombardment will not increase Israel’s security, but only reinforce radicalization in the region, according to many analysts - including Rosemary Hollis, Director of the Middle East Department at Chatham House and Georges Asseily, Chairman of Centre for Lebanese Studies at St. Anthony‘s college. The longer the US gives the green light for Israeli attacks that are destroying Lebanon, the longer the international community does not call for an unconditional ceasefire, the longer the Arab states remain silent, the more the frustration, sadness and anger among the people in the region and the world will increase. For the sake of global security - and not least for the sake of innocent civilians dying – we, as individuals, cannot silently watch on. We have a moral obligation to speak out and assist a population under bombardment and isolation. We can do this through: creating awareness and highlighting the critical humanitarian situation in the region; by reaching out to the media through letters; by writing to our political representatives; by protesting in demonstrations against the strikes and against the abuse of International Humanitarian Law on both sides; by advocating for humanitarian access to the vulnerable; by donating to local, regional and international NGOs working in Lebanon (eg. Save the Children, Relief International, Response International), and to those humanitarian aid agencies (ICRC, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, WHO, UNFPA, UNRWA etc.) working on providing services notably in terms of water and sanitation, health, food and nutrition, shelter and site management, psychosocial care, protection of the vulnerable and landmine action, as well as education. In whichever way we chose to act, the bottom line is that we must speak out against the killing of innocent civilians on all sides.

Miriam AZAR

Voisins du Liban: Catastrophe naturelle ou malédiction?

2006-07-25T14:22:00.000+01:00

Dans le meme ordre d'idées voici ce qu'on pense Fifi Abou dib, dans un autre article publié dans l'Orient le jour.

"La vie est belle". Signé par Fifi Abou Dib, cet article ironise : "D'autres pays ont des ouragans, des volcans cracheurs de lave, des tsunamis, des tremblements de terre, des canicules. Nous, nous avons des voisins. Au répertoire des catastrophes, voilà un intrus qui ferait sourire, n'était la preuve quotidienne de son pouvoir de nuisance."

"Tant de guerres nous sont déjà passées dessus. Comme d'autres ont des structures antisismiques, nous avons les structures psychiques idoines. Chaque fibre de nos muscles, chaque méandre de notre cerveau, chaque pixel de mémoire de notre peau sait qu'il est vital de résister. Pour soi et pour les siens."

"Alors, il faut ne pas perdre son humour, rester élégant. Sans espoir, sans désespoir, ne pas oublier que le bonheur est possible. Ne pas oublier que la vie est une pute et la traiter comme telle. Lui mentir : comme tu es belle. Parce que la vie est belle tant qu'on l'a."

Le Liban, un modèle qui agace ses voisins!

2006-07-25T14:17:00.000+01:00

Depuis quatorze jours maintenant, le Liban est bombardé par Israël. Et le quotidien allemand Süddeutsche Zeitung a choisi d'ouvrir ses colonnes à un grand poète arabe, Adonis, qui connaît bien le Liban. En effet, il est d'origine syrienne et a vécu à Beyrouth jusqu'en 1980 avant de se réfugier en France.

Dans sa contribution, le poète explique combien la société libanaise est insupportable à ses voisins arabes et israéliens. "Avec ses dix-sept communautés religieuses dont aucune n'est majoritaire, le Liban qui est bombardé sous nos yeux est peut-être le seul pays du Moyen-Orient où un projet de société laïque peut s'imposer."

Les autres Etats arabes, écrit-il, ne cesseront jamais d'être des théocraties, même s'ils se plient parfois superficiellement à quelques normes démocratiques. Tout simplement parce que leurs racines sont uniculturelles ? c'est-à-dire musulmane. De la même façon, écrit Adonis, la démocratie israélienne ne peut se fonder sur le pluralisme culturel et religieux. C'est en parfaite contradiction avec son principe fondateur, qui est d'être un Etat-nation pour tous les Juifs du monde ? et seulement pour eux.

En clair, conclut Adonis, "l'établissement d'une démocratie libanaise serait une transgression radicale dans cette partie du monde". Simplement, ajoute-t-il, parce que cette démocratie serait ? par nature ? plus ouverte, plus riche, plus universelle et donc plus attirante que n'importe quelle autre société de la région. C'est cet espoir-là qu'on est en train de détruire depuis treize jours.

note, article complet dans le temps.

2006-07-24T13:08:00.000+01:00

Beirut, LEBANON: A Lebanese soldier helps a wounded comrade following an Israeli air raid on Beirut's Kafarchima neighborhood, 17 July 2006

Help Lebanon!

2006-07-24T13:04:00.000+01:00

Help Lebanon.
Send a letter to your government representative.
Download a sample letter

Beyrouth, 23 Juillet 2006

2006-07-24T12:48:00.000+01:00

Le Monde selon Bush

2006-07-24T12:36:00.000+01:00

Alors que Mme Conzi a enfin décider de se rendre au Liban, Israel continue à nous donner un avant gout de la démocratie à l'américaine. En soit, la vision américaine de la démocratie est assez simple et se résume ainsi: "Soit vous etes avec nous et vous faites tous ce qu'on vous dit, soit vous etes contre nous et, dans ce cas, on laisse notre armée vous montrer le chemin de la "soumission".... Et si nos médias, et nos alliés soutiennent, à force de discours absurdes, que vous etes terroristes alors là aucun "citoyen honnete" ne vous supportera et vous perirez dans la plus grande indifférence...

Voici quelques photos (Reuters) de deux villages Martyres au Sud Liban, Maarakeh et Khiam, sous les bombes depuis déjà deux semaines...

From Israel to the lebanese people...

2006-07-24T11:06:00.000+01:00

CHECK THIS SITE , AND LOOK AT THE SUFFERINGS OF THE LEBANESE PEOPLE , DUE TO THE

ISRAELI ATTACKS ON OUR COUNTRY.

PLEASE TELL ALL YOUR CONTACTS ABOUT THIS WEBSITE, MAY THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY WILL HAVE SOME DIGNITY TO ACT,  IF THEY SEE THE ACTUAL SCENES AND NOT
THE CNN PROPAGANDA !!!!!

http://fromisrael2lebanon.info/

Le Liban a besoin de VOUS!!!

2006-07-24T11:00:00.000+01:00

Note, je viens de recevoir cet email d'une amie...faite suivre

Dear friends,
I hope this email finds you and your families well and safe.

Lebanon is facing a humanitarian disaster, as 750,000 civilians are displaced, a majority has moved to schools in as many areas as possible. They need your help urgently.

For one person to receive 3 meals, medical assistance, a mattress, soap, milk +diapers for kids… the total cost per person per day is 10$.

In Beirut, 15,000 displaced individuals are in 38 schools and a public park (sanayeh).
7,000 do not yet have a mattress to sleep on
At 3pm today, more than 3,800 had not yet eaten
Some have not had a warm meal since they were displaced

We are in need of volunteers, health practitioners, supplies and donations.
If you can forward this email to friends, call people for donations, donate money, can bring food/collect food, have a car, want to volunteer at schools, with a health team, psychology team, facilitators, fundraising team… then we need you.
Please help.

For more information or to help please call Mr Nizar Rammal 961 3 908 307
Or email: nizarrammal@yahoo.com
Accounts and needs are listed below.

regards to all,
Nina Jamal
Phone: 961 3 581 729
Email: ninajamal2004@yahoo.com

Nb this call for help will address Beirut, we urge those of you who have contacts in other areas to forward respective calls for help accordingly.

Accounts and needs are listed below.

In all transfers, the following applies:
Account with institution: BKAWLBBE (this is the SWIFT code)
Bank of Kuwait and the Arab World s.a.l.
Beirut - Lebanon
Beneficiary Name: Green Line Association
Beneficiary Account: 10USD4612006189003

For USD transfers:

The correspondents in USA with their SWIFT BIC codes are:

1. Bank of New York
New York USA
SWIFT code: IRVTUS3N

2. HSBC Bank
New York USA
SWIFT code: MRMDUS33

3. American Express Bank Ltd.
New York USA
SWIFT code: AEIBUS33

For Euro transfers:

The correspondents in France and Germany with their SWIFT codes respectively are:

1. Societe Generale
Paris - France
SWIFT code: SOGEFRPP

2. Dresdner Bank AG
Frankfurt - Germany
SWIFT code: DRESDEFF

Please note that we do not deal with IBAN or FEDWIRE codes,
For bank info, please do not hesitate to contact us for any further inquiries.
(Hala Ashour 961 3 674 609 or greenline@greenline.org.lb or bkaw@sodetel.net.lb)

NEEDS:
one hot meal every 2 days for the whole number,
cheese,
milk,
canned meat,
detergents
first aid kits (10 per school)
5 ovens per school
candles
300 liter of water daily for the volunteers
50 meals daily for volunteers
100 liter of fuel for cars daily
diapers
mattresses

l enième massacre israelien au liban...

2006-07-23T22:47:00.000+01:00

interviewé par des journalistes israéliens sur la situation israélienne sur la situation au Liban, Amir Peretz, ministre à la défense, a soutenu que jamais les libanais n'oublieront son nom. Bien. Il est vrai que son nom, comme celui de la plupart des politiciens israéliens, resteront à jamais graver dans les pages les plus sombres non seulement de l'Histoire du Liban mais dans celle de l'humanité toute entière....Place aux images...

VOICI LA BANLIEUE DE BEYROUTH...OU DU MOINS CE QUI L'ON RESTE...

EN DEPIT DE TOUT CELA, LES AMERICAINS ACCORDENT A ISRAEL UNE SEMAINE SUP, "FOR FINISH THE JOB"...

LA PROCHAINE CIBLE?....

LUI?

AU MONDE LIBRE! MERCI POUR VOTRE SILENCE!!!!

Chanoch Levin, un poéte israélien

2006-07-23T22:44:00.000+01:00

Chanoch Levin, an Israeli Poet, wrote this sarcastic poem during 1982 invasion.

Le Liban se meurt doucement...

2006-07-23T22:36:00.000+01:00

voila 13 jours que la machine meurtrière s'abbat sur le Liban, rafflant tout sur son passage... EN attendant une Solution, comme d'hab venue de l'extérieur, le Liban se meurt doucement..

Pour le Liban, Fairuz

2006-07-23T22:28:00.000+01:00

une des plus belles chansons de Fairuz chantant Beyrouth....(Ecouter la Chanson)

Paradise Lost: Robert Fisk's elegy for Beirut

2006-07-23T22:26:00.000+01:00

By Robert Fisk

Published: 19 July 2006
The Independent

Elegant buildings lie in ruins. The heady scent of gardenias gives way to the acrid stench of bombed-out oil installations. And everywhere terrified people are scrambling to get out of a city that seems tragically doomed to chaos and destruction. As Beirut - 'the Paris of the East' - is defiled yet again, Robert Fisk, a resident for 30 years, asks: how much more punishment can it take?

In the year 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus - headquarters of the imperial East Mediterranean Roman fleet - was struck by a massive earthquake. In its aftermath, the sea withdrew several miles and the survivors - ancestors of the present-day Lebanese - walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchant ships revealed in front of them.

That was when a tidal wall higher than a tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople as compensation to every family left alive.

Some cities seem forever doomed. When the Crusaders arrived at Beirut on their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, they slaughtered every man, woman and child in the city. In the First World War, Ottoman Beirut suffered a terrible famine; the Turkish army had commandeered all the grain and the Allied powers blockaded the coast. I still have some ancient postcards I bought here 30 years ago of stick-like children standing in an orphanage, naked and abandoned.

An American woman living in Beirut in 1916 described how she "passed women and children lying by the roadside with closed eyes and ghastly, pale faces. It was a common thing to find people searching the garbage heaps for orange peel, old bones or other refuse, and eating them greedily when found. Everywhere women could be seen seeking eatable weeds among the grass along the roads..."

How does this happen to Beirut? For 30 years, I've watched this place die and then rise from the grave and then die again, its apartment blocks pitted with so many bullets they looked like Irish lace, its people massacring each other.

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that cost the lives of a further 20,000 of its people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses. Yet they are a fine, educated, moral people whose generosity amazes every foreigner, whose gentleness puts any Westerner to shame, and whose suffering we almost always ignore.

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis - in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside - tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties - 240 in all of Lebanon by last night - with Israel's 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel's "disproportionate" response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

I walked through the deserted city centre of Beirut yesterday and it reminded more than ever of a film lot, a place of dreams too beautiful to last, a phoenix from the ashes of civil war whose plumage was so brightly coloured that it blinded its own people. This part of the city
- once a Dresden of ruins - was rebuilt by Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister who was murdered scarcely a mile away on 14 February last year.

The wreckage of that bomb blast, an awful precursor to the present war in which his inheritance is being vandalised by the Israelis, still stands beside the Mediterranean, waiting for the last UN investigator to look for clues to the assassination - an investigator who has long ago
abandoned this besieged city for the safety of Cyprus.

At the empty Etoile restaurant - best snails and cappuccino in Beirut, where Hariri once dined Jacques Chirac - I sat on the pavement and watched the parliamentary guard still patrolling the façade of the French-built emporium that houses what is left of Lebanon's democracy. So many of these streets were built by Parisians under the French mandate and they have been exquisitely restored, their mock Arabian doorways bejewelled with marble Roman columns dug from the ancient Via Maxima a few metres away.

Hariri loved this place and, taking Chirac for a beer one day, he caught sight of me sitting at a table. "Ah Robert, come over here," he roared and then turned to Chirac like a cat that was about to eat a canary. "I want to introduce you, Jacques, to the reporter who said I couldn't
rebuild Beirut!"

And now it is being un-built. The Martyr Rafiq Hariri International Airport has been attacked three times by the Israelis, its glistening halls and shopping malls vibrating to the missiles that thunder into the runways and fuel depots. Hariri's wonderful transnational highway viaduct has been broken by Israeli bombers. Most of his motorway bridges have been destroyed. The Roman-style lighthouse has been smashed by a missile from an Apache helicopter. Only this small jewel of a restaurant in the centre of Beirut has been spared. So far.

It is the slums of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiri and Shiyah that have been levelled and "rubble-ised" and pounded to dust, sending a quarter of a million Shia Muslims to seek sanctuary in schools and abandoned parks across the city. Here, indeed, was the headquarters of Hizbollah,
another of those "centres of world terror" which the West keeps discovering in Muslim lands. Here lived Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Party of God's leader, a ruthless, caustic, calculating man; and Sayad Mohamed Fadlallah, among the wisest and most eloquent of clerics; and
many of Hizbollah's top military planners - including, no doubt, the men who planned over many months the capture of the two Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.

But did the tens of thousands of poor who live here deserve this act of mass punishment? For a country that boasts of its pin-point accuracy - a doubtful notion in any case, but that's not the issue - what does this act of destruction tell us about Israel? Or about ourselves?

In a modern building in an undamaged part of Beirut, I come, quite by chance, across a well known and prominent Hizbollah figure, open-neck white shirt, dark suit, clean shoes. "We will go on if we have to for days or weeks or months or..." And he counts these awful statistics off
on the fingers of his left hand. "Believe me, we have bigger surprises still to come for the Israelis - much bigger, you will see. Then we will get our prisoners and it will take just a few small concessions."

I walk outside, feeling as if I have been beaten over the head. Over the wall opposite there is purple bougainvillaea and white jasmine and a swamp of gardenias. The Lebanese love flowers, their colour and scent, and Beirut is draped in trees and bushes that smell like paradise.

As for the huddled masses from the powder of the bombed-out southern slums of Haret Hreik, I found hundreds of them yesterday, sitting under trees and lying on the parched grass beside an ancient fountain donated to the city of Beirut by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid. How empires fall.

Far away, across the Mediterranean, two American helicopters from the USS Iwo Jima could be seen, heading through the mist and smoke towards the US embassy bunker complex at Awkar to evacuate more citizens of the American Empire. There was not a word from that same empire to help the people lying in the park, to offer them food or medical aid.

And across them all has spread a dark grey smoke that works its way through the entire city, the fires of oil terminals and burning buildings turning into a cocktail of sulphurous air that moves below our doors and through our windows. I smell it when I wake in the morning. Half the people of Beirut are coughing in this filth, breathing their own destruction as they contemplate their dead.

The anger that any human soul should feel at such suffering and loss was expressed so well by Lebanon's greatest poet, the mystic Khalil Gibran, when he wrote of the half million Lebanese who died in the 1916 famine, most of them residents of Beirut:

My people died of hunger, and he who
Did not perish from starvation was
Butchered with the sword;
They perished from hunger
In a land rich with milk and honey.
They died because the vipers and
Sons of vipers spat out poison into
The space where the Holy Cedars and
The roses and the jasmine breathe
Their fragrance.

And the sword continues to cut its way through Beirut. When part of an aircraft - perhaps the wing-tip of an F-16 hit by a missile, although the Israelis deny this - came streaking out of the sky over the eastern suburbs at the weekend, I raced to the scene to find a partly decapitated driver in his car and three Lebanese soldiers from the army's logistics unit. These are the tough, brave non-combat soldiers of Kfar Chim, who have been mending power and water lines these past six days to keep Beirut alive.

I knew one of them. "Hello Robert, be quick because I think the Israelis will bomb again but we'll show you everything we can." And they took me through the fires to show me what they could of the wreckage, standing around me to protect me.

And a few hours later, the Israelis did come back, as the men of the small logistics unit were going to bed, and they bombed the barracks and killed 10 soldiers, including those three kind men who looked after me amid the fires of Kfar Chim.

And why? Be sure - the Israelis know what they are hitting. That's why they killed nine soldiers near Tripoli when they bombed the military radio antennas. But a logistics unit? Men whose sole job was to mend electricity lines? And then it dawns on me. Beirut is to die. It is to be starved of electricity now that the power station in Jiyeh is on fire. No one is to be allowed to keep Beirut alive. So those poor men had to be liquidated.

Beirutis are tough people and are not easily moved. But at the end of last week, many of them were overcome by a photograph in their daily papers of a small girl, discarded like a broken flower in a field near Ter Harfa, her feet curled up, her hand resting on her torn blue
pyjamas, her eyes - beneath long, soft hair - closed, turned away from the camera. She had been another "terrorist" target of Israel and several people, myself among them, saw a frightening similarity between this picture and the photograph of a Polish girl lying dead in a field
beside her weeping sister in 1939.

I go home and flick through my files, old pictures of the Israeli invasion of 1982. There are more photographs of dead children, of broken bridges. "Israelis Threaten to Storm Beirut", says one headline. "Israelis Retaliate". "Lebanon At War". "Beirut Under Siege". "Massacre at Sabra and Chatila".

Yes, how easily we forget these earlier slaughters. Up to 1,700 Palestinians were butchered at Sabra and Chatila by Israel's proxy Christian militia allies in September of 1982 while Israeli troops - as they later testified to Israel's own court of inquiry - watched the killings. I was there. I stopped counting the corpses when I reached 100. Many of the women had been raped before being knifed or shot.

Yet when I was fleeing the bombing of Ghobeiri with my driver Abed last week, we swept right past the entrance of the camp, the very spot where I saw the first murdered Palestinians. And we did not think of them. We did not remember them. They were dead in Beirut and we were trying to stay alive in Beirut, as I have been trying to stay alive here for 30 years.

I am back on the sea coast when my mobile phone rings. It is an Israeli woman calling me from the United States, the author of a fine novel about the Palestinians. "Robert, please take care," she says. "I am so, so sorry about what is being done to the Lebanese. It is unforgivable. I pray for the Lebanese people, and the Palestinians, and the Israelis." I thank her for her thoughtfulness and the graceful, generous way she condemned this slaughter.

Then, on my balcony - a glance to check the location of the Israeli gunboat far out in the sea-smog - I find older clippings. This is from an English paper in 1840, when Beirut was a great Ottoman city. "Beyrouth" was the dateline. "Anarchy is now the order of the day, our properties and personal safety are endangered, no satisfaction can be obtained, and crimes are committed with impunity. Several Europeans have quitted their houses and suspended their affairs, in order to find protection in more peaceable countries."

On my dining-room wall, I remember, there is a hand-painted lithograph of French troops arriving in Beirut in 1842 to protect the Christian Maronites from the Druze. They are camping in the Jardin des Pins, which will later become the site of the French embassy where, only a few hours ago, I saw French men and women registering for their evacuation. And outside the window, I hear again the whisper of Israeli jets, hidden behind the smoke that now drifts 20 miles out to sea.

Fairouz, the most popular of Lebanese singers, was to have performed at this year's Baalbek festival, cancelled now like all Lebanon's festivals of music, dance, theatre and painting. One of her most popular songs is dedicated to her native city:

To Beirut - peace to Beirut with all my heart
And kisses - to the sea and clouds,
To the rock of a city that looks like an old sailor's face.
From the soul of her people she makes wine,
From their sweat, she makes bread and jasmine.
So how did it come to taste of smoke and fire?

Caricature du Daily Telegraph

2006-07-23T22:25:00.000+01:00

Israel et le monde

2006-07-23T22:21:00.000+01:00

Une guerre de longue haleine

2006-07-23T22:11:00.000+01:00

voici deux articles publiés dans San francisco chronicle

Pour le Liban

2006-07-23T22:06:00.000+01:00

Sour, ville de lumières!

2006-07-23T19:02:00.000+01:00

Sour est de loin la ville que j'aime le plus au Liban... De par ses plages, son histoire, son climat, la ville dépasse de loin les frontières du Liban... c'est un patrimoine de l'humanité toute entière qu'Israel a voulu effacé en s'attaquant à cette ville millénariste.... Mais qu'il soit sure, nous allons bientot la construire et la ville redeviendra par la volonté du peuple libanais, bien plus belle et plus prospère qu'avant. (alla ma3ak ya bayte samide bil janoub)

Lebanon, My Love

2006-07-23T18:58:00.000+01:00

Note: j'ai trouvé ce texte émouvant dans le blog d'un ami libanais... Il exprime le sentiment et l'amour que nous protons tous pour notre pays, Le liban...

I want to bathe in your soil, eat your dust and hug and kiss every one of your citizens.

I want to wipe away my tears and love you even more than I ever thought possible.

I want to be superficial and shallow and happy and carefree.

I want to hate my job, rant and rave, and be miserable.

I want to go shopping, sleep, read, dance, and laugh.

I want to eat knefeh bi jibn at 5 am after partying all night.

I want to listen to the muezzin and church bells while walking through downtown.

I want to criticize your politicians and recreate the world over a bottle of wine.

I want to feel safe.

I want to breathe the fresh air of the mountains and dive in the sea.

I want to grow old.

I want to get married, have children, and make them love you more than I do.

I want to banish hate and sow love.

I want peace.

I want... I want...

You know what I want, my love.

My Lebanon.

Habibi.

Yours forever,

2006-07-23T18:56:00.000+01:00

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/587/1437/1600/L_2413c.jpg

L'acharnement israelin sur les Civils libanais

2006-07-23T18:55:00.000+01:00

This is a list of civilian deaths/injuries. If numbers have changed, please let me know, and I will update ASAP. This post is staying at the top of this blog.

Final note: These statistics are only for Lebanese and Israeli CIVILIANS. Do not include Hezbollah or IDF dead.

July 14, 2006, 7:30 pm:

Lebanese Dead: ~ 62
Lebanese Wounded: > 165

July 18, 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 260 (AP, AFP)
Israeli Dead: > 16 (Haaretz, Jerusalem Post)
Israeli Dead: ~ 2
Israeli Wounded: > 120

July 14, 2006, 10 pm:

Lebanese Dead: ~ 73
Lebanese Wounded: > 165 (?)
Israeli Dead: ~ 4
Israeli Wounded: > 120 (?)

July 15, 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 100
Lebanese Wounded: ? (no accurate info available now)
Israeli Dead: 4 (Jerusalem Post, Reuters)
Israeli Wounded: ~ 300 (Reuters)

July 16, 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 150 (Reuters. Other news agencies reported more, so I chose the minimum amount. Will correct this with more accurate information.)
Israeli Dead: > 12 (AP)

and 7 Canadians were murdered by IDF in Lebanon.

Also, I've taken off the statistic for the wounded. There is not much reliable information on that.

FYI: Almost as many Lebanese civilians have been killed in less than a week as were killed in Operation Grapes of Wrath (Spring, 1996), which included the ignored Qana Massacre.

July 17, 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 200 (Reuters, AP, Haaretz)
Israeli Dead: > 12 (Reuters, AP)

July 19 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 320 (AP, AFP)
Israeli Dead: > 16 (Haaretz, Jerusalem Post)

July 21 2006:

Lebanese Dead: > 350 (AP, AFP)
Israeli Dead: = 15 (there was an error in the statistics previously. BBC, Haaretz, Jpost)

Le Liban, quel avenir?... Article écrit par Salim el Hoss, ancien premier ministre du Liban

2006-07-23T18:52:00.000+01:00

مصير لبنان مرتبط عضوياً بمصير المنطقة. لذا فإن السؤال: <لبنان إلى أين>؟ يؤول بالضرورة إلى السؤال: <المنطقة إلى أين>؟
إن تلازم لبنان والمنطقة العربية مصيرياً عائد إلى جملة حقائق راهنة: منها أن لبنان وطن نهائي لجميع أبنائه ولكنه أيضاً بلد عربي. كانت عروبة لبنان موضع جدل وتجاذب
فلا غلو والحال هذه في القول إن الإجابة عن السؤال: لبنان إلى أين؟ تتوقّف إلى حدٍ بعيد على الإجابة عن السؤال: الأمة العربية،
وبالتالي، المنطقة، إلى أين؟ وفي صوغ الإجابة نرانا مضطرّين إلى التمييز بين ثلاثة مشاهد افتراضية أو سيناريوهات: أولها يصوّر أسوأ الاحتمالات، وثانيها يصوّر تعايشاً
سيناريو أسوأ الاحتمالات:
كنا حتى وقت قريب نقول إن مصيرنا، نحن العرب، يُكتب في فلسطين. ولبنان مرتبط بفلسطين كما سائر العرب قوميا، ويعزز هذا الارتباط كون لبنان محاذياً لفلسطين ألف لاجئ فلسطيني، مصيرهم يتوقّف على مآل القضية، ولبنان
ولكن الشعب الفلسطيني أظهر، منذ قرار تقسيم فلسطين العام ,1947 قدرة خارقة على الصمود ومواصلة النضال في وجه حرب غير متكافئة شنّتها وتشنها ضدّه أعتى
إلاّ أننا بتنا نقول، منذ الاحتلال الأميركي للعراق، إن مصيرنا نحن العرب إنما يكتب في العراق، حيث أفضى الاحتلال إلى حال كارثية مأساوية تنعكس في مشروع فتنة
في هذا السيناريو لأسوأ الاحتمالات، فإن لبنان لن يسلم من مغبّة انهيار الأوضاع في أقطار المنطقة العربية، فتكون الحصيلة، والعياذ بالله، تفتيت لبنان.
سيناريو التعايش مع أزمة المنطقة:
سيكون في استطاعة لبنان تدارك أخطر تداعيات تدهور الأوضاع في المنطقة في حال وقوعه، لا سمح الله، إذا ما تمكّن من أن ينمّي مقومات التعايش مع أزمات المنطقة بحيث
في هذه الحال. يتمكّن لبنان من تجاوز أخطر تداعيات الأزمات التي قد تحلّ بالمنطقة وتفضي، لا قدّر الله، إلى تفتيت الكيانات العربية. فيحفظ لبنان وحدته وكيانه. ولكن في
سيناريو أحسن الاحتمالات:
يُروّج في وسائل الإعلام لاحتمال أن تكون قوات الاحتلال الأميركي في العراق قد بلغت من الإخفاق والبلبلة ما جعل الإدارة الأميركية في موقع التفكير الجدّي في سحب
وثمة رواية قيد التداول في وسائل الإعلام مفادها أن أميركا على استعداد للدخول في محادثات مع إيران حول الوضع في العراق. والمقدّر أن جدول أعمال المحادثات سوف لعلاقة بعض الأنظمة العربية بالإدارة الأميركية، وهذا ما لا ينطبق على سوريا التي تتعرض لضغوط ومضايقات مشهودة من الإدارة الأميركية. ومن جهة أخرى فإن سوريا
في حال جرت المحادثات بين أميركا وإيران حول العراق، وأفضت إلى إطلاق قوات عربية أو إسلامية مشتركة، وشاركت فيها سوريا على وجه فاعل، وفي حال اقترنت
إذا تحقق هذا السيناريو، وهو يفترض أحسن الاحتمالات، فإن الأوضاع في لبنان يمكن أن تنقلب رأساً على عقب فتزول حال التأزم والانقسام والتنازع، وتتوقّف تالياً
في حال تحقق السيناريو الأخير، القائم على أحسن الاحتمالات، فإنّ الثمرة ستكون ازدهاراً ونمواً لا حدود لهما في لبنان، وسيرتدّ هذا التطور إيجاباً على سائر أوجه الحياة

لبنان إلى أين؟ إلى هذا الأفق الواعد المشرق بإذن الله، رهاناً على أحسن الاحتمالات.

La question de Développement

2006-07-23T18:49:00.000+01:00

Qu’est ce réellement un projet de développement? Qu’est ce qui fait courir tous ces hommes et ces femmes, qui au péril de leurs vies parcourent les régions les plus reculées et les plus pauvres du monde ? qu’est ce qui nous motive à tous ? Est-ce l’aventure humaine, la volonté d’aider autrui sans rien demandait au retour, ou bien au contraire en prenant ce risque nous dessinons une stratégies de vie, une sorte de plan de carrière un peu risqué certes mais plus ou moins rentables à long termes !

De là une autre question s’impose à savoir qui donne plus à l’autre. Est-ce le développeur ou le supposé dans le besoin ? dans mon cas au Soudan, je me demande toujours qu’est ce que mon expérience, mon travail de terrain pourrait à court et ou à moyen terme apporter à ce peuple du Soudan. et la réponse, l’unique qui me vient à l’esprit est celle de me rendre à l’évidence et reconnaitre que toutes ces actions entreprises non pas seulement par l’organisation à laquelle j’appartiens mais malheuresement par la plupart des ONG internationales présentent sur place, auront dans le futur très peu d’impact sur la vie des soudanais. Si rien ne fait dans les prochains mois, les actions menées par ces différentes OI, ONG présentent sur place donneraient des résultats contraire à ceux escomptés au départ : nous sommes, la communauté dite internationale est en train de produire une société de plus en plus inégalitaire, une société à deux vitesses. Peu à peu au sud soudan se dessine une ligne dangereuse qui séparera très bientôt l’élite montante du reste de la population. Actuellement le niveau d’inégalité entre les différents habitants du Sud, et notamment dans les grandes villes comme Juba, Rumbek ect., est assez faible pour l’instant. Mais dans pas longtemps ces élites concentreront entre leurs mains l’ensemble des richesses engendrées par la manne dollars, et les quelques 500 000 barils de pétrole qui seront bientôt attribués au gouvernement du Sud.
Ce qui se passe au Sud Soudan, est assez paradoxal et constitue un cas d’étude assez curieux pour toute personne qui souhaite aborder la problématique du développement :
• il s’agit d’un des pays les plus pauvres du monde qui, du fait de 20 ans de guerre civile et de richesses naturelles très maigres (notamment d’un point de vue agricole), manque quasiment de tout. Selon le dernier rapport du WFP plus de 7 millions de soudanais, dont une grande partie se trouvent au Sud, dépendent d’une aide alimentaire venue de l’étranger pour survivre !
• par contre le niveau d’inégalité entre les différents habitants est très faible. La pauvreté semble être présente dans l’ensemble des foyers du Sud, voir dans l’ensemble des foyers soudanais. Il s’agit donc d’une société égalitaire, qui se trouve de plus en plus corrompue par la présence massive et désordonnées de tous ces développeurs, organisations dont une grande partie se trouvent sur le terrain uniquement pour pouvoir justifier à leurs donateurs la manière dont leurs budgets est dépensé pour ne pas dire gaspiller. Comment expliquer la présence de tous ces jeunes assis dans les quelques « camps » à pigeons humanitaires qui prolifèrent comme dans des champignons dans toutes les régions du Sud Soudan. car durant tout mon séjour au Soudan la seule activité de construction et de développement apparente et tangible était sans aucun doute celle concentrée autour de ces cages dorée pour expatriés en déroute. C’est une véritable manne financière pour ces marchants sans scrupules qui n’hésitent pas à taxer 4$ pour une simple bouteille d’eau minérale de 30 cl ! sans parler de la simple tente à 240 $ pour 2 personnes pour une unique nuit ! cela est bien sure prélevé du budget initialement prévu pour le développement ou pour venir en aide à ces populations dans le besoin.

• Ce qui, paradoxalement, fait du Sud Soudan l’une des régions les plus chères du monde. Si la situation continue à ce rythme, et que rien n’est fait pour en finir, les inégalités risquent d’accroitre de manière substantielles dans les années à venir. De ce fait, la pauvreté que nous sommes venus combattre ou que nous prétendons vouloir combattre ne fera que s’accroitre… et le refrain de la mondialisation avec ses effets sadiques se reproduiront sans aucun doute au Sud Soudan ; les riches s’enrichiront davantage et les pauvres s’appauvriront davantage….. avec tous les risques sur la cohésion et de paix sociale que nous connaissons…. Augmentation des violences, des crimes…. Le développement est la face cachée du système capitaliste qui non seulement est inefficace pour lutter contre la pauvreté et les inégalités mais en plus il se nourrit d’eux : plus leur niveau est élevé plus la survie de ce système est assurée. ¨

Développement oui ? mais comment et selon quels principes restent problèmatique !