Qaddafi Forces Suspected Of Executing Detainees

With time running out, Qaddafi forces get desperate and start killing prisoners.

Six bodies lie in the dry riverbed between Gargur and Bab al-Aziziya, Gaddafi's former compound. © 2011 Human Rights Watch A team of volunteers arrive to recover the bodies of the dead found in and around a makeshift field clinic outside Bab al-Aziziya where there were signs that Gaddafi loyalists had been present. © 2011 Human Rights Watch The body of a dead man at the makeshift field clinic outside Bab al-Aziziya. © 2011 Human Rights Watch Bodies lie outside the south gate of Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli. © 2011 Reuters Hey HRW? Wasn't Qaddafi on the United Nations Human Rights Council? Are you proud of what you were shilling as you condemned Israel?

The body of a dead man lies with his hands tied behind his back in the dry riverbed between Gargur and Bab al-Aziziya. © 2011 Human Rights Watch Corpses in the tents behind the makeshift field clinic outside Bab al-Aziziya.© 2011 Human Rights Watch A truck holds the bodies of the dead from in and around the makeshift field clinic outside Bab al-Aziziya. © 2011 Human Rights Watch Two bodies found in the closet under the stairs inside the Al-Amal al-Akhdar building belonging to the Libyan Internal Security.© 2011 Human Rights Watch ...isn't everyone just HAPPY that the NYTimes tried to promote Qaddafi as a reformer?

Gaza Terrorists Using Google Earth for Target Selection

Gaza terrorists have a new tool helping them to fire on innocent civilians living in southern Israel – the popular satellite mapping program Google Earth. A group of terrorists from the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades recently described their use of the program to a reporter for Slate Magazine. Time to Un Dhimmi “The technology is always improving,” a terrorist calling himself Abu Saif told journalist Sharon Weinberger. “Our struggle started with the Kalashnikov, and then it moved to the suicide bomb, then the locally made rocket, and now the Grad rocket.”
Gaza terrorists in rocket launching crews use Google Earth to aim their weapons, Abu Said said. The program is seen as superior to maps because it is more up-to-date and gives precise locations for potential targets. Gaza terrorists who spoke to Weinberger said they plan to continue with rocket attacks despite the deployment of the Iron Dome system, which shoots short-range rockets out of the air. “The Israelis are using a lot of money for this defense, but during the last rocket attacks, our rockets made it through,” explained Abu Hamza, a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist. Iron Dome goes three for four! 

Palestinian Arab family killed - by NATO. Where are the condemnations?

A Palestinian family of four was killed in a NATO airstrike Monday on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry explained in a statement published Tuesday on the government news agency Wafa, that the International Red Crescent Association had relayed the news. The family, according to Wafa’s report, had lived in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, before moving to Tripoli. Palestinian ambassador to Libya Atif Udah told Ma'an radio the family was in a three-story building targeted by a NATO air attack. He identified the victims as Abdullah Muhammad Ash-Shihab, his wife Karima and his 6-month-old twins Khalid and Jumanah. - Ma'an

double standard!

Some 19 civilians were claimed to have been killed in that airstrike, which came only a day after another errant airstrike from NATO killed 9 civilians. NATO insists that they hit a military target on Monday. MORE via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Iranian Ayatollah Affirms Legitimacy of Suicide Operations, Approves Killing Israeli Civilians - Including Children

A Tehran mural entitled “Martyr”
depicts the 12th Shiite Imam Mahdi
holding the body of a lifeless martyr.
Commissioned in 2003 on Ashura,
the day commemorating
Imam Hussein’s martyrdom,
it reads:
“Martyrdom is our inheritance
from the prophet and his lineage.”

Iran’s supreme leaders
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei (left)
and Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (right).

Photo: Fotini Christia image via wcfia.harvard.edu

The issue of martyrdom operations and their religious legitimacy has been repeatedly discussed by Iranian ayatollahs. In a recent fatwa posted on his website in response to an online inquiry, Iranian Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah-e Yazdi ruled that martyrdom operations were not only legitimate but were a duty incumbent upon every Muslim.... Regarding the question about Israeli civilians, he ruled that it was forbidden to harm them only if they had openly declared their opposition to their government. He said it was even permissible to target Israeli civilians used as human shields and in other cases when fighting "the aggressors," i.e. Israel, necessitated it. (MEMRI) via docstalk.blogspot.com

...and they bitch when Israel has to shoot when there are civilians used as human shields

Got a Public Relations problem with HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES? No problem... Syria Attacks Israel

typical Goldstone styled accusation of civilian casualties....

Syria Allows Hundreds Across Israeli Border
for Naqba Protest to OBSCURE issues...
...Masses gather at border (Photo: Avihu Shapir)

Syria's squawking because
Israel killed "protesters"
...now this is chutzpah...

Assad is desperate when he punches below the belt like this. This is another example of how low the Syrians hold on the value of human dignity. They insult their own people like this. Absolutely no pride or respect. All eyes on Israel to put egg on it's face at any cost. Reminds me of what Fidel Castro did to his people.  Like usual the Arabs use the "NAQBA" as a cover for their own abuses.

Expert says details surrounding Nakba Day infiltration of border still unknown, but Israel will have to explain its actions.

“Most of the details surrounding the shooting are not yet known. Important considerations are whether the protesters were armed or not, whether they were an organized association of a para-military nature, whether the soldiers who fired felt they were in immediate danger and shot out of self defense and a series of other possibilities that are too vague to judge,” said Richmond-Barak.

...Abu Mazen AKA ABBAS....says:
protesters "precious blood will not be wasted";

She added that while there were legal questions to be considered, the most urgent concern was a deterioration of the diplomatic relations between the countries. via jpost.com

so without any information in yet... the typical Goldstone accusation of civilian casualties, and a Democracy is made responsible for the actions of a third world dictatorship.

Hamas calls Nakba Day events
"a turning point in the Israeli-Arab conflict"via jpost.com

I.e., killed a handful among large numbers of people who were trying to stage a violent invasion of Israel. How many "protesters" has Syria killed in the last couple of months?--I think 850 was the last count. The annual Chutzpah Prize has been awarded. The rest of 2011 is not required; nothing can possibly beat this.

via pdavidhornik.typepad.com

This is not very surprising, in fact it was predicted days ago.
The Syrian government, with the encouragement of anti-Israel Palestinian groups, Hezbollah and the Iranians, has sent hundreds of supposed "Palestinian refugess" surging across the Israeli border in the Golan in an attempt to provoke a confrontation.  The infiltratrors attempted to capture an Israeli Druse village, and fighting ensued, with initial reports of at least several infiltrators killed and many wounded.  Israel has sealed the border.
Israel Matzav is following and updating, including this video:

The invasion coincides with other violent actions against Israel to commemorate "Nakba" day. This is the day on which Palestinian Arabs commemorate the fact that they chose not abide by the U.N. Resolution creating separate Jewish and Arab states, and instead launched a war to drive the Jews into the sea, which they lost resulting in hundreds of thousands of refugess. Of course, true to form, the Palestinians blame everyone but themselves.
The narrative of the Palestinians as victims endures in academiaHundreds of thousands of Jews fled Arab lands during and in the aftermath the Arabs' attempt to drive the Jews into the sea. That is the part of the narrative you almost never hear about. via legalinsurrection.blogspot.com and image via israelifrontline.com and at the U.N. 

IDF troops on Syria border (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

By Sunday afternoon, the infiltrators began to make their way back to Syria following negotiations between the IDF, police and Druze elders.

The forces tried not to intervene as the Syrian youngsters marched back to their country while calling out "we'll be back," encouraged by applause from the Druze villagers who looked on. By 5 pm Sunday, the IDF said that all infiltrators left Israeli territory.

'We come in peace' 

"I'm tired of living in Syria, we'd rather die than see more bloodshed," one of the Syrian infiltrators into Majdal Shams told Ynet earlier. He called on Israel to grant him asylum, adding: "We've crossed the border in order to stay with our families, away from all the killing in Syria. We ask the powers at be in Israel to help us stay and not send us back."


Other infiltrators told Ynet that "we come in peace," adding that they had decided to cross the border in the aims of living in the Golan Heights – "even if it means risking our lives." Still, others declared "we are here to liberate the Syrian Palestinian land. These people are Palestinian freeman, Allah willing, the Palestinian groups will not give up."


Some of those expressing a wish to remain on the Israeli side of the border, said the uprising against
Syrian President Assad is proving more and more dangerous and that many Palestinians now fear for their lives.

via ynetnews.com

EU imposes arms embargo on Syria

...Move comes as Assad continues violent crackdown against protesters; embargo goes into effect on Monday night.  The European Union has decided to impose an arms embargo on Syria, which went into effect on Monday night.  The move came as Syrian President Bashar Assad continued a violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters in which human rights groups claim more than 800 have died over the past seven weeks.  The EU arms embargo received a preliminary green light at the end of last month. via jpost.com

No reporter has seemed more in the pocket of Hizballah and the Syrians than the New York Times' Anthony Shadid. His reporting on Lebanon often quotes mostly or exclusively their supporters, under a variety of labels, as if they are objective observers or represent a range of opinion.

While his latest article includes some material on how bad the situation is in Syria--350 people identified as killed so far by the regime--his latest article reads like a press release by the dictatorship.

 Not since the days of the Cold War--probably in the 1970s--has a U.S. government become such an apologist for a repressive dictatorship. What makes the situation truly amazing is that the Syrian government is no U.S. ally but an enemy repressive dictatorship.

Shadid quotes Bouthaina Shaaban, a notorious Assad regime crony as saying, “You can’t be very nice to people who are leading an armed rebellion...." Yet there is no evidence that the opposition has used weapons. Nevertheless, he reports without comment the regime's claim that demonstrators have killed 100 soldiers and police even though not a single such case has been even minimally documented.

Shadid quotes U.S. officials as saying, essentially that Shaaban and Administration officials have said that Ms. Shaaban and Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa are the good guy reformers while President Bashar al-Assad's brother, Maher, is the bad guy hardliner. Poor Bashar is supposedly caught in the middle. What's a dictator to do?

Shabaan ridicules international "sanctions" against Syria and is right to do so. They amount to nothing, nothing except a license for the regime to murder its citizens without fear of repercussions.

Some day the Times coverage of Syria will be compared to its terrible reporting on the Stalinist Soviet Union and its largely ignoring the Holocaust.

via rubinreports.blogspot.com

"In the European Union, there exists the will to adopt sanctions quite rapidly," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters earlier this week, after a meeting of an international contact group ranged against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Earlier US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also discussed sanctions against the Syrian leadership because of its violent suppression of unrest in the country.

"We are currently finalizing the list of persons whose assets will be sanctioned and France wants [Syrian President] Bashar Assad to be on it," Juppe said. via jpost.com

Footage Released by Hamas Further Proves It Fires Rockets from Civilian Areas | Israel Defense Forces

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Israel Defense Forces

Further confirming IDF claims that Hamas fires from civilian areas thereby endangering Gaza Strip residents and using them as human shields, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, released footage of operatives firing rockets from densely populated civilian areas.  In the video, a rocket can be seen being fired in front of a school and a mosque.
This footage is consistent with IDF footage released last Friday (April 8th) of terrorist operatives firing mortar shells from within a cemetery, thereby demonstrating that Hamas not only exploits civilian areas, but also violates the sanctity of holy sites. The mortars landed in the Israeli community of Nahal Oz.
The IDF does not discern between echeleons of Hamas and considers the entire terror organization to be responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.  The IDF regrets that Hamas continues to operate within civilian areas, knowingly endangering civilian residents of the Gaza Strip.

via idfspokesperson.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

image via sanfranciscosentinel.com

Arab Media (After Goldstone) is Same Old, Same Old. Accusations of targeting CIVILIANS.

they don't skip a beat or flinch...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Spokesman of the Gaza government Taher An-Nunu said Friday that he had sent an official letter of complaint to the UN "and other involved parties" following the death of five civilians in Gaza during the day.

Israeli air and artillery fire hit the coastal enclave ten times during the day. An Israeli military statement acknowledged the deaths, saying it "regrets that the Hamas terrorist organization chooses to operate from within its civilian population, using it as a 'human shield'."
An-Nunu said Israel was taking the opportunity while the world was "preoccupied with other events," in the near and far east, and said that by "carrying out a series of escalations of attacks." via maannews.net

Finally, A Hamas Leader Admits That Israel Killed Mostly Combatants In Gaza

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 1,314 Gazans were killed. 412 of them children.   PROVEN TO BE BULLSHIT FROM news.bbc.co.uk

Since the end of the Gaza War in January 2009, Israel has stood accused of targeting civilians, rather than terrorist combatants. The Israeli Defense Force has claimed that during Operation Cast Lead it targeted only combatants in its efforts to protect its civilians from rocket attacks. It has also claimed that most of the dead were combatants and issued lists of names of many of the combatants killed and identified them as members of the specific Hamas military units. Despite unprecedented efforts to avoid civilian casualties—including hundreds of thousands of leaflets, telephone calls and non-lethal, noise-making warning bombs—some civilians were killed, because Hamas deliberately hid behind civilians, using them as shields, when they fired rockets at Israeli civilians.
Following the end of the Gaza War, which has essentially stopped Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, there was a great debate about the number of Gaza civilians actually killed, and the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths during this difficult military operation.
The Israel Defense Force put the total number of known combatants killed at 709 and the number of known civilian deaths at 295, with 162 (mostly men of fighting age) "unknown." Such a ratio, if true, would be far better than that achieved by any other nation in a comparable conflict. Not surprisingly, Israel's enemies initially disputed this ratio and claimed that the number of combatants killed was far lower and the number of civilians far higher. The United Nations, the Goldstone Report, various "human rights" organizations and many in the media automatically rejected Israel's documented figures, preferring the distorted numbers offered by Hamas' and other Palestinian sources.
But a statement recently made by a Hamas leader confirms that Israel was correct in claiming that approximately 700 combatants were killed.
First, a word about the context of the Hamas statement. In the aftermath of the war, Hamas has come under considerable criticism from rival terrorist groups for not doing enough to defend Gaza and for allowing so many civilian casualties. So, in a recent interview with a London paper, Al-Hayat, Fathi Hamad, Hamas' Interior Minister, responded to these criticisms as follows:
"It has been said that the people were harmed by the war, but is Hamas not part of the people? It is a fact that on the first day of the war Israel struck police headquarters and killed 250 members of Hamas and the various factions, in addition to the 200-300 operatives from the [Izz al-Din] al-Qassam Brigades. In addition, 150 security personnel were killed, and the rest were from people. (The original text of the interview in Arabic, as reprinted in the Hamas newspaper Felesteen, can be found on the website of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. It was also reported by Agence France Presse)
This statement not only supports the Israeli numbers, but it also acknowledges what Israel has long said about the 250 policemen who were killed on the first day of combat: they were "members of Hamas and the various factions" and were indeed "combatants" by any realistic definition of that term.
Fathi Hamad's figures are in striking contrast to those originally issued by Palestinian groups which claimed that only 48 combatants were killed and that the total amounted to a mere 17 percent of all fatalities.
Because it uncritically accepted the original Hamas claims of very few combatant deaths, the Goldstone Report was able to reach its flawed conclusion that the purpose of the operation must have been to kill civilians, not combatants. This is what the Goldstone Report said:
"The Mission notes that the statistics from non-governmental sources are generally consistent. Statistics alleging that fewer than one out of five persons killed in an armed conflict was a combatant…raise very serious concerns about the way Israel conducted the military operations in Gaza. The counterclaims published by the Government of Israel fall short of international law standards."
Now that the truth has been admitted by the Hamas leadership—that as many as 700 combatants were, in fact, killed—the Goldstone Commission is obliged to reconsider its false conclusion and correct its deeply flawed report.
Richard Goldstone himself has repeatedly said that he hoped that new evidence will prove his conclusions wrong. Well, this new evidence—a classic admission against interest—does just that!
The original false figures have also been submitted by the Palestinian Authority to the International Criminal Court. It too has an obligation to correct the record. It would be an outrageous miscarriage of justice for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation of a nation that, in actuality, had the best ratio of combatant to civilian deaths in any comparable war.
The admission by Fathi Hamad that Israel's figures were correct and those originally offered by Palestinian groups were false exposes the rush to judgment against Israel that has stained the so-called "human rights" community so often in the past. It is essential that this new evidence be widely circulated, which it has not been to date, and that those who condemned Israel on the basis of false allegations correct the record. Don't hold your breath! In today's distorted world of "human rights," truth takes a back seat to ideology, and false claims—especially those that "support" radical ideologies—persist even after they have been exposed.
**Professor Alan Dershowitz's latest book is a novel, The Trials of Zion.

via hudson-ny.org

it would be nice if this point were picked up by Google's search. the BBC, Newsweek and Al Jizzzzzzzeeeeeera dominate the rankings

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Hariri is no Saint

the State of Lebanon is in conflict with UN Resolution 1701, have let Hezbollah into their government and have become a vassal of Syria

Although the Obama administration has hesitated before rushing headlong into renewing relations with Damascus, it has undertaken a series of gestures that have demonstrated that any real policy of isolation is over. This goes hand in hand with the broader regional stance of the administration of attempting "engagement" with the Iranian regime.

Far from signaling to Middle Eastern powers that a new world of cooperation is about to commence, what this US stance conveys to friends and foes in the region is that Washington no longer has the stomach for holding fast against the bid by Iran and its allies for regional hegemony.

The clients, and the clients of the clients, therefore move to make their accommodation with the changed reality.

via jpost.com

they can't control themselves from murdering people? Do you have any idea how much money these people in power in the Middle East have? every criminal organization has conflicting parties that people might have empathy for. Every great dramatic villain has a sob story. That is the nature of evil. Were not the Germans themselves victims of harsh punitive actions from WWI?

In Washington, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman failed to persuadePresident Barack Obama to drop objections to Hizbullah's rearming, and instead "exert further pressure" on Israel to withdraw from disputed areas along its border with Lebanon. Suleiman acted "more like the Syrian ambassador than the Lebanese president," observed Farid Ghadry, the Washington-based head of the Reform Party of Syria.

Obama publicly told Suleiman he should enforce UN Resolution 1701 by disarming Hizbullah and halting its "extensive" arms smuggling, which poses "a threat to Israel." Suleiman disagreed, insisting that part of the resolution no longer applies to the militant group because it is a legitimate political party and part of Lebanon's government, which has authorized it to retain its weapons. The real threat, he told Obama, is from Israel.

via jpost.com

The argument you have is they can't help but send missiles? If my neighbor next door were launching missiles to the next town and I knew that there would be missiles back... I'd do everything I could to get those missiles out of a residential area. These people are responsible and it is the population that will suffer. Their country is culpable and they will suffer casualties. I'm not going to let my family get killed because other people don't have the chutzpah to contain the hate in their neighborhood. If these people do not follow the terms agreed... the only situation is to kill back... and this is not said lightly because the missile capability is three times what it was in 2006. I suspect you have some kind of orchestrated bias against Jewish people living if you feel otherwise. Keep in mind that Hariri is backed by the Sauds. He has all the money in the world. if he wanted to he could buy soldiers with loyalty. he is meeting with Syria because he benefits double. don't believe that sob story about his dad for a second. these guys kill each other all the time and for all we know Assad had nothing to do with the death of his father. It might of been some fringe Shia group. Hariri is picking his allies. don't pity him. he isn't caught between anything. don't worry about these murderers. Hariri can afford a miliary. He chooses Syria because he is united in hate against Israel. if Sunni Hamas can take money from Iran... so can Hariri

original post 12/27/09

Last week's visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri to Damascus is the latest marker in the return of the coercive Syrian presence in Lebanon. It is also an indication of Syria's successful defiance of the west.

via jpost.com

Assad’s regime assassinated Saad Hariri’s father, Rafik, in 2005 for just gingerly opposing Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. There is no alternate universe where Saad Hariri is OK with this or where his generically “positive” statements at a press conference were anything other than forced.

via commentarymagazine.com

The pro-western and pro-Saudi March 14 movement, led by Hariri, achieved a modest victory in elections in June. This victory was effectively nullified in the lengthy coalition "negotiations" that followed. The new government as finally announced in November represented the unusual spectacle of a wholesale capitulation of the electoral victors before the vanquished.

The Hizbullah-led opposition kept their effective veto power in the Cabinet. The government's founding statement included an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of Hizbullah's continued armed presence.

via

jpost.com

Now, with Hezbollah playing a more active role in the Lebanese government, Lebanon could be held more responsible for Hezbollah actions against Israel, Israeli security officials and experts say.

via nytimes.com

Lebanon has to decide which side it's on. Either it can stand up to Hezbullah the way the Iranian people are now standing up to the mullahs or it can bear the consequences when Hezbullah uses their infrastructure to fire cannon fodder at Israel. While I feel sorry for those Lebanese who don't support Hezbullah and want to live in peace with us, I feel more sorry for the Israelis who are likely to be under fire by Hezbullah in the next war.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I was invited to dinner at Hariri’s house earlier this year and had a long and frank discussion about politics with him and some colleagues. I can’t quote him because the meeting was off the record, but trust me: the man is no friend of the Syrian government or Hezbollah, and it’s not just because someone in that crowd killed his father. His political party, the Future Movement, champions liberalism and capitalism, the very antithesis of what is imposed in Syria by Assad’s Arab Socialist Baath party regime and the totalitarian Velayat-e Faqih ideology enforced by the Khomeinists in Iran and in the Hezbollah-occupied regions of Lebanon.

Hezbollah and its sponsors in Tehran and Damascus have forced Hariri to do a number of things lately — to give it veto power in his government’s cabinet and to surrender to its continuing existence as a warmongering militia that threatens to blow up the country again by picking fights with the Israelis.

Hariri and his allies in parliament resisted an extraordinary amount of pressure on these points for months before caving in, but cave in they did. They didn’t have much choice. The national army isn’t strong enough to disarm Hezbollah,

and unlike Iran’s tyrant Ali Khamenei, Hariri doesn’t have his own private army. Hezbollah militiamen surrounded his house last year and firebombed his TV station when the government shut down its illegal surveillance system at the airport. At the end of the day, Hariri has to do what Hezbollah and its friends say unless someone with a bigger stick covers his back when push comes to shove.

No one has Hariri’s or Lebanon’s back, not anymore. He and his allies in the “March 14″ coalition have sensed this for some time, which is why Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has grudgingly softened his opposition to Assad and Hezbollah lately. When Hariri went to Damascus, everyone in the country, aside from useless newswire reporters, understood it meant Syria has re-emerged as the strong horse in Lebanon.

Walid Jumblatt is another member of what David Schenker calls the Murdered Fathers Club. Assad’s ruthless late father, Hafez Assad, put Jumblatt through a similarly gruesome experience back in the 70s during the civil war. First Assad murdered Walid’s father, Kamal, then summoned the surviving Jumblatt to Damascus and forced him to shake hands and pledge his allegiance. Who can even imagine what that must have felt like? Hariri knows now, and Jumblatt still tells everyone he meets all about it.

Hariri generally doesn’t like having long conversations with journalists on the record because he doesn’t want to calculate how everything he says will be simultaneously interpreted in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, the United States, France, and Saudi Arabia. I can’t say I blame him. He lives under virtual house arrest as it is, with barely more freedom of movement than Hassan Nasrallah. Here is something he said, though, back when it was safer for him to do so: “Action must be taken against Syria, like isolation, to make the Syrians understand that killing members of [Lebanon's] parliament will have consequences.”

The U.S. and France did effectively isolate Assad with Saudi assistance when George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac were in charge, but presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy think they can save the Middle East by “engaging” its most toxic leaders. Syria, therefore, is no longer isolated. Lebanon’s little anti-Syrian government doesn’t stand a chance under these circumstances, especially not when Hezbollah is the dominant military power in the country.

“It’s a dangerous game these people are playing,” Lebanese activist and political analyst Eli Khoury said last time I spoke with him in Beirut, “but I think it’s only a matter of time until the newcomers burn their fingers with the same realities that we’ve seen over and over again. I’ve seen every strategy: Kissinger’s step-by-step approach, full engagement — which means sleeping with the enemy, basically — and the solid stand as with the Bush Administration. I’ve seen them all. The only one that works so far in my opinion, aside from some real stupid and dumb mistakes, is the severing of relationships. It made the Syrians behave.”

It did make the Syrians behave a bit for a while, but now the U.S., France, and Saudi Arabia are bringing Assad in from the cold and giving him cocoa. His influence, naturally, is rising again, in Lebanon and everywhere else. That’s good news for Hezbollah, of course, which means it’s also good news for Iran. It’s bad news for the Lebanese, the Americans, the French, the Saudis, and the Israelis. None of this was inevitable, but — in Lebanon, at least — it was predictable.

via commentarymagazine.com

Hariri is no Saint

In Washington, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman failed to persuadePresident Barack Obama to drop objections to Hizbullah's rearming, and instead "exert further pressure" on Israel to withdraw from disputed areas along its border with Lebanon. Suleiman acted "more like the Syrian ambassador than the Lebanese president," observed Farid Ghadry, the Washington-based head of the Reform Party of Syria.

Obama publicly told Suleiman he should enforce UN Resolution 1701 by disarming Hizbullah and halting its "extensive" arms smuggling, which poses "a threat to Israel." Suleiman disagreed, insisting that part of the resolution no longer applies to the militant group because it is a legitimate political party and part of Lebanon's government, which has authorized it to retain its weapons. The real threat, he told Obama, is from Israel.

via jpost.com