Stop already with the Sit-Ins

Enough already with the sit-ins all I read was the head line in Yalibnan Aoun threatens fragile Lebanon with widespread sit-ins

and my blood was boiling talk about cutting off your nose despite your face what the hell is wrong with these people.  Are we not looking for a solution? are we not trying to repair what is wrong with Lebanon?  Must we keep going and going they are like the energizer bunny commercials here in the states they keep going and going and going.  The sit-ins for all there good intentions have lead to the absolute destruction of the down town economy people do have a right to make a living to pay their bills, and feed their kids.  I’ am not talking even about the Business  owners I’ am talking about the people that work or have worked in these Business that no longer have a job is this the answer to make more and more people unemployed?  When I took my kids to Lebanon this past summer my son had not been there since he was a young boy taking him to down town was a joke it was like taking them to a ghost town roads closed , tents, and no business open.  God help every one there to find a solution that will work for all.

Army Chief is front-runner in Lebanon presidential race

Beirut – Lebanese Armed Forces Commander
General Michel Suleiman came back into the spotlight as a serious
contender for the presidency on Wednesday, after Future Movement MP
Ammar Houri

announced his bloc’s acceptance of amending the Constitution to allow for his election.
The announcement pointed to a change of heart on the part of Future
Movement leader MP Saad Hariri, as Suleiman had long been a favorite
candidate of the opposition.

Houri, speaking to Al-Arabiyya satellite news channel Wednesday,

Lebanon: A Failed State?

By Ghassan Karam,
Special to Ya Libnan
It
is highly discomforting to notice that not many political analysts,
observers, residents or politicians of the Lebanese political scene
have correctly identified the root cause of the Lebanese stand-off as
being purely systemic.

A
proper diagnosis is essential if one is to treat the real malady and
not merely the symptoms. Lebanon has just observed its 64th anniversary
of “independence” although it is clear that the state has always
catered to the whims and dictates of outsiders. Ceremonial events are
often meant as a cover and as PR instruments to project an image that
does not exist. It is unfortunate, but Lebanon seems to relish
ceremonial events, empty clichés and hollow institutions.

Decisive week in Lebanon ahead of presidential election

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon entered a decisive week on Monday during
which the parliament is due to elect a new president, with many warning
that the country risks sliding into chaos if the political vacuum
persists.

“We are now in an interim period which may lead us to
stability, or to chaos and confrontation,” Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir,
from whose Maronite community Lebanese presidents are drawn, said
during his Sunday sermon.

President Emile Lahoud left office at
the end of his term on Friday after parliament failed to elect his
successor amid continued deadlock between the Western-backed government
and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran.

Although
politicians have vowed to agree on a consensus candidate by the time
MPs convene again for a vote on Friday, there has been no tangible
progress.

“Everybody — especially those responsible for
brokering an agreement — is asked to show seriousness and honest
patriotism,” the cardinal said.

The government, considered
illegitimate by the opposition since its six ministers quit last
November, said on Saturday that it was taking charge of running Lebanon
in line with the constitution.

But the opposition, spearheaded by
Shiite militant group Hezbollah which fought last year’s war with
Israel, contested the government’s interpretation of its constitutional
authority.

Lebanon is now “without an executive power,” Hezbollah number two Naim Qassem said.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s government “does not exist, cannot rule and cannot take over from the presidency,” he said.

The
deadlock is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation between
the two sides’ foreign sponsors — the United States and its key Arab
ally Saudi Arabia for the government, and Iran and its key Arab ally
Syria for the opposition.

“The problem can be fixed in one day or
in one month, as Lebanon has again become the victim of regional
tensions,” political analyst and law professor Sami Salhab told AFP.

“Lebanon is again a mail box where every foreign player sends a message to other players.”

Attention
focussed on Tuesday’s Middle East peace meeting in the United States
following Syria’s 11th-hour decision to attend over the opposition of
its ally Iran.

The An-Nahar daily said all negotiations between
the government and the opposition were effectively frozen until after
the meeting in Annapolis outside Washington.

“There won’t be any
serious developments before the results of Annapolis are clear,
especially as far as how future relations between Syria and Washington
will evolve,” the newspaper said.

Justice Minister Charles Rizk
told Lebanese radio that by agreeing to attend the conference, Syria
was playing a pivotal role “which constitutes a first step in US
efforts to break the Syrian-Iranian alliance”.

Syria announced on
Sunday that it was sending Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to
Annapolis following what it said were assurances that the return of the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights would be on the meeting’s agenda.

Peace
talks between Syria and Israel broke down in 2000 when Israel baulked
at Syrian demands for the return of the entire territory, right down to
the shores of the Sea of Galilee, its main water source.

Political
analyst Michael Young said developments between the two sides at the
peace meeting would have a major bearing on the outcome of Lebanon’s
political crisis.

“We have to watch progress on the Syrian track in Annapolis,” he said.

“Either
the Syrian track makes progress, and the United States will demand
concessions from Syria, or the Syrian track does not make progress and
Syria becomes more isolated.

“In either case, Syria will have to make concessions in Lebanon.”
Source: AFP

We are often asked: Who are we, the Hizballah, and what is our identity? – Fadlallah

I found this comment on Naharnet on a post

We
are the sons of the umma (Muslim community) – the party of God (Hizb
Allah) the vanguard of which was made victorious by God in Iran. There
the vanguard succeeded to lay down the bases of a Muslim state which
plays a central role in the world. We obey the orders of one leader,
wise and just, that of our tutor and faqih (jurist) who fulfills all
the necessary conditions: Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini. God save him!
By
virtue of the above, we do not constitute an organized and closed party
in Lebanon. nor are we a tight political cadre. We are an umma linked
to the Muslims of the whole world by the solid doctrinal and religious
connection of Islam, whose message God wanted to be fulfilled by the
Seal of the Prophets, i.e., Muhammad. This is why whatever touches or
strikes the Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines and elsewhere
reverberates throughout the whole Muslim umma of which we are an
integral part. Our behavior is dictated to us by legal principles laid
down by the light of an overall political conception defined by the
leading jurist (wilayat al-faqih).
As for our culture, it is based
on the Holy Koran, the Sunna and the legal rulings of the faqih who is
our source of imitation (marja’ al-taqlid). Our culture is crystal
clear. It is not complicated and is accessible to all. No one can
imagine the importance of our military potential as our military
apparatus is not separate from our overall social fabric. Each of us is
a fighting soldier. And when it becomes necessary to carry out the Holy
War, each of us takes up his assignment in the fight in accordance with
the injunctions of the Law, and that in the framework of the mission
carried out under the tutelage of the Commanding Jurist…
…
Bashir Jumayyil, that butcher, seized power with the help also of OPEC
countries and the Jumayyil family. Bashir tried to improve his ugly
image by joining the six-member Committee of Public Safety presided
over by former President Elias Sarkis, which was nothing but an
American-Israeli bridge borrowed by the Phalangists in order to control
the oppressed…
….Our Objectives – Let us put it truthfully:
the sons of Hizhallah know who are their major enemies in the Middle
East – the Phalanges, Israel, France and the US. The sons of our umma
are now in a state of growing confrontation with them, and will remain
so until the realization of the following three objectives:
1 – to
expel the Americans. the French and their allies definitely from
Lebanon, putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land;
2 -
to submit the Phalanges to a just power and bring them all to justice
for the crimes they have perpetrated against Muslims and Christians;
3
- to permit all the sons of our people to determine their future and to
choose in all the liberty the form of government they desire. We call
upon all of them to pick the option of Islamic government which, alone,
is capable of guaranteeing justice and liberty for all. Only an Islamic
regime can stop any further tentative attempts of imperialistic
infiltration into our country…
…With special vehemence we reject
UNIFIL as they were sent by world arrogance to occupy areas evacuated
by Israel and serve for the latter as a buffer zone. They should be
treated much like the Zionists. All should know that the goals of the
Phalangists regime do not carry any weight with the Combatants of the
Holy War, i.e., the Islamic resistance. This is the quagmire which
awaits all foreign intervention…
…The Necessity for the
Destruction of Israel. We see in Israel the vanguard of the United
States in our Islamic world … Therefore our struggle will end only
when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no
cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated…

Source: Naharnet