generalspeaking

 The Indulgence of Arab/Muslim Dysfunctionality

"A woman newsreader with a careful, very English voice, had informed us that the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Begin, was ready to discuss a ceasefire with the Palestinians. One of the Palestinians grimaced when we translated the words. 'So they admit they are in Lebanon', he said.
"Two days later. Inside Beaufort Castle. The ceasefire did not last. No one had intended that it should; which was why Lieutenant Ayman had positioned a green-painted anti-aircraft gun inside a stone archway at the northern end of the keep. Its barrel had been deflected to the horizontal in order to shoot across the gorge of the Litani at the narrow road which ran from the Israeli border into the Christian town of Marjayoun. Every hour or so, a Palestinian boy no more than 13 years old snapped open the breech to check the ammunition then fired off a few rounds. The bullets went hissing across the sky from the 1,000-foot escarpment.
 'Just to the boy's right, at the end of a corridor, the Palestinians also had a mortar. It too was dutifully employed every hour when it dispatched a rocket with a hollow sound that delighted Lieutenant Ayman. His kuffiah was delicately embroidered, almost effeminate, and he ran up to us with childlike excitement every time he gave the order to fire. 'Come on, come, see quickly', he would say, smiling broadly, and sure enough far beneath us a tree near the river would twitch with the distant explosion. But Ayman admitted that he did not know exactly who was firing the shells that occasionally swept over the castle. Yes, he could show us journalists a whole covey of Israeli tanks on Lebanese territory but by the time he had settled himself on a boulder above the chasm, all he could do was stare crestfallen across the miles of valleys and hills -- without a tank in sight -- and claim that the Israelis only showed their armour at night.
Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation; the abduction of Lebanon

That was then, back in the 1970s-80s. This is now, the year 2013. Not all that much has changed in the political make-up of Lebanon, the enmities between sectarian groups, Druze, Christians, Sunni, Shia Muslims. And the Palestinians who back then had the idea under the leadership of Chairman Yasser Arafat, that Lebanon could and should belong to the Palestinians. The Palestinians were loathed by the Lebanese, who feared and were incapable of dislodging them from their country.

Now, in Lebanon, the Palestinians living in their refugee camps are protected by Hezbollah, the terrorist militia that was funded, armed and trained by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the time when the forces of good urged on by Islamism would finally, in triumph, destroy the intruder, the occupier, the Zionist entity. That the Palestinians first destroyed Lebanon is another story altogether. Hezbollah is powerful in Lebanon, however, and forms part of its government now.

Brutal intimidation, conscienceless determination, defiance, viciousness does succeed in the final analysis. One's opponents may be militarily matched and roughly equal in brutishness, but as long as they remain divided in their loathing of one another, their lack of cohesiveness works in favour of the bully that can keep it all together, the one who presents as more of a threat with a reputation of utter, proven ruthlessness.

And once again Lebanon is being dragged into another conflict; this one out of Syria. There's quite the irony there, since once Syria entered Lebanon to 'protect' the Syrian Christian population from the depredations of the Palestinian militias. And now that Hezbollah has decided, through Iran's urging, that it would dispense with all pretense and fully join the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad in battling the Sunni insurgent militias and their Islamist allies, al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunnis counter by attacking Hezbollah-majority Lebanese territory.


Soon after the attack, a video appeared online with three masked men, two with rifles, before a white flag festooned with the Islamic profession of faith, according to AFP. "You, the pig Hassan Nasrallah, we send you our second powerful message because you haven't understood yet", one of the group calling itself the Company of Aisha Umm al-Muminin said. Another of the group evidently accused the head of Hezbollah of being "an agent of Iran and Israel". What an association; collectively afflicted with morbid dementia.

Just to confuse the issue further, another Syrian rebel group, new on the scene, named the Special Forces 313 Brigade insisted it was responsible for the attack, in revenge for Hezbollah's decision to fight alongside the Alawite Syrian regime. There is simply no end to especially-named, newly-appearing jihadist groups commemorating various individuals and/or events in Islamic history or more recent events in memory of sectarian hostilities. But while their viral hatred for one another is legend, more so is their vicious hatred of the Zionist entity.

Lebanese president Michel Sleiman was right on the mark, blaming Israel out of hand for the attack: "This is a criminal act that bears the fingerprints of terrorism and Israel and is aimed to destabilize Lebanon and deal a blow to the resilience of the Lebanese". He was not alone in his pathetic delusion, and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri took his turn to place Israel front and centre in blame, urging the Lebanese to unite in the face of dangers: "This crime only serves the Israeli enemy that is working on dealing a blow to the components of national unity in Lebanon".


Never, it seems, will Arabs be able to civilly settle their disagreements with one another. Sectarian violence and hatred seems destined to forever violate their willingness and ability to live in peace with one another. They are determined to wreak vengeance for perceived slights, wrongs, misdemeanours and insults, let alone the assaults each sect commits on the sacred memory and worship of the Prophet Mohammed and the great, wholesome, peaceful institution of blessed Islam.

The only uniting feature in the landscape of the Middle East is the collectively vicious enmity of Arabs and Muslims against the presence of a Jewish State of Israel.

Labels: Atrocities, Conflict, Hezbollah, Islamism, Lebanon, Politics of Convenience, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 16, 2013