It is funny how some people allow themselves to interpret great men like Charles Malek in such a disrespectful and cheap way ..

Who is that guy anyway to talk about Dr.Malek and how can Al-Akhbar newspapers allow themselves to post this article in the first place ?

The man who was leading figure in the drafting and adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, who obtained more than 60 honorary doctorates from different international universities, who had articles on Christian philosophy and tons of articles promoting the dialogue between religions, mainly Islam is labeled as a fanatic and as an instigator to civil war in Lebanon ?

Maybe this will help that sorry excuse of an author (Omar Nachaba) understand Charles Malek.

لبنــان تراثــاً وأزلاً

Original Article from Al-Akhbar:

شارل مالك… الأصولي المحرّض

عمر نشابة
في ذكرى الحرب الأهلية الدموية، تتجه أصابع الاتهام نحو من افتعل الحرب عبر رفع الشعارات الطائفية التي أسهمت في قطع أوصال البلد، ويكثر الحديث عن وجوب احترام حقوق الناس وكراماتهم. لكن يمكن اعتبار الوزير الراحل شارل مالك بطلاً لنقيضين: حقوق الإنسان والطائفية على حدّ سواء…
ومنذ سنين حاولتُ نشر دراسة عن تطرّف شارل مالك المسيحي في إحدى الصحف اللبنانية الرئيسية، لكن مسؤول صفحة الرأي آنذاك (الذي أكنّ له كلّ الاحترام والتقدير) قال لي: «ارجوك أن لا ترسل لي هكذا موضوع لأن صاحب الجريدة يعتبر نفسه ابن شارل مالك بالتبنّي…»، فتعلّمت يومها درساً يتناول «حقوق الإنسان» في التعبير عن الرأي على طريقة «ابن» شارل مالك…
كان مالك، المقرّب من زوجة الرئيس الأميركي الراحل فرانكلن د. روزفلت، عضواً في لجنة صياغة الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسان عام 1948 الذي يُعَدُّ الوثيقة الأساسية لحماية كرامة الإنسان أينما وجد بغضّ النظر عن ديانته ومعتقداته. لكن مالك كان يرى أن الدين المسيحي متفوّق على الديانات الأخرى، لا بل كان يرى أن «الكنيسة، التي تتمتّع بالحقيقة الكاملة، لا تقود بما فيه الكفاية في المجال السياسي». وكان مالك، الذي عين أيضاً وزيراً للخارجية اللبنانية، يقول إن «في كلّ الأزمات خلال سجل العذاب الإنساني الطويل، كانت كنيسة المسيح الجواب الحقيقي الوحيد». ويضيف أن «ما يوقف مسيرة الانحطاط ليست الآليات الدولية، بل روح الله التي تحتلّ قلوب الرجال».
ولم يتوقف كلام شارل مالك على تفضيل دين على دين وتمييز طائفة عن أخرى، بل ذهب إلى حدّ تحريض الغرب في «المعركة الروحية في آسيا» وتحدّث عن كون الكنيسة الأرثوذوكسية هي عازل بين الشرق والغرب… رافضاً بذلك هوية الكنيسة الشرقية العربية الأصيلة ومنحازاً إلى الغرب الذي يستنجد به للتحريض على إخوته من الطوائف والأديان الأخرى.
وكان مالك يشكك بفعالية الأمم المتحدة فيسأل: «ماذا بإمكان الأمم المتحدة وإعلاناتها الغامضة فعله بدون يسوع المسيح؟ وتحدّث الوزير الراحل عن عدم فعالية نصوص الأمم المتحدة في حال عدم مباركة «سيّد التاريخ»؟
تجاهل شارل مالك المسلمين والبوذيين والهندوس والملحدين وغيرهم من الذين لا علاقة لهم بمباركة المسيح، بينما لا شكّ في أن لهم حقوقاً إنسانية… ألا يمكننا اعتبار هذا التجاهل تحريضاً على الفتنة

The Engineers syndicate is holding on Sunday the 15th of April its elections in its syndicate office in Beirut.
The Lebanese Forces official candidate will be Nabil Abou Jaoudeh ( mouracha7 el fere3 el rabi3).

I ask all LFers and 14th of march supporters to vote for Nabil and the 14March List.

We always brag that our supporters are educated and from the best universities, well this is the time to prove those assumptions through democratic elections.

Good luck Nabil.

Well well,
I didnt hear Nasrallah mentioning this in his speech ?? Or such information should not be heard by his followers ??

Syria negociating with Israel while Hezbollah is thanking Syria and attacking Sanioura of collaborating with Israel and the Americans !

Stop insulting our intelligence, HA will pay a very heavy price if a deal is made btw Syria and the Americans ..

Here is the article :

Assad-Offered Peace with Israel Cuts off Hizbullah Link

Syrian-American negotiator Ibrahim Suleiman said Thursday Syrian President Bashar Assad was ready for peace with Israel in six months that could cut his links with Lebanon’s Hizbullah and allow him to fight terrorism.

“Since 1948 Israeli leaders have said they are ready to talk peace anytime and anywhere,” The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Suleiman as telling reporters at a news conference after addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Syria right now is ready to speak peace.”

“I challenged the Israeli government to answer President Bashar [Assad]’s call for peace and sit down together,” he added. “I think it can happen in six months.”

David Baker, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, said in response: “The position of the Israeli government remains the same. The Syrian government is not pursuing peace but is merely posturing.”
(more…)

I will keep on posting about how horrible civil wars are .. keep on posting that we need to stay conscious and aware of the consequences of a war ..

Today is the 32nd remembrance of the Lebanese war, it should stay a memory because any new war will mean the end of Lebanon ..

Well to associate the definition with FACTS, here are few hints on why Hezollah is a terrorist party.

Hezbollah has planned and organized a series of terrorist attacks against Western countries, mainly the USA & Israel since the early 80s.

- Kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon during the war ( early 80s).
- The US Marines bombing that killed more than 200 of them at their barracks in Beirut (1983).
- Hijacking a TWA plane. (1985)
- Bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, killing 29 people (1992).
- Bombing of a Jewish community center, killing 95 people ( 1994).
- Kidnapping of 2 soldiers in July 2006.

I hope those few facts confirm what i posted earlier.
If you need pictures as well to illustrate those facts, i dont mind providing them.

This place brings back a lot of memories, good ones to say the least ..
It is still there by the way.

I posted two days ago about several definitions of terrorism and why is it that Hezbollah is a terrorist party.

It is true that things wont stop at the threshold of definitions and that one must support those definitions with facts to sort of materialize such a labeling.

Firstly i will try to answer lebanon_05’s questions which i believe deserve a lengthy answer. Hezbollah that started as an Islamic Revolution in Lebanon has turned into an Islamic Resistance before getting into politics and has known an impressive evolution throughout the years, however his goal is still the same and his methods are still ones of a terrorist party, with certain improvements.

Back to the questions asked:

Answer to 1#:Let me clarify first that Israel is my ennemy as much as it is Hezbollah’s ennemy, and that i refuse for any foreign country to invade 1 inch of Lebanese soil, and that the LF NEVER collaborated with Israel as they claim, however Syria & Palestine are also ennemies and have harmed us way more than Israelis did, and history and assasinations and testimonies prove me right.

You asked how started ? It is true that Israel had no right in occupying Palestine, however Palestinians fled their country instead of defending it, and honestly Arafat sold the Palestinian Cause since day1 and therefore i blame them for letting Israel get that far, and Israel has become a fact now, and unfortunatelly Palestine will never come back to what it was.

I do not wish to go on the Palestinian issue here, i am more interested in the Lebanese cause, in Lebanon that small country that was attacked first by Palestinians and then by Syrians, and then by Israelis who invaded us to get rid of Palestinian guerillas, and settled in the South to steal our water and create a buffer zone.

Do we have the right to resist ?? It is our sacred right.
Do we have the right to ally with an invador to kick another out out ?? Not at all and this is what Hezbollah did, Hezbollah invaded the South and did not free it, it confiscated the resistance for its own political purposes and exploited the Palestinian Cause to keep its arms while Palestinians were not allowed to use their weapons ..

You cannot fight Israel with a Pro-Syrian Pro-Iranian militia sending suicide bombers, i always believed we could have settled things diplomatically with Israel, but Syria didnt want that to happen and still doesnt.
I truly believe Israel nowadays and since few years does not have any ambition in invading us, it will only weaken its security and it has enough problems, Sharon was building a wall to close the borders and we could have easily signed a peace agreement and put UN troops on the frontiers ..
(more…)

I will have a thread dedicated to analyzing all three speeches …

Meanwhile, i was pretty satisfied with Jumblatt’s and Geagea’s speeches, Nasrallah ba2 el ba7ssa mazbout .. and now that the deadlock is confirmed, let us wait and see what will happen ..

Jumblatt’s reply.

Hakim’s reply.
Text - Audio

As per one of the member’s request, here is a thread defining terrorism ( not the US definition of course).
I gathered most of the definitions i could find to have a broader and precise definition ..

What is the purpose of that post ? prove that Hezbollah is a terrorist party based on those definitions, and regardless of my political background. Now if after all those definitions, you still are not convinced HA is a terrorist party, i would be glad to associate examples of HA’s actions to prove the definitions.

Proposed Definitions of Terrorism
1. League of Nations Convention (1937):

“All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public”.

2. UN Resolution language (1999):

“1. Strongly condemns all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomsoever committed;

2. Reiterates that criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them”. (GA Res. 51/210 Measures to eliminate international terrorism)

3. Short legal definition proposed by A. P. Schmid to United Nations Crime Branch (1992):

Act of Terrorism = Peacetime Equivalent of War Crime

4. Academic Consensus Definition:

“Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought” (Schmid, 1988).

5.Oxford Definition
The Oxford English Dictionary defines terrorism as “a policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorising or condition of being terrorised.”

6. American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as “The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”

7. Wikipedia
Terrorism is a term used to describe violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians by groups or persons for political or ideological goals (fear in latin).[1] Most definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear or “terror”, are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a “madman” attack), and deliberately target “non-combatants”.
As a form of unconventional warfare, terrorism is sometimes used when attempting to force political change by: convincing a government or population to agree to demands to avoid future harm or fear of harm, destabilization of an existing government, motivating a disgruntled population to join an uprising, escalating a conflict in the hopes of disrupting the status quo, expressing
the severity of a grievance, or drawing attention to a neglected cause.

The terms “terrorism” and “terrorist” (someone who engages in terrorism) carry a strong negative connotation. These terms are often used as political labels to condemn violence or threat of violence by certain actors as immoral, indiscriminate, or unjustified.

Those labeled “terrorists” rarely identify themselves as such, and typically use other generic terms or terms specific to their situation, such as: separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerrilla, rebel, jihadi or mujaheddin, or fedayeen, or any similar-meaning word in other languages.

Terrorism has been used by a broad array of political organizations in furthering their objectives; both right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic, and religious groups, revolutionaries and ruling governments.[2] The presence of non-state actors in widespread armed conflict has created controversy regarding the application of the laws of war.

15,00 حفل التخرج الجامعي السنوي العشرين للطلاب الجامعيين في التعبئة التربوية المركزية في “حزب الله” في قاعة مجمع سيد الشهداء - الرويس - الحي الابيض.

I listened carefully to Nasrallah’s speech today from the beginning till the end, and watched the crowds reaction’s to his statements.
In a popular ceremony, i would understand that masses would be present cheering blindly for whatever he says and wishing death to Amrika el Chaytan ..

This happens in all popular speeches, not just HA’s speeches … but today was different, it was a graduation ceremony for almost 1750 students, graduated from respectable institutions, maybe not the fanciest schools, but the level of education in Lebanon is pretty high in most colleges and schools.

Those students were like robots, i am almost confident they did not understand one word of what Nasrallah said. I mean usually when someone jokes in such speeches, you expect laughters from the audience .. but nothing ! This happened more than one time yet they failed to understand the joke apparently or simply were asked not to interact ??

Instead everytime Nasrallah goes quiet, it is a sign that they should applaud or simply cheer for him ..

What a shame walla ..

Click Here for more pictures.
Ya3teekoun alf 3afye ya rife2.

Since we are in Easter now, i remembered this picture i found in my archives, it was published the next day Bash was elected president.

I wish you all a blessed Good Friday ..

Well that answers my previous question in my earlier post today.

Satellite data proves 15 navy personnel being held in Iran were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were seized, UK defence officials say.

Vice Admiral Charles Style said the sailors had been “ambushed” in the Gulf after searching a vessel and their detention was “unjustified and wrong”.

Full Article here.

So The Iranian president released the 15 British captives ..

It was a surprising move specially that they were not even judged .. The question is did they really violate Iran’s territorial waters? They will be interrogated today by their superiors and we should know what really happened ..

But the sure thing is that Ahmadinajad is sending a clear threat to whomever wants to mess with Iran, even though the US and Britain did not offer any compromise neither wanted to
negociate for the release of the sailors.

Ahmadinejad joked with one of them, “What kind of compulsory trip were you on?” He then added, “I wish you success.”

“I declare that the people of Iran and the government of Iran — in full power given their legal right to place on trial the military people — to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people, and I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain,” Ahmadinejad said.

One last remark, If you violate a country’s territory, you usually get warned several times before being arrested, and all satellite pictures showed that the sailors did not violate Iran’s territory, at least thats what i heard on the news.

Lets hope this is just another cold war before US & Iran settle their issues politically.

Syria’s allies kept delaying it giving all sorts of arguments for months now .. i think 14th of march should have done this long time ago .. but better late than never ..

A letter was dispatched to the UN secretary general concerning the tribunal signed by 70 Mps, thererfore it is in the hands of the UN and Syria has to explain itself to the UN now .. the tribunal will most probably be voted et c’est finie la musique

Berri seems surprised with that move, that was the main political card to negociate with and now its gone ..

Cause of the tribunal, 8th of march ministers started missing parliament sessions.

Cause of the tribunal, they resigned.

Cause of the tribunal, they built tent city ..

The tribunal is no more negociable, and the government is staying ..

Al-Akhbar wrote a very good article on that issue today, pointing out the 6 consequences of that move on the 8th of march team.
Berri tried hopelessly to attack this move by saying Khoja wasnt aware of that .. bass ma 7ada rad 3le.

here is the article by Nicolas Nassif.

Sadly, mainstream Muslim teaching accepts and promotes violenc.

Wall Street Journal - BY TAWFIK HAMID
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Not many years ago the brilliant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, published a short history of the Islamic world’s decline, entitled “What Went Wrong?” Astonishingly, there was, among many Western “progressives,” a vocal dislike for the title. It is a false premise, these critics protested. They ignored Mr. Lewis’s implicit statement that things have been, or could be, right.
But indeed, there is much that is clearly wrong with the Islamic world. Women are stoned to death and undergo clitorectomies. Gays hang from the gallows under the approving eyes of the proponents of Shariah, the legal code of Islam. Sunni and Shia massacre each other daily in Iraq. Palestinian mothers teach 3-year-old boys and girls the ideal of martyrdom. One would expect the orthodox Islamic establishment to evade or dismiss these complaints, but less happily, the non-Muslim priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists’ defense.
(more…)

Thanks to Khalifa_Omar for the pictures.
They do learn fast

I posted earlier asking who will strike first ?
Well Israel apparently is gonna be the one to strike first, at least according to several articles i wrote about an upcoming regional war.

Even though i highly doubt the US or Israel will go after such an insane hit, there are talks and even plans on how this operation will be executed in few days or weeks time.

How will the operation be executed ??

Rumors are spreading that Israel is stockpiling for an attack, it acquired 30 long-range F-15 from the US and bought more than 5000 bunker-busters, missiles that can penetrate up to 10 metres of earth and concrete.

Israel will take off with three squadrons of six F-15’s - fly over Iraq, and hit Iran’s three key facilities. The US is expected to provide satellite information and refueling as the Israeli jets exit.

Iran will see this as an attack by America, and will threaten to retaliate. Israel will launch a Sunburn 22, taking out a carrier, and Iran will get blamed.

You can read the rest of this disastrous scenario for the whole region on this link.

I will post later on on the Sunburn 22 missile which is the prime target of The Americans and Israelis added to the Nuclear installations in Iran.

The consequences of such a hit will be a retaliation from Iran and the straits of Hurmuz will be their first target to stop the flow of oil, and plunge the world market into a serious crisis.