Muhammad Amin
Lebanon is on the brink of capitulating to US and Israeli “peace” conditions, if western news sources are to be believed. Other sources tell another story, of a government struggling to maintain some sense of national coherence while resisting successfully the gravitational pressure of western diplomats to capitulate and return to a 1980s Lebanon divided violently according to sectarian differences.
Agence France Presse (AFP) is reporting Lebanese officials who say Beirut has signalled broad support for a US-proposed ceasefire, with one official saying: “We have made a lot of progress. Lebanon has a very positive view on this proposal.” He claims final remarks on the wording of the draft are being prepared.
Negotiating under fire
But Araby al-Jadeed newspaper reports sources inside Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri’s office say they know Israel “cannot be trusted” as they try and negotiate an uncertain future while under constant Israeli fire. The genocidal state launched 300 air attacks on Lebanon on Monday, for instance.
“The enemy is resorting to escalation, expanding its targets, and attacking civilians and civil defense. On Sunday, it also attacked the Lebanese army in the south, which indicates its criminality, intentions, and attempt to exert pressure with force of fire to impose its conditions,” the sources said.
Berri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper at the weekend Beirut had expressed its reservations to Washington and would not accept a violation of Lebanese sovereignty – a reference to Israeli demands for “freedom of action” in Lebanese territory and airspace. Israel wants to be able to hit and kill anywhere, any time, in Lebanon for the next 100 years.
It already has such freedom over Syria where it routinely bombs targets that take its fancy.
US ambassador Lisa Johnson has called on Lebanon’s Christian politicians to boot Hezbollah out of the country and to appoint Lebanese army general Joseph Aoun as president of the country. Lebanon’s constitution rules that the country’s president must come from its substantial Christian community. The Speaker is always a Sunni and the Prime Minister a Shia.
The time is now
Western and Israeli diplomats are trying to manipulate the country’s proportional representation system to get as many arch-Phalangists from the 1980s back in power and doing their bidding.
In a meeting earlier this month, Johnson encouraged her Lebanese allies to advocate for the election of Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun as President of Lebanon, saying, “He [Aoun] will appoint a strong commander for the Lebanese Army, and we will support the Army in restraining all Hezbollah supporters. You will have backing from Arab states and the West. But the time to act is now.”
She added: “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.’”
The ambassador added, “The Lebanese people must show their desire to rise up and get rid of Hezbollah and return to the context that emerged after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, especially since the regional, international, and field circumstances are in your favor.”
However, Berri’s sources say he is insisting there can be no deal as long as Israel remains on the Lebanese side of the “Blue Line” demarcating the real border between the two countries. In the disputed area, Israel remains in control of Lebanon’s Bekaa valley and Syria’s Golan Heights.
Israel in control
A UN peacekeeping force, Unifil, was supposed to oversee the return of the seized land to their respective countries, but that has never happened.
The US and Israel want Unifil and the poorly equipped and badly trained Lebanese army to be empowered to enforce security in the disputed region, taking the role of security out of the hands of Hezbollah (and, effectively, leaving it in Israeli control).
However, despite clear enthusiasm in some quarters for the US’s suggestions, most ordinary people still remember vividly the terrible days of civil war, when the Phalangists and the occupying Israelis waged a daily rein of terror in Lebanon. Israel has invaded Lebanon six times in the last 50 years, so most Lebanese civilians understand what it means to have the Lawnmowers on the wrong side of the border.
They still appreciate the role Hezbollah played in chucking the Israeli killers out of their country in such dramatic fashion in 2005.
Berri is also not interested in US and Israeli demands that the country be effectively administered by a special, international committee as the current US proposal stipulates. He points out UN Resolution 1701 that drew up the procedure to govern Heybollah and Israel’s withdrawal from “Blue Line” areas – the Bekaa Valley and the Golan Heights – makes no provision for international overseers.
Israel remains in occupation of the disputed “Blue Line” areas, hence Hezbollah’s insistence on maintaining a presence along the border with Israel.
1980s ‘terror days’
Israel’s right-wing coalition partner Benny Gantz tweeted Monday: ““A condition for any agreement with Lebanon – full Israeli freedom of action against any violation.”
For most Lebanese, that means a return to the 1980s terror days.
The Cradle reports Lebanon has issued a formal response to the US–Israeli proposal, according to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). White House envoy Amos Hochstein is due in Beirut this week.
Al-Mayadeen says Israel has yet to formally respond to what is effectively its own proposal.
Ali Hassan Khalil, Lebanese Member of Parliament and top political aide to Berri, was cited by Reuters saying that Lebanon, including Hezbollah, had agreed to a US proposal for a ceasefire regarding the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, marking what he described as the most serious effort yet to end the ongoing war.
He said Lebanon had submitted its written response to Johnson.
Khalil stressed that the success of proposal now hinges on Israel’s response, warning, “If Israel does not seek a solution, it could create 100 problems.”
in International News, News, Palestine, Politics, World
Lebanon on brink of capitulating to US, Israeli demands

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