Dr. Christof Lehmann * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

In 50 minutes it's the 16th of September. Twenty nine years have past, my goodness. I'll never forget you wonderful people. Neither will I forget the extremes of inhumanity and human compassion, the ugliness and beauty, the laughter and grins while murdering with a disregard for humanity and life impossible to comprehend, and the tears and cries of deepest despair and suffering no human being, not even an animal should experience. The days of terror I had to share with you were also the greatest lesson on human greatness, and the deepest beauty of the collective Palestinian Spirit, I ever had to endure. Confused ? So am I. Even after 29 years I still can`t comprehend the full impact the experience has had on me, nor on you. At least I had the privilege to leave after it was possible to get out of the ruins of Sabra and Shatila. You could not. It makes me sad, really. So sad that I never returned to face the demons in my memory and my bad conscience over leaving you behind. There is so much I don't know because I left you behind, beaten, bloody in body mind and soul. Broken glass that shines like a diamond in the sun, crying out to the world, "let us live in peace". The only thing I know with absolute certainty is this:

Neither you, nor me, nor anyone should ever experience the inhumanity of pure unleashed evil, and until my last breath I will do what I can to prevent anything like Sabra and Shatila from ever happening again.

As you see, I am utter failure.

Dr. Christof Lehmann

After 29 Years I am Still Speechless. So PLEASE, just watch these Documentaries.

GRAPHIC: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

Video link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6251717507378085992&hl=da
50 Minutes Documentary with Interviews of politicians, eyewitnesses, and survivors, as well as Video Documentation of the Aftermath of the Massacres in Sabra and Shatila.

The Massacre in Sabra and Shatila was not the first, nor the last in a still ongoing genocide on the people of Palestine. While the massacre in Sabra and Shatila was committed under the Defence Minitry of Ariel Sharon, the massacre in Jenin was committed while he was Prime Minister. Please also watch Jenin Jenin.

Video link: http://youtu.be/qJmUryVKQrU

About the recognition of Palestine at the u.N. This month please read this article.

Thank you for taking the time to inform yourselves.

Please support Palestinians right to self-determination in Palestine and a worthy life - PNGO – Palestinian NGO Network.

* Dr. Christof Lehmann, a life time peace activist, psychologist, and advisor in behavior, finance, economics and politics.

By Stuart Littlewood * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

A delegation of parliamentarians has returned from a tour of the refugee camps in Lebanon and made its report http://goo.gl/e0gGm (PDF).

MP Gerald Kaufman with delegates in Lebanon

The UN Refugee Agency describes the plight of Palestinian refugees as "by far the most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world today".

Three-quarters of the 11 million Palestinians are refugees. Their plight is at the core of the 63-year struggle against Israel. All other issues, political and humanitarian, arose as a consequence of Israel's denial of the right of refugees to return to their land.

The report reminds us that a whole host of international treaties and conventions recognise the right to return including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. The Right of Return for refugees is guaranteed under Humanitarian and Human Rights Law and countless UN resolutions.

And the UN has affirmed the right of return through its Resolution 194 on no less than 122 occasions.

But to the international community none of this is worth the screeds of paper it is written on. Law and principle are utterly meaningless to the great, civilised powers, who just fidget and whisper sweet nothings in Israel's ear.

Meanwhile, over 400,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon's 12 'official' (UNRWA-run) refugee camps and its many 'unofficial' camps, amounting to approximately 10 percent of the country's population. They are politically marginalised, without basic social and economic rights, trapped in often squalid surroundings, and without hopes for the future.

Palestinian refugees, says the report, suffer more in Lebanon than in any other country that hosts them.

Europe should "balance out" America's role

President Suleiman told the delegation: "Lebanon does not have the capacity to absorb 400,000 people; we simply cannot offer them a good life. The truth is that we will not see peace in the Middle East without the implementation of the refugees' right of return."

Foreign minister, Dr Ali Chami, said: "It is not acceptable that Palestinians have been living outside their own state since 1948. The half a million in Lebanon are in complete misery and a very dire situation. The clear solution is the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital". He also spoke of the Israelis' intransigence: "Since 1978, according to UN resolutions, Israel has violated Lebanese sovereignty every day, while the international community has failed to deter them."

Referring to Israel's invasions and occupation of Lebanon, Deputy Speaker Al Zain said: "Lebanon has endured a lot for the Palestinian cause... It is high time the West liberated itself from double standards and stopped supporting satellite regimes that do not respect Palestinian rights."

A Hezbollah MP remarked: "More than two million people have been killed because of this cause. There are millions of Palestinian victims around the world and the international community has paid out billions of dollars, but there is still no solution".

Another MP added: "There needs to be seriousness in dealing with Israel and an end to backing dictatorships. Palestine had free elections in 2006, but the West conspired to undermine the results. If this corruption isn't corrected the West will face the biggest upheaval in the region since 1948-49."

On Europe the Deputy Speaker said: "The world needs another power to balance out America's role, Europe should fulfill this role."

Palestinian Refugee Camps - Lebanon

Recalling the Sabra and Shatila camp massacre of at least 800 in 1982 while Beirut was under Israeli occupation, British MP Jeremy Corbyn reflected: "The pain of the Sabra and Shatila massacres... never goes away. It was a poignant moment for the delegates to be able to lay a wreath at the memorial. It was sad to see the continued poverty in those camps nearly 30 years on, but we were inspired by the people. The description by Mohammed Omar Deeb, an elderly survivor of the massacres and his determination that one day he would see his village in Palestine and that all his family would see a free Palestine is typical of the enduring spirit of the Palestinian people."

Two inquiries held Israel indirectly responsible and Ariel Sharon was especially implicated.

Refugees must remain at the centre of all peace talks

After their visit the delegation concluded...

• The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are victims many times over.
• They are denied access to their homeland.
• They are the victims of Lebanon's civil wars and the numerous Israeli invasions and occupation.
• They are victims of the unwillingness of the international community to secure justice and the unwillingness of the Lebanese authorities to grant them their basic human rights.

Their recommendations are...

• The international community, including Israel, is responsible for guaranteeing the rights of Palestinian refugees and providing them with protection.
• While Lebanon and many members of the United Nations offer appropriate rhetoric, this must be matched with concrete steps to tangibly improve the lives of the refugees in Lebanon and put an end to the catastrophic conditions in which they live.
• An appropriate solution is needed that restores and protects the human rights of the refugees, including their right to return to their land.
• In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees have a status that falls far short of even second class citizenship. This should be corrected without delay.
• All parties should respect and enforce United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 which calls for the return of the refugees.
• As Israel has shown no inclination to respect the rights of Palestinian refugees under international law, it is incumbent on the international community to enforce a resolution.
• The European Union and its member states, including the United Kingdom, should significantly increase their funding to UNRWA to allow the agency to fulfill its remit.
• Negotiators, politicians and activists should ensure that Palestinian refugees remain at the centre of all peace talks.
• Lebanon's position on the refugees is woefully inadequate. The 17th August 2010 law should be implemented immediately as a first step to normalising the lives of Palestinian refugees by improving human, civil and property rights and lifting restrictions on the professions available to Palestinians.

On housing, all restrictions that limit the right to adequate housing for Palestinians should be removed, including any legislation that discriminates against Palestinians who are not officially citizens of a recognised state. A degree of security of tenure should be guaranteed and restrictions on bringing building materials into refugee camps should be removed, including the fines or penalties imposed on Palestinians for attempting to make their homes habitable.

As regards the environment, minimum levels of sanitation and access to clean water for all Palestinian refugees should be ensured.

As regards employment, restrictions on Palestinian access to all professions should be lifted and the process of obtaining work permits eased.

As regards education, Lebanon should ensure that all children under its jurisdiction have access to education equal to that enjoyed by Lebanese nationals.

As regards non-ID refugees, their status in Lebanon should be regularised and refugees provided with identification documents.

It's altogether a shocking situation. Congratulations to the delegation for seeing it from the refugees' angle and making their findings public.

"Conditions are unspeakable... the real culprit is Israel"

Sir Gerald Kaufman, who led the delegation, summed up. "When I went to Gaza in 2010 I thought I had seen the worst that could be seen of the appalling predicament of Palestinians living in conditions which no human being should be expected to endure. But what I saw in the camps in Lebanon is far worse and far more hopeless.

"The conditions are unspeakable, but for over 400,000 of our fellow human beings this is their life: today, tomorrow and for a future that cannot even be foreseen. At least in Gaza, frightful though the situation is, the people are free within the confines of their blockaded prison. In the camps of Lebanon they are not free and this is, to a very considerable degree, the responsibility of the Lebanese government which could allow conditions to improve and could allow the victim freedom of movement, but specifically refuses to do it.

"Yet, culpable though the Lebanese government undoubtedly is, the real culprit is the Israeli government, which by refusing to come to a settlement with the Palestinians, is directly and horrendously responsible for the plight of those immured in the camps.

"It makes me more determined than ever to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people and to campaign against the deliberate decision of the Israeli government to perpetuate the hell in which so many Palestinians are living".

There speaks one of the few honourable, decent men in the cesspit of Westminster politics... and a Jew.

At the time of Israel's appalling blitzkrieg on Gaza's civilians, Sir Gerald famously told the House of Commons: "My parents came to Britain as refugees from Poland. Most of their families were subsequently murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.

"It is time for our Government to make clear to the Israeli Government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis' real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools."

Kaufman tells it the way it is, as do many brave Jewish peace groups - Jews for Justice and the like - and all credit to them for standing against the cruel Israeli regime.

So why cannot other Jews around the world, who reckon themselves to be well-informed and able to tell right from wrong, also speak up? What say all those making their fortunes here in the UK and living in luxury in Hendon, Golders Green and Manchester?

Are they not for justice?

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website.

By Franklin Lamb * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Lebanese opponents of civil rights for Palestinian refugees often use less objective and more crude wording to define "tawtin" ("settlement") than is normally employed in civil society discussions. During last summer's debate in parliament, which failed to enact laws that would allow the world's oldest and largest refugee community the basic civil right to work and to own a home, the "tawtin or return" discussion took on strident and dark meanings, which were largely effective in frightening much of the Lebanese public from supporting even these modest humanitarian measures. Right-wing opponents of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon often define tawtin during public discussions as "implantation" (as in inserting a foreign malignant object or virus into Lebanon's body politic), or "grafting," "insertion," "impalement," "forced integration," "embedding" "impregnation", or "patriation".

The concept's varied meanings among a largely uninformed Lebanese public have by and large prevented a balanced consideration of the provision in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that includes "a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UNGAR 194."

The discussion in Lebanon has centered on presumed Palestinian desires to stay in Lebanon at all costs, as opposed to returning to their country Palestine. The large anti-Palestinian political community has kept the discussion focused on the API's language: "the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation [tawtin] which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries."

The concept, indeed the very word, was used in the summer of 2010 as an emotional bludgeon, embodying all manner of dire social predictions from the political parties representing the Phalange, Liberal, Lebanese Forces, and Free Patriotic Movement's leader General Michel Aoun. Virtually all opponents of Palestinian civil rights frequently claimed that tawtin would ruin Lebanon. This was arguably the main reason that there was a broad-based consensus in support of the parliamentary decision of August 17, 2011 to do essentially nothing to enact relief for Lebanon's quarter million Palestinian refugees.

It was a spurious argument because very few in Lebanon, and even fewer in the Palestinian community, have any desire to see tawtin actually implemented. One remarkable aspect of last year's tawtin "debate" was that, in private discussions, few politicians publicly decrying its dangers really thought tawtin was a realistic threat to Lebanon. Nonetheless, the chimera was used to maintain a power base in their own sect or community. These political leaders assumed that their supporters wanted no rights for Palestinians in Lebanon; tawtin was a useful political boogie man. This view was not only common in various Christian sects but also among many Druze and Muslims. Numerous politicians have explained in private that their supporters by and large still believed that the Palestinian refugees were the cause of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and many of Lebanon's current woes and wanted them out of Lebanon as soon as possible.

Another political factor contributing to the false depiction of tawtin were widely-rumored American and Israeli plans to use tawtin to permanently settle thousands of Lebanon's Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and thus take pressure off of Israel to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 194's right of return mandate. These suggestions by US officials during last summer's parliamentary examination of tawtin and return riled segments of the Lebanese public and provided grist for right-wing elements to politically, socially and economically squeeze Palestinian refugees yet again.

Palestinian refugees' views regarding tawtin were unfortunately rather muted or not credited during 2010 discussions in Lebanon and parliament. Occasional statements by Palestine Liberation Organization leaders that Palestinian refugees were grateful for Lebanon's hospitality and realized that they had overstayed their welcome, but that they had every desire and determination to return to Palestine, were largely ignored.

The fears of certain elements of Lebanese society about tawtin are unwarranted. The oft-expressed view that Palestinians secretly want to stay in Lebanon and abandon their right to return has been consistently refuted by Palestinian public opinion surveys, academic studies, and most compellingly by the statements of Lebanon's camp residents themselves.

According to a recent survey, fully 96 percent of Lebanon's Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps and more than 24 communities, insist on their full right of return to Palestine, eschew tawtin, and agree with the language of the API regarding 194.

Over the past few years, and one imagines even more since the events in Tunisia and Egypt, the demand for the full right of return has increased. The events at Tahrir Square raise hopes among Palestinians in Lebanon that return to Palestine may come sooner rather than later. Tahrir Square reinforces the view that Palestine's occupation could crumble faster than many have believed possible given the military and political power granted by the American and European governments.

Meanwhile, there exists in Lebanon near unanimity among the 18 sects and various Palestinian factions. Tawtin is not a desirable option. Only justice for Palestine, including the right of return as restated in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative will resolve the dilemma of tawtin or return for Lebanon and her Palestinian refugees.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

By Franklin Lamb * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

This observer tends to get a haircut about every four months whether I need it or not. But this morning I got more than a trim from my Hezbollah friend and barber, Abass, named after Abass ibn Ali, the brother of Hussein, both martyrs and heroes of the epic 680 a.d. internecine Muslim battle at Karbala in present day Iraq. The Battle of Karbala, for Hezbollah members and Shia Muslims generally, symbolizes the triumph of good over evil and the willingness to sacrifice one's life for justice and the greater good of one's family, community or "Ummah." The reason for mentioning this is that my barber was ecstatic and claims his party has just experienced a "Karbala moment!"

When I mentioned that his statement could be taken different ways, since all the resistance fighters were killed at Karbala, Abass continued:

"Well, what I mean is that we in Hezbollah are pretty well known for kicking and keeping the Zionists out of Lebanon but our Party also seems to be catching on how to work in Lebanese and regional politics. And our people will benefit as we create social programs and honest government for the first time in Lebanese history. Do you agree that we are beginning to play the Lebanese political game pretty well?"

I do agree.

With a speed that surprised many here, and with equally surprising cross-sectarian acquiescence this morning, Hezbollah and its allies constitutionally toppled Hariri's government, constitutionally imposed new consultations to form a new government, and constitutionally transformed a minority into a majority and vice versa.

Hezbollah is known for studying political subjects very carefully and being quite flexible when events warrant. Two weeks ago when the Party of God pulled 11 MPs from the pro-US Saad Hariri government, it was thinking about nominating former PM Omar Karami to replace Hariri. The two time former Prime Minister, Karami, is strongly pro-Syrian, supports the Resistance and Hezbollah keeping its weapons. He also has zero use for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that will likely indict a minimum of four Hezbollah officials. Now in his eighties, Karami is still fairly spry and may have assumed the post, if Hezbollah formally offered. In fact he might have thought the job was his but in the midst of fast moving events, Hezbollah decided to opt for nominating Nigib Mikati an American educated, Sunni billionaire who made lots of money in telecommunications and a lot more when a South African firm bought his company. Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah said in his last speech that Omar Karami was the favored candidate, but the latter did not offer to take the job due to his old age. So the best thing to do was thought to be to talk to Mikati, as he is known to be a centrist and that his candidacy would have a less negative impact on the Hariri camp. Mikati is not close to Hezbollah and certainly has never been an ally.

In fact, Hezbollah, the Saudis, Europeans, and increasingly the Americans support Mikati as a World Bank type technocrat along the lines of former Lebanese PM Fuad Siniora or Salam Fayyad in Palestine but who can hopefully, not just ignore, but help clean up the governments rampant corruption. Hezbollah's nominee Mikati is known as a pro western moderate who was elected to Parliament in 2009 on the US backed Hariri ticket. The US would publically endorse him except for the fact that Hezbollah nominated him with Iranian, Syrian and Saudi backing. This hostile reactive US stance may change because Washington will find it difficult to boycott Mikati since the Europeans are endorsing him. Also, the negative international reaction to the Hariri camp violence on 1/27/11 in Tripoli and Beirut is awkward for the Obama administration to justify since the US has accused the Hezbollah led opposition of using "terrorist tactics" when some elements thought to be allied with the party engaged in similar street violence in the past. So the shoe is now on the other foot.

Some of the early winners and losers 48 hours following what the pro-US March 14 team and the US State Department are still calling "the coup":

Saad Hariri and his US backed Future Movement: Both are big political losers this morning but Saad still has a couple of important options. For the past nearly two years Saad was told by the US Embassy that Washington wanted him to "hang tough" and refuse to compromise on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The US conceived and engineered the STL in the UN Security Council to get Syria out of Lebanon and Bashar Assad out of Damascus following the Valentine Day 2005 murder of PM Rafik Hariri and 22 others.

Saad obediently did as told and consequently lost his premiership. Hezbollah warned him several times that he would be out if he did not disavow the STL which Hezbollah views as nothing more than a US-Israeli bludgeon to try to destroy it. When the Hezbollah led opposition pulled down his government on January 12, 2011, Saad was ready to fight to keep his job. But his US and Saudi backers "stabbed Saad in the back as did some of his closest political and personal friends," according to a Future Movement source.

Meanwhile, both Saudi Arabia and the Obama Administration realized that Saad could not secure the 65 votes from Parliament (they were right; he got just 60) so they decided to let Syria name the non-ideologue, Nigab Mikati, a personal friend of President Bashar Assad. Omar Karami may have been the first choice but he too was dropped because he also could not get 65 votes and had a checkered past including being too cozy with Syria. The US and the KSA decided better to let Syria back into the Lebanese Government than risk Iran taking complete control.

Saad Hariri reportedly feels betrayed by his fellow Sunni billionaire alliance member Mikati, who he got elected MP in 2009 on his personal ticket. But in reality Mikati's 87% election results showed that his candidacy helped Hariri's candidates because Mikati's name was on the ballot as part of the Hariri list. Nevertheless, their meeting yesterday morning lasted about 6 minutes and was stone cold. The Hariri TV channels including Future TV chose to publish just 30 seconds of the encounter. When Hariri left the meeting and was asked by a journalist if he would join the Mikati government he said "Lashou." ( meaning: "For what?, or what's the use?" ).

Just hours later, the March 14 alliance informed Makati that it would not participate in his government. But both may still. The Saudi's are already encouraging Saad to swallow his pride and cooperate with the next government. Eventually the Americans will likely also after they get over their shock and sour grapes and Jeffrey Feltman talks with the French and some Europeans leaders this weekend.

This morning, Saad is said to be still inconsolable by yesterday afternoon's private session with the US Ambassador, the motherly Maury Connelly, and repeated this morning that he will not join a government "appointed by Hezbollah." But his March 14 movement leadership is qualifying his rejection and strongly pressing PM designate Makati to put in writing for all to see a commitment that his government will not under any circumstances accept the three Hezbollah no's. They are: no STL funding, no STL Lebanese judges working at the STL, and no Lebanese government cooperation with the STL including scrapping the Lebanese-UN Memorandum of Understanding pledging cooperation on such matter as arresting and extraditing those soon to be named by the STL.

March 14, including their leader Hariri, is still insisting on their price for participation, which is that the new government support the STL and that the Lebanese government control Hezbollah's arms. They will lose on both demands as Hezbollah will not budge on either. Yet, discussions are being held on how to resolve these issues and, unlikely as it may appear at the moment, solutions may be found to dissolve these 'red lines'.

If Saad stays out of the Mikati government, he will champion the STL but he will lose more March 14th support because some of his closest team members are said to be planning to jump ship and to put politics about their claimed principles in order to grab some well-paid Cabinet chairs. March 14, via Fuad Sinoria, their Parliamentary leader is making lots of noise about Hezbollah weapons but it's largely as a bargaining chip ploy to get good cabinet posts when the time is right.

This current March14, playing hard to get stance, suits US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman, one of the architects of the 2005 "Cedar Revolution" and who is currently on his 62nd trip to the region to assure anyone listening that he and the US government "respects the sovereignty, freedom, and independence" of Lebanon, whatever any of those words mean anymore, given US actions in the region. In Paris yesterday, Feltman repeated that there persists mutual French-U.S. concern on how the Hariri cabinet was "toppled under threat and intimidation" and he emphasized the need for the US and its allies to press for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1701 (disarm Hezbollah) and 1757 (indict and convict Hezbollah).

Jeff could be forgiven for feeling a little bit like Saeb Erekat when on 10/21/09 the soon to be ex-PA "peace negotiator" complained to George Mitchell that, "The region is slipping away like sand through our hands." Feltman, not for the first time, is under great pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv to "do something!"

Rampant rumors circulating here include one that the US Embassy could be closed if, as expected, the US and Israel launch the expected massive international defamation and vilification campaign in the coming weeks timed to drive home the expected STL indictments that Washington believes will include key Hezbollah officials.

Hezbollah has the most direct control over the government of Lebanon including the Parliament, the next 30 seat Cabinet, and the government bureaucracy. Contrary to US-Israel claims the party is not thrilled with having the chance to run the government. Hezbollah sees itself as a resistance movement first, last, and always and many in the party do not relish its "pure mandate" being sullied or getting sidetracked by running Lebanon's really complicated government.

Hezbollah will now push its clean government and anti-corruption agenda and get it enacted into law but the party is quite content to leave it to others to work constantly with all those self-absorbed sects and their leaders. To a large extent, it will operate through MPs who are not Hezbollah party members. It intends to immediately begin work on improving the big Four issues that all Lebanese urgently want addressed: water, electricity, pollution, traffic among others including the environment and jobs creation. Hezbollah wants to be seen as serving the people while it builds its resistance movement. It is preparing to unveil its domestic legislative agenda which will include most of the ten 'good government' initiatives that its ally Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri delivered to Mikati yesterday.

Hezbollah's 12-member bloc told the new Prime Minster that it favored a government of "national partnership," according to its head MP Mohammad Raad who advised the media: "Hezbollah did not set pre-conditions [on Mikati] and we won't accept such a thing. We did not ask for specific portfolios and we await the formation process."

Iran benefited with important political gains as it continues to rise and move in the region in the direction of Palestine.

The United States' hegemony continues to recede in the region and is increasingly viewed, post Palestine Papers, as the enemy of Arabs and Muslim. Its pariah status grows because Washington continues to prop up, fund and arm the Zionist occupation of Palestine.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

By Franklin Lamb * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The European Union can redeem its charter and alleviate widespread suffering in Lebanon's refugee camps.

The Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon (PCRC) was organized in Washington DC and Beirut, Lebanon in late 2009 with the goal of achieving, in concert with Lebanese based NGOs, the enactment in Lebanon's parliament of two basic civil rights for more than 400,000 UNRWA registered Palestinians. These are the basic civil rights to work and to own a home.

With a series of popular support efforts, including a civil rights march on parliament on 27 June 2010 and a series of informational and analytical reports distributed widely on the Internet and in hard copy, the PCRC continues to intensify its work. Currently lobbying members of parliament, as well as pursuing several initiatives, including an International Petition which aims to collect one million signatures (it currently has 600,000 signatures from 105 countries), the PCRC in Lebanon pegs success on international and particularly European Union involvement.

Background to Lebanon's refugee crisis

During the spring-summer 1948 Nakba, 780,000 Palestinians-approximately 60 percent of the population of Palestine-were driven from their homes and ancestral lands. Over a period of several months, approximately 121,000 refugees arrived along Lebanon's southern border, trekking along ancient roads and footpaths or traveling by boat from beaches in Palestine. These Palestinians retained the hope and determination to return to their homeland.

From which areas of Palestine did Lebanon's uninvited and soon to be unwanted guests arrive? Approximately 29,500 rural dwellers and 8,500 urban dwellers escaped Zionist death squads and arrived to Lebanon by land and sea from Acre; 1,500 rural inhabitants and 7,200 urban dwellers arrived by boat from Haifa; 9,500 refugees came by land from Nazareth; and 6,900 urban dwellers and 4,000 rural dwellers came by boat from Jaffa. They came from among the 531 attacked and destroyed villages, victims of the quarter-century of meticulously planned ethnic cleansing projects A, B, C, and D (the infamous Plan Dalat)-Zionism's final solution.

Many Lebanese, Arab, and international committees undertook the responsibility of sheltering the refugees and provided them with basic humanitarian services until the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) in 1949. UNWRA started its mission in 1950. They first provided the refugees with tents, then mud houses covered with reeds and straw mats, then one level zinc-roofed cinder block rooms and public bathrooms on main streets. Today it is common to find 5–7 persons forced to live in one room.

The United Nations and the government of Lebanon established 16 refugee camps between 1948 and 1955, of which 12 remain with close to 227,000 refugees tightly caged inside. Lebanon has the highest percentage of camp-dwelling refugees (approximately 53 percent) of all the countries hosting Palestinian refugees.

In addition to the 12 camps, more than 21,000 Palestinians refugees squat in 14 scattered 'gatherings' with essentially no infrastructure.

These refugees and their offspring account for more than 98 percent of Lebanon's Palestinian refugees, of whom 426,000 are registered with UNRWA as of November 2010. In addition, there are approximately 5000 non ID Palestinians who arrived between 1967 and 1974.

Increasingly, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face staggering problems. Contrary to the status of refugees in other countries, Lebanon's unwanted guests are denied social, economic and civil rights, including the right to work or to own a home. They have very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities and no access to public social services.

Recognition of the problem but still no solution

Unfortunately, the 17 August 2010 parliamentary amendments to article 59 of the Lebanese Labor Law of 23 September 1946 and paragraph 3 of Article 9 of the Lebanese Social Security Law issued on 26 September 1963, failed to address the elementary requirements of international law relating to refugees in Lebanon. The amendments also failed to achieve parliament's presumed legislative intent of granting employment rights for these victims of ethnic cleansing.

Preceding the parliamentary vote, which led to the abolition of work permit fees for menial jobs but retained the bar on Palestinians working in the more than five dozen professions and syndicated jobs, and continues the prohibition of home ownership, limited discussion was encouraged. The same false arguments from the past half century were bandied about, including unsubstantial claims that allowing refugees to work would interfere with their right to return to Palestine (resolution 194), take jobs from Lebanese, and make the refugees too comfortable thus weakening their desire to return to Palestine. The truth is, according to the international NGO community in Lebanon, that granting these internationally mandated rights, enjoyed by refugees around the world, will in fact fortify the Palestinians strong determination to refuse permanent settlement, displacement or dispersal.

The solution to the plight of Lebanon's Palestinian refugees is to grant the population elementary civil rights, and it is increasingly evident that the international community must become involved in achieving this.

There also remains a dire need to increase the amount of land allocated for the refugees to live on. The original area allocated to refugee camps has actually been diminished in size by the destruction of three camps (noted above), while the number of Palestinian refugees has increased more than 400 percent since 1948.

A need for the European Union to take an enhanced leadership role

On 19 November 2010, the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign received a much appreciated communication and invitation from Pope Benedict XVI, responding to an October 2010 open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and Lebanon's Patriarch, Nasrallah Sfeir. The missive was an interim response from the Vatican to the growing international effort to enact civil rights for Palestinians in Lebanon, and it included an invitation for a delegation from Lebanon's camp to attend for a private visit with His Holiness. The missive also highlights the fact that the grave human rights problems of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon require immediate international intervention, support and assistance to the government of Lebanon as its works to meet its minimal international obligations.

As the Palestine Civil Rights Movement launches 'Round Two' of the struggle to secure civil rights for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, international community involvement is essential, beginning with education among the European Union countries of the squalid conditions in Lebanon's camps and EU solidarity with encouraging Lebanon's parliament to fulfill its obligations and avoid a growing demand for international sanctions against Lebanon. Among actions being organized is the pending lawsuit in Washington DC to cut off all US aid to Lebanon as required under the 1961 US Foreign Assistance Act to countries, such as Lebanon, who engage in a pattern of denying civil rights to refugees.

For the European Union to champion this cause would be a win-win result for all involved. The EU has the political and economic power to quickly achieve the enactment in Lebanon's parliament of the two key goals that would alleviate much of the suffering of the refugees: the right to work and to own a home. All countries which host Palestinian refugees, such as Jordan, Syria and EU member states clearly benefit from Palestinians refugees being allowed to work on the same basis as other refugees.

The European Union is uniquely positioned to quickly achieve civil rights for Palestinians in Lebanon given its economic and political involvement in human rights. Sometimes, the EU is said to have abdicated some of its responsibilities and is accused of caving to US and Israeli objectives with respect to the Middle East.

Among EU efforts that are sought and being hoped for in Lebanon's Palestinian camps are the following:

1. The EU should move into the vacuum that is quickly developing in the languid 'peace process' and offer its own leadership initiatives. Clearly the Obama administration is struggling and would welcome EU support and an enhanced pro-active role.
2. The EU should immediately act to support the work of UNRWA, which provides, to the best of its limited capacity, health and educational assistance to the camps. UNRWA will soon be the target of US Congressional Committees whose hostility toward the Palestinian refugee community is well-known. The EU has a good record of helping UNRWA and should continue now by more publicly coming to its defense and helping with budget shortfalls. This EU initiative will have an immediate positive impact inside Palestinian camps where UNRWA budget cuts have been sharply felt.
3. The EU should take more public leadership positions such as the one expressed by former EU representatives this month with respect to blatantly illegal Israeli actions such as settlement building and the whole list of discriminatory and illegal government actions against the Arab population on both sides of the 1949 armistice line.
4. More EU presence in Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps in the form of educational, health, cultural and small business projects would markedly contribute to the refugees need for international solidarity and would help end the siege and abandonment anxieties growing inside the camps. An urgent educational need is for volunteer teachers in UNRWA's 79 schools.
5. The EU would significantly advance the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon were it to send delegations to meet with local NGOs, visit the camp residents, and dialogue with members of parliament and political leaders to bring much needed international attention to this acute human rights crisis.

Were the European Union to lead the growing international effort to secure civil rights for Palestinians in Lebanon, it would be much to its credit. More importantly, it would alleviate much of the needless suffering of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon while simultaneously sending a message of hope to all Palestinians in the Diaspora. Hopefully the European Union will seize this opportunity and achieve the leadership position within the international community that has been its promise since it came into being.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

By Ray Smith * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

More than three years after Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in the north of Lebanon was destroyed, its reconstruction is finally under way. However, the process runs at a slow pace and remains only partially funded as further political obstacles appear on the horizon. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army continues to maintain a tight grip on the camp's residents and attempts to silence any criticism.

Anyone approaching the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on the highway connecting the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to the Syrian border can see it -- the first row of houses are four stories high. After three years of tough negotiations, countless obstacles and various delays, reconstruction is actually underway.

The master plan for the reconstruction of the camp was prepared in early 2008, only half a year after a 15-week battle between the Lebanese army and the non-Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam that left the camp totally devastated. The camp's 30,000 residents were displaced, some for the third or fourth time since they were expelled from Palestine by Zionist militias in 1948 -- what Palestinians call the Nakba.

Delayed reconstruction

Reconstruction effectively kicked off in November 2009. "There were a number of problems getting the whole thing started, demining in the first place," said Charlie Higgins, Project Manager for the Reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared with the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA). "When we started the backfilling there, the whole archaeological controversy and the related court injunction came up, effectively delaying the process for another five months," he explained, referring to a politically-motivated attempt by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in 2009 to stop reconstruction of the camp because of evidence of archaeological remains.

For practical reasons, the project was split into eight stages or "packages". The first stage -- consisting of 149 buildings which house 423 of more than 5,000 displaced families -- is approaching completion, however with significant delay. "We expect to be able to hand over a number of apartments probably in early 2011," Higgins said.

The main reasons for the delay are attributed to the construction company which subcontracted major parts of the work, adding additional layers of management that increased costs while reducing control of progress on site. Higgins said that without UNRWA's constant pressure and threats of penalties, less would have been done.

Most workers on the construction site are Syrians and Palestinians. One of them is "M," a resident of the Nahr al-Bared camp in his twenties. Almost three years ago, his family was permitted to return to the outskirts of the devastated camp. There, they've been living in steel containers, which residents call the "barracks," awaiting the reconstruction of their homes. "When we moved into the temporary housing, we didn't expect to be staying in there for such a long time," M said. "Living in the barracks has always been very difficult."

During the last years, unemployment, harsh living conditions, poverty, desperation and constant psychological stress have diminished M's initial hope for a quick return. Now, he's happy to have an income at least, although his job isn't safe. By working on the first stage, M is witnessing the slow pace of reconstruction. "I have no illusions," he admitted, "it will take a few more years until my family and I will be able to return home."

According to Higgins, UNRWA's efforts to get the contractor to employ Palestinians from the camp caused problems. "Workers need special permits to access the site, and to obtain them they may have to report to the headquarters of the Lebanese Armed Forces in al-Qubbe for investigation. This discourages some people from applying for jobs, and the contractor has cited the time taken as a factor beyond their control that delays the work."

Recently, backfilling work has started in parts of the area designated for stage two of the reconstruction. UNRWA anticipates its completion by autumn 2011. The agency is determined to avoid the delays it encountered in the first sector. In addition, three schools at UNRWA's coastal compound are under construction and will be ready by next summer.

One of the major obstacles on the way to rebuilding the camp is the lack of funding. "We have $120 million, but we still need another $209 million," said Higgins. Yet he remains optimistic that once the initial group of residents have moved into the first homes, donors will be encouraged to make further pledges. According to Higgins, "We'd have a strong case to say: we can prove it can be done. Now, what about the other 16,000 or 17,000 people we need to give back their homes?"

"The adjacent area"

Even more doubtful is the reconstruction of the immediate surroundings of the camp, which have been termed by UNRWA and the Lebanese government as the "adjacent area." The area forms a ring around the official boundaries of the camp and was inhabited by almost 10,000 Palestinian refugees. As the original camp became increasingly densely populated over time, houses grew in height and width, leaving hardly any place for streets and alleys. Consequently, many residents resettled in the camp's adjacent area.

Many homes in the surrounding area were either totally or partially destroyed in the war. The Vienna document of June 2008, outlining the Lebanese government's recovery and reconstruction strategy for the camp and the nearby municipalities, charged a Tripartite Committee consisting of the government itself, UNRWA and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with the development of a full implementation plan for recovery and reconstruction in the adjacent area.

However, the committee was never formed. UNRWA denies having a role in the reconstruction of the adjacent area, limiting its responsibility to the camp's original site. Palestinian refugees living in the adjacent area are entitled to benefit from UNRWA's services as their registration with the agency is valid regardless of where they reside. UNRWA stresses its current infrastructure and efforts in the adjacent area have to be considered as temporary and within the agency's emergency response to the displacement of the residents.

Speaking on behalf of the PLO, Marwan Abdelal said bluntly: "In political terms, there's no partnership."

The Lebanese government has not taken part in any participatory mechanism, nor has it presented a plan for the adjacent area or undertaken any significant recovery efforts yet. However, it has compensated residents of the third-ring or outlying area of the camp for war-related losses.

Problems in the adjacent area have deep roots. Decades ago, zoning laws were violated when Lebanese private land plots were subdivided in order to sell them to Palestinians. This illegal practice is common to many Lebanese villages and poor neighborhoods. The Lebanese government and its appointed official responsible for the reconstruction of the camp, Sateh Arnaout, have made it clear that the zoning laws will be strictly followed. However, if the reconstruction in the adjacent area has to happen according to Lebanon's zoning laws, half of the existing buildings would actually have to be demolished.

In addition, approximately 90 percent of the refugees' land purchases before 2001 were never fully entered in the Lebanese land registry and remain listed under the name of the former Lebanese owners. Even worse, since 2001, Palestinians are forbidden to own or inherit property. Legal reconstruction and registration is therefore impossible.

"Palestinian residents in the adjacent area whose houses were totally destroyed are the first victims of this policy, as the government still blocks their reconstruction," said Abdelal. "At least we've successfully intervened concerning the rehabilitation of the partially demolished homes."

At a recent conference at the American University of Beirut, Rana Hassan, a Master of Urban Policy and Planning candidate at the university's Architecture and Design Department, stated that a different approach is needed by the Lebanese government. She cited precedents such as the reconstruction in south Lebanon's villages and Beirut's southern Dahiya suburb after the destructive Israeli invasion of Lebanon in July 2006. Nevertheless, the Lebanese government's Recovery and Reconstruction Cell (RRC) seems to stubbornly insist on strict adherence to zoning laws when it comes to Nahr al-Bared.

No freedom of movement

Three years after the end of hostilities in Nahr al-Bared, the refugee camp and the adjacent area remain a military zone. Checkpoints manned by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), a rigid permit system and recently reenforced barbed wire restrict access to the camp. For years, residents have protested this access regime without success. UNRWA's Higgins said that the agency believes the return of the first residents will be a change on the ground that could lead to more positive developments on access in general.

However, Abdelal argued that "The war has ended three years ago, so there's no need for the army's presence anymore."

Nor has the army eased its entry restrictions in response to the construction. "We haven't seen any significant change on access over recent months," Higgins acknowledged. Although Lebanese citizens can enter without special permits, they're subjected to questioning at the checkpoints. The refugees' permits are valid longer than before, but visitors or nongovernmental organization personnel face even more difficulties to obtaining entry permits.

Within the camp, hardly anyone dares to speak up against the LAF. "Freedom of speech is massively restricted," said Ismael Sheikh Hassan, an architect and urban planner who has worked with the community-based Nahr al-Bared Reconstruction Commission for several years. "Anyone in Nahr al-Bared can be arrested by the military intelligence and be held without access to family, lawyers, etc.," he explained. He says there are many cases that were never publicized, partly due to the fact that hardly any journalists manage to obtain army permits to access the camps.

Sheikh Hassan is convinced that under military siege, the camp's economy will never be able to function. Its residents are now almost completely dependent on international assistance.

"More importantly," Hassan said, "under the army's restrictions, there is no chance for reestablishing relations between the camp and the surrounding communities to return to a level of normality."

Even if some restrictions were relaxed, Hassan stated, any prolongation of the militarization and siege of the camp might have irreversible consequences. "Economies and consumer patterns might shift and Nahr al-Bared might never be able to return to its previous economic role in the region," he said.

Silencing the critics

In mid-August, Sheikh Hassan was arrested at a checkpoint when entering Nahr al-Bared. He was held for three days. His interrogation revealed that he was apparently detained because of an article he wrote for the Lebanese newspaper as-Safir describing the conditions in Nahr al-Bared. After his release, it remains unclear whether he'll have to appear in front of a court.

"The situation is gray," Hassan explained. "There is no official court date. But also, there's no acquittal that I'm innocent."

Over the past few months, the LAF have been conducting a campaign of intimidation against its critics. Recently, the director of a nongovernmental organization operating in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp had his entry permit revoked after criticizing the LAF. Also, since July, the LAF refused to issue permits to the staff of another organization, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization (PHRO).

Ghassan Abdallah, the PHRO's director, is an outspoken opponent of the LAF's permit regime and intimidation practices in Nahr al-Bared. The PHRO recently released a report examining restrictions on freedom of movement in the camp (Lebanese Restrictions on Freedom of Movement [PDF]). On 5 October, Abdallah was invited by Lebanese military intelligence to have a cup of coffee at the al-Qubbe army base. When he arrived at the base four days later, Abdallah was interrogated for three hours and even threatened with torture. In particular, Abdallah was questioned about a dialogue meeting on the LAF's access policy to Nahr al-Bared that he had co-organized.

"The security zone," Abdallah said, "is neither legal, nor humane. There's no excuse for it after three years." However, army intelligence doesn't accept this kind of criticism, he said. He expressed his outrage that after an official meeting where the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee and the LAF were represented, he was interrogated by military intelligence.

On 16 October, Lebanese activist and blogger Farah Kobeissi was arrested at the al-Abdi checkpoint at the northern entrance to Nahr al-Bared and interrogated for 14 hours after protesting against the army which denied her entry to the camp. During the protest, she held a banner stating: "No to the humiliating permits in Nahr al-Bared Camp."

The LAF maintains full authority over the camp, which it is not reluctant to display. Three months ago, it unveiled a monument dedicated to the fallen Lebanese soldiers of the Nahr al-Bared battle at the northern entrance to the camp.

Construction worker "M" is upset that the monument doesn't mention the fifty Palestinian civilians who were killed in the conflict. "This is the wrong place for this statue," he said. "They shouldn't have put it right in front of our camp."

Palestinians a "special category"

Nahr al-Bared isn't just a Palestinian refugee camp that was destroyed and has to be rebuilt. It showcases the difficult situation of the more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who have faced massive discrimination for more than sixty years.

At the American University of Beirut, associate professor Sari Hanafi closely observes Palestinian-Lebanese relations. He understands Lebanon's desire to have full control over its territory and inhabitants. "However," he said, "when you talk about sovereignty, you have to define who's subjected to it." For decades, Lebanon's Palestinians have been treated as a special category.

Hanafi stressed that Lebanon finally has to clarify the Palestinians' status, bear the consequences and abolish their discrimination. "If it considers them foreigners," he said, "they need to be given the possibility to work, own property and join the professional syndicates. If it considers them refugees, they have to be given all their refugee rights according to the 1951 Refugee Convention."

The debate on the Palestinians' legal situation is directly connected to the Nahr al-Bared camp, where the Lebanese police have established a center. According to the Vienna document, "community policing" is to be implemented in the camp. The project is funded with $5 million by the United States. On the ground however, the LAF and the military intelligence remain in charge. Many residents compare their rule to the former Deuxieme Bureau, the military intelligence service which had harsly controlled the Palestinian refugee camps the 1950s and '60s.

Hanafi considers the police deployment as highly problematic, as long as the inhabitants' status isn't clearly defined. "I see the police stationed in Nahr al-Bared as a counterinsurgency police, not a community police," he said. "There's no agreement with the local popular committee. On the contrary -- the first thing the police did was outlaw all the Palestinian structures there."

"In any case: If any Lebanese police in Nahr al-Bared were to implement the current discriminatory law, nearly anyone in the camp would have to be arrested -- for owning property, for working in forbidden professions, etc," Hanafi added.

Hanafi said Palestinians have legitimate reason to fear the police. "They are right in saying: 'Before you bring the police, let us know if we can have shops, associations and a popular committee.'"

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights situation in Lebanon. Many member states accused Lebanon of discriminating against the Palestinian refugees. Their recommendations focused on freedom of movement, property rights and access to all professions -- which were rejected by the Lebanese government. Similarly, Norway's specific request to allow free entry into and exit from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp was also rejected by the Lebanese delegation.

The Nahr al-Bared refugee camp highlights every aspect of the problematic relationship between Lebanon and the Palestinian refugees within its borders. However, the Lebanese government would be better served by viewing the camp as a chance to radically change the traditionally conflict-ridden relationship in which Palestinians are only viewed as a "security issue." This could be achieved by respecting Palestinians' civil rights and seriously engaging in the reconstruction of the camp.

All images by Ray Smith.

* Ray Smith is a freelance journalist and activist with the anarchist media collective a-films, which has documented developments in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp for the past three years.

By Franklin Lamb * (Maron al Ras village on the Lebanon/Occupied Palestine border) | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Part I: " Know thy enemy".... Sun Tzu

AP Photo/Bilal Hussein

On a clear day you can see Akka, Palestine from my favorite Lebanese village, Maron al Ras, where more than a few analysts here conjecture that the next and 6^th aggression by Israel against Lebanon will begin.

On any day, but particularly since 9/21/10, you can also see beefed up Zionist military patrols, assorted electronic listening posts, sundry spy devices, new Raytheon produced surveillance equipment, two new supposedly camouflaged cinder block one room shacks with Zionist soldiers peering out menacingly while talking on their, Hezbollah monitored, cell phones to girlfriends, mothers, pals and their HQ's. They frequently glare from widows heavily screened to keep out stones that tourists on the Lebanon side of the 'blue line' regularly throw at them when UNIFIL guys aren't paying attention or shoo them away. You can also see land mine fields, wide soft sand swatches along the wire fences to detect trespassing neighbors footprints, a couple of orchards, and the edges of three colonial settlements. And if one were to squint, like really squint, or better yet, risk getting shot between the eyes by a Zionist sniper with an American 7.62 mm, Sniper Weapon System, M24 (called a "system" because it can be used with various detachable telescopic sights and other accessories) and were to use some Barska Cosmos 25X100 binoculars, one might see, well, vent holes. These air ducts, according to imaginative and joking village kids, are guarded by specially trained scorpions, the holes bringing in fresh air for scores of 130 feet plus bunkers that some miscreants are rumored to have gone and built all over northern Palestine as far south as Safad.

The increase in activity along the Blue line, especially near Fatima's Gate is only partially in preparation for the rumored visit of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in mid- October. An Israeli invasion could be launched at any time and locals explain that, for their part, they have selected their targets, completed their surveillance, so far eluded capture and are ready to attack deep into Palestine when commanded.

President Ahmadinejad is also expected to appear and speak at Maron al Ras, presumably without binoculars and resisting the temptation to cast a few stones in solidarity with the Palestinian intifadas. UNIFIL personnel at the scene reveal that several Israeli military leaders have been visiting the area this past month, including Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

It is here in this ancient verdant, war scared hillside village of Maron al Ras where tradition instructs that Jesus (Issa) from Nazareth, less than a day's walk to the South, accompanying his sainted mother Mary (Miriam), paused to rest on their trek to a wedding feast at Qana, some 30 km west.

At Qana, the site of unspeakable massacres in 1996 and 2006, two of the more than 60 committed by Zionist forces over the past six decades, the bearded Palestinian "terrorist", so-listed by the Sanhedrin judges, performed at his mother's request his first miracle. Qana residents are quick to point out that it was this same Sanhedrin that would later pay Judas Iscariot 30 pieces of silver to deliver up Jesus for trial on false death penalty charges of Blasphemy and would sentence his brother James to death by stoning.^** According to a local priest who conducts tours of the Grotto of the Virgin Mary in Qana, where Mary and her son visited with the family of the soon to be newlyweds, "By turning water into wine, Jesus dutifully fulfilled his mother Mary's request to provide additional refreshment for the larger than expected gathering of nearby villagers." The priest explains to visitors that the parents of the bride and groom wanted to avoid the acute social embarrassment of running out of refreshments and were concerned for the comfort of last minute uninvited guests, who they anticipated would arrive for their children's wedding as word quickly spread that Jesus and his mother would be attending.

One guest who is receiving invitations even from March 14 pro-Saudi political parties for frank discussions this month and who has already been invited to Qana, but who probably won't imbibe local the "miracle wine" sold by local entrepreneurs, from under the tent so to speak, will be the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is said to be a devotee of Prophet Issa and Miriam, both venerated in the Holy Qur'an.

In Lebanon, it sometimes appears even to the "particularly obtuse" - to borrow a phrase from my favorite constitutional law professor and scholar, Henry Paul Monaghan, who sometimes called us first year law students "particularly obtuse" - that everything is viewed thru the smoky prism of local politics and sects. Two lovely and politically passionate Qana villagers (one giggling and claiming to be a "Shia-Christian" and her friend interjecting "I'm a Christian-Shia!"), both Muslims who follow the teachings of "Prophet Issa", explained to this foreigner that while many Rabbi's disparage Jesus' miracle in Qana by claiming that it was the Hebrew Moses who was first able to turn water into another substance. They then gleefully counter that "Moses may well have done, but Moses turned water into blood as a message of harsh judgment and violence, whereas "our" Palestinian Issa turned water into wine as a message of love, generosity and hospitality." The discussion ended when an American Yeshiva student from Brooklyn appeared and entered the discussion announcing to the villagers that both Bible stories "suck" and that that when the next war comes Qana may witness itself being miraculously turned into depleted uranium dust.

In both Maron al Ras and Qana, villagers believe it's just a matter of time before Israel will invade Lebanon and it's a subject of rare unanimous sectarian consensus in all of Lebanon. For example, in the course of no more than two hours the other day, while running errands around Beirut, this observer was informed, without even bringing up the subject, by (1) my Shia Muslim Hezbollah motorcycle mechanic patching up my bike after a slight mishap (again!) (2) Miss Idriss, the Maronite Christian lady who works at the corner bank and who truly adores "al Hakim" Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces (since 2006, Geagea and the LF has been siphoning off alienated cadres and youth from the ranks of Geagea's rivals including the Gemayals' Phalange and Michel Aoun's Christian pro-Hezbollah Free Patriotic Movement, and (3) my Sunni Muslim greengrocer lady who has absolutely no use for any of the above, that a major war is coming and probably sooner rather than later.

Purveyors of Israeli Hasbara are also keeping busy with predictions of a World War I type inevitability of major war in Lebanon given the claimed rapid arming of the national Lebanese resistance led by Hezbollah, and the Israeli touted collection of yet more new ' ultra-tech super weapons' including robotic insects, new stealth drones, Iron Domes, David Sling I and II missile shields, yet even more improvements to the "impenetrable" Merkava Mark IV tank that took such a beating in 2006 that three countries, including Belgium, cancelled Merkava purchase orders. Israel and its "academic agents" tout more than 20 other spectacular "game changing" technological breakthroughs ' just since the 2006 war which, according to Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies and Jane's Defense Weekly, likely will not function in real war conditions - despite the largess of the unknowing American taxpayers who pick up the tab for their R & D.

Virtually the whole waterfall of Hasbara studies, many handsomely paid for by various Israel lobby funders, conclude that the next Hezbollah Israel war will be nothing like the 2006 July War. In addition, pro-Israel authors routinely skew their research to reassure their paymasters that Hezbollah will lose to the spruced up, better-equipped and trained Israeli soldiers and that their defeat will not only shatter Hezbollah, but destroy Syria and Iran's political power base and fundamentally changed the political scene in Beirut. This they confidently predict will lead to a pro-American and Israel-tolerant realignment of political parties and even achieve the long sought Lebanon-Israel "peace treaty." Some "Lobby papers" conclude that the next battle will deliver changes as far away as Iran, and destroy Hamas.

Designed to bolster the increasingly dubious Israeli public opinion, some Israeli think tanks claim that the massive US taxpayer funded therapy program for returning 2006 Israeli troops has succeeded in lowering the rates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has lowered the percentage of "shell shock" disability cases in Israel. No mention of the skyrocketing rates of PTSD among US troops returning from various deployments in the Middle East which are skyrocketing, and American family complaints that needed medical help in being denied due to Pentagon budget "priorities." A Rand study in 2008 estimated the total number of American service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who returned with PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), or "had their bell rung" to use the terminology employed by some staff in Ward E7 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, is more than 320,000. Today the figure is thought to be near 350,000. Only a small percentage are being properly treated according to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Bethesda medical staff, both of which admit they are not equipped to handle them-most severely maimed for life. Increasingly, some family members are becoming bitter and complaining about budget cuts. One mother recently complained to Congressman Steny Hoyer, veteran not of the US military but of more than a dozen US taxpayer paid trips to Israel, that "Israel always comes first and we pay for treatment and therapy for their soldiers and we sent our boys and girls to Iraq and Afghanistan because they told us to." As reported by Ray McGovern, writing in Counterpunch recently, "Just this past week at Fort Hood, Texas, four decorated veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their own lives, adding to the 14 other suicides this year at Fort Hood alone.

Timur Goskel, former advisor to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), is dismissive of many of these "Research Papers" and their almost without exception, Zionist authors: "They don't know the other side of the story. They don't know what is happening here in Lebanon or what is Hezbollah doing or what is Hezbollah capable of. They will likely be shocked when they find out. They guess from newspapers and whatever and Hezbollah is not the organization you can read about in newspapers accurately. They don't talk too much." Goskel added.

Some of the Israeli Lobby think tank predictions may indeed materialize but the history of Hezbollah and Israel on the battlefield and other factors, ignored by pro-Israel "scholars" who either aren't aware of them, or don't want to risk their sinecures by mentioning unpleasant facts to their employers, suggest that Israel will lose its next aggression against Lebanon. It is clear that Hezbollah has been studying its enemy.

Scorecard: Four Hezbollah conflicts with Israeli forces

The June 1982 Israeli invasion is not included in this brief consideration because Hezbollah was not fully organized and in fact its birth was partially the result of the 1982 "Peace for Galilee" aggression that slaughtered nearly 20,000 Lebanese civilians and Palestinian refugees as well as setting the stage for the Sabra-Shatila Massacre. On August 30, 1982, Israel did achieve its goal of expelling most of its PLO nemesis but catastrophically failed in its main objective of ending Lebanese resistance activity. As a PLO replacement Hezbollah quickly became a far stronger and more sophisticated adversary. Many fighters who eventually joined Hezbollah but who fought in 1982 with the PLO or with a variety of affiliated militia inflicted much damage on Israeli forces during numerous mountain battles and at Khaldeh on the coast south of Beirut.

1985: Hezbollah pushes their Zionist enemy out of the mountain areas

Between 1978 to 1985, Zionist forces occupied approximately 1/3 of Lebanon including 801 towns and villages. The newly forming Hezbollah never stopped its resistance attacks. An important Hezbollah political victory against Israel was achieved on March 5, 1984 when its work to achieve the Lebanese Council of Ministers cancellation of the U.S.-Israel created May 17, 1983 agreement that would have yielded significant Lebanese sovereignty and territory to Israel. Another was the expulsion of foreign "peacekeeping forces" that increasingly attacked the civilian population of Lebanon on behalf of Israel and its local allies.

During this period Hezbollah and its allies surprised and hit Israeli forces hard all over the mountains and valleys and on January 14, 1985 Israel began withdrawing from 168 villages, being 55% of South Lebanon or 11% of Lebanon including Sidon, Tyre, Nabatieh and parts of the Western Bekaa.

The July 1993 Aggression-so called "Operation Accountability"

Israeli Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, told the Lebanese government on 7/31/93, "Disarm Hezbollah or watch Israeli do it." He said about the same thing to the Obama administration on 9/30/10 at the Pentagon.

Despite, 1,224 bombing attacks, according to UNIFIL data, and firing more than 30,000 artillery shells and rockets, Hezbollah retaliated with what AFP on 7/25/93 called, "A hell of a shelling last[ing] 10 hours without a pause." For seven days resistance forces conducted at least 30 operations along the Blue line targeting Zionist forces and their Lebanese surrogates. The US and Israel, shocked that the CIA-Mossad intelligence estimates that Hezbollah had only 500 rockets and this supply would be depleted in three days, decided to call for a cease-fire. The "July Accord" took effect at 6 p.m. on 7/31/93 and Israel withdrew and stood down, failing to achieve any of its objectives which frankly are always the same: Disarm the Resistance, break Hezbollah's relationships with the Lebanese public, and force the Lebanese government to dismantle the Resistance. On 8/19/93 Israel's PM Rabin told his cabinet: " I regret saying this, but Hezbollah has defeated us."

The April 1996 Aggression:--the so-called "Grapes of Wrath"

This aggression started on April 11, 1996 with bombing attacks in Baalbeck and down south in Tyre at the Lebanese army base and for the first time since 1982, attacks on Dahiyeh in South Beirut. Israel bombed a wider area that in 1993 over a period of 16 days.

This invasion became known among some in South Lebanon as the " Four Massacres aggression": Suhmor on 4/12/96; the bombin of the Al-Mansouri ambulance on 4/13/96; Nabatieh on Day 7; and the Qana massacre on the same day when 118 civilians were slaughter and 127 injured. Hundreds of thousands were displaced with 7,000 homes completely or partially destroyed. Total civilian casualties exceeded 250.

Having studied each preceding war with its enemy, Hezbollah succeeded in anticipating Israeli tactics, paths of entrance into Lebanon and targeting actions. Israel, not being able to find any, failed to target a single resistance fighter or to prevent any rocket pads from launching at will. Until the moment the US-Israel requested ceasefire took hold, having been arranged by US Sec. of State Warren Christopher, Hezbollah's retaliation with Katuysha rockets continued unabated. Israel's goals were again those noted above. There was one addition and that was to present Shimon Peres with a military victory to help his election campaign which was backed by President Clinton and staffed with some key Clinton campaign staff. On May 29, 1996 Peres lost the election and Hezbollah emerged from "Grapes of Wrath" victorious and widely perceived in Washington and Tel Aviv as having exposed Israeli battle field errors or what the Resistance called "impotence".

The May 24, 2000 withdrawal of Israeli forces and the complete collapse of their surrogate collaborationist Lahdist forces. Israel's notorious prison at Khiam was liberated by villagers and their loved ones freed. This resistance victory was perhaps its sweetest to date. No cheap political deals to help the Zionists save faced. Total defeat as Israeli faces snuck out during one night without even telling their collaborators. A half century after Israel started its inroads into Lebanon, except for some border enclaves like Shebaa, Kfar Kouba and Ghajar that Hezbollah and the Lebanese army aims to recover during the coming war, it was out.

This victory was especially valuable to the Resistance and Lebanon as it demonstrated qualities that will determine the outcome of the next war. It blended a deep belief in God, magnanimous in victory, human treatment of the vanquished, care for the families of martyrs, insistence on dialogue with internal adversaries, confidence in the victory of good over evil, and thorough preparation for future aggressions and acceptance of sacrifice.

The July 2006 War, the mis-named " Second Lebanon War"

The results of the 2006 33-day Israeli aggression are well known and documented, with none of Israel's stated goals of, destroying Hezbollah, a treaty with Lebanon, breaking popular Lebanese support for the National Lebanese Resistance, being achieved. Hezbollah's victory resulted in a deep sea change in Lebanese sectarian attitude towards Israel partly because living during the war all of Lebanon saw through the Hasbara articles produced for cash at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP was set up by AIPAC in 1985), the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies , and the Foreign Policy Initiative, among several others.

Preparing for the coming war- knowing the enemy

Sometimes Hezbollah members complain to this observer, as one did recently, that "we spend so much time studying every imaginable aspect of the Zionist forces and their corrupt society, from their psychology, strengths and weaknesses on the battle field, every battle and every little encounter over the past 28 years, favorite foods, drugs, and video games. Really, I don't find them all that interesting I just want to expel them from the rest of Lebanon and all of Palestine. The sooner the better!"

Among past wars involving Israel that Hezbollah is said to microscopically study, in addition to all its own battles during Israeli wars and invasions, are those of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1978. As well as the serial aggressions inside occupied Palestine including Gaza.

Hezbollah believes Israel will indeed attack Lebanon and that the Zionist battle plan will include the use of the following Israeli units which Hezbollah has been carefully studying and preparing to confront. Among these are the 91^st "Galilee Division" which Hezbollah believes will be backed by multiple regular and reserve brigades trying to seal Lebanon's southern border to stop Resistance/Lebanese Army units from moving deep inside occupied Palestine.

Additionally, Hezbollah is preparing to seek out and cripple the 162^nd Armored Division which it damaged regularly during the 2006 war as well as confronting the 36th Armored Division normally assigned to the Golan Heights, (unless Syria fights this time) and at least three reserve armored divisions ( Hezbollah sources believe probably the 366th and 319th). Hezbollah has prepared meticulous plans to destroy the 98th Paratroop Division, the much touted "Special Forces Quality" Golani Infantry Brigade (which Hezbollah reserve forces mauled badly in 2006), the 35th Paratroop Brigade, the 551st "Spearhead" Brigade, the Givati Infantry Brigade, the Alexandroni Reserve Infantry Brigade, the Kfir Infantry Brigade specializing in "Urban Warfare", the Carmeli Infantry Reserve Brigade, the Sayeret Matkal Reconnaissance Unit, the Sayeret Egoz reconnaissance unit attached to the Golani Brigade, the Shayetet 13 Naval Commando Reconnaissance and Raiding Unit, the Sayeret Yael Engineering Unit, plus a variety of units specializing in combat intelligence, supply, transport and communications.

Both Hezbollah and Israel have declined comment on current rumors coming from concerned Pentagon staff in Washington that Hezbollah intelligence agents inside Israel have provided the Lebanese Resistance with the names, addresses, mobile phone numbers and email addresses of each personnel assigned to every one of the above units to be in its crosshairs when the battle begins.

Is Hezbollah prepared to fight Israeli collaborators on additional fronts?

Lebanese national resistance allies in and around Parliament are claiming that the US is frantically trying to organize a "northern second front" to help Israel in the coming war by enticing right wing Christian militias, Al Qaeda mixed-bag "Salafists for lease", and anyone else willing to fight a back door war against the Resistance while Israel kicks in the front door north of Safad and Nahariyah down south. The White House has reportedly vetoed one scheme to bring in Blackwater type private contractors.

Former MP Nasr Kandil who is close to Hezbollah stated on 9/30/10: "Egypt is also training hundreds of young gunmen in military camps in north Lebanon that were set up under the guise of mobile hospitals while Jordan is training more than 700 Sunni militia members" at the behest of the US Embassy in Beirut and Jordan as part of "subversive initiatives against Lebanon for Israel's benefit".

These militia are claimed by Kandil and other politicians in Lebanon including Senior Arab Democratic Party member Rifat Ali Eid, to be Salafi groups with links to Al Qaeda organized by the CIA and Saudi Intelligence Services similar to the Fatah al Islam group that fought a summer long battle from the Palestinian camp of Nahr al Bared in 2007, and whose ranks are being replenished in Lebanon.

This week the Lebanese Forces were accused by Hezbollah's Sheik Naim Qassim, Deputy to SG Hassan Nasrallah, of running new LF militia training camps with speculation that they are being trained on Russian-made BKC machine guns and the American MAG and small mortars. If so, they are not the only ones participating in an arms acquisition frenzy. A weapons run ignited during the May 8, 2008 violence, cooled down over the past two years but flared up again last month with virtually all political parties and many private citizens buying up available stocks of M4's (with a launcher $12,000) M16's ($1,500) and AK47 Kalashnikov's rifles (ranging between $750-$1,000) out of the back of cars or on road sides and alleys. Truck loads have been reported arriving from Iraq hauling US military supplies 'shrinkage'.

Some analysts believe that once the Israeli attack date is imminent, northern Sunni militia being clustered around Tripoli and Akkar and other locations will attack Shia targets diverting Hezbollah units and weakening its southern and eastern (Bekaa) resistance.

They expect beefed up Saudi financed "Security-Plus Inc." type units that were attempted in May of 2008. It may be recalled that effort soon fizzled and was ridiculed in Lebanese media as "Security-Minus Inc." because when the green recruits got off their buses down in Hamra they quickly defected en masse deciding they did not want to fight Hezbollah "second team" forces after all.

For the past three years, Israel has been instructing the White House and Congress, as Ehud Barak told Bill Clinton on 9/21/10 at the opening of the Clinton Global Initiative in NYC: "This time Hezbollah must be totally eradicated from Lebanon. We don't even want to find their residue after the next operation!"

Despite Barak's instructions, the Pentagon's J-8 Directorate for Force Structure Resources and Assessment, which among other duties conducts analysis, assessments, and evaluates strategies for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and some special American friends, agrees with Israeli military planners and Hezbollah on at least one subject. The next Hezbollah-Israel war will not see Israel using many ground forces outside of armored personnel carriers once they enter Lebanon. The reason is that all three agree with the Pentagon's J-8 Directorates opinion that based on previous battlefield performance, it will likely require 5 Israeli soldiers to offset one Hezbollah defender's battlefield acumen.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

** Act 6:12 and Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1 http://earlyjewishwritings.com/text/josephus/ant20.html

Next: Part II "Know thy self".... Sun Tzu and Hezbollah Unit Commanders

"O, that it were possible,
We might but hold some two days' conference
With the dead!"
(John Webster, IV.ii.18.)

"The voice of the dead was a living voice to me."
(Tennyson, "In the Valley of Cauteretz")

By William A. Cook* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Twenty eight years ago, a scene of unspeakable horror rocked the rubble strewn alleys of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut as vengeance vied with naked lust in a massive display of human malice illuminated for the IDF overseers of this massacre with flares that provided "an unobstructed and panoramic view" for Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon and his Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, as they watched from the seven story Kuwaiti embassy providing logistical support for their Phalangist allies as they "massacred for 36 to 48 hours" the hapless Palestinians imprisoned in the camps. "We were breathing death, inhaling the very putrescence of the bloated corpses around us. Jenkins immediately realized that the Israeli defence minister would have to bear some responsibility for this horror. "Sharon!' he shouted. 'That fucker Sharon! This is Deir Yassin all over again.'" (Fisk, Pity the Nation, 360). Outside of the Shatila camp, who remembers? What American knows of the massacre? What government agency has investigated our involvement in it? What lives lost haunt the Israeli or American mind for the evil we have done against the innocent who died such ignominious deaths twenty eight years ago?

Would that we could hold conference with the dead, to sense the absolute black fear that grabbed the mother's heart as her executioner grabbed her skirt to shred it before unleashing his uncontrollable lust into her trembling body, to feel the depth of anguish that spread throughout her being in these last moments of her life, to fear with her the absolute despair she felt as her murderer laughed and mocked her before thrusting his knife into her child yet unborn in her womb. Would that we could share with those slaughtered during these days of anguish the pain and suffering they endured, hapless innocents offered by Sharon and his forces to their paid mercenaries as compensation for their loyalty to the invading armies of the Israeli nation. Would that we could comprehend from their recounting how a man might find it in his being, in the root cellar of his soul, to inflict such wanton barbarity on a fellow being. Would that we could understand how the chosen of G-d Almighty could unleash such hate on another people that they would allow a savage massacre of brothers and sisters to continue for three days yet proclaim to the world their innocence. Would that there might be some civilized, rational means of grasping how such pathological destruction of fellow humans could be justified that America's support for a nation capable of such barbarity might also be justified.

Chris Hedges claims that "only the vanquished know war"; but this was not war, it was a massacre, yet these vanquished souls could tell us what vengeance is, what hate is, what sick minds are capable of inflicting on others if we only had time with them to learn. It is the destroyed that know and it is the destroyed we fear; to forget is our means to mental salvation, otherwise we are doomed to live in the hell of our memory that must see and know injustice exists and rules in this world inflicted by those who claim they are civilized but know in their souls they are but brutish beasts.

What can be said of Shatila twenty eight years later? It is, after all, but an incident in the horrors of sixty years stretching from the middle of the 20th century into the second decade of the 21st. It is an icon of American and Israeli horror, a burial of thousands destroyed savagely and forgotten while a symphony of hypocrisy extolling our virtues buries the reality. Those who died never existed, their sons and daughters never existed, their dreams and aspirations never existed, the fruit of their loins never blossomed to feel the heat of the sun, the coolness of the water, the fruit of the tree of life. We the indifferent cannot accept their existence nor recognize it lest we accept as well our guilt in their deaths. To return to Shatila is an act of retribution, an act that gives voice to the dead that suffered there, to accept responsibility for the horrors we allowed to happen there, to seek forgiveness of those who lost their lives there and cannot ever live those lives again nor see the sun rise or hear the baby's cry or know the laughter of their children or weep at the loss of a mother or father ... their voices have been silenced forever, yet they echo throughout the ages how vicious is the soul of humankind to remain silent and indifferent to their brothers and sisters in death.

* William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California and author of The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy and The Chronicles Of Nefaria. He can be reached at: wcook@laverne.edu.
www.drwilliamacook.com

This wall, adjacent to Abu Yassir's shelter is used by Shatila refugee camp tykes for playing ball and other games, unaware that some of their relatives and families' friends were among the hundreds butchered against 11 such "walls of death" 28 years ago, on September 16-18, 1982. Photo courtesy of the author

By Franklin Lamb* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The untreated psychic wounds are still open. Accountability, justice and basic civil rights for the survivors are still denied.

Scores of horror testimonies have been shared over the past nearly three decades by survivors of the September 1982 Sabra- Shatila massacre. More come to light only through circumstantial evidence because would be affiants perished during the slaughter. Other eyewitness are just beginning to emerge from deep trauma or self imposed silence.

Some testimonies will be shared this month by massacre survivors at Shatila camp. They will sit with the every growing numbers of international visitors who annually come to commemorate one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century.

There are no average massacre testimonies.

Zeina, a handsome bronzed-faced middle-aged woman, an acquaintance of Munir Mohammad's family, asked a foreigner the other day: "How can it be 28 years? I think it was just last fall that my husband Hussam and our two daughters, Maya, 8 years old, and Sirham, 9 years old, left our two room home to search for food because the Israeli army had sealed Shatila camp nearly two days before and few inside Shatila Camp had any. I still pray and wait for them to return."

In Shatila Palestinian refugee camp and outside Abu Yassir's shelter, the bullet marks still cover the lower half of the 11 "walls of death" where some of the dried blood is mixed and feathered in with the thin mortar. An elderly gentleman named Abu Samer still has some souvenirs of the event: three American automatic pistols fitted with silencers, a couple of knives and axes that were strapped to some of the killers belts as they quickly and silently shot, carved and chopped whoever they came upon starting at around 6 pm on Thursday September 16, 1982. Plus a couple of whisky bottles. These weapons were gifted to Israel by the US Congress and subsequently issued along with drugs and alcohol and other "policing equipment" to the killers in his "most moral army" by Ariel Sharon.

Earlier this year, one of the murderers from the Numour al-Ahrar (Tigers of the Liberals) militia, the armed wing of Lebanon's right-wing National Liberal Party founded by former Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, nonchalantly confessed, "we sometimes used these implements in order to advance silently through the alleys of Shatila so as not to cause unnecessary panic during our work." The Tigers militia, one of five Christian killer units, was assisted inside Shatila by more than two dozen Israeli Mossad agents, and led in this blitz by none other than Dani Chamoun, son of the former President.

No plaque or sign notes what happened here.

The world learned of the slaughter at Sabra-Shatila on the morning of Sunday September 19, 1982. Photos, many now available on the Internet, taken by witnesses such as Ralph Shoneman, Mya Shone, Ryuichi Hirokawa, Ali Hasan Salman, Ramzi Hardar, Gunther Altenburg, and Gaza and Akka Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Hospital staff, preserve the gruesome images deeply etched in the survivors memory. The Israeli Kahan Commission, five months later in its February 7, 1983 Report, substantially whitewashed Israeli responsibility referring more than once to the massacre as "a war."

Zeina ushered me down a narrow alley from her house arriving at the 3 by 8 meter wall outside her sister's home, spraying here and there with an aerosol can as we walked. She apologized for the spray but insisted that she and her neighbors could even now smell the slaughter that happened there three decades earlier.

For readers unfamiliar with the location of Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut, this particular "wall of death" is located across from the PRCS Akka Hospital, such as it is, after years without adequate financial or NGO support. Locating the 11 "walls of death" requires help from the few older Palestinians who still live in this quarter. They are among those still living at the scene and who still vividly recall the details of the massacre. Some provide personal history of some of the butchered, seemingly urging the dead to return by making them seem so alive, often describing a personality trait and the name of their family village in Palestine.

"A sweet boy who adored his older brothers Mutid and Bilal."

Zeina recalls that Munir Mohammad was 12 years old on September 16, 1982, a pupil at the Shatila camp school, named Jalil (Galilee). Virtually all of the 75 remaining UNRWA schools in Lebanon, like other Palestinian institutions, are named after villages, towns or cities in occupied Palestine. Often they are named after villages that no longer actually exist, being among the 531 villages the Zionists colonizers obliterated during and after the 1947-48 Nakba (Catastrophe).

Zeina recalls that it was late on a Thursday afternoon, September 16, that the Israeli shelling had grown intense. Designed to drive the camp residents into the shelters, almost all of which Israeli intelligence, arriving the previous day in three white vehicles and posing as "concerned NGO staff" had identified and noted the coordinates on their maps. Some residents, thinking aid workers had come to help the refugees, actually revealed their secret sanctuaries. Other refugees, based on their experience in the crowded shelters during the preceding 75 days of indiscriminate, "Peace for Galilee" Israeli bombing of Shatila, suggested to the "aid workers" that the shelters needed better ventilation and perhaps the visitors would help provide it.

According to Zeina the Israeli agents quickly sketched the shelter locations, marked them with a red circle and returned to their HQ which was located less than 70 meters on the raised terrain at the SE corner of Shatila camp still known as Turf Club Yards. Today, this sandy area still contains three death pits which according to the late American journalist Janet Stevens is where some of the hundreds of still missing bodies of the more than 3,000 slaughtered are likely buried. Janet had theorized that there was a second Sabra-Shatila Massacre that occurred on Sunday morning, September 19th, which piggybacked the first and was conducted on the west side of Shatila inside the second Israeli-Phalange HQ, known as the Cite Sportiff athletic complex. As the Israeli soldiers took custody from the Phalange militia of the surviving refugees, trucks entered Cite Sportiff loaded with hundreds of camp residents on the back to be taken to "holding centers". Family members forced to wait outside heard volleys of gunfire and screams from inside the complex. Hours later the same flat beds drove away to unknown locations, tarps covering the unseen mounded cargo.

Camp resident, Mrs. Sana Mahmoud Sersawi, one of the 23 complainants in the Belgium case filed against Ariel Sharon on June 16, 2001, (currently but not fatally sidetracked) explained:

"The Israelis who were posted in front of the Kuwaiti embassy and at the Rihab benzene station at the entrance to Shatila demanded through loudspeakers that we come to them. That's how we found ourselves in their hands. They took us to the Cite Sportiff, and the men were marched behind us. But they took the men's shirts off and started blindfolding them. The Israelis interrogated the young people and the Phalange delivered about 200 more people to the Israelis. And that's how neither my husband nor my sister's husband ever came back."

Journalist Robert Fisk and others who studied these events, concur that more slaughter was done during the 24 hour period after 8 a.m. Saturday, the hour the Israeli Kahan Commission, which declined to interview any Palestinians, ruled that the Israelis had stopped all the killing.

Eyewitness testimony also established that the "aid workers" described by Zeina passed the shelter descriptions and locations to Lebanese Forces operatives Elie Hobeika and Fadi Frem, and their ally, Major Saad Haddad of the Israeli-allied South Lebanese Army. Thursday evening, Hobeika, de facto commander since the assassination the week previously of Phalange leader and President-elect Bachir Gemayel, led one of the death squads inside the killing field of the Horst Tabet area near Abu Yassir's shelter.

It was in 8 of the 11 Israeli-located and marked shelters that the first of the massacre victims were quickly and methodically slaughtered. There being few perfect crimes, even in massacres, the killers failed to find 3 of the shelters. One of the overlooked shelters was just 25 meters from Abu Yassir's shelter. Apart from these three undiscovered hiding places there were practically no Shatila shelter survivors.

American journalist David Lamb wrote about this first night of butchery and the "walls of death":

"Entire families were slain. Groups consisting of 10-20 people were lined up against walls and sprayed with bullets. Mothers died while clutching their babies. All men appeared to be shot in the back. Five youths of fighting age were tied to a pickup truck and dragged through the streets before being shot."

At around about 8 p.m. on September 18 Munir Mohammad entered the crowded Abu Yassir shelter with his mother Aida and his sisters and brothers Iman, Fadya, Mufid and Mu'in. Keeping the relatively few camp shelters for the woman and children while the men took their chances outside was a common practice as the massacre unfolded. But a few men did enter to help calm their young children.

"If any of you are injured, we'll take you to the hospital."

Munir later recalled events that night: "The killers arrived at the door of the shelter and yelled for everyone to come out. Men who they found were lined up against the wall outside. They were immediately machine gunned." As Munir watched, the killers left to kill other groups and then suddenly returned and opened fire on everyone, and all fell to the ground. Munir lay quietly not knowing if his mother and sisters were dead. Then he heard the killers yelling: "If any of you are injured, we'll take you to the hospital. Don't worry. Get up and you'll see." A few did try to get up or moaned and they were instantly shot in the head.

Munir remembered: "Even though it was light out due to the Israeli flares over Shatila, the killers used bright flash lights to search the darkened corners. The killers were looking in the shadows". Suddenly Munir's mother's body seemed to shift in the mound of corpses next to him. Munir thought she might be going to get up since the killers promised to take anyone still alive to the hospital. Munir whispered to her: "Don't get up mother, they're lying". And Munir stayed motionless all night barely daring to breath, pretending to be dead.

Munir could not block out the killers words. Years later he would repeat to this interviewer as we passed the Shatila Burial ground known as Martyrs Square:

"After they shot us, we were all down on the ground, and they were going back and forth, and they were saying: 'If any of you are still alive, we'll have mercy and pity and take them to the hospital. Come on, you can tell us.' If anyone moaned, or believed them and said they needed an ambulance, they would be rescued with shots and finished off there and then...What really disturbed me wasn't just the death all around me. I...didn't know whether my mother and sisters and brother had died. I knew most of the people around me had died. And it's true I was afraid of dying myself. But what disturbed me so very much was that they were laughing, getting drunk and enjoying themselves all night long. They threw blankets on us and left us there till morning. All night long [Thursday the 16th) I could hear the voices of the girls crying and screaming, 'For god's sake, leave us alone.' I mean...I can't remember how many girls they raped. The girl' voice, with their fear and pain, I can't ever forget them."

The same kind of dégagé is displayed by the half dozen confessed militia murderers featured in German director Monika Borgmann's 2005 film Massaker, one of whom opined: "With hanging or shooting you just die, but this is double," explaining how he took an old Palestinian man and held him back against a wall, slicing him open in the shape of a cross. "You die twice since you also die from the fear," he said nonchalantly describing white flesh and bone as if in a charcuterie waiting to be served.

The killers also explained how they began a frantic rush to dispose of as many bodies as possible before the media entered Shatila. One testified how the Israeli army gave them large plastic trash bags to dispose of bodies. Another confessed that they forced people into army trucks to ferry them to Cite Sportiff where they were killed. And that they used chemicals to destroy many of the corpses. Several mentioned that Israeli army officers conferred with the militia's leaders in Beirut on the eve of the massacres.

The venomous hatred persists to this day.

To this day, the Hurras al-Arz (Guardians of the Cedars) boasts of its role in the carnage. Less than two weeks before the massacre the party issued a call for the confiscation of all Palestinian property in Lebanon, the outlawing of home ownership and the destruction of all refugee camps.

The party statement of September 1, 1982 declared: "Action must be taken to reduce the numbers of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, until the day comes when no single Palestinian remains on our soil."

In 1982 certain political parties referred to Palestinians as "a bacillus which must be exterminated" and graffiti on walls read: "The duty of every Lebanese is to kill a Palestinian"--the same hatred commonly expressed today in occupied Palestine among colonists, extremist Rabbis and politicians.

The 'Guardians' call for outlawing Palestinian refugee property ownership was indeed achieved in 2001 by a law drafted by current Minister of Labor, who pledged on September 1, 2010 that "Parliament will never allow Palestinian refugees the right to own property."

The mentality that allowed the Massacre at Sabra-Shatila 1982 is largely unchanged in 2010, as Lebanon still resists the call of the international community to grant the survivors of the Sabra-Shatila massacre basic civil rights. Some who have studied the Arabic websites and observed gatherings of the political parties represented at the 1982 massacre, claim the hate language is actually worse today and is being used to stir up Parliamentary opposition Palestinian civil rights.

During the month following the 1982 Massacre, British Dr. Paul Morris treated Munir at Gaza Hospital approximately one kilometer north of Abu Yassir's shelter, and kept the youngster under observation. Dr. Morris reported to researcher Bayan Nuwayhed al Hout (Sabra and Shatila: September 1982, Pluto Press, London, 2004) that Munir "Will smile once in a while, but he doesn't react spontaneously like others of this age, except just occasionally." Then the doctor banged on the table, and said: 'The lad has to be saved. He has to leave the camp, if only for a while, to recover himself."

When Munir was asked by al Hout if one day when he grew up and would be able to carry a weapon would he consider revenge. The pre-teen replied, replied: "No, No. I'd never think of revenge by killing children. The way they killed us. What did the children do wrong?"

Munir's 15 year old brother Mufid was among the first to enter Abu Yassir's shelter, but he left and later appeared at Akka Hoppital with a gunshot wound. After being bandaged he left the hospital to seek safety and his family. No one has seen him since and for a long time Munir could not even mention him.

According to camp residents, Munir's older brother, Nabil, then 19 years old, being of fighting age would have been shot on sight by the killers. Aware of this, Nabil's cousin and his cousin's wife fled with him as the Israeli shelling increased and camp residents reported indiscriminate killing. The trio dodged sniper bullets to seek refuge in a nursing home where his aunt worked. Like Munir, Nabil soon learned that his mother and siblings were all dead.

Postscript

Now in America, both Munir and Nabil are leading relatively 'normal lives' considering the horror and lost family they experienced while escaping death at Sabra-Shatila. Munir and Nabil have become a credit to Shatila camp, to Palestine and to their adopted country. Residing in the Washington DC area, Munir is married and busy with his career. Nabil is devoting his life to advocacy for peace and justice in the Middle East, working with an NGO. Both brothers return to Shatila camp regularly.

Also apparently living 'normal lives' are the six "Christian" militia killers featured in Borgmann's film Massaker. "They are all living ordinary lives. One of them is a taxi driver," Borgmann explains.

As is well known, the massacres at Sabra-Shatila were undeniable war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Each killing was a violation of international laws enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention, International Customary Law and jus cogens. Similar massive crimes have seen charges brought against Rwandan officials, Chile's ex-president, General Augusto Pinochet, Chad's former president, Hissein Habre, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Liberia's Taylor and Sudan's Bachir.

No one has been punished or even investigated for the Sabra-Shatila massacre. On March 28, 1991 Lebanon's Parliament retroactively exempted the killers from criminal responsibility. However, this law has no standing in international law and the international community remains legally obligated to punish those responsible. The victims and their families of the Sabra-Shatila massacre as well as virtually all human rights organizations including but not limited to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Humanitarian Law Project, strenuously oppose blanket amnesty for the killers. They argue that the 1991 violates Lebanon's constitution, as well as international law and promotes impunity for heinous crimes.

It was precisely to achieve justice for the victims of crimes such as Sabra-Shatila that the International Criminal Court was established. The ICC must begin its work without further delay and all people of goodwill must encourage Lebanon to grant the survivors of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre basic civil rights.

* Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

If Israel attempts to siphon oil & natural gas from Lebanese waters, conflict could result

By Stephen Lendman* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Leviathan site off the coast of Haifa

Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation's unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack.

Why not, after so many earlier in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, and 2006. Also numerous incidents besides:

• refusing to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 425 by occupying South Lebanon belligerently and illegally for 18 years until mostly, but not entirely, withdrawing in May 2000 - still holding Sheba Farms, the 14-square mile water-rich land near Syria's Golan, also illegally occupied since 1967; in addition, Ghajar, the Lebanese village bordering Golan;
• during its occupation, using a proxy Christian South Lebanon Army as enforcer, UNIFIL Blue Helmets giving them and the IDF free reign instead of maintaining peace, how UN forces always operate, as paramilitaries against people they're supposed to protect; and
• for over 40 years, repeatedly violating Lebanon's territory, often daily, including 12 Israeli jet overflights on August 19.

Hezbollah - Israel's Pretext for Incursions, Violence and War

Hezbollah was born out of Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion, its horrific war slaughtering around 18,000 people, mostly civilians, including in the Sabra and Shatila camps, what journalist Robert Fisk called "one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century."

In 1999, it was put on the FTO list, removed after condemning the 9/11 attack, then added back by Dick Cheney after bogusly linking it with Al Qaeda.

Throughout his tenure, George Bush (and other administration officials) called Hezbollah, Iran and Syria "the root cause" of Middle East terrorism, despite Israel being the only threat, a notorious regional menace.

In mid-July 2010, Rep. Sue Myrick (R. NC) was over the top accusing the organization of being a threat on the US-Mexican border, saying:

"Our intelligence sources have really clarified that they are in Mexico, that there is an operation that is quite large in place there, and it's very frightening to me because this is national security. We know some of them have gotten across the border in the past....They are starting to target the United States and that's my concern."

She also linked Hezbollah with Mexican drug cartels, DEA assistant intelligence administrator Anthony Placido saying "There are numerous reports of cocaine proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic radical groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas" - reports as credible as Saddam's WMDs.

Hezbollah, in fact, is politically legitimate, former Lebanon President Emile Lahood calling it "an integral part of the Lebanese government....(also) part of our military (and) social order," what former Prime Minister Rafik Harriri confirmed. It's also a social, charitable, educational, and medical organization, involved in establishing over 50 hospitals, over 100 schools, many libraries, and providing other essential social services, why it has broad support, especially among Shiites, comprising over 35% of Lebanon's population.

In addition, its military wing is for defense, not belligerency, but it's prepared to respond effectively when attacked, what Israel learned painfully in the 2006 war, outfoxed and humiliated despite a vastly superior force. It's a lesson the IDF never forgot and wants to avenge, as well as conceal its own terrorist history, by far the region's most extensive with tentacles reaching globally.

An early 2007 American University of Beirut study documented 6,672 Israeli terrorist acts against Lebanon and Palestine alone from 1967 - 2007 (plus thousands more since then), unrewarded by inclusion on America's FTO list, Israeli influence getting others on it, including Hezbollah and Hamas, Palestine's legitimate government.

Without evidence, Hezbollah's rap sheet includes the 1983 US Lebanon Embassy and Marine barracks bombings, highjackings, hostage taking, rocket attacks against Israel, suicide bombings, and more, charges the organization vehemently denies, saying it responds only in self-defense against militants, not civilians, its leader Hassan Nasrallah stating:

"Hezbollah remains on the US and Israel 'terrorism' list for purely political reasons and to punish the organization for its resistance to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon and (America's) plans for the region."

Expecting its members to be charged with assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, he accused Israel of the crime, presenting visual and audio material as evidence. They included Israeli surveillance footage (intercepted in real time) of routes he used to be able to target his motorcade, Nasrallah saying:

"We have definite information on the aerial movements of the Israeli enemy the day Hariri was murdered. Hours before....an Israeli drone was surveying the Sidon-Beirut-Junieh coastline as warplanes were flying over Beirut. This video can be acquired by any investigative commission to ensure it is correct. We are sure of this evidence, or else we would not risk showing it."

He also said an Israeli spy "confess(ed) in front of a camera that he had repeatedly tried to falsely convince Hariri that (Hezbollah) intended to assassinate him." Though not a smoking gun, this information warrants serious investigation, especially given Israel's history of similar acts, inside and outside the region.

According to Lebanese University Professor Hasan Jouni, an international criminal law expert, Nasrallah's evidence was exceptional, saying:

"Logically and legally, in this stage, any new finding should be investigated by the general prosecutor. Sayyed Nasrallah submitted tangible evidence of the Israeli potential role in Hariri's assassination." It appears incriminating. "Furthermore, the previous investigations which were circulated here and there should be revised."

Antoine Airout, North Lebanon Bar Association head, agreed, saying: "Sayyed Hasrallah's revelations are very serious and objective," especially given Israel's long-term interest in destroying Lebanon to seize portions for itself. Hariri's assassination furthered that goal.

In late July, Nasrallah further disclosed the arrest of nearly 100 Israeli spies who'd infiltrated Lebanon's military and security sectors, including Ret. Army Brig. General Fayez Karam, once head of its antiterrorism/counterespionage units.

In his recent article titled, "Israel Takes Control of Lebanon," investigative journalist Wayne Madsen covered the same issue, saying:

He's "learned from (his) Lebanese intelligence sources that the Lebanese government is coming to realize that Israeli intelligence penetration of all political groups in the country is worse than originally believed."

"The Israeli espionage network also extends to Syria. Lebanese sources report that former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad of ordering (Hariri's) assassination, is tactically backed by Israel and the United States." He heads the National Salvation Front (NSF) effort to oust Assad, getting Israeli, American, French and German help to do it.

For decades, the US/Israeli partnership ruthlessly pursued its joint regional imperial project, including assassinations, state terrorism and wars. Murdering Hariri indeed furthered their goal, and if an August 28 Press TV report is right, more is planned, the Iranian English language network saying:

"Israel is reportedly preparing to strike arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, claiming they belong to....Hezbollah....Tel Aviv (having) escalated its military presence in" Golan and Lebanon's Shebba Farms, according Haaretz, "citing a report in the (August 28) edition of the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. (It) quoted European sources as saying that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights (over) Lebanese and Syrian airspace, are indications that Israel is ready to start a war in the area (against) targets....far inside Syrian territory...."

Targeting Lebanon - Stoking Tensions, Threatening More War

In early 2010, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned Hezbollah to "avoid entering conflict with us, (adding that) We need to constantly prepare for a change in the status quo, though we don't know when it will occur. We don't want for it to happen, and it might not, but we will not be afraid to react if we have to fight back."

Thinly veiled fighting words with July 23 elaboration, provocatively telling the Washington Post that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, saying "we will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to the Hezbollah" - the same 2006 blitzkrieg strategy causing vast destruction, billions in damage, killing over 1,000, injuring thousands more, and displacing one-fourth of Lebanon's four million population, the vast majority being civilians, including 300,000 children, Israel's "Dahiya Doctrine" strategy.

Named after the Beirut suburb destroyed in 2006, it's how past and future wars will be fought, including Cast Lead, applying disproportionate force against civilians and non-military infrastructure, carried out with overwhelming intimidating force in violation of fundamental international law, prohibiting collective punishment and attacks against non-combatants, Israel's preferred targets.

On a mid-April US visit, Jordan's King Abdullah II expressed concern, telling a "Congressional Friends of Jordan Caucus" that he fears "imminent" conflict again with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

At the same time, AFP reported that Washington "voiced alarm" about Syria's "possible sale of Scud missiles to Hezbollah militants, warning it would put Lebanon at 'significant risk.' " On April 13, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of doing it, saying it "claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scuds to Hezbollah whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel" - false and Peres knows it.

In response, an unnamed US official said a sale was suspected but not verified. Syria flatly denies it, and unmentioned was American aid to Israel, more than to all other nations combined, including annual billions of dollars in military aid, additional amounts when requested, plus the latest weapons and technology, enough to destabilize the entire region and beyond, given Israel's capacity and inclination to wage war aggressively and illegally.

It's bloodstained history confirms what US major media reports suppress - that no outside threat or attack on its territory occurred since the October 1973 Yom Kippur war, nearly 37 years ago after which Israel repeatedly attacked Lebanon and Occupied Palestine. It also menaces the entire Middle East, its goal being to divide, conquer and control it, a future article dealing solely with that topic.

At the end of the 2006 Lebanon war, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a full cessation of hostilities on both sides, specifically that Hezbollah cease "all attacks" and disarm, Israel given freedom to respond to perceived threats. In other words, it can claim bogus ones justify war, Hezbollah denied comparable discretion.

Since passage, Hezbollah refused to disarm, but committed no aggressive acts. For its part, Israel breaches the resolution daily, including regular airspace, territorial, and sea encroachments. In early 2010, Michael Williams, UN special envoy to Lebanon said:

"To the best of my knowledge, there is probably no other country in the world which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance," other intrusions and spying. In fact, none besides America, Israel's paymaster/partner and early mentor, both countries the world's most bellicose and aggressive, what Hezbollah understands and will respond.

Lebanon's government also, saying it supports its right to defend sovereign state territory, Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami calling Israel a "permanent menace" with good reason.

Further, Syria said it will act if Lebanon is attacked, adding it considers a threat to Beirut's security one to its own. Hamas' Ali Baraka also avowed to back Hezbollah if attacked, stoking more tension, what Israel's expert at exploiting, manufacturing threats when none exist.

On August 2, the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group published a report titled "Drums of War: Israel and the 'Axis of Resistance,' " saying:

More war, if it comes, will be "far more devastating and broader in scope," the regional dynamics dangerously explosive, so any "miscalculations" may launch it, including against Syria.

Despite a deceptive quiet, "Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." Hezbollah's readiness and "escalating Israeli threats (could) trigger the very outcome" so far avoided.

With "no effective forum for communication, (there's) ample room for misunderstanding and misperception. Meanwhile, (Israel has waged) an underground war of espionage and assassinations....now a substitute for more open confrontation."

"There is scant reason for optimism on the peace front," not helped by America talking only with one side (Israel), "keeping another at arm's length (Syria), ignoring a third (Hezbollah) and confronting the fourth (Iran)."

As a result, "the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic conflict will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one."

Not explained is that Israel and America alone pose threats, the same ones for over 40 years, what all regional states know and fear, hoping they won't end up like Iraq - destroyed by imperial lawlessness, the fake August 19 "combat" troop pullout just PR cover for permanent occupation, or as one Iraqi official said: "This is about America's midterm elections," Washington's presence is here to stay, even Newsweek calling it a "nonevent," saying:

"The departure of the last 'combat troops' from Iraq (more a strategic retreat than victory lap) is hardly the end of American combat there. (What about the other) 50,000....staying behind? They didn't exactly send their (formidable weapons arsenal) out with that Stryker brigade. And they're not going to transform themselves into the Peace Corp overnight," or, in fact, ever.

The region's strategic importance assures permanent war, America's presence, and continued danger for everyone there - cursed, not benefitting from oil.

A Final Comment

Besides bordering on Israel, Lebanon's resources make it vulnerable, namely its water and natural gas reserves, one reason for the 2006 war, South Lebanon to the Litani River especially important. Also the Wazzini springs feeding into the Hasbani River tributary of the Jordan River. It flows into Israel two miles downstream from the Wazzini, then into the Sea of Galilee that's Israel's largest fresh water source.

Israel covets the 20-mile stretch from its border to the Litani to use Lebanese water for its own needs, a considerable supply if controlled, besides what's gotten from Golan, seized from Syria in 1967 and still held.

The Tamar and Leviathan offshore natural gas fields are also key, located off Israel's north coast and Southern Lebanon. Tamar contains an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet supply, Leviathan another 16 trillion, and on August 29, Israel National News.com said it may hold four billion or more barrels of oil, making it a richer than ever prize.

The London-based Lebanese newspaper As-Safir said if Israel attempts to siphon gas from Lebanese waters, conflict could result. The paper's Israel affairs analyst, Hilmi Mousa, said Leviathan "lies mostly off Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine (and Cyprus waters). However, Israel received a guarantee from Britain, which has no rights in Palestine, to search for oil in the area near the Lebanese shores. The map of deposits, as published in the Israeli economic papers, shows the scope of the deviation into Lebanon's international waters," ones Lebanon surely will protect.

Yet Mousa headlined, "Israel preparing to steal gas fields in Lebanon's waters," saying doing so "will quickly turn into a new conflict (in which) Lebanon....will defend its rights in the water." Other sites include Rut and Alon, also off Lebanese shores or in areas far from Israel. The situation bears watching given the possibility that Israel may attack Lebanon and Hezbollah, needing or inventing a pretext to do it, an old trick it may use again, Lebanon perhaps the next target.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

By Gus Bridi - www.zeropartypolitics.com

"There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over."- Newt Gingrich

Has Lebanon officially become more tolerant and progressive than the United States?

Let's talk about Lebanon's Ground Zero and you can decide for yourself.

One must first understand what "Ground Zero" means to most Lebanese.

In a country with about the same land mass as Los Angeles County which has been at war off and on for nearly four decades, "Ground Zero" for the Lebanese is arguably their entire country-and at the center of their Ground Zero is downtown Beirut, captured and occupied by the Israeli Defense Force in 1982 and which was almost entirely reduced to rubble from Muslim West Beirut to Christian East Beirut, and all points in between.

Once upon a time not too long ago, there was scarcely a building left standing or unscarred by shrapnel in all of Beirut. I know, because I was in Beirut in 1991, and witnessed first hand a city once described as "the Paris of the Middle East" reduced to ruins, pock marked with unexploded munitions and a haphazard "network" of open sewers.

Miraculously, Beirut was rebuilt and reclaimed its prominence. It once again became the jewel of the Arab world, remarkably able to bridge the ancient mystique of the east with the modern allure of the west.

Upon the first completion of its "rebuilding" process however--after 15 years and tens of billions of dollars spent on reconstructing Lebanon and its Ground Zero from rubble to splendor, Israel did what Israel does...

In July and August of 2006, Israel again followed through on its promise to "bomb Lebanon back into the Stone Age," and in so doing displaced 1,000,000 Lebanese civilians (nearly a quarter of the country's population), completely destroyed the country's infrastructure (again), its only airport, at least 64 bridges, leveled entire buildings and neighborhoods to rubble (again), including the country's largest milk factory, a food factory, two pharmaceutical plants, water treatment centers, power plants, grain silos, a Greek Orthodox Church, several mosques, and a handful of hospitals (in a country which only had a handful of hospitals to begin with).

Over 1,200 hundred Lebanese civilians were killed and over 5,000 wounded.

Israel routinely talks about "proportionality" when comparing their "terrorism deaths" to American 9/11 deaths. In order to shock the sensibilities of a gullible American public, they portray a figure "in American terms," by multiplying their dead by a number which reflects their population in comparison to the American population.

Well, what's good for the Israeli goose is good for the Lebanese gander. I will play their game: 1,200 dead Lebanese civilians are the "proportional equivalent" to 90,000 American dead when accounting for the two countries' population differences. Therefore, according to Israeli goose math, that's the equivalent of roughly thirty 9/11's Israel exacted on Lebanon in July and August 2006 over the course of 34 days-nearly one 9/11 a day for an entire month without relent.

Incidentally, July and August of 2006 only tell a small part of the story when it comes to Israeli aggression against Lebanon. There have been decades of invasion, devastation, and occupation which predated 2006. Several thousands of Lebanese have been killed at the hands of the Israeli Defense Force. Tens of billions of dollars of damage have been levied on the Lebanese infrastructure and private and public property courtesy of the IDF over the course of decades.

"Ground Zero" for Lebanon is an ever expanding, never ending, open wound that never heals.

So what now Newt?

Should you expect the Lebanese to allow a synagogue to be built on their Ground Zero, in the aftermath of a 9/11 that occurred 5 years after ours and which, "proportionately" speaking, was 30 times the size of ours?

Well guess what you hateful, misguided, twit?

THEY DID.

In the process of re-building Beirut yet again, in 2008, renovations began and have now been completed on the Maghen Abraham Synagogue located in the middle of newly renovated downtown Beirut in an area known as the "Solidere" which has become the focal point and showcase of Lebanon's rebirth.

This isn't some hole in the wall, nondescript, "excuse me" synagogue hidden out of view so as to not "offend" Lebanese non-Jews-this is an elaborate, ornate, beautifully designed, cathedral-style house of worship built for a Lebanese Jewish population that totals less than 500 in a country of more than 4,000,000 (in stark contrast to the eight million American Muslims living in the United States).

And wait until you hear Hezbollah's response to the building of this Ground Zero Synagogue.

(To those expecting a Newt Gingrich equivalent response, prepare to be woefully disappointed).

Courtesy of Hassan Nasrallah himself: "We respect Judaism, just as we respect Christianity. Our only problem is with Israel."

Did you hear that Newt (and the rest of you idiots)?

An Arab democracy, with a Muslim Prime Minister and a Christian President, allowed the building of a synagogue, squarely in the center of their "Ground Zero" in the heart and pride of downtown Beirut which used to be a dumping ground for Israeli military ordinances.

An Arab democracy allowed this, without so much as a protest being made by its citizens, or allegations by politicians that this was sacrilege, or hateful commentary by the media that the Jewish faith was barbaric, or any of the other stupidity I have seen and heard plastered all over American television, talk radio, and internet-blogs regarding a certain "Ground Zero Mosque" and the Islamic faith.

Regardless of whether you perceive Israel to be justified in perpetrating the devastation it did on Lebanon is irrelevant. The purpose of this article is not to debate that. What cannot be debated, is that Israel (a Jewish State, flying a Jewish flag) unleashed hell on Lebanon for 34 straight days in July and August of 2006 (and for decades prior in its wars against Lebanon). Regardless of whether or not you feel Israel had a right to do that, you cannot deny that Lebanese civilians harbored, and continue to harbor, a very real resentment against the government of Israel-this Jewish state-for those actions and the devestation those actions caused.

Yet these very Lebanese, who are so quickly labeled as "blood thirsty terrorists" by Newt Gingrich and his army of xenophobic morons, were able to draw a distinction between the Jews "flying those planes" in July and August of 2006 working at the behest of the Israeli government, and the Jews whom are citizens of Lebanon who had no connection with those attacks.

Lebanon rebuilt that Ground Zero Synagogue for its Jews.

Not for Israel. Not for the world's Jewry. Not as a monument to mark a "Jewish victory" over Lebanon.

Lebanon rebuilt that Ground Zero Synagogue because its Jews lived in that neighborhood and they had every right to build a house of worship in a place they called home.

For crying out loud, Hassan Nassrallah and Hezbollah can even draw the distinction between a Lebanese Jew and an Israeli soldier who happens to be a Jew. So how is it that Americans can't distinguish between American Muslims who were victims of 9/11 and Saudi Muslims who were the perpetrators of 9/11?

Thank you Mr. Gingrich for allowing Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah to outclass you and the Republican Party (and you Democrats aren't too far behind--yes Harry Reid, I'm talking to you). When the former Republican Speaker of the House and the current Democratic Senate Majority Leader start sounding less tolerant and less reasonable than a "terrorist," we need to start sounding the alarm bells.

What a sad state of affairs for America.

By Franklin Lamb* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Palestinians and Lebanese take part in a protest over civil rights, Beirut, June 29, 2010 Reuters

Lebanese Member of Parliament on August 4th explaining why Parliament must not "precipitously rush into the unchartered waters of civil rights for Palestinian Refugees".

At 3:02 p.m. on 8/17/10 Lebanon's Parliament began to deliberate on granting basic civil rights to its Palestinian refugees and within four minutes agreed to alter article 50 Lebanon's 1964 labor law to theoretically make it easier for Palestinian refugees to obtain a work permit and a job.

There was no discussion of other draft bills to grant Palestinian refugees elementary civil rights, and fifteen minutes later, by 3:17 p.m. Parliament had agreed on the next bill involving excavating for oil, which may bring millions to some well placed members. Many MP's hadn't studied either bill.

Thus did the bell ring on Round One of the fight in Lebanon for elementary civil rights for Palestinians refugees.

The members of Parliament decided to do essentially nothing to meet Lebanon's legal, moral, religious, social and political obligations to her unwanted refugees. Parliaments gesture will likely not improve the lives of many, if even a handful, of the hundreds of thousands of refugees, 62 years after their expulsion from their homes and lands in Palestine.

Round Two begins today.

The morning after Parliament amended the Labor law and cancelled the work permit fee for Palestinian refugees, the main stream media including CNN, AP, Reuters, AFP among others appeared to misunderstand what had occurred. CNN: "In Lebanon, new legislation will give Palestinians full employment rights. By the CNN Wire Staff." CNN broadcast: "The body OK'd legislation giving the refugees full employment rights and social security and will allow them to work in any job."

Hardly.

The NYT is reported that "Lebanon passed a law on Tuesday granting Palestinian refugees here the same rights to work as other foreigners."

Not accurate.

Some leading politicians also got it wrong. Fares Soueid, the General Coordinator for the March 14 coalition declared at his news conference:

"We gave to Palestinians the right to work in Lebanon, like all Arabic workers have the right to work in Lebanon."

A huge overstatement.

Unfortunately Lebanon did not grant its Palestinian refugees meaningful civil rights on 8/17/10 or even significantly improve their work prospects. What it did do was cancel the work permit fee ( which was never a big problem) and allow for the setting up of a private Social Security Fund (not the Lebanese National Security Fund as misreported in much of the media.) The Palestinian Private Fund was a compromise. Hezbollah switched its support from using the State Fund which it had earlier proposed, to the Private Fund idea under pressure from Christian ally Michel Aoun. If the Private Fund is set up it will be paid for by Palestinian workers themselves and hoped for private donations.

Insisting on a shadowy, opaque "consensus vote" rather than a more democratic, simple majority roll call, Parliament decided on the lowest common denominator by which all the MP's were essentially given a veto. What it produced was a weak, emasculated bill unworthily of the label: Civil rights law.

MP Walid Jumblatt, author of his Druze Progressive Socialist Party June 15, 2010 draft bill, which would have actually granted some substantive civil rights, appeared to throw in the towel without even stepping into the ring. However to his credit, Jumblatt confessed this morning that he will do better next Round and told Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper: "The second more serious battle is ahead: And it is home ownership rights. I won't give up, and what has been accomplished today is only the outcome of consensus among everyone (ed: led by Samir Geagea) but home ownership rights remains pending, and it is very important."

The excellent Syrian Socialist National Party bill, which meets International legal standards for treatment of refugees, supported by many human rights organizations including most NGO's as well as the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon and the Sabra Shatila Foundation was not even considered.

Within the Palestinian and NGO community there is widespread disappointment and frustration. Ziad Sayegh, an expert on Palestinian refugee rights in Lebanon said that the new legislation would have little effect in changing the overall social and economic situation on the refugees.

According to scholar Suheil al- Natour, Director of a Palestinian Human Rights Center based in Mar Elias Camp, "They spent a long time on discussions which emptied the law of any real meaning, and I wish they had put it off so we could push for a better version..." Those who voted yesterday are suggesting that what they did will alleviate the burdens on the Palestinian community. This is not true. We will not have the full right to work, they law will not apply to the more than 30 syndicated professions, we do not have any rights for property. We do not have free movement. Our camps are surrounded by the army. We will not reduce this catastrophic situation by just some changes small changes to Article 50 of the 1964 Labor law which may not even help many Palestinians get jobs."

Among the jobs still prohibited to Palestinians are more than 30 syndicated professions including Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Engineering, nursing, and all technical professions in the construction sector and its derivatives such as tiling, coating, plastering, installation of aluminum, iron, wood or decoration works and the like-Teaching at the elementary, intermediate and secondary levels with the exception of foreign language teacher when necessary, hairdressing, Ironing and dry-cleaning upholstery, publishing, printing, Engineering work in all specialties, Smithery and upholstery work. All kinds of work in pharmacies, drug warehouses and medical laboratories. In general all occupations and professions which can be filled by Lebanese nationals and have Guild or Syndicate Memberships, money changer, real estate agent, taxi driver or driver training instructor, registered nurse or assistant nurse, or other jobs in the Medical field, that have Syndicates a health controller, any job in the engineering field, licensed health controller, medical laboratory worker, clinical health industry jobs, prosthetic devices fitter, certified accountants, dental laboratory science technician, jobs relating to nutrition and meals, topography, physiotherapy, veterinary medicine."

Also, a key factor will be if and how the new law is actually implemented. Changes made in 2005 to the labor law were never implemented and Lebanon has a long history of passing laws and not ever implementing them. The role of the international human rights community is now to monitor and assure that laws regarding refugees in Lebanon are fully implemented without interminable delays.

The winners and the losers

The big winners today are: Israel and the US, the Christian right-wing Kateib (Phalange) party, the Lebanese Forces, the National Party, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, and Hezbollah ally and head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Michel Aoun, all of whom opposed meaningful civil rights for Palestinians. Also, the politically fractured pro-Saudi March 14th coalition and even Syria. The latter will be the likely beneficiary from any explosions inside the camps as the refugees exist in the pressure cooker camps and denied the safety value of basic civil rights.

The big losers today are: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, those under occupation in Palestine and those in the Diaspora. A meaningful victory would have given them some hope as their struggles for Justice continue.

Also Lebanon, who will now face mounting international pressure to comply with her international legal obligations plus efforts to cut off US aid based on the requirements of the 1961 US Foreign Assistance Act regarding deprivation of civil rights, and for which purpose a lawsuit in being prepared in Washington DC. In addition, he UN Human Rights Council may sanction Lebanon if it's long overdue Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of treatment of Palestinian refugee scheduled to be discussed in Geneva in December is found wanting. Lebanon plans to tell the UN Human Rights Council that its record is ok now since it amended its exclusionary labor law which should now help Palestinians get jobs. One Lebanese official stated off the record that this was one of the main reasons Parliament did anything for the Palestinians on 8/17/10. It remains to be seen how the Council views Lebanon's meager accomplishment. Lebanon will also experience a mounting and intensifying internal civil rights movement and calls for BDS as international activists become more aware of the degradation in Lebanon's camps and Lebanon refusing its international obligations and who will hopefully join the Palestinian civil rights movement. Plans to picket the Lebanese Embassy in Washington DC
until civil rights are granted to Palestinians refugees are underway.

Did Hezbollah doze?

Apart from its other current problems, Hezbollah, normally receiving widespread Palestinian support, is being asked by some in the camps what became of the role of the Islamic Resistance to the Zionist occupation of Palestine. One angry resident of Shatila camp criticized the Resistance this morning and explained:

"In 1982 I saw the Israelis watching us from on top on their military administrative building west of the camp and 200 meters away from Rue Sabra, as the slaughter was happening. In 2010 I can see the Resistance in their administrative building 200 meters to the East of the center of the camp and they can see us. When the wind shifts from the sea they can smell the sewage in the camps alleys. Neither in 1982 or 2010 can it be claimed that observers looking down into the camps did not know about conditions inside Shatila. What kind of resistance is Hezbollah leading? Resistance to we Palestinians being allowed some basic civil rights?"

It was probably appropriate that Lebanese Forces leader MP Samir Geagea was the first to the microphones to claim victory after Parliament deliberated for a few minutes to deny Palestinian refugees any meaningful civil rights. Geagea welcomed the parliament's approval of his proposed amendment to Article 50 of the 1964 Labor Code to " grant work permits to Palestinian refugees."

The amendment to the 1964 labor law was the least Parliament could have done and still be able to say it did anything at all. It will not, as Geagea assured his followers, "resolve the Palestinian humanitarian issues in Lebanon...." Geagea explained that there is no possibility of granting Palestinian refugees the right to own property. "Lebanon cannot solve the Palestinian issue on its own" the Palestinians nemesis for the past four decades declared.

In fact, Geagea spoke the truth without realizing it. Civil rights for refugees everywhere, including Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, is the responsibility of the international community which has adopted relevant international conventions which have been implemented virtually everywhere but in Lebanon and Israel. The international community, and the NGO's and activists in the West and elsewhere who claim to support justice for Palestine must now act to encourage Lebanon to meet its international obligations by granting meaningful civil rights including the unfettered right to work and to own a home.

The mild gesture Lebanon made on 8/17/10 will not grant Palestinian refugees here their internationally mandated civil rights. Not by a long shot. Perhaps the most that can be said in Lebanon's favor is that it took a first tentative step. Hopefully, symbolically it will break the stereotype against Palestinians a bit and show the public that the sky did not fall in by yesterday's gesture and will ease the stress concerning granting some meaningful civil rights.

As the Lebanese like to say, "step by step."

For the quarter million Palestinian refugees stuck in squalor in Lebanon's 12 camps and the 75,000 in the 42 'gatherings', the cause of civil rights in Lebanon endures and the dream of returning to Palestine is alive.

* Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He can be reached at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.

By Lawrence Davidson* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

On Tuesday 3 August 2010 violence erupted along Lebanon’s southern frontier. Almost simultaneously verbal violence against Lebanon erupted from the US House of Representatives. Soon thereafter Lebanon lost, at least temporarily, 100 million dollars in US military aid. What is this all about?

On the Lebanese frontier

The Lebanese border, or so-called “Blue Line”, has been a Middle East flashpoint for decades. It has been the site of repeated wars, cross-border skirmishes and often futile United Nations peacekeeping efforts to keep things below a boiling temperature. Israel says that south Lebanon has harboured Palestinian fighters in the past, and now Hezbollah fighters, all of whom endanger its security. At least publicly, Israel never asks why there is such long lasting hostility toward it. And, if its leaders do so in private, it never impacts on policy. Instead, Israel has consistently waged war on its neighbours to stop the vengeful incursions of those whose land Israel has – what? Gotten from God? Conquered from the Canaanites? Confiscated after chasing out Arab forces who identified them as European interlopers? Stolen?

The incident of 3 August was triggered by Israel’s attempt to cut down a tree along the Lebanese frontier. The Israeli armed forces claim the tree was on the Israeli side of the frontier fence. Please note that the Israeli protest about this to the United Nations and the Lebanese government actually used the word "border". I mention this because, officially, Israel usually avoids acknowledging final borders. Anyway, the UN says that the unfortunate tree was in fact on the Israeli side. OK. If that is the case, someone on the Lebanese side made a deadly mistake. However, it might help our understanding of the situation to see the incident in context.

1. Speaking now of the post-Palestine Liberation Organization era, we can say that Lebanese forces, including those of Hezbollah, rarely cross the border. The significant exception here was the cross-border kidnaping and killing of several Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in an effort to force Israel into a prisoner swap. This incident sparked the 2006 war.

2. The Israelis violate the Lebanese border almost constantly. This comes mainly in the form of Israeli air force overflights. These are allegedly for reconnaissance purposes, which somehow is supposed to make this violation of Lebanese aispace acceptable. The UN peacekeeping force assigned to Lebanon has protested against this sort of violation by Israel over and again to no avail.

3. Israel has taken it upon itself to seed the Lebanese side of the border with unexploded cluster bombs and spy devices. The spy devices keep an eye on Lebanese border roads and villages. Some of the spy mechanisms need clear fields of vision to record and send data and so, on occasion, the Israelis clear out parts of the frontier area. That is what the Lebanese believed the Israelis were doing on 3 August. The Lebanese claim that they fired warning shots and when the Israelis did not pull back, they directed "lethal fire" at them. One Israeli officer was killed and another seriously wounded. The Israeli response killed three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.

4. The Israeli government has labelled the action an "ambush”. They have demanded the punishment of the Lebanese officer who gave the order to shoot. If that does not happen they threaten to destroy all of the Lebanese army outposts along the frontier. The UN has encouraged a diplomatic approach. This is unlikely. Historically, it is not how the Israelis do things. They think of themselves as too strong to have to compromise. To put the case more broadly, for over 60 years they have been refusing do what is necessary to bring peace between themselves and their Arab neighbours. Instead, they are constantly expanding their territory by conquest, constantly practising ethnic cleansing against the Arabs under their control. Then they get upset when the Lebanese on the frontier do not give them the benefit of the doubt, but rather assume that whatever the Israelis were doing to that innocent tree, it involved aggressive intent. Yet it is the Israelis themselves who have conditioned the Lebanese to look at things this way by the pattern of their past actions. If Tel Aviv does not like this attitude on the part of its neighbours, it should try changing its behaviour.

In the US Congress

Even before this clash the Israelis were trying to deny Lebanon what little weaponry its army gets from abroad. They have lodged protests with Washington and Paris, where a good part of the aid comes from. This campaign against Lebanon was proceeding quietly until 3 August when the rule of silence fell away, particularly among Israel’s allies in the US Congress.

1. Within a week of fighting Howard Berman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that he had exercised his "legislative prerogative to place a suspension" on 100 million dollars of aid to the Lebanese army. Berman said he suspected Hezbollah involvement in the 3 August incident because the Lebanese officer who ordered the shooting was a Shi’i and known to "hang out" with members of Hezbollah. On the basis of this Berman wants the US to investigate the level of influence Hezbollah exerts on the entire Lebanese Army.

2. A comment from a Democratic Party aide on Capital Hill: "One of the purposes of aid to Lebanon is to professionalize its military so incidents like this do not happen." Response from Lebanese Minister of Defence Elias Murr: "Those who want to help the army on condition that it doesn’t protect its territory, people and border from Israel, should keep their money..." Response of State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley: The Lebanese military should understand that "nothing that we do is condition free. We place conditions on how our military aid is delivered, and there are similar conditions in terms of how Israel is able to use the assistance we provide them." Really! Well, maybe in theory. But in practice, I am afraid, Mr Crowley is woefully misinformed on this last point.

4. Finally, the Democratic aide sited above, who works with the Foreign Affairs Committee, asked: "How high up does it go [who gave the command to fire?] Are the Lebanese soldiers going to be reprimanded? If soldiers were out of line, that’s one thing. If it comes from the top, that’s another." Thinking back to the numerous crimes of George Bush Jr. and his cohort – to Abu Ghraib and the policy of extraordinary rendition, and the fact that such questions were assiduously avoided – one must conclude that hypocrisy is alive and well in Washington.

What does it all mean?

1. About the Middle East: Things are indeed changing. Israel is finding it harder to push its neighbours around. With the possible exceptions of Mahmoud Abbas and the West Bank, Israel can no longer assume that it can kill and maim with impunity. This must be frustrating for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman and others, bound as they are to a machismo culture and a "never again" worldview wherein new variants on the Nazis are seen lurking around every corner. No one, including President Obama, can guarantee rational responses from the Israeli government. It is a dangerous situation.

2. About Washington: In terms of the Congress, almost nothing has changed. When it comes to Middle East foreign policy, men like Howard Berman and Ron Klein and many others too, still stand in as agents of a foreign power. And they do so in an obvious knee-jerk fashion. I am afraid it will stay this way until Israeli behaviour becomes a voting issue in the US for more than just Zionist Americans.

3. And for the rest of us: We walk a line between periodic instability and region-wide war. Either way there may well be more 9/11s in our future. What will it take to make ordinary Americans, of whatever religious denomination, grasp the danger of allowing their Middle East policy to be made by a special interest that has no regard for either the wellbeing of individual citizens or the national interest? Now that is a seminal question.

* Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University. He is the author of numerous books, including Islamic Fundamentalism and America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood.

Illustration by Pete Pasho: www.dollopsofirony.com

By Franklin Lamb* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (NIR) is part of the U.S. Intelligence Community's panoply of 16 agencies, which comprise the US Intelligence Community (IC). According to Congressional sources consulted below, NIR and Israel have been working longer hours than most members of Lebanon's Parliament, carefully analyzing the language of the main draft proposals concerning elementary civil rights for Palestinian Refugees. The proposals are currently scheduled for an August 17, 2010 Parliamentary vote and the US-Israel plan is to allow nothing to be enacted into law that would actually benefit Lebanon's Palestinian refugees.

Why would failing to pass internationally mandated civil rights for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon benefit Israel and why is US-Israeli pressure being applied to some anti-Hezbollah Lebanese MP's in the run up to this month Parliamentary vote? The short answer is that some in the US Intelligence Community, including the NIR, as well as members of Congress in the service of Israel, believe that Hezbollah would get credit internationally if Lebanon's Parliament fulfills its international obligations towards her refugees. Thus granting Palestinians full employment and home ownership rights just as any other refugee or foreigner in Lebanon receives not "fit" with US-Israeli plans for Hezbollah and the region.

NIR's analysts submit to the State Department periodic evaluations of political, economic and social events in Lebanon in order to insure that US intelligence activities support US-Israel national security considerations. NIR shares in IC's 50 billion dollar annual budget and receives varying assistance from among the 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in more than 10.000 locations in the US currently working on counter terrorism, homeland security and intelligence. Scores of NIR employees are among the 854,000 in the IC who hold top-secret clearances.

In Lebanon, NIR's writ extends to "Developing ways to eliminate Hezbollah's support base among Palestinians as well as throughout the Arab and Islamic countries."

According to three US Senate Congressional staffers whose work includes liaising with the State Department and the NIR for the Senate Intelligence Committee, some in the NIR and IC believe that it is not in the national security interest of the United States or Israel to allow Lebanon's Palestinian refugees meaningful civil rights. At least not "until the Hezbollah and Iranian problems are resolved." We believe that Hezbollah has emerged as the single most supported group in the country, while American influence, traditionally anchored in increasingly weakened proxies, has markedly receded", one staffer explained on 8/3/10.

Some NIR analysts also believe that Israel may soon be another "victim" of its own encouragement of the neoconservative hijacking of US Middle East policy under the Bush administration. Some consider that unlike Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, all fundamentally changed but surviving; Israel may well cease to exist by approximately 2028. Sooner still, if it attacks Iran and Lebanon.

The 65-page Analysis, (Ed: anticipated soon online via Wilkileaks) presents under the subhead "Obstacles to implementing American policy objectives in Lebanon" a summary of the historical links among those who inspired and founded Hezbollah and, at the time, the powerful Beirut headquartered Palestine Liberation Organization. The NIR study traces the PLO-Islamic ' military and political culture of resistance' and the symbiosis that quickly developed between the Islamic and secular movements including relationships in the mid-1970's with many Islamist leaders who today occupy some of Hezbollah's key leadership positions. For example, it was in the spring of 1978-one year before the victory of the Iranian Revolution that deposed American protégé and strategic ally, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, that PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat offered sanctuary, security, and support in Beirut's "Fakhanistan" to the late, father of Hezbollah, Imam Ruhollah. (Arabic for "spirit of God") Khomeini. The PLO also trained and armed many of the volunteers who arrived from Iran, and elsewhere to join the resistance to Israeli aggression and occupation in Lebanon.

What the American-Israeli intelligence community fears, according to these sources, is that Hezbollah has the political support and power to achieve the enactment into Lebanese law of internationally mandated civil rights. The IMCR's are defined as:

1. The full right to work on a parity with other foreigners,
2. The commandant right to certain employee-employer paid social security benefits including accident/injury/maternity/ and health care coverage,
3. The right to own a home and inherit property on the basis of parity with other foreigners and as provided by international treaty and customary law on the subject

Why Palestinian refugees obtaining elementary civil rights in Lebanon is of rising interest in Washington is that INR analysts believe that Hezbollah will be credited internationally and likely gain a broad reservoir of support and good will. NIR believes it will come not just from Palestinians under occupation and their countrymen in the Diaspora, but also from international human rights organizations and advocates, from the Arab and Muslim streets as well as from "small town USA" and the west generally. This they point out could make Hezbollah a global power and an increased threat to Israel because Hezbollah would be seen as a 'mainstream' human rights practitioner.

Some at NIR believe that in the eyes of the international public, Hezbollah would be perceived as shedding its militant image that unsettles many in the west that are unfamiliar with US-Israel plans for the Middle East. To makes matters worse for Israel, it is these citizens who unwittingly fund its brutal occupation of Palestine. An amount that is now estimated by IC agencies, when taking into account Israel's negative global effect on the US economy, to total more than two trillion dollars since 1973.

One Congressional staffer elaborated on 8/3/10:

"The CIA and NSC (National Security Council) believe that Hezbollah is rapidly on the ascendency in Arab and Muslim countries, as well as globally. Hezbollah has shattered the "mud of the Arabs' moniker because of its record of carefully thought out actions while delivering on its promises. In contrast, few in Washington power centers, except perhaps arch Zionist Dan Shapiro, who Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross got appointed as Israel's man and NSC 'expert' on the Middle East, credit much of what comes out of Israel the last few years. Israel's President Shimon Peres has become an embarrassment for Washington with his decade long ranting. Analysts at the State Department believe that the region is ripe for Hezbollah to dramatically expand its influence and if it delivers on civil rights for Lebanon's Palestinians its political gains will be a major setback for US-Israel plans for the region. Currently, Hezbollah is more dangerous to Israel because of its role in creating the growing "culture of Resistance" in the region than because of its arms. Weapons are relatively easy to acquire in this region, but having a powerful, common sense, resonating message weakens Israel. They can't deal with it."

Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah consistently ranks near the top of the global lists of the most admired leaders in Arab public opinion polls and Hezbollah leaders are the most sought after by American and other foreign delegations for dialogue and candid discussions. Hezbollah officials have often explained that they expect Lebanon's Palestinian refugees will be among the first to return to Palestine. (Ed: many of Lebanon's refugees arrived in April and May 1948 from 53 villages within just 30 miles of the Lebanese border)

In addition to NIR views, on 8/5/10 the State Department issued this month its 2010 Country Reports keeping Iran on its Sponsors of Terrorism list due to its support for Hezbollah and because Iran supports the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. However in an Appendix to the Report, the National Counter terrorism Center (NCTC) provided a statistical analysis in which it claimed that in 2009, 11,000 "terrorist attacks" occurred in 83 countries, including some by Zionist colonists in Occupied Palestine, resulting in more than 15,700 deaths. None of these "acts of terrorism" were attributed to Hezbollah.

Some of the ways analysts believe Lebanon and Hezbollah would gain against Israel if Hezbollah uses its power in Parliament to enact Palestinian civil rights include the following:

• Oppressed Palestinian refugees are potentially a source of social unrest and in their present situation are prey for drugs kingpins, various criminal enterprises and $ 300 per month hired guns for various groups, Stabilizing their economic situation would remove a source of unrest in Lebanon in areas like Burj al Barajaneh, Tyre and the Bekaa; areas where Hezbollah has its largest support base.
• Poor Palestinian refugees are economically 'bad' customers. Improving their financial conditions of refugees will increase their cash flow into businesses owned by Hezbollah.
• Palestinian refugees would make the resistance stronger, as they are a natural source of support for the enhancing resistance cadres at all its levels.
• Palestinian refugees can be used to tamp down a Sunni-Shiite conflict but if the Palestinians refugees feel that Hezbollah does not support them the refugees could easily fall into the orbit of Sunni "takfiris" or extremists as may have been the case with some of the those fighting at Nahr el Bared in the summer of 2007.
• Helping Pal refugees will enhance Hezbollah's ability to work to improve its image in the Palestinian Diaspora, through support networks of Palestinian refugees and their supporters around the world.
• Helping Palestinian refugees achieve the full right to work and to own a home will allow Hezbollah to enhance its image in the West and Europe, many of whom are trying to monopolize the moral high ground of supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees.
• Palestinian refugees and the Hezbollah community share a common history of dispossession and struggle for dignity. Hezbollah is the party of the oppressed, and has a profound moral and religious commitment to support justice for the downtrodden, and most especially those who literally live as next door neighbors in South Beirut and South Lebanon.
• Hezbollah is riding the new epoch of resistance to occupation to a series of victories against Israel, achieving civil rights for Lebanon's Palestinian refugees would add to this in a major way.
• Hezbollah will be seen as the sole Arab and Muslim power base to have fulfilled its moral, political and religious commitments to Palestine and will win many hearts and minds by this historic achievement

If Hezbollah commits to the enactment of real Palestinian civil rights in Parliament it would thwart the current anti-Lebanon campaign which is rapidly spreading from the likes of Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon, whose ministry and a battalion of pro-Zionist bloggers, have launched an international project to support "sending boats to Lebanon to break the siege of the Palestinians in the camps there and not to Gaza where conditions are better than in Lebanon for Palestinians."

Ayalon, as part of an Israeli campaign to claim Hezbollah hypocrisy, published an opinion piece in the pro-Zionist Wall Street Journal last month and his Ministry is distributing it widely accusing Hezbollah of attacking Israel for what it claims is its anti-Palestinian policies while, "Today, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who are deprived of their most basic rights. The Lebanese government has a list of tens of professions that a Palestinian is forbidden from being engaged in, including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. Palestinians are forbidden from owning property and need a special permit to leave their towns. Unlike all other foreign nationals in Lebanon, they are denied access to the health-care system. According to Amnesty international, the Palestinians in Lebanon suffer from "discrimination and marginalization" and are treated like "second class citizens" and "denied their full range of human rights....that most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have little choice but to live in overcrowded and deteriorating camps and informal gatherings that lack basic infrastructure."

Ayalon and the US Israel lobby are urging Zionist activists internationally to organize boats and sail them to three ports in Lebanon, (Tripoli Port near Bedawi and Nahr al Bared Camps) Ouzai Port ( in a Hezbollah neighborhood near Shatila, Burj al Baragneh and Mar Elias camps) and at Tyre Port,( near Burj Shemali, al-Buss and Rashedeyeh Camps), in order to " break the siege of the Palestinians in Lebanon." The government of Israel, with US acquiescence is capitalizing on the lack of Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon in order to excuse repressive Israeli policies. According to AIPAC and Ayalon, the (Lebanese) flotilla organizers, whose supporters claim injustice, ignore the dire human rights situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon."

The US and Israel are wagering that Hezbollah has too much on its plate just now and that they will not finally finish the Palestine Civil Rights issue in Lebanon by granting the full right to work and the right to at least own one apartment as is allowed in Syria. "Many in the US intelligence agencies are said to be betting that Hezbollah will opt to get along and go along with reactionary forces in Parliament at the expense of the Palestinian refugees, whose return to Palestine is one of the party of God's main raisons d'etre.

Several Israel lobby articles currently ricocheting around the Internet are attacking Lebanon, and by implication Hezbollah, for the deplorable lack of Palestinian civil rights. These articles are not aimed at encouraging Lebanon to fulfill its obligations which the US and Israel currently prefer than they not do, but rather they are designed to weaken Hezbollah.

The Efraim Karsh article in the NYT this month sneers, "While the world is crying over the Israel-imposed blockade on Gaza, the media, for some unknown reason, chooses to deliberately ignore the conditions of the Palestinians living in camps in Lebanon.....Lebanon, has been holing up Palestinians inside camps for almost 30 years. Those camps do not have any foundations of livelihood or even sanitation and the Palestinians living there are not allowed access to basics such as buying cement to enlarge or repair homes for their growing families. Furthermore, it is difficult for them to work legally, and they are even restricted from going out of their camps at certain hours."

Karsh asks his readers to "Compare this to the fact that Palestinian laborers were still able to go to work every day in Israel. "In addition, AIPAC is reported to be organizing an ad campaign for major media markets asking why Hezbollah does not do something about the lack of rights for Palestinians in Lebanon and organize boats to sail to Lebanon and break the siege of the Palestinians in its camps.

If the US and Israel succeed is preventing Hezbollah and its allies from enacting meaningful civil rights into Lebanese law by Parliament, they are the winners and the Palestinians refugees and Hezbollah are the losers of this first round of the fight for civil rights for Lebanon's Palestinians.

Alternately, Hezbollah, as a proven advocate for Justice in Palestine and the single party in Lebanon that has the ability to organize the 65 votes to pass the full right to work and home ownership could score a dramatic knockout and yet another victory against Israel.

If it does, Washington and Tel Aviv fear Hezbollah may immediately and dramatically expand its future on the world stage.

* Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He can be reached at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.

Will Hezbollah leash 'NABI' ?

By Franklin Lamb* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

For months as Lebanon's historic debate over basic civil rights for Palestinian refugees has unfolded, the Obama administration has watched idly along the sidelines. As hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees cough and slow-bake while inhaling rancid camp air in Lebanon's sweltering breezeless heat, the White House has now sent Lebanon's Parliament a message. The United States will not support meaningful civil, social or economic rights for the World's largest and oldest refugee population and it wants them naturalized anywhere except anyplace in Palestine.

Many had been hoping that President Obama would honor in Lebanon his calls for "American style civil rights" for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, where daily US military actions betray American founding principles. Or that his administration would act to give some credence to Obama's June 2009 Cairo speech or at least the pledges of Presidential envoy George Mitchell to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah that "the United States will work without rest until the inhuman conditions of Palestinians in all the refugee camps are ended."

The US Embassy media office in Lebanon advised Palestine Civil Rights Campaign volunteers last month, referring to the Parliamentary debate, that "The United States does not have a dog in the fight." An odd choice of words, one might think, given still fresh Lebanese memories of dogs in the fight from 18 years of Israeli troops brutally occupying 151 South Lebanon villages and using US funded attack dogs to terrorize the population and employing dogs to desecrate dozens of South Lebanon's Mosques.

In point of fact the Obama administration does have a dog in this historic civil rights struggle in Lebanon. Figuratively speaking, the cur is a cross between a Pit-bull-Doberman and rabid Rottweiler and is known locally as "NABI" (Naturalization Anywhere But Israel).

The White House, and the Congressional Israeli lobby, intends that "NABI" shepherds and corrals Lebanon's Palestinians and resettles them permanently and painlessly (at least for their well paid host countries) around the World. The further from Palestine the refugees end up the better with perhaps as many as 100,000 Palestinians slated to be kept in Lebanon, even though they will be arrested if they travel south anywhere along the ' blue line' and happen to rest at villages like Maron al Ras and wistfully gaze towards their former homes and villages near Akka or Safad, for example. The US also expects NABI to disembowel the Right of Return and has begun arranging for Arab oil cash to foot the bill for this US-Israel project. The Obama administration, colluding with Israel, is backing the gradual naturalization of the Palestinians wherever they are or can be embedded. In this context, and according to the information acquired by the Kuwait Daily, Al-Anbaa, "the State Department has formed a team of Arabs and Europeans, in order to pressure the Gulf States into financing a fund to support any country that will accept and nationalize Palestinians."

During her Congressional confirmation hearing last month, Ms. Maura Conelly, slated to replace Michele Sisson as US Ambassador in Lebanon, was asked by a Congressional AIPAC agent where the State Department stood on the issue of shipping Palestinians in Lebanon around the World. She replied, " Senator, the United States is opposed to forced naturalization" implying that using cash inducements and other incentives to settle Palestinians, rather than a spring 1948 Nakba ethnic cleansing operation would be ok. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman had assured Lebanon that the US was absolutely against naturalization of Palestinians in Lebanon, but that was during the run up to last spring's Lebanese municipal elections when many US political promises were being made in the hope of buttressing the poll prospects of the anti-Hezbollah and anti-Palestinian voters, who today are, by and large, the same politicians opposing Palestinian civil rights.

MP Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah ally, (except on the issue of granting Palestinians even elementary civil rights), has been barnstorming this week warning of the US-Israeli project. On 7/26/10 Aoun declared:

"This ( project to settle Palestinian refugees) is an issue that we reject, and we will not be subject to any foreign policy planning to execute certain plans. The US is not interested in assuring the security, stability and sovereignty of Lebanon, but only in solving Israel's Palestinian problem at the expense of we Lebanese."

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel quickly added his voice to that of his rival Aoun and expressed his fears of the Israeli-US plan to naturalize Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. He revealed in an interview with Al-Jazeera that he has information "of an Israeli plan, backed by the American side, to naturalize Palestinians through the efforts of international institutions".

Amin has no problem with scuttling the Right of Return and is in favor of naturalization as long as it does not happen In Lebanon. This is 50% of the Israeli and American position-only point of contention expressed by the Lebanese right wing elements is that the US and Israel have no problem with Palestinians being naturalized in Lebanon- the NABI concept.

The Obama administration reckons that the Lebanese government can be "induced" to cooperate and social services for the remaining Palestinian refugees can be paid for by allies including some OPEC members even as UNRWA is to be phased out which, Israel and the US favor in the intermediate period.

Why UNRWA must be dismantled

For Israel and its American proxies in Washington, UNRWA, by the simple fact of its existence, is metaphorically Edgar Allen Poe's Tell Tale Heart that won't stop beating and with each ever louder beat reminds the World of Israel's serial international crimes. The reason UNRWA must be mauled by NABI is that Israel has long believed that by its very name, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, haunts people to inquire into its work and what happened in Palestine during the Nakba. Israel cannot abide the current maturing generation, especially in the West, but also in Israel, studying UNRWA's history of achievements for the Palestinians in the context of six decades of massacres, land grabs and ethnic cleansing.

The Tell Tale Heart of UNRWA must be silenced and its services assumed, at least for a few years, by Europe and the US using Arab money. The US-Israeli plan is that the naturalized refugees will be on their own wherever they end up and UNRWA can be permanently dismantled.

US Congressional sources close to Israel expect UNRWA to be abolished outright or at least financially gutted following Congressional Hearings and an Israeli lobby organized vilification campaign resurrecting the 'terrorists in their ranks' and the false 'anti-Semitic UNRWA textbooks' paradigms of the recent past. A campaign similar to the never proven charges made by Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and others at AIPAC events that leveled charges such as raising terrorists in UNRWA schools, is what is under consideration. In Lebanon, the fact of the matter is that UNRWA hermetically seals its 78 schools from Palestinian politics and history. Youngsters in the camps report to the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon (PCRC) that UNRWA is so afraid of criticism by Israel or the US Congress that it does not even allow them to wear the traditional keffiyeh or tee shirts, bracelets, necklaces or flag pins which might suggest (heaven forbid!) political support for their own country, Palestine.

The American brand

The US government strongly favors the draft law proposal of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces- March 14th "coalition". This lowest common denominator, watered down approach, currently scheduled for an August 17th Parliamentary vote, offers the Palestinians refugees some crumbs including adjusting Article 9 of the Labor code to make it easier to secure a work permit but does not allow home ownership, meaningful social security benefits or access to the more than 20 syndicated professions. As currently drafted, the March 14 "consensus proposal" will achieve essentially nothing towards granting internationally mandated civil, social and economic rights for Lebanon's Palestinian refugees. The US government is backing the March 14th coalition proposal and will apply pressure to see it passed, at least, if it looks like the Jumblatt-Progressive Socialist Party or the Syrian Socialist National Party may have a chance of being adopted. Either of these two bills would be a huge improvement over the 'scattered chicken feed' Lebanese Forces bill or March 14 "consensus bill". If the American brand bill is enacted the US administration will pressure its friends in the region to accept it and no doubt will announce ' Palestinians civil rights mission accomplished.' It will be a lie and pressure from the youth generation in the camps who are being denied dignity and any real opportunity in life will continue to build toward explosion.

The US-Israel worry about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon securing the basic right to work and to own a home has nothing to do with fears of al tawtin, (naturalization) or the loss of the refugees Right of Return, which is a huge concern of the Lebanese. Indeed, US-Israeli concerns are precisely the opposite. Both want Palestinians to become citizens in dozens of countries if necessary and to fade into the woodwork, and to forget about UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which mandated their unalienable Right of Return. Israel's problem is that the Palestinian Right of Return is gaining international momentum partly because of continuing Israeli crimes.

Despite sometimes mouthing support for the Right of Return, in a clumsy and transparent effort to avoid granting Palestinians civil rights in the interim, some US protégés in Lebanon could care less about the refugees reclaiming their stolen homes and lands in Palestine. But, like the Palestinian refugees themselves, they are dead set against the refugees staying any longer than absolutely necessary in Lebanon. Consequently, the right-wing Christian insistence on "No Naturalization" (emphatically shared by the Palestinian refugees) is at odds with the American-Israeli project and this issue is making for some interesting bedfellows.

The only political force in Parliament that can defeat this latest US-Israel project which also indirectly targets Hezbollah and Iran, is the National Lebanese Resistance with its broad based public support and legislative allies. The Hezbollah-led resistance can marshal the 65 votes to enact an internationally mandated civil rights law instead of the current feel-good feeble gesture the US-Israel and their proxies are currently planning for August 17. It is better for all concerned that this vote be postponed for 60 days rather than facilitate the US-Israel supported project.

If adopted, this current, regressive "consensus" and fake "Palestinian refugee civil rights law" will fail to meet Lebanon's internationally mandated duty to her refugees and it will not even minimally comply with the requirements of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the Casablanca Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians in Arab Countries of 11 September 1965. If passed in its current form, it will guarantee bleak prospects for Lebanon's Palestinian refugees, and quite likely for Lebanon and the region for years to come.

* Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He can be reached at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.