Amal-Hizbullah

The Amal-Hizbullah marriage is as authentic and real as the last marriage of Liza Minelli.

Lebanon: a piece of...the skies

Comrade Rami on boycott.

Lebanese Army

I was going to the downtown protest in support of the victims of Israeli massacre ten days ago. I stumbled upon a group of Lebanese Army soldiers. I asked them: what are you doing there in downtown Beirut? Are you always here or are you here for the protest? A soldier said: we are here for the protest. I said: but why? Why are you here for the protest? He said: to protect you. I said: protect us from what? Why don't you go to the South and protect us from Israel instead? He said: correct. Correct (صح, صح)

Biggest Zionist liars

The worst fabricators in Israeli media are the so-called "Arab affairs" correspondents. Those are expected, nay required, to fabricate and lie in service of Israeli propaganda.

Mossad propaganda

There are items that appear in Israeli newspapers that are simply untrue and planted in Israeli media. They later disappear from view.

Amal-Hizbullah

Yesterday, I spent the day in South Lebanon. I was bothered by: 1) the presence of the Lebanese Army because they have not earned the right to serve in South Lebanon because they have not once confronted Israeli attacks on Lebanon; 2) i was bothered by the state of the road from Sayda to Tyre; 3) I was bothered by the status of my grandfather's house in Tyre (pictures later); 4) I was bothered by the "art" work of Hizbullah-Amal in the region. I mean, their posters and banners have the beauty of Ba`thist image propaganda. Finally, there are models of rockets along the road that were used against Israel. I felt the rockets were too small. Israeli attacks and savage invasions require a much bigger arsenal to protect Lebanon.

"Controversial"

Notice that racism and criminal statements in Israel are always referred to only as "controversial." "Civilians driving on the Trans-Israel Highway 6 on Friday could not ignore a sign posted on a bus driving on the road, which conveyed a controversial message to the commandos who took park in the interception of the Gaza-bound flotilla: "Shayetet 13, shame on you. Why did you kill so few?""

The Chief Israeli collaborator

"Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas, according to what he told United States President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House Wednesday. Egypt also supports this position." (thanks Olivia)

BDS

"BDS in the USA, 2001-2010" (thanks Bassam)

Sen. Schumer supports the

Sen. Schumer supports the "strangulation" of Gaza. (thanks Samy)

Saudi-Israeli conspiracy? What conspiracy?

"Saudi Arabia has practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow Israeli warplanes passage on their way to attack Iran's nuclear installations, a British newspaper reported on Saturday." (thanks Olivia)

Terrorism versus peace

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Terrorism versus Humanitarianism: Another chapter of Zionism"

Being a woman in the Zionist entity

"No less than 35% to 40% of [Israeli] women have experienced sexual harassment at work, a third of whom experienced it in the last 12 months. Some 40% feel the workplace is not safe, from the perspective of harassment, according to a survey by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor."

Fruits of Oslo

"The head of the Palestinian Ministry Of Detainees' Census Department , Abdul-Nasser Farawna, who is himself a former detainee, stated that Israel arrested around 700,000 Palestinians since June 1967. That figure includes tens of thousands of children and over 10,000 women."

Bragging in Lebanon

This ad in Beirut brags about "First class" restaurants. (thanks Farah for taking this picture).

No one takes orders better than this man

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Jewish leaders on Wednesday that he would never deny Jews their right to the land of Israel, according to participants of the two-hour roundtable discussion."

Coriander and terrorism

"“Gisha is pleased to learn that coriander no longer presents a threat to Israeli security.”" (thanks Dina)

American searches

According to this, US ships will search Iranian ships. UN my potato. (thanks Amer)

No dignity to a collaborator among his people

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can't seem to unify the political factions within his own community, but there is one disparate group that he does have the ability to bring together: the American Jewish community."

Zionism propaganda

"How could a photo obviously taken during daytime have portrayed an event that took place during the late evening? Do Muslims have magical powers that allow them to turn night into day? And why were reporters standing around, casually taking photos when commandos were supposedly getting “lynched?” Once again, the IDF’s story was highly suspect." (thanks Laleh)

Hizbullah and the left

Comrade Samah offers a crticial leftist perspective on Hizbullah and the Left.

Ethiopian maid in Lebanon

An Ethiopian maid "fell" from a balcony in Lebanon and she was hospitalized.

Lebanese regime's war on the Palestinians

Comrade Raed Charaf on Lebanese regime's war on the Palestinians.

Dahlan Embassy in Beirut

I was about to take the elevator at the American University Hospital in Beirut yesterday, when a group of five men surrounded me and one of them said that they are fans and would like to meet me. He added that they are from the Palestinian Embassy in Beirut. I shook hands with all of them and they said that they appreciated my stance on Palestine. After I left them, it hit me: these are the from the Dahlan-Fayyad-Abbas embassy, and Fath leader, Khalid `Arif, was one of them. I went upstairs only to come face-to-face with Walid Jumblat.

Aljazeera II

Here, I talk on US-Israeli relations on Al-Jazeera.

Aljazeera

My appearance on Aljazeera from last night.

Aljazeera

I will appear on AlJazeera Arabic live at 11:30PM Beirut time.

Saeb Arekat

Is Senior Negotiator. You need years of groveling before Israelis and years of buffoonary to achieve that status.

Maid in Lebanon

After my finished my daily 60 laps in the pool routine. I went to have a worker open my cabin, and it was a Sri Lankan female worker at the club. I looked at her and she looked very familiar. I said: you look so familiar, i have seen you before. She said: I dont know. I said: yes, I remember. You were featured in the documentary by Carol Mansour on the plight of Sri Lankan maids in Lebanon. She was so happy, and said: yes, I was in that film, and Carol Mansour is "very good." We talked in simple Arabic but she managed to tell me that "Lebanese don't treat us well." I told her I show that documentary to my students in the US.

Queen Youtube invokes cliches

"The effect is a people trapped between a rock and a hard line policy." (thanks Ramiz)

The French and the rest

A cab driver yesterday in Beirut insisted to me that the French are the worst people on earth. I tried to protest but he insisted: that the French are dirty and smelly and stingy. He said a French man or woman would only order a salad in a restaurant to save money. I said: but your contact with the French is very limited, he said that no, it is enough. He said Americans are much better. Oh, and he predicted to me the demise of Israel and the US in the future. I said: but I live in the US. He said: just stay out of the US in December. I said: but what year? He said: i don't know. I only know it will happen in December. I said: but on what basis do you get those dates? He said: by having a special relationship with God.

Helen Thomas and American Zionists

Regarding her comments: I have lived in the US since 1983, and I regularly hear American Zionists calling for the expulsion of Palestinians and their distribution around Arab countries far from Israel. It is a standard Zionist line. What is the difference?

My new book

I went to the friends at Dar Al-Adab yesterday and signed the contract of my new book, Al-Bawh Al-Ghadib (البوح الغاضب Angry Revelation). It contains a selection from my articles from Al-Akhbar and will appear in two volumes. It will appear at the end of July and will have a signing event here in Beirut.

ESCWA

Today, I will speak at 7:00PM Beirut time to activists from the Lebanese Communist Party--affiliated Ittihad AshShabab Adimuqrati.

PS It is not only sponsored, as Bassem tells me, by Ittihad Shabab but also by other Lebanese and Palestinian leftist organizations.

blog

Hi blog.

New TV

I will appear on New TV's Al-Hadath in a few hours: at 10:30AM Beiurt time.

Liberation of Palestine: Causes for its abortion

Arwa kindly translated my article from Al-Akhbar on the "Liberation of Palestine: Some Causes behind its Abortion":

"The Liberation of Palestine: Some Reasons Behind its Abortion

By

As`ad AbuKhalil

Year after year, the Palestinian people “commemorate” the Nakba’s[i] anniversary. Year after year, Palestinians in Diaspora hold gatherings heavy with sadness. You see the same pictures: republication of black and white pictures of the expulsion of the people of Palestine. Pictures of house keys and deeds of lands which were not left voluntarily. Memory has become obscenity under Salam Fayyadh (who is no different than Fouad Al-Seniurah; the two are very dear to the worst American president in the history of American-Israeli relations). Fayyadh wants the Palestinian resistance to be content with preparing giant plates of musakhan[ii], just as Fouad Al-Seniurah wanted to greet the enemy with hospitality and tea after the Al-Hariri resistance model. Suffering a chronic illness, an activist group in Lebanon prepared the largest kuffiyeh[iii] on a painful occasion. But memory has a different meaning.

Arab regimes no longer observe the Nakba’s memory today. In the past, they used to use the occasion to glorify the eternal, steadfast, vigilant, pioneering, malevolent leader. Regimes used to employ their worst speech writers and poets to commemorate the anniversary. They used to select Palestinian representatives who went along with the regimes in order to avoid embarrassment. This is no longer possible today. Saudi Arabia sold the Palestinian cause to Ronald Reagan – and Arab regimes followed – and sold it again under the rubric of Thomas Friedman’s initiative, which the Saudi king adopted and imposed on the all Arab regimes including Lebanon and Syria (the former relies on Elias Almurr’s planes to resist Israel, the latter repeats its plea for direct or indirect negotiations with Israel as it awaits “the return of the Golan Heights”). Arab regimes have decided, in collaboration with the Palestine Liberation Organization since 1991, when the official Arab regime published the national Palestinian movement for the Palestinian people’s opposition of the first American invasion of Iraq, to restrain the PLO and impose a humiliating peace with Israel to please Washington.

It won’t help to return to the Nakba’s events. They’re known by now. Walid Al-Khalidi and others have narrated the events of that period. Racist Israeli historian, Benny Morris, revealed secret Zionist plans to expel the Palestinian people from their land (but the ignorant in Lebanon, like Jubran Basille, still repeat that the lie that the Palestinians sold their own lands). Today we know that all Arab regimes without exception, especially the regime that lead joint Arab military opposition to Zionist forces, were sold out to Britain or to both Britain and Israel. This applies to Lebanon, which used to serve Israel during Arab Israeli wars by holding itself out as neutral. The Nakba, as Constantine Rizek wrote in his book “The Meaning of the Nakba,” which deserves re-reading, wasn’t the result of a miracle or luck (the Fatah movement issued a statement in 1970 following the death of Gamal Abdulnaser stating “you’re unfortunate, Palestine”). Rather, it was because the Arabs didn’t plan for victory. On the contrary, all Arab regimes were heading towards defeat because victory would have cost more than they could afford, especially in light of their selling out to the Zionist West.

However, it is useful to examine the factors underlying the abortion of the march towards Palestine’s liberation. I recall that the great late Shafiq Al-Hout once asked me that question at a closed conference in Beirut regarding American policy towards the Palestinian cause. I recall that observation and list here the many factors including:

First, delegating the responsibilities of simultaneously defending Palestine and leading joint military action to Jordan at a time when the regime was sold out to Britain and the Zionist movement simultaneously.

Second, Lebanon’s distancing itself from the Arab-Israeli conflict since before the usurping entity was established, which protected the northern part of occupied Palestine and made it easier for Israel to face the Syrian and Egyptian armies through subsequent wars. Some Lebanese groups’ dealings with Israel made it easier to plot against the Palestinian revolution, especially after it moved from Jordan to Lebanon in 1970. The Palestinian revolution’s rise in Lebanon coincided with the collaboration between Lebanese forces and the Israeli enemy. Joseph Abu Khalil’s narrative about the commencement of Phalange-Israeli collaboration during the civil war is incorrect. Hebrew sources suggest that the Phalange Party received Israeli monetary support since the fifties (strict Israeli censorship surely would not leak information about arming the Phalange in the fifties in order to protect its allies’ interests).

Third, the Zionist United States’ control of the Palestinian camps (in collaboration with the Lebanese and Jordanian regimes particularly) immediately after the Nakba to quell spontaneous revolts that the dispossessed Palestinian people desired to engage in following their violent expulsion from their homeland. UNRWA’s role wasn’t that different than American goals.

Fourth, the Palestinian people’s faith in Gamal Abdulnaser or the Ba’th to liberate Palestine, which led to lethal dependence that characterized Palestinian national action between 1948 and 1967. That is, the Palestinian people should have doubted the Arab regimes’ promises since Shukri Al-Qutali promised a Palestinian delegation before the Nakba to nuke Israel (as narrated by Mousa al-Alami).

Fifth, the trust that the Palestinian people gave the Soviet Union during the Cold War undermined the Palestinian revolution’s structure. One could say that the initial collaboration between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for example, and China could have been more useful especially since China adopted better positions than the USSR in the sixties and early seventies. The USSR took advantage of its leverage among Palestinian groups to further goals unrelated to Palestine (the USSR was, and Russia continues to, support the liberation of no more than 24% of historic Palestine).

Sixth, the success of Zionist propaganda in exaggerating Zionist intelligence throughout the decades, which led to the spread of a culture of despair and disappointment among the Palestinian people and the Arab people in general. The policy of desperation and installing exhaustion and “we want to live” slogans are prevalent in all countries surrounding Israel. They’re in common between Israel and Arab regimes.

Seventh, Yasir Arafat’s rise and successful assertion of his vision in Fatah and the PLO, which gave Gulf regimes, especially Saudi Arabia, the opportunity to strike the Palestinian revolutionary movement and influence its political choices and help the right strike the left. Publicly available British and American documents reveal the extent of malignant pressure King Faisal exercised on Fatah’s leadership. Fatah’s direction could have been different had King Faisal, Khalid Al-Hasan and the right failed to control the movement (with money as some claim?) since the sixties.

Eighth, Arab regimes managed to infiltrate Palestinian organizations through intelligence operations to the extent that every intelligence system has Palestinian groups working separately from the Palestinian revolution. The Lebanese and Palestinians recall that the “Thunderbolt’s” leader was assassinated in Cannes, southern France. He’d never said before dying that the road to the liberation of Palestine passed through the L’azurde shore.

Ninth, the abundance of oil money, both reactionary and “progressive,” contributed to the corruption of all Palestinian organizations and weakened their revolutionary resolve. These organizations became subject to the financial source that led to the creation of partisan bureaucracies (on both the right and the left), which in turn distanced Palestinian activism from revolution. Money also created an incentive for the expansion of Palestinian organizations but it aborted secretive revolutionary work. The Palestinian movement’s poverty would have been a factor behind its success.

Tenth, Syria-Iraqi Ba’thist rivalry deprived the Palestinian revolution of the opportunity to receive strong support from two revolutionary regimes. The Ba’th had done much to prepare for Palestinian liberation but the conflict between the Syrian and Iraqi regimes led to the exploitation of the Palestinian scene for each regime’s respective interests. The conflict between the two imposed on the Palestinian agenda considerations irrelevant to the liberation of Palestine.

Eleventh, Yasir Arafat’s line and slogans of “the Palestinian decision’s independence” led to the Palestinian revolution’s isolation and separation from general Arab concern. This gave a golden opportunity for Arab regimes to wash their hands of the Palestinian people’s cause. The “Palestinian decision’s independence” slogan meant nothing more than replacement of Egyptian or Syrian political control with Saudi control.

Twelfth, the spread of the Palestinian cause in Amman and Lebanon (or Tunisia thereafter) weakened the PLO’s secrecy and allowed Israel’s many agents to infiltrate the Palestinian revolution’s ranks through many means. Hezbollah’s secrecy and its ability to foil all Israel’s attempts to infiltrate the movement are two factors behind its success. Throughout the years, Israel has succeeded in assassinating a vast number of the Palestinian revolution’s leaders. Israel succeeded in targeting some of the most qualified Palestinian activists, both undercover and public.

Thirteenth, the PLO established firm relations with states (many of which were totalitarian, especially those in the Soviet camp) and neglected establishing relations with peoples via civil society’s institutions. The late Edward Said had always encouraged the PLO to form relations with sympathetic leftist or liberal organizations in the United States instead of pursuing Washington’s Zionists’ amiability.

Fourteenth, early on the Zionist movement bet on the winning horse. In 1942 it transferred, by an order from Ben Gurion, its lobbying focus from Europe to the United States. The Zionist movement had held its first annual convention in the Biltmore Hotel in New York (Arabic sources usually conflate “Biltmore”, the hotel which was subsequently demolished, and “Baltimore” city in Maryland) in order to create an external base for the Zionist movement. The convention passed a clear resolution, unlike the Zionist movement’s usually vague statements, explicitly calling for the establishment of a state. The state’s name, the “Commonwealth,” appeared in the statement in addition to listing the state as part of the “free world.” At the time, the Arabs didn’t realize the importance of the Zionist movement’s relocation to the United States. Of course, the movement found fertile ground in the Jewish community’s embrace at a time when Arab immigrants were hiding behind American names to avoid their culture.

Fifteenth, Arab regimes didn’t strive to coordinate their efforts in the Palestine wars due to internal conflict and partisan tensions. How could one expect coordinated Arab work in 1967 when tensions between AbdulNaser and the Ba’th, or between the Ba’th and King Hussein, or between AbdulNaser and King Hussein, were most intense. They tried misleading their peoples into believing that the war they would wage against Israel in military coordination would be swift and last only a few days.

Sixteenth, modern Arab armies were built on the basis of protecting the regime, not the land or the homeland or Palestine. “Republican” brigades and “national” guards used to and continue to enjoy the latest weaponry and equipment while border troops receive leftover weapons. Arab armies weren’t organized to liberate Palestine (or protect the land). Furthermore, western countries that armed Arab armies were careful not to equip them to face Israel. Consequently, the United States bestows gifts and tanks to the Lebanese army and internal security forces in order to protect against internal rebellion and Palestinian camps only. But the United States and Britain would not have allowed for weaponry to confront Israel. The Soviet Union didn’t give the Arabs its best weaponry as the United States did for Israel.

Seventeenth, dissident Palestinian groups that could have formed a united front against the Arafat bloc and his compromising approach in the seventies, erred by surrendering their affairs to the Saddamist Iraqi regime. They lost all opportunities for independent work and flung the gates wide open for intelligence infiltration.

Eighteenth, no doubt Anwar Sadat presented a unique and successful twentieth century political phenomenon (from Israeli and American perspectives). We can say that Sadat, who lacked popular legitimacy and public Arab support, left a greater mark than Gamal AbdulNaser. Sadat eradicated Naserite heritage altogether. We still know only little about the rise of Sadat and the American (or Israeli) role that contributed to that rise. But Gamal AbdulNaser bears great responsibility for selecting him and leaving power in his hands after his death. We see the depth of the Sadat school of thought around the Arab world, which accepts servile conciliation with Israel and adopting hideous, open capitalist economies. Anwar Sadat succeeded in serving the Zionist movement more than any other Arab, even the Hashemites. Each provision of the servile Arab initiative carries the fingerprints of Anwar Sadat (in addition to those of Thomas Friedman, their author).

Nineteenth, Israel and its supporter the United States succeeded in neutralizing the Jordanian and Lebanese neighbors, which facilitated Israel’s assault on the Palestinian revolution inside and outside Palestine, in addition to confronting Egypt and Syria before AbdulNaser’s death. It is well known that Lebanon refused a Syrian request, prior to 1967, to send Syrian troops to Lebanese soil. This may have undermined the June 5 catastrophe.

Twentieth, Arabs decided to trust the promises of the United Nations and its arbitrators while Israel ignored them completely even during the Cold War, when the US represented a certain balance in international relations. Had the Arabs treated the United Nations harshly and refused partition since the beginning in 1947, coordinated Arab work (and it was never coordinated) would have been more effective (theoretically at least).

Twenty first, the establishment of the Oslo authority in Ramallah allowed Israel and the United States to form a Southern Lebanese Army force to serve the Israeli occupation, discard armed struggle and pursue those who “commit” it. The authority receives equipment and support from the United States to protect Israel as an agent. Yasir Arafat, in spite of all his mistakes – and they were grave mistakes – refused until the last minute to give up armed struggle unconditionally. But he showed willingness to give it up in return for certain conditions. Those who came after him rushed to give up armed struggle without conditions.

Twenty-second, the 1967 defeat was a watershed moment in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Had Arab governments not followed Gamal AdbulNaser’s leadership (their involvement resulted from heated confrontations between the Jordanian right and the Syrian left), or had the Egyptian regime not entrusted Abdulhakim Amer with the responsibilities of leading armed struggle, or had the Egyptian regime not been dragged into the Yemen war, which Saudi Arabia fought on behalf of the United States using Israeli weaponry, the imbalance of power between Arabs and Israel would not have been so drastic on the eve of war.

Twenty-third, Israel succeeded in disseminating insidious ideas within the framework of psychological warfare, assisted by Arab regimes – whether by collaboration or ignorance. In spite of the failure of Israeli intelligence at many points, years before the Al-Mabhouh assassination scandal in Dubai, Israeli intelligence achieved more success in public relations than in the intelligence field itself. Of course, Israel’s ability for random explosions didn’t mean it knew about the intricacies of the Palestinian leadership. Israel didn’t know the truth behind “Black September” until after Abu Dawud’s memoirs were published.

Twenty-fourth, through terrorism and racism, Israel exercised a police state grip over Palestinians of 48. It employed brutality because it knew that its ability to control and steal Palestinian land depended on a strict racist system inside occupied Palestine. The usurping entity wanted to steal the little that was left for Palestinians to send a message.

This is not an exhaustive survey for a bygone conflict. It’s not the announcement of the end of a war that has gone on for over a century and will continue. This is only a glance at the reasons behind the abortion of the Palestine liberation struggle. Names and goals have changed. But nothing has changed for the Palestinian people in camps and under occupation. The manipulation of Palestinian public opinion by Salam Fayyadh and Muhammad Dahlan has not yet reached its goal of stopping the Palestinian people’s revolution. Zionism’s dilemma is aggravated in spite of its nuclear, biological and chemical arsenal. It will share the fate of the apartheid regime in South Africa (a new book documenting the relationship between the Hebrew state and the apartheid regime in Africa just came out “The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa” by Sasha Polakow-Suransky). The apartheid regime used to possess the largest army in the African continent in addition to an advanced nuclear program. But all that meant nothing under the pressure of the Black majority. Like South Africa, Israel will become a footnote in our region’s history. However, preparing a giant plate of “musakhan” won’t do the job, just like a giant plate of hummus didn’t protect Lebanon from Israel.

---

[i] Translator’s note: Nakba refers to the violent expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population by Zionist forces in 1948.

[ii] Translator’s note: Musakhan is a traditional Palestinian dish made with chicken, sumac and herbs.

[iii] Translator’s note: Kuffiyyeh is a traditional checkered Arabic headscarf, historically symbolized resistance to colonization.

On Aljazeera

I will appear on Aljazeera at 11:15 PM Beirut time.

I want a Sect: a sect against all sects

Arwa kindly translated my article from Al-Akhbar: "I want a Sect: Against Sects":

"I Want a Sect Against Sects

As’ad Abu Khalil

(To F.)

Sects, schools of thoughts, doctrines, religions. Leaders, agents, professional haters. They're devoted to sectarian provocation and agitation everywhere I look in the freak of a homeland, Lebanon. Platforms, palaces and positions that were built with sectarian fires. But I can't find a sect that meets my requirements. I can't find a sect that gives me air to breathe. Democratic Youth Union wants to delete sect from IDs and I want to delete it from the homeland. I want a sect. Who can get me a sect?

I want a sect for myself. None of the sects and doctrines can accommodate me. All restrain me. They disgust me. I don't get along with their leaders or their masses and I do not follow their slogans. I want to establish my own sect, but you're welcome to join. My sect has no rituals, traditions or customs. It's a freedom sect where everyone may define their own path. I want a sect that isn't interested in being ranked among Lebanese sects. One that doesn't boast about being one of the conflicting sects. I want a sect that the Lebanese Ministry of Interior's records do not recognize. My sect doesn't appear in commemorative photographs and doesn't get invited to the presidential palace and you don't see it in embassies. My sect doesn't receive money from the House of Saud or their followers in Lebanon.

I want a sect in Lebanon that isn't Lebanese. I want a flag besides the Lebanese flag with its triangular (Phalange) cedar. My sect has no connection whatsoever to the cedar's symbols, the cedar's images or the cedar's festivals. It has nothing to say about the Phoenicians besides what is written about them in the classical history book, which isn't mentioned in Lebanon's public relations writings, “They (the Phoenicians) were scorned as untrustworthy thieves and liars. As greedy merchants and profit seekers, they used to kidnap the weak and traffic people. They were unethical and corrupt and drove their daughters to sell their bodies. They killed their children as sacrifice for the gods.” “Jezebel” is originally a princess from Tyre (See Glenne Markoe's The Phonecians: Peoples of the Past, p. 10). This is all my sect needs to know about Phonecian history. My sect never permits exaggerations about Said Aql, May Al-Murr or Fouad Afram Al-Bustani to seep into the educational curriculum.

However, my sect is of this world. I want a sect that isn't represented in sectarian archives and has no representation in sectarian committees in Lebanon. My sect isn't represented by a cedar tree or a religious symbol. My sect has no billionaires to dictate its politics. I don't want my sect to be represented in sect principles or in pickles and parsley beauty pageants. I don't want it to compete in competitions for the largest plate of hummus. My sect won't be mentioned in presidential ceremonies and governmental decisions. Talk shows won't mention my sect. My sect won't take orders from Prince Muqrin nor will it pledge loyalty to any axis's priorities. It won't await marching orders from western capitals. My sect won't acknowledge borders, and it will strive to dissolve the freak of a homeland, Lebanon. My sect will want to destroy its borders with occupied Palestine. It will want to merge with liberated Palestine. My sect rejects the Ta'if Accord and its sectarian subtext. My sect didn't even set foot in Al-Ta'if and wasn't tainted by its money.

I want a sect where children can play and have fun. In my sect, the only place for children is on swings and playgrounds and swimming pools. In my sect there is no place for sterile, stagnant education for children or for rewards and punishments. My sect rejects the notion of children's inferiority. It actually respects the child. In my sect children play in mud and neglect their lessons anytime they want. Children in my sect do not take lessons in manners. They learn to rebel at any time they desire. Children in my sect can dress colorfully and enjoy themselves. They do not fall victim to western corporations’ propaganda that harm children's mental and physical wellbeing. In my country children can spill soup, candy and chocolate on their clothes without fear. In my sect children learn from swings and from each other any time they want. Children in my sect do not purchase American products. In my sect children speak Arabic on the playground without shame. Children of my sect do not learn through rote memorization or parrot-like repetition. Children in my sect do not observe Teacher's Day, and they reject Ahmad Shawqi's poem to "venerate" teachers. The relationship between teachers and children in my sect are democratic, not heirarchical. In my sect teachers do not yell or throw chalk or reprimand. Children in my sect can draw with ink on their white shirts if they want to. And chew gum if they want to. And dance in math class if they want to. I want a sect which girls and boys squeeze my heart and present it in a cup to my beloved. My sect airs my heart on a laundry line in front of my beloved's house. My sect records my heartbeats on a CD and places it at my beloved's door. The girls and boys of my sect play on my heart's strings the symphony of eternal love. My sect memorizes all songs of harmony and love. My sect combines love and fury in resistance and revolution. My sect loves life, but not the servile life that the Al-Hariris and Al-Gemayyils want for us in Lebanon. My sect doesn't sing for hollow peace and doesn't carry candles to mimic the white man who wants to strengthen his grip on us in everything including how we breathe and laugh. My sect doesn't follow in the footsteps of Gandhi and remembers how he used to "test chastity." My sect welcomes war as much as it loves life with freedom. My sect knows that slogans of peace and non-violence are the latest expressions of normalization with Israel. Singing and dancing are allowed in my sect and in no need of permission from the police or authorities. Lovers can hold hands without warnings from extremist religious police like that of Saudi Arabia or Iran. My sect's sons and daughters do not dance without dignity as Iqab Saqr did recently at the Janadriyya festival before Prince Salman and other princes.

My sect considers religious an exclusively individual matter and calls for the state's separation from religion and virtue except for public health matters after cleansing the state from sectarian dirt and sect leaders' filth. An individual may believe or disbelieve as he likes, without state decree. The state respects free expression and rejects Tariq Metri's project to create a high censor position to protect the Al-Hariris' interests in Lebanon. My sect doesn't oppose the individual's creed; he is free to worship or to sing in Mansuriyya or Tyre or Shetura. My sect permits worship as long as it is private and as religious institutes do not receive state funding. My sect guards secularism without shame or fear or hypocrisy. My sect invites Marcel Khalife (why did he give a gift to Sad Al-Hariri? Why, Marcel? We don't recall that being part of your culture during the war years) to sing "I am Joseph, Father" in a public square. My sect doesn't allow or prohibit; it doesn't permit or restrict; it doesn't proselytize or denounce. It dances freely (not to honor the oil sheiks as the Karkala group does).

My sect's ranks swell with "Youth Against Normalization" with Israel, elderly against normalization, children against normalization, women against normalization and students against normalization. My sect fights normalization in every way, shape and form. It pursues the enemy everywhere. My sect strives to liberate all Palestine and to liberate Lebanon too (of superstitions, myths, legends, mass delusion and also free it of western and Israeli colonialism). My sect doesn't imitate the west and doesn't suffer an inferiority complex before the white man. My sect isn't shy to mimic Africa. My sect reads what it likes without contributing to the usurping entity and “Amos Oz”. My sect doesn't want to appear civil before the European visitor. My sect feels comfortable appearing as it is. My sect has no presence in francophone gatherings to bring Israel into our homes and bedrooms. It doesn't establish relations with Arab regimes but it enjoys solid relations with Arab peoples. My sect dismisses all Arab leaders and doesn't obey a single one of them. My sect teaches its sons and daughters to refuse lowering their heads except before trees, birds, clouds and mountains.

My sect isn't docile. It swoops to resistance and revolution when necessary. My sect opposes the Israeli enemy. Its sons and daughters love living life with dignity, not shame. My sect doesn't hold monthly meetings to discuss sectarian provocation and regional and global affairs. My sect doesn't have any elders who pretend respectability before TV cameras. My sect believes in a defense strategy in which the Lebanese government isn't decision maker or that the state's armed personnel stay at home on war day. Those who'd like to fight can join the resistance, not the other way round, unlike Faris Said's irrational defense methods or Duri Sham'oun's theories, which refuses to accept the notion of Israel's defeat in the July war.

My sect loves, respects and reveres women without directing them to follow Virgin Mary. There is no place in my sect for Lebanese males who see nothing in women but a naked body, and who see nothing in the woman's head but features for make-up and adornment. There is no room in my sect for those whose only knowledge of language is the demeaning cat calls they make to pedestrians on the street or on Facebook. In my sect it is strictly prohibited to crack jokes about Haifa' Wehbi, but it is allowed to tell jokes about the males who have devastated the freak of a homeland. What has Haifa' Wehbi done to deserve becoming the object of cheap jokes in vulgar sexist society? Did she drive the population into poverty? Did she fund war militia? Did she claim she "built" Lebanon while storing the Lebanese people's fortunes? Did she plot against Lebanon and Palestine? Leave Haifa' Wehbi alone. In my sect love is based on acceptance and equality in fulfillment of desires. My sect stresses equality between men and women. It fires all men from Lebanese broadcast stations to purify them of commercializing and marketing women. My sect hosts Sri Lankan and Ethiopian women for at least one year to serve them dutifully. The sons and daughters of my sect massage Sri Lankan and Ethiopian maids' feet before they fall asleep. My sect's sons and daughters volunteer to wash their clothes as modest compensation for years of exhaustion.

My sect asks women about their desires and aspirations. It doesn't assume or claim or decide on a woman’s behalf. My sect redefines beauty pageants and prohibits plastic surgery except for operations that involve the woman's health and wellbeing (i.e. reconstructive and restorative operations). My sect doesn't judge a woman by her weight, cup size or the fullness of her lips. My sect accepts the woman as she is without applying compounds, herbs and medicines created by quacks and charlatans. My sect rejects importing female beauty standards from the sexist Hollywood industry. My sect refuses to make women the only ones with responsibilities in the family. It imposes responsibilities on men. It doesn't consider manhood an excuse not to cook, do laundry, clean and do dishes.

I desire a sect that redefines gender and fundamentally changes methods of child rearing and upbringing. In my sect, parenting is based on cooperation, love and equality. My sect rejects scolding and belittling as methods of instilling obedience and blind loyalty. My sect rejects family laws that monopoloize sexist laws. My sect frees foreign maids in Lebanon and criminalizes their use. My sect frees all sex workers in Lebanon and criminalizes the purchase (not selling) of sex, if we can call that sex; sex implies consent between the parties, and economic need negates freedom of choice and decisionmaking. My sect will make those into centers to spread radical feminism in Lebanon.

My sect rejects capitalism and works to cancel it. My sect agrees with Balzac that behind every fortune lies a crime. It agrees with Proudhon that private property is theft. It agrees with the demands of The Communist Manifesto as a bare minimum. My sect embraces the poor and ridicules the rich and bars them from representing people and controlling them. My sect prohibits palaces in Lebanon and will convert them into shelters for the poor. My sect will demolish statues of the rich and colonialism's puppets and will allow a statue of "the dangerous man." "The dangerous man" is my sect's dear son. My sect will oppose privatization and will nationalize all sectors after ridding the state of sectarian grasp. My sect will consult comrades Khalid Saghiyya and Muhammad Zebib on economics and will ignore everything written by Marwan Iskander. My sect will encourage people to pirate to break or decrease the monopoly of multinational corporations. My sect will refuse the impoverishment of Al-Biqa farmers under the rubric of a deceitful virtue war imported from the United States.

My sect acknowledges a debt to Syrian workers in Lebanon and gives them Lebanese citizenship. They have rebuilt Beirut, unlike one who has impoverished the Lebanese people by plotting against them and against the peoples of neighboring Arab countries. My sect pursues and criminalizes anyone and everyone who harms Syrian workers, and pursues politicians who provoke public opinion against the Syrian people in Lebanon. It also places responsibility on the Syrian regime, which neglects the affairs of Syrian workers in Lebanon. My sect considers Syrian workers in Lebanon a sect per se. It encourages unions in Lebanon to cooperate and unite with a Syrian workers’ union in Lebanon (after expelling the former’s president Ghassan Ghousn, who was installed by the Amal movement for reasons unrelated to workers’ rights in Lebanon).

My sect wants to eradicate the demarcations between the Palestinian camps and the rest of Lebanon (have you seen the border between Burj Al-Barajnah camp and its surroundings? You’d know from the color of the tar). My sect fights for liberation and doesn’t use the language of “nationalization” to oppress the Palestinian people in Lebanon. My sect removes the Lebanese army’s checkpoints surrounding the Palestinian camps and sends its personnel to the border with occupied Palestine. My sect will not rest before it conducts an incisive investigation into the massacre (which involved no heroism) of Nahr Al-Barid. The sons and daughters of my sect will rebuild the Nahr Al-Barid camp without permission from the Lebanese state, which lies about the Nahr Al-Barid camp at a rate of three times a day.

My sect has no leaders or herds. Everyone participates in decision-making locally and nationally. My sect doesn’t allow legislative or municipal elections before changing electoral laws and removing spending secrecy that enables western and Gulf conspiracies against Lebanon and Palestine. My sect demands return to the Cairo agreement. My sect demands opening the Lebanese borders with Syria and acquire all means necessary to defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.

I want a sect that flies and soars and sings before the birds. A sect that wakes with sunset and sleeps with sunrise. I desire a sect that takes on the colors of the rainbow and isn’t afraid to sleep on the clouds. I want a sect that doesn’t follow, doesn’t applaud and doesn’t chant except for freedom, without payments or provocation or commands. I want a sect that drinks and eats from the earth and then returns to it. A sect that understands environmental struggle differently than Akram Shihayib and the green party. My sect’s concept of the environment will be closer to the American Green socialist party, not the Lebanese capitalist green party. My sect’s environmental activism will involve struggle against capitalism and globalization while the “struggle” of the Lebanese green party joins the Lebanese economic system’s capitalist monopoly. My sect understands environmental needs as a struggle against the greed of oil sheikhs and their followers in Lebanese economics and society. My sect starts by prohibiting hunting and barring western corporations that have a long history of destroying the environment. I want a sect that doesn’t subscribe to Lebanese myths of superiority and claims of Lebanese genius. I want a sect that acknowledges the equality of people. Is this too much for you, sons and daughters of Lebanon’s sects? I want a sect that scribbles and merges the red and green on the Lebanese flag. I want a sect that will rewrite Lebanon’s history to discuss a war of independence that failed to achieve independence. My sect will prepare for a war of true independence for Lebanon.

This is my sect. Does anyone want to join?

Turkish propaganda in the Arab world

"Lebanese political scientist As'ad AbuKhalil, writing on his blog The Angry Arab, said: "I feel thatTurkey is on a campaign to win Arab public opinion."" (thanks Olivia)

Then there is me

"Then there’s As’ad AbuKhalil.He’s an articulate Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus, who describes himself in his blog (http://angryarab.blogspot.com/) .as an “Angry Arab.” (thanks Saed)

Israel's notion of defense

Comrade Fawwaz writes on Israel's notion of defense.

Thomas Friedman

Look at this clown: 1) he puts the word "humanitarian" between quotation marks; 2) he has a friend in Israel who shares his Zionist racism and observes that the Palestinians have just started to act "rationally"--a reference to the collaborationist behavior of the Abbas-Fayyad clique in Ramallah; 3) he uses the word "strategic" because he is so shallow and thinks that the insertion of the word makes him sound deep and profound; 4) he judges Turkey by the extent to which it pleases Israel; 5) he manages to sum up his views on the subject in this sentence: "That concern for Gaza and Israel’s blockade is so out of balance..."

My talk at Lebanese University

Here is a recording of my talk yesterday at Lebanese University on the liberation of Palestine. (thanks Khodor)

blogging

I havnt been blogging. Lousy internet at my hotel. I will move tomorrow and will have a good internet service. I was at the protest rally yesterday: i was not pleased to see evidence of heavy Turkish propaganda: some spontaneous and some clearly provided by embassy. I feel that Turkey is on a campaign to win Arab public opinion. I will appear on New TV's Hadath on Sunday, and will speak this afternoon at Lebanese University in Hadath at 3:00PM.