Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘syria’

That’s how the Syrian Interior Minister described this week’s Syrian parliamentary elections, in which – surprise, surprise – the Ba’ath ruling party won:

The rubber-stamp legislature is likely to consolidate the rule of President Bashar Assad, who is expected to seek its nomination to run for a second seven-year term in July. There had been no doubt about the outcome, because the constitution guarantees the Baath Party and its allies a two-thirds majority in the parliament.

[ . . . ]

Interior Minister Bassam Abdel-Majid said the National Progressive Front, a grouping of 10 political parties led by Assad’s Baath Party, won 172 seats in the 250-member parliament in the tightly controlled elections on Sunday and Monday, an increase of five seats.

Abdel-Majid said the remaining 78 seats went to independents, who have to be approved by the government under Syrian law, and rarely challenge the administration.

Yes, we can clearly see how an election in which the ruling party is guaranteed to win, independents are hand-picked by the ruling party, and dissidents are barred from running or imprisoned, is free, democratic, transparent, and fair. That’s the kind of logic that apparently only applies in Syria… or maybe in Nancy Pelosi’s mind.

300,000 people turned out in Beirut to honour assassinated ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri’s memory and protest Syrian attempts at control in Lebanon.

It’s looking more and more like Lebanon is headed towards yet another “civil war” – or at least, that’s what the media will insist on calling it. The same media that gives Hezbollah credibility as a “Lebanese opposition party”.

Beirut is on fire.

The war between Lebanon and Syria is once again coming to a head, with Hezbollah fighting for Syria by proxy. Today’s “strike” was initiated by Hezbollah to escalate the fighting.

The aim of Hezbollah is to topple the Lebanese government and take over Lebanon for Syria. It has never made any secret of this. To achieve this goal, Hezbollah uses violence, force, threats, and terrorist tactics. The “political arm” of Hezbollah exists only to further the aims and successes of the terrorist group. It’s a foreign army, paid for by a foreign country, with the goal of invading and taking over Lebanon for a foreign government.

So why, then, does the international media insist on legitimatizing Hezbollah by calling it the “opposition”?

Let’s call this what it is: A war between Syria and Lebanon, fought on Lebanese soil but paid for with Syrian money. To use the word “opposition” is to give Hezbollah a legitimacy does not deserve.

Syria wants to talk with the United States:

“Syria is ready for dialogue with the United States based on respect and mutual interest,” Mekdad told Reuters in an interview. He said the solution to the crisis lies in an immediate ceasefire brokered by international powers, followed by diplomacy.

The United States hasn’t lifted a finger here, but Syria has to be dismayed at the severe ass-kicking that its proxy, Hezbollah, is receiving at the hands of the Israelis.

Syria will posture and bluster a lot about “international powers” and try to get the U.S. to commit to a deal that will benefit nobody but Syria. Nobody’s expecting much to come of this.

But none of that matters. Syria is blinking first.

Israel was never prepared to launch another war with Syria, and the United States isn’t too keen on getting entangled in another military conflict. But Baby Assad is obviously taking Bush’s rhetoric seriously enough to call for dialogue. If this has been a giant bluff, it’s clearly working – at least as far as Syria is concerned.

Iran? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Everyone’s making a really big deal about the remarks that Bush made at the G8 summit without realizing his microphone was on, and the fact that he *gasp!* swore!

Bush replied: “See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.”

Gee, you think?

Some people find Bush’s candor refreshing. Others seem to have a more realistic take:

No one in the media seems to notice (or maybe they notice but they don’t care) that this isn’t candid, frank or dramatic. It’s the kind of simplistic blowhard chitchat my relatives exchange during ‘NFL Today’ commercials. You know… just git ‘em to do it. Git someone to git ‘em to do it.

Is that the best Bush can do?

My question exactly.

There’s been a long-running debate among observers of Dubya as to whether he really is that dumb, or if his “plain-spokenness” is partly an act to help him win votes. Certainly his aversion to words with more than two syllables is nothing new.

But if, even off-camera, Bush’s understanding about the political situation in the mideast really is that oversimplified, then I think we all ought to be more than a bit concerned. Even if he was, in this case, perfectly right in what he said, it still has that “duh” quality to it that’s so pervasive in so much of what Bush says even publicly.

This afternoon, while baking in the hot sun waiting to get into Parc Jean-Drapeau to see Bon Jovi, we received a panicked phone call from a friend whose entire family lives in Israel. “They’re attacking Haifa!” She calmed down a bit after speaking to her family and being assured that everyone was safe, but the fingernail-biting nervous tension didn’t exactly dissipate.

Nor, I fear, will it for a while.

To say that the matzav has heated up would be putting it mildly. Nobody was injured in the Haifa attack, but sadly, in the North, people weren’t so lucky; rocket attacks killed 2 people and injured at least 120. Meanwhile, Israel is attacking Beirut, targeting Hezbollah stronghold areas. Israel may be after Hezbollah, but it’s Lebanon and Israel that are now engaged in what can only be called war.

Even as things escalate with the Palestinians, Hezbollah, and Lebanon, it’s not ending there. Hezbollah’s primary backers, Syria and Iran, are dancing close to the flame as well. Iran is threatening to retaliate if Israel strikes Syria. Meanwhile, Israel claims it has intelligence that Hezbollah is trying to transfer the kidnapped Israeli soldiers to Iran, which, of course, Iran is denying. The chances that Syria and Iran could get dragged into this mess are looking high.

Nor can Israel count on the unqualified backing of the United States. Bush is giving his cautious support even while Condi Rice is urging “restraint” – an all-too-familiar ploy that will end with Israel being falsely painted as the aggressor even by its allies.

Tonight, my friend’s family is doing the only thing they can: bunking down, biting nails, and waiting. Millions of Israelis and their friends and loved ones around the globe are doing the same thing tonight, and, I fear, for far too long to come.

This isn’t a song and dance about how war is never the answer. I’m not urging anyone to sit down and sing kumbaya. Israel needs to defend itself, and everyone here knows I support her actions 100%. But I can’t help the fear, the trepidation, the sense of dread. Unlike Israel’s enemies, who go straight into every war joyously envisioning wiping the “Zionist entity” off the map, Israel has never and will never go into war happily. Every war fought by Israel has been because there was no other choice, and every decision made by the Israeli government primarily considers the safety and security of the Israeli people. All I can do is echo the statements made in editorials and on blogs around the world: Israel will win because there is no other choice.

But I can’t help being afraid.

Syria, under international pressure for its role in the assasination of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri, has reverted back to its tried-and-true tactic of misdirection towards Israel.

A report by the United Nations says Syria assassinated Hariri:

High-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, with suspicion cast even on President Emile Lahoud, a U.N. investigation said on Thursday.

The inquiry led by veteran German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis into the February 14 killing of Hariri established “that many leads point directly toward Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination,” said the investigative report submitted to the U.N. Security Council.

It was therefore now incumbent on Syria “to clarify a considerable part of the unresolved questions” facing investigators, the report said.

Harsh language. I bet the Syrian dictatorship is shaking in its boots happily ignoring the report because it knows how toothless the U.N. is to actually do anything about it.

Prediction: Next week’s U.N. report will find a way to pin Hariri’s death on Israel.

Here’s the quote: [Syria is a] threat to the stability of the region . . . [I have] great concerns about the Syrians. Their psychology cannot be comprehended.”

Was it: a) George W. Bush b) Ariel Sharon? c) Tony Blair? d) Jacques Chirac?

Believe it or not, the answer is d: Jacques Chirac.

Yeah, I was shocked too. For about ten seconds. Then I read the whole article:

The situation in Lebanon and Syria was the focus of the Sharon-Chirac working lunch, which lasted two and a half hours. Sharon asked France to exert its influence in Lebanon, to prevent clashes along the northern border while the disengagement plan is underway. He warned that Iran may push Hezbollah to take action against Israel.

Pandering to a terrorist state trying to get nuclear weapons. Oh, right. That’s the Chirac we know.

And of course there’s more:

Chirac said that Resolution 1559 should be implemented to the letter, but disagreed with Sharon’s approach, saying that Hezbollah plays “a stabilizing role” in Lebanon today. Chirac spoke with pride about the central role France played in the build-up to the elections in Lebanon.

Same old Chirac. Pop quiz over. Regularly scheduled programming resumed.

Syria has supposedly withdrawn from Lebanon. Except that the Syrians are still very busy there:

An anti-Syrian politician was killed in Lebanon on Tuesday when a bomb ripped through his car, two days after parliamentary elections brought victory for an alliance opposed to Damascus’ role in the country.

George Hawi, a former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party, died instantly in the blast in the Wata Musaitbi neighborhood of Beirut, witnesses and security sources.

[ . . . ]

It was the second killing of an anti-Syrian figure in Beirut this month. Newspaper columnist Samir Kassir was killed on June 2 when a similar explosion destroyed his car outside his home.

The United States said after Kassir’s killing it had information about a Syrian hit-list targeting Lebanese leaders. Damascus has denied the claim and denounced Hawi’s killing.

And yet, Syria is still claiming to have had nothing to do with the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri. Riiiiight.