The height of hypocrisy

It is not often that I link to an article signed by a politician but I shall make an exception for this one by Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon in the Wall Street Journal of about a week ago that has, rather belatedly, come my way. It is, in some respects, out of date as the promised flotilla from Lebanon from Gaza did not actually set out though it seems that the Irish Ship to Gaza Committee is planning to revive the glory days of early summer. It might be a good idea for the tender-hearted Irish organizers to read this article with its description of the life of Palestinians in Lebanon first.

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."

Amnesty also states that most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have little choice but to live in overcrowded and deteriorating camps and informal gatherings that lack basic infrastructure.

Perhaps, something should be done to help them. Hmmm?

Then again, little enough was done or said at the time of the ferocious war waged between the Lebanese army and the Palestinian militants who were said to have infiltrated the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp back in 2008, a war that claimed something like 500 lives many of them civilians, and displaced many thousands of people into even worse conditions.

I am glad to say that I wrote about it several times on EUReferendum at the time here, here, here, here and here. The last of those postings was also about the Mohammed al-Dura hoax but at the end I said:

Nobody is going to compare Nahr al-Bared to Stalingrad or any other important battle.

The Palestinians may be perennial victims but some victims are more equal than others. If you want the West to pay attention to what is happening to you, try to ensure that you get under the Israelis' feet. Then it really does not matter that you are treated far better than your brethren in Lebanon or Gaza – the world will know with many advantages of your plight.

All of that remains true.

They want secularism in Lebanon

Well, some of them do and quite a few, probably, find it safer not to go out on a demonstration that is demanding that the country be run according to secular rules. The BBC says hundreds, the Washington Post says 3,000. Either way, one has to applaud these young people who are ready to defy various authorities to say that they want "civil marriage not civil strife".

It is not about the settlements, apparently

Before President Obama addresses the Arab world (which he and his advisers mistakenly assume to be the same as the Muslim world) and before Secretary of State Clinton (if she is allowed) becomes too involved in Middle Eastern negotiations, they should all read this interview with a supposedly high-ranking officer in Hezbollah.

"Mahmoud", one assumes, speaks for Hezbollah and its supporters (coyly not named). His description of the organization may seem wonderfully romantic from the way the BBC quotes and paraphrases but it is really a very nasty paramilitary, terrorist group who achieve their aims within Lebanese politics by force.

And the money quote:

But more recently, the United Kingdom government decided to distinguish between the two faces of Hezbollah - by talking to its politicians while keeping the military wing on the terrorist list.

But Mahmoud, the fighter, says the UK is fooling itself by making this distinction.

"We have two arms, but we belong to one body. There is no such things as the military wing or the political wing of Hezbollah - we are all part of one resistance," he said.

"Hezbollah will become a purely political party only when Israel ceases to exist," he said.

No, it is not about the settlements. They were taken down in Gaza and nothing changed. It is about the existence of Israel. Got that? Of course, there is no explanation as to what will happen if Israel were cease to exist. Would all the problems of the Arab countries magically disappear?

ADDENDUM: Denis Prager suggests the speech that President Obama ought to make in Egypt but, alas, will not. Possibly because many of those facts would be new to him as well.

I am shocked, I tell you, shocked

Der Spiegel reports that "the United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has reached surprising new conclusions". The article goes through the various theories that have sprung up around Rafik's assassination, some more likely than others, though the Knights Templar seem to be missing from the list.

Then it comes to the point:

But now there are signs that the investigation has yielded new and explosive results. SPIEGEL has learned from sources close to the tribunal and verified by examining internal documents, that the Hariri case is about to take a sensational turn. Intensive investigations in Lebanon are all pointing to a new conclusion: that it was not the Syrians, but instead special forces of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah ("Party of God") that planned and executed the diabolical attack. Tribunal chief prosecutor Bellemare and his judges apparently want to hold back this information, of which they been aware for about a month. What are they afraid of?

I rather like that sly use of the word "explosive" but the rest of the paragraph is a little strange.

What can those investigators who are about to finger Hezbollah (or not) be afraid of? Not some explosive device, perchance?

In any case, who is actually surprised by the notion that Hezbollah was behind that assassination? And why does that rule out Syria's involvement? Who is behind Hezbollah? Iran and .... yes, that's right, Syria.