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Syria takes down FaceBook!!

It's been a long time since my last post on this blog, and I wanted my return to posting special so i chose to do it from Syria. Now as I write these words, I am in a net cafe in Syria. I picked this location to highlight the latest "faux pas" of the Syrian regime: Blocking Facebook!

The Syrian regime started the block in Nov. 18, after it got weary of the multiple opposition groups that spread across Facebook and decided to put a stop to it (The end of e-Damascus Spring). And of course the final insult was to use the "Afraid of Israeli interference" excuse to justify their misdeed.
The move on behalf of the Totalitarian regime comes after a series of bannings that included Youtube, Blogspot(access blogger.com is permited, that how i was able to post this article), and for a short period of time Hotmail.
I came to Syria, and headed to the first net cafe I found, hoping that I could find a way to bypass the ban and publish it online. But for the last hour, I've trying every trick I know on how to bypass the censorship and access the blocked website, but to no avail. What surprised me most was the amount of proxy websites blocked by the ISP. An effort that could have been to hundreds of other useful things, and believe me, there's lots of room for improvement in this place.
I believe that this kind of action is nothing but typical maneuvers conducted by paranoid dictatorship. And in this occasion i would like to remind the Syrians/Baathis of their party's motto "Unity, Freedom, Socialism". I don't know about you but for me censorship and freedom don't get along at all.

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.” - Noam Chomsky

Blast from the Past

A couple of weeks ago, Ouwet.com republished a picture of Aoun standing in the middle of two Israeli and Lebanese army commanders shaking there hands. That picture pushed to search my Library to find some good pictures of the same kind. The results were fantastic, and here's some of it:

This is the official SSNP newspaper. This is one of its issues in the 1990s.

The SSNP declared their alliance to Aoun in the Matn elections, announcing that they are both in the same political Track. The questions is, who changed their opinions the SSNP or Aoun????

Good friends?????

Most of the LF people that I talk to, keep saying that Bashir Jemayel was not in alliance with Israel.

This excerpt is taken from Shimon Shiffer's Book, Snowball. The conversation took place in Naharaya, Occupied Palestine. In response Bashir thanked the PM for his help.

Here's some pictures of Bashir and Israeli official from Sharon to Israeli Army Generals. The last picture is Sharon laying roses at Bashir's grave. If you are a supporter of Bashir, don't get pissed about these pictures because they are facts. If you're feeling angry, then maybe you should reconsider your stance.

Conversation with an FMer

These conversations took place on two different occasions in the course of the last six months. The guy is a friend of mine who “Really” likes Saad Hariri but is not with the Future Movement.

(I’m going to call him Ahmed)

First encounter:

I was getting a hair cut and he walked in. At the time there was a big explosion in a Shia neighborhood in Iraq, Al-Qaida claimed responsibility and we were discussing this.

Ahmed: This is a great accomplishment, the Shia deserve this, they’re backed by Iran and helped the US forces invade Iraq.

Me: So you’re ok with the Sunnis cooperating with the US in Lebanon but against the cooperation of Shia with them in Iraq. And how can you be ok with people being blown into pieces for their beliefs. How would you feel if lost your child in a terrorist explosion?

Ahmed: Al-Qaida is not a terrorist organization, they’re Jihadist and these explosions are the necessity of Jihad. And we are not cooperating with the US; they’re just helping us get rid of the Syrians.

Me: Isn’t helping you getting rid from the Syrians a cooperation. And doesn’t carrying attacks against countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Syria a terrorist attack.

Ahmed: No it isn’t. These countries are ruled by Kuffar (he doesn’t know that I’m an atheist) and should be destroyed to establish an Islamic Caliphate just like the old days.

Me: If these countries are ruled by Kuffar, why are you working and getting paid from the Kuffar government of Lebanon? (He’s a government employee)

Ahmed: Why??? Because I’m working my ass off for them.

Me: So you’re getting paid because you’re hurting your ass sitting behind the desk all day.

Ahmed: Yes, of course.

Me: Good, I’ll give you pillow to sit on at your job, and we can save the government your paycheck

He storms out angry whispering something I couldn’t understand

Second Encounter:

Four months later, he invites to his home, to help him fix something on his PC. At this time, the Camp war was ragging for sometime.

Ahmed: What do you think about the new present that your Syrian friends sent us?

Me: The Syrians are not my friends, the army has been pushed into a very dangerous fall, but I guess your leader knows more about it.

Ahmed: You people have nothing better to do then accuse us of everything bad in the country.

Me: You people, who do you mean?

Ahmed: Hezbollah’s people, or are you going to tell me that you don’t support him.

Me: No, I do support Hezbollah, but I’m not bound by his speech and ideas. Then again, why are pissed off at Fatah Al Islam, aren’t they Sunnis and fighting an army of a Kuffar government.

Ahmed: Kuffar?? Our government is not a Kuffar government; the army is doing the right thing by eliminating this terrorist organization. Do you know that they wanted to establish an Islamic Caliphate in the north?

Me: Isn’t that what you want, don’t you like Al-Qaida, Fatah Al Islam wants to do the same thing as Al-Qaida.

Ahmed: Who said that I like Al-Qaida, they are a terrorist organization just like Fatah Al Islam, I am against any organization that tries to disturb the peace in any Arab country.

Me: But last time you said the exact opposite thing

He changes the subject and start explaining the PC's problem….

Lebanon and Pragmatism

From the end of World War I and until this day, Lebanon has always been infested by Pragmatic parties with virtually no real vision for the future Lebanon. The lack of political ideologies in Lebanon, and the overwhelming number of parties whose sole purpose is responding to current event according to personal gains without a futuristic vision, is in my opinion the biggest contributor to the sectarian strives we are facing today.

What is the structure of your average Lebanese party? A popular feudal lord, who’s most probably, inherited his position of Leader of the party from his dad who in turn inherited from his dad. Next, we have the party “members of the political Bureau”; these groups is responsible of just repeating what the feudal lord states, and explain to people why their party is better then the other gazillion Lebanese party who states the same ideas in their manifestos. Of course the most important arguments they use, is not related to their manifestos ingenuity but that of their feudal lord. Then there’s the base, the people driven by their deepest prejudices and fear of the other, those who have found it in their own interest to give up their free minds in order to repeat what the people above them in the party order chain says.

With ideological parties sidelined, pragmatic parties today, controls the Lebanese society. People no longer make their decisions with the best interests of the nation in mind; instead they consider, their sect interests’ witch in turn benefits the sect leader (Feudal Lord).

How many people in the FPM, FM, LF, HA….can tell you about their party’s manifestos, then again how many Lebanese party have manifestos. Let’s take the FPM and FM for example. Both parties are capitalists who believe in the “Free market”, both of them claim to be Lebanese and work for a better Lebanon, and the only difference between them is the Leadership. These parties are what I like to call “Passing” parties. (مارقة) In history of Lebanon we had many parties like this one (ex: Alnajada), they come they see and keep moving.

Tell me what your sect is, I’ll tell you who you’re with. That is what it all came down to. Nationalist feelings don’t exist in Lebanon, Period. Now, you might think that after the end of the camp war, nationalism is on the rise with the emergence of the newly found support for the Lebanese army. In reality, Sunnis supported the army because they saw it defending them against the Syrians, Christians saw the army defending them against a Radical Islamic group, and Shia support for the army came from the fact that they form the majority of it. With that, the nationalist feelings after the Camp war are nothing but an illusion because they come from a sectarian point of you, and sectarianism cannot turn into nationalism unless the nation in itself is sectarian (Israel/Zionism).

What we need is a renaissance movement, not a populous movement. We need intellectuals, great thinkers, people that can move us into the Modern world and break the sectarian nightmare we are living.

The Claim of historical Lebanon

I wanted to declare my opinion about the claim of Historical Lebanese boundaries .The opinon was established by reading through the justifications and many History Books (Read the Sources)

It’s up to the reader to make up his own mind about the subject.

In my opinion, the cause origin of the separatist (Lebanon from Greater Syria) tendency of the Christian community in Lebanon can be traced to the second class treatment they got from the entire consecutive Caliphates that ruled the region.

What separates the Lebanese Christians from their Syrian counterpart (there’s a much bigger community of Christians in Syria then in Lebanon, but far lower percentage) is that the crusaders in Lebanon gave its Christians lots of freedom for aiding them. And after the end of the crusaders era, the Christians had to come back to the oppression of the Islamic Caliphates. But now, the Christians had known freedom and knew what they were missing.

With that being said I don’t think that this is enough reason to cooperate with the every foreign power that hints possible ambitions to take over the region.

In his aim for the independence of Lebanon, Patriarch Huwayek went as far as sending Clemenceau, the French president a message congratulating him on the victory over Germany and telling him that “the Maronites have admired France for over 800 years, and that Lebanon will never be separated for its “Mother” and hoped that the France that liberated our country would stay forever”

لبنان الكبير – حكمت ألبير الحداد – ص 117

I am a firm believer that the Greater Syrian civilization has been influenced by the Phoenicians. But the claim that the Lebanese are Phoenician, now that for me, is an outrageous claims. The Canaanite civilization had dissolved over 3,000 years ago; the statement that Lebanese are Phoenicians contradicts Anthropological science in its foundation. What you are saying is that the Lebanese have been oblivious to evolution and to any civilization that passed through the area in the last 3,000 year. And with the spread of Christianity, all the “Phoenicians” just converted.

But let’s forget that for a second and let the “We are Phoenicians” argument pass. What about Arwad, Akko, Hamah, Hims, these are areas inhabited by the Canaanites, why didn’t you ask for them to be added to Lebanon Historical boundaries. In fact, Phoenician Alphabet was found in excavation done in Ras Shamra, Arwad, in current day Syria!!!!!!!

-Reading through the book mentioned above, I came across a letter sent by the “commission of Greater Lebanon” to the French explaining them some of the reasons what Lebanon should be separated from Greater Syria. Read This:

إن تأثير مناخ لبنان على نمو اللبنانيين العقلي يجعلهم يفضلون أخلاقا وحياة اجتماعية وعائلية لا تتفق أبدا مع أخلاق و حياة الأغلبية السورية

Translation: The effect of the Lebanese “climate” on the mental growth of Lebanese makes them prefer a system of ethics, social and familial life that doesn’t fit at all with the ethics and life of the majority of Syrians.

Yes that right, it’s the climate. What these people have missed that Lebanese climate is part of the Greater Syria climate. The Mediterranean climate of the Lebanese coast spread to the shores of Syria and Occupied Palestine. The desert climate of the Bekaa spreads to the inside of Syria, the mountainous terrain spreads to the north and east inside Syria, so what Lebanese climate are they talking about????!!!!

Of course, one of the favorite claims is the Biblical one. Lebanon was mentioned 70 times in the bible. Can anybody point me to where states the borders of Lebanon????

Lebanon is part of Greater Syria. That is not an opinion that a historical and geographical fact.

Source

تاريخ الحضارة الفينيقية الكنعانية – جان مازيل

الصراع على سورية – باتريك سيل

رأس شمرا والعهد القديم – ادموند جاكوب

سلسلة تاريخ سورية الدنيوي و الديني – المطران يوسف الدبس

لبنان الكبير – حكمت ألبير الحداد

Lebanon Modern History: The Declaration Of Greater Lebanon

World War I and the fall of the Ottoman and Arab Rule

Lebanon and the whole of Greater Syria, entered the 20^th century still under the occupation of the Ottomans. But the first 20 years of the new century brought the annihilation of the 400 years old Ottoman occupation of the region. Arab and Syrian Nationalist parties cooperated with the British, in return the allies promised them Independence and the freedom to choose their own destiny. What these parties didn’t know, was that the allies gave the same promise to someone else, The Zionists.

It all began with the Ottoman Empire siding with Germany in World War I. The Ottomans sent Jamal Basha (aka The Butcher), to the region of Greater Syria, in preparation to organize the army for an attack on the Egypt, witch at the time was controlled by the British.

From the point of his arrival, The Butcher canceled all the privileges that the Syrians had acquired before, and after the loss of the battle to control Egypt, he started executing Nationalist figures accusing them of Treason.

With the Ottomans controlling The Syrian coast including Lebanon, the allies blockaded the shores shielding Mont Lebanon from the outside world. At the time, Lebanese immigrant’s money was an important source of income for Lebanon. In their turn, the Ottomans blockaded Mont Lebanon and stopped the flow of goods to the area. With the geographical nature of Mont Lebanon known for its lack of agricultural lands, Mont Lebanon faced the worst famine it witnessed in all of its history. People rapidly flooded the rest of Lebanese towns. The biggest refugee concentrations were in the Valleys of Akkar and Bekaa. The problems didn’t stop there, Locust invaded and burned through the crops. With all medical personnel and equipments confiscated by The Butcher for “Military” reasons, plague spread across the nation and more then 150,000 people died.

The acts of Jamal Basha, angered people, and pushed Sharif Hussein to contact the Allies (Laurence’s Idea). A sequel of events followed and led to prince Faysal son of Sharif Hussein entering Damascus and formed a “military” government in the name of his father, after the withdrawal of the Ottomans.

In Lebanon, the Ottomans redrew from the Mountain and the rest of the country. King Faysal sent Shikri Bahsa Al Ayoubi to Beirut to form an Arabic government. Al Ayoubi sent Patriarch Huwayek a message asking him to form an Arabic government in the mountain, the Patriach didn’t respond but at the same time the Administrative council canceled by The Butcher was recalled and Habib Basha Alsaad, the former president of the council was reinstated to his post. Alsaad swore allegiance for King Hussein and the Arabic government in Damascus. Government employees gathered and elected Prince Malek shihad and Prince Adel Orslan to govern Mount Lebanon. Alsaad delivered the news to Patriarch Huwayek as “Governor of Lebanon”. Lebanon entered the Arabic rule.

In less then a week, French and British troops entered Lebanon, and quickly objected the Arab rule, leading to the departure of the Arab representatives to Damascus, witch signaled the fall of the Arab rule in Lebanon.

The declaration of “Greater Lebanon” and the negotiable “Historical” Boundaries

Allied leaders assembled in Paris to decide the future of the countries liberated from the Ottoman, German and Japanese rule. At this time, Lebanese had different visions of the future of their aria. Mainly, there was two opposite visions witch spread between the two main religions in Lebanon.

1-the majority of Muslims and some of the Christians argued the importance of reuniting the lands of Greater Syria under the rule of Sherif Hussein. At the time prince Faysal was issuing statements announcing that his Father has no intentions of creating an Islamic Caliphate in Greater Syria. This team’s views were represented in the Paris convention by Prince Faysal.

2-The Majority of Christian and some of the Muslims argued the importance of declaring the independence of “Greater Lebanon”, a land argued by them to have historical boundaries. There views were represented by three delegations sent to the Paris convention, and led by Patriarch Huwayek.

To settle the dualism problem in the Lebanese visions for their area, the Paris convention after being pressured from American President Wilson, decided to send the King-Krane Commission to investigate the people’s choice. The commission released the following recommendations:

-Autonomy for Lebanon with the Syrian Unity

-Unity and independence for Greater Syria and the establishment of Constitutional kingdom with Faysal as King

-Independence for Iraq and the establishment of Constitutional kingdom with the Iraqis electing their king.

-American Mandate on Syria and British Mandate on Iraq

-Limit the Zionist ambitions for Palestine, and limit the Jewish migration to Palestine

Of course by the time the recommendation list was issued by the commission, Wilson had withdrew from the convention, so the recommendation fell into deaf ears in front of the imperialist ambitions and vindictive vendetta of France and UK who announced their plans to divide Greater Syria accordingly with the Sykes-Picot agreement and the declaration of Belford. France sent General Goro to make the mandate a reality.

The Syrian General Convention refused the mandate and started a military draft in preparation for the battle of independence. A 5 day warning by Goro had Faysal backing off, stopping the draft and sending the troops to their homes. Even though Faysal backed off, Goro decided to attack and break the Syrian power once and for all. This led to a Maysaloun battle witch ended with crushing of the courageous Syrian army.

With no one left to oppose the division, Goro started declaring new sectarian states all over Greater Syria. Negotiations began to decide on the perfect Lebanese “Historical” boundaries. The Christians of Mont Lebanon understood the lessons of World War I, and knew that to have any change of surviving, they need plain fields. Thus Akkar and Bekaa were included into Lebanon. They demanded the boundaries of ancient Phoenicia but reconsidered after being faced with the fact that adding the ancient Phoenician cities in the North and South would tip the social balance in favor of Muslims. At the end, they decided on the current borders of Lebanon (Shebaa Farms includedJ) witch will achieve a Christian majority and at the same time provide enough resources for the country to survive.

At the fist of September 1920, General Goro held a celebration in the Oak Palace and declaration the creation of Great Lebanon in its “expanded” borders.

Sources:

لبنان الكبير – الدكتور حكمت البير الحداد