The right to resist

I can't imagine Lebanon without a resistance, at least not until a new social contract is drawn up and agreed on by all parties and until a satisfactory resolution is reached to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which would include a return of all refugees to the whole of historical Palestine. There are arguments that question the utility of the resistance after the year 2000 and the liberation of most of the occupied Lebanese territories. What these arguments fail to factor in, however, is the constant threat that an expansionary and unrestrained Israel poses in the long term.

Resistance is a right of all the Lebanese as Hussein Al Husseini said. It is our right as it was the right of the then newly formed independent State of Finland in the 1930s and 40s to fight the Russians who wanted to revoke its independence. In that endeavour, Finland aligned itself with the Third Reich and Finnish Jews fought along side German soldiers against the Russians.

No mere statement from this or any other Cabinet can cancel out that right and to all those who seek to achieve through this Cabinet what could not be achieved in years of failed attempts at national dialogue and consensus, I say reevaluate your priorities! Our country is in desperate need of a government now, now is not the time to score political points, now is the time to heed the pleas of your people and save our country and economy from complete collapse.

Wael Abu Faour, following a fine tradition of pragmatism and rationality in politics that Walid Jumblat has always shown, suggested finding a set of words for the statement that may be open to many interpretations, thereby allowing each side in the argument to put their own spin on what the statement actually means and by doing so saving this government from collapse.

I am not a die hard Hezbollah supporter, there are many things I can and do criticise the party for, its involvement in Syria being one. It would not be wrong to say that the party is showing an excess of Hubris, it's powerful and it's knows it. On the one hand that is good if your fighting Israel or in a stand off with Israel, but it's not so good if your trying to arrive at a consensus with partners in government, and especially when you allow strength to go to your head and allow it to prevent you from talking to the other sects and communities in the country if only to assure them.

All side in Lebanese politics should have a good long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they've done all they can to help save this country. In my view all sides need to reevaluate their priorities. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adultery and the western media's attitude towards Dubai

Here we go again... another British woman charged with adultery in Dubai and the whole of the British and UAE press jump all over it as if its the scoop of the season. I wonder what readers think and in particular British readers? Do they feel ashamed that a compatriot is behind bars because she could not control her animal urges? Well they should be, because this is far from a crime she committed against her husband, with whom she exchanged marital vows, it is a crime against the laws of the UAE. It shows a total lack of regard and respect for the traditions of this conservative Muslim country and it is a slap in the face of every Emirati. Why does the press seem compelled to give such people extensive coverage? One hopes to enlighten the British public as to the pitfalls of sleeping around and its legal repercussions, but in truth its all about money, headlines and a public hungry to devour such shameful scandal. The press are complicit with the mob in elevating such individuals, who
Read more

Orosdi-Back: A lost Beyrouth department store from an elegant age

Image
My mother told me it was located on ‘ Banks Street ’ in Down Town Beirut , the road that leads up to Riad el Solh Square . On most maps the street is also named after Riad el Solh. The store was located opposite Bank Intra, or so I was told. Presumably the location of the store was indicative of the high end goodies on sale inside. The closest comparison to Orosdi Back is the old Allied’s department store in Dubai , for those who remember Dubai in the 1980s. But Orosdi Back was a store from a different age, an age of elegance as opposed to the vulgar modern excesses of the nouveau-riche, something Beirut ’s Down Town is synonymous with! A wonderful blog dubbed ‘language hat’ published some information about the founders of this chain of department stores. According to the blog the chain of stores came about as a result of a partnership between Adolf Orosdi, a Hungarian army officer and his sons who opened a clothing store in Galata in 1855, and the Back family, who were Austro-H
Read more

Lebanon searching for deliverance from the wolves of war, chaos and collapse

Image
There is little to do in Lebanon, little paid work to be done, and what work there is, is pointless and poorly paid. Here we live in the hope that we shall eventually be delivered from the monsters, the wolves of our Lebanese government, Cabinet and Parliament and all the power-brokers that manipulate our lives. I once asked a political science professor “why do politicians always wear suits and ties?” He answered jokingly: “so you don’t see their snake’s skin”, I guess if they wore hats it would be so we don’t see their devil’s horns, or is that meant only for men of the cloth…?   Regardless of which political side you ask about our country’s future, the answer would likely be the same, that things are looking bleak and the blame is always laid at the door of the “other side”, because your interlocutor will never make the mistake of accepting that his/her side shares any of the blame for catastrophe. Lebanese society remains highly polarized politically and ideologically. Archaic reli
Read more