[Dan Halberstein]

I could not help but notice the disinterest here in the assassination of Pierre Gemayel, scion of the Phalangist Gemayel family in Lebanon (they of the now disbanded Phalangist militia, and the Phalange party in the legislature.)

The speculation, last any of this was reported, was that Syria or Hezbollah was behind this hit. Evidentally, a vote is necessary in favor of a tribunal on the Hariri assassination, which precipitated the Cedar Revolution. Gemayel was a prospective voter on that topic.

How is it that Lebanon has fallen off our collective radar? Was Lebanon really ever on our radar?

And who wants to be the first one to blame Mossad?

Dan

[Tim Murphy]

I shall be the last to blame Mossad for Gemayel's death. Instead I shall blame Assad, and I know I am not the only one to grieve at the Sphere for this brave young man. The Syrians are monsters of connivance and murder. Timothy Murphy

[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited December 07, 2006).]

[Daniel Haar]

Hi Dan. The situation is tense. Apparently Amin Gemayel, the father of the slain Pierre, has now lost his brother, son, niece, nephew, and cousin to violence. It is a terrible tragedy. I read the Daily Star every day. I think Lahoud, Hezbollah, Aoun, Syria, and Iran are trying to bring down the gov't. Aoun just wants to be president. Lahoud was maybe involved in killing Hariri, Syria almost definitely, Iran needs Syria (you need one friend in town), and Hezbollah has its shots called from Tehran. 5 Shiite ministers and one Lahoud ally (Christian) resigned a few weeks ago, hoping to bring the government down. (I think if nine total resign, then they have to form a new government.) With Gemayel (who was staunchly anti-Syrian) killed, they only need two more gone. Yes, I think Syria and co. want to axe the Hariri assassignation tribunal, which must be approved by cabinet. The cabinet did approve the tribunal, but Lahoud (the president) and the opposition are saying the current government is illegitimate because it included no Shiites (of course the Shiites resigned and have been invited back, but they are ignoring that fact). Brammertz, the leader of the UN investigation is pretty quiet, but the word is that he probably has some good stuff on Syrian leadership.

[Editing back in: just to be more clear (maybe), there is a tangled web of conspirators here. I don't think Aoun, or even Hezbollah, was involved in Gemayel's death. It may have just been Syria and a shadowy terrorist group. Yet they are all involved, one way or another, in trying to bring down the Siniora government, which I think done a fine job given the lousy situation(s) Lebanon has been in.]

[This message has been edited by Daniel Haar (edited December 07, 2006).]

[Tim Murphy]

Both Daniels: Alan's solution is for the Third Infantry Division to exit Iraq through Damascus and blow those bastards all to hell. They killed Hariri and that courageous journalist, and now they have killed Gemayel. Hezbollah are scheming to take over the country and screen their Syrian paymasters. This has got to stop. Capitulation is no answer.

[Daniel Haar]

Needless to say, I don't quite agree with Alan. As I said, things in Lebanon are tense. While it might be satisfying to see the criminals behind the deaths of Gemayel, Hariri, Kassir, Hawi, and Tueni given some harsh justice, I think Lebanon might go up in a great big cloud of smoke were that to happen.

After his son was slain, Amin Gemayel told the people of Lebanon not to seek revenge. He is a brave and honorable man.

[Janet Kenny]

Daniel,
I didn't ignore it any more than I ignore any of the terrible events of recent years. I just have nothing useful to add.

One reads accusations and counter-accusations. Assertions and counter-assertions. Historical explantions. I am on record as being against all of this damned killing. Does that add anything? No, I thought not.

I have read that when nine members are missing the parliament must dissolve.

Isn't it sad that we speak of countries as collectively hateful when all of us know that when we meet a national from any place in the world we can find common cause with them? We all kill the children of the demons in the name of something or other and so it continues.
Janet

[Daniel Haar]

One of the last times a Gemayel was assassinated, the rampage that followed was quite horrible . I hope that Lebanon won't ever see that kind of violence again.

[Janet Kenny]

Originally posted by Daniel Haar:
One of the last times a Gemayel was assassinated, the rampage that followed was quite horrible . I hope that Lebanon won't ever see that kind of violence again.

I remember that Daniel. Many people have chosen to forget it.
Most people here would agree that Ireland is a better place now that the killing has almost stopped. The same will be true for the Middle East.

I was heartened by the US Iraq policy report and disheartened by the responses of Bush and Blair who seem to be acting to preserve their self-images.

As many like to remind us--it's all connnected.
Janet

[Dan Halberstein]

Dan Haar, have not read your link, but as I recall the last Gemayel (although I may have to go one Gemayel back) was prior to Sabra and Shatilla, and the one before that touched off the 1975 war... although this is all from memory, which is faulty enough to begin with, and moreso as regards anything so charged as the cauldron of the Middle East.

The fact that the country has resisted the call of sectarian violence this long is mind-boggling, given the circumstances.

But it does seem Assad is a congenital tyrant, and will continue to attempt to regain his late colony. I think the Syrians still regard Lebanon as a province of their Ottoman era feifdom, and will happily decapitate it leader by leader until it is once again theirs.

But then, I'm the hopeless dupe who said Israel did not want an occupation, while certain other worthies hereabouts were rhapsodizing on Israel's thirst for Litani River water.

Sorry, I devolved into "picking sides." I'm not certain the good people of Lebanon have a champion anymore, although the good militias of Lebanon, almost all of which are disbanded, could probably snap up champions in two shakes of an AK-47.

And Hezbollahpalooza 2006 continues.

Once the inequity of this situation becomes undeniable, how long do we really think the other communities in Lebanon will stand for it?

Dan

[Dan Halberstein]

Dan Haar, thank you for the link. Tim, I do not agree with Alan's solution either... and that is the trouble in the whole region. We've proven we do not have the will to keep the American boot on the necks of local populations (and bully for us! to have such a national will may, indeed, best preserve an empire [though I doubt it;] but it must undeniably result in an empire not worth preserving.)

So this Christmas season, Hizballah shepherds (oh yes, with walkie talkies and odd-shaped loads on their donkeys,) and Israeli soldiers, radio to their command centers, who telephone to Tel Aviv, Damascus, and Tehran. And next Easter, or earlier, war may be reborn again.

I am trying to be broad minded and hope that something or someone in Lebanon can counterbalance the Syrian/Iranian proxy Hizballah. I wonder what I will be seeing this time next year.

For now I see a Hizballah plump with international legitimacy, largely attributable to fawning Western press accounts of their conduct of the war last summer, no-doubt made the more dazzling by fawning Western intellectual campaigns on Nasrallah's behalf. Or, one could attribute Hizballah's aggrandizement to Israeli response to their provocations last summer.

But I do not see international -- or even literary bulletin board -- concern over the matter, in the absence of Israeli intervention in that country.

The local (and in the U.S., national) sport of Israel-bashing is working to the detriment of the people of Lebanon, as the disarmed remnants of that polyglot nation await their fate.

Disarmed, that is, except for Hizballah.

Perhaps I am being simplistic and alarmist. Perhaps my admitted pro-Israeli leanings are getting the better of me. But I just do not see a way forward for the Lebanese people that is not, in fact, a capitulation to the radical Shi'ite faction that is Hizballah.

But as a small-d democrat, I must ask: is that because the estimated 45-55% of the country that is Shi'ite-- the clear plurality, if not the majority -- is so enthusiastically in favor of becoming a Syrian/Iranian vassal?

If that is the case I suppose my objections are moot; the remainder of the communities will either arm themselves, or accept Syrian or Iranian rule. Perhaps the non-Shi'a minorities will seek to establish a "rump state"; perhaps they, and nationalist allies among moderate Shi'a, will succeed in a fight for the whole nation.

Perhaps there will be no fight, and no capitulation.

And perhaps monkies will fly out of my butt.

Again, thank you for the link... I think it is time to read more. It at least makes me feel there is a certain complexity to appreciate in this forboding dance of assassination, as it unfolds unabated.

As for those stalwarts of the American Left who worked tirelessly to save this noble nation last summer: Elvis has left the building.

Dan