“Don’t Throw Stones When Your House Is Made of Glass”
It’s been 15 days since Israel started a wide-scale war on the whole of Lebanon, claiming revenge from Hezbollah for kidnapping 2 of its soldiers in a cross-border attack on July 12. But somehow and for some reason Israel also targeted innocent lives – mostly of which were children, productive factories, homes, buildings, roads, bridges, ports, airports, communication towers, even trucks, buses, cars, ambulances, motorcycles, all of which carried fleers. Indeed, the war took the country 30 years back, when many of the recently killed didn’t exist then either, when many of the buildings that are now ruined were ruined then as well, when all the bridges that are debased now, weren’t set up then either…
It’s been 15 days that those of us alive have been plastered to every news channel available on TV, watching the horrible scenes of deaths, injuries, ruins, and pollution. Like a starved dog desperately looking up at its master for a bite of food, we look expectantly upon the screens after every meeting, hoping to hear the only word that will save us from this agony: ceasefire. The only difference is that the dog most probably gets the bite.
I have never believed in violence. I have never believed in war. I am a faithful supporter of diplomacy. But I do, however, believe that some sides make it impossible to stay diplomatic. That’s one factor that gave birth to Hezbollah (Party of God) in 1982 to ward off Israeli forces that waged war and occupied Lebanon. Hezbollah is the chief political party that represents the Islamic Shi’ite community in Lebanon. Being an officially recognized political party and a national resistance movement by the republic, Hezbollah maintains 14 out of 128 seats in the parliament and one place in the cabinet. Its popularity increased in Lebanon and the arab world when it persisted and finally succeeded in driving out the Israeli forces out of the Southern terrain of Lebanon in 2000.
What stimulates my sardonic senses, in all this bloody mayhem, is the paradoxical and desperate usage of the word terrorist to describe Hezbollah, by Israel and its back-up the US, in an attempt to justify, excuse and further encourage this slaughter.
War on terrorism. What a great big lie. It reminds me of an Armenian proverb that says “The robber stole from the robber, God saw and began to wonder…” Who is calling who terrorist? I am yet to see a terrorist organization as a nationally recognized political party, and a government idiotic enough to admit a terrorist group into its parliament and cabinet. Also, the terrorists I know work underground, away from the public eye. On the other hand, Hezbollah even has its own local and international broadcasting channel (Al Manar), and its own radio station (Al Nour). On top of that, I suppose it takes a Robin Hood kind of “thief”, or in this case “terrorist”, to provide its community with vast social services; according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "Hezbollah not only has armed and political wings - it also boasts an extensive social development programme. The group currently operates at least four hospitals, 12 clinics, 12 schools and two agricultural centres that provide farmers with technical assistance and training. It also has an environmental department and an extensive social assistance programme. Medical care is also cheaper than in most of the country's private hospitals and free for Hezbollah members."(1) How terrorizing.
Now, for a moment let’s suppose Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. But then, what is the difference between a state that still occupies a land that isn’t theirs in the first place? 15 years before attacking Lebanon in 1982, i.e. in 1967, Israel took hold of a 25 kilometer square area called Shebaa farms on the western slopes of Mount Hermon which forms a boundary between Syria and Lebanon. In 1951, Syria had handed that territory to Lebanon, and has since officially acknowledged it as Lebanese(2). However, Israel argues that it captured the land from Syria, although both the latter and Lebanon insist that it’s a Lebanese territory. Here I should mention that after the Taif agreement that ended the civil war in Lebanon in 1990, and which called for the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" and suggested that the government "deploy the Lebanese army in the border area adjacent to Israel", Hezbollah promised to disarm only after the complete retrieval of Isreali forces from Lebanon. It makes you wonder about the purpose of the Israeli presence in a land that’s known by all sides who it belongs to…
What makes the difference between a terrorist and a government that encourages air strikes on a refugee camp where hundreds of people had believed it to be a safe and secure shelter? In April 1996, during the Operation Grapes of Wrath where Israel had launched yet another air campaign against Hezbollah, it also raided an air strike on a UN posted refugee camp, killing 106 refugees. What is the difference between a terrorist and a government that doesn’t mind its soldiers killing innocent civilians? So far, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have killed up to 600 civilians by and large since July 12 and have left thousands wounded, and many more homeless. And finally, what makes the difference between a terrorist organization and government that supports the bombing of an ambulance or a fleeing motorcycle? The difference is having another such barbarous government’s support; it is having an all powerful state behind its back; a lying administration that went into war on Iraq under the deceitful claims that it harbors weapons of mass destruction; it’s the same administration that also allowed the torture and abuse, sometimes to death, of captured Iraqi detainees in its prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And both these governments deem the entire world to be foolish and ignorant enough to buy their charades.
US and Israel; the perfect political match… Two legally terrorist governments that use one another for their own advantage. The US using Israel to gain control over the Middle East, and Israel using the US to realize its dreams of an Israel with natural borders(3) and no "pests" called Palestinians in between.
Everyone knows. At least every politician knows. Do any of the “justice-loving” unions and countries do anything about it? “What are we? Crazy?!”
It’s said “Don’t throw stones when your house is made of glass”. But it appears to me, this particular glass is bulletproof…
(1)LEBANON: The many hands and faces of Hezbollah. IRIN News (2006-03-29).
(2) Basshar al Assad said, in a news conference in Paris, that Beirut and Damascus will redefine their countries' border at Shebaa Farms after the Israeli withdrawal from the area; then they will hand a new map to the UN.
(3) Israel’s founding leader, Ben Guirion’s dream was to establish Israel with natural borders , having Jordan river in the East, and the Litani river in Lebanon in the north.
>>Daisy Tchiftjian
