The patriarch of Antakya resisting the Western division plans

Editorials

The patriarch of Antakya resisting the Western division plans
The statements delivered by Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi during his visit to France raised numerous reactions which actually shed light on a number of threats carried by the behavior adopted by the governments of the colonial West towards the region, and its impact over the Christians of the East in whom the traditional Western rhetoric claims to be interested. In reality, the facts and the developments indicate that the colonial West is completely disregarding the concerns and interests of this faction in light of the priority of the hegemony and pillaging plans.
The Iraqi experience in the post-occupation phase constituted a clear example for this reality as the Christians of the country mostly became refugees in Syria and Lebanon. Indeed, the Iraqi Christians received great care and attention in the secular Syrian national state, to the point where this reception earned praise from the rational circles in Europe and the United States.
The Western plan on Syrian soil is registering a blunt sponsorship of the extremist sectarian powers and acting through armed anarchy to ensure division, for which plans were drawn up since the Balfour promise in both Paris and London. What was announced by Patriarch Al-Rahi from his position as the head of the Maronite Church is not far from reality or from the Vatican’s vision of the real threats carried by this plan, which is now being implemented in the context of the deal between the Justice and Development Party and Obama’s Administration to allow the prevalence of the Muslim Brotherhood organization over the region, as well as its adoption as a source for the surfacing of a new ruling elite guaranteeing Israel’s protection and the consecration of Western hegemony over the countries of the region.

Facts supporting Syria’s victory.
The number of participants in Friday’s demonstrations did not exceed thousands throughout Syria, despite the United States’ and the European Union’s direct participation in the preparations to mobilize the crowds with the help of the opposition’s network on the ground. The paradox between the actual reality and the scene being promoted by the media which aims at giving the impression that the actions have expanded, is that the Syrians have discovered the reality of the deceit which was launched by the calls for protests and demonstrations since March. They have been seeing with their own eyes how the oppositions that have thrown themselves in foreign laps wish to destroy the country instead of reform it. They are composed of groups of mercenaries living abroad, and funding and arming their branches on the Syrian domestic arena to generate anarchy, not to produce any change at the level of the economic or political lives of the Syrian people.
At this level, the conflicts between the oppositions were consecrated and their transitory councils were multiplied to the point of becoming a phenomenon, with countless leaders and dignitaries who are actually managed by an American ambassador from the likes of Jeffrey Feltman who is known for his hatred and racism towards Syria and its people.
The announcement of the victory over the sabotage plan has grown more imminent and the resisting, independent and modern Syria will resurface on the regional scene and at the level of its equations. This reality will not be affected by any international, Arab or Turkish threats and pressures since Syria is immunized by its rise and the capabilities which it accumulated during the years that followed the occupation of Iraq.

Israel and the threat of regional isolation
There is talk repeated by Israeli officials in regard to the threat of isolation. This expression had previously emerged following the Goldstone report and the launching of the calls to boycott Israel on the economic level, as well as after the numerous trials and pursuits which affected Israeli politicians and military men in some European countries in the aftermath of the war on Gaza. This talk about isolation was also reiterated following the Freedom Flotilla massacre.
The attack of the Egyptian youth against the Israeli embassy, from which the ambassador was ousted, constituted a qualitative turning point at the level of the Arab action in the Israeli leaders’ opinion. This is especially true after the infection reached Amman with the announcement of a million-man march to demand the ousting of the Israeli ambassador who was preemptively pulled out by his government along with the embassy’s staff to prevent the repetition of the Cairo scene.
The Israeli reports thus talked about the threat of seeing the collapse of the agreements with Egypt and Jordan under the pressures of the street, at a time when the tensions are escalating in regard to the Palestinian file amid renewed fears of seeing a third intifada in the West Bank.
In order to dissipate the ghost of isolation, Israel has a number of options. It can either relinquish some of its stubbornness and restore its relations with Turkey that can be relied on to protect the normalized relations with Egypt and Jordan thanks to Turkey’s influence over the rising Islamic powers in them, or it can adopt the plan of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who talked about the armament of the PKK and the launching of wider escalation against Erdogan’s government, in order to prompt American interference that would restore warmth between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

Erdogan’s tour and the exposure of neo-Ottomanism
The action being carried out by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the Ottoman government of illusion in the region and his meeting with American President Barack Obama aim at consecrating his government’s role as the sponsor of Western interests and as Israel’s partner at the level of the regional map.
– Firstly, what Erdogan did in Cairo to consecrate the commitments featured in the Camp David accord was embodied by the hostile positions of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders towards the national and pan-Arab accomplishments of the Egyptian youth through their raiding of the Israeli embassy. The shameful position of the MB leadership and the generals of the military council was supported and directed by the Turkish prime minister, which raised wide reactions inside the MB and on the Egyptian street that does not maintain positive memories about the stage of Ottoman control.
– Secondly, Erdogan is raising the tone while tackling the Syrian events to cover up the failure and the confusion that are suffocating his plan on the Syrian level. He is thus issuing threats while knowing that the situation in Syria is proceeding against his wishes and that his implication in Syrian domestic affairs is provoking further opposition in Turkey that is enduring economic problems produced by Erdogan’s policy. In the meantime, the latter policy is heading towards additional regional problems with Russia, Iran and Syria and towards further rapprochement with the Western hegemony plans over the region.
The Turkish prime minister’s meeting with American President Barack Obama will be a political opportunity to intensify the joint efforts aiming at protecting Israel, after Erdogan proved his commitment to that through the installation of the missile shield in his country. At the same time, he is using his influence to secure a political exit for Mahmud Abbas’s cooperation with the American pressures at the level of the recognition of the alleged state, by calling for the resumption of the futile negotiations between the authority and Israel. The question on the table will revolve around the future of the political division inside the MB organizations in the Arab countries over the Turkish role in protecting Israel, but also around Hamas’s position toward the exposed Turkish involvement in the attack against the resistance axis.

The Arab file

Libya
• Bani Walid and Sirte have been witnessing battles between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi’s supporters, at a time when the disputes escalated between Islamic and liberal wings inside the transitional council, as well as between the opposition’s fighters and the council’s members.
• During their visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to continue helping the Libyans and to work on the arrest of the Colonel.

Egypt
• The military council decided to implement all the articles featured in the emergency law which has been applied in Egypt for the last thirty two years. For his part, Egyptian Prime Minister Issam Sharaf assured that the Camp David agreement with Israel was not sacred, and was always open to discussion if its serves the interests and stability of the region.

Palestine
• American President Barack Obama considered that the Palestinians’ attempt to ensure the recognition of their state at the UN was a deviation away from what he dubbed the peace course, saying: “This issue will not be resolved unless the Israelis and the Palestinians reach an agreement.” He continued: “If this issue is put forward before the Security Council, the US will strongly oppose it.”
• On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his calls on the Palestinian command to resume the peace negotiations unconditionally, while Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned against the dire consequences of the Palestinian initiative.
• Head of the Palestinian authority in Ramallah Mahmud Abbas announced he will head to the UN next week to earn the membership of the Palestinian state in the Security Council, considering that this was a legitimate right to end the historical injustice endured by the Palestinian people.
• For its part, Hamas announced that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’ step towards the UN to request the membership of the state of Palestine was a unilateral step featuring great risks.

Syria
• President Bashar al-Assad discussed with Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn the existing coordination and cooperation between the armies of the two countries, especially in regard to the monitoring of the border. President Assad expressed his appreciation of the efforts deployed by the Lebanese army in cooperation with its Syrian counterpart along the border, which enabled them to thwart numerous attempts to smuggle arms shipments targeting the two countries’ security and stability.
• For her part, Boutheina Shaaban, the adviser of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, met with the Kremlin’s envoy to the region Mikhail Margelov. Shaaban said: “We want the West to follow in Russia’s footsteps at the level of its positions instead of calling for actions contributing to the escalation of the violence.”
• Ambassador Youssef Ahmad, Syria’s permanent envoy to the Arab League and the head of its delegation to the ministerial council’s meeting made several interventions in which he assured that Syria was proceeding down the reform path it had announced to meet the legitimate demands of its citizens and perform its national duty represented by the protection of their lives, security, possessions and national unity. Syria had proposed to the Arab League foreign ministers’ meeting held in Cairo a reform paper to be implemented by the Arab countries. However, the ministers who were holding their 136th ordinary session refused to deal with the Syrian paper and rejected it completely. The Syrian delegation had distributed the proposal to the journalists and assured that the Arab League meeting rejected it. The paper calls for the lifting of the state of emergency in all the Arab countries and for the annulment of the martial courts. It also calls for national dialogue with the participation of all the political parties and movements and the drawing up of new constitutions to ensure everyone’s participation in public life, guarantee freedoms and secure the emergence of elected parliaments.
• On the other hand, the Syrian official television aired confessions by the founder of the Free Officers Brigade Hussein Harmoush who said he received calls and promises from the majority of the opposition leaders abroad, namely former Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Riad al-Shakfa and the office of Rifaat al-Assad to get financial and logistic support as well as weapons to free and protect the civilians. He indicated however that the latter did not meet these promises, that Mohammad Zoheir al-Siddiq dispatched weapons to Syria and that the MB said it sent batches of weapons to Homs, Edlib, Hama and the Palestinian Al-Ramel neighborhood in Latakia via traders across the border with Turkey.

Israeli file

• A week prior to the fateful debates at the UN over the issue of the Palestinian state, the preparations are intensifying on the ground to preempt the explosion which might reach the 1948 territories as it happened during the second Intifada. In this context, Israel is preparing for various scenarios to confront the repercussions of the September event, namely the shooting of live bullets at the demonstrators in case they were to come close to the army.

• In their coverage of this issue, the Israeli papers were surprised to see Israel allowing the Palestinian authority to provide its security apparatuses in the West Bank with anti-rioting means. On the other hand, the ousting of the Israeli ambassador from Egypt carried repercussions at the level of the Arab crowds, as the Jordanians issued calls to demonstrate and oust the Israeli ambassador in Amman. This forced the latter to exit the country. Commenting on the incident, the Israeli papers issued this week assured that the situation in Jordan was unstable, that the kingdom was facing an imminent earthquake and that this issue should be tackled with a lot of seriousness.

News analysis

When will we have the courage to recognize what truly happened in 1982?
Praise and political lies and deceit have been prevailing over the way the Lebanese deal with their crises and wars since 1975. And although 29 years have gone by since the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982, the required national reconciliation to purify the memory and draw the lessons from this major event was not truly conducted, due to the control of sectarian sensitivities over the national priorities.
The events between 1975 and 1982 were characterized by a dangerous sectarian facet in dealing with the national cause, the issue of sovereignty and independence, and Lebanon’s position towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. The responsibility for that falls on all the Lebanese leaders who participated in the management of the conflict from their opposite positions during that stage. The colonial slogans since the beginning of the war allowed the Lebanese right wing parties which are traditionally linked to the colonial West to turn into popular forces, through the exploitation of the fears of a wide Christian audience vis-à-vis naturalization and the weapons of the Palestinian factions.
The numerous and harmful political mistakes committed by the Lebanese national movement in managing the conflict against right wing militias linked to the Western colonial governments, cannot be compared to the ties between these militias and parties and the Zionist entity, and what they did in terms of pure treason to serve Israel and its occupation army. The celebrations hosted every year on the anniversary of the assassination of Sheikh Bashir Gemayel and the exploitation of the occasion to fuel an extremist sectarian tendency among the supporters of the Phalange Party and the Lebanese Forces constitute a blunt example for the intellectual, political and cultural infertility characterizing those who are incapable of making any constructive criticism to prevent the repetition of the mistake.

The Lebanese file

• Upon his arrival to the Patriarchate in Bkerke, Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi said: “During our talks with the French, we stressed we were in favor of reform in the Arab world, including in Syria. We are with the demands and rights of the people and against violence and wars which we have experienced. Therefore, we hope that the problems would be resolved through dialogue and not through the use of weapons.” He continued: “We are not with the Syrian regime nor with any other since the Church does not support regimes.” Al-Rahi indicated he did not link disarmament to the right of return, rather said that Hezbollah was assuring it was against naturalization. “So let the international community do its job, implement the international resolutions and eliminate the pretext to carry arms,” he explained

• General Michel Aoun visited Bkerke to congratulate Al-Rahi on his positions, quoting him as saying: “I am telling you the truth and I will keep doing so. I am not with anyone against anyone. Bkerke’s doors will remain open to all its sons.”

• Patriarch Al-Rahi was also visited by President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati who came to express their solidarity with him in the face of the campaign currently targeting him.

• French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton said that his country’s government was disappointed with the positions issued by the Maronite Patriarch from Paris, assuring in a statement distributed by the French embassy he will visit Al-Rahi soon upon his government’s request to inquire about these positions.

• In the meantime, the Lebanese army intelligence was able to thwart the smuggling of large quantities of weapons into the Syrian territories, thus arresting the perpetrators and transferring them to military judiciary.