lebanon, beirut, busy people, hizbollah march, Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanese Forces

sorry to blow up the blog-o-sphere, but shit's been going down, not that I've witnessed anything from my seaside apartment. It's been business as usual: teach some koreans, teach some more koreans, take the hard earned money from my friends in texas hold 'em.

I wrote this in a hurry so it might be a little unclear in some spots, but I was also weirded out because just across from us in the cafe we left only minutes ago, two latino's who looked semi-familiar, like berkeley familiar, kept staring at us. We didn't really know where we knew them from so we did nothing. Who the hell are they???

Whoever they are I hope they know what they're in for. People have been busy in this part of the world.

· On Monday, bottles were thrown at the Aounists (Free Patriotic Movement, the Christian group aligned with the opposition: Hezbollah, Amal, etc.) as they attempted to replace the banner of their leader, Aoun, in Sassine Square (a block from where Marina and I saw Borat) that was "torched and torn down by the LF (Lebanese Forces) after last week's assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel." Apparently hundreds of LF members, mostly young men accompanied by a few men in their fifties, hassled the Aounists and instigated fisticuffs until as many as 2000 troops and special police forces diffused a situation that could've turned ugly.
· The US got into the mix this week when Bush accused Damascus and Iran of "undermining the government in Lebanon," but when John Bolton was asked about a letter sent to the UN Security Council on Friday by the Syrian Government suggesting "Damascus may not cooperate with the tribunal because it was not consulted on the plan." He deflected the question by saying, "They haven't cooperated adequately from the beginning…" true enough, but that's being pretty rough for a country who refuses to even to have diplomatic relations with Syria.
· Tuesday, the Daily Star reported that the leader of the Syrian group Al-Tawheed Wal Jihad, "one of several militant organizations pursued by the Syrian Authorities," blew himself up as he attempted to cross the Syrian-Lebanese Border armed with a pistol and as many as nine fake I.D. cards. No one else was injured.
· also on Tuesday, "two loud explosions were heard by the residents who live near Maisera Mountain . . . in the Eastern Bekaa Valley." Residents in the area claimed the PFLP (Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine), now operating out of Syria with a training camp in the Bekaa valley area, cordoned off the blast zone in order to avoid injuries. Who knows what those guys are up to out there. Getting ready? …and if so, for what?
· An-Nahar reported on Tuesday that pro-Syrian "Fatah-al-Intifada" "posts" at the Nahr Al-Bared Refugee Camp in the North of Lebanon had been taken over Monday by a group calling itself "Fatah-al-Islam," considered by many as Al-Qaeda's branch in Lebanon. We already know that Al-Qaeda has been in Lebanon at least since last year, and more recently Robert Fisk has written an article in which he talked about the videos he's witnessed in which young Sunni men from the north of Lebanon pledge themselves to Al-Qaeda in Iraq as they cross the border into Syria, the stepping stone to the war, but this is an odd move.
· . . . and perhaps the most disturbing news of the day: Lebanese Forces Media denies that nine LF personnel with US and Israeli made weapons were arrested Monday. LF claims that the men in question were the bodyguards of Pierre Daher (not to be confused with the recently assassinated Pierre Gemayel), the general manager of satellite TV station LBCI. However, An Nahar and other media outlets reported that the nine men were veteran's of LF's "Collision and Swat" squad, "which gained notoriety for it's actions during the civil war," and were arrested during a training exercise in which "the men were shooting at targets from moving vehicles." hmmmmmm. Local daily papers reported the seizing, not just of US and Israeli weapons, but of maps leading to Michel Aoun's home and Michel Murr along with "unspecified monitoring systems." The Daily Star claims that the group has been "monitored by Lebanese Army Intelligence for quite some time."

Seriously, when I think of the "Lebanese Army Intelligence" I think of some fat guy sitting in a car, cursing in a mix of Arabic and French, smoking cheap cigarettes, becoming tangled in the strap of his binoculars whenever he reaches for his pack on the dash board. None-the-less this is weird, this is the same side that mourns the death of the recently assassinated Gemayel, practicing the same techniques that he was killed with using US and Israeli weapons, how odd. Remember, this is the same group, and the only group, who had the backing, that's right, THE BACKING of Israel during the civil war.

. . . on a sidenote, Marina just received an email from Timur Goksel, former spokesperson for UNIFIL with the info that Hizbollah will be staging their rally within the next 48 hours, most expect it to take place after the friday prayers.

things that make you go hmmmmm, john bolton, aoun, nasrallah, conspiracies, brink of ??

something to chew on.

It came out today that Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, had a long reconciliatory conversation with Pierre Gemayel's father in which he expressed his solidarity with the Phalange in finding who the killer/killers are. Afterwards, Pierre Gemayel's father stated publicly, directly countering Maronite Partriarch Sfeir's comments that were given at the funeral accusing Hezbollah of the crime, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television network on Saturday, that Hizbullah had "no hand" in the assassination and that all the information he has received removes the party from any link to the incident.
So why should it be that when I read the Daily Star further I saw this statement by John "shaggy dog" Bolton: "A few weeks ago, the White House took the unprecedented step of saying that Syria and Iran, acting through Hizbullah, were on the verge of staging a coup d'etat against the democratically elected government, and I have to say that this assassination of Pierre Gemayel might well be the first shot in that coup," Bolton told the BBC.
The conspiracy theorists in this country who blame the assassinations on the US and Israel don't have to look too far for their ammo. Just as Hezbollah's momentum was reaching it's zenith Gemayel was killed taking the moral upperhand out of the hands of hezbollah putting it directly into the court of the most pro-business, pro-american camp there is. ...and though, after some serious searching, I've found a quote from hezbollah using a reference to "toppling the government," but the full quote should frame what they meant a little better than the one-liner I read on msn.com. This is a bit of an article from the Daily Star, tell me what you think:


"'Recent developments delayed our public moves to topple the government, but will never terminate them,' Raad said. 'If a true political partnership is not realized we will stick to our peaceful and democratic protests toward overthrowing the government," he added.
Raad said Siniora's "stubborn and inflexible mentality" was responsible for the tension in the country, and described the prime minister's "imbalanced and impetuous" handling of matters of threatening Lebanon's unity and identity.
As-Safir newspaper quoted sources close to the FPM's leader, MP Michel Aoun (Christian leader, Hezbollah ally), as saying Friday that "protests might start early next week."
Aoun said during a press conference held following an FPM meeting to discuss Gemayel's assassination that he will proceed with his allies with movements to force the Siniora Cabinet to resign.http://www.dailystar.com.lb

"We haven't given up on our demand," Aoun said, in reference to the formation of a national unity government.
"We have decided to participate. The security situation has deteriorated, the political situation has deteriorated and the economic situation as well ... We could have stopped this deterioration if they had listened to us from the beginning," the former general added.
The opposition's demands for the formation of a national unity government began after this past summer's war with Israel - which ended in an August 14 cessation of hostilities brokered by the United Nations.
"But they always come to us late," Aoun said.
The mood in Lebanon is already volatile, with observers warning that street protests might lead to sectarian clashes.
Hundreds of angry Shiites took to the streets in the southern suburbs of Beirut Thursday night to protest insults directed at Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, during the funeral for Gemayel held earlier in the day.
Nasrallah himself had to appeal to the protesters to disperse before the late-night demonstrations ended peacefully.
Asked whether he feared the eruption of violent clashes should further demonstrations be held, Aoun said: "Who brought things to this level? We were asking Siniora for this but he kept ignoring our demands. Siniora and his Cabinet are responsible for this situation, which is worrisome."
Anti-Syrian leaders who addressed hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for Gemayel's funeral had intensified their attacks on both Nasrallah and Aoun.
While calling on the opposition to return to the fold, the leaders of the March 14 Forces reiterated that they would not submit to its demands.
The anti-Syrian coalition accuses Syria and its allies in Lebanon, namely Hizbullah, of being behind the series of killings and attacks that have plagued the country since the February 2005 killing of Hariri. Damascus and its allies in Lebanon deny any involvement.

thanksgiving, Gemayel, Borat, Achrifiyeh, Beirut

So the last few days have been pretty uneventful here in the 'Root. From all sides of the political divides I've heard rumors that an act of destruction sometime this weekend was eminent, but other than the flurry of thinly veiled accusations from the Maronite Patriarch Sfeir there's been nothing. Last night Marina and I stepped down the steps of the ABC mall in Achrifiyeh into the cooling winter air after watching Borat in the theater with a crowd of Lebanese who I'm pretty sure, the majority of whom, thought that the movie was a shot at the people of Kazakhstan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_fzdEk0r8
My girl and I were so deeply entrenched in our conversation on the subtleties of the film, either the audience missed entire jokes or just didn't find funny, that I almost jumped right in front of the first comouflage tank in a line of ten army vehicles bullying up the street, heading for the "'round about" at the center of this afluent Christian neighborhood. For a second we thought we had been laughing our asses off in a dark movie theater and missed the predicted attack, but it was nothing, just the usual show of force parading through the christian parts of town meant to calm the tensions of those who feel they've been targetted more than the muslims in these assassinations, and it's true they have.
The night after the assassination, my favorite hang-out spot, Gemayze in East Beirut, was completely shut down. People burned tires in the streets and attacked a few of the unfortunate Syrian taxi drivers, so damn easy to spot, All of them driving canary yellow Caprice's from the 70's.
We remained home that night and opted for the thanksgiving night to test the waters in that part of town. It was a vacuum, sprinkled with the foreigners I am occasionally desperate to find. A Ukrainian woman lectured me on the importance of spending top dollar on DJ equipment, her rig costing her upwards of 7,000 dollars, when just a moment before she saw my eyes coveting the 1500 dollar piece of equipment our friend Patrick was using to mix music at a little bar called Bulldog. Later, I ran into a trio of British Indian girls when I mistook one of their purses for a napkin with food wrapped in it. Asking her what was wrapped in that napkin she replied, "it's not a napkin, it's my piece."
"what?" I responded.
"my piece, my piece."
"ooohhhhh, your purse!"
She was quiet for a second, studying my face in an attempt to figure what I was ethnically perhaps, when she said, "Why are you so hungry anyhow?"
"It's Thanksgiving!" I came back.
"Oh, your mexican american!"
Finally. Someone understood. I shook hands with these fish outta' water and jumped into our cab that was already a bit impatient waiting for me.
This next week in the city should be an interesting one. Hezbollah still plans to hold it's "unity government" marches even though the Phalange has said that it's youth groups (modeled after the Nazi Youth) are still planning "actions" for this week. ...and on top of that, there are already conflicting reports about what happened before, during, and after the assassination making everything as messy as an Agathie Christie novel. Good thing it just came out that a street camera actually recorded the whole thing, but I'm sure it'll turn up missing or some such bullshit.
signing out.
Migaldo Rivera

Gemayel shot dead in his car, suburbs of north beirut, geagea, street marches, unity govt.?

Yikes! I had written a totally different blog in my notebook as I prepared my lessons for the day, intended to give a better idea of what was happening here in Beirut, something that made the complexities of the situation a little more vivid, but today's events, atleast for myself, are completely out of the blue and twist things beyond a point where I can guess-timate what will happen in this country in the near future.
Pierre Gemayel, a member of the Christian Phalange Party, was shot to death in his car. There are no leads at this time, but as usual everyone is pointing fingers. His grandfather, whom he was named after, founded the party in 1936 after returning from Germany and picking up some ideas along the way. This is one of the Phalangist's symbols to give you an idea:
During Beirut's civil war, the Phalangist Party at first, fought against the Muslim factions, and at the end of the conflict took part in the Christian on Christian killing's, but they are best known for their involvement in the Sabra and Shatila Massacres in the respective Palestinian Refugee Camps where they killed more than 2000 men, women, and children using guns, knives, and hatchets while Israeli troops stood guard at the entrances and exits, lighting flares at night when necessary. They blamed the Lebanese Palestinian population for starting the Civil War and I've even heard members of this party dreamily wish for the return of the Israeli's so that they could get back and kill the some more muslims.
As of right now the US is blaming Syria and so are some other groups, others will undoubtedly blame Hezbollah, and the conspiracy theorists, who really don't have to stretch to far on this one, blame Israel.
...and though I in no way sympathize with the Phalangist movement I can't help but feel that the perpetrator's intent was to get the blood boiling in a party with a severely violent history and were not concerned with harming the Phalangist's themselves, but the whole of Lebanon. I fail to see who this killing helps internally. For me the only reason for this assassination is the destabalization of the country. I cannot see Hezbollah taking part in this when they had planned on a "peaceful protest" this thursday demanding that the government be changed to a "unity government" where all the existing parties would be represented, giving Hezbollah and it's allies more power. At such a crucial time with so much to gain why would they do such a thing?
What remains to be seen, what with tomorrow being Lebanese Independence Day and all, is what happens in the next few days. If the Phalangist's and their anti-Syrian allies take to the streets we all hope that the opposition (Hezbollah, Amal, the Christian camp headed by Aoun, and others) remain at home, realizing that the "unity government" march will have to wait. Tomorrow is a day off from work and school, lots of free time on everyone's hands. I'll have my camera ready.
this is the blog I intended to write before all this went down, hopefully clearing up some confusing issues about who's who in the world of lebanon:

I just finished watching CNN's coverage of Lebanon's current situation. The reporter was commenting on the rift between political parties, saying that it was between Siniora's current government on one side and "an alliance headed by Hezbollah supported by Iran and Syria" on the other.
First off, though his framing of the situation is true-ish, it leaves out so many of the key players that it's easy to misinterpret what is happening here, and not only that, but to someone with only half an ear tuned to the television it might sound as if the "alliance headed by Hezbollah" merely consists of them, Iran, and Syria. Though both Nation's play a big role in what is happening here, no doubt, we must consider the internal parties of Amal (shiite), the Free Patriotic Movement (maronite catholic), and other pro-syrian political entities who back Hezbollah's call for a "unity governement" threatening, not the "coup" or the "toppling" I've heard on the western media outlets, but "peaceful demonstrations" urging the current government to allow more parties into parliament; as this side sees it, a more representative governmental administration. When it comes to the question of violence, in reality, it was the former Civil War Warlord Samir Geagea aka: "the doctor" (a member of the Lebanese Forces or Phalangists), who threatened counter-protests on the same day as Hezbollah's, using a term in arabic that's tantamount to "fightin' words" in this part of the world, something about "meeting them shoulder to shoulder."
Let us remember that last year when the Danish Cartoon Riots flared in Beirut it was the Shiite Clerics in the street asking the rioters to put the rocks down, they were not the one's throwing them. I guess with my limited experience here in Beirut, watching the Shiites march on Martyr's Square and elsewhere, I've come to realize that these acts are never meant to get out of hand, afterall it's much more intimidating to the current administration to see how goddamn organized they truly are.
Now, as for myself, I ain't exactly throwing my weight behind anyone, not that it matters at all in the whole scheme of things. Sure, I got a picture of a kid holding a poster of Yasser Arafat as my main photo, but I am here merely as an observer, and as a sidenote consider myself a "Socialist Libertarian," (whatever that is) and would just as soon have a picture of a kid holding a poster of Geagea if I had the connections to get me into a similar rally. The point is that I'd like to be perfectly clear here. I'd hate to paint Hezbollah as the good guys. What has become quite apparent as the ulterior motive behind all this political maneuvering on the "pro-unity government" camp is that they are really just pro-syria. They are looking to gain enough seats in parliament to block the UN Hariri Tribunal being set up right now that intends to investigate more thoroughly the unknown assassins and prosecute them, almost all lines leading to Damascus. Some of these parties aligning with Syria for the simple strategy of it all, to gain more seats in Parliament.
I understand that the things happening here might cause some distress to family I would just like to reiterate that we are no kind of resistance fighter, not that that term means anything in the middle east any more, and would be on the first plane outta here if anything were to go down. I'll keep you all updated on the situation as it happens. I'm sure there are questions from both sets of my parents and welcome them whenever they're ready.

Osama + Daniella, mixmastermig, Leila Khaled, Lebanon coming undone

These are a few reasons my new friend Osama and Daniella should make babies, the kind of babies that when they come out of the womb, instead of crying, will come out weeping feet first with booties already on that look just like mini-versions of Robert Smith's shoes.
--a conversation had between him and Marina at our favorite little bar, By the Way, in our neighborhood:
Marina: "Do you like this place?"
Osama: "yes, I really like it."
Marina: "Why, because it's quiet?"
Osama: "yes, because it's quiet and if you go to these places and everyone is dancing . . . and I don't like to dance, I feel lonely."
--reason number 2 is that he was heard remarking while in his home that he felt like he should mark one of his bathrooms for men and one for women, just because he thought it would make the women feel more comfortable.
--3, In the middle a lucky night of playing poker, our friend Kal mentioned the saying, "luck with cards means no luck with women, luck with women means no luck with cards." Kal then asked him, "Do you have luck with the ladies?" Osama thought for a moment, his tragically handsome face bent down peering at his poker hand and replied "no," just before he hit a full house.
--4, he has an inspirational picture of puppies hung above his bed.

So with that out of the way I have to thank my little brother Nico and my not-so-little sister Tali, for getting me started with Texas Hold 'Em. I won the whole pot last week and left the table up 40,000 lira this time around, what that says about my luck with ladies? I don't know, probably that I'm just one lucky son-of-a-gun. I've always said so. At least the extra income helps with buying a few drinks at By the Way, though they've been getting cheaper and cheaper each time I go in there. Sure, I'm getting to know the bartender, sure I'm getting to know his wife, a Norwegian Hippy who came here in the 60's and decided to stay, but more importantly we've all talked and decided that I'll be playing music one of these night's in the next couple of weeks from my computer. Her husband, the bartender, showed me the two brand new-subwoofers they bought just for the occasion (yeesh, I guess I better deliver on this one). The deal is that I put up all the flyers, do all the footwork, play the music and at the end of the night I'll get a straight percentage of whatever the profit may be. ...and they say the US is the land of opportunity.
I guess that leads me to the US and it's convenient idea of what a democracy should look like. After splitting my time playing poker and going out, (after the sun went down this weekend); and walking in the march commemorating the death of Yasser Arafat in the Bourj al-Barajni Palestinian Refugee Camp and heading the furthest south from Beirut I've ever been for a professional Basketball Tournament in Saida (while the sun was up), I saw this country from some seriously different angles in some very different settings and can't help but wonder what will happen now that six members of parliament have officially left their post, 5 muslims and one christian (the christian who left hopefully making this crisis less of a sectarian issue), all of them apparently pro-Syrian allies. Where the US comes in is it's hard-line talk accusing Syria and Iran of a conspiracy to destroy a fledgling democracy. The reality of the situation however is that these members of Parliament are seeking a "national unity government" that would be a more accurate representation of the population of Lebanon, letting all other political parties have a say in the government. Ofcourse, the US will do their best not to have that happen, as the parties that will gain some power are, for the most part, not on the same page as the US. Following something that my Pop said, it's easy to see the hubris of America, believing that a true democracy is only one that more closely shares the same values that we do, whatever values those may be (those who are in power I guess). A democracy that disagrees with the United States policies is targetted and dismissed as "communist" when it comes to latin america and "terrorist" when it comes to the middle east. If the US isn't careful, who knows what kind of alliances will be made.
can anyone say ""Che Guevara Commando Unit of PFLP, aka Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine?" aaahhhhh, Leila Khaled, you're more than just a pretty face on a poster.
... and though I can't say that I would necessarily agree with any changes that may occur in Lebanon if more socially conservative powers were to have more of an influence, ultimately, as a foreigner, this is not something that is up to me. In a democracy, the will of the few must give in to the will of the many....and therein lies the rub.