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Established to promote a lasting peace between Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. |
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Death of Hobeika
Blaming Israel and Sharon was the easy part of the Hobeika assassination as the real mastermind accomplices and executors were Syria and Iran and their proxies in Lebanon whose agenda involved blaming Israel and destabilizing the entire region. The events surrounding the charges brought against Prime Minister Sharon are bizarre at best and beyond comprehension at worst. The Belgium court, ignoring Belgium's sordid past in administering the Belgium Congo that resulted in the deaths of millions of blacks in Burundi, Uganda, and Zaire, is attempting to regain Belgium's lost moral posture by allowing a judicial attack for political purposes on the Israeli Prime Minister over past events at Sabra & Shatilla by using the testimony of a known Lebanese traitor Elias Hobeika. The bizarre stands forth when we discovered a few months ago that all the evidence touted by the Lebanese government vanished (sources say under instructions of Ghazy Kanaan, Syrian ruler of Lebanon) and wasn't to be found nor reconstructed by "eyewitnesses." And we are to believe that the Lebanese government did not know this prior to their charges against Sharon though they announced that they too would initiate court proceedings in Lebanon as well as send a team of attorneys to Belgium. The theater of the absurd is the only possible description of this Belgium/Lebanese axis whose motives are all too clear. For the last several months, Kanaan prepared Hobeika with false allegations concerning the case in Belgium in order to exonerate Hobeika from responsibility for the murders at Sabra and Shatilla. This removed Syria's culpability for the murders, place the blame directly on Israel, and gave European Arabists a political tool to pressure Israel into making more concessions in the latest peace negotiations. Today, Syria and Iran secretly agreed to the assassination of Hobeika, exposed by the book "From Israel to Damascus," an unproductive and dangerous political asset who became a major embarrassment as he could easily drag them into many uncomfortable, political issues. Hobeika was the "chief witness," (never described as a chief witness before) due to an explosion that blew him up along with several of his colleagues. Of course, the Lebanese media in a political feeding frenzy immediately accused Sharon of the murder and ignored all the hatreds extant among the many groups, mostly Arab, that hate Hobeika. This conveniently provides both Belgium and Lebanon with an excuse to blame the failure of any future trial on a lack of witnesses. That the Lebanese government is a puppet to the Syria regime is no longer news as is the fact that the Lebanese government does nothing without Syrian approval and that would include the murder of Hobeika. It's politically expedient to place blame on Israel as the released information does not substantiate any condemnation of Syria for the murder. The region where Hobeika was murdered is in the center of the intelligence area of Beirut, and the entire area is under tight Lebanese Army and Syrian surveillance. Indeed, some of Hobeika's retinue were committed to his security and well armed as he knew of the dangers he faced and his many enemies. For Israel or Israeli agents to penetrate this area is possible but foolish and highly unlikely, as if Israel wanted Hobeika neutralized it would have chosen a different fashion. Hobeika died as the result of traditional Syrian and Iranian styles used in Lebanon. This car bomb style was also used on President Rene Moawad and Mufti Hassan Khaled, Sunni leader. In light of Hobeika's frequent visits to the beach for scuba diving, Israel's choice would have been to confront Hobeika in the water in a more silent and mysterious fashion. Today, the Lebanese government is diverting the process of the assassination to Israel and are not revealing the truth behind this crime. The killers are the same ones who gave condolences to his family and walked at his funeral. It took place in Hazmieh, a neighborhood in Beirut, where most of the secret intelligence posts of the Lebanese Army and Syrian intelligence forces are located. The intelligence services have a strong presence in this area of the city that is very close to the Syrian controlled Ministry of Defense and five minutes by car to the southern suburbs of Beirut where HizbAllah has its largest terrorist stronghold in the country. It is highly unlikely that any Israeli Mossad action would venture into this part of Beirut, especially after the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. As Israeli Foreign Minister Peres stated: "Israel is out of Lebanese politics for the moment." Hobeika's enemies were legend and included HizbAllah, Lebanese patriots, Israelis, and Palestinians. Druze member of Parliament Marwan Hamade who blames Israel was himself a victim of an assassination attempt by Hobeika in the Lebanese war. Israel is easily dismissed as an assassin, for Hobeika is not important and certainly not on Israel's list of priorities. While the Palestinians despised Hobeika for the killings at Sabra and Shatilla and another Palestinian camp in 1982 (both camps were known as breeding grounds for international terrorists), it is highly problematical that they were responsible as the murder was somewhat sophisticated and not in their style. The southern suburbs of Beirut is the place where the United States hostages in the eighties were held for a long duration before they were transferred by HizbAllah to the Bekaa Valley and distributed among small Shiaa towns. Additionally, this style of assassination is very similar to the booby trapped cars HizbAllah used in southern Lebanon against the IDF; all were exploded by remote control against the enemy. Knowing that many people have an interest in Hobeika's assassination in Lebanon, Syria and HizbAllah in coordination with Lebanese intelligence blamed Israel for the murder. The salient question of responsibility relies theoretically on who has the ability, sophistication, and capability, of mounting and executing this terrorist operation? Certainly, not the weakened and abused pro-Israeli Christians of Lebanon. HizbAllah is responsible and the only militia that kept its full military capability, its full terrorist intelligence structure operational and well in order to carry out such operations. It is HizbAllah who operated successfully against the Israeli Army in southern Lebanon with Iran's help and support, and they would not find it difficult to carry out an assassination against Hobeika in Hazmieh. Hobeika was an easy target for HizbAllah in these times of changing dynamics in the Middle East. Syria is also a sponsor of HizbAllah and along with Iran had to resolve the schism between HizbAllah hatred of Hobeika that was due to Hobeika's attempts at murdering numerous members of HizbAllah during the Lebanese war. Syria after the publication of the book "From Israel to Damascus" considered Hobeika a liability who could drag Syria into unwanted embarrassments. Therefore, Ghazy Kanaan, proxy Syrian ruler of Lebanon, manipulated and controlled Hobeika's every move. HizbAllah's hatred of Hobeika involves the four Iranian diplomats murdered by Hobeika during the Lebanese war; the car bomb directed at the spiritual head of HizbAllah, the Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein FadlAllah, spiritual leader of HizbAllah; and the almost three hundred Shiia prisoners that were executed in the Karantina district under Hobeika's orders during the Lebanese war. The families of the Shiia murdered hated Hobeika and applauded his death. This assassination is an old account settled today by HizbAllah to prepare the way for a new regional dynamic and Iran is responding to today's realities by flaring up the region, supplying missiles to HizbAllah that could reach deep into Israel. These missiles have been used against Israel in an Iranian attempt to kindle a regional war involving Israel after the debacle of the "Karine-A" weapons ship headed for Gaza. The new Iranian agenda has one goal: the destruction of Israel, the leadership of the Islamic nations in the Middle East, and preventing the United States from brokering any Middle East peace. Iran shares with Bin Laden the same political agenda involving the Islamic takeover of Israel and the removal of all United States presence from the region The state of alert among IDF soldiers along the northern border continues. The fear is that Hizballah will continue to fire at outposts and towns along the border, and perhaps even try to kidnap soldiers again. A mini-war has started and Israel's newspaper Maariv reported January 25th that "Hizballah is trying to intensify the fighting along the border and to drag Israel into warfare," according to a senior source in the northern command. The source referred to two firing incidents on the northern border two days ago when Hizballah tried to down an Israel Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle and shelled IDF positions on Har Dov." The Iranian hatred of Israel is demonstrated by the Grand Ayatollah Haj Sheykh Mohammad Fazel Lankerani (reported by Tehran's Jomhuri-ye Eslami) who issued a fatwa (religious ruling) January 13, saying in part: "All Muslims have a duty to protect Jerusalem, which is the first shrine of Muslims, and they have a religious law obligation toward the Islamic land of Palestine; it is incumbent upon them to make every effort and to use all their resources to liberate Palestine, God willing." In its last visit to Damascus, the United States delegation gave the Syrian regime a very serious warning that terrorism will not be tolerated in the region, and what Washington meant by terrorism was HizbAllah. HizbAllah understood that its control of Lebanon would end, but the secretary General of HizbAllah NasrAllah defiantly criticized the Bush administration's definition of terrorism and planned on continuing their jihad. Responding to Washington's pressure, Damascus for domestic purposes promised Washington to curb HizbAllah after the United States warnings. However, HizbAllah and Iran were concerned at Syria's attitude as it did not conform with Iran's who has its own agenda in the region. HizbAllah executes Iranian policy in Lebanon as does Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Israel. The Iranian plan would destabilize the region, culminating in a war against Israel, and preventing any rapprochement or package deal between Washington, the moderate Arabs states pushing for a resolution to the Middle East conflict, and Damascus. Iran's objective is to keep the young, inexperienced Damascus regime under its reign, promote the Iranian influence within Syrian and Lebanese politics, and keep Lebanon as an operational base for HizbAllah to prevent any conflict resolution by the United States in the Middle East. Ghazi Kanaan, titular Syrian ruler of Lebanon, protected Hobeika against many assassination attempts from HizbAllah in the past but no longer. Indeed, intelligence sources reveal that Kanaan prepared Hobeika over a period of three months for his testimony in Belgium and reversed his course in order to camouflage the murder after it became apparent that Hobeika was a liability. With the dangerous momentum that is approaching in the Middle East, the after Afghanistan syndrome, the missile firings against Israel, Hobeika's assassination was a double message from HizbAllah to the players in the region that Iran has its own agenda and no one dare challenge it. That was the double message sent by Iran, executed by HizbAllah, and directed to the Middle East participants.. In the war against terrorism, it would be in the best interests of the United States to focus on Iran and Syria, as Iran is exporting its Islamic agenda through terror overseas to be executed by its own terror networks: HizbAllah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. After Afghanistan, the next battle against terrorism should be focused on Hizbollah at first and then Iran and Syria. This is the true mechanism of terror that is destabilizing the free world and promoting the everyday Middle East killings. In the battle against terrorism, the United States along with Israel and friendly forces in the Middle East must find an adequate solution. And they can succeed. Nagi N. Najjar
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