The key concept behind the Friends of Lebanon organisation is the encouragement of a better and more peaceful Lebanon.  We do not endorse a particular religion or political party because it is only through accepting our differences in the spirit of cooperation that we can indeed achieve a better and more peaceful country.

World Peace Database-- If you want to be in touch with other organisations around the world who are concerned with peace-related issues, you can find them on the World Peace Database at www.housmans.info/wpd.

 

Watch Dan Bull’s latest musical reflections on the Flotilla Attack here.

Discover Lebanon presents: Programs of Summer Festivals, Lebanon 2010:
Baalbeck Festival - Batroun Festival - Niha Festival - Byblos Festival
Tyre Festival - Beiteddine Festival - Faqra Club
Estivales Deir El Qamar - Music Festival Beirut - Zouk Mikael Festival

 

Politics and the search for truth

 

On 9 August 2010, evidence relevant to the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was made public.   This evidence strongly indicates that Israeli intelligence services played an active role in the fateful February 2005 car bomb.   Additional detail can be read in AFP, Al Manar, and Daily Star media. 

 

As was expected, there have also been numerous media reports dismissing the allegations as ludicrous.  Instead of merely reporting the latest developments, for example, even the BBC craftily depicts “the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah” and “what he says is evidence of Israeli involvement” as a juvenile con-game.   [emphasis added]  The BBC states for instance:

“Sheikh Nasrallah also revealed the name of a Lebanese man allegedly spying for Israel, who, he said, was at the site of the killing the day before the assassination.

The man, however, fled before authorities could detain him, he said.”

 

Rolling its journalistic eyes in disdain, the BBC suggests in repeated fashion throughout the article “Oh, how convenient.”

 

What Sayyed Nasrallah actually stated was that

 

“We have evidence that Ghassan al-Jedd, an alleged Israeli spy who hosted Israeli operations teams, was present at the Rafiq Hariri crime scene.  We presented the evidence to the Lebanese authorities, but Jedd escaped from Lebanon before he was caught."

 

Jedd had been linked to the Israelis for over a decade.  The suspicions concerning the Hariri assassination were given to the Lebanese authorities.  Would anyone logically expect him to stick around?  Contrary to the BBC insinuation, Jedd’s name was not pulled out of a hat of convenient suspects who had gone underground and therefore could be blamed.

 

This BBC report (not a pro-Israeli blog, but the BBC--THE British Broadcasting Corporation) overtly scorns Nasrallah, who, the BBC sneers, “said he had been told that the international tribunal would indict individuals from Hezbollah in Mr Hariri's murder, and [who] described the tribunal as part of an Israeli plot against Hezbollah.” (what makes this a ‘sneer’ is that the BBC unnecessarily tacks on the ‘Israeli plot’ bit).  On the other hand, the BBC notes straightaway (fourth sentence) that “Israel has denied any involvement in Mr Hariri's death.”  This BBC report readily exemplifies the politicizing of the investigation into the Hariri assassination which has contributed to the general mistrust of the UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon.   Potential evidence is dismissed out -of-hand if it does not accommodate the preferred scenario.

On the issue of credibility, one particular statement by Nasrallah stands out: “This video can be acquired by any investigative commission to ensure it is correct. We are sure of this evidence, or else we would not risk showing it.”

Whether or not one “likes” Nasrallah or the party he represents, his intelligence has never been disputed.   Hezbollah has not achieved what it has undeniably achieved in a mere twenty-eight years by being foolhardy.  Their security analyses and their political judgement have both been top rate; otherwise they would have long since crumbled under the weight of the campaign against them forged by the Western-Israeli Alliance.   This much must surely be acknowledged.  So what do we have to fear in at least evaluating the evidence presented?

 

[see also the related June 2007 FOL article here]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lebanon ratifies Convention Banning Cluster Bombs

Michael Williams, UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, described the 17 August decision by Parliament as “a very important signal of Lebanon’s commitment to international law and will reinforce the international will to ban these deadly devices.”

The treaty entered into force at the start of August 2010, just after two years after the so-called Oslo Convention was first adopted by 107 countries.  Lebanon – whose territory is still marked by cluster munitions – becomes one of 39 States which have ratified the convention, while another 108 countries have signed it.  Read more here.

For more information on the Convention, visit the Cluster Munition Coalition here.