An UN relief convoy was taken out in the crossfire and I have still to hear a beep from any of the various and sundry professional anti-war peace groups operating in Canada. Stop the War is obviously much more selective about the wars which should be stopped than I had previously given them credit for. We may differ on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Israel but we are obviously in step over Lebanon. Four out of five will not get you a dinner invitation at my house but I wouldn’t have guessed we could ever find any common ground – so there you go.
From all accounts which I have read, the actual membership of Fatah Islam is almost insignificant. According to this CBC article the actual membership of Fatah Islam is pegged at around 100 members. So the question we should all be asking ourselves is how has a relatively small number of insurgents has managed not only to keep the Lebanon Army (with their heavy artillery bombardments) at bay for so long, and why has Fatah Islam not come to the end of their resources and ammo? And since I am in why's asking mode - why hasn’t Fatah (without the Islam) come to the aid of the Lebanese Army in rooting out the insurgents who are responsible for bringing the down the artillery wrath of the Lebanese Army upon the heads and homes of approximately 30,000 plus Palestinian civilians in the refugee camp?
Some of you might be wonder why I am suggesting the PLO/Fatah runs the Lebanese refugee camps and the simple answer is – PLO/Fatah does, and it has a mandate to do so under the terms of the Cairo Agreement it signed with the Lebanese government in 1969. All of which brings me to my third thought. I have yet to read any published reports explaining why the Lebanese Army or any government agency has not entered into any Palestinian refugee camps in almost 40 years nor made any attempt to explain the significance of the Cairo Accord.
Simply put the Cairo Accord was brokered by Egyptian president Gemal Nasser, Yassir Arafat and Lebanese General Emil Bustani whereby the Palestinian refugee camps were turned over to the control of Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization and the 16 official UNWRA camps in Lebanon were removed from Lebanese civilian authority. It effectively established a sovereign “state within a state status” for the PLO in Lebanon.
The agreement also established an alleged right for all Palestinian residents of Lebanon to actively participate in the armed struggle against the Israeli state. The refugee camps became not only arms depots, but a central command area for planning and then launching attacks against the Israeli state. The refugee camps operated so effectively as staging areas (under the blessing of Lebanese authorities) that Israeli would be left with little choice but to launch Operation Litani River in 1978 or the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
All of which makes a statement reputed to be said by the Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese Information Minister not just outlandishly absurd but hysterically comical.
Lebanon's Cabinet late Monday authorized the army to step up its campaign and "end the terrorist phenomenon that is alien to the values and nature of the Palestinian people," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.
No comments:
Post a Comment