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JPR 54

Middle East

While the UN fiddles... the Middle East burns

By
Donald Macintyre in Kfar Giladi, Eric Silver in Jerusalem, Anne Penketh and
Colin Brown

Published: 07 August
2006

Israel suffered its worst casualties in
its 26-day war on Hizbollah while United Nations negotiations
for a ceasefire intensified.

A direct hit by a Katyusha rocket
killed 12 Israeli soldiers in the border kibbutz of Kfar
Giladi yesterday while a barrage of rockets aimed at Israel's
third city, Haifa, left three civilians dead and 150 wounded.

On the other side of the border, 19
Lebanese civilians were killed by Israel's bombardment of
southern Lebanon. The heavy casualties reinforced Israel's
insistence that any UN ceasefire resolution must ensure that
Hizbollah gunmen cannot return to its northern border.
Diplomats hope that foreign ministers will vote in the next
day or two on a United Nations resolution, despite Lebanon
rejecting the US-French draft because it failed to order an
immediate ceasefire and Israeli troops out of southern
Lebanon.

But the US and Britain warned that a UN
resolution was only a "first step" towards ending the
violence, as Israel and Hizbollah militants used the window
before a vote to inflict maximum damage.

Israel suffered its
worst casualties in its 26-day war on Hizbollah while United
Nations negotiations for a ceasefire intensified.

A direct hit by a Katyusha
rocket killed 12 Israeli soldiers in the border kibbutz of
Kfar Giladi yesterday while a barrage of rockets aimed at
Israel's
third city, Haifa, left three civilians
dead and 150 wounded.

On the other side of the border,
19 Lebanese civilians were killed by Israel's bombardment of
southern Lebanon. The heavy
casualties reinforced Israel's insistence
that any UN ceasefire resolution must ensure that Hizbollah
gunmen cannot return to its northern border. Diplomats hope
that foreign ministers will vote in the next day or two on a
United Nations resolution, despite Lebanon rejecting the US-French
draft because it failed to order an immediate ceasefire and
Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon.

But the US and Britain warned
that a UN resolution was only a "first step" towards ending
the violence, as Israel and Hizbollah militants used the
window before a vote to inflict maximum damage.

Condoleezza Rice, the
US
Secretary of State, said: "We're trying to deal with a problem
that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for
years and years and years. And so it's not going to be solved
by one resolution in the Security Council. These things take a
while to wind down."

The Kfar Giladi attack was the
worst in numbers of Israeli victims since the conflict began,
and also caused the highest single death toll of Israeli
soldiers in the same period. But Haifa
was in chaos after Hizbollah launched its worst attack on the
city. Last night Israel claimed it
had hit the Hizbollah site that had launched the rocket
attacks at the city.

The 12 reservists in Kfar Giladi
appeared to have been sitting and standing in the shade of a
cemetery wall for a briefing when a Katyusha rocket landed
right by them, incinerating two cars in the parking lot beside
the wall.

As heavy smoke hung in the air
from brush fires ignited by other rockets in a withering
15-minute barrage, which landed in the hills above the town of
Kiryat Shmona, the charred remains of the vehicles and other
debris had been piled high by the wall. Sponge mattresses,
possibly from the men's packs, were also piled in the parking
lot.

A member of the Kfar Giladi
security committee said that, unlike local civilians, the
victims had not taken cover in shelters when sirens sounded.

"This shouldn't have happened,"
he said. "We sounded the alert several minutes before the
rocket hit." An officer at the scene said that the explosion
had blasted shrapnel 30 metres away. The front of one of the
destroyed cars was compressed, suggesting the rocket might
have landed directly on it. There was also what looked like a
small crater close to the wall.

Intensive diplomatic activity
was going on behind the scenes last night, as Tony Blair
telephoned President George Bush and the Russian leader,
Vladimir Putin. He also sought to contact Jacques Chirac,
whose country is expected to lead a multinational force in
southern Lebanon that would
be part of a longer-term solution described in the draft plan.

"They discussed how they will
get the resolution through," said a Downing Street aide. "We can't take
anything for granted."

The draft text calls for a "full
cessation of hostilities". Whereas Hizbollah is expected to
observe an "immediate" ceasefire, Israel is
instructed to immediately halt "all offensive military
operations". Israel would
therefore be allowed to hit back if Hizbollah did not refrain
from all attacks. The draft would allow Israeli troops to stay
in southern Lebanon until an
international force was deployed there.

In Beirut, Hizbollah announced it would
agree to the ceasefire only after Israel stopped all
attacks and withdrew from Lebanese territory. Nabih Berri, the
speaker of the Lebanese parliament, who represents Hizbollah
in negotiations, said the draft resolution was unacceptable
since it did not deal with Beirut's key demands, including a release
of prisoners held by Israel.

Fouad Siniora,
Lebanon's Prime
Minister, said that his government would demand amendments to
the resolution.Israeli officials were reluctant to comment on
the provisional text, which was published on Saturday and
which security council diplomats continued to discuss
yesterday, probably because it meets far more Israeli demands
than Lebanese.

The Israelis were less happy,
however, with a supervisory role assigned to Unifil, the UN
Interim Force in Lebanon, until a
more robust international force was in place.
Israel has long
complained that Unifil has failed to prevent Hizbollah
attacks. The draft also provides for an eventual handover of
the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon, although UN
cartographers confirmed when Israel pulled out of
Lebanon in
May 2000 that the area had been captured from
Syria in the 1967
war. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is reported to
be flexible on the territorial dispute, provided
Israel's other
requirements are met.

Margaret Beckett will fly to the
UN to press for "humanitarian corridors " to get food and
medical supplies to the shattered communities as a priority
immediately after the cessation of violence is agreed on the
ground in the Lebanon.

The British efforts to establish
humanitarian aid convoys without the fear of being attacked by
Israeli jets may deflect some of the criticism against Tony
Blair for agreeing to a UN resolution which falls short of an
immediate ceasefire.

Day 26

* In the deadliest day of the
war for Israel, Hizbollah rockets kill
12 soldiers in the town of Kfar Giladi.

* Further Hizbollah rocket
attacks on Haifa kill three civilians
and leave 150 people injured. Several are trapped under
rubble.

* Israel says troops will remain
in Lebanon until a
foreign force arrives.

* Israeli army claims it has
captured a Hizbollah fighter who took part in the abduction of
two Israeli soldiers which triggered the conflict.

* At least 19 Lebanese civilians
and a soldier are killed by Israel's
bombardment on the south of the country. Israeli air strike
hits a truck near a UN convoy, killing two people.

* The conflict has killed more
than 800 people, mostly Lebanese civilians.

Arab
World Finds Icon in Leader of Hezbollah

By
NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Published:
August 7, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug. 6 — The success
or failure of any cease-fire in Lebanon will largely hinge
on the opinion of one figure: Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the
secretary general of Hezbollah, who has seen his
own aura and that of his party enhanced immeasurably by
battling the Israeli Army for nearly four weeks.

Copies
of the Koran, images of Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah, and pictures of missile launchers on a desk in a
Beirut refugee camp.

With Israeli
troops operating in southern Lebanon, Sheik Nasrallah can
continue fighting on the grounds that he seeks to expel an
occupier, much as he did in the years preceding Israel’s withdrawal in 2000.

Or he can accept
a cease-fire — perhaps to try to rearm — and earn the
gratitude of Lebanon and much of
the world.

Analysts expect
some kind of middle outcome, with the large-scale rocket
attacks stopping but Hezbollah guerrillas still attacking
soldiers so that Israel still feels
pain.

In any case, the
Arab world has a new icon.

Gone are the
empty threats made by President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s official
radio station during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war to push the
Jews into the sea even as Israel seized Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the
Sinai
Peninsula.

Gone is Saddam Hussein’s idle vow to
“burn half of Israel,” only to
launch limited volleys of sputtering Scuds. Gone too are the
unfulfilled promises of Yasir Arafat to lead the
Palestinians back into Jerusalem.

Now there is
Sheik Nasrallah, a 46-year-old Lebanese militia chieftain
hiding in a bunker, combining the scripted logic of a
clergyman with the steely resolve of a general to completely
rewrite the rules of the Arab-Israeli land feud.

“There is the
most powerful man in the Middle
East,” sighed the deputy prime minister of an Arab
state, watching one of Sheik Nasrallah’s four televised
speeches since the war began, during an off-the-record
meeting. “He’s the only Arab leader who actually does what he
says he’s going to do.”

Days after the
current war started, he ended a speech by quietly noting that
Hezbollah had just attacked an Israeli warship off
Lebanon, a feat
considered inconceivable for his group. Those who rushed
outside saw a glow visible from the damaged vessel offshore,
setting off celebrations around Beirut.

The departure
represented by Sheik Nasrallah — his black turban marking him
as a sayyid, a cleric who can trace his lineage back to the
Prophet Muhammad — has been particularly evident in those
speeches. He makes no promises to destroy Israel with its
superior military might, but to make it bleed and offer
concessions.

“When he says to
the people: I am your voice, I am your will, I am your
conscience, I am your resistance, he combines both a sense of
humility and of being anointed for the task,” said Waddah
Sharara, a Lebanese sociology professor and a descendant of
Shiite clerics. “He’s like the circus magician who pulls the
rabbit out of his hat and always knows exactly who is his
audience.”

Some call it his
“Disney touch.”

In many ways,
this war is the moment that Sheik Nasrallah has been preparing
for ever since he was first elected to run Hezbollah at age 32
in 1992, after an Israeli rocket incinerated his predecessor.

In his
broadcasts he appears tranquil, assured, sincere and well
informed, in command of both the facts and the situation,
utterly dedicated to his cause and to his men. He is aloof yet
tries to lend his secretive, heavily armed organization an air
of transparency by sharing battlefield
details.

On Thursday, he
offered to stop firing missiles if Israel halted its
attacks, saying Hezbollah preferred ground combat. Hezbollah’s
position on any cease-fire, echoed by the Lebanese government,
is that none is possible as long as Israeli soldiers remain
inside the country.

“He has all the
power; the government has no cards in its hand,” said Jad
al-Akhaoui, the media adviser to a Lebanese cabinet minister.
“He keeps saying that he supports the prime minister, but
there has been no translation in the field, nothing has
stopped. The decision is still Hezbollah’s
decision.”

It is not even
clear how such decisions are formulated. Even though Hezbollah
has two cabinet ministers, proposals are passed through Nabih
Berri, the head of the Amal Party and Hezbollah’s onetime
rival as the voice of the Shiite Muslim working class.

Lebanese
officials said that once Mr. Berri passed on the proposals,
nobody was quite sure what happened. Hezbollah officials are
either unreachable or mum.

But Sheik
Nasrallah is definitely in touch. He gloats over the evident
confusion reflected in the Israeli news media about their
military offensive. He is known to have read the
autobiographies of Israel’s prime
ministers. He always calls Israel “the Zionist entity,”
maintaining that all Jewish immigrants should return to their
countries of origin and that there should be one Palestine with equality for
Muslims, Jews and Christians.

In the past,
when Israel
advanced into Lebanon against Palestinian
fighters, the Palestinians would defend fixed positions, then
retreat toward Beirut as each line fell.

Analysts
say Sheik Nasrallah’s genius was to train hundreds of
grass-roots fighters — school teachers and butchers and truck
drivers — then to use religion to inspire them to fight until
death, with a guaranteed spot in heaven. Skip to next
paragraph

Sheik
Nasrallah outlined some tactics in Thursday’s
speech.

“It is
not our policy to hang on to territory; we do not want all our
mujahedeen and youths to be killed defending a post, hill or
village,” he said, sitting in a studio with the flags of
Lebanon and
Hezbollah behind him. The idea is to lure elite Israeli
soldiers into a trap by having them walk into villages before
his guerrillas open fire.

In a
world where fathers are known by the name of their eldest son,
Sheik Nasrallah is known as Abu Hadi or father of Hadi, after
his eldest son, who died in September 1997, age 18, in a
firefight with the Israelis. The name instantly reminds
everyone of his personal credibility and commitment to the
fight.

On that
September day, Sheik Nasrallah was scheduled to deliver a
speech in Haret Hreik, the unkempt southern Beirut suburb dense with apartment houses
that Israel has just
turned largely to rubble. But he said nothing of his loss
until the crowd started chanting for him to speak about the
“martyrs.” He eulogized Hadi as part of a great
victory.

In
interviews, he said that he would not give his enemies the
satisfaction of seeing him weep publicly but that he mourned
privately.

He has a
daughter and two surviving sons. The eldest, Jawad, around 26,
is believed to be fighting in southern Lebanon.

Sheik
Nasrallah takes obvious pride in standing up to
Israel on the
battlefield. All his wartime speeches have been laced with
references to restoring lost Arab virility, a big sell in a
region long suffering from a sense of impotence. He called the
three southern villages where the fiercest clashes erupted
“the triangle of heroism, manhood, courage and gallantry.”

He can be
by turns avuncular and menacing.

Walid
Jumblat, the chieftain of the Druse sect and one of Sheik
Nasrallah’s more outspoken critics, said he found the
combination unsettling. “Sometimes the eyes of people betray
them,” Mr. Jumblat said in an interview in his mountain
castle. “When he’s calm, he’s laughing. He’s very nice. But
when he’s a little bit squeezed, he looks at you in the eyes
fiercely with fiery eyes.”

In the
hierarchical rankings of Shiite Muslim clergy, Sheik Nasrallah
is a rather ordinary hojatolislam, one step below an
ayatollah, and far below being a mujtahid, or “source of
emulation” to be followed as a guide.

Yet the
Shiite faithful in Lebanon revere him,
both as a religious figure and as a leader who gained for them
a modicum of respect in the country’s sectarian political
system long dominated by Christians and Sunni Muslim barons.
Families who evacuated their homes in Beirut’s
southern suburbs seemed invariably to leave behind an open
Koran with Sheik Nasrallah’s picture propped up nearby, in the
hope that the holy verses would protect their homes and their
leader.

He is
believed to live modestly and rarely socializes outside
Hezbollah’s ruling circles. He avoids the telephone for safety
reasons, but has met thousands of constituents and dispatches
personal messengers to congratulate them for weddings and
births.

Aside
from Hezbollah’s secretive military operations, the state
within a state that he helped build with Iranian and
expatriate financing includes hospitals, schools and other
social services.

Sheik
Nasrallah is a powerful orator with a robust command of
classical Arabic, yet he makes himself widely understood by
using some Lebanese dialect in every speech. He has coined
numerous popular phrases, like calling Israel “more feeble
than a spider’s web.”

He comes
across as far less dour than most Shiite clerics partly due to
his roly-poly figure and slight lisp. But he also — very
unusually — cracks jokes.

Prof.
Nizar Hamzeh, who teaches international relations at the
American
University of
Kuwait and has
written a book on Hezbollah, recalled a Nasrallah speech from
last year, given while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the region. A helicopter
happened to clatter overhead at some point while he was
criticizing United States
meddling, and the sheik quipped, “You might be able to catch a
glimpse of her now; I hope she sees us as well.” The crowd
roared.

He has
never pushed hard-line Islamic rules like veils for women in
the neighborhoods that Hezbollah controls, which analysts
attribute to his exposure to many of Lebanon’s 17 sects.

Born in
1960 in Beirut, Sheik Nasrallah
grew up in the Karanteena district of eastern Beirut,
a mixed neighborhood of impoverished Christian Armenians,
Druse, Palestinians and Shiites.

His
father had a small vegetable stand, but the 1975 eruption of
the civil war forced the family to flee to their native
southern village.

The
oldest of nine children and long entranced by the mosque, he
decamped for the most famous Shiite hawza, or seminary, in
Najaf, Iraq.
He fled in 1978 one step ahead of Saddam Hussein’s secret
police, returning to Lebanon to join
Amal, then a new Shiite militia. He became the Bekaa
Valley
commander in his early 20’s.

But he
considered the Islamic Revolution in Iran led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 to be the real model for
Shiites to end their traditional second-class status and moved
to Hezbollah as it coalesced in the early 1980’s. He studied
in a seminary in Qum, Iran, briefly in
1989.

How much
a religious figure can appeal to Lebanon’s generally
cosmopolitan population has never been clear, and it is
particularly murky now that he has provoked a war. Some
Lebanese say he has sold his soul to Damascus and Tehran.

“I used
to think of Nasrallah as the smartest politician in
Lebanon, but this
last operation changed my mind,” said Roula Haddad, a
33-year-old administrative secretary, shopping at the upscale
ABC mall in the predominantly Christian Ashrafiyeh
neighborhood. “It was a huge mistake and he is solely
responsible for all the destruction. He proved that he does
not care about Lebanese interests; he revealed his true
Iranian skin.”

Political
analysts said that Lebanon should have
seen it coming, but that Sheik Nasrallah proved a rather
skillful hypnotist. “Lebanese politics, especially since
Nasrallah carved out his role, has become his very own
circus,” said Professor Sharara, the Lebanese sociologist. “He
built this circus on a foundation of pageantry, lies, fear,
crazy hopes and unreal dreams.

“He sold
Lebanese on the certainty that he would not abandon them, he
would not undertake anything that would cause them harm or
destruction, and at the same time he instilled fear, fear of
himself,” Professor Sharara said. “He has known this was going
to happen for the past 15 years. How can you believe someone
who says, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t do anything,’ even while he
was building this hellish machine? He knew people would be
credulous, would be seduced.”

54

Hizbollah
rocket kills 12 Israeli soldiers

Beirut,
Aug 06: Hizbollah killed 12 Israeli soldiers on Sunday in its
deadliest rocket strike yet and Israeli bombs killed 19
Lebanese civilians as Lebanon rejected a
draft U.N. resolution to end the 26-day-old war.
A rocket
struck a group of Israeli reservists, called up for the
Lebanon
offensive, in the Israeli village of Kfar Giladi. Medics said
dozens were wounded.
Soldiers near the scene held their
heads and one wept as a military ambulance pulled away.
Helicopters landed nearby to fly the badly wounded to
hospitals further from the war front.
Lebanon`s parliament
speaker Nabih Berri said his country rejected the US-French
draft Security Council resolution because it would let Israeli
forces stay on Lebanese soil.
Berri, a Shi`ite politician
who has been the main channel between Hizbollah and Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora, said the draft ignored the Beirut
government`s seven-point plan calling for a ceasefire, the
withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced
civilians among other things.
US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said that agreeing on a resolution would not
end all fighting.
"I would hope that you would see very
early on an end to large-scale violence," she said, but did
not rule out "skirmishes for some time to come".
US
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said that once a
resolution was adopted, Washington wanted a second
one establishing a peacekeeping force in days, not weeks.

Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, has killed 57
Israeli soldiers and 33 civilians in the conflict, sparked
when its men seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border
raid on July 12.
The Israeli army said on Sunday it had
captured one of the Hizbollah fighters who took part in the
seizure of the soldiers.

At least 759 people have been killed in
Lebanon during the
war, including 16 overnight and on Sunday in the bombing of
five southern villages.
Beirut was rattled by an air
raid in the Shi`ite-dominated southern suburbs, witnesses
said. And the Bekaa Valley was hit by
several air raids, one near a Lebanese army base.
UN
peacekeepers in south Lebanon said a
mortar round fired by Hizbollah wounded three Chinese members
of the force.
Israel views the UN draft
favorably, a senior government official and Israeli media
said, noting that it allowed Israel to respond to Hizbollah
attacks after a truce and did not order Israel to withdraw its 10,000
soldiers from southern Lebanon.

Israel wants its
troops to remain until an international force can take over.
Hizbollah says it will keep fighting until Israel stops bombing
Lebanon and
withdraws all its forces.
The draft was hammered out in
negotiations between the United States, Israel`s main ally,
and France, touted as leader of the anticipated international
force for Lebanon.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
said Israel
would keep attacking Hizbollah targets in Lebanon and its
soldiers would stay there until the international force
arrived.
Lebanon will seek support for
its position from Arab foreign ministers due to meet in
Beirut on Monday. Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem, arriving by land a day early,
reiterated that Syria would respond if
Israel attacks it.

The war coincides with an Israeli military offensive in
the southern Gaza Strip to recover another captured soldier.

Bureau Report

Hezbollah
Batters Haifa With
Rockets

By
JOSEPH PANOSSIAN, Associated Press Writer
11:32 AM PDT,
August 6, 2006

BEIRUT,
Lebanon --
Hezbollah guerrillas unleashed their deadliest barrage of
rockets yet into northern Israel, killing at least 12
people, while Israeli bombardment killed at least 14 people in
southern Lebanon as fighting
only intensified despite a draft U.N. cease-fire resolution.

A barrage of Hezbollah rockets crashed into Haifa late
Sunday, killing at least three people and wounding more than
40, officials said, in the heaviest attack on the port city
since fighting with the Lebanese-based militia began nearly
four weeks ago.

Emergency
services director Eli Bein said three people were killed.
Other officials said more than 40 people were wounded, and
dozens more suffered shock.

Hezbollah and its allies
rejected the draft resolution, saying its terms for a halt in
fighting do not address Lebanon's demands
-- in a signal that the nearly 4-week-old battle will burn on.

Both sides appeared to be aiming to inflict maximum
mutual damage in the few days before the U.S.-French draft
resolution is voted on by the U.N. Security Council.

Hezbollah fired a volley of 80 rockets at several
other Israeli towns. One of them made a direct hit on a crowd
of people at the entrance of the communal farm of Kfar Giladi,
killing 11 people, rescue workers said.

It was the highest toll from a rocket attack
since the conflict began on July 12. Israel's Channel
Two television reported that nine of those killed were reserve
soldiers.
A forest burst into flames from the 15-minute
barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air. Other
rockets hit the nearby town of Kiryat Shemona, damaging a
synagogue.
When word of the rocket strike reached the
Israeli Cabinet during its weekly meeting, Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert said: "Lucky that we are dealing with Hezbollah today,
and not in another two or three years," according to a
participant in the meeting.
In southern
Lebanon, dozens of
Israeli strikes hit communities and roads, with some villages
bombed continually for a half-hour, security officials said.
Explosions rang across Beirut as warplanes fired
more than six missiles into the capital's southern districts.

Ground fighting also raged along a stretch of territory on
southern Lebanese border that the Israeli army has invaded.

The U.S.-French resolution for a cease-fire marked a
significant advance after weeks of stalled diplomacy aimed at
ending the conflict. But getting the two sides -- particularly
Hezbollah -- to sign on will likely require a greater push.
Israel has said it
won't halt its offensive until Hezbollah rockets are silenced.

The plan also envisions a second resolution in a week or
two that would authorize an international military force for
the Israel-Lebanon frontier and the creation of a large buffer
zone in southern Lebanon, monitored
by the Lebanese army and international peacekeepers.
U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the draft
resolution was aimed at stopping the large-scale violence to
allow a focus on the underlying problems in the conflict.

"It's the first step, not the only step," she said at a
news conference in Washington.
Lebanon's
parliament speaker, who represents Hezbollah in negotiations,
said the plan was unacceptable since it would leave Israeli
troops in Lebanon and does not deal with Beirut's key demands
-- a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve
a dispute over a piece of border territory.
"If
Israel has not won
the war but still gets all this, what would have happened had
they won?" Nabih Berri said. "Lebanon, all of
Lebanon, rejects
any talks and any draft resolution" that do not address the
Lebanese demands, he said.
Hezbollah's two key allies,
Iran and
Syria, also
rejected the resolution -- suggesting they back a continued
fight by the guerrillas.
"The United
States, which has been
supporting the Zionist regime until today, has no right to
enter the crisis as a mediator," Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said in a phone conversation with Syrian President
Bashar Assad.
Assad said the presence of international
forces with extensive power in Lebanon would cause
anarchy in the country, according to a report on Ahmadinejad's
official Web site.

صالح
"القلاب"!

طاهر
رياض

من عادتي أن أنأى بنفسي وقلمي عن التعرض لأولئك الذين
"يسوّدون" صحفنا وإعلامنا بمقالاتهم المأجورة (وربما المكتوبة
والمرسلة كما نعلم جميعاً من جهات معينة!) والتي تسعى إلى
استغفال الناس، وتشويه الحقائق، بغية إرضاء ذوي الأمر
والنهي.

ومن أخلاقي احترام الكلمة ومن يكتبها، واحترام الرأي
وتعدد وجهات النظر، فبهذا وحده تتأكد حيوية الفكر، وتتوطد حرية
التعبير، المكفولة (كما آمل!) في الدساتير والقوانين
كافة!

وكان يمكن أن نتغاضى وأن نمضي في سكوتنا عن الآراء
المريبة والتحليلات المستهجنة، التي "يتقلب" فيها صالح القلاب في
عموده اليومي في صحيفة الرأي الأردنية، لولا حساسية الظرف الذي
نعيشه هذه الأيام، وإحساسنا بأهمية وخطورة الكلمة المكتوبة
وصِلتها بالواقع المجبول بآلام وأحزان وتطلعات
الناس.

وما كنت لأشغل نفسي بالرد على هذا الكاتب الذي نتابع
"تقلباته" السياسية والمواقفية والمبدئية، عبر ثلاثين عاماً،
لولا أنه، ومرة أخرى في هذه الأيام المفصلية من تاريخنا العربي
ووجودنا العربي، يتحدث وكأنه الناطق الرسمي عن الشعب الأردني،
الحريص على أمنه وكرامته، المنافح عن مواقفه ...إلخ.

في مقالاته
الأخيرة كرّس القلاب قلمه للدفاع عن الموقف الرسمي الأردني تجاه
ما يحدث في لبنان، بكل ما أوتي من فهاهة في التعبير وضحالة في
التفكير، محاولاً إظهار هذا الموقف وكأنه أنبل المواقف وأشرفها،
معدداً مآثر الحكومة الأردنية غير المسبوقة في نجدة "إخواننا" في
لبنان ومساعدتهم وتقديم العون الطبي لهم، بدون أن ينسى "المساعي"
الحميدة التي تبذل من أجل ... لا نريد أن نقول من أجل
ماذا!..

ما أثار السيد المتقلب، أقصد القلاب، هو
هذا
الغضب الشعبي والأردني الذي اتهم ويتهم الحكومة في الأردن
بالتخاذل والتهاون وعدم اتخاذ قرار سياسي فعّال يمكن له، حسب ما
يرى الشارع العربي الكبير، أن يكون ذا أثر، ولو بسيط، لا في
تغيير مجرى الأحداث، بل على الأقل في احترام إن لم نقل احتضان
شرف الرأي الذي يتبناه عامة الشعب وخاصتهم ونخبهم الثقافية
والفكرية والسياسية.

أما جام غضبه، أمد الله في عمره ورعاه، فلم يجد غير قناة
الجزيرة ليصبه عليها، مشيراً إلى أن الدولة التي تحتضنها تحتضن
في الآن ذاته قواعد أمريكية، تنطلق منها الصواريخ لتقتل وتدمر في
لبنان. ولا أظنه من الغباء ليجهل أن دولاً أخرى في المنطقة هي
بمجملها قواعد راسخة للسياسة الأمريكية، تنطلق منها الأوامر
والنواهي ليمتثل لها من يسمّون أنفسهم حكاماً لهذه
الدول!

ثم هو لم يوفر نواباً للشعب في البرلمان من حنقه
وعصابيته، فكال لهم الشتائم واتهمهم بخيانة الأمة والدولة، دون
أن يخطر له، حفظه الله وأدام عزه، اختبار رأي الشارع الأردني،
بفئاته كافة، المتموّر غضباً وحزناً من مواقف حكومته، والممنوع
من التعبير أو التظاهر، في بلد يتباهى إعلامه صبح مساء
بديمقراطيته وحرياته العامة!

كان أجدر بالسيد القلاب أن ينتقد
الإعلام الأردني، بدءاً بالتلفزيون والإذاعة، وليس انتهاء بما
يسمح ويمنع كتابته في الصحافة المحلية، وأن ينحاز إلى صوت
المغلوبين على أمرهم والمكمومين في هذا البلد الصغير ذي الطموحات
الكبيرة.

كان يجدر به أن يكون صوت الحق والحقيقة، فيعكس، عبر عموده
الذي يطل به يومياً على القراء، آمالهم ومخاوفهم، ويحمل همومهم
ومواجعهم، ويتبنى تطلعاتهم نحو وطن أكثر حريةً
وعدالة..

على الأقل هذا ما يتوقّع من كاتب حظي بفرصة أن يقرأ
يوميّاً من قبل شريحة كبيرة من الناس عبر صحيفة أساسية في
الأردن. لكنه, تسلم لي عينه, آثر الوقوف مع حفنة صغيرة من
الكتّاب أمثاله في الموقع المجابه لشعبه, الصادم لتطلّعات وطنه,
ولكنّه الموقع الذي يهيئ له دخلاً محموداً, ورضاً قد يعيده, أقول
قد, إلى موقعه في إحدى الوزارات القادمة!

أتذكّر هنا حين استلم القلاب وزارة الإعلام في الأردن,
وأتذكّر تصريحه بأنّه صوت الحكومة, وشبّه نفسه آنذاك بشاعر
القبيلة الذي يعبّر عن آرائها وينافح عنها. وبغضّ النظر عن هذا
التشبيه الذي يعيدنا إلى عصور الجاهلية والبداوة, ويدلل على
سذاجة ممزوجة بحماقة في التعامل مع العصر وتحدّيات الوطن بل ومع
مفهوم الشعر, فقد لعب الرجل دوره بجدارة, فكان لا شاعر القبيلة,
بل بوق الحكومة. وكما لا بدّ أنّنا جميعنا ندرك أنّ الشعوب
"القبائل" في زمننا هذا ليست هي الحكومات, ولا ينبغي لها, على
الأقل في عالمنا العربي المقهورة شعوبه والمنتهكة
حرياته!

في مقالاته التي ذكرت سابقاً واستثارتني لأكتب هذا
الكلام, يوضّح القلاب موقفه من الحرب الدائرة رحاها في لبنان,
فيدافع عن موقفي مصر والسعودية, ويظهر "عظمة" الموقف الأردني من
المأساة اللبنانية, المتمثّلة في إرسال طائرات الإغاثة, ووصول
وزير الخارجيّة الأردنية إلى هناك (بعد أسبوعين!) دون أن يقول
لنا ماذا فعل بالضبط, مبيّناً, خلاه الله لأمّه, أنّه لولا الجهد
الأردني, سياسيّاً وإغاثيّاً, لحلّت كارثة!

لكن كيف تسنّى للحكومة الأردنية
أن تقوم بذلك؟ دعوه يقدّم الجواب بنفسه: "علاقات الأردنّ
الدبلوماسيّة بإسرائيل هي التي سمحت بإقامة الجسر الجوّي بين
عمّان وبيروت وهو شريان الحياة للشعب اللبناني
المنكوب".

وكأنّ زلزالاً هو ما حلّ بلبنان, أو إعصاراً أو طوفاناً!
وكأنّ ما حدث هناك لم يكن بفعل الآلة العسكرية الإسرائيلية
ذاتها!

كأنّ الأطفال والنساء الذين يقتلون هناك, والبيوت والقرى
التي تمسح من وجه الأرض, والجرحى بالآلاف والمشرّدين بمئات
الألوف, والجسور التي تهدم, ومحطّات الكهرباء والمياه التي
تدمّر, والصّراخ والنواح الذي يصمّ الآذان ويفري القلوب, كأنّ
كلّ هذا كان بفعل الطبيعة مثلاً أو القضاء والقدر, حتى "تسمح"
إسرائيل, عبر علاقاتها الدبلوماسيّة مع الحكومة الأردنية, بمدّ
يد العون وتضميد الجراح!...

أيّ دورٍ "نبيل" إذن تقدّمه الحكومة الأردنيّة لهذا الشعب
"المنكوب"!!

بل أيّ نفاح أحمق عن موقف متخاذل تبنّاه هذا "القلّاب"!
وهو إذ يسمّي الحرب الدائرة هناك "بالمؤامرة القذرة", مشيراً
بطرف خفي (إذ لا جرأة لديه على تسمية الأشياء بأسمائها!) إلى
مسؤوليّة حزب الله عن كلّ ذلك الخراب والدّمار والقتل, فهو لا
ينسى أن يسجّل موقفه المتوافق والمتماهي مع موقفي إسرائيل
وأمريكا, حيث يقول:"إسرائيل ليس لها مطامع في أراضي لبنان, وليس
لديها برنامج ضدّ الدولة اللبنانيّة, ولا تخطّط لجعل لبنان وطناً
بديلاً".

أليس هذا ما
يردّده صبح مساء بوش وأولمرت؟ أليس هذا ما كذبته الوقائع على
الأرض, من خلال قصف القرى والأحياء الأهلة بالمدنيين وتدمير
البنية التحتيّة للبنان, كل لبنان, وتشريد ما يزيد على مليون
إنسان؟ أليس هذا ما اعترض عليه كلّ المحللين السياسيين وزعامات
لبنان النظيفة؟.. وأخيراً أليس هذا عكس ما ذهبت إليه رايس من أنّ
هدف هذه الحرب هو إعادة خلق شرق أوسط
جديد!

إذن هو عوضاً عن الدّفاع عن شرف المقاومة, وبدل الوقوف
إجلالاً لهؤلاء الذين يدفعون بأرواحهم ليردّوا شيئاً من الصّفعات
التي تلقيناها, نحن العرب وما زلنا نتلقّاها, عبر ما يزيد على
نصف قرن, من عدو مغتصب دموي حاقد, يتبنى الصالح القلاب "المقولة
الإسرائيلية" ويعطيها العذر, ويقدّم لها الغطاء!

أريد أن أقول نحن هنا في الأردن, شعباً ومثقّفين وقوى
وطنية متّحدون في استنكارنا للموقف المائع لحكومتنا تجاه ما يحدث
لأهلنا في لبنان وفلسطين, ورفضنا للتبريرات التي يقدّمها الإعلام
الرسمي ومن يمثّله من الكتّاب المأجورين أمثال صالح القلاب.
وسيظلّ الأردنّ عربياً لا تنقصه النخوة والشهامة, وسنظلّ نناضل
ضد من يحاولون تكميم أفواهنا والتحدّث باسمنا وتشويه سمعتنا, ممن
ابتلينا بهم وليسوا منّا. وأمّا هؤلاء الحفنة المتحكّمون بنا
وبإعلامنا فهم لا يمثلوننا بحال, ولا نفتأ نصيح بهم: وطّيتوا
عقالنا!!

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المدونة السابقة

المدونة التالية

بلغ عن
محتوى مسيء

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