By Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog, cross-posted with PressTV
(Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the upcoming ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’.)
In a recent column I debunked the West’s primary propaganda lines regarding Lebanon’s ongoing protests: that Iran has somehow silently usurped a century of French colonial dominance, and that Lebanese Shia – represented by Hezbollah and Amal – should be held responsible for the nation’s corruption woes despite having always been the biggest victims of the French-penned system of anti-democratic sectarianism.
In another column I stated what all Lebanese know but which the West never admits: the Maronite Christian community has been given preferential treatment for a century – regarding the army, the central bank, and Western media tolerance for their militias – and this has been the primary catalyst for neo-colonial corruption, inequality and inefficiency.
This article will continue to insist that Lebanon’s problem is not Christian nor Muslim but a question of classic right-versus-left political ideologies. This reality is illustrated in the very unequal fates of three Lebanese Maronite Christians: Michel Aoun, Samir Geagea and Georges Ibrahim Abdullah.
Michel Aoun – the real, but bygone, patriotism of ‘petit de Gaulle’
To many people Michel Aoun is likely the only recognisable name among the three. However, many would still be at pains to explain why the right-wing Christian has had a political alliance with Hezbollah since 2006.
Despite all his faults, we cannot say that Aoun is not a Lebanese patriot. He chose exile rather than acceptance of the US-backed peace plan in 1991, which saw Syria occupy and finally pacify Lebanon.
Was Aoun also wanted for war crimes and corruption charges? Yes. Was he also defeated militarily by Syria? Yes.
However, we should acknowledge that Aoun’s mutiny against Washington was exceptional. Aoun exiled himself to France because he would not accept a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty. This decision helps explains his enduring popularity: “petit de Gaulle” is more appropriate than “Napol-Aoun”, though the latter is more popular recently.
Aoun has openly declared Hezbollah to be part of Lebanon, and it’s easy to see why he appreciates them: Hezbollah has defended Lebanese sovereignty from arch-reactionary and hyper-belligerent Israel. The alliance between Aoun and Hezbollah is understandable – both are patriotic.
It’s facile to say that the Aoun-Hezbollah March 8 Alliance is “pure politics”, because the reality is that neither group would degrade themselves morally and ideologically in a “pure politics” alliance with the divisive extreme-right Christian parties, as the Hariris have done with their March 14 Alliance.
It is only if we believe the sectarian-promoting, identity politics-obsessed Western press that we could imagine that total enmity between Hezbollah and Aounists must exist simply because they are of different religions. Both Aoun and Hezbollah oppose the corrupt Hariri clan, who are adored by Western neoliberals and Saudi reactionaries alike.
However, when viewing the anti-corruption protests of 2019 it is important to remember the political reality that many young Lebanese believe Aoun is beyond redemption – they will not look past Aoun’s Phalangist past, war crimes, corruption, and ardent neoliberalism. Such a view is very understandable: patriotism is not the ultimate virtue, contrary to the assertions of the conservative Aounists.
Aounism’s determined, yet flawed, form of patriotism is dying also because many young Lebanese have been hypnotised by the West’s “globalisation” mindset. In this view “jingoism”, “nationalism” and “patriotism” are interchangeable, even though the latter is the admirable, unique and even necessary love and respect one has for their national community. Such a worldview is personified by French leader Emmanuel Macron, who repeatedly states that, “Nationalism is war.” For many young Lebanese Aoun’s patriotic virtues are totally lost on them.
Aoun is now reportedly asleep 12 hours a day and incapable of playing a direct role anymore – his worldview is equally tired, and will not endure because the Great Recession has accentuated classism and not his “semi-sectarian patriotism”.
However, I have related why Aoun does deserve some appreciation. His patriotic bonafides are strengthened by the fact that the most divisive and bloody battles were between Aoun and the rabid sectarian Samir Geagea.
Samir Geagea – freed, despite his crimes, because he has the wrong friends
I expected online commenters to object to my treatment of Aoun in my previous two articles. I did not expect anyone to publicly stand up for Samir Geagea – no one did. His supporters are the type who leave anonymous, racist, ill-informed comments.
Bombing churches, assassinations of Christian leaders, fighting alongside Israeli Defense Forces – his crimes were the most atrocious of his era, and he was the only warlord to serve jail time for that reason.
And yet he was released. (This is obviously in contrast to the ‘Arab Nelson Mandela’.)
Geagea may have been released to avoid national disunity, but his return to political prominence was no doubt aided by the fact that he worked for the “right” (far-right, in fact) people – the Israelis, French and Americans. From Ukrainian neo-Nazis to Al-Nusra to Bolivian Christian fascists and beyond the West is happy to work with religious fanatics who seek to subvert national unity and morality.
Geagea’s primary ally is Lebanon’s top central banker, Riad Salameh, who for three decades has allowed Lebanese inequality to explode, its corruption to proliferate and who also unjustly serves Washington’s blockade on Hezbollah.
Crucially, Geagea’s divisive politics totally contradict any idea that he is reformed or repentant. That his party was the first to pull out of the government when protests started only fuelled speculation that any foreign-dominated “color revolution” will surely utilise Geagea.
You can find Western mainstream media releases which try to whitewash his crimes, but the West generally prefers to keep quiet about him. To many Lebanese Geagea is just a thug, the “biggest crook of them all”, and not worth my time, but he is critical to understanding Western influence and modern Western ideology in today’s Lebanon.
The West’s treatment, leniency and open support of the Maronite Geagea is far different from how they view another Maronite, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – the man beyond reproach, and thus the most feared by the US and Israel
Abdallah is Europe’s longest-serving political prisoner, at 35 years and counting, and is known as the “Arab World’s Nelson Mandela”.
Every October there are protests in front of his prison in southwestern France, and PressTV is usually the only media covering the anniversary. That is a sad commentary on my French journalist colleagues, indeed.
In 1982, with Israel invading Lebanon yet again, Abdallah’s group took responsibility for the death of a US and an Israeli agent in Paris.
It is incredible that Geagea, whose militia killed thousands, goes free yet Abdallah remains in jail over the deaths of two.
Geagea has remained the head of the Lebanese Forces, obviously ready to re-warlord immediately. After 35 years Abdallah wants to go back to his job as a schoolteacher.
Why is the Maronite Abadallah seemingly going to serve a life sentence while the Maronite Geagea, the undoubted epitome of 1980s Lebanese carnage, got released? Clearly, the sectarian/identity analysis pushed so strongly by Israel, the US and France does not truly trump all.
The problem is that Abdallah had the “wrong” enemies – the US and Israel. Abdallah’s pro-Palestinian stance, as well as his socialist demand that the lower classes are more important than the 1% and central bankers, are why France’s leaders willingly collude to condemn Abdallah to death in prison.
Contrarily, Geagea obviously had the “right” enemies: anyone opposed to imperialism, ruthless capitalism, racist sectarianism and anyone who believes that Palestinians deserve to be treated like humans. Who upholds these ideologies more than Israel and the US?
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is indeed the Arab World’s Nelson Mandela because both were leftists who used violence in defense (not in attack) and because Abdallah has been imprisoned so long and so very unjustly. Without any doubt Abdallah, who has always refused to renounce his actions, has stood up for justice longer than any person in Europe today.
Geagea’s release and public rehabilitation shows how Lebanon has granted amnesty to all their wartime leaders – only Abdallah does not walk free. French judges granted Abdallah parole long ago and he was ordered to be released multiple times, but France’s executive branch will seemingly always work on behalf of Washington and Tel Aviv.
The sad reality which must be changed is that the prominent parties in Lebanon are not pushing for Abdallah’s release.
Hezbollah and Amal simply do not have any leverage to put pressure on Paris, but they should immediately do all they could to draw more attention to Abdallah – they obviously support Abdallah’s fight against imperialism and injustice, and they are present at pro-Abdallah demonstrations in Lebanon. Making Abdallah a more prominent symbol would also help demonstrate to their shameless accusers that their ideology is not sectarian, but universal and moral. The Maronite Church fought extremely hard to get Geagea released but have done nothing for Abdallah because of his pro-Palestine and pro-socialist stances – Hezbollah’s members need to fill their regrettable, shameful void.
Clearly, all of protest-wracked Lebanon needs Abdallah more than ever.
Lebanon’s protests are extremely Westernised in the sense that they have no class component – they rightly reject Aounist “semi-sectarian patriotism” as inadequate, but how could a movement based on patriotism galvanise a Lebanon that is no longer under occupation? Answers to what many young Lebanese are blindly groping against – an end to Salemeh-led inequality, French-led sectarianism and US-Israeli accommodation with imperialism – can be found personified by Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
Abdallah is the man of this moment in Lebanon, yet he cannot be there to help.
But is this not the case for the anti-imperialist left in so many countries? Their leaders have been jailed or killed by Western nations. Don’t young Lebanese realise that they are no different?
Many believe that the only way to keep Abdallah from unjustly dying in prison is via a hostage exchange. Abdallah is undoubtedly a hostage held by France’s leaders, but I don’t know who could be exchanged for him in 2019?
Abdallah is also Europe’s oldest political prisoner and the hero of this article’s trio. His case disproves Western lies about “sectarian-religious conflict” in Lebanon, but also in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, Ukraine, Bolivia, Western China, etc.
When viewing Lebanon actions and ideology are the only proper lenses, not religion. French neocolonialism, Israeli Zionism and Western anti-classism all reject this modern view.
The man who was the least “warlord” in Lebanon is still imprisoned precisely because he was the most patriotic, the least sectarian and the most enlightened politically. Does not his case represent the depth of “Lebanese corruption” in every sense?
Lebanon’s protesters need to realise that an incorruptible Lebanese has remained in prison on their nation’s behalf for 35 years.
The time is now – nothing could represent a renewed, united, moral Lebanon better than the return, finally, of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
“Does not his case represent the depth of “Lebanese corruption” in every sense?”
Yes for sure, but a 68 year old Lebanese activist who has been in a French jail half of his life suddenly becoming the “Arab Nelson Mandela” and representing the disillusioned Lebanese Generation X, Y (Millennials) and Z ?
……I highly doubt it. But I understand Ramin’s support for a leftist “hero” who was honored in 2013 by the French city council of Bagnolet for being a “communist activist” and a “political prisoner” who “belongs to the resistance movement of Lebanon” and is a “determined defender of the Palestinian just cause.”
On another not, this theory that these disillusioned leaderless and pissed off youth, who are fed up of corruption and the status-quo, are somehow driven by Western-Zionist intervention does not hold up to scrutiny.
It is not in the interest of the West to disrupt the status-quo in for example Lebanon and Iraq. It is not in the US and European economic interest to suddenly remove the corrupt Shia allied party politicians that are selling Iraq’s oil to Western companies while these politicians put all the money in their pockets. It is not in the Western interest to disrupt the financial raping of Lebanon through the corrupt elite and the corrupt banking system.
What often does happen is once the West sees that something is inevitably changing, they will try to piggy back on a movement to control it.
The West does not want two things:
1. It does not want total chaos that prevents or disrupts them from taking full advantage of a countries human, natural and financial resources
2. It does not want a country that has a strong sovereignty and looks after its own interest first and looks after the interest of its population.
The West wants:
1. A subservient country that they can suck dry, and if that requires a corrupt government or leadership, than so be it.
Just because the Western-Media wants to blame what is happening in Lebanon and Iraq on Iran, does not mean that the West will suddenly support these protests. The West will use any kind of negative information or publicity to blame Russia, China and Iran et al.
On the contrary, the West is not and will not intervene to suddenly help new generations get rid of the corrupt older generations…..and if it does, it will do it only on one condition: the guaranteed continuation of the economic submission of these countries. All other options are not off the table.
Why would you destroy a country that you are already sucking dry, like Lebanon and Iraq ?
You only want to destroy a country that will not let you suck them dry like Iran, Russia, China or Syria……or Libya’s Gaddafi or Iraq’s previous Baathist regime. These countries are worthy of destruction, and even then it is better to destroy them strategically to take over their resources. You have to destroy them efficiently to get a good return on investment.
@Harry Red: “Why would you destroy a country that you are already sucking dry, like Lebanon and Iraq ?”
Because the natives are restive; they want to wean the AZC from sucking dry their teats.
“You have to destroy them efficiently to get a good return on investment.”
Not necessarily. Remember that investment of actual Anglo Zio capital is always minimal in these resource wars: eg, $100 Million of actual Rothschild money ($4Mpa salary from Goldman Sachs plus directorships in Carlyle Corp & House of Rothschild) to bribe UK Prime Minister Tony BLiar to invade Iraq; it was only the taxpayers in UK & U$A who invested the $Trillions that the actual military operation cost, and only the Anglo Zio oil companies which sucked up the $Billions/Trillions cash flow from the teats of Iraqi oil wells. So no, we don’t have to destroy our resource-rich quarry efficiently for Anglo Zio Capitalists to get a maximal return on their minimal investment.
Kudos yet again to Ramin for throwing a sharp light on our murky world from an unusual but convincing angle.
Hail all-Peace-
Thanks for the great read and insight -Ramin.Thanks to all- at this very informative Saker community.Keep it coming.
Salaam
Clay.
Excellent column by Mazaheri! Cheers!
The Tails of Three Terrorists – Putting A Pretty Face On Terrorism, Victoria Nuland, Victoria Freeland and Samantha Powers
When terrorism wears the masks of pretty faces, people are deceived by commonly held fallacies.
Victoria Nuland – international terrorist stated that releasing Georges Ibrahim Abdullah would pose a danger to the international community. This is comming from a woman whose acts of terrorism are monumental in the literal sense, being the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil, and blaming Muslims resulting in the continuation of the 5th Crusade against Muslims.
Everyone knows who the real terrorists and instigators are, and the tectics that they engage in, deception, collusion, conspiracy, violence, oppression, fascism, torture, abuse, and exploitation.
The only way to beat them is by doing the opposite, in my opinion, taking a Ghandi approach of truth,non-violence, compassion, and indepence.
The worst thing that people can do is organize against them, because the CIA, Mossad, and other nefarious terrorists will without any doubt infiltrate that network, destroy it, and overthrow it.
That is the reality of it. Speak out, yes! Stand up for your rights, Yes! But do it independently, in my opinion, because the truth is strong enough to stand alone. It is far more difficult for them to destroy billions of individuals, than it is for them to destroy one network with billions of individuals.
This is just an observation that I have made over the years, and all are free to disagree and act in accordance with their own system of beliefs, in my opinion.
They, the terrorists of the globalists have shown how weak they are by their numbers. They have organized in armies of millions, but there is no strength in numbers when the only common traits are stupidity, evil, insanity, and corruption. It does in fact, serve as a negative. It makes them millions times more stupid, evil, insane, and corrupt than they would be if they were to stand alone.
E Plurabus Unum
https://www.rt.com/news/474435-hrw-official-israel-deportation/
correction – Chrystia Freeland, not Victoria Freeland. Funny that I see them as practically the same person, like paper dolls. They think the same, they act the same, they dress the same, they believe the same! Shut the cookie press down!
Another viewpoint is that Lebanon’s fundamental issue is neither christian vs. muslim, nor left vs. right, just as much it was not pan-arab nationalism vs. westernism. Each of these has contributed a layer to complicate politics throughout its history. Historically, it has always been a small territory with large and powerful neighbors, with whom it would usually maintain part of its sovereignty in exchange for materials and riches. Throughout the past century, it has been shaped largely by the ending of the colonial world and the ascendance of neocolonialism and the cold war. Granted there are local players, but they usually do not bend the overall regional/international winds. Two exceptions that did were the Lebanese president Chehab (negotiating a compromise with Nasser and others), and Michel Aoun in 1990 and today (harder times and players).
The three heads of corruption in Lebanon since 1990 have been Rafik Hariri, Walid Jumblatt, and Nabih Berri. The state reeks of their corruption and cronies. Berri is the leader of Hezbolla’s sister-party Amal, whom Hezbolla members popularly refer to as theives, alas Nasralla does not want inter-shiite conflict, and therefore does nothing against the corruption of Amal. Perhaps there is no other blood-less way than to wait for Berri to die out.
“Was Aoun also wanted for war crimes and corruption charges? Yes. Was he also defeated militarily by Syria? Yes.”
Aoun never committed war crimes, although his debunked detractors (civil war militias) like to claim he is the same as they. His corruption charges were fabricated by the Syrians during their occupation of Lebanon- his legal file was disclosed on his return in 2005, with not a shred of evidence against him, and the only paper being the accusation charge itself. If there was any evidence of that, Hariri-Berri-Jumblatt would have enjoyed bringing the case against him on his return, with their heavy influence on the judiciary still active then. As for his defeat, it was not by Syria alone, but also as part of the grand bargain that the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria were all in on. There were very few patriots that day, that were not already his supporters.
There are other issues, such as the Jumblatt-led progressive social party (left in name only) amassing riches for him. And Amal killing off more members of the lebanese communist party than anyone else during the civil war.
Part of the Lebanese will not accept subservience. Part of them are willing to take sides in the international conflict of creating the multipolar world, and part of them not. And part of them just want to live life (despite the chains). How does a democracy solve that riddle, in a country where christian-sunni-shiite consensus is necessary to avoid painful conflict? Perhaps leaders have a longer historical view for which the common citizen has little patience for.
The country reeks of corruption. Hariri-Jumblatt-Berri did not only steal funds, but employed tens of thousands of mostly unqualified or ‘invisible’ workers in the state. All the major parties suffer some form of corruption, Hezbolla perhaps being the least, but responsible for turning a blind eye to Amal. Aoun’s party has had an invasion of self-interested persons riding the most popular caravan over many of the core supporters. Hezbolla is better positioned to speak against policies harming the poor, because most of their suporters are shiite, who for a long time were the most economically disadvantaged. Aoun’s party has more diversity in terms of pro-right/left and also more prone to inter-conflict due to this. Hariri is continuing his father’s legacy of neoliberalism, with trickle-down fantasies. Where does all of this lead to? Perhaps more conflict in the near term, or no rest until the oil dries up? Too bad I won’t be around to see how this ends.
“Many believe that the only way to keep Abdallah from unjustly dying in prison is via a hostage exchange. Abdallah is undoubtedly a hostage held by France’s leaders, but I don’t know who could be exchanged for him in 2019?”
Tons of europeans visit Lebanon every day. Kidnap 10 or 20 of them, and tell france to hand him over or else. The western countries are not rule of law countries, so there is only 1 way to deal with them: Violence