Dissident Veteran For Peace

The editorial board of the Free Arab Voice web site recently issued a "Declaration in support of the Arab Resistance in Lebanon" (excerpts below). Thinking about and researching the declaration and Hizbullah, I ended up on a Hizbullah web site where I was a bit surprised to find the text of a May 19, 2006, Daily Star (Lebanon) article on Noam Chomsky's remarks to the press in Beirut. The article is by Jim Quilty and entitled "Hizbullah is a Lebanese phenomenon & the resistance should keep their weapons." I wasn't able to verify the article on the Daily Star web site but the information in the article was corroborated here, here, and here.

Below are some excerpts from the article that mention Hizbullah; I have mostly deleted Chomsky's remarks on Iran, opportunism, tactical questions, etc. I could not resist leaving in his biting comment on "the nature of the political class." I have not edited the non-standard usage of quotation marks around Israel, Israeli, etc. and don't know if they appeared in the original Daily Star article or were added later.

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After interviewing Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Chomsky's told the press the resistance should keep their weapons.

"In an ideal situation all militias should be disarmed," he told The Daily Star. "Unfortunately Lebanon isn't Luxembourg. Since 1978 there have been four invasions from "Israel" - meaning a U.S.-"Israeli" invasion since "Israel" can't invade with out U.S. permission - and plenty of bombings and other terrorism. That happens to be where Lebanon is.

"There's only one deterrent to another U.S.-"Israeli" attack and that's the threat of guerrilla warfare. If anybody can think of a better alternative I'd be happy to hear it. It'd be nice if the Lebanese Army offered a deterrent but it doesn't.

"There is an alternative, namely a credible international agreement to prevent aggression. But who would guarantee it? The EU cannot and will not.

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"If the U.S. and "Israel" decide ... there's a group here that supports Hamas, say. In that reality Lebanon has two choices: either eliminate any deterrent to another "Israeli"-U.S. invasion or else have the credible threat of guerrilla warfare which is what drove "Israel" out in the first place."

Chomsky characterizes his critique of U.S. policy as straightforward institutional analysis. States act on interests, not friendship. "People in Lebanon who think that John Bolton wanted Syria out of Lebanon because he likes the Lebanese are dreaming," he says, a view contrary to local narratives of last spring's "Cedar Revolution".

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"When it came to ["Israel's" 1982 Lebanon invasion] the U.S. had a policy: they supported it. When that became an embarrassment on the international scene, they changed policy and called it off and tried to settle it their own way. As long as Lebanon remains more or less orderly and it's not harming any major U.S. interests there probably is no policy, at least none that I can think of."

Given Hizbullah's rhetoric against "Israel" - and the fact that the disarming of all militias (aka Hizbullah's military wing) was appended to UN Security Council Resolution 1559 - one would think the Party of God is the exception to the rule of U.S. indifference.

"America and Jordan talk about 'the Shiite Crescent' but Hizbullah is irrelevant to that," Chomsky says. "Hizbullah doesn't have any oil. It's a Lebanese phenomenon. It won its position primarily by driving the "Israelis" out. It has its own interests and its own concerns - which it's up to Lebanon to figure out.

"If Hizbullah were to accept U.S. policies, they could run Lebanon as far as the U.S. cares. Is Hizbullah a more extreme fundamentalist organization than the people who run Saudi Arabia?

"In fact, the U.S. has always strongly supported Islamic fundamentalism. It created the jihadis after all, in the 1980s. It supported Zia al-Huq when he was turning Pakistan into an Islamic fundamentalist state. The Reagan administration pretended that Pakistan wasn't developing nuclear weapons.

"It's just not an issue. The U.S. is ecumenical."

Chomsky followed last Spring's "Independence Uprising" and is aware many activists felt betrayed by their political leadership, but he resists dispensing advice.

"People shouldn't be surprised to be betrayed by the political class," he says. "It's in the nature of the political class, any power grouping for that matter."

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Excerpts from the "Declaration in support of the Arab Resistance in Lebanon:"

To every Arab Nationalist, to every Muslim, to every supporter of the Resistance against imperialist and/or Zionist aggression, to every supporter of justice and freedom:

The enemy's aim to divide and conquer will succeed if we do not unite behind the legitimate Resistance of groups like Hizb'ullah in Lebanon. We cannot afford to think in terms of 'regions' or of sectarian interests. We must unite to support EVERY strike against foreign occupation and foreign aggression against the Arab Nation.

Any one who attempts to argue that Hizb'ullah is nothing more than a Lebanese Shi'a organisation might as well give active support to the Zionists. Any one who attempts to argue that Hizb'ullah is the instigator of unprovoked aggression here has his/her head in the sand and is in danger of finding a new world map when he/she finally takes a look at the world.

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A fact that evidently has escaped notice in the West is that the earliest Zionists in the 19th century had a plan to invade Lebanon and incorporate the entire South of Lebanon in what they purported to define as 'Greater Israel'. This early ambition was reiterated in the 1950s, long before the 'Grapes of Wrath' invasion by the Zionist entity. People have the unqualified right to resist against a foreign invasion and no amount of strictly 'humanitarian relief' will protect the Lebanese people from Zionist ambitions.

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The history of this region is steeped in acts of Zionist aggression and Hizb'ullah's actions are no more than legitimate acts of self-defence against a foreign militarised imperialist entity that never has abandoned its plans for total domination of the region.

Under the spurious guise of 'eternal victim', the Zionists once again are attempting to distort the facts.

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This is a situation in which every Arab should be involved. In that sense, it does concern Syria but no more than it concerns any one in any part of or with any ties to the Arab Nation in general. It would be a grave error for any one to pretend otherwise.

This is not a conflict only for the Shi'a, although every Shi'a should support Hizb'ullah's actions. This is not a conflict only for Muslims, although every Muslim should support this Resistance. This is a conflict in which every Muslim, every Christian, every secularist, every Arab and every individual anywhere who believes in justice must support Hizb'ullah's Resistance.

The people of Iraq are struggling under the yoke of foreign Occupation and oppression and a puppet government that only concerns itself with its own selfish and sectarian interests. The people of Palestine are struggling under the burden of foreign Occupation and a continuing programme of dispossession and genocide. The people of the Arab Nation from sea to sea are struggling under the corrupt rule of leaders who bow to U.S./Zionist propaganda and foreign interests daily. The aim of the U.S. alliance ultimately is the destruction of every vestige of strength and independence in the Arab Nation. The Zionist entity was the foreign seed of destruction that was allowed by the West to take root in the heart of the Arab Nation for the sole purpose of weakening it. Will the Arab Nation continue to ignore the parasite that devours it from within?

'Democracy' in the U.S./Zionist lexicon signifies any group that works together to facilitate U.S./Zionist economic and political goals. If any organisation or leader anywhere in the world, however democratic in fact, opposes U.S./Zionist economic and political goals it conveniently will be labelled a 'terrorist' leader or group, making it obvious that 'democracy' is a meaningless term in this context.

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The Arab Nation needed a boost of morale and Hizb'ullah has provided it. Every true Arab Nationalist must be heartened by the thought of any Arab Resistance group with the courage and steadfastness to oppose the Zionists in this fashion. When the majority of Arab leaders either have been bribed or intimidated not into mere silence but into actual betrayal of the cause of the Arab Nation, it becomes vital for every Arab voice to be raised in support of the Resistance.

In Gaza, Shaima al-Quqa, daughter of martyr Al-Abd Al-Quqa, announced the formation of special armed brigades of female human bombs and declared that the women of Palestine 'take upon ourselves before Allah to do what the sleeping leaders and armies of the Arab Nations have failed to do. We are carrying arms alongside the fighters and embarking on the path of the Resistance and the Jihad.'

May the entire Arab Nation take note of their courage and may it inspire an awakening to Resistance among other women and men alike!

Labels: Israel, Lebanon, resistance, Ronald Reagan, United States