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Introducing the first essay series of author Ali Dirani of Beirut, Lebanon:
"je viens d'une village de la vallee de bekaa au centre-liban ... j'ai b.a. en arts plastiques... et je joue les perussions dans un petit groupe de hiphop et reggae a beirut. ci ki m'importe le plus dans mon existence c que kan je meurs - ke je ne serai pas enterre a l'ombre du meme systeme ou j'etais ne."
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Ed. by Andrew Taylor
Even before the civil war began in 1975, the Communist Party of Lebanon was leading the political democratic struggle. I realize the struggles in Lebanon are not necessarily well known in the west so I will offer a preliminary historic reminder for those who don't know much about politics in Lebanon.
In 1975 the Lebanese civil war began dividing the country into confessional territories and there were many militants who got involved in this chaos: firstly there was the Falangists led by Pierre el Gemayel who went to Italy and was deeply impressed by Mussolini and tried to recreate a Lebanese version of Mussolini’s ideas in what is actually a Christian militia group called the ''Falangists ''. Along with him there were many ''knowledgeable figures'' who were introducing what is called the political Maronites ( the Maronites are a Christian Rite who follow Saint Maroun who is a Lebanese-Syrian ''saint''); they were demanding support from the west in the assertion of an independent Lebanese Christian country and claimed that they not Arabs but Phoenicians.
These political Maronites were trying to benefit from certain international facts of the era; the Arabs were, after all, still leading a resistance against the Israelis with the discreet support of the USSR. '' The Lebanese Forces '', one of the most radical anti-Arab and anti-Islamic Christian groups the Middle East has known since the Crusades now came to the fore and took power! And it is this group that is running in the Lebanese elections this year under the banner of “The 14th of March” slate. This group worked with the Israelis and, with the Israelis, killed thousands and thousands of Palestinians who were taking refuge in Lebanon as a shelter from the West's aggression and terror (note: watch '' Waltz with Bashir'', an animated movie) ‘‘The Lebanese Forces’’ militias were then demanding a segmentation of Lebanon as a federal state divided on confessional lines: a Christian state, a Muslim state and a Druze state! They actually proposed to divide a 10425 km land into confessional states?! They used to have check points all over high ways checking the id's of the passengers and if one of their names was Muslim or Druze it was their practice to simply execute them on the spot without any questions. These people are actually running seeking power in the 2009 elections in Lebanon!
Another front running in the 2009 Elections is called the PSP '' the Progressive Socialist Party.'' Their leader is is Walid Jumblatt. During the civil war period in Lebanon, Jumblatt was appearing as a big Anti-American Leftist figure but it's known he had meetings and made accords with the Israelis when they invaded Beirut. Jumblatt is known as the person who can most easily change his political posture due to his Druze confessional background In my opinion there is nothing in his actions that can be referred to as either ''progressive'' or ''socialist'’, in point of fact he is actually actually an imperialist land lord and the Druze are his servants. (that's not mere metaphor since he inherited his authority from his father Kamal Jumblatt who was a great progressive, a socialist leftist resistor. Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated by the Syrians in the civil war).Although his father was assassinated by the Syrians Walid Jumblatt had no difficulties in being a good servant for the Syrians for 40 years. He too has a bloody history since he forced all the Christians to leave the Mountain under threat of massacres, and performed many massacres himself to augment his long history of corruption, stealing all the Aid paid out for the return of the immigrants to their villages...
The Syrian nationalist party is a ''national leftist group'' who believe in reuniting natural Syria which is Lebanon, Syria, Palestine,Cyprus, Jordan and parts of Iraq and Iran. This group’s system is very similar to the Falangists: it's national and its inner system reminds one of the fascist beliefs. This party’s founder and leader Antoun Saadeh was executed by the French authorities during the occupation of Lebanon. The Syrian nationalist party has its own bloody achievements along with the PSP, but the positive aspect is that it's an anti-confessional group. This group became one of the many servants of the Syrians when they were ruling in Lebanon following the civil war.
The Amal group is a Muslim Shiite group. it was founded by imam Mousa al Sader who was an Iranian-Lebanese spiritual leader for the Shiites. They were the most oppressed group in Lebanon in the earlier period. The Amal group degenerated into something akin to a a Mafia after the imam disappeared in Libya. His disappearance came when he was becoming very popular among all the people from all religions in Lebanon – promoting an anti confessional state with civil rights and resistance against Israeli aggression and terrorism. 'Nabih Berry' took charge of the Amal group after Mousa al Sader’s disappearance. He has carried out many massacres and assassinations against Communists and Christians and leftists and he is now the head of Lebanon’s Parliament; (Some followers of ''the imam'' speculate that Nabih Berry asked Mouammar el Kaddafi the leader of Libya to kill/disappear the imam so that he could take authority since he was the second man in the leadership of that group. Others think that he made a pact with the Israeli Spy force, Mossad!)
(End of Part 1)
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