Youth in war 6

Between the 1978 and early eighties, a new shape of political scene was shaping up. After the arrest of the Palestinian invasion of the Christian part of Lebanon by the intervention of the Syrians, the conflict has turned to become a conflict between the sovereignty of Lebanon identity from the new player, the Syrian. This era has witnessed the rise of a hero called Bechir Gemayel. A young Maronite-Catholic leader who came from the Gemayel clan, the son of Pierre,the founder of the main Christian Lebanese party called the Kataeb. Bechir was charismatic, straight forward and connected with the popular mass not as the son of Pierre. A true fighter, full of pride he made what became to be known as the Lebanese Forces(LF). His goal was to re-unite the Christian militias and govern the Christian Lebanon. He fought two wars with the Syrians, one was in Beirut was to clean what became to be known as Free Lebanon or the Eastern part of beirut. The war centered in Achrafieh, Ain el Roummaneh. the second war was a very vicious war with the Syrians for the control of Zahle, the capital of the Bekaa. He has sent soldiers from all over throught the wicked terrain of the mountains of Saanine. The Syrians fought with all there strength to destroy Zahle, using helicopters drops over the sannine summit known as the french room, the road of revitalization of Zahle. The western powers interfered mainly the French to end the conflict. it was settled by a withdrawal of the fighters through the ground back to Beirut and to put the Lebanese town under the control of the Lebanese police and no Syrian presence in this town. That was a big success for Bechir and for free Lebanon. I remember as young teenager, there was a sit-in of nuns on the Presidential avenue near my house, and the buses carrying the boys what we used to call them "al chabeb" arrived to the sit-in where a bug gathering was made to welcome them and sure enough Bechir was there to greet them in his military uniform of the LF. i haven't seen since i was six years old when he was at the beginning of his career, he came to visit the house of my cousin who used to head the military police of the Kataeb.We were so excited, I sat on his knee unfortunately i lost that picture but it stayed in my heart.... he definitely has changed by than, you can tell the situation he had lived has started to shape his face and demeanor. He was kissing each one of them as it is our habits, they were only 90 young men who stodd in front of this gigantic ruthless army.... so you can imagine the feeling at that point, Bechir knew each one of them by name like his own brother... that was his strength and it was the birth of a Hero.....

my reinvolvement in Lebanese political life

If you read my last posting, it makes you wonder what had happened that I become having a role and invited to such ceremony.... well, almost five years ago, I was living a peaceful detached life from my homeland and in particular in the first week of February 2005, I was in Tokyo giving a lecture savoring and enjoying my passion of teaching and traveling. Upon my return to the US and a week later, a heinous assassination of prime minister Harriri of Lebanon took place... All of sudden a popular uprising too lace in Lebanon, Christians and Muslims united against the Syrian occupier. I was so taken by these events and my patriotic feeling was revived overnight...One day I received an e-mail requesting that all Lebanese to gather in front of the UN, at the corner of 49Th street. I took my daughter and my wife and we headed to the place of gathering dressed with red and white colors... to my surprise, the gathering was amazingly successful... over 500 people were standing in the cold and shouting: " Syria out"... I knew deep inside our liberation revolution is finally seeing the light.... I have been waiting for this moment since I was 10 years old...

The community here have established a committee that was called Lebanon Society and we started our activism... manifestations, mass e-mails, flags etc... and we started meeting with the Lebanese leaders of the Cedar revolution.... we started to call them March 14 alliance. I was an independent activist with no political affiliation and during our activism I met JG that was the head of the Christian party the Lebanese Forces (LF)in North America with an American lobby arm called the LIC (Lebanese Information Center) based in DC. I was very taken by his endless energy, his deep believe in the Lebanese cause, his history of being a fighter since he was 16 years old. He was exiled to the US early 1993, where he started to practice family medicine as a medical doctor. He was the reason behind reestablishing the Lebanese Forces in exile after the Syrian occupation in early 90's. I can write about him paragraphs and paragraphs and i will never give him enough credits t what he really does for Lebanon as a whole not from the sectarian angle of being a Christian. I realized that working in a party is a more structured work and more efficient.... Slowly, i saw myself getting more and more in helping JG, in participation in multiple conferences in DC and especially during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, he had put up meetings in the Congress under the sponsorship of congressman Issa and Boustany.

I became at a cross road of either I become a full member or I stay as a sympathizer... Deep inside I wanted to make a difference and I saw that through this party I can achieve it... There was a lot of reservation from my side and of a lot of Lebanese Chrisitian on the past of the party and its leader Samir Geagea.That's why I need to describe what I have discovered about this party and why nobody can eliminate it. It's only becoming bigger and bigger... I decided to become the LIC director of the UN liaison office and I have re-organized the LF chapter in New York and put it back in the lime light of the Lebanese-American elitist society...

Impressions from my trip to Lebanon on Christmas 2009

Here I am back to continue the story, re-energized after a trip to Lebanon. During that trip as usual did my political activism and sure enough I lived this tumultuous live of everyday Lebanon which is a cross road between different civilizations that intertwine between each others every second of the day, which makes Lebanon a unique Phenomenon that can make you understand how this intricate world work.

It was Christmas time and it happened that Ashoura commemoration was going the same time. I was invited by a very pro eminent independent Shiite leader who is an anti-Hizbullah, for one of the majaless of Ashoura, meaning a wake, were a mullah will come and tell a story in a crying voice that will make everybody cry. It was on Christmas evening. I was very worried because he is a vocal anti-hizb leader, I took with me two armed guards and took my own gun (that I have never used nor I will intend to use)and put it under my belt in my back and covered by my jacket.... the sad part is that my daughter saw me putting my gun and asked me why I am taking my gun with me. I responded, I hope you will never have to worry about that, my love. Kissed her on her forehead and proceeded. It was an interesting small adventure, I had to give my car specification and wait in front of Alssayad building in Hazmieh. A black SUV with dark windows pulled up and dialed my cell number, I answered and he said, Hakim(doctor in Arabic) please follow me. He stepped on his gas pedal and it was an exhilarating pursuit, until we reached a building in Hazmieh in a downhill. We were directed to a closed parking, that was full of armed guards, my escort became little bite agitated, I reassured them, that we are with friends...deep inside my heart was racing... I put my hand in my pocket, touched my rosary and said deep inside, "ya Rab" (dear God) and the kiss that I gave my daughter on her forehead came to my mind.... I went up alone escorted by two of there guards carrying walkies-talkie, a complete mafia style movie... we went up in the elevator and was guided to my friend's office. It was designed like a Colorado ranch, closed barricaded windows to protect him from snipers, he lives secluded....we had a nice chat, and the time to start the ceremony has arrived, and we walked to the main room were the public was gathered. we were seated on a coach facing the crowd, and the photographers and video cameras are rolling and you feel like you are a star but in reality deep inside I was thinking how the Hizbullah intelligence are recording all these pictures and adding them up to my own file...As long as you don't get involved in their business, you can say whatever you want, but things change when you start getting involved in their turf...The interesting part of that evening, he invited a moderate Sunni Sheikh from Tripoli who is the right hand of the Mufti of the North, and he gave a talk in Islamic theology explaining the Sunni side of the events, he was talking and talking and you can see the crowd are in a different spirit of mind, quickly he figured it out, and he turned his hatred on Zionism, Israelis and the Jews.... and Goodness the whole crowd got wild-up...I got a squeeze in the heart and all I thought about is that how naive and played by this mass of crowd facing me.... what a shame to blame all of their faults and division and reunite over the hatred to the other... this was a moderate gathering, I kept imagining what would they say deep in the southern suburb of Beirut the enclave of Hizbullah...the crowd kept shouting, Allah Akbar on every insult directed to the Jews.. deep inside I couldn't stop thinking of my Jewish friends in New york that I work with and that we shared together good and bad moments.... it was a torture to hear the hatred on the Jews it made me think how easy they can turn their hatred on us the Christian Lebanese, their partners in the homeland.... I left the ceremony traumatized and saddened how the West is so naive in understanding this Islamic uprising and how killing and martyrdom in the name of Allah is ingrained in the mass of Muslims....the whole time they were replaying the epic of martyrdom of Hussein, how this latter has sent his only son Ali to fight his enemies and how he came back from the battlefield cut in pieces bleeding asking his father Hussein to give him the blessing to pass away, Hussein answers him go back to battlefield and your grandfather Mohamed will take your spirit back to him....couldn't stop thinking about my son, that it is impossible to conceive to send him to his ultimate sacrifice and for what??? for more bloodshed... Again, in Arabic there is a saying, "don't judge any one's belief, God will do it for you"....Poor God how he has been carried so many human ailments and shortcomings...so many people have died and will die in his name and for what??? Actually, we had a great disturbing comparison of Hussein to Christ which it is a blasphemy for a Christian.... that took me back to 1996, where I was moonlighting on the week-ends n Brooklyn in Kips Bay where there is a substantial presence of Muslim community. It was Ramadan and people were not coming for treatment, because blood will make them break there fasting... I met this guy on the corner going to a deli/butcher place called restaurant of Peace (Mattaam al salam), where inside its everything except peace. All the people inside talk about there hatred for America and the Jews...I met this guy who I have treated in the past of a Muslim Shiite faith, Hizbullah have done some terrorist act of some sort, I told him I don't believe that any religion really promote killing and hatred. I said look at Christianity, if you got hit on your right cheek, turn the left, which is the sign of forgiveness, that is something so difficult for the Middle Eastern to do... He looked at me and said, Hakim, do you know really why he said that? I said please explain it to me, he said the sword is placed on the left side!!!! At that point, I thought I am dealing with few ignorants, this trip have made me realized that its a generalized problem that is becoming fundamental. The debate during this Christmas time was comparing Hussein to Christ... advocating that Hussein was crucified,decapitated by his own as Christ and he was a Martyr like Christ. Let's take a moment and analyze the differences far from our religious belief, otherwise we should stop it immediately for the only reason that Christ is the son of God and Hussein is nothing than a normal person who was a leader of an army, but let's look at it from a perspective of no believer in Christianity... Christ advocated love, peace, forgiveness and never led an army nor killed anyone, on the opposite, he healed the sick and risen the dead and saved the prostitute Marie of Magdalene from being stoned to death and said to her stoners: whomever between you who has no sin to throw a stone on her... They say he is revolutionary, it is true but the only act of violence is when he entered the front yard of the temple and smashed the vendors that were exposing their goods in front of the temple, saying that this a pure place and money shouldn't be present... When the Romans came to arrest him, he asked his disciples not to resist and to accept the written.... Hussein is an army leader, who wanted to take the leadership of the Muslim world called AL Calif, he led a war and sent his son to fight along his followers and he never risen from the death and his shrine still stands in Karballa. I don't understand how can we compare these two men putting aside the divinity of one versus the other. So, as we can deduct, there is a fundamental problem right now in Islam, and the accommodating speech is not helping and the blame is on the educated and on the ones in that faith that reject violence to stand up as my friend did in front of this fanatics and force the masses of Islam to go into moderation and throwing off violence and everyone who calls for it... the change has to come from within. Islam needs to go to reformation as all other religions went through, Christianity, Judaism and all others, and this should happen now and quickly for the peace of the world... the Muslims and the Muslim Arab in particular have been unable to move forward because of so many humiliation that they succumbed to cite few Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dissemination of the Arabic identity. I totally sympathize with these humiliations, but look at the strength of the rest of the world, they succumbed to huge loses learned from them, stood back up and moved forward. The living example is both Germany after WWII and Japan.... or the Chinese post-WWII and the Russian communism...The Muslim world has not been able to free itself from it defeats and humiliation of the modern history and still wants to conquer the Judeo-Christian world which doesn't exist other than in the history books....the Muslim have to learn to live with the other who doesn't share with him the belief in Muhammad, take the example of the Christian Copts right now in Egypt or the Christians in Iraq who have disappeared completely or the Christians in Palestine and in particular in Bethlehem and Nazareth the place of birth of Christ.... Tolerance and acceptance of the other is something inevitable and the faster they come to term with it, it's better for the new generations to come in the Middle East. Demonizing everyone and blaming everyone but themselves for the failures is a failure by itself.... Liberate yourself, accept the failures that happened in your history, learn from it and move forward, show the world your intelligence (for God sake you discovered the trigonometry, the west learned Medicine from the Arabs), integrate in your new countries of immigration and accept the separation between state and Church because it is the only salvation to your future and the future of this global world....Every time you make a mistake, you should be punished with the same violence you inflicted, eye for an eye as you believe... your independent and progressive between you should be profiled and harassed in order to rise against the fanatic and extremist to liberate these ignorant masses that each one of them can turn to a suicide bomber.... I am a victim of harassement and profiling although I am not from Muslim faith but share the same origins as the Muslims and I blame the moderate between them for their complaisance and complaining that to civil liberties movements instead of facing the real culprit of their demise which is the extremist. The moderates are big talker as the elitist we have in the Obama administrations and cowards... they need to stand up and fight for the future of their children and their own dignity and stop living in denial that one day this will go away, and guess what one day you will wake up and the world is taken by the extremist and you will be left out in the cold with no civil liberty movement nor a free world were you can blosom as it happened in Iran....Wake up, stand up and fight for your own freedom and don't count on the others to solve your problem...