Dear Casbahites,
A dear friend of The Casbah has been following Hezbollah for quite some time and has decided to capitalize on the video feature on his digital camera. That's right--On Friday, August 14, 2009, Hezbollah's General Secretary, Hassan Nusrallah gave a mesmerizing speech to his supporters in the southern Shia suburb of Dahiya commemorating the fallen solders of the July 2006 War between Israel and Hezbollah. One thing I noticed was that while Nusrallah was giving the speech via satellite (for the likely fear of assassination by the Israeli Defense Force) many of his political Lebanese rivals came to the speech--like Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Future Movement leader Saad Hariri.
Click here to watch, here to read.
Quote of the evening:"If Israel thinks it can destroy the Hezbollah, we are prepared to and are able to drop a bomb on any city in Israel." Nusrallah, however, before addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech said, "peace be upon you," in his colloquial dialect. Got to love the irony.
I am going to Syria now, and the Internet will be spotty for the next week. I will post more of the video and speech when I get a decent connection.
From Beirut,
Abu G
Friday, August 14, 2009
ATTENTION WORLD: Hamas is NOT Al Qaida
Gaza was a bloody mess this week Casbahites. Earlier this week, the leader of Jund Ansar Allah and with the blessings of a number of other small, shadowy radical groups, defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate. Whoa, bold move Abdel-Latif Moussa.
For those of you Guerrillas that don't already know, a few rouge, Al Qaida inspired, radicals inside Gaza are hoping to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza and have criticized Hamas for not doing so. They are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.
Hamas has recently taken the position that it "seeks to set an example" and does not impose its views on others. It also says its violent struggle is against Israel, not the Western world. The more radical groups' calls for global Jihad seriously undermines Hamas' attempt to appear more moderate to Western eyes.
These extremists are perhaps the most serious opposition Hamas has faced since it seized control of Gaza and ousted its rivals in the Fatah movement in a five-day, bloody civil war in June of 2007.
Again, in Gaza, the blood has returned. According to residents, "Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles."
After leaking a warning to Hamas against entering the Mosque stating, "If Hamas does that, it will be their end," Hamas gave their quick reply...they entered the mosque.
A gunbattle broke out between the militants inside the mosque and Hamas officers. In all, seven people were killed, including a senior Hamas official and an 11-year-old girl. O, yea, eighty-five people were wounded too.
The radical group's leader fled the mosque earlier, and Hamas forces were surrounding his house and waging another gunbattle later Friday with his men.
Just for some fun history, Jund Ansar Allah claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback. To be fair, the group claims inspiration from al-Qaida, but no ties have been confirmed. In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.
So, it appears that Hamas and the Western powers have a commonality. Ever heard the quote, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
For those of you Guerrillas that don't already know, a few rouge, Al Qaida inspired, radicals inside Gaza are hoping to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza and have criticized Hamas for not doing so. They are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.
Hamas has recently taken the position that it "seeks to set an example" and does not impose its views on others. It also says its violent struggle is against Israel, not the Western world. The more radical groups' calls for global Jihad seriously undermines Hamas' attempt to appear more moderate to Western eyes.
These extremists are perhaps the most serious opposition Hamas has faced since it seized control of Gaza and ousted its rivals in the Fatah movement in a five-day, bloody civil war in June of 2007.
Again, in Gaza, the blood has returned. According to residents, "Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles."
After leaking a warning to Hamas against entering the Mosque stating, "If Hamas does that, it will be their end," Hamas gave their quick reply...they entered the mosque.
A gunbattle broke out between the militants inside the mosque and Hamas officers. In all, seven people were killed, including a senior Hamas official and an 11-year-old girl. O, yea, eighty-five people were wounded too.
The radical group's leader fled the mosque earlier, and Hamas forces were surrounding his house and waging another gunbattle later Friday with his men.
Just for some fun history, Jund Ansar Allah claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback. To be fair, the group claims inspiration from al-Qaida, but no ties have been confirmed. In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.
So, it appears that Hamas and the Western powers have a commonality. Ever heard the quote, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
40,000 rockets aimed at Tel Aviv. Solution? IDF commander: "get our heads out of our asses."
Over the past few weeks, the world have watched Hezbollah and the Likud-led government in Israel grind away at UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the official agreement that ended the July 2006 War. There are many reasons for this: Lebanon not being able to pull together a government and Hezbollah capitalizing on Beirut's chaos; Israel wanting to focus international attention away from West Bank settlements and a two-state solution; even the fact that the hardliners in both Israel and Hezbollah have politically capitalized by playing off the fear of the "other." All these are all valid reasons as to why we have been seeing a flurry of infractions to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 over the past few weeks.
What seems to be largely left from the picture, however, is the fact that The Times of London has reported that Hezbollah has stockpiled over 40,000 rockets in the south of Lebanon, many with the capability of hitting as far south as Tel Aviv.
Just to be honest, this isn't really any news--well, at least to people who follow the region. The Israeli press, UN watchdogs and even Hezbollah itself have been reporting such figures for quite sometime. But since The Times of London report seems to be sending shockwaves through the internet, I thought I'd share a short interview I did a two months ago with Elliot Chodoff, the top Israeli ground commander of the northern division:
Abu G: "Mr. Chodoff, what has the IDF been doing to adapt to the non-conventional tactics of Hezbollah?"
(Chodoff standing on the Golan Heights with Damascus in the background.)
Chodoff: "Well, see, we [the IDF] have been stuck the last few years on the West Bank, engaged in various counterinsurgency campaigns. Frankly we got soft. We got used to door-to-door arrests and a PLO that has almost gone kaput. But let there be no mistake, we pulled out of Lebanon after 34-days of ass kicking. We left on our terms."
Abu G: "I see. But what exactly are the changes the IDF ground forces have made since 2006 to improve themselves against a guerrilla force like Hezbollah?"
Chodoff: "Look kid, the only adjustment I've made is to tell my team to get their heads out of their asses!"
Granted that Mr. Chodoff wasn't in a position of share the IDF's operational strategy with me, he seemed to be confident in the event of another Israeli ground campaign in Lebanon. After all, the Israeli Air Force was able to takeout most of Hezbollah's long-range (as in Tel Aviv) rockets in the first few days of the war.
Thus, the natural question would now be directed to Hezbollah: “What has Hezbollah done to make sure that their long-range rockets aren’t going to be hit on the first few days, if another war were to take place?”
Inshallah, we shall never find out.
What seems to be largely left from the picture, however, is the fact that The Times of London has reported that Hezbollah has stockpiled over 40,000 rockets in the south of Lebanon, many with the capability of hitting as far south as Tel Aviv.
Just to be honest, this isn't really any news--well, at least to people who follow the region. The Israeli press, UN watchdogs and even Hezbollah itself have been reporting such figures for quite sometime. But since The Times of London report seems to be sending shockwaves through the internet, I thought I'd share a short interview I did a two months ago with Elliot Chodoff, the top Israeli ground commander of the northern division:
Abu G: "Mr. Chodoff, what has the IDF been doing to adapt to the non-conventional tactics of Hezbollah?"
(Chodoff standing on the Golan Heights with Damascus in the background.)Abu G: "I see. But what exactly are the changes the IDF ground forces have made since 2006 to improve themselves against a guerrilla force like Hezbollah?"
Chodoff: "Look kid, the only adjustment I've made is to tell my team to get their heads out of their asses!"
Granted that Mr. Chodoff wasn't in a position of share the IDF's operational strategy with me, he seemed to be confident in the event of another Israeli ground campaign in Lebanon. After all, the Israeli Air Force was able to takeout most of Hezbollah's long-range (as in Tel Aviv) rockets in the first few days of the war.
Thus, the natural question would now be directed to Hezbollah: “What has Hezbollah done to make sure that their long-range rockets aren’t going to be hit on the first few days, if another war were to take place?”
Inshallah, we shall never find out.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Brilliant
"Fear breeds distrust, but it is also the underrated enabler" -- Paul Scham
This is brilliant. Read it.
Update: Apparently Hugo Chavez has blasted golf for being a "bourgeois sport."
This is brilliant. Read it.
Update: Apparently Hugo Chavez has blasted golf for being a "bourgeois sport."
Monday, August 10, 2009
"Fu*k the SSNP:" What Christopher Hitchens didn’t know about Hamra, Beirut and the SSNP
About six months ago Christopher Hitchens landed in Beirut and took a taxi to the famous Hamra Street to buy pair of dress shoes. Coming around a corner, he got distracted by a "political poster" and decided to write, "Fuck the SSNP," so that all on the cosmopolitan street could see. And after this incendiary act, a bunch of SSNP thugs came thundering out from an alley and beat the old Brit into a pulp.
This was the story I understood. (My initial reaction here.) But as it turns out, our dear friend Christopher didn't just decide to deface any old poster. In fact, it wasn't really a poster at all. Anyone heard of Khalid Alwan?
(This is an old picture I was able to dig up of Khalid Alwan from the "Our Martyrs" website of the SSNP.)
Alwan was the SSNP member who shot two Israeli soldiers in Beirut after the 1982 Israeli invasion. In researching his name, I’ve found a lot of conflicting information on what actually happened. Thus, the following is what I have put together from local shopkeepers and online sources.
First off, let us remember that in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the IDF drove all the way up to Beirut. Allegedly, two Israeli soldiers were sitting at the Wimply Cafe on Hamra Street, sipping coffee as a public symbol of the successful occupation. After finishing, the waiter came up with the bill. The soldiers paid, but in Israeli Shekels. Nobody in Lebanon takes Israeli Shekels, of course, and this move supposedly put the waiter over the edge, as the Israelis’ had the nerve to occupy his city and pay with their money.
(The site and marker of the events at the old Wimply Cafe on Hamra Street.)
From the corner of the cafe, a member of the SSNP, Khalid Alwan, carefully watched this situation unfold. Surely feeling the same angst as the waiter, Alwan took out his handgun and shot both of the solders in the street-front cafe. Not only was this a major act in of itself, but many credit Alwan's act as being a major point of escalation to the Israeli occupation and the Lebanese Civil War.
So, the semi-permanent sign Hitchens decided to deface was in memory of Alwan's bold move against the Israelis,’ not just some random party poster that one might see on Hamra.
(Notice the swastika-looking red party symbol on the top right. Old Chris wrote on the bottom left part of the sign. Click here to watch a movie I took on YouTube of the general area.)
For some reason I had never connected these two incidents. I had never fully appreciated that Hitchens had--and surely without knowing it--walked into the perfect storm by choosing to deface this particular sign.
Just a little something I thought I'd share from Beirut.
It gives me chills every time I walk by this sign on Hamra. I think to myself: If this street corner could talk, what horror it could speak of...
This was the story I understood. (My initial reaction here.) But as it turns out, our dear friend Christopher didn't just decide to deface any old poster. In fact, it wasn't really a poster at all. Anyone heard of Khalid Alwan?
(This is an old picture I was able to dig up of Khalid Alwan from the "Our Martyrs" website of the SSNP.)Alwan was the SSNP member who shot two Israeli soldiers in Beirut after the 1982 Israeli invasion. In researching his name, I’ve found a lot of conflicting information on what actually happened. Thus, the following is what I have put together from local shopkeepers and online sources.
First off, let us remember that in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the IDF drove all the way up to Beirut. Allegedly, two Israeli soldiers were sitting at the Wimply Cafe on Hamra Street, sipping coffee as a public symbol of the successful occupation. After finishing, the waiter came up with the bill. The soldiers paid, but in Israeli Shekels. Nobody in Lebanon takes Israeli Shekels, of course, and this move supposedly put the waiter over the edge, as the Israelis’ had the nerve to occupy his city and pay with their money.
(The site and marker of the events at the old Wimply Cafe on Hamra Street.)So, the semi-permanent sign Hitchens decided to deface was in memory of Alwan's bold move against the Israelis,’ not just some random party poster that one might see on Hamra.
(Notice the swastika-looking red party symbol on the top right. Old Chris wrote on the bottom left part of the sign. Click here to watch a movie I took on YouTube of the general area.)Just a little something I thought I'd share from Beirut.
It gives me chills every time I walk by this sign on Hamra. I think to myself: If this street corner could talk, what horror it could speak of...
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