THE PLIGHT OF THE ISRAELIS AND THE PALESTINIANS IS THE BLIGHT THAT OTHERS BEQUEATHED AND BURDENED THEM WITH IN THE FIRST PLACE

THE PLIGHT OF THE ISRAELIS AND THE PALESTINIANS IS THE BLIGHT THAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, AND LATER THE UN, AND THE ARAB LEAGUE, BEQUEATHED AND BURDENED THEM WITH IN THE FIRST PLACE – Albeit in good faith and with good intensions, since they all thought they were doing the right things, and not doing the wrong things, for both peoples at the time

Dear readers and fellow-Apes; kindly read, and read well; and know, know well, the facts of the whole matter before you side with either the Israelis or the Palestinians, since both these POOR, PETRIFIED, and PLAGUED PEOPLES were tossed around and about, and later thrown together, and soon afterwards forced into a dreadful situation in which neither people now know HOW or WHY or WHERE or WHEN or WHICH WAY; or WHAT is WHAT, WHICH is WHICH, or WHO is WHOM! So they both hold on to for dear life, and won’t let go of………THE HORSE-SHIT!

Unlucky for them the Arab League of Notions had been formed by then, since it was formed in Cairo on 22^nd March, 1945; and that is why it has been much worse

Ottoman Rule over the eastern Mediterranean lasted until after World War I. The Ottomans had sided with Germany and the Central Powers. During World War I, the Ottomans were driven from much of the region by the United Kingdom which resulted in the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, it was envisioned that most of Palestine, when freed from Ottoman control, would become an international zone not under direct French or British colonial control. Shortly thereafter, British foreign minister Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which laid plans for a Jewish homeland to be established in Palestine eventually.

The Sykes-Picot(-Sazonov) Agreement of 1916 was a secret agreement between the governments of Britain and France, with the assent of Russia, defining their respective spheres of influence and control in west Asia after the expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The agreement was concluded on 16^th May 1916 by the French diplomat François Georges-Picot and Briton Mark Sykes, with Sazonov nodding his head in agreement in the back-ground.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 (2^nd November) was a classified formal statement of policy by the British government stating that the British government view with favour the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine on the conditions that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

In April 1920 the Allied Supreme Council (the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met in San Remo in Northern Italy and formal decisions were taken on the allocation of mandate territories. The United Kingdom accepted the mandate for Palestine, but the boundaries of the mandate and the conditions under which it was to be held were not decided.

The British Mandate enacted English, Hebrew and Arabic as its three official languages. The land designated by the mandate was called Palestine in English, Falastin (فلسطين) in Arabic, and in Hebrew Eretz Yisrael.

On 24 July, 1922 the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Trans-Jordan. On 16 September the League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Trans-Jordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlements. With Trans-Jordan under the administration of the British Mandate, the mandate's collective territory became constituted of 23% Palestine and 77% Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan was a very sparsely populated region at the time, especially in comparison with Palestine proper, due to its relatively limited resources and largely desert environment.

The award of the mandates was delayed as a result of the United States' suspicions regarding Britain's colonial ambitions, with similar reservations held by Italy over France's intentions.

On 29^th November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly, with a two-thirds majority international vote, passed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181), a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, with the Greater Jerusalem area, encompassing Bethlehem, under international control.

The British mandate ended on 15th May, 1948, the establishment of the State of Israel having been proclaimed the day before on 14^th May 1948. The Arab States and their armies immediately attacked Israel following its declaration of independence, and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 ensued – right under the very nose of the United Nations and the Arab League. Consequently, the partition plan was never implemented.

VERY IMPORTANT FACTS:

The 1948 Palestinian Exodus (Arabic: الهجرة الفلسطينية Al-Hijra al-Filasteeniya) refers to the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs during the last 6 months of the British Mandate and the First Arab-Israeli War. It is referred to by most Palestinians and Arabs as Al- Nakba (Arabic: النكبة), meaning the disaster, catastrophe, or cataclysm.

The United Nations (UN) final estimate of the number of Palestinian refugees outside Israel after the 1948 War was placed at 711,000 in 1951. A quarter of the 160,000 Arab Palestinians remaining in Israel were internal refugees. Today, Palestinian refugees and their descendants are estimated to number over 4 million Palestinians.

The initial exodus and the current situation of Palestinian refugees is a contentious topic of high importance to all parties in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contentious indeed! Trust the Arabs to blunder and bungle something then turn around and blame others for it! They were the cause of the Palestinian Exodus in the first place! They drove the Palestinians from Palestine with their ill-thought of, ill-planned, ill-prepared for, ill-timed, ill-carried out, and ill-finished War of 1948 against Israel!

The Jewish Exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century mass expulsion or mass departure of Jews from Arab and Islamic countries. The migration began in the late 19th century, but accelerated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. According to official Arab statistics, 856,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Some 600,000 resettled in Israel, leaving behind properties valued today at more than $300 billion. Jewish-owned real-estates left behind in Arab lands have been estimated at 100,000 square kilometers; four times the size of the State of Israel.

First, the Arabs drove the Palestinians from Palestine with their 1948 War; second, the Arabs expelled or drove the Israelis from their lands and seized their properties; and the Israelis, having nowhere to go, went and settled in Israel, and now they want the Israelis to give Israel back to the Palestinians! Well, what about the properties the Israelis left behind which the Arabs stole or seized; what’s the difference?

At present, dear fellow-Apes, there are 12 Palestinian Refugee Camps (or cities, since they are not composed of tents, but rather concrete buildings, some of them 4 and 5 and more storeys high, including schools, mosques, restaurants, shops, clubs, and night-clubs Etc – all illegal and unlawful (without permits or licences) and all using water and electricity gratis:

3 around Tyre in the south: El Buss, Burj El Shemall, and Rashidieh

2 close to Saida, again in the south: Ein El Helwe and Mieh Mieh

4 around Beirut: Dbayieh, Shatila, Mar Elias, and Burj El Barajneh

1 to the east, close to the border with Syria: Wavel……and

2 beyond Tripoli: Nahr El Bared and Beddawi (or Berdawi)

N.B: Kindly excuse any spelling errors

TAKING “THE SHEBA FARMS” BY “FORCE OF ARMS” AND COMPARING THE LEBANESE TO THE SYRIANS AND THE IRANIANS

One could or might rape a woman, or a girl, but one would not enjoy the sex as much as when the woman or girl gives it freely – not even a fraction as much

What is taken by force of arms shall be re-taken by same

Bear in mind that “Samson in the Temple of Dagon” is “Israel among the Arabs” and Israel WILL take us all with her, IF and WHEN she goes

Also, bear in mind that the other countries – you know who they all are – WILL NOT sit or stand by and look on as the Arabs do

Also again, there are several Arab Leaders and their peoples who have suffered and striven a lot to make their countries what they are today; and they WILL NOT let MAD-RABID-RATS, JACKALS and HYENAS destroy all that they have achieved

Egypt got the whole of THE SINAI – which is Oil-Rich – from Israel without firing a shot……by making peace

Syria wants the GOLAN GEIGHTS, but WILL NOT make peace with Israel because she is trapped in – shackled and chained to – her so-called partnership with Iran, and she dare not risk everything by making war with Israel; so……

Syria urges her Lebanese Mad-Rabid-Rats, Jackals, and Hyenas to do the DIRTY and NASTY and HIGHLY DANGEROUS and RISKY – actually FUTILE and FATAL – WORK for Syria and Iran

If they succeed Syria and Iran WILL TAKE OVER; if they fail Syria and Iran WILL DISCLAIM and ABANDON THEM and say: we had nothing to do with it, just as Syria denies anything to do with all the bombings, atrocities, and assassinations

As for Aoun’s soldiers and the other innocent Lebanese citizens in Syria’s prisons; forget about them, because they are all dead – beaten, tortured, and mutilated to death by Syria a long time ago

As for Aoun; since when did he ever, or has he ever, or does he ever, CARE? He is a Mad-Rabid-Clown-Comedian-Coward who could desert his men – AND HIS WIFE AND THREE DAUGHTERS, TOO, TO BOOT – and leave them to die, or whatever, and sneak off with ITS tail between ITS legs like “A JACKAL IN YELLOW PYJAMAS” to the French Embassy, and later to France

As for France; France screwed Lebanon and the Lebanese twice. The first time was when she saved THIS CREATURE and kept IT in A GOLD CAGE for 15 years; the second time was when she sent IT back to us

I RUE THE DAY, THE HOUR, AND THE MOMENT AOUN SHOWED HIS UGLY FACE AT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (the very airport he would later destroy and close down by his witless and thoughtless actions, alliances, and speeches) AND GOD – if he exists, which I strongly and fully doubt – DAMN THAT DAY TO HELL AND BEYOND……or BELOW……or whatever!

As for the AOUUIS; please do not blame them too much. They do not really like Aoun; they only follow this Mad-Rabid-Clown-Comedian-Coward for what they can out of him, or through him, or because of him

Kindly bear in mind and note well that, with all our troubles and worries and woes, Etc and so forth and so on, WE – the Lebanese people – are much happier and much better off than the Syrians and the Iranians have ever been or will ever be! Trust me, for I know well of what I write

Finally, If Fouad Saniora is still the Prime Minister then the International Tribunal is still on the tracks and that is why HASSAN HEZBALLAH and NABIH AMAL are not pleased. They did not expect IT, and they do not like IT

Hassan Nesrallah: We won’t use our weapons because we’ve already used them and, as I speak, we’re using them, so don’t worry.

If we’ve already used them then we can’t use them because we’ve used them. And if we use them, we use them to see if we can still use them; so even when we use them, we’re not actually using them

Dear readers and fellow-Apes; I believe I have made my points in my comments in the title of this posting, so out of respect for your Etc, and so forth and so on, I shall keep any further comments short and sweet, and included, inserted, or added.

NB: Hezballah, Amal, the SSNP, the Aounis, Maradas, Karamis, Arslans, Wahabs, Etc, are illiterate and ignorant in the sense that education and enlightenment are not as they are imbibed or assimilated but as they are applied and used

Headline:

HASSAN NESRALLAH VOWS NOT TO USE ARMS TO ACHIEVE POLITICAL GOALS Hezballah leader re-affirms his party's commitment to the Doha accord

The Daily Star Staff Tuesday 27^th May 2008

BEIRUT: Hezballah leader Sayyed Hassan Nesrallah vowed his group (would not use) have used, and will continue to use its arms to achieve political gains, and renewed the party's commitment and determination to preserving Lebanese division (diversity) in a speech on Monday to mark the eight-year anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from most of South Lebanon

Nesrallah was speaking on the day after Michael Suleiman was elected president. The election ended a long-running political crisis between rival factions that left the country without a head of state since late November – and which was all because of Hezballah’s, Amal’s, and the SSNP’s weapons and arsenals which were used to achieve Syria’s and Iran’s aims and goals; i.e. what has taken place.

Headline:

SEVERAL WOUNDED AFTER RIVAL FACTIONS EXCHANGE GUN-FIRE IN CORNICHE AL-MAZRAA

The Daily Star Staff Tuesday 27^th May 2008

BEIRUT: A late-night skirmish between rival factions in the Beirut neighborhood of Corniche al-Mazraa on Monday left several people injured. The Lebanese Army deployed and closed the roads between Corniche al-Mazraa, Barbour and Tarik al-Jadida and was soon able to contain the fight.

The fight broke out when supporters of Hezballah and Amal paraded in the streets of Corniche al-Mazraa, which is a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, shortly after Hezballah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah concluded his speech to mark Liberation Day – a speech which he made after he had given his illiterate and ignorant hordes their orders to do what they did, knowing fully well that the others would react to it, and as soon as they did, the weapons appeared as if by magic which meant the Amal and Hezballah goons had gone there intending to provoke, and they were prepared.

Sources added that after verbal insults had been traded, the quarrel degenerated into a fight and the two groups exchanged gunfire.

The exact number of casualties was not immediately clear. Security sources said nine people were hurt, while other sources said 16 people were wounded in what it called provocation and attacks by Amal and Hezballah supporters.

This was the first incident since the Lebanese Army took control of western Beirut after deadly clashes between pro-government and opposition gunmen in early May killed at least 65 Lebanese and wounded scores more, in the worst internal fighting since the 1975-1990 Civil War.

THE DOHA ACCORD: QUE PASA? QUO VADIS, ET CUI BONO? The biggest losers are Lebanon and the Lebanese

The Doha Accord called for Michael Suleiman's election and appointment as the next president, a national unity government in which the Opposition has veto power, and a new law for parliamentary elections due next year.

Well, Michael Suleiman is now the president, and it is my belief that not God and all his angels, and Satan and all his devils can save Lebanon from Syria’s boots on our leaders’ and politicians’ necks, and Iran’s boots in their mouths!

Actually, his election to and appointment as the president was neither legal nor constitutional – it was done without the necessary Constitutional Amendment – and one day, if and when he decides to do the right and good thing for Lebanon and the Lebanese, THEY will use it against him and say he is illegal and unconstitutional, and then we shall have Tent Cities, strikes, demonstrations, and violent  protests and street and road blockages, with the usual side-dishes: burning tyres, and another invasion and taking-over of Beirut and closing down the Beirut International Airport, Etc, and so forth and so on.

The Opposition has the power of VETO! BY GOD AND SATAN! Do you guys out there realise what this means? It means: the Opposition is not going to do anything good for or beneficial to Lebanon and the Lebanese; that’s for sure, and that’s settled; once and for all time! BUT! The Opposition will do anything and everything good for and beneficial to Syria and Iran! AND! The Opposition will not let or allow the government – whoever they are – to do anything good for or beneficial to Lebanon and the Lebanese; including the new Electoral Laws! So, in several nut-shells, it means:

1: The International Tribunal and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is out the window; BAHH! KAPUT; or supended indefinitely! And Syria is back in the saddle and……

2: Saad Harriri will be the next Prime Minister – better to be still alive and the PM than to be dead and buried

3: We all thought Michael Aoun sought to enhance and improve the position, dignity, and status of the Maronite President, increase his powers, and widen his scope or range of prerogatives, but ALAS; he has made it much worse!

All he wanted was the Presidency; even if it was for only a week or a day, and even if it meant he couldn’t do or say anything; and he was and still is prepared to form any alliances and kiss any hands and feet to get there! BUT! After he has gotten there, he will attempt to destroy his alliances and eliminate his adversaries; and he will bite all hands and kick all shins that get in his way, because that is HIS WAY!

For Aoun, it has always been: Ya ana, aou la a7ad! And right now, it is true that there is a Donkey at the Donkey-Stable Baabda Palace, but he’s just a Donkey on the Chair with no real or full powers; one more Syrian Puppet-Pawn, and Aoun has been screwed but he doesn’t know it yet. No presidency for him; they’ll fade him out, bit by bit.

4: UN Resolution 1559, or Hezballah’s weapons and arsenal – including Amal’s, the SSNP’s, and their allies’ – are now off the table and out of the question!

5: UN Resolution 1701 is in big trouble, since Hezballah, Amal, the SSNP, and the Aounis and Maradas Etc, will now have a free hand.

6: Nabih Beriberi Berri is set for life as the Speaker, and he will probably set it up as a Dynasty for his posterity. This Beriberi disease has outstayed his welcome in the House of Representatives or Parliament, but hasn’t yet outlived his usefulness to his owners: Syria and Iran.

7: Michael Suleiman could and might turn out to be another Le-Hood, if not worse – slightly more or less. I hope he proves me wrong

8: The Maronite Presidency has now become more of a farce than ever before! Drain his brain, strip him of his powers, teach him the best way to nod for YES and shake his head for NO, place him on that meaningless chair, and then pat him on the back.

9: Worst of all, Lebanon and the Lebanese people are headed straight back into Syria’s and Iran's arms and feet; and……

10: ……watch this space……

IRAN: AT LEAST 30 KILLED AND 38 INJURED IN EXPLOSION AND FIRE AT CHEMICAL PLANT IN SHAZAND – MARKAZI Is this another attempt by the USA and Britain and counter-revolutionary elements?

IRNA via AFP via Yahoo! News Alerts Sunday 25^th May 2008

Dear readers and fellow-Apes; read the report below and remember it well because Mahmoud Ahmedinehad will later on put the blame on the USA and Britain, and counter-revolutionary elements

TEHERAN: The Iran State News Agency (IRNA) reported that at least 30 people were killed and 38 seriously injured (23 suffered severe burns: 70 to 100%) in a fire that was caused by an explosion at a Cosmetics and Detergent-Producing Chemical Plant in Shazand in Markazi; Central Iran on Sunday. All the equipment in the factory and in the adjacent plant caught fire.

Shazand is about 320km (200m) south of Teheran. Markazi province is one of Iran's main industrial hubs. It is also one of Iran's key nuclear sites; a heavy water-reactor is at present under construction near the city of Arak.

ISRAEL OR PALESTINE OR PALESTINE OR ISRAEL OR ISRAEL OR….Once one knows the facts of HOW, WHY, and WHERE; one could then decide WHAT is WHAT, WHICH is WHICH, and WHO is WHOM; and let go of the HORSE-SHIT

THE LAND OF ISRAEL, known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been sacred to the Jewish people since the time of the biblical patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Bible places this period in the early 2nd millennium BC. According to the Torah, the Land of Israel was promised to the Jews as their homeland, and the sites holiest to Judaism are located there. Around the 11th century BC, the first of a series of Jewish Kingdoms and States had established rule over the region; these Jewish Kingdoms and States ruled intermittently for the following one thousand years.

Between the time of the Jewish Kingdoms and the 7th-century Moslem conquests, the Land of Israel fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Byzantine rule. Jewish presence in the region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba (the return of the Messiah) Revolt against the Roman Empire in 132AD and the resultant large-scale expulsion of Jews. Nevertheless, a continuous Jewish presence in Palestine was maintained. Although the main Jewish population shifted from the Judea region to the Galilee; the Mishnah and part of the Talmud, among Judaism's most important religious texts, were composed in Israel during this period. The Land of Israel was captured from the Byzantine Empire around 636AD during the initial Moslem conquests. Control of the region was transferred between the Umayyads, Abbasids, and the Crusaders over the next six centuries, before falling into the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260. In 1516, the Land of Israel became a part of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century.

PALESTINE, Greek: Παλαιστίνη. Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה‎ Palestina; Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; is a widely-attested Western and Near Eastern conventional name which is used, among others, to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and various adjoining lands. As a geographical, apolitical term, in its broadest application, it can be used to refer to ancient Palestine, an area that includes contemporary Israel, the Israeli-occupied territories, part of Jordan, and some parts of both Lebanon and Syria. In classical or contemporary terms, it can also be used to refer to the area once known as British Mandate Palestine, and today known as Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

The Hebrew Bible calls the region Canaan (כּנען), while the part of it occupied by the Israelites is designated Israel (Yisrael). The name Land of the Hebrews (ארץ העברים, Eretz Ha-Ivrim) is also found, as well as several poetical names: land flowing with milk and honey, the land that God promised to your fathers to assign to you, the Holy Land, the Land of the Lord, and the Promised Land.

* The Land of the Lord indeed! What a shambles of a place! Personally, I do not see anything holy about the place, as it has been an arena of wars, battles, and skirmishes since as far back as anyone could possibly remember or read about; nor do I see any sign or hope of peace or compromise or co-existence.

The Land of Canaan is given a precise description in the Bible (the Old Testament) as including all of Lebanon as well. The wide area appears to have been the home of several small nations such as the Canaanites / Hebrews / Hittites / Amorrhites / Pherezites / Hevites and Jebusites.

According to Hebrew tradition, the land of Canaan is part of the land given to the descendants of Abraham, which extends from the Nile to the Euphrates River. That land is said to include an area called Aram Naharaim, which includes Ur Kasdim in modern Turkey, where Abraham's father was born.

PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC PERIODS (1,000,000 – 5,000BC)

Human remains found at El-'Ubeidiya, 2 miles (3 km) south of Lake Tiberius date back as early as 500,000 years ago. The discovery of the Palestine Man in the Zuttiyeh Cave in Wadi Al-Amud near Safad in 1925 provided some clues to human development in the area. N.B: He was named the Palestine Man but that doesn’t prove he was Palestinian or Jew. He could have been a wanderer from the Arabian Peninsula or anywhere else.

In the caves of Shuqba in Ramallah and Wadi Khareitun in Bethlehem, stone, wood and animal bone tools were found and attributed to the Natufian culture (12,800 – 10,300 BC). Other remains from this era have been found at Tel Abu Hureura, Ein Mallaha, Beidha and Jericho.

Between 10,000 and 5,000BC, agricultural communities were established. Evidence of such settlements were found at Tel El-Sultan, Jericho and include mud-brick rounded and square dwellings, pottery shards, and fragments of woven fabrics.

CHALCOLITIC PERIOD (5,000 – 3,000BC) / BRONZE AGE (3,000 – 1,200 BC)

A culture originating in Syria existed along the Jericho-Dead Sea-Bir El-Saba-Gaza-Sinai route, marked by the use of copper and stone tools that brought new migrant groups to the region contributing to an increasingly urban social fabric.

By the early Bronze Age (3000–2200BC) independent Canaanite city-states situated in plains and coastal regions and surrounded by mud-brick defensive walls were established and most of these cities relied on nearby agricultural hamlets for their food.

Archaeological finds from the early Canaanite era have been found at Tel Megiddo, Jericho, Tel al-Far'a (Gaza), Bisan, and Ai (Deir Dibwan/Ramallah District), Tel El Nasbe (al-Bireh) and Jib (Jerusalem).

In the Middle Bronze Age (2200–1500BC), Canaan was influenced by the surrounding civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, and Syria; diverse commercial ties and an agriculturally based economy led to the development of new pottery forms, the cultivation of grapes, and the extensive use of bronze. Burial customs at the time seemed to be influenced by a belief in the afterlife.

Political, commercial, and military events during the Late Bronze Age period (1450–1350BC) were recorded by ambassadors and Canaanite proxy-rulers for Egypt in 379 cuneiform tablets known as the Amana Letters.

By 1190BC, the Philistines had arrived and mingled with the local population, losing their separate identity over several generations.

The IRON AGE (1200–330BC)

Pottery remains found in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gat, Ekron and Gaza decorated with stylized birds provided the first archaeological evidence for Philistine settlement in the region. The Philistines were credited with introducing iron weapons and chariots to the local population.

PERSIAN RULE (538BC)

After the Persian Empire had been established, Jews were allowed to return to what their holy books had termed the Land of Israel, and having been granted some autonomy by the Persian administration, and it was during this period that the Second Temple in Jerusalem was built. Sebastia, near Nablus, was the northernmost province of the Persian administration in Palestine, and its southern borders were at Hebron. Some of the local population served as soldiers and lay people in the Persian administration, while others continued in agriculture. In 400BC, the Nabataeans made inroads into southern Palestine and built a separate civilization in the Negev that lasted until 160BC.

CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

HELLENISTIC RULE (333BC)

The Persian Empire fell to the Greek forces of the Macedonian general Alexander the Great. After his death, with the absence of heirs, his conquests were divided amongst his generals, while the region of the Jews: Judah or Judea as it became known; was at first part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and then part of the Seleucid Empire.

The landscape during this period was markedly changed by extensive growth and development that included urban planning and the establishment of well-built fortified cities. Hellenistic pottery was produced that absorbed Philistine traditions. Trade and commerce flourished, particularly in the most Hellenized areas, such as Ascalon, Jaffa, Jeruslem, Gaza, and ancient Nablus.

The Jewish population in Judea was allowed limited autonomy in religion and administration.

HASMONEAN DYNASTY (140BC)

An independent Jewish Kingdom under the Hasmonean Dynasty existed from 140 to 37BC. In the second century BC, fascination for Greek culture in Jerusalem resulted in a movement to break down the separation of Jew and Gentile and some Jews even tried to disguise the marks of their circumcision. Disputes between the leaders of the reform movement eventually led to civil war and the intervention of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Subsequent persecution of the Jews led to the Maccabean Revolt under the leadership of the Hasmoneans, and the construction of a native Jewish Kingship under the Hasmonean Dynasty. After approximately a century of independence, disputes between the Hasmonean rivals Aristobulus and Hyrcanus led to control of the kingdom by the Roman army of Pompey; the territory then became first a Roman Client Kingdom under Hyrcanus and then, in 70BC, a Roman Province administered by the Roman Governor of Syria.

ROMAN RULE (63BC) Palestine; before and after the Time of Christ

General Pompey arrived in Judea in 63 BC, but Roman Rule was solidified when Herod of Idumean ancestry was appointed as king. Urban planning under the Romans was characterized by cities designed around the Forum – the central intersection of two main streets – the Cardo, running north-south and the Decumanus running east-west. Cities were connected by an extensive network of roads developed for economic and military purposes. Among the most notable archaeological remnants from this era are Herodium (Tel al-Fureidis) to the south of Bethlehem and Caesarea.

Around the time associated with the birth of Jesus, Roman Palestine was in a state of disarray and direct Roman Rule was re-established. The early Christians were oppressed and while most inhabitants became romanized, others, particularly Jews, found Roman rule to be unbearable.

THE FRIST JEWISH REVOLT IN JUDEA

The Jews revolted, and as the result of the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73AD), Titus sacked Jerusalem; destroying the Second Temple, leaving only supporting walls, including the Western Wall.

THE SECOND JEWISH REVOLT IN JUDEA

In 135AD, following the fall of the second Jewish revolt led by Bar Kokhba (Hebrew: מרד בר כוכבא‎) in 132–135AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian attempted the expulsion of Jews from Judea. His attempt was as unsuccessful as were most of Rome's many attempts to alter the demography of the Empire; this was demonstrated by the continued existence of the Rabbinical Academy of Lydda in Judea; and in any case large Jewish populations remained in Samaria and the Galilee.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Roman Empire was the second major revolt by the Jews of Judea and the last of the Jewish-Roman Wars. Simon Bar Kokhba, the commander of the revolt, was acclaimed the Messiah, the King prophesied to restore Israel. The revolt established a Jewish state for over two years, but a massive Roman army finally crushed it. The Romans then barred Jews from Jerusalem. Jewish Christians hailed Jesus as the Messiah and did not support Bar Kokhba, but all the same, they were barred from Jerusalem along with the rest of the Jews. The war and its aftermath helped differentiate Christianity as a religion distinct from Judaism.

The Revolt is also known as The Second Jewish Revolt that resulted in the second Jewish-Roman War; or The Third Revolt, with the Kitos War, 115 - 117, as the Second.

Lydda or Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד‎, Arabic: اَلْلُدّْ‎, pronounced Al-Ludd, Greco-Latin: Lydda) is a mixed Arab-Jewish city ten miles southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. In 2007, its population was 74,000. A historic city dating from the Greek and Roman eras, Lod is the hub of Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, previously known as Lod Airport. The airport and related industries are a major source of employment for the residents of Lod. The Jewish Agency Absorption Centre, the main facility for handling olim arriving in Israel, is also located in Lod.

THE THIRD JEWISH REVOLT / THE THIRD JEWISH-ROMAN WAR / THE KITOS WAR: (115-117) (Hebrew: מרד הגלויות‎: mered ha'galoyot or mered ha'tfutzot (מרד התפוצות), translation: Rebellion of the exile) is the name given to the second of the Jewish-Roman Wars, but which took place outside Judea. The name is derived from the Mauretanian Roman general Lucius Quietus who ruthlessly suppressed the Jewish revolt in Mesopotamia and was sent to Judea to handle the revolt there.

BYZANTINE (EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE) RULE (330–640AD)

Emperor Constantine the Great (274-337AD), Roman Emperor (306-337) converted to Christianity in 312, on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge against his rival in Italy, Maxentius. After his mother, Empress Helena, had identified the spot she believed to be the spot where Christ was crucified, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension in Jerusalem were also built during Constantine's reign

ARAB CALIPHATE RULE (638–1099AD)

In 638, Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab and Safforonius, the Byzantine Governor of Jerusalem, signed Al-Uhda al-'Omariyya (The Umariyya Covenant), an agreement that stipulated the rights and obligations of non-Moslems in Palestine. Jews were permitted to return to Palestine for the first time since the 500-year ban enacted by the Romans and maintained by Byzantine rulers. Omar Ibn al-Khattab was the first conqueror of Jerusalem to enter the city on foot, and when visiting the site that now houses the Haram al-Sharif, he declared it a sacred place of prayer. Cities that accepted the new rulers, as recorded in registrars from the time, were: Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin, Acre, Tiberias, Bisan, Caesarea, Lajjun, Lydda, Jaffa, Imwas, Beit Jibrin, Gaza, Rafah, Hebron, Yubna, Haifa, Safad and Ashkelon.

UMAYYAD RULE (661–750AD)

Under Umayyad Rule, the Byzantine Province of Palaestina Prima became the military and administrative sub-province (jund) of Filastin – the Arabic name for Palestine from that point onwards. It formed part of the larger province of Al-Sham (Arabic for Greater Syria). Jund Filastin (Arabic: جند فلسطين, literally “the army of Palestine” was a region extending from the Sinai to the plain of Acre. Major towns included Rafah, Caesarea, Gaza, Jaffa, and Nablus; Jericho Jund al-Urdunn (literally “the army of Jordan”) was a region to the north and east of Filastin which included the cities of Acre, Bisan and Tiberias.

In 691, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ordered that the Dome of the Rock be built on the site where the Islamic Prophet Mohammed was believed by Moslems to have begun his nocturnal journey to heaven, on the Temple Mount. A decade afterward, Caliph Al Walid I ordered the Al-Aqsa Mosque built. It was during Umayyad Rule that Christians and Jews were granted the title of Peoples of the Book to underline the common monotheistic roots they shared with Islam.

ABBASID RULE (750–969AD)

The Baghdad-based Abbasid Caliphs visited and renovated the Holy Shrines and Sanctuaries in Jerusalem. Coastal areas were fortified and developed and port cities like Acre, Haifa, Caesarea, Arsuf, Jaffa and Ashkelon monies from the state treasury. A Trade Fair took place in Jerusalem every year on September 15 where merchants from Pisa, Genoa, Venice and Marseilles converged to acquire spices, soaps, silks, olive oil, sugar and glassware in exchange for European products. European Christian pilgrims visited and made generous donations to Christian Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Harun al-Rashid (786-809) established the Christian Pilgrims' Inn in Jerusalem, fulfilling Umar's pledge to Bishop Sophronious to allow freedom of religion and access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims.

FATIMID RULE (969–1099AD)

From their base in Tunisia, the Fatimids, who claimed to be descendants of Mohammed through his daughter Fatima, conquered Palestine by way of Egypt in 969AD. Jerusalem, Nablus, and Askalan were expanded and renovated under their rule. After the 10th century the division into Junds began to break down and in 1071, the Isfahan-based Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem only to hand it back in 1098.

CRUSADER RULE (1099–1187AD)

Under the Crusader Rule, fortifications, castles, towers and fortified villages were built, rebuilt and renovated across Palestine largely in rural areas. A notable urban remnant of the Crusader architecture of this era is found in Acre's old city.

In July 1187, the Cairo-based Kurdish General Saladin commanded and led his troops to victory in the Battle of Hattin. Saladin went on to take Jerusalem. An agreement granting special status to the Crusaders allowed them to continue to stay in Palestine; and, in 1229, King Frederick II of Prussia (the most notable of enlightened despots in 18th century Europe) negotiated a 10-year Treaty that placed Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem once again under Crusader Rule.

Saladin (1138-1193): The Moslem Warrior-Leader, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders was born in Tikrīt, Iraq. Saladin, as he is known in the West, was a Kurd; his Arabic name was Salah El-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub. Someone, somewhere, some place, and some time ago once dared to compare Hassan Nesrallah to Salah El-Din Yusef Ibn Ayyub! A comparison of opposites! BY GOD!

In 1270, Sultan Baibars expelled the Crusaders from most of the country, though they maintained a base at Acre until 1291. Thereafter, any remaining Europeans either went home or merged with the local population.

MAMLUK RULE (1270–1516AD)

Palestine formed a part of the Damascus Wilayah district under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and was divided into three smaller Sanjaks subdivisions with capitals in Jerusalem, Gaza, and Safad. Celebrated by Arab and Moslem writers of the time as the blessed land of the Prophets and Islam's revered leaders, Moslem sanctuaries were rediscovered and received many pilgrims. While the first half of the Mamluk Era (1270-1382) saw the construction of many schools, lodgings (khans) for travellers and the renovation of mosques neglected or destroyed during the Crusader period, the second half (1382-1517) was a period of decline as the Mamluks were engaged in battles against the Mongols in areas outside Palestine.

In 1486, hostilities broke out between the Mamluks and the Ottoman Turks in battles for control over western Asia. The Mamluk armies were eventually defeated by the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I, and lost control of Palestine in 1516, after the battle of Marj Dabiq.

OTTOMAN RULE (1516–1831AD)

After the Ottoman conquest, the name Palestine disappeared as the official name of an administrative unit, as the Turks often called their sub-provinces after the capital. Following its incorporation into the Ottoman Empire in 1516, it became part of the vilayet/province of Damascus-Syria until 1660. It then became part of the vilayet of Saida/Sidon, briefly interrupted by the March 1799 – July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea. During the siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon prepared a proclamation declaring a Jewish state in Palestine.

EGYPTIAN RULE (1831-1841)

In May 1832 the areas of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories were conquered and annexed by Mohammed Ali's expansionist Egypt, at the time still nominally Ottoman) in the 1831 Egyptian-Ottoman War. Britain sent her navy to shell Beirut and an Anglo-Ottoman expeditionary force landed, causing local uprisings against the Egyptian occupiers. A British naval squadron anchored off Alexandria. The Egyptian army retreated to Egypt. Muhammad Ali signed the Treaty of 1841. Britain returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans. The Levant: the region on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Its name derives from the Italian word levante, meaning rising implying the rising.

OTTOMAN RULE (1841-1917)

In the reorganisation of 1873, which established the administrative boundaries that remained in place until 1914, Palestine was split between three major administrative units. The northern part, above a line connecting Jaffa to north Jericho and the Jordan, was assigned to the vilayet of Beirut, subdivided into the sanjaks (districts) of Acre, Beirut and Nablus. The southern part, from Jaffa downwards, was part of the special district of Jerusalem. Its southern boundaries were unclear but petered out in the eastern Sinai Peninsula and northern Negev Desert. Most of the central and southern Negev was assigned to the vilayet of Hijaz, which also included the Sinai Peninsula and the western part of Arabia.

Nonetheless, Palestine remained in popular and semi-official use. Many examples of its usage in the 16th and 17th centuries have survived. During the 19th century, the Ottoman Government employed the term Arz-i Filistin (the Land of Palestine) in official correspondence, meaning for all intents and purposes the area to the west of the River Jordan which became Palestine under the British in 1922. However, the Ottomans regarded Palestine as an abstract description of a general region but not as a specific administrative unit with clearly defined borders. This meant that they did not consistently apply the name to a clearly defined area. Ottoman court records, for instance, used the term to describe a geographical area that did not include the sanjaks of Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus, although these had certainly been part of historical Palestine. Amongst the educated Arab public, Filastin was a common concept, referring to the whole of Palestine or to the Jerusalem sanjak or to the area around.

Ottoman Rule over the eastern Mediterranean lasted until World War I when the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. During World War I, the Ottomans were driven from much of the region by the United Kingdom during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

THE 20^th CENTURY

In European usage up to World War I, Palestine was used informally for a region that extended in the north-south direction typically from Raphia (south-east of Gaza) to the Litani River (now in Lebanon). The western boundary was the sea, and the eastern boundary was the poorly-defined place where the Syrian Desert began. In various European sources, the eastern boundary was placed anywhere from the Jordan River to slightly east of Amman. The Negev Desert was not included.

Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, it was envisioned that most of Palestine, when freed from Ottoman control, would become an international zone not under direct French or British colonial control. Shortly thereafter, British foreign minister Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which laid plans for a Jewish homeland to be established in Palestine eventually.

The British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force, commanded by General Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem on 9 December, 1917 and occupied the whole of the Levant following the defeat of Turkish forces in Palestine in the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918 and the capitulation of Turkey on 31 October.

BRITISH MANDATE (1920–1948)

The British Mandate enacted English, Hebrew and Arabic as its three official languages. The land designated by the mandate was called Palestine in English, Falastin (فلسطين) in Arabic, and in Hebrew Palestina or Eretz Yisrael (פלשתינה (א"י).

In April 1920 the Allied Supreme Council (the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met in San Remo in Northern Italy and formal decisions were taken on the allocation of mandate territories. The United Kingdom accepted the mandate for Palestine, but the boundaries of the mandate and the conditions under which it was to be held were not decided. The Zionist Organization's representative in San Remo reported to his colleagues in London.

There were still important details outstanding, such as the actual terms of the mandate and the question of the boundaries of Palestine. There was the delimitation of the boundary between French Syria and Palestine, which would constitute the northern frontier and the eastern line of demarcation, adjoining Arab Syria. The latter was not likely to be fixed until the Emir Feisal attended the Peace Conference, probably in Paris.

In July 1920, the French drove Faisal Ibn Husayn from Damascus ending his already negligible control over the region of Trans-Jordan where local chiefs traditionally resisted any central authority. The Sheikhs, who had earlier pledged their loyalty to the Sharif of Mecca, asked the British to undertake the region's administration. Extension of the Palestine government's authority to Trans-Jordan was requested, but at meetings in Cairo and Jerusalem between Winston Churchill and Emir Abdullah in March 1921, it was agreed that Abdullah would administer the territory (initially for six months only) on behalf of the Palestine administration. In the summer of 1921 Trans-Jordan was included within the Mandate, but excluded from the provisions for a Jewish National Home. On 24 July, 1922 the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Trans-Jordan. On 16 September the League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Trans-Jordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlements. With Trans-Jordan under the administration of the British Mandate, the mandate's collective territory became constituted of 23% Palestine and 77% Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan was a very sparsely populated region at the time, especially in comparison with Palestine proper, due to its relatively limited resources and largely desert environment.

The award of the mandates was delayed as a result of the United States' suspicions regarding Britain's colonial ambitions, with similar reservations held by Italy over France's intentions. France in turn refused to reach a settlement over Palestine until its own mandate in Syria became final.

THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) PARTITION

On 29^th November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly, with a two-thirds majority international vote, passed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181), a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, with the Greater Jerusalem area, encompassing Bethlehem, under international control.

Jewish leaders (including the Jewish Agency), accepted the plan, while Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it and refused to negotiate. Neighbouring Arab and Moslem states also rejected the partition plan. The Arab community reacted violently after the Arab Higher Committee had declared a strike; and burned many buildings and shops. As armed skirmishes between Arab and Jewish paramilitary forces in Palestine continued, the British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, the establishment of the State of Israel having been proclaimed the day before. The Arab States and their armies (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Holy War Army, Arab Liberation Army, and local Arabs) immediately attacked Israel following its declaration of independence, and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 ensued. Consequently, the partition plan was never implemented.

VERY IMPORTANT FACTS:

The 1948 Palestinian Exodus (Arabic: الهجرة الفلسطينية Al-Hijra al-Filasteeniya) refers to the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs during the last 6 months of the British Mandate and the First Arab-Israeli War. It is referred to by most Palestinians and Arabs as Al- Nakba (Arabic: النكبة), meaning the disaster, catastrophe, or cataclysm. The United Nations (UN) final estimate of the number of Palestinian refugees outside Israel after the 1948 War was placed at 711,000 in 1951. A quarter of the 160,000 Arab Palestinians remaining in Israel were internal refugees. Today, Palestinian refugees and their descendants are estimated to number over 4 million Palestinians.

The initial exodus and the current situation of Palestinian refugees is a contentious topic of high importance to all parties in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contentious indeed! Trust the Arabs to blunder and bungle something then turn around and blame others for it! They were the cause of the Palestinian Exodus in the first place! They drove the Palestinians from Palestine with their ill-thought of, ill-planned, ill-prepared for, ill-timed, ill-carried out, and ill-finished War of 1948 against Israel!

The Jewish Exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century mass expulsion or mass departure of Jews from Arab and Islamic countries. The migration began in the late 19th century, but accelerated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. According to official Arab statistics, 856,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Some 600,000 resettled in Israel, leaving behind properties valued today at more than $300 billion. Jewish-owned real-estates left behind in Arab lands have been estimated at 100,000 square kilometers; four times the size of the State of Israel.

AGAIN! I ASK YOU! First, the Arabs drove the Palestinians from Palestine with their 1948 War; second, the Arabs expelled or drove the Israelis from their lads and seized their properties; and the Israelis, having nowhere to go, went and settled in Israel, and now they want the Israelis to give Israel back to the Palestinians! Well, what about the properties the Israelis left behind which the Arabs stole/seized; what’s the difference?

ADDITIONAL NOTES, CONJECTURES, AND FACTS:

NOTE (FACT): Ramallah (Arabic: رام الله) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank adjacent to Al-Bireh. Its population consists of approximately 25,500 residents. It is located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jerusalem and is considered the unofficial capital of the Palestinian National Authority.

CONJECTURES: Modern Ramallah was founded in the mid-1500s by the Hadadeens, a tribe of brothers who were descended from Yemenite Christian Arabs. The Hadadeens, led by Rashed Haddad, arrived from east of the Jordan River near what is now the Jordanian town of Shobak. Although the reasons for the Hadadeen's migration is attributed to fighting and unrest among tribes in that area, a more common rendition is as follows: Rashed's brother Sabri Haddad was once hosting Emir Ibn Kaysoom, the head of a powerful tribe in the region, when Sabri's wife gave birth to a baby girl. According to tribal customs, the Emir congratulated Sabri and asked for the infant's betrothal to his own young son once they both came of age. Sabri believed the request to be in jest, as Christian-Moslem intermarriage was not customary, and agreed to the request in what he likewise considered a joke. Many years later, the Emir came to the Hadadeens and demanded they fulfill their promise, which they refused to do. Many clashes ensued during the following months, with assassinations occurring on both sides. To avoid further bloodshed at the hands of the more powerful Kaysoom tribe, the Hadadeens fled west, and settled on the hilltops of Ramallah, which was only very sparsely populated at the time by a handful of Moslem families. Subsequently, the Hadadeen family elders (along with heads of a few other Christian tribes that arrived in Ramallah afterwards) became each the head of eight clans to whom modern-day Ramallah natives can still trace their ancestry.

FACTS AND CONEJCTURES: The Philistines have frequently been identified with the Island of Crete and perhaps the whole Aegean region. This indicates that their origins lie in the areas of Crete, Western Asia Minor, and the Aegean Sea; and modern archaeology bears this out. For instance; Philistine pottery resembles that of Minoan and Mycenaean or Homeric Greek civilizations to the point that, a material connection is beyond doubt or question. Other substantial links include early Greek weapons, armour, dress, burial methods, military tactics, government, religion, Etc.

How did these Aegean peoples end up settling in Canaan? The story is a long one, and it begins in the days of Abraham. Being a restless, warlike, and trading people, the Philistines frequently attempted to expand their influence through setting up trading colonies, first, and then by force of arms if necessary. According to the Bible, Abraham sojourned in the Land of the Philistines for many days (the Bible is a Book of the Jews, by the Jews, for the Jews. It is a chronicle of their history and has nothing to do with the rest of us). This means that, by the early 19^th Century BC, at least a small colony of Philistines had already gained a foothold in the Land of Canaan.

What caused the main body of Sea Peoples – as they are known to historians – to cross the Mediterranean is not entirely known. Perhaps the migration of Central European peoples into the Aegean region dislodged them, or perhaps the throes of Mycenaean decline played a part. Some have even suggested a terrible famine or a volcanic eruption as reasons for their relocation. Whatever the cause, the annals of the time record that the Sea Peoples were strong enough to overwhelm the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor, as well as other nations down the Mediterranean coast; and, not content with these conquests, they set out to invade Egypt between the reigns of Pharaohs Merneptah (1224-1216BC) and Rameses III (1174-1144BC).

THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR: 13^th APRIL 1975 TO 13^th OCTOBER 1990

The Lebanese Civil War began on 13^th April 1975 and lasted for 16 years and 7 months (with pauses in-between) and ended on 13^th October 1990. The war was fought along Religious and Political Borders involving Christians, Moslems, Druze, PLO, SSNP, and the Israeli and Syrian armies. In the beginning, there were 3 main fronts:

1. Lebanese National Movement (LNM) led by Kamal Jumblat, a prominent Druze

2. Lebanese Front led by Camille Chamoun. This faction was dominated by Maronite Christians. Rather soon the front got aid from Muslim Syria

3. Lebanese Forces, led by Bashir Gemayel, like Chamoun also a Maronite Christian, yet this group allied with the PLO

While the war was a bloody one, with as many as more than 150,000 dead and even more wounded, and hundreds of thousands traumatized, hundreds of thousands displaced, and hundreds of thousands scattered abroad to the four winds, the economic losses were no less startling; estimated at between 8 and 12 billion US dollars

HISTORY

1975 April 13: The Phalange militia attacks Palestinians in East Beirut. This was the spark setting off fighting all over the country, which would in its first stage last for over a year.

1976 January: Intense fighting all over the country destroys the most important state institutions and public buildings.

April: The alliance of LNM and PLO managed to take control of nearly 70% of Lebanon.

June: Syrian troops invade Lebanon and soon became the strongest force in the country, controlling many of the most important strategic positions.

September: Following a Libya brokered cease-fire, Elias Sarkis wins in a Syria controlled presidential election.

November: A truce takes hold across the country, except in the south where PLO faced a Christian militia supported by Israel.

1978 March 14: Israeli troops invade southern Lebanon, aiming at creating a buffer zone 10 km deep into Lebanese territory. But Israel found the land easy to occupy and soon controlled the southern 10% of the country.

May: International pressure makes Israeli withdraw from occupied territory and ended up with a buffer zone of between 4 and 12 km all along Lebanon's southern border.

1979 May: Fighting between the Phalange and the National Liberal Party (of Chamoun) start.

1980 July: The Phalange suppresses the National Liberal Party.

1981 April: A cease-fire in southern Lebanon brokered by the USA between Israel, Syria and PLO.

1982 January: Israel resumes its arms shipments to the Maronite Christians.

June 6: Israel invades Lebanon from its southern border, and its forces start advancing north. Within few days, they had captured important southern cities of Tyre and Sayda, and entered Beirut.

September 14: President-elect Bashir Gemayel is killed in an explosion directed at the headquarters of the Phalange party.

September 15: Israeli troops move into Beirut.

September 16: The Phalangists got help from Israeli troops to close off the Sabra and Shatila districts of Beirut, and then started a massacre of the Palestinian inhabitants of the area; in 3 days, about 2,000 children, men and women are killed.

September 20: A Western Multi-National Force, consisting of US, British, French, and Italian troops is set up and deployed in Beirut.

September 21: Amin Gemayel is elected president by the parliament.

September 29: The Israeli troops leave Beirut.

1983 May 17: Israel signs the Lebanese-Israeli Peace Treaty.

September 3: Israeli troops withdraw from the Shouf region, and the Phalange militia and the Lebanese army move in, resulting in a war between them and the PLO-Druze alliance. The Lebanese army soon got aid from USA and France.

September 25: A cease-fire is brokered between the fighting parties.

October 23: Terrorist attacks on US and French military headquarters, killing 241 US and 59 French troops.

November: A reconciliation conference is held in Geneva, Switzerland. 

1984 February 3: The Lebanese army and the Lebanese Forces attacks Shi'i suburbs of West Beirut. This resulted in fighting between the army and the Lebanese Forces and the Amal-Druze alliance.

February 7: The USA withdraws its forces from Beirut. Soon after the other Western countries did the same.

March 5: Lebanon cancels the Lebanese-Isreali peace treaty of May 1983.

March: A second reconciliation conference is held, this time in Lausanne, Switzerland. A reconciliation government is formed.

1985 June 6: Israel completes the withdrawal of the agreed number of troops from south Lebanon, leaving only 1,000 and instead starts supporting a Christian militia in the area.

December: Commanders from Amal, the Druze and the Lebanese Forces signs an agreement to solve the crisis, basing it much upon support from Syria. The agreement becomes, however, ineffective, due to tensions in the Lebanese Forces.

1987 February: Fighting between Amal and Druze militia in West Beirut. Syria sends in troops to cool down the situation.

1988 April: Fighting between Amal and Hezballah in southern Lebanon, lasting for nearly 2 months.

September 22: Michel Aoun forms a military government, following that the parliament fails to elect a new president.

1989 February: The Lebanese army, led by Michael Aoun, attacks the Lebanese Forces in the Christian parts of Beirut.

May: Aoun declares a War of Liberation against Syria.

August: 14 Lebanese groups, backed by Syrian troops, form a front against Aoun.

October: Discussions in At Ta'if, Saudi Arabia between most of the surviving Lebanese parliamentarians (58 attending, 4 not, the last elections had been held in 1972). They emerged on the National Reconciliation Charter dividing the parliament seats equally between Christians and Muslims (the Muslims represented more than 60% of the population, but this agreement was still an improvement from 1943 which gave majority to the Christians with 6 to 5), leaving the presidency in the hands of the Christians (but reducing his powers), and allowing the continued presence of Syrian troops. The charter was agreed upon by most delegates, save 4 Muslims. Michel Aoun rejected it, but the Maronite front accepted it.

November 5: Rene Muawad is elected president by the parliament.

November 22: Muawad is assassinated.

November 24: Elias Hrawi is elected president.

1990 January: Heavy fighting between Aoun's troops and the Lebanese Forces, which declared allegiance to Hrawi. Aoun is able to take control of 35% of the Christian part of Beirut.

April: Implementation of the National Reconciliation Charter starts.

October: Following an air and ground campaign, Lebanese and Syrian troops are able defeat Aoun and his soldiers. This marks the end of the 16 years of civil war.

1991 May 9: In accordance with the National Reconciliation Charter of 1989, the parliament gives equal representation in the parliament to Muslims and Christians.

May 22: Hrawi and Hafez al-Assad of Syria sign a treaty of cooperation between the two countries. This gave Syria full control over Lebanon's internal and foreign affairs, defence and economy; a situation that persists still; directly and by proxies.

IRAN PROTECTS TERRORISM AND PROTESTS AGAINST TERRORISM – ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

What is it with you, Adolph Ahmedinejad; you can give, but you can’t take? Sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander? When you and your tentacles do it to others, it’s OK, but when others do it to you, it’s not OK? You are inseparable partners with Syria (both you and that ASS-Ad said it). You protect Terrorism in Iran and Syria, when it is committed against the Iranian and Syrian peoples by your and his Goons, and elsewhere: Hezballah, Amal, the SSNP, Aoun, and their allies in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine, but you protest against a group whom you label counter-revolutionary. Who is to say they are not revolutionary? It all depends on what one wants and what one does, and from what we’ve seen of you since you took over, you are the worst counter-revolutionary Iran has ever had!

Original title: Iran protests to US over deadly mosque blast

Associated France Press via Yahoo News Alerts Wednesday 21^st May 2008

TEHERAN: Iran protested to the United States on Wednesday through the Swiss Embassy, which looks after US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties, over what it said was a US-based counter-revolutionary group responsible for a deadly mosque bombing and added that the network intended to carry out other terrorist acts in the country. Part of the concocted evidence and forged documents on the group's activities were handed to the Swiss to be submitted to US officials.

Iran has already arrested 15 people and accused the United States and Britain of training and financing those behind the April 12 bombing which killed 13 people and wounded more than 200 in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz. Iran has in the past blamed US and British agents based in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan for launching attacks on border provinces in Iran with significant ethnic minority populations, but the strike in Shiraz was the first in decades in Iran's Persian heartland. The normally placid city is not in a border zone, nor is it home to any significant ethnic or religious minority population.

So what? Iran is not a neighbour to Lebanon or Palestine but Iran has made, and caused and created troubles, turbulences, chaos and havoc through her tentacles in both countries. Also, immediately after the attack, the initial official reports by the Iranian authorities insisted it had been an accident, but now claim……It is a well-known fact that Iranians have sizable Diaspora communities in the US; most (if not all) of whom support the son of Iran's deposed Shah, Reza Pahlavi. TV and radio channels have sprung up in the United States and Europe in recent years broadcasting programmes to Iran via satellite. Jesus ordered it: Do unto others what you would have others do unto you; and now, others are doing unto you what you do unto others! So shut up, and take it as they took it! And like it, too, to boot! BY GOD AND SATAN!

A CHILD IN DARFUR, IN THE SUDAN, COMMENTS ON THE WAR IN IRAQ AND ITS EFFECTS AS REPORTED UNDER THE FOLLOWING HEADLINES:

IRAQ WAR WORSENS MENTAL HEALTH AND REDUCES CARE/ MENTAL ILLNESS RISES IN IRAQ AS CARE FALTERS

The International Tribunal by Erica Goode Tuesday 20^th May 2008

Dear readers and fellow-Apes; the above two headlines contain the same report by the same writer but, as you well know by now, that is the Media’s method or way of filling pages and air-spaces.

BAGHDAD: In a different time in another country, where death, violence, and terror did not stalk the streets, X, a Psychiatrist, could practise Psychiatry the way he once hoped to

X can see it in his mind: the clean, tastefully decorated hospital wards, the well-stocked pharmacies, the gleaming laboratory equipment, the thickly carpeted consulting rooms, the halfway houses and outreach teams that help chronically ill patients reestablish their lives outside the hospital. X has witnessed such things firsthand. In 2005, he left Iraq to spend five months in England, learning specialized care for the elderly and watching psychiatrists at work.

But X, who entered his profession at a time when Iraqi doctors were among the most sophisticated and highly trained in the Middle East, is caught in a time warp in a war-torn land. Knowledge and sophistication have been largely overwhelmed by developing world decay, and ancient equipment has plunged some treatments into a “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” barbarism, despite the best intentions.

X cares for patients whose illnesses are often set off or worsened by the mayhem around them. They crowd into his tiny office at the Ibn Rushid Psychiatric Hospital in central Baghdad, accompanied by their mothers and aunts, wives and brothers.

The litany of death and misery they recite no longer shocks him, and besides, his own experiences are not that different. Like many other Iraqis, he suffers from some symptoms of traumatic stress: insomnia, anxiety, a tendency to be startled by loud noises. The traffic jams are a stress, and then all of a sudden something explodes.

He tries when he can to listen to relaxing music. The trips to the countryside he once enjoyed are no longer an option. The roads are too perilous. Nevertheless, X does his best to help his patients. He treats some (those that respond to them) with the limited quantity of psychiatric drugs at his disposal. For others (patients who are suicidal or catatonic and do not respond to drugs) he prescribes electroconvulsive therapy, administered with a 25-year-old machine with technical problems. The patients are sometimes given Valium before the treatments (without anesthesia) because there is no anesthesiologist on staff. Despite all that, he says, patients often improve.

Only 4 of 11 psychiatrists remain at Ibn Rushid; the rest have moved north to Kurdistan, where the risk of kidnapping or assassination is lower, or have fled the country. The psychiatric hospital, one of two in Iraq, provides short-term treatment and was once considered a jewel of the country's medical system, renowned for its modern care. Patients from as far away as Syria and Jordan came for treatment and the hospital's 75 beds were always full and Specialists from Western countries often visited the hospital to teach the latest forms of treatment.

A social worker at the hospital, said that treating patients with physical injuries might be difficult, but trying to help depressed patients, who have lost children, husbands, wives, and sometimes whole families, is emotionally exhausting – given  what they face in their daily lives, car and other bombs, killings, fighting between militia members and Iraqi and U.S. forces, relapses are frequent. There is no time for people to recover, and once they do, there is a new stress, grief after grief, losses after losses, violence after violence, and deaths after deaths.

He could leave Iraq, but he has no intention of doing so. He loves his work.

Dear Erica Goode

Normally, I wouldn’t wish this on or to my worst enemy, but in view of your biased and paid-to-write above report which appeared twice in the same paper and on the same day, I am afraid I must: Come to Darfur! Oh, do please come to Darfur and stay here for a fortnight – if you can last that long! And if a visit to Darfur is too much for you, just visit the Darfur Refugee Camp in neighbouring Chad and see and hear for yourself whether the patients or people in Baghdad are much better or much worse off!

Or perhaps, you would rather visit Rwanda or Somalia or……

X was in England for 5 months and if he were any good as a psychiatrist he would have stayed there, but as it is, if he had stayed, the only job he would or could have had was as “the Psychiatrist Boot-Black” cleaning and shining their shoes for a dime or ten pence.

You wrote that the Ibn Rushid Psychiatric Hospital was one of two in Iraq, but you gave no details of the other hospital. Was that because the other hospital is in far better shape and conditions than the Ibn Rushid; and is it because there are better and more qualified doctors there than X?

You said the Ibn Rushid Hospital was once considered the jewel of the country’s medical systems and renowned for its modern medical care! But, my dear Erica; a 25-year old electro-convulsive machine means 22 years before the late tyrant-dictator-despot, Saddam, was toppled.

You said X could leave Iraq but has no intention of doing so because he loves his work. As a starving orphan living in squalor in Darfur, with the only clothes I have on my back or my skin – so to speak – and with all my worldly possessions in a nylon bag, I’ve seen and heard of, and suffered, a lot of pain, misery, and anguish, and I’ve heard and read a lot of HORSE-SHIT in my short life (I hope I am still alive, come next spring) but I’ve never heard of or read HORSE-SHIT like your HORSE-SHIT! X has no intention of leaving, and won’t leave, because he cannot leave. He cannot leave because that Ibn Rushid Hospital is the only hospital where he can work as a Quack-Psychiatrist!

I look forward to welcoming you in my tent, composed of four upright sticks, with a dirty, old and frayed flour-sack tied to them to protect me from the scorching sun during the days. As for the nights; I depend on and pray to God to send me death to relieve me of my constant hunger, pain, misery, anguish, and desperation; but God (if he exists) does not listen to such as me. As for death; he is real and apparent, for I see him and hear of him daily and all around me and far beyond the horizons in every direction. I suppose it isn’t my time or my turn to receive him, so I must wait, and be patient for he shall surely come to claim me……soon, I hope, dear Lord – whoever and wherever you are.

LUCKY US PRISONERS ARE LIVING AND TREATED MUCH BETTER THAN PRISONERS ELSEWHERE Trust the Media to fumble and bungle along with just anything to fill pages and air-time, and then mumble and grumble along over it

AP Monday 19th May 2008

NEW YORK: The USA Military has told the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that it has about 500 juveniles in detention centers in Iraq, and about 10 in the US Base at Bagram, Afghanistan. So far, a total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been detained almost all in Iraq, for periods up to a year or more in President Bush's anti-terrorism campaign since 2002.

The report said that of the total of 2,500 juveniles jailed since 2002, all but 100 had been picked up in Iraq. Most of the rest were swept up in Afghanistan. The U.S. military says it has held eight juveniles (13-17) at Guantanamo since the detention center was opened in 2002. Six were released and two are now adults facing war-crimes charges. Civil liberties groups were outraged that the U.S. government has not figured out a way to keep children out of adult prisons. The executive director of the International Justice Network said on Sunday that it was outrageous and it wasn’t making the US any safer.

In a statement, the ACLU Human Rights Programme said it was shocking to know that the U.S. was holding hundreds of juveniles in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even more disturbing was the fact that there was no comprehensive policy in place that would protect their rights as children. Juveniles and former child soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, not subjected to further victimization.

The above paragraph I like very much. What they actually said was: Juveniles and former Child-Soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for Osama Bin Ladin’s School of Re-activation and Re-introduction into his Suicide Society.

Human Rights! There is no such a thing as Human Rights! Human Rights and Child Sponsorship and other such Programmes are nothing but Con-Syndicates and Organisations set up to relieve the naïve moronic and obtuse fools of their money; just like The UN. They are just ruses and excuses to provide well-paid jobs with the best possible fringe-benefits and salaries and wages for some who believe that it is Their Right To Live And Eat And Sleep Well And To Hell With You!

A person’s rights end where another person’s rights begin! Period! And this is why I like the Saudi Arabian System of Justice! One has no right to kill another one, or commit any act that violates the rights of another one, because then, one loses one’s rights. In Saudi Arabia, the law is simple and clear: You do it; we catch you; we bind you hand and foot; and we lop off your head or your hand; then we tell you not to do it again, OK?

Age is not a necessarily important factor in determining whether or not any military detains an individual under the laws of armed conflict. However, I am sure that the US Military attends to the special needs of juveniles while they are in detention.

Dear readers and fellow-Apes; we would all do well to remember that these lucky prisoners everyone is carping canting chanting and FARTING over are living, and are being treated, better than prisoners in Syria/Iran/Egypt/Libya/Sudan and most Arab and Arab-speaking countries, and a lot of other Asian and South American countries, so ENOUGH OF THIS HORSE-SHIT WITHOUT THE HORSE!

No wonder the following appeared today: NEW YORK: In a story about the U.S. military holding approximately 500 juveniles in detention centers in Afghanistan and Iraq, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a U.S. government report said those held in Iraq were unlawful enemy combatants

36 YEARS OF FEARS AND TEARS (JULY 1972-MAY 2008): A  CHRONOLOGY OF BOMBINGS AND BLUNDERS, ATROCITIES AND ASSASSINATIONS IN LEBANON: A not-so-gentle step-by-step walk from the past through fears and tears, death and destruction, torn limbs and traumatized lives, displacement and dispersion, to the present

It is always good to remember the past in order to learn from it and not repeat the same blunders; it is futile and insane to dwell on and wallow in it. Dear readers and fellow-Apes; life’s problems and strife can be summed up in 8 words or 4 phrases: “going through” “getting over” “learning from” “moving on”

The Lebanese Apes are always going through problems and strife which they have created in the first place and each one worse than the one before; they always get over them; and they always create and move on to the next even worse problem and strife, but they never learn from them!

Assassinations are virtually a cliché in Lebanon, as the startling regularity of their occurrence suggests. Although they are often called acts of terrorism by one or another interested party, they are part of the fabric of Lebanon's often unstable political landscape, and Syria’s adoption and adaptation of one of the oldest tactics in the world: Eliminate the competition and all those that oppose and reject Syria’s presence and influence, and Syria’s Moles, Rats, Jackals, Hyenas, Puppets, and FIENDS remain to run the country with the rest intimidated and subservient; and thus, the country would revert to the Status Quo Ante Syria’s physical but not reality withdrawal from Lebanon, and Syria could and would stop or even cancel the International Tribunal and manipulate and exploit Lebanon to Syria’s and Iran’s advantage. Proof of all that is: No assassinations since 1976 during Syria’s presence and influence have been solved.

8^th July 1972: Ghassan Kanafani of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed in a car-bomb (reputedly planted by Israel) in Beirut
 

13^th April 1975: The Lebanese Civil War that began on 13^th April 1975 and lasted for 16 years and 7 months (with pauses in-between) and ended on 13^th October 1990. The war was fought along Religious and Political Borders involving Christians, Moslems, Druze, the PLO, and the Israeli and Syrian armies.

10^th May 1976: USA Ambassador, Francis Malloy, was assassinated

3^rd January 1977: A car-bomb killed 50 people in Christian East Beirut

16^th March 1977: Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated by Syrian agents8^th

June 1978: A local Phalange (Kataeb) Party leader, Joud el Bayeh, was murdered by six armed men (Marada) sent by Tony Franjieh in the district of Zgharta Zawie

13^th June 1978: The Phalange (Kataeb) Party launched a surprise attack at 4am in Ehden that decimated the Marada Brigade; Tony Franjieh and his wife, Vera, and their 3-year-old daughter were killed in the attack. One might wonder how they managed to get through the not fewer than 40 Syrian Army check-points on the road to and around EhdenSuleiman Franjieh vowed revenge and subsequently sought an alliance with some of his former enemies, including Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt and former Prime Minister Rashid Karami. The three formed the pro-Syrian National Salvation Front

4^th September 1981: The French Ambassador was assassinated

1^st October 1981: PLO Headquarters in Beirut car-bombed, killing 250 people

15^th December 1981: The Iraqi Embassy car-bombed, killing 27 people 

14^th September 1982: President Bashir Gemaeyel was assassinated by a powerful bomb planted in the Phalange (Kataeb) Headquarters building

11^th November 1982: The Israeli Military Headquarters in Tyre was destroyed by a bomb, killing 75 Israelis and 16 Lebanese prisoners1982 was also the year Israel invaded Lebanon

18^th April 1983: The US Embassy was blown up by a (Fateh) suicide truck, killing 63 people, including chiefs of the CIA stationed in the Middle East

23^rd October 1983: US Marine barracks bombed by Hezballah suicide truck, killing 241

23^rd October 1983: French Military Headquarters bombed by Hezballah suicide truck, killing 58

4^th November 1983: Hezballah suicide bombing of Israeli Military Headquarters in Tyre, killing 60

4^th March 1985: Hezballah leaders killed when an Israeli bomb explodes at their office in Marakeh near Tyre

8^th March 1985: Car-bomb targeted Hezballah leader, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who escaped unhurt but more than 80 people were killed and 200 wounded

1^st June 1987: Rashid Karami was assassinated by a bomb exploding in his helicopter. The helicopter lifted off from Tripoli.

22^nd November 1989: Pro-Syrian President-elect Renée Mouawad was assassinated

22^nd October 1990: Danny Chamoun was assassinated20^th March 1991: The Lebanese Defence Minister and 8 others killed in car-bomb

30^th December 1991: A car-bomb kills 20 people in Moslem quarter of Basta

16^th February 1992: Hezballah leader, Abbas Musawi, assassinated in Djichitt in south Lebanon

20^th December 1993: Truck-bomb destroyed The Phalange (Kataeb) Party HQ, killing 3 and wounding 100

29^th January 1994: Naeb Maitah, Jordanian Embassy First Secretary assassinated

7^th February 1994: 4 Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon by Hezballah

27^th February 1994: 11 killed and 54 wounded in bomb attack at Zuq Mikhael Church

31^st April 1995: Sunni radical, Sheikh Nizar Halabi, assassinated

9^th April 1996: A Lebanese boy was killed by a bomb in south Lebanon. No name because that boy represented all the boys who would be men and who were dragged into all the conflicts and wars over the years and who died before their time. He also represents all the mothers who suffered the pain, anguish, and desperation of losing a child in too many conflicts and wars that never served any purposes or achieved any aims except help the warlords to get and be where they are now: ministers and representatives; receiving unheard of and unearned salaries for doing nothing but the same things all over again: divide, and rule!

3^rd January 2000: Rocket attack on Russian Embassy killed 2 and wounded 7

24^th January 2002: Elie Hobeika was assassinated by car-bomb (suspected involved in Sabra and Chatila camp massacres in 1982) a fomer Christian Lebanese Forces commander and a parliamentarian with a pro-Syrian bent at the time of his assassination. However, he had been identified by Israel as playing a leading role in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in two Lebanese refugee camps, during Israel's Lebanese invasion. Hobeika's agreement in 2002 to speak at a trial Palestinians were bringing against Israel for the massacre gave rise to speculation he may have been assassinated by Israel.

20^th May 2002: Mohammed Jihad Jibril was the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in Lebanon was killed by a car bomb. Israel was thought to be behind the explosion, but denied any responsibility

2^nd August 2003: Ali Hussein Salah was a Hezballah member and driver working for the Iranian Embassy, when he was killed. According to reliable sources, the target of the attack was a senior Hezballah member who was supposed to be in the car at the time but was not.

19^th July 2004: Hezballah member, Ghaleb Awali, was killed by a bomb explosion outside his home in Beirut. In Hezballah head Hassan Nasrallah's eulogy, he praised Awali as a “martyr of Palestine” making it clear that Awali had worked on behalf of activities or operations by Palestinian groups. A Sunni group, Jund al Sham (Soldiers of greater Syria), claimed responsibility for the assassination, but Hezballah pointed the finger at Israel.

1^st October 2004: Druze MP Marwan Hamadeh was wounded and his driver was killed in a car bomb

14^th February 2005: Rafiq Hariri, the Sunni anti-Syrian former prime minister, was killed by a massive car bomb that killed about 15 other people. The most prominent suspect in the murder has been Syria but it has also been argued that Syria had little to benefit from provoking anti-Syrian sentiment. A U.N. tribunal was scheduled in 2006 to investigate Syria's potential role in the assassination.

14^th February 2005: Baasel Flayhan was one of those killed along with Rafiq Harriri

20th May 2005, Tuesday: Ramzi Irani was abducted and murdered by Syrian Agents

2^nd June 2005: Samir Kassir was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut. The investigation into his assassination is still underway, but no one has been indicted yet. Since Kassir had been constantly receiving threats from Lebanese and Syrian intelligence officers, there was widespread speculation in Lebanon that the perpetrators were the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus or remnants of that forceHe was a university professor, a journalist and a historian, born to a Lebanese Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He held both Lebanese and French nationalities. A prominent left-wing activist, he was a strong advocate of freedom for the Palestinians, democracy in Lebanon and Syria and a vocal critic of the Syrian presence and influence in Lebanon. A French investigation had been underway but its results have yet to be released.

21^st June 2005: George Hawi was assassinated when a bomb planted in his car was detonated by remote control as he travelled through the Wata Musaitbi neighbourhood in beirut. The pro-U.S March 14 Alliance and Western media immediately blamed Syria for his killing and for the other explosions in the capital, although Hawi's own son has been arguing ever since that Salafi Jihadists affiliated with and funded by Saudi Arabia through Bandar bin Sultan are responsible for the killings, including that of Rafik Hariri.

Hawi was a longtime leader of the Lebanese Communist party and lifelong activist on behalf of Lebanese autonomy and the Palestinian cause, was killed along with his driver by a bomb placed under his car. He was opposed to Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, but also well known for his thoughtful and dialogic approach to political issues.

12^th July 2005: Elias Murr was seriously wounded in a bombing in Beirut. The explosion happened in the city of Antelias, 5km north of Beirut. Police reported one killed and a dozen injured.

25^th September 2005: May Chediak was seriously injured by a car bomb in Jounieh. The bomb, which nearly killed her, was a one-pound explosive, detonated as she entered her car. Her left leg below the knee was blown off and her hair and clothes were set on fire. Following the amputation of her severely injured left arm her condition became stable and she soon recovered. She may now be half the woman she once was, physically, but she is twice the woman she once was, mentally.

12^th December 2005: Gibran Tueni was killed by a car bomb. He was the publisher of the Lebanese daily newspaper an-Nahar and a pro-government Member of Parliament. He was well-known for his 2000 Open Letter to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in which he criticized Syrian interference and influence in Lebanon.

26^th May 2006: Mahmud Majzoub, the leader of Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, was assassinated along with his brother, Nidal, by a car bomb. Majzoub was also known as Abu Hamza. Lebanese authorities accused the Israeli Mossad of the attack.

21^st November 2006: Maronite Christian parliamentarian, Pierre Gemayel, was stopped in his car and shot at close range by several gunmen. His murder took place in the midst of a standoff between lawmakers calling for the UN tribunal to investigate Hariri's assassination and Syrian-allied members, led by Hezballah, seeking to block it. March 14 bloc party members accused Syria of the assassination.

13^th June 2007: Walid Eido Anti-Syrian parliamentarian Eido was killed when his booby trapped car exploded. The blast also killed his son, two bodyguards and six others.

19^th September 2007: Antoine Ghanem was an MP affiliated with the Christian Phalange Party associated with the March 14 bloc: a collection of parties united by their opposition to Syrian involvement, interference, and influence in Lebanon. His assassination came a few days before parliament was set to begin deciding on a new president, and his assassination, on the heels of those of other anti-Syrian MPs, was seen by many as an effort to affect the election in favor of the incumbent pro-Syrian president's bloc.

12^th December 2007: A car bomb killed Brigadier-General Francois Hajj and at least three others, putting even more pressure on the country's delicate political situation. Hajj, one of Lebanon's top military generals and a top Maronite Catholic in the command, was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military, General Michael Suleiman, after Suleiman has been elected as the new president to replace Emile Lahhoud whose term expired on November 23. Hajj, 55, was hailed as the hero of the military campaign against the terrorists of Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr el-Bared battle.

25^th January 2008: Wissam Eid, a police investigator working on collecting evidence on Hariri's and other assassinations, was killed by a car bomb.

6^th May 2008: Hezballah, Amal, the SSNP, the Aounis, Karamis, Wahabs, Arslans, Etc Leaders ordered their hordes and mobs of illiterate and ignorant dregs of Lebanon and the Lebanese into the streets for a so-called peaceful protest against the high cost of living which ended up in their taking over of Beirut and virtually closing down the Beirut International Airport and blocking all roads leading to and from the airport.

That, according to their pin-brains and twisted logic, would solve the problems and reduce the cost of living. As if Fouad Saniora and his Football Team were responsible for the high and still rising price of crude oil which has raised the cost of living, not only in Lebanon, but in every country on the planet.

I wonder whether they knew what the effect of closing down the country’s airport and blocking all access (roads) to it would have on the economy! Perhaps they did, and the question now is: Do they care, or were they just doing as they were ordered by the ASSES (the leaders of those mentioned) of Syria and Iran through which they FART!

Your guess is as good as mine, and you probably know it better than I do.

Go to 873 Updated and enhanced

ONE BAD DEED DESERVES ANOTHER. TWO BAD DEEDS DESERVE FOUR EVEN WORSE OTHERS……was it planned and carried out; or was it just plain…

It is true that the Government made two big terrible and irreversible mistakes: The first was when it made its decisions and declared them openly; and on paper, too, to boot; the second was when it rescinded its decisions and backed down. It should have known better and made the decisions and put them aside - on the shelf, so to speak - and bided its time till the right moment or time. That was not the time for it.

However, and but! Hezballah and Amal and their allies reacted with four even bigger, more terrible and irreversible mistakes:

1: They joined and converted a peaceful protest or demonstration into a highly dangerous, destructive, and fatal nuisance and a confrontation. The peaceful protesters or demonstrators left the streets but they remained.

2: They attacked and captured the Moslem sector of the Capital, Beirut, and destroyed or closed down the Future Party’s Media outlets. The Future Party is not the government or the enemy.

3: They closed down Beirut International Airport and blocked all roads leading to and from the airport.

4: They used their weapons, which were supposed to be used against the enemy, Israel, only internally and against their fellow-Lebanese Apes; something Hassan Nesrallah swore several times never to do.

The above bad mistakes and even worse counter-mistakes makes one wonder whether Fouad Saniora and his Football Team had planned it all in the first place and knew what they were doing! If they had and did, then those were the greatest and most fantastic tactics and strategies ever planned and carried out in the history of Mankind the Apes and the greatest and most effective gambit move ever played in the history of “the chess-games of war and politics”

Hezballah and Amal and their allies are in the soup now, but Nabih Berri, Hassan Nesrallah, Emile Lahhoud, Michael Aoun, and Suleiman Franjieyeh and their henchmen are in the fire, IF! Fouad Saniora and his Football Team know how to continue and complete and finish the game. In other words; if they know how to manipulate and exploit the advantage they have gained.

EMPOWERING HEZBALLAH, CHEERING IRAN ON, AND PATTING SYRIA ON THE BACK: The Fucking, Foolish, Fickle, Fumbling, Feckless and Spineless West, the USA and her allies (NATO and other countries), the UN, the UNSC, the IC, and the Arab League of Notions are - - - - - -  go to 591 Updated and Enhanced

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