(Xinhua) -- Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his group did not want a war with Israel, but urged the country to preserve resistance.
"Some Lebanese politicians are saying Israel may wage war on Lebanon, and this is possible, but we do not want this war," said Nasrallah in a televised speech during the commemoration of Al-Quds Day in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut suburb.
Nasrallah said making deals and normalization with Israel is "religiously forbidden," and his group will neither recognize Israel, nor succumb to it, "even if the whole world recognizes its existence."
A 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel took place in summer 2006, killing more than 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis. Israel destroyed Hezbollah's strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburb of Beirut before ending up with a UN-brokered ceasefire on Aug. 14, 2006.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah may not wage war to liberate Kfarshouba Hills and Shebaa Farms, but will not stop demanding the return of the territories to Lebanon.
Israeli occupied the Shebaa Farms from Syria in the Six-Day Warin 1967. Lebanon claims sovereignty over this area, while Israel and the United Nations insist it is part of Syria. However, Syria says this area is part of Lebanon.
The Hezbollah chief also accused the United States of tricking the Arabs to get more concessions and push the Arab world toward normalization with Israel.
He urged the Arab countries to facilitate assistance to Palestinian resistance.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
One has to wonder how the people in Lebanon are reacting to what is going on with the people in Iran. Want if the Lebanese begin to question Hezbollah's allegiance to the dictators in Iran? What if the Lebanese begin to see Hezbollah as an extension of the Iranian dictators?
The investor, a heavyset man in a gray polo shirt, sat back in a plastic chair in his hardware store and sighed, unable to explain how his life savings had vanished so quickly into thin air, The New York Times reported.
"It's a disaster, a tsunami," he said. "Some farmers mortgaged their fields and brought in cash. Others sold land they had inherited from their parents. Teachers gave up all their savings. Old people lost everything they had."
The money disappeared, judicial authorities say, in a billion-dollar pyramid scheme that has riveted Lebanon, The New York Times's Robert F. Worth writes from Tura. Its mastermind, a businessman named Salah Ezzedine, was charged with fraud on Saturday and is being called the "Lebanese Bernie Madoff" in local newspapers. Bankers say it is the biggest fraud of its kind this country has ever seen.
But the dollar figures have drawn less attention here than Mr. Ezzedine's close links with Hezbollah, the militant Shiite movement. Many of the investors -- mostly Shiites living in Beirut and southern villages like this one -- say those party links were the reason they chose to risk their hard-earned savings with a man who offered 40 and 50 percent profits but never showed any paperwork.
The scandal has embarrassed the party, which prides itself on a reputation for honesty and selfless piety. It has also illustrated the way many of Lebanon's Shiites, despite their ascent from near feudal poverty just a few decades ago, remain in some ways a nation apart. Their residual distrust of mainstream Lebanese institutions, which helped fuel Hezbollah's rise as a virtual state within a state, also appears to have made them vulnerable to Mr. Ezzedine's schemes.
"We got guarantees that were stronger than any bank," said the investor here, who like others associated with Mr. Ezzedine, spoke only on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Asked whether he meant Hezbollah, he declined to answer, The Times said.
Hezbollah's general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah, denied in a speech last week that the party had any official connection with Mr. Ezzedine. But a few days later, during a Ramadan dinner with Hezbollah supporters where he appeared by video link, Mr. Nasrallah conceded that the party would in practice be held responsible, and said it was setting up a "crisis network" to assess each investor's losses. Several Hezbollah officials lost money, and at least one has filed suit against Mr. Ezzedine.
There have even been calls for Hezbollah to compensate the investors. So far, the party has said it will not do so, and it is easy to see why. The losses among southern Shiites alone run into the hundreds of millions, and Hezbollah is still struggling to rebuild the houses destroyed during its devastating monthlong war with Israel in 2006.
Mr. Ezzedine, 49, remains a mysterious figure. He was best known as the owner of Dar el-Hadi, a publishing house that specialized in religious titles and is based in the heart of Dahieh, Beirut's Shiite southern suburb. More recently, in 2007, he founded Al Mustathmir, a financial institution based in Beirut that focused on money management. He was known as a deeply religious and charitable man, with a gift for winning people's friendship.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11144 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Has anybody but me noticed that the
"Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/19/2009 2:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"The scandal has embarrassed the party, which prides itself on a reputation for honesty and selfless piety." lol.
Redneck Jim, you seem to be missing the forest for the trees here. Religion is concerned with spiritual afterlife. Greed is the motivator for all ponzi schemes and it is deeply rooted in the here and now and has little to do with one's faith or lack thereof.
The reason that Arabs live in squalor is because their leaders allow them to blame the Jews for everything that is wrong in the world rather than holding the leaders accountable. I'm beginning to notice the same trend here among liberals and some independents- blaming "the deeply religious" or "fundamentalists" for all that is wrong. Just like the Arabs do to the Jews. Heck, it has worked for them for thousands of years, I suppose there is no reason it can't work here too. But I have no intention of falling for it.
#3
"the "Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems"
You mean like the Gulag, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, Pol Pot's killing fields, etc?
It cannot be stated often enough - atheist regimes killed, raped, and tortured more people in the last century than have been harmed in all the religious conflicts in history COMBINED, even if you include the ROP.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/19/2009 6:54 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Don't mind RJ. It's a Pavlovian thing - mentioning 'religion' just gets him to frothing at the mouth.
Seriously, this isn't anything new - and really has to do more with social issues. Take this excerpt:
many of Lebanon's Shiites, despite their ascent from near feudal poverty just a few decades ago, remain in some ways a nation apart. Their residual distrust of mainstream Lebanese institutions, which helped fuel Hezbollah's rise as a virtual state within a state, also appears to have made them vulnerable to Mr. Ezzedine's schemes
Substitute 'African American', 'Hispanic', etc. for 'Shiite" and (insert advocacy group) for Hesb'allah.
Heck, the defrauder doesn't even have to be religious - they just have to be more 'ethnic' than the rest of their target demographic.
#5
I've heard that Mormons from the Utah heartland are disproportionately likely to be victimized by these sorts of confidence-game-enhanced pyramid schemes. The con men depend on the higher level of trust that tight-knit religious communities produce to jump-start their scams. RJ's partially right in that members of self-isolating religious sects are more vulnerable to betrayal by quick-talking Elmer Gantry-style scammers.
Look up the Dream Mine for a classic, ongoing example.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/19/2009 11:42 Comments ||
Top||
#6
It's a good thing all those secular leftists voted the way they did in November, then.
Not a hint of messianic imagery in that campaign, nosirree. Must be why the policies since then have been trouble free, for them and for us.
The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything. Astrology, politicized science, the One .....
which is not to say that those who are highly religious can't sometimes be fools and PITAs too. They can, because it's a human potential that manifests in all groups.
Jim Jones Compound in Guyana and his "Koolaid"
The Branch Davidians, ETC.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/19/2009 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
To Continue
Islam who preach that they will Kill ALL non Islamics (Y'all forget there's a war going on right now with "Religious Extremists"?)
Japan in WW2 who firmly believed their Emperor WAS God.
Kimmie who's trying right now to attain Godhood among the NORKS
No I don't believe, I've seen too much evil under the HOLY banner, but you seem able to ignore facts unless your nose is rubbed in shit first "Pappy".
And No, Just because I've Don't believe does NOT mean that I'm gullible enough to believe other plain scams like Tarot, Fortune tellers, palm reading Zodiac, or hundreds of other similar scams.
I was raised Episcopal until I actually READ the Bible and not forced to listen to other "HOLY" folks, telling me "What it really means".
Crap like Geology shows the earth far older than the Bible states, and being told (By a Priest, no less) that God made it that way to test our faith, either you believe in God, or the Lying Evidence of Your own Eyes.
Enough, I'm no longer Hag ridden by "ANY Religion" and the bullshit you're taught as HOLY TRUTH Not to be questioned.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/19/2009 14:42 Comments ||
Top||
#11
You mean like the Gulag, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, Pol Pot's killing fields, etc?
them was religious too... the people just worshiped their leader instead of a traditional divinity.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
09/19/2009 14:44 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Has anybody but me noticed that the
"Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems?
I would say deeply indoctrinated, whether these are Islamists, Gaia worshippers, atheists or liberals.
#13
IIRC a recent Ipsos poll in the UK revealed that a majority of (secular, post-modern post-Christian) Brits believe in parapsychology, communing with spirits, etc. Also, in Germany, where hardly anyone believes in God, about 30% of the populace believes that on 9/11 the Pentagon bombed the Pentagon. Recent polls of registered Democrats here indicate that 32% believe 9/11 was a conspiracy pulled off by Chimpy BusHitler ande Darth Cheney.
I'd say that maybe a third of any population is susceptible to a monstrous delusion of one kind or another. Size matters here: see Hitler's "big lie" theory.
#16
I was raised Episcopal until I actually READ the Bible and not forced to listen to other "HOLY" folks, telling me "What it really means".
Well that certainly explains your blame the Jews Holly Roller mindset. I also was raised Episcopalian and thus understand how you can sit through years and never get a clue what Christianity is about. Also explains why you were "surprised" when you actually read the bible. LOL! Who knew God wasn't Santa Claus?
If you want to argue your case, you've picked very bad examples. I suggest you actually go back and read what others here have said so that you aren't just like our blinkered Middle Eastern friends who spend their life assigning blame to a group of "very-bad-others" so they don't have to put much thought into complex issues. But then, it's so much easier that way, isn't it? Don't have to tax the brain to sort through human nature's ugly mess. You are good. They are bad. End of story.
#17
It's not a religion/non-religion thingy. Rather, it's trusting another member of the in-group. So Jews fall for Madoff, Shiites fall for Ezzedine, and non-believers fall for those clever guys and gals working at Lehman Brothers. The important thing here is how sudden massive poverty and an embarrassing connection will affect Hizb'allah's pull on Lebanese affairs in the short to medium term. Could it be, f'r instance, that Nasrallah's sudden announcement that Hizb'allah is not interested in war with Israel is connected?
#18
"Some farmers mortgaged their fields and brought in cash. Others sold land they had inherited from their parents. Teachers gave up all their savings. Old people lost everything they had."
Then they're idiots.
As are the people who gave Madoff their entire life savings to "invest" at some ridicuously high percent "return."
Madoff was a selfish, self-centered criminal SOB, but their own greed did them in in the end.
Same here. "Mortgaged their farms"; "sold their land"; what idiot does that? Now they're whining that they were scammed? Howzabout they remember you can't cheat an honest man?
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/19/2009 21:52 Comments ||
Top||
#19
OK the statemenrs I made ae being rewriten and derailed
thus understand how you can sit through years and never get a clue what Christianity is about.
Oh I got it, "Do as I say and Maybe you'll get aa reward long after it'll do you any good, and in a manner that nobody can verify"
The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.
NO it's a hard lesson that well meaning people WILL LIE to get you to do what THEY want you to do. Give me Money, of course it's NOT for me, but FOR GOD (and to pay for the church building's mortgage)along with saying do not accumulate material things (Like the gold candlesticks and lectern, the Priest's salary, and Fancy cloths bleached snowy white those DON"T COUNT)
what I'm speking of is the practice of NOT following the same "Lessons" we're taught
That "GOD"S HOUSE is somehow exempt.
To quote another saying "One set of rules for thee and another se for ME"
So common in Government today.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/19/2009 22:42 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Lots of Rantburg atheists agree with you about religion, Redneck Jim. If only we could figure out a way to prove one way or another, but that's the difference between faith and science. But because of your own faith, you might find it interesting to read Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible: A Historical Look at the Old and New Testaments. It's a tad dated now -- my copy is from 1988 -- but it addresses historical evidence as well as internal evidence, remembering that as a writer both of fact and fiction, the good doctor understood the various reasons a tale might be told. I reread it about every ten years
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them as they marched at the annual anti-Israel Quds Day rally in Tehran on Friday, witnesses said.
"Security forces just arrested over 10 people," a witness said. "They are pushing protesters and beating them."
Members of the Basij paramilitary force were deployed to suppress the protests in Tehran's Haft Tir square early in the day as clashes with protesters also had broken out in the holy city of Mashhad, Asfahan and the home town of Mousavi Tebriz, .
Hundreds of Iranians, wearing green accessories, shouted slogans in support of opposition leader Mousavi, as they marched at the rally in Tehran.
A witness told AFP that the crowds of young men and women, many wearing green wristbands, were shouting "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!" and also called for the release of political prisoners detained since the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election.
They also chanted "Don't be afraid, we are all together" and "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I will sacrifice myself for Iran," the witness said, adding the crowds were marching from the central Vali Asr square towards Tehran university.
Meanwhile, reformist sources told Al Arabiya that Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, a candidate also in last June's presidential elections, would be arrested following the protest.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had urged people last Friday to celebrate Quds Day and warned against using the event to stage anti-government protests.
Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election remains hotly contested by the opposition, was due to give a keynote address at the university later.
For the first time in decades, the sermon at the Quds Day prayers was not to be given by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who backed Mousavi in the election but hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami.
Rafsanjani has come under strong criticism from hardliners for speaking out against the conduct of the election during a key sermon in July in which he also called for the release of protesters detained in the post-election unrest.
Several opposition and reformist websites expressed disbelief at the apparent snub but Rafsanjani himself played it down.
"I don't think it is necessary that I always deliver the sermon on this day after 30 years," he said in an interview with state television's al-Alam Arabic-language channel.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11142 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
(Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that the Holocaust was a "myth" created by the West to support Israel.
"They (the West) created the myth of the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad said when addressing a crowd gathered at Tehran University at the end of the annual anti-Israel "Quds (Jerusalem) Day" rally.
"They lied and then support the Jews," he added.
"The pretext (Holocaust) for creating the Zionist regime (Israel) is a lie which relies on an unreliable and mythical claim," he said.
"The occupation of Palestinian territories has nothing to do with the Holocaust, and confronting the Zionist regime (Israel) isa national and religious duty," he added.
According to local English-language Press TV, millions of Iranians took to the streets in different cities to mark the annual Quds Day march in solidarity with Palestinians.
At the end of the rallies, a statement was issued in support of Palestinians, which said that the Iranians "support Palestinian resistance and Israel must avoid any new adventurism" in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11151 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Let them speak for 29,000 years of the myth of the giant glowing glass ashtray called tehran...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/19/2009 2:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd actually say it's a myth that Dinnerjacket won the elections.
Of course we don't have to speak about the Holocaust. But in 1945 when the Holocaust aleady was an undeniable fact, the Bristih had no intention at all to allow a "Zionist" regime or a Jewish state.
"The occupation of Palestinian territories has nothing to do with the Holocaust.."
Maybe not with THAT Holocaust and more with the holocaust the united armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria were planning?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/19/2009 18:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
@Mr Murcek
Frankly I'd prefer that the protest babes will hang Dinnerjacket and the Mullahs by their ***** (umm if they can find them, that is)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/19/2009 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ahmadinejad will be in New York on Monday. I just read this tidbit in the Weekly Standard:
Brzezinski suggests that Barack Obama do more than just refuse to support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites -- the American president must give the order to shoot down Israeli aircraft as they cross Iraqi airspace
Maybe Brzezinski and Dinnerjacket can get together and share a 'cocktail' or two.
#5
"must give the order to shoot down Israeli aircraft as they cross Iraqi airspace"
Bambi could give the order - but I suspect our pilots would miss....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/19/2009 22:07 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Bambi could give the order - but I suspect our pilots would miss....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut|| 2009-09-19 22:07
I would hope so, but I don't trust anyone educated in the last 20 years, regardless of which "side" they may be on. It's going to take hanging some people to bring back the kind of freedom our forebearers knew and enjoyed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/19/2009 23:02 Comments ||
Top||
#7
It's surreal to me that we're even having a discussion about our pilots possibly being given orders to shoot down planes of our allies. Unfortunately, there are 3 long years to go.
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
