Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Lebanon

Showing posts with label Lebanon. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Iranian general targeted in Damascus was also a member of Hezbollah's Shura Council

Naharnet adds a crucial detail to the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Mohammad Reza Zahedi last week.

An Iranian general killed in a strike in Syria's capital was a member of Hezbollah's Shura Council, the powerful Lebanese group's decision-making body, a source close to the movement said.

The April 1 air strike levelled the Iranian embassy's consular annex in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.

One of them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, the Guards' foreign operations arm.

Zahedi was the only non-Lebanese on Hezbollah's eight-member Shura Council, the equivalent of the powerful Shiite Muslim movement's political bureau, led by secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the source said, requesting anonymity because the matter is sensitive.

Nasrallah in a speech Monday paid homage to Zahedi and his colleagues killed in the strike, which Tehran and Damascus have blamed on Israel.

Zahedi "lived with us for long years, away from the spotlight, and provided important services to the resistance in Lebanon and the whole region," Nasrallah said Friday during a televised address.

Zahedi was essentially a top member of Hezbollah, not merely an adviser. That might have tipped the decision to kill him in the Iranian embassy compound. It appears to have been a legal strike anyway, but this strengthens Israel's legal case, as they were attacking a member of a group that they are actively engaged in hostilities against.

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Lebanese actress in trouble for not being antisemitic enough

Lebanese actress Pamela El-Kik, who has over 2 million Instagram followers, got into trouble for an antisemitic statement that wasn't antisemitic enough.

She said in an interview on Lebanon's MTV, “What I love about the Jews is that they bring each other together in the right way. This is the only thing that is right about them. Other than that, I do not like them at all.”

El-Kik was immediately pilloried for her statement that Jews have one attribute that is praiseworthy while everything else about them is awful.

She immediately issued a statement that her interview was recorded before the current fighting in Gaza, calling the Hamas terrorists "heroes."

She then posted photos of herself posing as a masked Palestinian terrorist, much to the delight of her fans.

All is forgiven!

The Lebanese might hate Hezbollah, but their antisemitism is bone-deep.

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Palestinian militants in Ein al-Hilweh break into houses and steal - bras

Lebanon24 reports that a man was interviewed by the new youth oriented Blinx network in the Lebanese camp Ein al-Hilweh.

The man, who didn't want his name used, spoke about how terrorists there stole everything from his house - even bras. He asked, "Why do they need bras?"

A Palestinian next to him then explained why Lebanese terrorists like bras.

"Bras are very important for the gunman... In Lebanon, during the civil war between 1975 and 1990, a civilian would cross the front lines and try to avoid being shot by a sniper. He would carry a bra and wave it over his head because it is like a transit card.

“My father used to tell us this and we used to laugh about it, but through many stories about the same subject I am now certain that it was true. That's why the gunman, if he wanted to cross from one place to another without a weapon, could carry this bra so that the snipers in the camp would think that he was a civilian. It's actually very funny."

The victim also said that his wife's jilbabs (long loose fitting robes that cover the entire body) were stolen as well, and he speculates that the Islamist terrorists use them to dress up as women so they would not be stopped and searched.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Lebanese Islamists blaming Israel for Palestinian infighting in Ein al-Hilweh - and prove they hate Palestinians themselves

The head of Hezbollah’s Sharia Committee, Sheikh Muhammad Yazbek, came up with a convoluted logic to explain how Palestinians fighting other Palestinians in the Ein al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon is really Israel's fault.

Al-Ahed News reports that "He said the only beneficiary of the Palestinian fighting, in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, is the Zionist enemy, which is working in various ways to end the Palestinian issue and eliminate the right of the Palestinians to return to their lands and Islamic and Christian sanctities, pointing out that what is happening inside the camp and in Syria in terms of fighting, siege, security threats and displacement is an American-Israeli decision, implemented with local tools aimed at weakening the axis of resistance and confusing it security-wise and economically to discourage it from confronting the American-Zionist project."

I think he is saying that the Fatah faction in Lebanon is a tool of Israel and the US.

But the Association of Muslim Scholars had a much better conspiracy theory blaming Israel for the infighting - one that they don't even realize shows how little they care about Palestinians.

VDLNews reports this insanity that the group issued a statement saying that what the Zionists want for the Ein al-Hilweh camp "is to destroy this camp as a prelude to displacing its people and then settling them either in Lebanon or in a country to which they emigrate, through enticement and intimidation, which leads to the complete cancellation of the right of return, which necessarily means an end to the Palestinian issue."

What this Islamic group is saying is that the worst thing for Palestinians is to become normal citizens of Arab countries. The best thing for them is to remain stuck in an overcrowded, dangerous tinderbox surrounded by a huge wall where they are not allowed to build, not allowed many jobs, not allowed to own land and at the mercy of terrorists who are trying to take over the camp.

And while the "right of return" is fiction, Palestinians in Jordan are citizens and still claim that right. Why can't Lebanese Palestinians?

No one hates Palestinians more than the Lebanese. Not the Israelis, not the Saudis...no one. And no one treats them as badly as the Lebanese do. But where the Lebanese really outdo themselves is in insisting that their maltreatment of Palestinians is for their own good. And the Palestinians themselves cannot publicly complain about their being treated like dirt, because they are at the mercy of those same Lebanese.

This is why about two thirds of all of Lebanon's "registered Palestine refugees" have left Lebanon and gone anywhere else they could.

Yet the media and human rights organizations remain largely silent. Funny how that works.

It's almost like they don't really care about Palestinians.

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The rocket threat from the West Bank is being ignored by the media - but it will change everything when it happens

One of the Hamas terrorists arrested by Israeli forces in Jenin on Monday was Abdallah Hassan Muhammad Zubah. He is known to be one of the major forces behind the nascent West Bank rocket firing attempts.

There have been several attempts to fire rockets over the past few months into Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. They've so far either misfired or landed away from the Jewish targets.

The luck won't hold out forever. The genie is out of the bottle and Hamas and other terror groups have plenty of experience building rockets which they are anxious to transfer to the West Bank.

As unacceptable as it is to have large arsenals of rockets in Gaza (and Lebanon) aimed at Jewish communities, in some ways rockets in the West Bank would be worse. Their targets are often very close by, and unlike with Hamas or Hezbollah, Israel has no government to pressure to stop the rockets from being fired - just as with in the West Bank can easily get M16s, they will soon be able to put together crude rockets.

Right now, Israeli forces can arrive on the scene of a terror attack within minutes in Judea and Samaria. It can pro-actively stop rocket launchers being setup if it has proper intelligence. But if Israel would unilaterally withdraw from areas of those territories, each incident becomes an invasion.

This is reason by itself that unilateral withdrawals, or a Palestinian state even on provisional borders, is a supremely bad idea.

But the rocket fire will come, sooner rather than later. Jewish communities will be threatened. The same "primitive" rockets with a two-mile range that reach Sderot from Gaza can also reach the suburbs of Netanya from Tulkarm.

Not enough people are considering the dangers of West Bank rockets - and the media won't care until they kill someone. If even then.

Now is the time that Israel needs to pro-actively let the media and world leaders know that any rocket that injures or kills an Israeli will prompt a massive response that can cause unpredictable results. The PA needs to be pressured by its international friends to step up its presence in the "refugee camps" and other areas it has effectively ceded to Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.

Because otherwise, as always, the world will be fixated on the "disproportionate" response more than the rockets themselves.

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The UAE both helped, and tried to hurt, Israel during UNIFIL resolution debates

The UN Security Council passed a resolution extending the mandate of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon for another year.

There were some points of contention during the debates. The major issue was that the original proposed language from France copied language from last year's resolution that Hezbollah and Lebanon opposed that gives freedom of movement to UNIFIL and allows it to travel without coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces. This is of course necessary for UNIFIL to be able to restrict Hezbollah activities there. As the US UN Ambassador Linda said after the vote:

We know UNIFIL has been unable to access a range of troubling sites across the Blue Line, including illegal firing ranges, Green Without Borders sites, rocket launch sites, and tunnel sites. It is clear the main purpose of these sites is to facilitate Hizballah’s operations in southern Lebanon along the Blue Line. This constrains the Mission from fully achieving the directives set forth in the mandate and hinders the Mission’s ability to reduce the likelihood of conflict.

The political drama between China and Russia, taking Hezbollah's side, and the US and UAE taking the anti-Hezbollah side, was interesting:

A key point of contention was language introduced by resolution 2650 saying that, pursuant to the Agreement on the Status of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (SOFA), which was signed between Lebanon and the UN in 1995, “UNIFIL does not require prior authorization or permission to undertake its mandated tasks” and that it “is authorized to conduct its operation independently”.

...During the negotiations, China and Russia apparently supported Lebanon’s position and requested the removal of language introduced in resolution 2650 on UNIFIL not needing prior authorisation to undertake its tasks and demanding that the parties guarantee UNIFIL’s freedom of movement, “including by allowing announced and unannounced patrols”. These members demanded the replacement of this text with language saying that “UNIFIL shall benefit from freedom of movement in coordination with the government of Lebanon”. While recognising that coordination between UNIFIL and the LAF is a valuable factor, it seems that the penholder and several other members held the view that coordination is not a precondition for UNIFIL to carry out its mandated functions.

The draft resolution placed in blue on 29 August attempted to bridge these diverging positions. Although it retained language reaffirming that, pursuant to the SOFA, UNIFIL does not require prior authorisation to undertake its tasks and that it is authorised to conduct its operations independently, the phrase “while continuing to coordinate with the Government of Lebanon, as per the SOFA” was added and the reference to “announced and unannounced patrols” was removed. However, it seems that the UAE was particularly unhappy with these changes, apparently leading France to reinsert the language on “announced and unannounced patrols” in the revised draft resolution put in blue yesterday. The reference to coordination with the Lebanese government “as per the SOFA” still appears in the revised text.

So the UAE was more hawkish on Hezbollah than France was. Good to know.

Northern Ghajar is Syrian territory, not Lebanese, and Israel intended to withdraw but then the Syrian civil war broke out. Also the residents do not want to have their town divided again. Most are Israeli citizens.

But then the UAE turned around and tried to insert language condemning Israel for "occupying" a tiny part of southern Lebanon:

The first draft text included a new preambular reference “expressing concern at the continued occupation of northern Ghajar,” a village which straddles the Blue Line, “and an adjacent area north of the Blue Line”. This is in addition to operative language already contained in resolution 2650 urging Israel to expedite the withdrawal of its army from northern Ghajar. Although the UAE proposed “condemning” the occupation, it appears that this change was not made, while the term “occupation” was replaced by “the continued Israeli presence” to accommodate the US’ position on this issue.

Following requests by some members—including China, Russia, and the UAE—both references to northern Ghajar were changed during the negotiations to “northern Ghajar and an adjacent area north of the Blue Line, in the outskirts of the town of Al-Mari”, to reflect more closely the language preferred by Lebanon to refer to this area. While this language still appeared in the draft that was put in blue on 29 August, the reference to “the outskirts of the town of Al-Mari” was removed from the amended draft that was put in blue yesterday in a likely concession to the US, which had consistently opposed this language during the negotiations.

The UAE is pushing its weight at the Security Council.

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The Lebanese have always denied Palestinians access to their water network. Almost no one knows, and no one cares.

I spend a lot of time reading reports and news articles about how terribly Palestinians are treated in Lebanon - they cannot become citizens, they cannot access many jobs, there are many laws discriminating against them, they may not build in the camps, they cannot own land outside the camps. It is official, widespread and sanctioned discrimination that is far closer to apartheid than anything Israel has ever done.

But sometimes I still learn something.

UN Habitat wrote a long report on the State of Lebanese cities in 2021. On page 134, I saw something that surprised even me:

Water access standards is one of a range of determinants of slum living conditions. By definition, there are substantial differences between slum and non-slum households in terms of access to water and sanitation. The non-inclusion of slum settlements from service provision is often directly related to the legal tenure of the land in question. The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme promotes the ‘need to enact laws and policies to dissociate the tenure status from service provision’ (WWAP, 2019:105). Palestinian camps, officially not connected to the public network, are relevant urbansited instances

I may be the first person on the planet to read page 134 of this report.

By and large, Palestinian camps in Lebanon are located in the middle of urban areas. The existing water infrastructure might not be ideal but it exists.

Lebanon decided long ago to deny Palestinian access to municipal water.

One would think that some NGO might have written about this over the past 75 years. But it is really hard to find anyone even elliptically talking about this.

Interpal says, "Palestinian refugees are forced to buy unregulated drinking water from local vendors." The World Health Organization says, "In Shatila, drilled wells within the camp provide water for drinking and other domestic purposes. These wells are managed by entrepreneurs who sell the water to residents, and distribute it as drinking water to households."

No one seems to ask why Lebanon never extended their water supply that already surrounds the camps into the camps themselves. And the people who clearly know about this don't seem to be very bothered by it.

There is a massive amount of anti-Israel reports published by NGOs and the media. New ones appear literally every day - the UN has a weekly newsletter listing them. Hardly any of them even mention human rights abuses against Palestinians outside those that are blamed on Israel.

Interestingly, whenever I mention a problem like this on Twitter, the Israel haters are so offended that they try to change the subject back to how Israel is the worst violator of human rights in the history of mankind.

This bias hurts Palestinians because they cannot even get basic media coverage of their very real suffering in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. No one is interested in these issues because the giant NGO industry is fueled by antisemitism, and they actively discourage highlighting any problem that doesn't blame Israel.

No Jews, no news.

(h/t Irene)

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Terrorist groups have now seized eight UNRWA schools in Lebanon

From Naharnet:

An explosion was heard at dawn inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The explosion resulted from “a hand grenade that was hurled near a school belonging to the UNRWA agency in the camp’s al-Fawqani street,” NNA said, adding that the incident caused no casualties.

UNRWA had reported Saturday that another school compound was taken over by armed groups in the camp.

“This brings the total number of schools taken over by armed groups in the camp to eight, risking the start of the school year in time for 5,900 children,” UNRWA warned.

“We are getting credible reports of severe damage to the school buildings and looting of children’s education material and equipment from the schools,” it said.

The Lebanese camp of Ein el-Hilweh gets worse and worse, but since there is no actual shooting and Israel can't be blamed, no one cares too much.

Just like you almost never read about the concrete wall surrounding the camp since 2017.

Yes, Lebanon really keeps Palestinians in an open-air prison. Banksy doesn't seem to care too much.

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The Jerusalem Post reports:

Lebanon’s National Security Ministry confiscated Israeli goods from store shelves around the country, its National Security Ministry announced, according to Lebanese media reports on Tuesday.

It is unknown how the Israeli goods ended up in commercial centers in Lebanon, as the two countries do not have diplomatic relations and do not engage in trade.

According to the reports, the Lebanese ministry stated that “relevant parties had been summoned for questioning.”

According to Ynet, among the Israeli goods confiscated in Lebanon were kitchen towels from the Netanya-based home goods company, Golf & Co. as well as sealing strips from PROMAX.

This doesn't come close to capturing the absurdity of Lebanon's zealousness at enforcing Article 285 of the Lebanese penal code which prohibits trade with an enemy state.

Lebanese State Security released this video dramatizing how their strangely masked employees received the information of the dangerous goods, then enter a vehicle while heavily armed, where they race down the streets in order to confiscate the contraband that is, shudder, "MADE IN ISRAEL."

It is a clown show, yet they are taking this all so seriously.

The entire country is going to hell, but at least Lebanese citizens can sleep at night knowing that their security forces are protecting them from Zionist kitchen towels.

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Amnesty's position on "freedom of expression" in films is curiously one-sided

Today, Amnesty International tweeted this:

Amnesty is saying that banning a movie is a violation of freedom of expression. Amnesty is against all forms of censorship - the allegation that the movie promotes homosexuality does not seem to be the issue at all, just freedom of expression.

However, when Lebanon bans movies for having Israeli actors or producers, Amnesty has not said a word. Isn't that the exact same violation of freedom of expression?

Perhaps not according to Amnesty. Because they do support some boycotts - boycotts against Israel.

Amnesty says, "Advocating for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is a form of non-violent advocacy and of free expression that must be protected."

BDS advocates boycotting the free speech of Israelis on college campuses, and its boycotters do all they can to get venues outside Israel to cancel any talk by an Israeli. Similarly, they threaten artists not to play in Israel , which is another violation of freedom of expression.

How, exactly, is Algeria and Kuwait's boycotts of a movie for religious reasons (whether or not their objections are accurate) a violation of free speech, while Israel-haters' boycotts of movies with Israelis are an example of free speech?

In both cases, the boycotters are the ones that are trying to shut down free speech. You cannot have it both ways.

The analogy isn't perfect - government censorship is different than people deciding to boycott on their own, which of course is their right. But Amnesty has condemned a number of countries for censoring films with LGBTQ themes, and not one word for censoring films with Israeli links.

They are both equally guilty of violating freedom of expression, but only one upsets Amnesty.

It sure sounds like Amnesty's concern for freedom of expression only extends to expression that they agree with.

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Ein al-Hilweh camp: Terrorists still control schools, 200-400 homes destroyed - and human rights groups silent

On Friday, UNRWA issued a situation report on the Lebanese Ein el-Hilweh camp where there had been fierce fighting at the start of the month.

While the media has largely lost interest as the cease fire took hold, the camp is still largely controlled by terror groups:

Reports indicate that armed fighters are allegedly still deployed in some areas and continue to be intermittently present in UNRWA schools in the northern schools compound, along with the nearby UNRWA camp services office – a serious violation of the neutrality of UNRWA installations. The reported presence of fighters in areas around the school compound has prevented UNRWA staff from accessing these installations. Reports indicate that the ongoing presence of armed fighters in some areas is also preventing the return of some residents to their homes.

At a Thursday press conference, Director of UNRWA affairs in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus added more information, saying that between 200-400 houses were completely destroyed. A UNRWA school complex for over 3,000 children had been “violated" and other schools and a health center were also damaged.

She noted that “it is s not safe for any UN personnel to access (some) areas currently, we’re also not having clearance from the Lebanese military to go inside those areas on the Lebanese military being in control of access to the Ein El-Hilweh camp.”

Far more houses were destroyed by the fighters in Ein el Hilweh than were destroyed by Israel in Gaza in May - but unlike for Gaza, there are no news articles about these destroyed homes with interviews of distraught homeless Palestinians.

Amnesty has not issued a single press release about the fighting and damage. Neither has Human Rights Watch.

If they cared so much about the welfare of Palestinians, then why haven't they condemned the fighting and ongoing militant control of large swaths of the camp?

This is again more proof that human rights is not what drives obsessive NGO and media coverage of Israeli actions, but old fashioned antisemitism.

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End the Lebanese and Jordanian occupation of Palestine!

I love when I tweet and the Israel haters are reduced to gibberish in response.

I had tweeted,

Proof #619 that calling Israel "apartheid" is antisemitic:

Lebanon treats Palestinians worse than Israel by every conceivable yardstick. Discrimination is enshrined in law. Yet no one accuses Lebanon of "apartheid."

The responses from modern antisemites were all along the lines of:

"Whataboutism!" (meaning, don't talk about Palestinian suffering unless it can be blamed on Israel)

"You are a liar!" (without any links or proof)

"Of course it's apartheid - everyone says so!" (appeal to authority fallacy)

But a couple of people responded with something like, "Lebanon isn't occupying Palestinian territory!"

Are they sure?

Here's a map of Palestine from 1870:

It includes large amounts of todays Lebanon as well as much of today's Jordan.

How come no Palestinian is upset at the occupation of Lebanon and Jordan of Palestine?

But, you might respond, this is a Western map. Maybe Arabs felt that Palestine before 1923 included the exact borders of the British Mandate and no more.

Well, here is a 1918 map of Palestine, labeled as such, in Arabic:

It doesn't include Lebanon but a great deal of Jordan is included in this map.

Based on this map, it sure looks like at least Jordan is occupying ancient sacred Palestinian lands!

Why aren't we seeing Palestinians demanding "Free Palestine from Jordan and (maybe) Lebanon!"

Maybe for the same reason that the PLO in 1964 didn't claim the West Bank or Gaza as being part of "Palestine."

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Iranian-based Islamic group blames Palestinians killing each other in Lebanon on the JOOOOZ

The World Assembly for Islamic Awakening, an Iranian-based group, issued a statement about the deadly clashes in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon.

Of course, they blame Israel.

The armed clashes in the Palestinian camp of Ain al-Hilweh, located in southern Lebanon, are considered a bitter event, behind which the seditious hand of the criminal Zionist entity is clearly evident.

Today, the Zionist terrorist entity is going through the most critical stages of its life, and the depth and scope of its existential and identity crises are increasing every day. It has been ravaged by internal tensions and divisions of the army, intelligence and security, and political tendencies, and so that its weakness has intensified even against the Palestinian resistance factions equipped with the least military capabilities.

During the battles of the past two years, this entity's machine of war, terrorism and violence has been paralyzed and defeated, despite its advanced weapons and powerful missile and defense systems, so that it cannot achieve victory even in a war with the smallest factions of the Palestinian resistance.

The field and political results of the aforementioned circumstances clearly show that the Zionist apartheid entity is now in a state of destruction and collapse.

In order to escape from the dilemma experienced by the Zionist occupation entity, the leaders of this entity resorted, with the support of America, to create discord within the Palestinian resistance factions, among which are the recent events in Ain al-Hilweh camp, which is one of its dimensions.

By fueling the clashes in Ain al-Hilweh, the Zionist occupation seeks to achieve three main goals, firstly diverting public opinion from the critical situation of this entity at home, and as a result gaining time to get out of the existing crisis, and secondly creating conflict within the Palestinian Islamic resistance factions and focusing them on internal tensions and war sectarianism, and thirdly, the escalation of the internal situation in Lebanon, as a result of which it prevented the formation of the government and tarnished the image and reputation of Hezbollah.

Palestinians kill Palestinians, and they blame the Jews.

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Abbas once again tells Palestinians in Lebanon to go to hell

From Sama News:

Today, Monday, President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from the head of the Lebanese Phalange Party, Sheikh Sami Gemayel.

The President discussed with Gemayel, during the phone call, the unfortunate events that took place in Ain El-Hilweh camp.

He stressed support for what the government and the army are doing in Lebanon in order to impose law and order.

The President stressed that the Palestinian presence in Lebanon is temporary until they return to the homes from which they were expelled according to international resolutions.

That last sentence is a coded message, saying that Abbas - as head of the PLO, and therefore ostensibly the leader of all Palestinians worldwide - would not ask Lebanon to give citizenship to Palestinians who have lived there, stateless, for 75 years.

Abbas has said this explicitly in the past, numerous times.

Which means that his official position is for Palestinians in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries should not become citizens of those countries - they must remain without any national protection until Israel is destroyed or somehow forced to commit suicide via "return" to destroy it as a Jewish state.

The cynicism of this position is breathtaking. The closest thing the Palestinians have to a leader wants to use his own people as pawns, with no national rights in the countries where generations have been born, lived and died.

The cynicism does not end there, though. Because in 2005, Mahmoud Abbas had a completely different position, as reported then in AFP:

DUBAI, 12 July 2005 — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees to give them citizenship, insisting such a move would not compromise their right of return.

“I call upon every Arab government wishing to give citizenship (to Palestinian refugees) to do so. What is wrong with that?” he said in an interview with Dubai Television late Sunday.

But the Palestinian Authority president insisted that obtaining citizenship in a host-country should not compromise the right to return to their homeland of which many Palestinian refugees dream.

“This does not mean resettlement (of refugees). A Palestinian would return to his homeland whenever he is allowed, whether he carried an Arab or non-Arab citizenship,” he said. “A fifth-generation Palestinian living in Chile also wishes to return when allowed ... It is an emotional matter, not related to citizenship,” he added.

The Palestinian leader, who visited Syria and Lebanon last week — both host to hundreds of thousands of refugees, slammed claims that the Arab League had banned naturalization of refugees as “mere excuses”. “There is no decision ... the Arab League only recommended (not to grant citizenship) but this was not a decision,” he said.

Once upon a time, Mahmoud Abbas asked Arab countries to naturalize Palestinian "guests." But only a couple of years later, he changed his position to being against them becoming citizens.

What caused the about-face?

Chances are, Lebanon and Syria and maybe also the Gulf countries that host hundreds of thousands of Palestinians told him to shut up. They don't want Palestinians to become citizens. And probably Hamas took advantage and portrayed Abbas as being weak on the mythical "right to return."

Whatever the reason, Abbas switched from acting as a real leader that tries to help his people into a corrupt leader who simply wants to abuse his people for his own political purposes.

Abbas was right in 2005. Citizenship has nothing to do with "return." Palestinian citizens of Jordan are given the clear message that they will lose citizenship if "return" would become an option. And for whatever bizarre reason, even though most of them are citizens of a state, they are still called "refugees" by the international community.

And Palestinians, when given the rare chance to become citizens of other countries, eagerly take that option. So those who say that Palestinians prefer statelessness to becoming citizens of their countries are simply liars.

Each stateless Palestinian adds an infinitesimal amount of pressure on Israel. That is the only reason for insisting that Palestinians remain stateless. Which proves that to Palestinian leaders, their own people's lives are worthless.

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What would a Palestinian state look like? Look at Ain el-Hilweh, Lebanon

From Naharnet on Sunday:

Clashes renewed Sunday in the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon between the secular Fatah Movement and hardline Islamist groups.

TV networks said the fighting resumed after a senior Fatah commander was killed in an ambush.

An Islamist had been killed and six people including children had been injured in overnight clashes in the camp.

Key Sidon highways were closed to traffic on Sunday as stray bullets and shells landed in various areas of the major southern Lebanese city.

Clashes between rival groups are common in Ain al-Helweh, which is home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Syria.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese Army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain al-Helweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

The Palestinian Authority and its sycophants claim that they would take care of law and order, but Israel's raids of Palestinian areas makes the PA security forces look weak and they lose respect of the populace, which is what cause many armed militias to arrive on the scene to fill the vacuum. If only Israel would leave Area A alone, the claim goes, the Palestinian Authority would be able to enforce law and order.

Ain el-Hilweh is a social experiment that proves this thesis false.

Lebanese troops do not enter. All security is provided by Palestinians. This is the situation that Palestinians want to see in PA-controlled areas - no outsiders, and security provided exclusively by Palestinians.

The result? They cannot govern themselves effectively. They cannot live in peace with each other. They regularly endanger their own people. Two UNRWA schools were damaged and children have been injured in the fighting;UNRWA is suspending all services and operations so the people will suffer even more.

This is how Palestinians treat each other without any outside interference.

And they cannot use the excuse of being in dire straits - which they are - because that should make a people want to work together even more, not use deadly force on each other.

If you want to see what a Palestinian state would look like, look at Ain el-Hilweh.

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