hizballah and the national dialogue

Lebanon had been occupied by the Syrian Army for 30 years.
Last year, the assassination of the powerful Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri accelerated the political events in Beirut. Pressure from the Lebanese people and from foreign countries led to the Syrian withdrawal.
For the first time, since 1975 the Lebanese people and politicians were left alone to deal with their disagreements and with their contradictions.
Peacebuilding started in Lebanon. The first concrete step towards conflict transformation was the setting up of a “national dialogue”; which integrated all the main parties, movements and political leaders in the country. The role of the participants in the national dialogue was to discuss all the controversial issues facing the Lebanese after the Syrian withdrawal and to come out with a certain consensus.
This has been considered a first strong step; however it needs a dialogue among the Lebanese from different socio-political and religious backgrounds to strengthen the transformation in Lebanon.

Many controversial issues were tackled during the national dialogue and the participants reached a kind of consensus on many of them except on one important issue which is the disarming of Hizballah.
For those who do not know, Hizballah a Lebanese, Shia militia at its creation in the eighties was supported by Iran and nowadays it is being supported by Iran and Syria. Hizballah was the resistance guerilla during the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon that ended in May 2000. Since, the withdrawal, the Lebanese society has been divided to two. One group, supported by the new anti-Syrian government considers that all the Lebanese territories have been freed and therefore there is no longer a need to have Hizballah armed. Another group, mainly Hizballah, another Shia movement called Amal and the Syrian allies, consider that there are still the Shebaa farms under the Israeli occupation and therefore the resistance should continue and Hizballah should not be disarmed. (Some consider the Shebaa farms to be Syrian and not Lebanese.)
Hizballah, the main actor in this conflict was clear in its position: “We refuse to disarm, the Israeli danger has not ended yet, and we can be attacked at any moment. Our arms are to protect the Lebanese sovereignty.”
The government and its allies, the other main actor in the conflict had a different position: “We have to disarm Hizballah. Our land is not occupied and we have no battlefields anymore.”
Syria, the foreign actor is refusing to submit the legal papers that clarify its ownership of the shebaa farms, because it is in its own interest to keep Hizballah’s arms.
Iran, the other foreign actor is still supporting Hizballah in its fight against Israel by providing the arms.
Regardless of the foreign actors in this conflict; there is an important element to the conflict which is that both Lebanese groups have the same need which is security, the homeland security.

The good news is that the participants in the national dialogue did not stick to their positions; instead they looked into the common need for security and started discussing the “Strategic Defense mechanism of Lebanon”.
This means that there is a sincere will to solve this conflict.

Peacemakers

I am reading a book on Peacemakers, People who changed the world. Jane Breskin Zalben chose 16 personalities that “were brave enough to try to make the world a better place”.
You can find in the book one page bibliography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche, Mother Teresa, JF Kennedy, Anwar El Sadat, Cesar Chavez, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King, Jr, Anne Frank, The Dalai Lama, Wangari Maathai, Aung San Suu Kyi and Princess Diana.
What strikes me is that there is only one Arab personality. What does that say? Does it make sense now why we haven’t had peace in the Middle East for centuries? The first name that came to my mind was Philip Habib. Why wasn’t he mentioned in the book, then I said to myself aha yes because the author had chosen personalities that worked for peace AND inspired millions to take the same path.
Then again , I come back to my first reaction: We do not have Middle Eastern Peacemakers!!! We do not have people to inspire us, to empower us and to make us dare to dream about peace and harmony!! We only have Bin Ladens and Zarqawis that are pushing us to the wrong direction, to the dark side of humanity.
That is a scary thing!!

P.S. The book is entitled: “Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World” by Jane Breskin Zalben, 2006

Iraqi Trauma

I have been working on Trauma Healing with a group of Iraqis from different areas. The sessions were always challenging and emotional. It is so impressive and scary to see men and women crying in front of you, talking about their fears and worst nightmares.
Who said that Arab men don't cry????? I have seen Iraqi men, from places like Baakuba, Samara (places where the media qualifies as very dangerous with ruthless men) crying and suffering because of the war in Iraq. Everybody in Iraq is suffering.
A few days ago I have received an email from one of my friends from the Trauma Healing workshop; he wanted my help.
He said:"Dear Laury, I am witnessing something frightening in my town. Many of the kids in the town have seen their fathers killed by the Coalition Forces and now they want revange. They are only thinking of revange, they are not mourning their death, they are not crying their loss. They have lost interest in everything, they are not going to school, they are staying out of their houses, thinking and planning for revange. I see them in front of my eyes, young bright kids turning into criminals and murderers. What can I do, I am helpless."
This was the latest email I received from Iraq two days ago. This is what is happening in Iraq, this is in a way the untold story of terrorism in Iraq. Can I call it "forced" terrorism? Yes, kids are being dragged to violence because they are only seeing violence around them, they are seeing that violence is prevailing. How can we change their views?