Three examples from the U.S Congress: Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, announced the cessation of all military aid to Lebanon following the incident that took place on the third of August, where an Israeli officer was killed along with three Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese civilian. Meanwhile, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, said, “It has become clear that assistance to Lebanon has not advanced U.S national security interests”. Rep. Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, said the United States looked the other way for too long “as the lines between Hezbollah and the Lebanese military and government became blurred.” All three representatives are Likudnik Jewish Americans who place the interests of Israel above those of the United States itself. I would like to remind Berman that he failed to take a decision against Israel when an Israeli bulldozer brutally killed the American citizen Rachel Corrie, a peace activist, and instead took action in solidarity with a soldier whose main job is to kill or be killed. And to Lehtinen I say that each and every vote of hers in the Congress was contrary to U.S national security interests, because her blind support for Israel antagonizes 1.2 billion Muslims against her country, and gives the terrorists the excuse to engage in terror. As for Cantor, I would like to tell him that Hezbollah is essentially from Lebanon, and has both supporters and opponents inside the country. However, Israel is an intruder to the region, and his permanent stances in Israel's favor damage ‘his country's' interests, and endanger the lives of Americans abroad. There are tens, and perhaps hundreds, of the likes of these three musketeers. I might even add a fourth musketeer from outside of the Congress to the other three. It is the State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley. Crowley was outraged by the Iranian offer to replace the United States in providing military aid to Lebanon, and said that the Iranian offer would damage, waken or threaten Lebanon's sovereignty. I would like to tell Crowley that what harms this sovereignty much, much more is the fact that the United States gives Israel each year 3 billion dollars' worth of advanced weapons, as the latter occupies the lands of the Palestinians, murders, destroys and steals homes. This is not to mention the bigger harm to the American taxpayers, as Israel receives each year more than ten billion dollars in direct and indirect American aid, even when Israel is the largest threat to the vital foreign interests of the United States. As a Lebanese citizen, I do not want and even reject aid from Iran. I go further and say that I do not believe the offer in the first place, because it aims at gaining cheap popularity, while any support provided by the United States to Israel would mean a loss for the U.S among the Arabs and the Muslims. In my same capacity as a Lebanese citizen, I announce my support for Hezbollah against Israel, without reservations or questions, while objecting to some of its internal practices. In fact, I have criticized Hezbollah in this column when it used its arms in Beirut on the seventh of May two years ago, and I continue to hold this position today. Berman announced a moratorium on all military assistance to Lebanon on the ninth of this month, which is the same day Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. I personally do not believe this but nonetheless say “I wish it were so”, and would do anything to see the accusation proven against Israel. To this very day, I still read Israeli comments that echo the American arrogance in dealing with the border incident between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli army, and also regarding the assassination of Rafik Hariri. In short, the Israeli press has decided that Hezbollah was involved in the border incident, while there is no proof what so ever of this. Even the UNIFIL, which endorsed the Israeli account against that of the Lebanese army, did not accuse Hezbollah of any involvement. The Israeli press has also decided that Hezbollah was behind the assassination of Hariri, after having accused Syria of this over four years following his killing in 2005. The Israeli press is deceiving both itself and the people, and the reason is Israel's fear from Hezbollah. Any future war with Iran would also mean war with Hezbollah. It is said that this group has ten thousand, and perhaps 20 thousand rockets on the border with Israel, and there is no way to intercept them. This means that any devastation would take place at the hands of this nearby enemy [of Israel], and not the faraway Iran. I accuse the American representatives and the Israeli extremists to be enemies of Israel, as much as they are the enemies of Arabs and Muslims. I would like to warn them that they are digging Israel's grave with their own hands, because they will never be able to impose this state against the will of 300 million Arabs and 1.2 billion Muslims. If they fail to work for a peaceful solution, in which the Palestinians obtain 22 percent of the land of Palestine, the day will come when Israel will be attacked with weapons of mass destruction, and probably not from Iran, a day when we shall all pay the price for extremism. There is no secret or magic in the matter. There is a race between a peaceful solution and nuclear terrorism, and he who shall live, shall see. [email protected]
