The "Taef Accord" Asylum
By: Elias Bejjan
January 28/2005

Without exception, those in charge of government in Lebanon, including presidents, members of parliament, officials and politicians, and all the other peddlers of resistance and stale ideologies, are in a mental state of Schizophrenia. Disconnected as they are from the world around them, the folks of the "Taef Accord", have built themselves an imaginary world shielded by the walls of their ignorance and subservience, closed off all windows of logic and reason, and gave the keys to the the "Baath Party" Master (Wali), who squats happily laughing his days, in the Syria Army headquarters, at the city of Anjar.

From a mere scientific perspective, Schizophrenia is not a contagious disease. But as it has struck the "Taef Accord", people back in the homeland, the disease seems to have been transmitted by a bug from the neighbors, the Baathist rulers of the bad sister in Damascus, and by the desert viruses of the realm of stale ideologies and fundamentalisms. It appears therefore that the only appropriate cure to the disease afflicting all these people is the same ablative shock that cured Saddam, brought him back to the real world and saved the Iraqis.

What reasonable - sane ruler, politician or clergyman is he who, reading from the book of Syrian occupation, says that UN Resolution 1559, that demands the return of denied Lebanese independence, the reinstatement of repressed liberties, and the emancipation of violated sovereignty, and hostage decision-making, is in the interests of Israel, or is aimed against Syria, or worse yet, is a project for internal strife in Lebanon?

What rotten minds have these leaders and presidents to reject the liberation of their own nation from the abomination of foreign armies, the spread of the authority of the State, the protection of its borders with its own army exclusive of other armed militias, the freedom from fundamentalist barbaric terrorist groups, and the return of Lebanon to the state of an independent nations?

What wisdom and conscience is there for the three-headed Excellencies, President Lahoud, PM, Karami, House Speaker, Berri, and with them the Minister of Defense, Abdel Rahim Mourad, to link Lebanon’s return to its people with the implementation of all 1,300 UN Resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict, beginning with Resolution 194 (November 12, 1948), through Resolution 242 (November 22, 1967), and on to Resolution 338 (January 25, 1973)?

Since the "Balfour Declaration" of November 2, 1916, the Israeli-Arab conflict is now nearing its 100th anniversary. Chronic and complex, this conflict may have to wait another 100 years before a complete and comprehensive solution is found for it. Should Lebanon remain a hostage, occupied, sidelined, and denied its free decision-making, and the Lebanese people be kept under the boots of the occupier and in the torture dungeons, while all the other Arab countries, including the big sister, Syria, and the Palestinians, have reconciled themselves with the State of Israel, recognized its existence, ended the state of war with it, and established diplomatic and commercial relations with it?

Psychiatry cannot find as sane a Lebanese who links the fate of his country with UN resolution 149, that demands a return of the Palestinian refugees to their country, when the latest Arab summit in Beirut chaired by his Excellency the General, President Lahoud, concluded that no decision shall be taken without the approval of Israel which categorically rejects the return of displaced Palestinians?

As to the tragic and comical in the theater of the dummies at home, is the logic of Mr. Elie Ferzli, Minister of Information and "journalist" by intellect and penchant, who says that implementing Resolution 1559 will lead to the settlement of the Palestinians in Lebanon, failure to disarm their militias, and to civil strife. Similarly a case of massive epidemic verbal diarrhea appears to have infected Dr. Hoss, MP, Nasser Qandil, MP, Baathist, Abou-Jassoum Qanso, and all the other for-hire court babblers who continue to express their skepticism about the credibility of Resolution 1559..

Then again, Hizbollah Party General Secretary, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, whose party is the subject of one of the principal clauses of Resolution 1559, has called for a Lebanese referendum on whether or not his party should keep its weapons, and whether, or not the Syrian Army should stay in Lebanon. Funny how this venerable Sheikh recasts democracy as he pleases to fit his plans and keep his little parasitic kingdom afloat. At times he says that "We are the army of Syria in Lebanon if it withdraws", and then he brandishes the weapon of numerical majority, but always pontificating on treason and patriotism.

If the rulers of Lebanon are afflicted with schizophrenia, Sheikh Nasrallah’s problem is that he insults, deprecates and takes the patriotic Lebanese for fools. He underestimates their intelligence and their knowledge of everything that has gone on for decades, of his "resistance" and lack thereof, even if they were silent and acquiesced when they had to.

Sheikh Nasrallah’s call for a referendum about maintaining the Syrian forces of occupation in Lebanon is an insult to the dignity of the Lebanese, and an act of provocation aimed at them and at their values. The Lebanese people never ever, as he well knows, agreed to live under occupation, or be subjected to the will of a foreigner. The demand of the Sheikh simply means that he rejects the article of the Lebanese constitution that stipulates that "Lebanon is a free and independent nation, the ultimate nation of all the Lebanese, land, people and institutions, in its borders as defined by the constitution, and as internationally recognized". Will Sheikh Nasrallah come forward and explain to the Lebanese people his rationale of rejection this fundamental precept of the existence of Lebanon as a nation?

In the end, UN Resolution 1559 will be implemented, whether Syria likes it or not. Our leaders, officials and men of the cloth ought to awaken to that blaring fact. And those among them who suffer from Schizophrenia or Megalomania, we recommend they consult with the nearest psychiatric clinic, because, thankfully, there are very effective treatments that are imported from the lands of Uncle Sam, the USA and the Loving Mother, France, and which have been used on Saddam and his Baath who were inflicted with a similar disease.

And let those who have ears listen, before it is too late. The sick is not to blame, and God is forgiving and merciful to those who seek repentance.

God Bless Lebanon

Elias Bejjani
*Human Rights activist, journalist & political commentator.
*Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
*Media Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
E.Mail phoenicia@hotmail.com  LCCC Web Site http://www.10452lccc.com