When Richard Carleton Interviewed Ghassan Kanafani

Here is my transcription of the late Australian broadcast journalist Richard Carleton's 1970 interview with the Beirut-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) spokesman Ghassan Kanafani, as posted by the Lebanese-American academic Asad Abukhalil (otherwise known as The Angry Arab) on his Twitter feed on 25/6/19.

But first a word from Kanafani's Danish wife Anni to put you in the picture regarding what you are about to read:

"If none of the hundreds of foreign correspondents who filled the by then legendary office at Al-Hadaf [the PFLP's newspaper] were unable to put Ghassan down in a dialogue, it was because the answers he always gave were penetrating, sharp and accurate, the main reason being that the cause which he was defending - the Palestinian revolutionary struggle - is a just one." (Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine Research Center, 1973)

Note also that I have modified some of Kanafani's syntax for greater clarity of meaning:

Richard Carleton: Of the 11 Palestinian movements the most radical of all is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)... It was the Popular Front that hijacked and blew up 3 [sic] jet aircraft at Revolution Airport in the Jordanian desert... The Beirut leader of the Popular Front is Ghassan Kanafani. He was born in Palestine but fled in 1948, as he puts it from Zionist terror. Since then he's been plotting the destruction of both the Zionists and the reactionary Arabs.
Ghassan Kanafani: I know what I know really that the history of the world is always the history of weak people fighting strong people, of weak people, who have a correct case, fighting strong people, who use their strength to exploit the weak.
RC: Turn to the fighting that's been going on in Jordan in recent weeks.* It's your organisation that's been one side of the fight. What has it achieved?
GK:  One thing. That we had a case to fight for. That's a lot. This people, the Palestinian people, prefer to die standing than to lose its case. We proved that King [Hussein] is wrong. We proved that this Palestinian nation is going to continue fighting until victory. We proved that our people can never be defeated. We taught every single person in this world that we are a small, brave nation who are prepared to fight to the last drop of blood for justice for ourselves after the world failed to give it to us. This is what we achieved.
RC: It does seem that the war, the civil war, has been quite fruitless.
GK: It is not a civil war. It's a people defending themselves against a fascist government which you are defending simply because King Hussein has an Arafat problem. It's not a civil war.
RC: Well, the conflict...
GK:  It's not a conflict. It's a liberation movement fighting for justice.
RC: Well, whatever it might be best called...
GK:  Not whatever, because this is where the problem starts. Because this is what makes you ask all your questions. This is exactly where the problem starts. This is a people who are discriminated against fighting for their rights. This is the story. If you say it's a civil war, then your question will be justified. If you say it's a conflict, then, of course, it'll come as a surprise to know what's happening.
RC: Why won't your organisation engage in peace talks with the Israelis?
GK:  You don't mean peace talks exactly. You mean capitulation, surrender.
RC: Why not just talk?
GK: Talk to whom?
RC: Talk to the Israeli leaders.
GK: That kind of conversation is between the sword and the neck.
RC: Well, if there were no swords or guns in the room, you could still talk.
GK: No, I have never seen any talk between a colonialist case and a national liberation movement.
RC: But despite this, why not talk?
GK: Talk about what?
RC: Talk about the possibility of not fighting.
GK: Not fighting for what?
RC: Not fighting at all. No matter what for.
GK:  People usually fight for something, and they stop fighting for something. So tell me what is it we should speak about.
RC: Stop fighting...
GK: Or rather what is it we should stop fighting for to talk about?
RC: Talk to stop fighting, to stop the death, the misery, the destruction, the pain.
GK: Whose death, misery, destruction and pain?
RC: Of Palestinians, of Israelis, of Arabs.
GK:  Of the Palestinian people who are uprooted, forced into refugee camps, starved, murdered for 20 years, and forbidden even to call themselves Palestinians.
RC: Better that way than dead though.
GK: Maybe to you, but to us, no.To us, to liberate our country, to have dignity, to have respect, to have our basic human rights, is as essential as life itself.
RC: You call King Hussein a fascist. Who else among the Arab leaders are you totally opposed to?
GK: We consider the Arab governments to be of two kinds. Ones we call reactionaries who are tied to imperialism: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia. Then there are the other Arab governments, which we call the military placebos [?], such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria and so on.
RC: Let me get back to the hijacking of the aircraft.** On reflection, do you think that was now a mistake?
GK: We didn't make a mistake in hijacking them. On the contrary, they were one of the most correct things we ever did.

***

Nothing so much as the manner of their lives and deaths, conferred only by an accident of birth, confirms the vast gulf separating the privileged, white colonial reporter from Australia, Richard Carleton (1943-2006), and the exiled Palestinian driven out of his ancestral homeland by Zionist terror gangs in 1948, Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972).

While Carleton returned to Australia to do the kind of work he enjoyed doing, eventually ending up working for Channel 9 television's 60 Minutes program, and dying of a heart attack while on the job at the age of 62,  Kanafani, aged just 36 at time of his death, was cruelly incinerated along with his 17-year-old niece, Lamees, on July 8 1972 after Israel's Mossad had planted explosives on his car.

You will be interested to know that Richard Carleton is the father of James Carleton who runs ABC Radio National's God Forbid program. To give you the measure of the son, see my 16/7/13 post Our ABC Owned for a transcription of his interview with George Galloway.

[* Carleton here is referring to the period of fighting in Jordan between the armed Palestinian resistance movement, led by Yasser Arafat's Fatah, and allied Palestinian groups such as the PFLP. The fighting ran from 6/9/70 - 17/7/71; **Briefly, Carleton here is referring to the PFLP's hijacking of 5 planes from 6/9/70 to 9/9/70 to Dawson's Field in Jordan. In August 1969, Leila Khaled was one of a PFLP commando unit which hijacked a TWA flight. She ordered the pilot to fly over her ancestral city, Haifa, and land in Syria where the plane was blown up after its passengers were evacuated. In September 1970, she and Patrick Arguello, a Nicaraguan-American, hijacked Israeli EL AL flight 219 from Amsterdam, forcing it to land at Dawson's Field. Patrick was martyred by an Israeli security guard. Leila was captured and flown to a police lockup in Britain. Note that all planes hijacked to Jordan were blown up by PFLP commandos after they had evacuated the passengers.]

What's Behind the Patel Affair?

Although UK Tory minister and Israel luvvie Priti Patel has finally been booted by British PM Theresa May, Jonathan Cook speculates that there may be more to her assignations in Israel than meets the eye:

"Was Patel pursuing an 'alternative' policy towards Israel, or its neighbors? And if so, what was that policy, and did anyone senior to her authorise it? Her role in talking to senior Israelis bypassed the foreign office. Did she do so because officials there like Alan Duncan were seen as not sympathetic enough to Israel, and might try to sabotage it?... How does May, a fervent supporter of Israel, fit into this picture?

"Given British government secrecy, it will likely never be possible to provide definitive answers. But it is worth remembering that Israel, its still-powerful neocon allies in Washington and the Saudi regime are angling for the Israeli army to reverse the decisive gains Assad and his allies have made in taking back control in Syria in recent months.

"This week Daniel Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, wrote in the Haaretz newspaper that the Saudis were meddling yet again in Lebanese politics, forcing Hizbullah into greater political prominence, to provide the pretext for Israel to renew its confrontation with the Lebanese militia and thereby stoke a new war between Israel and Lebanon and Syria. In his words: 'Israel and Saudi Arabia are fully aligned in the regional struggle, and the Saudis cannot help but be impressed by Israel's increasing assertiveness to strike at Iranian threats in Syria... When the moment of truth arrives, Israel's allies, with the United States in the lead, should give it full backing.'

"When the time comes, Israel will, as ever, rely on well-placed friends in western capitals to support and misrepresent its actions. Until her resignation, Priti Patel would undoubtedly have been one of those prominent champions of Israel helping out in a time of need." (From UK minister forced to resign over secret Israel meetings as questions continue to swirl, mondoweiss.net, 9/11/17)

Innocent Bystander in Tough Neighbourhood...

... just drops in to say hello:

"Israeli jets flew low over the city of Saida in southern Lebanon in southern Lebanon on Sunday causing sonic booms that broke windows and shook buildings... " (Israeli jets break sound barrier in south Lebanon causing damage, reuters.com, 10/9/17)

Meet Israel's South Syrian Army

Remember Israel's late, unlamented South Lebanon Army (SLA)? They were a proxy sectarian militia led by General Antoine Lahad and strutted their stuff  - which included a notorious torture centre in the Lebanese town of Khiam - in an Israeli-declared 'security zone' north of the Israeli-Lebanese border in the 1980s and 90s. Well, as the Lebanese (particularly Hezbollah) resistance to Israel's occupation of south Lebanon grew in the 1990s, Israel's 'security zone' became its 'insecurity zone' and it was finally forced to withdraw in 2000.

And its SLA proxy? So sad:

"... there were mass arrests of collaborators with Israel who, after interrogation by Hizbullah's security apparatus, were turned over to the Lebanese authorities. More than 1,250 militiamen with their families crossed into Israel before the Israeli pullout was completed on May 27, 2000. The refugees, who were being housed in a camp near Lake Tiberias, complained about the squalid living conditions and expressed their anger at Israel. 'Israel betrayed us... We could have continued to fight Hizbullah for ten years without the Israeli army, but they handed them victory,' said Etian Sakhr, known by Lebanese as 'Abu Arz,' the leader of the Lebanese Cedar Party." (In the Path of Hizbullah, Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh, 2004, p 95)

Well, meet the South Lebanon Army's contemporary Syrian counterparts, the South Syrian Army:

"Israel has been providing Syrian rebels near its [!?] border in the Golan Heights with a steady flow of funds, medical supplies and humanitarian assistance, with one group receiving roughly $5,000 per month, according to rebel fighters quoted in a newspaper report. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing interviews with half a dozen rebel leaders and three persons familiar with Israel's undeclared policy, that the Jewish State is helping these forces, which are opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian, Lebanese and Russian allies, in an effort to help set up a buffer zone on its [!?] border with forces friendly to Israel. According to the report, Israel set up a special military unit in 2016 to oversee and coordinate the transfer of the aid, which helps the groups pay salaries and buy weapons and ammunition... Israel has dubbed this operation in the Golan Heights the 'Good Neighborhood' policy... 'Israel stood by our side in a heroic way, a spokesman for the rebel group Fursan al-Joulan, or Knights of the Golan, Moatasem al-Golani, told the Journal. 'We wouldn't have survived without Israel's assistance'." (Israel provides steady flow of cash, aid to Syrian rebels, says WSJ report, timesofisrael.com, 19/6/17)

I sure hope there's still some room left in that squalid 'refugee' camp near Lake Tiberias for Israel's Knights of the Golan...

The Unprecedented Ignorance of Julie Bishop

"The violence and the atrocities going on in Aleppo are unprecedented... like nothing we've seen in our lifetime." (Julie Bishop, in Bishop calls for Syria arms ban, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/10/16)

Especially the bombing of that hospital, eh Jules? Curse that butcher Asad! And yet, which country is usually singled out for blame whenever there's a blue on in the Middle East? That's right, Israel! Our very bestie over in that neck of the woods. Bloody anti-Semitism if you ask me!

Now you and I know Israel has been involved in some pretty nasty punch-ups over the years, strictly in self-defence, of course. After all, it's a pretty tough neighborhood over there, hey? In any case, I think it's safe to say that there's one thing at least our Israeli friends have never ever done, and that's target hospitals, right, Jules? Not like that butcher, Asad, and his Russki mates.

Oh, wait...

"It was at Akka Hospital [in West Beirut in 1982*] that I learnt my first word in Arabic: 'halas' - 'finished.' The school of nursing and the Arab centre for research and specialist treatment of injuries were both 'halas'. And the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had not lost just one hospital: thirteen clinics and nine hospitals all over Lebanon had been destroyed in this way. Only Gaza Hospital, for a reason I was to discover three years later, was still standing. At the height of the air raids, when the Palestinians found out that every single PRCS hospital and clinic was a bomb target, they put three Israeli soldiers captured in south Lebanon on the upper floors of Gaza Hospital, and radioed a message to the Israeli Army saying that any further military action on Gaza Hospital would result in Israeli lives being lost. That saved Gaza Hospital from further destruction. One of the staff who spoke English told us that Akka Hospital had been a five-storey building before the Israeli air raids." (From Beirut to Jerusalem: A Woman Surgeon with the Palestinians, Dr Swee Chai Ang, 1989, pp 22-23)

[*Bishop, 60, was a partner in the Adelaide law firm Mangan, Ey & Bishop in 1982.]

Israel's Wilfred Owen

Efforts at normalising Israeli apartheid and aggression come in many forms, including book reviews such as the following:

"There is probably no tougher test of a book than its ability to captivate a teenage boy. I gave this one to my son and it instantly gripped him." (Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story, Matti Friedman, reviewed by Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/7/16)

The 'teenage boy' test? If a book can grab someone with the attention span of a gnat it must be good. Hm...

"But you don't have to be a male teenager. In Pumpkinflowers, Matti Friedman has created one of the most original and powerful works of fiction I have ever read."

Fiction... right. In the Herald's weekend arts mag, Spectrum, there is always a series of short reviews such as Capp's. These are divided into two columns, fiction and non-fiction. Pumpkinflowers heads the latter column.

"The Israeli military call wounded soldiers 'flowers.' At an army outpost in Lebanon known as the Pumpkin, we meet a group of men virtually straight out of school who have been thrust into the 'lawless netherworld of war'."

In Lebanon, eh?

Shouldn't that be occupied Lebanon? Not for Capp, and, I'll wager, not for Friedman. As for those schoolies "thrust into the 'lawless netherworld of war,' oh puh-lease! These 'babes-in-the-wood' were the indoctrinated tools of an occupying, settler-colonial power which would still be in control of southern Lebanon today if it hadn't been forced out by the Lebanese resistance movement. in 2000. And shouldn't that be thrust into the 'lawless netherworld of occupation'?

"Combining his own experience at the Pumpkin with that of another soldier, Avi, while tracing the little known events that led to Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, Friedman creates a mythic yet intimate work that distils what Wilfred Owen called 'the pity of war' with an unforgettable intensity."

Little known events...? No wonder such things as the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation of south Lebanon are so little known, what with Israel's Wilfred Owens busily spinning distiling 'the pity of war' for us and clueless Fiona Capps lauding them to the heavens!

Now while we're on the subject of just how awfully awfully awful it is for Israeli babes-in-the-wood to be thrust into the 'lawless netherworld of occupation war,' have you heard the one about the Palestinian baby who terrorised another group of adorable Israeli munchkins, leaving them, like, traumatised, like, forever? Here goes:

"There is a story I want to tell you Mr Weisel, for I have carried it inside of me for may years and have only written about it once a very long time ago. I was in a refugee camp in Gaza when an Israeli army unit on foot patrol came upon a small baby perched in the sand sitting just outside the door to its home. Some soldiers approached the baby and surrounded it. Standing close together, the soldiers began shunting the child between them with their feet, mimicking a ball in a game of soccer. The baby began screaming hysterically and its mother rushed out shrieking, trying desperately to extricate her child from the soldiers' legs and feet. After a few more seconds of 'play,' the soldiers stopped and walked away, leaving the terrified child to its distraught mother." (A response to Elie Weisel, Sara Roy*, counterpunch.org, 9/9/14)

[*Sara Roy is an academic who works at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University.]

One Man's Terrorist...

Imagine you're an Australian army officer, on location as a war of resistance between an occupied people and a brutal occupying power rages around you. (I'm speaking here of the 1982-2000 war of resistance waged by the occupied Lebanese against the Israeli occupiers of their land.)

But here's the kicker:

You haven't the faintest as to what the hell is really going on around you. In fact, you probably think the occupying Israelis are the goodies, and you certainly think the resisting Lebanese are the baddies, or 'terrorists', as you and the Israelis routinely call them.

Just the right (captain's?) pick for a seat in federal parliament and a spot on its Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence & Security, right?

Meet Andrew Nikolic, MP (Bass, Tasmania).

Now check out the opening paragraphs of his opinion piece, which appeared in The Australian on February 16:

"The terrorist's answer was so matter-of-fact that its full meaning crept into my consciousness only gradually. It was September 1991 in South Lebanon and the captured terrorist leader responded calmly to my question about his team's mission. It was a mission they would never achieve after their small boat was seized by my United Nations colleagues. The boat was crammed with AK-47s, hand grenades, knives, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.

"He said their mission was to land on the Israeli side of the border, near the beautiful town of Nahariya, and kill as many Jews as possible before they themselves were killed.

"When not working in South Lebanon as Team Leader of UN Mobile Team Zulu, I lived in Nahariya with my wife and two young daughters - a street away from the terrorists' planned landing point. I asked how his thee-man team would distinguish between Jews and overseas visitors. He confidently put that question in the hands of God.

"At the time I thought how lucky we were not to have such irrational, indiscriminate killers in Australia. Those days are gone." (Let's confront passports to terror)

What a pity young Andrew didn't get to discuss these matters with the Lebanese guy quoted below - but then his words would probably have gone way over Andrew's head:

"You look at it with a Western mentality. You regard it is barbaric and unjustified. We, on the other hand, see it as another means of war, but one which is also harmonious with our religion and beliefs. Take, for example, an Israeli warplane or, better still, the American and British air power in the Gulf War. They dropped tons of bombs on their targets. The goal of their mission and the outcome of their deeds was to kill and damage enemy positions just like us, except our enemy is Israel. The only difference is that they have at their disposal state-of-the-art and top-of-the-range means and weaponry to achieve their aims. We have the minimum basics, but that does not bother us because we know that if and when required we also have ourselves to sacrifice. They get medals and titles for their feats of bravery and victories. We, on the other hand, do not seek material rewards, but heavenly ones in the hereafter. But in truth there is no difference between their attacks and ours. Both of us have one thing in common - to annihilate the enemy. The rest is mere logistics and differences in techniques. Whether one attacks by planes or by car bombs the objective is the same. Who is to say that they are better or more civilised just because they use twentieth-century equipment? Who decides that it is more right or correct or even more acceptable to kill one's enemy by warplanes rather than by car bombs?" ('Hasan', quoted in Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, Hala Jaber, 1997, pp 92-3)

For more on Andrew Nikolic, try Bernard Keane's post at crikey.com.au: Andrew Nikolic's Middle Eastern vision provides something for everyone. Here's how it begins: "Following Andrew Nikolic's logic on the Middle East is quite a challenge but it seems he never saw a Middle Eastern country he didn't want to attack." I don't know why Keane neglected to tack on the words, 'except Israel', though.

Want more on clueless Australian soldiers with 'experience' in the Middle East? Of course you do! See my posts Onward Christian Soldiers (9/8/10), featuring Brigadier Jim Wallace; Mike Kelly's Mission Impossible (19/1/13), featuring Clanking Colonel Mike Kelly; and Operation Get Goldstone (4/10/09), featuring Major General Jim Molan.

How Much is Phillip Adams Worth?

"The managing director of the ABC Mark Scott has ordered an investigation into the leaking of how much it pays star news and current affairs personalities and leading administrators... Not all ABC talent was mollified. Phillip Adams, of ABC Radio National's Late Night Live took to Twitter: "Just learned that my fellow b'casters at ABC get paid lots more than me. Despite LNL's enduring success. Naughty management." (More than 8c a day keeps ABC competitors at bay, Damien Murphy, Sydney Morning Herald, 21/11/13)

Phillip's can't be an easy job. I mean, just look at the crap he has to put up with:

"Even your amiable columnist is bombarded by tweets, emails and blogs shrieking obscenities in his direction - a cacophony he finds confusing. (Every day he reads he's simultaneously a puppet of Rupert Murdoch and someone who uses the ABC for Bolshevik bias - while being an apologist for Zionism and the Palestinians, and a virulent anti-Semite.)" (The new Norm, Phillip Adams, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 16/11/13)

An apologist for Zionism and the Palestinians, eh?

Let's subject this one to a little empirical testing shall we?

Here's old amiable Adams getting to the bottom of the latest Beirut bombing with The Guardian's recycled Martin Chulov on November 19's LNL:

Adams: Of course, the knee-jerk response was to blame Israel, wasn't it?
Chulov: That's always the case.

Dumbass Arabs!

Now why would anyone blame the bombing of the Iranian Embassy - Iranian FFS! - on the Middle East's only innocent bystander?

I mean, it's not as if Israel has ever actually invaded Lebanon or occupied it or bombed the crap out of it or anything.

And as for those near-daily overflights of Lebanon, they're not birds, they're not (Israeli) planes... they're... they're... Supermen, right?

To answer my initial question - How much is Phillip Adams worth?

IMO, not a brass razoo.

PS: "Radio presenter Phillip Adams is among those planning to raise the pay discrepancy with 'naughty management'. 'Always accepted the fiction that we were paid much the same,' he told Crikey." ('Your' salaries uncapped, Peter Munro, Sydney Morning Herald, 23/11/13) That's not the only fiction he's fallen for.

Israel Gets What Israel Wants

Remember John Howard's former immigration minister/attorney-general, Philip Ruddock?

Happily, he's just an opposition backbencher these days and we don't get to hear much from him anymore.

Lately, however, he's popped up in federal parliament sick with worry that Australia's bloated intelligence agencies are being starved of funds by the government.

But that's not why I'm on his case right now. The thing is, I just couldn't help noticing the following words in his speech on the tabling of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence & Security's latest Annual Report of Activities:

"I read about what is happening in Syria and the reports of Australians abroad engaged in activities in that region. In some cases their work is said to be humanitarian, but in others the reporting suggests that they are active participants. These are people who can come back to Australia after they have been trained in organisations that ought to be of considerable concern to us." (ruddockmp.com.au)

It's strange how selective such concerns can be.

Ruddock apparently had no such concerns when tapped on the shoulder by the Israelis sometime in 2000/2001 and asked to relieve them of the burden of around 200 members of the South Lebanese Army (SLA), the puppet militia who'd followed their masters back into Israel following the Israeli  retreat from occupied south Lebanon in 2000.

As non-Jews (Maronite Christians actually) in a 'Jewish' state, they were surplus to requirements, and, having passed their use-by date, just had to go... somewhere... anywhere.

But where? No problem. Where else but good old Australia?

As you know, when it comes to Israel, Australian governments are the softest of soft touches, and none more so, arguably, than that of John Howard. Sure, you've all heard Howard's 'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstance in which they come', but hey, for Israel... anything!

Still, you might have thought that the SLA's experience in terrorising Shia villages and Palestinian refugees in south Lebanon, and their expertise in attaching electric wires to the fingertips, tongues and genitals of anyone unfortunate enough to fall into their clutches, would have given Ruddock and his mates pause. But no, like Lola, Israel always gets what Israel wants.

Prisoner X: The Latest Version

From Double agent disaster led to spy's downfall, Jason Koutsoukis, Sydney Morning Herald, 25/3/13:

"Australian-born former Mossad agent Ben Zygier was responsible for one of the most serious security breaches in Israeli history, a breach that led directly to the arrest and imprisonment of two of Israel's most prized Lebanese informants. After a month's-long investigation initiated by Fairfax Media and completed by a team of reporters assembled by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, it can be revealed that Zygier was outfoxed in a game of cross and double-cross that ended with tragic consequences. Unable to bear the shame of his downfall, and facing a minimum 10-year jail sentence with no prospect of a return to the Mossad, Zygier took his life on December 15, 2010...

"Recruited to the Mossad at the start of 2004, Zygier, who took up Israeli citizenship in the mid 1990s, was first assigned to work in Europe trying to infiltrate companies that had business links with countries hostile to Israel, in particular Iran and Syria. According to the chief executive of one company that Zygier infiltrated, while Zygier was 'extremely sharp' he also lacked focus... Unable to achieve the kind of results expected, Zygier was pulled back from the field and assigned to a desk job in Tel Aviv, a psychological blow that proved to be the beginning of his undoing.

"In an attempt to improve his reputation within the intensely competitive atmosphere of Mossad, and get back into a coveted operations role, Zygier embarked on a rogue mission without informing his superiors. Acting on information surrounding the identity of an eastern European man known to be close to the militant Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, Zygier set up a meeting with the man towards the end of 2008 with the intention of turning him into a double agent who could pass information about Hezbollah activities back to Mossad. Instead the reverse happened, with Zygier becoming the conduit for information flowing from Tel Aviv to Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut. Contact between the two went on for months, with the east European repeatedly demanding that Zygier prove his bona fides as a Mossad agent by giving up real intelligence. Zygier complied, giving up the names of Israel's two top Lebanese informants, Ziad al-Homsi, and Mustafa Ali Awdeh. Both were arrested in the spring of 2009, possibly thwarting a chance to strike at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Each was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour..."

Actually, Homsi's story is as intriguing as Zygier's. A member of Lebanese opposition leader Saad Hariri's Future Party, he was released after serving only 3 years in jail. Here's an account of his arrest in 2009:

"Saadnayel Mayor Ziad Homsi was accused of collaborating with Israel by Military Examining Magistrate Rashid Mezher, judicial sources told The Daily Star on Tuesday. Homsi, who could face the death penalty if found guilty, was transferred to the permanent Military Court. Homsi was accused of leaking information to Israel about Lebanese civil and military locations with the aim of conducting terrorist operations, the source added. Homsi was also accused of leaking information concerning certain political figures and the illegal possession of weapons. Homsi initially fought against the Israeli army in Bayader al-Adas, but the Israeli intelligence service Mossad then [?] tricked Homsi into travelling to Beijing by sending him a false letter from the mayor of a Chinese city, the source said. The accused met with an Israeli agent disguised as a member of the Beijing City Council and agreed to import merchandise from China to Lebanon. Homsi received a monthly salary of $1,700 for his collaboration, the source added. The accused again received an invitation to visit Beijing in 2007 where he was informed that he was working with Mossad. However, Homsi did not end his collaboration with Israel but rather accepted the task of searching for the bodies of missing Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. He was promised a reward of $10 million. The examining magistrate's report also said that Homsi was equipped with a camera with which to film cemeteries, a portable computer and a satellite communication device to facilitate his contact with Israel." (Mayor accused of spying for Israel, 30/9/09)

Finally, here's the kind of background that typically never made it into the Australian press:

"Lebanon's security services say that since November 2008 it has broken up no fewer than 25 Israeli spy rings. The reported arrest this week [2/2010] of a colonel in Lebanese army intelligence... brings the number of those charged to 70-plus; 40 of them are in Lebanese police custody... Aside from the alleged spies, the Lebanese say they netted fancy surveillance and communications gear disguised, among other innocuous things, as Thermos flasks, canisters of motor oil and battery chargers. The gadgetry may be what gave the game away. Security sources hint that France or perhaps Russia helped the Lebanese by supplying sophisticated systems to monitor and analyse the telecom data. The Lebanese then homed in on suspicious signals. Another clue may have pointed to the importance of the signals trail. Last summer, as the spies were being rounded up, a senior man in Unit 8200, the section of Israeli military intellegince tasked with eavesdropping on Israel's enemies, shot himself in his office. Colleagues blamed 'unrequited love'." (Not such a success: A round-up of Israeli spies, The Economist, 25/2/10)

Another Speaker of Fluent Israeli:

"The next war [against Lebanon] will be different, and therefore we should stop it [get it over with?] as quickly as possible, in order to make things easier for the home front. This means carrying out a very strong attack against Lebanon, and the damage will be enormous. The Goldstone Report will pale in comparison to what will be here next time. There is no choice but to fight against the enemy where he is, and that is in the heart of a populated area. The IDF is preparing seriously and professionally for another Lebanon war. The response will need to be sharper, harder, and in some ways very violent. The next war will be with very heavy exchanges of fire on both sides, and so both need to make every effort to stop this happening. In the Goldstone Report, the community and the world tended to get confused and think that this can be done in a nicer way. It cannot be nice. Without the use of great force, we will find it difficult to achieve the aim, and the enemy should also know that." (Brigadier-General Hertzi Halevy quoted in Senior IDF officer: Israel is preparing for the next Lebanon war, Gil Cohen, Haaretz, 5/7/12)

When the Tough Gets Going

The Israeli politicians and propagandists who dominate mainstream media coverage of the Middle East conflict are fond of rationalising Israel's barbarous behaviour* by claiming that the Middle East is a tough neighbourhood. Their supposed streetwise rationale is often taken at face value by gullible Western politicians and media practitioners. That Israel is far and away the biggest tough in the Middle East neighbourhood never seems to occur to them.

And whenever the tough gets going, no people, apart from the Palestinians, suffer as much as the Lebanese. That they have the true measure of their neighbour from Hell, emerges from the results of an opinion poll of 800 Lebanese (Sunni, Shi'a, Druze & Christian) on the subject of last month's Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap and the role of armed resistance in defending Lebanon from the bully boy south of the border. The poll, undertaken by the Beirut Centre for Research & Information from 20-24 July, was reported in Lebanon's Al-Akhbar (The News) of 29/7/08. The translation is mine:-

1) Would it have been possible to obtain the release of our prisoners without the capture of Israeli soldiers in July 2006? [75% answered No (62% Sunni, 97% Shi'a, 65% Druze, 75% Christian)]

2) If the Lebanese government had undertaken to negotiate the prisoner release, would it have yielded the same result? [62% answered No (40% Sunni, 93% Shi'a, 46% Druze, 58% Christian)]

3) Do you believe that because some of the prisoners, such as Quntar and most of the remains, were not Shi'a, indicates that Hezbollah is non-sectarian? [59% answered Yes (38% Sunni, 94% Shi'a, 39% Druze, 52% Christians)]

4) Do you believe that diplomacy alone, not backed by military force, will enable us to reclaim from Israel that which is our right? [66% answered No (59% Sunni, 93% Shi'a, 57% Druze, 54% Christians]

5) Disregarding what you think of Hezbollah's internal politics, do you consider the armed resistance to be Lebanon's protector until such time as the army is ready to take over? [69% answered Yes (51% Sunni, 96% Shi'a, 52% Druze, 65% Christian)]

6) Has Hezbollah regained its image as a resistance organization following the success of the prisoner exchange? [77% answered Yes (54% Sunni, 99% Shi'a, 61% Druze, 79% Christian)]

7) Do you believe that confronting the ongoing Zionist project requires an ongoing resistance project? [75% answered Yes (64% Sunni, 97% Shi'a, 66% Druze, 68% Christian]

8) Do you support what Hasan Nasrallah said regarding the duty of all Lebanese to participate in the resistance? [79% answered Yes ( 71% Sunni, 97% Shi'a, 73% Druze, 74% Christian)]

9) Do you believe that closing the prisoner and Shab'aa Farms file will eliminate the Israeli threat to Lebanon? [70% answered No (61% Sunni, 87% Shi'a, 61% Druze, 67% Christian)]

And, in a reference to Lebanon's other neighbour from Hell:

10) Have Hezbollah and the opposition done enough to investigate the fate of the missing in Syria? [67% answered No ( 81% Sunni, 43% Shi'a, 84% Druze, 72% Christian)]

[*To quote the late Israel Shahak: "I don't like to discuss Israeli policies in terms of 'settler states', or 'colonial rule', since I regard Israeli policies as being much worse than those applied by other colonial regimes." (Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear & Foreign Policies, 1997, p 7)]