US takes charge in Lebanon

The installation of a new president is part of a wider scheme for the region

The awarding of the presidency of Lebanon to Gen. Joseph Aoun on Thursday was an affirmation of US tutelage over the country, the influence of its Arab allies, and the submission of much of the corrupt Lebanese political class to both, particularly in their aim of forcing Hezbollah to abandon armed resistance to Israel and turn into just another of Lebanon’s political parties.

You can scarcely call it a democratic election when there was only one candidate, the commander of the army. Democracy entails free competition, not submission to foreign dictates. And you cannot talk about sovereignty when the guest list at the parliamentary vote was topped by the US ambassador in her capacity as the occasion’s orchestrator and the country’s de facto ruler.

What many Lebanese celebrated as a national coming-together was the culmination of a calculated US/Israeli scheme that was implemented in stages. It began with the impoverishment of the Lebanese people by wrecking their economy, stealing their savings, collapsing their currency, and trashing their once-celebrated banking system.

If any congratulations are due, it is not to the Lebanese parliament or most of its members, but to US envoy and Israeli army veteran Amos Hochstein. His multiple visits to Lebanon, whose first success was the disastrous maritime border demarcation that awarded the hydrocarbons-rich Karish bloc to Israel, set the stage for this outcome with the assistance of some of the anti-resistance forces in Lebanon. Hochstein set the trap and oversaw the ensnarement process in the service of the Zionist project in the region, starting with the home of the most powerful and potent of its resistance movements.

Implementation of this US/Israeli scheme against Lebanon specifically began some months ago with the genocidal war deliberately targeting the resistance’s civilian support base
by carpet-bombing southern Lebanese villages, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the Bekaa region.

This was ‘crowned’ with the cease-fire reached one day before the storming of Aleppo, Hama, Homs and then Damascus and the toppling of the regime in Syria, the resistance’s main conduit of support from Iran, the source of its power and arms.

Celebrations aside, we can foresee some of what the future holds between the lines of the speech Aoun delivered after he was sworn in.

First, he affirmed the Lebanese state’s right to a monopoly of arms. In practice, this means fulfilling the Zionist/US dream of disarming the Lebanese resistance. That can only be done either voluntarily or by means of a military confrontation. Which means a crisis is looming in Lebanon. (Aoun did not utter the word ‘resistance’ in his speech, nor refer to its sacrifices or thank it for liberating the south.)

Second, Aoun insisted the Palestinian camps would be disarmed and brought under army control, and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees prevented (ostensibly to protect their right to return). The camps can only be disarmed by raiding them by force. That means more trouble to come.

Third, Aoun called for discussion of a comprehensive defence strategy to enable the Lebanese army to end Israel’s occupation of Lebanese territory. There’s a major paradox here. How can the occupation be ended by an army that could not defend itself against the latest Israeli assault that killed several of its members, whose pay comes from the US, and which couldn’t prevent the destruction of more southern villages even after the signing of the cease-fire (which Israel has since violated 395 times, causing 40 Lebanese deaths)?

It was all very well for the new Lebanese president to go on to promise no immunity for any corruption or criminality. But how can he manage that when most of his ‘electors’ are lynchpins of corruption and theft of public funds, and a large proportion of them enjoy US and French protection?

One cannot avoid wondering whether the UN and Israel could have achieved all these accomplishments had Hasan Nasrallah been alive, Hezbollah at full strength, and most of its front-ranking leaders not assassinated — and if some Lebanese regime leaders had not conspired against it.

Before some accuse me as usual of warmongering, it may be worth reminding the US’ Arab acolytes, for the umpteenth time, that it has no respect for them or the promises it makes them. It employs all its powers and capabilities in support of Israel and its expansionist plans.

Just ask the signatories of the Camp David, Oslo, and Wadi Arba agreements where they arenow, 30-50 years on. Also ask the Libyans, Sudanese, Iraqis, and certain Yemenis who counted on American promises. And see how Lebanon, and all the Arab states that submitted to US hegemony, are drowning in debts they mostly can no longer afford to service let alone repay.

With the profusion of slaughterers’ knives out, the Arab world is going through a dark and dismal phase. But it will inevitably pass out of it, however long or short that takes.

https://www.raialyoum.com/us-takes-charge-in-lebanon/