Lebanese Politicians Dreaming of “Israel”

Sabah Ayoub - al-Akhbar newspaper*

Mosbah Ahdab dreams of a train trip from Beirut to Tel Aviv, then to Cairo. Samy Gemayel dreams of speaking directly to the "Israelis".
A US journalist has recently published some of the thoughts of March 14 politicians and activists on a joint US-"Israeli" site.

Some of March 14 figures are comfortable opening up to foreign journalists. They expand on major concerns they cannot say frankly to the Lebanese people or even post on facebook or twitter. They avoid expressing their extremist and delicate thoughts on podiums, and they rather speak them out at embassies and before foreign journalists.

Amid the rabid campaign against Hizbullah, some foreign journalists, especially Americans, go talk to March 14 politicians. Those eloquent speakers on independence always surprise the journalists with their animosity to Hizbullah outdoing that of the West. Some reporters who lack knowledge of the inter-Lebanese configuration are content with packed ideas which they have brought from their countries and which March 14 politicians have entrenched.
US journalist Michael J. Totten has recently spoken with Mosbah Ahdab, Samy Gemayel, Lokman Slim, Hanin Ghaddar, and Eli Khoury. Totten, the journalist who does not hide his support for "Israel" and who shares the extremist thoughts of neoconservatives, has written the résumé of his interviews with the aforementioned figures in an article titled "Dreaming of Lebanon at Peace with Its Neighbors." The article was published on The Tower website, which introduces itself as "part of The Israel Project." It is a Washington-based cultural organization interested in gleaning information and facts on "Israel" and the Middle East for media, publics, and decision-makers. Totten also writes for many US and "Israeli" publications. He has many times moved between occupied Palestine and Lebanon for the past decade.

At the beginning of the article, Totten puts readers in a certain climate. He says, "Lebanon is a more-or-less free country that protects freedom of speech, but on the "Israeli" question, it is effectively a police state. Lebanese are afraid to talk to each other about it. They'll talk to me, though, because I'm an outsider. They're extremely careful, of course, and much of what they say is strictly in confidence, but once in a while someone will talk to me on-the-record, knowing perfectly well that I'm going to publish what they have to say."

Totten, who has been following up on Lebanon's events since nearly eight years now, says that the red line on "Israel" isn't as it used to be before the Syrian revolution broke out in 2011.

He adds, "Except for the usual warmongering rhetoric from Hizbullah, I sense more moderation and sanity than I used to. It doesn't surprise me. Peace between "Israel" and Lebanon is still a long way off, but the possibility is now at least conceivable, mainly because the end of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad will be the beginning of the end for Hizbullah."
This became clear to me when I had lunch with Mosbah Ahdab, the writer said.

What did Ahdab tell the blond columnist? The former Tripoli lawmaker said, "The post-Assad transition is going to be tough, because we have Hizbullah still around. But Hizbullah will be cut down to a more realistic size." He added, "They will still have their weapons, but they can't continue provoking the tens of millions of people who live around here that they've been aggressive to all these years." "There will be the real possibility of development," Ahdab said.

He continued explaining, "We could have train service all the way down to Cairo. It could be fantastic." Dreamer Ahdab smiles. Totten explains that the train service Ahdab is dreaming of shall pass through "Israel." Lebanon and "Israel" will need an open border and normal relations before something like that could even get started." Totten is just amazed to hear a Sunni Muslim saying this. Yet Ahdab's charming smile while picturing a Beirut-TelAviv-Cairo train way soon turned into grouch; because "the laws in my country forbid me from speaking to him," Ahdab complained. I told Ahdab I think that law is insane, Totten wrote. Absolutely, Ahdab replied. Why hasn't Ahdab tried to change the law when he was in the Parliament? Totten concluded that "he almost certainly would have been killed by Hizbullah or another of Syria's allies."

After Ahdab, Totten had to ask Sami Gemayel about his new old dream. He visited the Deputy at his office and listened to him. Gemayel also complained about what he termed as "the syndrome of the Lebanese people." "For twenty years anyone who even opened his mouth and said we should think about having a peace treaty with "Israel" went to prison or was killed," Gemayel said. "People are afraid. They haven't gotten over this syndrome. Especially that Hizbullah is here to remind them," he added. Totten intervened and asked, "What if people from Washington came here and said, 'Hey, you need to talk to your neighbors.' Would things change?" "Yes, it can change," Gemayel answered. "How come Hizbullah is allowed to talk to the "Israelis" indirectly through the Germans to get their prisoners back while the Lebanese state is not allowed to do indirect talks like Hizbullah to get back Shebaa Farms?" Gemayel wondered.

Totten also had to scrutinize the dreams of Shia. Who's better than activist Lokman Slim to talk to? Slim, very proud to have opened contact channel with Netanyahu advisor, this time spoke economics.

He confirmed to Totten that the Lebanese economy would be energized if Lebanon inked trade agreement with "Israel" after signing a peace one. "Don't only listen to Hassan Nasrallah. Talk to people on the street. The people in the south will tell you they want peace," Slim told Totten.
For her part, managing editor of Lebanon Now online magazine, Hanin Ghaddar, explained to Totten how everybody was happy when "Israelis" invaded Lebanon in 1982 and how they were very welcome in the beginning. "We had no problems with the Israelis," she said.

Furthermore, Eli Khoury, CEO of the M&C Saatchi advertising company in the Middle East and co-founder of the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation, found the solution to realizing everybody's dreams. He suggested the return to the 1949 armistice, saying that everybody now seeks neutrality with "Israel," all parties and all religions. "The most recent study we commissioned," Khoury said, "and it was thorough, we surveyed 4,000 people, showed that 95 percent of the Sunnis don't care about Salafism or the Arab-"Israeli" conflict anymore."

Totten got out of his meeting with Khoury very optimistic and wrote an article on the dream of peace with "Israel." Totten himself has written in 2008 that March 14 Movement is "a political vehicle for Lebanon's liberals, democrats, free-market capitalists, human rights activists, and those who want an exit from the seemingly endless war with the "Zionist entity." Unfortunately, that is not all it is. It's also a political vehicle for hard-line Sunni Arab Nationalists and other political retrogrades who only oppose Hizbullah and the Syrian Baath regime because they hate Shias and Alawites as much as they hate Jews."

Totten: Like It or Not, Jerusalem in "Israel's" Capital!

The journalist who has sat with March 14 politicians and activists is known for his pro "Israel" stances. Any swift online research will provide sufficient info on Michael J. Totten, his blog, writings, and articles. For instance, Totten wrote in July 2012 an article titled "Like It or Not, Jerusalem in "Israel's" Capital." He had also been to occupied Palestine many times at the expense of the American-Jewish Committee, which is concerned with supporting Jews and the "state of "Israel"." As to The Tower where his article was published, the organization defines itself on its website as an American-"Israeli" project. Wikipedia mentions that Totten has received funds for his trips to Lebanon from pro-West March 14 coalition.

*translated by website team