A couple of days ago, I expressed in the first paragraph of this column my opposition to capital punishment with an exception made to pedophiles, infanticide perpetrators, and US Vice President Dick Cheney. My article had to do with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fell victim to an unjustified imperial war waged by Cheney with the help of the pro-Israel neocon Likudniks. Today, I will talk about another group of people who equally deserve to be hanged. The news coming from Lebanon is sad. Every day we hear talk about a new pro-Israel spy ring that groups civilians and military figures alike. Civilians betray their folks, neighbors and the entire population. As for the soldiers who join the army to protect their country from its enemies, they eventually pose a greater threat to the country than any foreign enemy, such as Israel. I prefer not to list the names of suspects and arrested people. For they appear every day in Lebanese and Arab dailies either explicitly or in the form of initials. In addition, I do not want to repeat hackneyed self-evident words on confusion and decadence. Lebanon is not prey to famine as was once the case of Biafra. Those accused of treason did take this path driven by the need to pay for a wife's medical expenses or a child's tuition fees. The names belong to people from almost all sects and from different parts of the country. If the southerners outnumber the others, it is because Israel is more interested in South Lebanon than in its north or east for instance. During the Great War, later known as WWI, Lebanon suffered a severe famine that led many Lebanese to emigrate to Egypt, Palestine, and the West (Beshara al-Khoury composed a beautiful poem on a woman's tragedy in the famine). But we did not hear back then of traitors. Instead, people revolted against the Ottoman Empire, demanded their liberty; some even died as martyrs whom we still commemorate in Lebanon and Syria every year. What has befallen this nation today? It is a sweeping failure from the Ocean to the Gulf, from the sea to the White Nile Falls, coupled with personal decadence. As we all know, the fall of individuals is part of a collective fall. Prior to the wave of Israel's spies in Lebanon, I identified the “low” type, an attribute I used to describe a group of opportunists who give precedence to their narrow interests. The term also refers to servile traitors who look for someone to grovel to, the arrogant who live on the glories of a false past and believe they can lead a people or a nation only because their grandfathers were hardware traders for instance or money changers. I first identified the “low” type when I saw Arabs move to the West and outdo the enemies of the Arabs and Muslims in writing articles against their countries, the only way to cash little money for their contemptible writings. I challenged some to write something positive, as I was confident that their pro-Israel benefactors would not publish their articles. Afterwards came the Bush administration's preparations to wage a criminal and unjustified war against Iraq. At the time, the “low” became more dangerous as he was an Iraqi dissident, banished from the country, and living away. He lied, rigged, and conspired as wishes the war cabal. As a result, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed for the sake of toppling a dictator representing the “one bullet” regime. Had he been killed, his regime would have collapsed and people would have remained alive. I have found the “low” conspiring in a war against his (former) country by far more dangerous than the “low” academic who wants to have an article published for a few hundred dollars. Now comes the traitor who is more dangerous than both, who can be ranked as a pedophile and likened to Dick Cheney, and thus deserves hanging. My fears have made me take refuge in lies as I am reading day after day news on Lebanese spies working for Israel. I hope their innocence can be ultimately established since their fall is equated with the fall of the nation. Yet, I realize that spying did take place; many will be convicted and a few could be acquitted. Personally, I neither acquit nor convict, but I rather accept the court decision. I have learnt from the Western press to say “the alleged killer” until he is declared innocent or guilty. I will continue to do so in the case of the alleged spies and take refuge in lies as a means to evade the other option. http://www.j-khazen.blogspot.com/
