Lebanon: The Hezbollah-France twist

France and other powers, including Canada, are exploiting the Beirut port disaster. Their recipe is “white man’s burden.” Macron of France is in the forefront. He presupposes that the people of Lebanon are not capable of exercising their sovereignty, that they cannot exercise control over their lives themselves and that there is a need for a power standing above them, usurping all that belongs to them and giving nothing to them in return. This is the notion of a “benevolent dictator” or of the “divine right of kings”, notions needed by the plutocracy, those who claim that they are destined to be the “trustees” of the people, because they alone consider themselves capable of ruling over the people.

By GHASSAN KADI 

The intriguing twists and turns following the catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s Sea Port have thus far had international repercussions, beginning with the visit of French President Marcon to Beirut just three days after the disaster; a visit that could hardly be classified as a visit of a foreign head of state to another country.

Marcon did not go to Lebanon just to meet with Lebanese President Aoun, even though the two did meet.

THE ANGRY ARAB: The blast (and the failed system) that shook Lebanon

The key question after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut revolves around the role of the Lebanese Army command, which is the sole authority with direct control over the security and safety of the port, and its surroundings | AS’AD ABUKHALIL

Devastation in Beirut | http://mehrnews.com/xSMehdi Shojaeian/Wikimedia Commons

Those who are superstitious may think that Lebanon has been recently cursed: successive disasters, catastrophes and crises have afflicted the small country uninterruptedly for several consecutive years.

The Beirut sea-port explosion

Ghassan Kadi’s initial thoughts about the Beirut Port explosions

(August 5) – I have mourned Beirut time and time again, but with all the cities I have lived in, Beirut will always be my favourite. After all, how can I ever forget its hustle and bustle before the infamous fifteen year long civil war that started on Sunday the 13th of April 1975? I was a student back then, with very limited financial resources, but back then, you didn’t have to be rich to enjoy the rich lifestyle of Beirut.

Canadian ‘aid’ to Beirut: Let us remember Qana

Graves of Lebanese civilians massacred by Israeli airstrikes on Qana on July 29, 2006 | Feyrouz

By Tony Seed

It is not acceptable that Canada which has troops and special forces stationed in Lebanon, Iraq and Israel is offering statements of regret and sympathy for the victims while making aid conditional on Lebanon making “reforms” dictated by the big powers. Given its hostility to Lebanon and how it has militarized aid to the Caribbean in the name of hurricane or earthquake relief such as Haiti, or arms to Saudi Arabia to attack the Yemeni people despite the endemic cholera, we need to be vigilant.

The Government of Canada’s unacceptable response to the tragedy in Lebanon

People of Quebec stand with Lebanese people at vigil at the Lebanese consulate in Montreal, August 6, 2020.

Canada has made aid to Lebanon in the midst of this great tragedy they have suffered conditional on the Lebanese government enacting all kinds of reforms demanded by the imperialist financial institutions. It blames the Lebanese government for the plight of the country for which the U.S. imperialists, Israeli Zionists, Lebanon’s former colonial power France and others are fully to blame. The conditions which exist in Lebanon today and the many tragedies the Lebanese people have suffered in the past and which they suffer today are of their making. Instead of taking up their responsibilities and putting the well-being of the Lebanese people in command of their decisions on getting aid to Lebanon, these governments blame the Lebanese people and the factional fighting in the government – a government based on the model given to them by the French imperialists in the first place. They are demanding regime change, while they channel aid through their own agencies to further undermine the unity in action of the people to deal with the tragedy which has befallen the people. Experience shows this will merely enrich these so-called humanitarian agencies while the plight of the people will remain.

Our Hearts Are with Beirut

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) expresses its deepest sympathies to the families of all victims of the August 4 explosion in Beirut, another tragedy of unprecedented proportions which has hit the Lebanese people at home and abroad including the large Lebanese community in Quebec and Canada. Our hearts go out to those living in Beirut and to the Lebanese people who have been sorely tested, and even more so within the extremely difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, onerous demands and conditions imposed by the international financial institutions and continuous breaches of Lebanon’s sovereignty by Zionist and Anglo-American forces along with Lebanon’s former colonial power France and others such as Canada.

Heartfelt condolences and solidarity to the people of Beirut

Vigil at the Lebanese consulate in Montreal, August 6, 2020.

A reflection, from a Facebook post, August 5, 2020

My heartfelt condolences and solidarity to the people of Beirut, the families and victims, the comrades from Beirut, the city which I came to love, having spent a memorable week there in summer of 2014. A huge disaster and tragedy on the eve of the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am only glad that so far those whom I came to know are safe.

On a personal note, I owe a debt in addition to the Lebanese community in Halifax which dates back to the 1920s if not before and who schooled me in the tapestry of their rich history, culture and politics, beginning from the time in 1982 when we marched together to oppose the Israeli invasion. From that moment we shared weal and woe on many issues, as have the Canadian and Lebanese people. In October 2002 Father John of the Greek Orthodox Church freely provided facilities of his parish for the launch of our Dossier on Palestine, defying the united pressure of local Falange and Zionist elements, as he did on other occasions.