In one Lebanese town, anger converts some to the Hezbollah cause

Discussion in 'Politics' started by WAEL012000, Aug 7, 2006.

  1. Just before I go...I thought the Israelies will like to get an idea of what they have turned all of us to.

    There is no peace until the world rids itself of this desease called zionism.


    In one Lebanese town, anger converts some to the Hezbollah cause
    By Leila Fadel
    McClatchy Newspapers

    BAALBEK, Lebanon - In Jamaliyeh, a village outside Baalbek, Ayman Tufail lifted a piece of his relative Maxime Jamaleddine's skull to show a visitor. The 18-year-old's blackened bone fragment lay among a mish mash of twisted metal, some from an Israeli missile while other pieces came from mangled cell phones.

    Seven people were killed in this garden where grape leaves shade plastic chairs; six of them were from the Jamaleddine family. Tufail had put the fragment on a ledge, he said, to show the world. And to explain his newfound support of Hezbollah militancy.

    "What should we do, wait and watch this?" said Tufail, crossing his arms. "We should make resistance. ... These people who they killed, their children will grow up to be resistance."

    Israel Defense Forces described this operation a success. A raid on a nearby hospital on the outskirts of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold, was followed by a targeted attack near the mayor's home where villagers were taking refuge. Nineteen Hezbollah fighters were killed, the Israelis said, and five suspected Hezbollah guerrillas were captured.

    But this village, where people mostly describe themselves as communists and revolutionary leftists sympathetic to a Western-style democracy, tells a different story.

    They are now supporters of Hezbollah's fight after what they described as an Israeli attack on civilians.

    "Israel is creating this resistance," Tufail said. "There is no resistance here. We are all communists."

    The killings of family members and neighbors have turned many here. Men who said they had never grown their chin hair or learned to pray said they were willing to take up arms for Hezbollah.

    Baalbek is known for its annual festival of classical music, dance and opera, which was supposed to have continued through this month. Hundreds gather at the Roman Ruins, a place that has seen so many wars, to celebrate the arts. Last week, though, the townspeople were reeling from a surprise Israeli raid and the sound of Israeli aircraft.

    Days later, the smell of death still permeated the air. A mangled mattress under a tree indicated where the men slept early Wednesday morning.

    Ali al-Mouadad leaned against a tree and surveyed the land where bloody blankets and twisted metal reminded him of that night where he lost family members.

    "The Israeli enemy has no mercy for anybody. So now we choose to fight," he said.

    He held up an identification card from the Republican Reform Party, a Lebanese nationalist party that aims to create a Western-style democracy with separation of religion and government and a bond of national unity rather than religious unity. Currently government positions are divided along religious and sectarian lines.

    He put it neatly back in his pocket.

    "Families are dying and babies are being killed. Now I'm ready. ... I will not send my children to school. I will teach them to carry machine guns and fight," he said.

    Radwan Jamaleddine has come to take another look at where his brother, Naji Jamaleddine, 40, and his nephew Mohamed Jamaleddine, 13, were killed. He lifted up the bloody, shredded yellow shirt that Mohamed wore that night.

    "This is what we found from my brother's son," he said. "Now I have reason for revenge against Israel. Israel killed my brother."

    The men meandered to the garden where the sunflower seeds Naji Mohamed and others were snacking on Tuesday night sat undisturbed on a plastic table.

    As the booming call to prayer wafted through the air no one got up to go to the mosque.

    "This is the first time we see such a bad thing," Radwan Jamaleddine said. "We are weak, we are weak. We are just civilians here."

    The men argued and the anger rose. They sarcastically thanked the United States for the "smart bombs" that killed their family and cursed Arab governments in Jordan and Saudi Arabia for not helping them.

    Here in this village is perhaps the new breeding ground for guerrilla fighters.

    "For every martyr that dies there will be 200 fighters in their place," said Ibrahim Jamaleddine.

    Fadel reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
     
  2. Should we be concerned if the Donkeys and Mules convert and seek revenge too?

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  3. Nasrallah's camouflaged transportation(code named "Big Porcupine") for fleeing Lebanon blows a tire. He has to walk to Syria.

    Have fun fighting all you brave and revengeful converts!!

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  4. I think they are confusing converts with exploded Arabs. Since they exploded they must be martyrs and must be converts to the cause.