Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Pro-Western March 14 Movement

I am still amused by Western press reports in which March 14 Movement in Lebanon is described as "pro-Western", thereby ignoring the Salafi component of the movement. Lebanese Hariri MP, Samir Al-Jisr, the spokesperson of the largest Hariri-led March 14 bloc in Parliament (known as the "Lebanon First" bloc) spoke on LBC the other day. He said that it would be unfair to castigate the Salafites of Northern Lebanon (some of whom are in jail for membership or activities with Ben Ladenite groups and Hariri MPs have been advocating on their behalf). He said that "we all are Jihadist" because Jihad is a pillar of Islam. Another element of March 14 is anti-Semitism (now that is clearly "Western" since anti-Semitism was born in the West and raised there). The "prominent" March 14 intellectual, Paul Shawul, who is in charge of the culture section of Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal, spoke on Hariri TV. He mentioned the Israeli war on Gaza and clearly and typically spoke in anti-Semitic terms. Shawul said that Israelies are "the savages who came from the Torah." Warning: such statements would not appear in MEMRI bulletin (which specializes these days in airing pro-Saudi writers in Saudi propaganda outlets and referring to them as "liberals") because they may be disturing to allies of the Zionist usurping entity.