Perhaps these characters, especially those of them who live among the homes of resistance fighters and martyrs, should bow their heads and crawl back into their holes, in order to avoid people’s anger. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)
It is a paradoxical reaction to such an immoral act. Some have turned the question round to ask us why we have been denouncing those who agreed to collaborate with the US government which is directly responsible for or complicit in an ongoing process of throttling all who oppose it, resist its occupation, or struggle to win back their rights from it or its stepchild Israel.
The paradox lies in the fact that these people have not ceased their collaboration, but have begun boasting about it, when previously the issue with them had been merely over a few words. Yet for all their shamelessness, they want us to keep silent about their sordid deeds, as though we must beg their pardon for having managed to see them brandishing the blood-stained daggers they were plunging into our backs.
The paradox is also that these people, who stole money from here and there – and enjoyed it as if it came from the sweat of their own brows, or from honest and sincere toil – want us to go to them and apologize for having dropped our jaws in astonishment, and beg their forgiveness because some of us dared raise a critical or even questioning voice. They want us to go to each of them in turn, to where they live off the blood of our kin and our people, and ask for their compassion, or some of the compassion they were shown by the world’s number one criminal. They even want us to endorse them as opinion-leaders and as movers and shakers, and to hail them as chiefs, as though we haven’t seen enough at the hands of their corrupt friends.
From the reactions – both public and private – to Al-Akhbar’s publication of new Wikileaks documents relating to certain Lebanese Shia figures, it would seem that some among us have learned nothing, and have lost the capacity to feel shame, either of themselves or before others. It would also seem that some among us have gone beyond shamelessness into the realms of criminality by flaunting their sinister ties to the American criminal. Do they not believe – or do they need it explaining to them – that their links to the US embassy and their participation in US schemes targeting the resistance in Lebanon amount to a clear and blatant form of collaboration with Israel?
Moreover, what reaction do these low-lifes expect from a people who are still being subjected to death daily, and face persecution and pressure in the name of America’s freedom to rule the world? Do they not look over their shoulders when they leave their defiled homes? Do they not see the marks of disgrace on their brows, and the contemptuous looks people give them? Or do they think they can get away with their actions by deeming their collaboration to be merely the exercise of a point of view, a mere opinion that it is perfectly justifiable – from a logical, patriotic or ethical perspective – to flaunt in the face of the resistance?
How can these people explain to us their:
- Recommending measures to the Americans designed to harm the resistance and its infrastructure.
- Providing the Americans with as much information and data as possible about the resistance and the people in it.
- Requesting financial support (and boasting about receiving it) from the Americans and their clients in Lebanon and the region for schemes aimed at curbing the spread of the resistance.
- Deeming their communication with diplomatic and security representatives of the US administration to have been a normal and justified activity, and trying to persuade people that the US is just like any other country in the world.
- Seeking, via the Americans, to establish channels with the Israelis.
How can they people explain away all that, and then feign surprise and say: why are you criticizing us?
To make things worse, they try to threaten you, by various means, including sabotaging personal relationships, as well as the usual kinds of pressure employed in Lebanon, such threatening to blacklist you or your institution unless you stop publishing leaked documents about their despicable activities.
Do they think that it could be stopped, or that there is anyone who can prevent them being exposed and denounced? Do they think that a word here or a shout there, or holding a coordination meeting to plan their response will stop us from airing their dirty laundry whenever and wherever we can?
Perhaps these characters, especially those of them who live among the homes of resistance fighters and martyrs, should bow their heads and crawl back into their holes, in order to avoid people’s anger, which could reach them at any moment, and teach them lessons they thought they were teaching others.
Perhaps they should know they are being watched and are under observation because of the offenses they committed without batting an eyelid or feeling a pang of remorse. They ought to know that resistance to them will be stepped up, and become stronger than in the past, and that the enemy’s most violent assault yet on the resistance in the region will result in their being besieged and silenced.
Perhaps those who wish them well owe them a word of advice, explaining that the days of all-round forgiving-and-forgetting are over, and that today – as we commemorate the massacres committed by the enemy 30 years ago, and the launch of the resistance against its occupation – we are in no position to compromise with them. Those of them who dislike this reasoning can depart from our midst.
Ibrahim al-Amin is editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
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