Geagea Slams 'Campaigns' against al-Rahi, Says They 'Harm Coexistence'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday condemned what he described as the "insolent campaigns" that are targeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi over his controversial visit to the Holy Land and Israel, saying he will maintain contacts with Bkirki in a bid to put an end to the ongoing presidential vacuum.
According to a statement issued by his press office, Geagea telephoned al-Rahi, expressing his “strong condemnation of the campaigns that are targeting His Eminence” and describing them as “insolent campaigns that breach all Lebanese norms and traditions.”
“Moreover, they harm the pact of coexistence in one way or another,” Geagea added.
The patriarch's visit was the first by a Lebanese religious leader to the Holy Land since Israel was established in 1948 and was intended to fit in with Pope Francis' three-day pilgrimage to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The Maronite Patriarch was condemned by media close to Hizbullah, which said traveling to arch-enemy Israel would be a "sin." Critics have also said the pilgrimage implies normalization with Israel at a time when the two countries remain formally at war.
However, al-Rahi stressed that his trip was purely religious and not political. But a new wave of controversy arose on Friday, when the patriarch met exiled Lebanese who fled to Israel in 2000 after Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon.
Speaking in the Israeli village of Isfiya near the city of Haifa, al-Rahi said the Lebanese state must not deal with the Lebanese in Israel as “criminals.” Many Lebanese regard the former South Lebanon Army members as traitors and want to see them punished.
On Sunday, top Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek stressed that only the Lebanese state can condemn or acquit the Lebanese who fled to Israel.
"We do not want Israeli agents among us in Lebanon, what we suffered during the occupation was enough, and just like they are not proud of their Lebanese identity, we are too not proud to call them Lebanese,” MP Ali Meqdad, member of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc, announced on Saturday.
Separately, the LF leader “extensively” discussed with the patriarch the issue of the stalled presidential elections, voicing his “extreme dismay and sorrow over the obstruction of this important election by a number of parliamentary blocs.”
The two men “discussed what can be done to put an end to this obstruction, agreeing to maintain contacts between Maarab and the patriarchal seat in a bid to make a breakthrough,” Geagea's press office said.
They also agreed on the need to elect a new president “as soon as possible, because vacuum is categorically rejected in the country's top post.”
Y.R.
M.T.
02 June 2014, 16:26
66
Bottom line is that any Christian regardless of nationality has a right to visit a Christian holy site. That is #1. Everything else is just propaganda. You cannot deny any Christian the right to see a religious place of worship, just like you cannot deny a Muslim or Jew.
On a side note, it is funny that LF is not defending Rahi, when they used to have an issue with everything that he did, because they claim he was Aouni. I personally think he is OK. He definitely does not take the stance that Sfeir did.
02 June 2014, 16:46
50
Remember between 1948 and 1967 it was the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan which refused to allow Jews to visit the Wailing Wall or go up onto the Temple Mount.
Christians and Moslems from all of the world can visit their holy sites in Israel, but in many cases it is their own government (Lebanon for example) which prevents them doing so.
02 June 2014, 18:22
83
How many Christian and Muslim Palestinian villages were wiped off the face of the earth by the haganna and Irgun militias? Haganna is now the army and Irgun the secret police. (They were labeled terrorists by the British) How many of these people were ethnically cleansed after the 1948 war. Not during war when these things could be blamed on war, but afterwards during peace time. Between 1948 and 1967? This is a crime much worse than Serbians committed in Yugoslavia. No one remembers or cares? If Israel wants peace than its available to them but peace will mean that a civil war in Israel will erupt between secular Jews and the Orthodox Jews that don't pay taxes or even believe in the state of Israel. This is the bigger threat to the Israeli state than Palestinians.
02 June 2014, 17:09
74
meant to say it is ironic that the LF are "NOW" defending Rahi when they used to have an issue with him.
02 June 2014, 18:12
83
anonymetexasusa... I'm surprised and a little glad to agree with you. Your obsession with everything anti Hezbollah is at times a little boring and difficult to even bother reading. Not that I'm a Hezbollah "fan" or "agent" as some claim I am, but that their is often more we can agree on and that unites us as Lebanese than divides is what I'm interested in reading. If the Lebanese commentators on this site looked at what we agree on and that unites us as Lebanese, than much of the comments on naharnet would be much less offensive and confrontational.
Israel does not see Palestinians as people! Zionist Israel sees non Jews as gentiles and lesser than the chosen people. They portray themselves like western (Christian) civilized people but treat other religions like the apartied South Africa behaved in the 80s. Most Jews are not like the racist extremists that run the country but are too ashamed to confront and challenge the truth.
02 June 2014, 18:33
82
Zahle1...agree 100%. Was about to write the same thing. They use to dare any Maronite to speak badly about batrak sfier but as soon as batrak Rahi replaced sfier they attacked him over the smallest comments he made that we're not aligned with their politics and was not anti Hezbollah or fear mongering... They claimed he was an aouni. Only recently when he decided to go to Israel and in their view, challenge Hezbollah did they start having his back. He is my batrak and I respect him no matter what. No politics involved, just as the captain of our small and significant church in the turbulent seas of the Middle East.
02 June 2014, 19:00
72
anonymetexasusa.... I am not "m8"... Believe it or not. I'm Lebanese. I was active protester on March 14 2005. One of the most proud and glorious days of my life. But the current m14 movement is not what I support or follow blindly. I believe that the LAF should be the soul military power in Lebanon. I am LAF to my death. I want Hezbollah to be under the LAF. I don't hate them or fear them and I also don't agree with them on many things. But to me they are Lebanese and we want to encourage their integration in the LAF. They are powerful and effective military force that we can be proud of. They could easily integrate like the hagana and Irgun militias did with the IDF. But they will not do so when they are being attacked and insulted. Respect and trust will result in their integration with the LAF... Not hatred, insults and treachery. My life and the life of my martyred family members are for a strong United Lebanon! This is my truth.
02 June 2014, 16:44
12
Lebanon now is leaderless. Its borders with Syria are wide open. We have 2,000,000 Syrian refugees in the country now as Assad is emptying his country of those who do not like his rule.
With the vacancy in the office of the Presidency, the extent of the Caretaker Government's ability to act is at best questionable. The extended mandate of Parliament, itself a constitutionally questionable act, expires in 6 months.
02 June 2014, 19:06
24
hizbIran bombing sunni civilians :
http://www.aksalser.com/index.php?page=view_articles&id=5728e1dec3766ff1da6ac8170038ec87
02 June 2014, 19:21
00
legitimacy of the syrian occupations court
The Publications Court shut down MTV in October last year after finding the station guilty of carrying out electoral propaganda for Murr in by-elections in Metn a few weeks earlier. Three appeals by the station against the ruling were thrown out.
03 June 2014, 01:23
14
little karimo still doesnt understand that ikhwan are considered terrorist in ksa...
03 June 2014, 01:28
40
Ikhwan, Al Qaeda, FSA-Al Qaeda, KSA, Taliban, Mustaqbal/Kataeb/LF, etc. All the same thing and ideology, more or less.
03 June 2014, 03:04
10
Great story, terrorist. Where were 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 from? Where was bin Laden from? Which country spread the Taliban and Al Qaeda's ideology? Germany? Sweden?
03 June 2014, 02:55
00
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/4-dead-30-injured-tehran-dust-storm-article-1.1814184
I'd BE WORRIED
