Dignity for Whom?

Lest we forget, in the midst of the savage Israeli bombardment, the culpability of Hizbullah in all of this mess. This is a scathing critique of Hizbullah's demagoguery from Middle East Transparent:

FROM: Middle East Transparent
Mon, 7 Aug 2006
From: "Hala Awada"

I would like to address this to all the people still living in the dimensions of "izzah"/"karamah" (dignity) without having a clear meaning of these words.

We (as Arabs or third world countries) have always lived in the illusion of this "dignity" without really understanding the responsibilities we have towards having a dignified country and people.
I want to ask the Shiite people who are still backing the narcisstic leader Nasrallah about the meaning of this life. When a person -like someone in this forum- says that they are people that love the "shehadah" (= martyrdom) and "love death", does that mean that they are better than "us"...people who want to live, appreciate this great gift, be productive in our societies, and raise our kids in a decent way? What is the real balance with which we can decide who is better? The person who loves death or the person who loves life? This is the eternal question that we have to answer and accordingly base our choices on.

Dignity is not measured by how much we hate and loathe an entity. It is not measured by our blind allegiance to a leader. It is not measured by our love of death.

How should I react to Lebanese people- supposedly from the same beloved country I belong to- that tell me that they are ready to kill themselves, their kids, see their houses destroyed and their jobs nonexistent, while looking at me with an eye of "you are not willing to do the same, thus you are an American/Israeli agent?? What kind of logic is that? Since when is our patriotism measured by our indifference to life?

The irony is that Shiites still view their spiritual link to Iran and their strategic link to Syria (as) more important than their Lebanon while calling anyone that wants to disarm Hezbollah as a traitor! Why would I want a militia to be existent outside the Lebanese army? Nasrallah would answer "to free the Lebanese prisoners and get back shebaa farms" but hold on a minute : didn't Egypt and Jordan get their land back without a militia?

Isn't Shebaa -according to Syrians- a Syrian land? Why wouldn't Syria declare Shebaa as Lebanese land for it to be included in the negotiated UN package? Is it a fair price to trade three Lebanese prisoners for an estimated $2.5 Billion in tangible damages, a million refugees, destroyed South Lebanon and Dahyie, and a polluted sea shore?

But here again Nasrallah would say that « pure pious money » would make up for the damages. What pure money? What are these stupid slogans? Does that mean that Iranian money is "halal" and other kinds of money are "haram"? What is wrong with you people?

And what kind of logic is it that, for Lebanese prisoners, we need a militia whose weapons are "sacred"? That's right, "sacred"? Nasrallah is so confident of his religious sources that he has started to classify money and weapons as sacred/pious/halal. Ok then, if that's the measure, then it would have been "pious" for another militia to declare war on Syria when it occupied Lebanon for more than 30 years, and their weapons would have been "sacred" to free Lebanese prisoners in Syria. Moreover, it would be completely right for this faction to fire rockets into Syria in the name of "dignity" and "love of death".

For any dialogue to be productive, a base of common understanding should exist so that the dialogue can kick off and eventually reach a meeting point between debaters.

Sadly this common base is nonexistent between Shiite Hezbollah supporters and the rest of Lebanon. People who love death cannot live with people who live life. Simply their ideology, dreams, and targets in life do not converge.

Let us be brave to confront this reality. Unfortunately we can't live together. I am sad because this gorgeous Lebanon has to be divided into two states; the Shiite camp that can be later added to Syria can continue the struggle against Israel to achieve its objectives-whatever they are-, and another camp of Lebanese people that want to live with dignity.

By the way, I know that conspiracy-theory-addicts would want to know my origin because it would make what I said less important in value, less shocking and more hate-inducing for the death-lovers; but I am sorry to disappoint you; I am a southern Shiite according to my I.D. but much more importantly I am a Lebanese.