by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog
I have spoken with many in France’s huge expatriate Lebanese community – and from all groups – and not a single person has ever claimed that Iran was the power behind the scenes in Lebanon. Without fail I was told that this title belongs to France.
It shouldn’t be surprising: France completely devised modern Lebanon.
Many Lebanese don’t like to be reminded of this, but Lebanon is an artificial nation which France constructed entirely on the basis of racism: just as Zionists to the south wanted a “Jewish nation”, Lebanon was hacked off of Syria in 1920 to create a new Christian-majority nation.
That’s a “no longer relevant” tale of divide and conquer to some, even though a few centenarians may still remember the actual event.
France also devised Lebanon’s sectarianism-enshrining, woefully unmodern constitution, which has ensured divisive identity politics ever since.
Thus, just as Israel is a little part of the USA in the Middle East, Lebanon is the older, French version. The saying, “Beirut is the Paris of the Middle East” could not be more correct.
And yet, were an alien to visit and read Western mainstream media coverage of the recent protests in Lebanon it would not imagine that France ever had any role in Lebanon, much less a prominent role there today.
Instead, Western headlines and reports all push the totally absurd claim that Iran has somehow become the neo-colonial master in Lebanon. Somehow – and via the poorest, most marginalised sectors of Lebanese society, no less – Iran has been able to usurp a century of French power.
Furthermore, despite the century of French involvement it is not France but Iran which is responsible for the corruption that has pushed so many Lebanese into the streets.
Apparently Iran took power and also became corrupt so very quickly that the Lebanese themselves didn’t even realise it! The idea is laughable.
Or perhaps: the Lebanese themselves don’t know what is actually going on in their own country – the West knows better.
These are the kind of ideas only a Westerner could believe.
The reason is simple: advertising works. Astute observers already realise that when it comes to the Middle East every problem – big or small – is blamed on Iran in the West.
However, what’s rarely examined is how this very real Iranophobia allows the West to obscure places where their neo-colonial machinations could not be more obvious, such as in Lebanon.
If it’s not Iran then it must be Hezbollah, but it can never be France
If the West cannot destroy Iran in 2019 they will happily settle for destroying Hezbollah.
There are two types of political parties: those which citizens fight to destroy (like the Yellow Vests and the three mainstream political parties in France), and those which citizens fight to preserve. There is no doubt which camp Hezbollah belongs to.
Hezbollah is the “Party of God” and the party of Lebanon’s poor, but many insist they are not a political party but a larger “resistance movement”. Amal is a political party allied with Hezbollah, and Western media coverage is doing their best to lump both in with the older, Western-aping, billionaire-backed parties which are the true cause of the recent corruption protests.
Hezbollah has always said they would never turn their guns on Lebanese, and even if the West doesn’t want anyone to know that the Lebanese certainly do. They know that without Hezbollah southern Lebanon would be called “Northern Israel” today. Or, nearly as badly, it would still be the State of Free Lebanon, that stillborn Israeli client from the early 1980s which no country besides Israel recognised. (That’s just more “no longer relevant” history to Western mainstream journalists of course.)
The West hates Hezbollah for the same reason Lebanon supports it – Hezbollah is what ensures Lebanon’s security from repeated, deadly, infrastructure-ruining Israeli invasions. After the 2006 war with Israel most Sunnis and an estimated 50% of Christians supported Hezbollah – that’s hardly sectarian hatred.
After saving the Lebanese from Israel on multiple occasions, the undeniable and enduring popular support of Hezbollah and Amal comes from their education, health and other social welfare organisations. Southern Lebanon is most notable not for being mostly Shia but for its extreme poverty, which was the result of decades of neglect from Paris-allied Beirut. Hezbollah and Amal helped reverse that, to the extreme embarrassment and consternation of France, Israel and their many sectarian militias, mafias and political puppets in Lebanon.
And yet despite being so late arriving to power, despite being anchored in the poorest regions, despite decades of neglect from Beirut, and despite illegal and inhuman US-led sanctions on Hezbollah… the West wants us to believe that Hezbollah and Amal are the ones responsible for the corruption at the heart of the current protests!
One has to wonder: if these two groups are so corrupt then where is the money, because it is certainly not in southern Lebanon?
The idea that Hassan Nasrallah, who can make a fair claim to be the most popular Muslim leader and hero in the world currently, is about to fall due to decades of corruption in Beirut is an absolute fantasy which can only be taken seriously in the West.
Again, what we have here is another situation where Western propaganda is aiming to manipulate legitimate unhappiness created by long-tenured Western client politicians in order to deny the West’s neo-colonial culpability. The legitimate demands in Yemen, Palestine and Iraq are all being portrayed as being caused by an Iranian neo-colonialism which does not exist, when the real culprit is the very real and very accurately-named Western neo-colonialism.
The West, of course, may speak of neoliberalism but never neo-colonialism.
The long-running source of corruption in Lebanon: Western-allied, neoliberal & neocolonial puppets
I would imagine that up to this point a Lebanese reader has been quite bored – I have only relayed things which he or she already knows quite well. But perhaps a Lebanese expatriate in Brazil or the United States – who cannot visit Lebanon so easily and who foolishly relies on the Western mainstream media – may not know some of these things.
What most Lebanese know quite intimately is that they no longer have a “real” economy. Their export capabilities are so woeful that scrap iron was their third top export in 2017, at just $179 million.
This is unsurprising, because Lebanon’s longtime function was to serve as France’s Middle East banking haven, with Switzerland-level secrecy laws dating to 1956. However, they have increasingly been replaced by Qatar and other Persian Gulf nations.
Banking is still a strong sector of their economy, but now mainly due to the huge number of remittances (only 4 million Lebanese live in Lebanon but there are an astonishing 8-12 million living as expatriates).
All this wouldn’t be a problem if Lebanon had a strong government to centrally plan and direct their limited economy, and also a government which cared for their 99% instead of their 1%, but Lebanon has neither of these things. The reason for this has nothing to do with Hezbollah, but everything to do with the real root of the current protests.
After the Taif Accords in 1989 and the fall of the USSR in 1991, Rafic Hariri, who became Lebanon’s richest man/prime minister thanks to earning billions via construction with the House of Saud, embarked on the massive “Horizon 2000” privatisation plan, which sold off the major industries and real estate of the Lebanese people. Hariri, in classic Western fashion, privatised the people’s wealth mainly to himself, but also to French companies.
Hariri’s “There Is No Alternative” (to neoliberalism) plan also included massive efforts to attract foreign investment, which ballooned the national debt – the funds were not spent on the poor, of course, but lined the pockets of the rich. France is always the one who organises the regular international debt conferences to restructure Lebanon’s debt, reaping compound interest payments all the while. Rafic Hariri was yet another Arab aristocrat who yoked his people to Western debtors for generations.
Hariri also banned protests and encouraged bribes and kickbacks to the army in order to continue his neoliberalisation drive totally unfettered.
For these reasons (i.e., he made them rich via ruthless self-interest) the assassinated Hariri is worshiped in the West as a true martyr to the neoliberal faith, whereas his corruption in Lebanon was infamous and resented. The most common phrase about him is, “He treated the state as if it was his home.”
His son Saad could have hardly done worse, but he certainly has tried: $16 million to a bikini model mistress, getting abducted by the Saudis and then resigning on their TV, etc. Saad Hariri has held so very many closed-door meetings with France’s president over the past decade that I truly just got tired of covering it for PressTV – I think he must have a private room at Élysée Palace?
What I have described is three decades of oligarchic economic corruption, mismanagement and economic far-right neglect, and here is the bill: At 158% Lebanon’s debt to GDP ratio is the 5th highest in the world, just behind Greece.
Few commentators go further, however: Lebanon’s external debt to GDP ratio is only around 45%, implying that there is a lot of money in Lebanon but held – in an inherently corrupt manner – by extremely few hands. And this is certainly the case: Lebanon’s richest 0.1% own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 50 percent, making Lebanon one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Lebanon is thus an economically rudderless, economically unequal and economically corrupt nation, and it is quite obvious that none of this happened because of late-arriving, poor-loving Hezbollah or Iran.
It is absolutely preposterous to believe that Iran or Hezbollah is the source of Lebanon’s inequality and corruption, and thus that they could be the true target of protesters. The Western Mainstream Media – mostly privately owned, incredibly chauvinistic – is trying to sell an anti-Iran/anti-Hezbollah conspiracy even though the Lebanese themselves will not be fooled by it for one second.
The West, especially France, created, applauded and profited Lebanon’s economic corruption via their unstinting support for the corrupt and despised Hariris, and also Israel’s expatriate-inducing, infrastructure destroying invasions. France’s role in saddling Lebanon’s economy with two million of Syrian and Palestinian refugees is also glossed over by the Western mainstream media, of course.
I hope the true profiteers of Lebanon’s misery will finally be called to account. The Lebanese know who has robbed them, and it is not Hezbollah, Nasrallah or Iran.
Part 2 in this series will give more details on the corrupt Lebanese politicians of today, most of who are associated with violent militias armed and funded by France and/or Israel.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China and the upcoming Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism. He can be reached on Facebook.
Ramin; It is a delight to experience the way you teach people how to do real journalism. I always enjoy how you combine well directed emotional creativity and passion with comprehensive and illuminating detail, that is always focused on the essential primary contradiction. Thank you for putting us in the picture once again.
Great article by Ramin!
I absolutely take the point on board regarding the pet Western narrative that Iran is the root of all evil.
However, when a well-known site such as usawatchdog also promotes this sort of nonsense it just beggars belief how deep-seated this completely farcical belief is.
[LOL when to comes to foreign affairs, the name Watchdog could hardly be more farcical].
Basically in this comment string which started off bashing Gabbard and then morphed into Hunter proclaiming that “Iran is the #1 state sponsor of terror”. He then goes on to blather that he is only stating facts and that basically it is a fact…wait for it… because the US State Dept says it is!!!
Below is the exchange with Hunter’s absurdly moronic response…
DEREK SINCLAIR11/01/2019 •
Good calls on Gabbard Greg. I’m sick of those on the right who are lauding her. They listen to one sane tweet and they ignore the mountains of “progressive” garbage she spouts and supports.
Reply
Greg Hunter11/01/2019 •
Derek,
Please remember the National Socialists of 1930’s Germany called themselves “Progressives.” National Socialist German Workers Party was a bit clumsy so they shortened it to Nazi.
Greg
Reply
Mace Pangborne11/01/2019 •
Good info on her CFR ties.
But it’s a shame that you hammer away at Iran (#1 sponsor of terror??) and conveniently ignore fedgov’s behavior since 1947 (and before). I’m talking about the real #1 purveyor of terror like overthrowing Iran’s prime minister in the early 50’s, theft of Iranian assets, sanctions and other acts of war through the present day. While I have no love for the Iranian government — they have an absolute right to their own sovereignty. They are also in Syria at the request of the legitimate government. That’s something the US will never be able to legitimately claim.
Reply
Greg Hunter11/01/2019 •
Mace,
This is a fact. The U.S. State Department says Iran is the #1 state sponsor of terror. Take it up with them. I reported the facts.
Greg
Reply
uncommon sense11/01/2019 •
I remember weapons of mass destruction was a ‘fact’ as well at one point before it wasn’t. Ever heard of propaganda?
Reply
Greg Hunter11/01/2019 •
What’s your point?
I have illustrated this extreme example of just how deep-seated Iranophobia is because that site prides itself on fighting the West’s Neoliberal agendas and of course the almost unmentionable corollary Neo-colonialism that still runs rife around the globe.
If this is their narrative then is it any wonder at all that this pervades the thinking of the majority of Mainstreet. This narrative will be extremely hard to dislodge when it is amplified by useful idiots such as Hunter. No doubt Mace will hastily be barred from this site just as anyone is that takes the time to point out an uncomfortable truth.
Thanks for yet another great article
Col
The Number One sponsor of State Terror, by a country parsec, is the USA, Israel second, Sordid Barbaria third. The Real Axis of Evil.
If anyone would know, you would 005.
I suppose they take a dim view of all this at 6, 7 & 8 these days ?
More cost for the Exchequer.
Thank you for an honest article.
It is a shame that few French, British and Norwegian citizens know that their elite troops were leading the military effort against Syria. There were there all the time. I suspect the Russians tried not to kill them and that was the reason for the regular ceasefires – to allow them to escape.
In Laos we have “Luang Prabang”, the Paris of SE Asia. East of LP there are millions of un-detonated landmines that make large areas of the country inhospitable, Just like Lebanon everywhere Zionism goes, if they can’t own it, they kill it, the “SAMSON OPTION”.
I beg to differ that Israel is USA in ME, Hitler got the ball rolling big time by sending all the Zionists to Palestine in 1933, for the early occupation, the Balfour Agreement didn’t have the teeth of the Nazi’s The Nazi-Zionists like Bush-Windsor from the UK financed Hitler. His moving 1,000’s of Zionists to Palestine locked in the post war outcome. So I would prefer to call Israel “Little Nazi-Germany of the Middle-East”, that said given same Bush family that brought Hitler to power pretty much ran USA at the time (OSS->CIA), but lets be clear that Israel is closer to a Nazi variant of ‘AmeriKKKa’, than a generic penal colony also known as “USA”.
All these French Colony’s end pretty much the same, same as UK & Portuguese, everywhere that Europe occupied, they left henchmen in power who terrorized and robbed the country’s. Imagine that its always a 100% outcome. Africa, Asia, ME, … America’s, … all the same outcome, death.
“Greater Israel” is the outcome, France is owned by the Zionists, just like they own the UK. CIA created the EU to control all of Europe, and fragment it, and then turn it over to the Zionists ( zio-nazis, or Neo-‘X’ ), up to you what you call them. Israel only cares about destroying all of MENA creating an enormous population decline, say 90% reduction of human life. Then they can have “Greater Israel”, with them being the 2%, and the remaining 10% can be there slaves.
What can be said of Lebanon? Great place once, but now its ground-zero; I would NOT want to be in Tel-Aviv or Beirut in the coming years. You would be a target of ‘blowback’.
Good luck fighting the Zio-Nazi’s that rule the USA-Israel-France-UK, good luck indeed, they all embrace death as a way of life.
These are times strong women and men are needed, but honestly, these are also times that China, Japan, and Russia look a lot more safe to raise the kids. A lot to be said about being an early resident with the winning team.
When I travel the most depressing people I meet are “Palestinians”, they always look like ‘Dead Men Walking”, the distant stare like they have been tortured so much, and seen so much, that nothing on this earth can make them smile. The Zio-Nazi’s will turn all of Lebanon into another Palestine, it is their cause, to contain, corral, enslave, and murder. More power to those who stay and fight, but on the other hand if you flee to a safe space, we’ll all understand, patience is needed as the zio-nazi’s are running low on their lies and bullshit.
Yes, Greg Hunter, and Gabbard; Like we used to say, if your elected, if your on TV, if the MSM legitimizes you, then your probably OWNED by the Zio-Nazis. If your not in the pocket of the Zio-Nazi’s, then they destroy you, and silence you. Certainly Gabbard & Hunter have future plan’s, and they’re smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds all the worlds satanic forces.
The Satanic power of Zionism, must own all the banks, and governments before they announce their New World Order “Reset”, thus they must destroy Syria, Iran, & North-Korea. They cannot tolerate any GOV that doesn’t bend the knee to Zio-Nazism. They’re in a hurry, thus its in everyone’s interest to slow them down, and stall the World Zionist Slavery Plan.
The present state of Lebanon (Greater Lebanon) was an enlargement of the ‘Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate’ created in 1860 at the recommendation of an international commission composed of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and the Ottoman Empire met to investigate the causes of the massacres of Christians by the Druzes and to recommend a new administrative and judicial system for Lebanon that would prevent the recurrence of such events.
Ramin, I take your larger point, but a few things should be noted:
1) Early on in the protests, Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech saying Hizb opposed the effort to topple the government, and warning of “civil war” if that happened. When Hassan Nasrallah warns the country of civil war, most Lebanese take that as a threat.
2) On Oct. 27, a gang associated with either Amal or Hizb or both attacked protesters down in Riad Al Solh sqaure. If you see videos of this attack, it was quite vicious. Whoever sent these people was giving a very pointed warning. If you will recall, this attack occurred 2 hours before Hariri resigned. It was presumably meant as a warning to him and others pressing for a revolution.
3) Hizbollah’s alliance with the FPM and indeed Hariri in the previous government is seen as making them party to all the corruption of the Lebanese govt. It is therefore tarnishing their reputation in the eyes of their supporters. Indeed, these protests have been notable in part because there have been such active protests in Nabatieh and Sour. Many observers have noted that Hizb’s own supporters (or former supporters?) are now willing to criticize them. That is a very notable change from years past.
Let’s see how this unfolds. Many people were shocked at the attack on Oct. 27–in particular, it brought to mind the takeover by Hizb of Ras Beirut in May 2008. Hizb has said it will not turn its arms on the Lebanese, but it is willing to do so when it’s back is against the wall.
Steve: “Hassan Nasrallah warns the country of civil war, most Lebanese take that as a threat”.
On the contrary, I remember the Rev’s speech as a call to reason: he said to the people, your grievances are justified but do not try to topple the government because that might lead to civil war. It was not a threat but an attempt to cool the temperature and put out the fire.
Thank you for the mini-history lesson! It makes me wonder how people find themselves in positions of power and then fleece their own people can sleep at night. God cares for the poor and expects us to help them, not stomp on them. What good will all this pilfered wealth be when this short life comes to an end?
Nothing surprises me about the west. They will continue to meddle in all countries on their way to world conquest. Everything they say I have to question. We are swimming in an ocean of lies in the west. As former CIA director William Casey said We will know our disinformation program is a success when everything people believe is false! As some have complained here against certain alt-media, I certainly agree. Many so-called alt-media, truth media they call themselves, who I used to listen to I now utterly reject and oppose. They have become nothing but mouthpieces for the Department of State. Every time I see a protest and chaos I suspect the involvement of the Anglo-American-Zionist (and French) power. They are very cunning masters of deceit and divide and conquer. I will try and daily imitate what became the single urging of St. John the Apostle and Theologian in his final years when he simply said ‘love one another’. If we are going to have any chance of stopping this madness, pillaging, and suffering then the inclination to seek personal gain even at the expense of others, our neighbours, has to end. It is one way to know who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.
This was refreshing and much needed. Thank you Ramin! The other author who posts on Lebanon is ridiculously biased against Hezbollah.
Superb post — thank you, Ramin.
Good you set the record straight from the very beginning here:
”I have spoken with many in France’s huge expatriate Lebanese community – and from all groups – and not a single person has ever claimed that Iran was the power behind the scenes in Lebanon. Without fail I was told that this title belongs to France.”
That is my gut feeling too. These salauds abominables make up the backbone of Zionazi Conquered Europe. Add to this the role the French have played as colonial oppressors and tormentors of the Levant, and it becomes evident that Israel doesn’t even have to contribute that much itself to the ongoing meddling.
The gems that our ruling Zionazis put forward about Iran and Lebanon follow the same template they apply to Russia, China, Syria, the DPRK, etc. We should actually celebrate their pathetic lies and slanders because that’s a sure sign the Zionazis are losing. Lebanon has got what it takes to fight off the onslaughts of Zionism as does neighbouring Syria
The Zionazis have perfected the very best racket in controlling public opinion, ever. If anyone dares point out Zionazi mendacity, or even chooses not to agree with it in sufficiently enthusiastic fashion, then they get smeared as an ‘antisemite’, and they become permanent pariahs.
To which it seems quite apt to reply: Anything but AshkeNAZI is fine, thank you.
All rackets come to an end.
And that one I suspect is about 10 – 20 years away from it given that Putin and his people are a lot smarter than them.
A good technical article on the role of the “international financial class” within the Lebanese banking system:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/lebanon-revolution-without-revolutionary-ideology/5693597