Michel AOUN / Ehud YAARI: Where does AOUN really stand ?
I got the following information from a contact on my blog (thank you O.S.).
A few days ago, Ehud Yaari, the Middle East commentator for Israel TV Channel 2 and an associate of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, shared a statement on the evening News (at 8 p.m. local time), at Channel 2, in Israel.
The statement was sent to him by a representative of Michel Aoun. Ehud Yaari summerized the statement as follows.
It is a message from Aoun to the Israelis, which basically states that Aoun is not engaged in this fighting, other than by aiding the refugees, and solely that.
Mainly, that they (Aoun's party) are only helping diplaced people and refugees, and only involved on the humanitarian aspect.
As I am not in Lebanon, so from the information I could gather these past weeks on the internet, I figured that Aoun was standing morally and politically beside Hizbullah. I might be wrong, as I said.
What is the situation in Lebanon ? and why did Aoun feel somehow obliged to justify his positions to the Israelis ? was he attacked ? why was there no similar statement to the lebanese as well ? why is he viewed in lebanon as an ally (political ally of course, not military) to Hizbullah ?
I hope your comments will help me understand the situation better.
A little annexe:
The lebanese are familiar with michel aoun. I will try to give a very very short glimpse at the man, and I don't pretend to be exhaustive.
Aoun was in exile for 14 years, for opposing the syrian presence in lebanon. he came back last year, after the Cedar Revolution succeded in pushing the Syrians out.
Upon his return, he was a fierce opposer to Hizbullah, saying that there should be no state within the State, and no arms outside the lebanese army.
a while ago, his stance changed almost radically, where he allied himself with hizbullah (some say, mainly the march 14th coalition, that it is because of Aoun's electoral aspirations, which his alliance with HA could provide him).
he distanced himself from the March 14th coalition, and began flirting more with HA.
Once a staunch outspoken ennemy of Syria, he also began to soften his stance about Syria, totally unthinkable, just a couple of months earlier. This even drove Syrian president Assad to "Thank" Aoun for his support and consider him a defender of Syria in Lebanon.
During this ongoing war, he seems to be blaming it on the Israelis, and acknowledges HA as a resistance.
I would like to state that I do NOT belong to any lebanese political party, and this thread is merely for me to obtain the truth.
P.S: If somebody has the exact statement that Aoun forwarded to Yaari, I would be very interested..
Update 1: News Confirmed !
A few days ago, Ehud Yaari, the Middle East commentator for Israel TV Channel 2 and an associate of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, shared a statement on the evening News (at 8 p.m. local time), at Channel 2, in Israel.
The statement was sent to him by a representative of Michel Aoun. Ehud Yaari summerized the statement as follows.
It is a message from Aoun to the Israelis, which basically states that Aoun is not engaged in this fighting, other than by aiding the refugees, and solely that.
Mainly, that they (Aoun's party) are only helping diplaced people and refugees, and only involved on the humanitarian aspect.
As I am not in Lebanon, so from the information I could gather these past weeks on the internet, I figured that Aoun was standing morally and politically beside Hizbullah. I might be wrong, as I said.
What is the situation in Lebanon ? and why did Aoun feel somehow obliged to justify his positions to the Israelis ? was he attacked ? why was there no similar statement to the lebanese as well ? why is he viewed in lebanon as an ally (political ally of course, not military) to Hizbullah ?
I hope your comments will help me understand the situation better.
A little annexe:
The lebanese are familiar with michel aoun. I will try to give a very very short glimpse at the man, and I don't pretend to be exhaustive.
Aoun was in exile for 14 years, for opposing the syrian presence in lebanon. he came back last year, after the Cedar Revolution succeded in pushing the Syrians out.
Upon his return, he was a fierce opposer to Hizbullah, saying that there should be no state within the State, and no arms outside the lebanese army.
a while ago, his stance changed almost radically, where he allied himself with hizbullah (some say, mainly the march 14th coalition, that it is because of Aoun's electoral aspirations, which his alliance with HA could provide him).
he distanced himself from the March 14th coalition, and began flirting more with HA.
Once a staunch outspoken ennemy of Syria, he also began to soften his stance about Syria, totally unthinkable, just a couple of months earlier. This even drove Syrian president Assad to "Thank" Aoun for his support and consider him a defender of Syria in Lebanon.
During this ongoing war, he seems to be blaming it on the Israelis, and acknowledges HA as a resistance.
I would like to state that I do NOT belong to any lebanese political party, and this thread is merely for me to obtain the truth.
P.S: If somebody has the exact statement that Aoun forwarded to Yaari, I would be very interested..
Update 1: News Confirmed !
posted by Jean at 1:41 PM
12 Comments:
Jean,
You can refer to thethinkingleb.blogspot.com we have some things on Aoun.
Best, Ali
I already posted on Aoun's piece in the WSJ on the above mentioned post (thinkinglebanese).
I think Aoun said NOTHING in his piece other than PC correct drivel.
He is screwed with his base and is just trying not to get totally creamed in the months ahead.
His agreement with Hezbo was a joke. A bad joke on Lebanon, and on himself.
Exactly.
my contact said that Aoun's statement, which was delivered by one of his representatives to yaari, was a reaction about Yaari saying he might be hosting Nasrallah.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
There were also rumors that Hezbollah dispatched emissaries to Aounists asking if they could set up launchers in areas in the Metn and Keserwen. Aoun probably wanted to disentangle himself from such rumors.
Thanks again to O.S.
he just called channel 2.
I hope I can get a grip on the archives.
I agree with the general humanitarian tone of the article. I definitely share his views about the sanctity of human life.
This however is not a time for an "i told you so" from Michel Aoun. If anything, we should be telling him that. Hizbullah ignored the document of understanding they signed with Michel Aoun and blackmailed Lebanon into an un-necessary conflict. He still thinks he was right to sign it? If so, this man is unbelievable stubborn.
I respect his complaints about the electoral law which I share with him, but his 'solution' to the Hizbullah problem, an opportunistic political maneouver by a man who had come to terms with Hizbullah and knew they were not going to give up their weapons the next day, was harmful and manipulative. And there is no mention in this article of his need to counteract Sunni power through a Maronite-Shiite alliance, or to create pressure on the government to elect him as president. And even more noticeably, there is nothing here about his bid to curry favor with his former Syrian occupiers by cynically hinting that he would let them off the hook for the killing of PM Hariri the year before ("It might be Islamists who killed him" etc etc). One of the reasons no one listened to him last year is because no one trusted him, and for good reason. The Hariri group felt he would let the Syrians get away with their crimes because he knew that without some sort of tacit Syrian acceptance, he could never hope to be President and live.
He might be able to pull this presentation off in the Wall Street Journal, but he's not fooling me.
I had totally forgotten about his "soft" stance with Syria lately.
If my memory is good, I think I read even once that The Syrian president "thanked" Aoun for his backup and his defence of Syria.
reminiscor,
If I recall well, he has already gone too far with HA.
when I decided to post this thread, even though I trust O.S., I did some research and asked many lebanese.
you only have to download some of his speeches on his party's official website to see that he support clearly HA politically and morally, and blames israel for the whole thing.
An interesting question is: did his popularity (first among christians, second among shiites) suffer of this or the contrary ?
good post haifawi.
Now when you say that lebanese politicians do have connections with israeli media and politicians, could you give some examples ? this is all what this post is about.
haifawi, this is interesting on a personal level, so I wouldn't want to go with this discussion further on this thread's comments, and rather leave the chance for others to express their views.
But can you contact me by eMail on jean.souc@yahoo.fr ?
Thank you for your time.
@nobody,
your analysis is deep, whether I agree with everything or not.
you said at one time "But i would be dead if what i see now is not the same movie i spent 20 years of my life living in."
what movie exactly are you talking about ? where were you living for 20 years ?
I find your comparison of Aoun with Chamberlain very profound and deep..
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