Arab pundits commented this week on the return of the controversial Jamil El-Sayed, Lebanon's former general security chief, who was among four pro-Syrian officers jailed without charge for nearly four years following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri. In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Hussein Shobokshi described a scene where El-Sayed landed at Beirut Airport and was immediately manned and escorted home by heavily armed Hizbullah members as a scene "the incomparable Hollywood director, Francis Ford Coppola, could not have dreamed of producing, a scene that would not have looked out of place in the Godfather trilogy." El-Sayed, Shobokshi points out, is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary on charges of threatening Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri. Hizbullah, Shobokshi continues, which is part of the Lebanese government, turned against the Lebanese state and announced -- along with El-Sayed and Michel Aoun -- that while they support "justice and the Lebanese judiciary" they "call for a change of the prosecutor-general." As a result, Shobokshi believes that "Lebanon has become what is known in political science as a soft state, a state that has lost its prestige and its institutions and has become ineffective and unworthy of respect. As a result of this everybody is suspicious of its actions, and nobody pays attention to what is happening there." Shobokshi warns that "this soft state is a country that is rife with corruption and despotism to the extent that this is the norm and is accepted by everybody." In 'The ultimate solution' Shobokshi writes that "if Lebanon is full of such political figures that neither believe in Lebanon's identity or its political legitimacy, freedom, sovereignty or independence, why don't they hand the entire country over to its elder sister Syria?" Shobokshi argues that merging Lebanon and Syria might be "the ultimate solution to putting an end to the political nonsense that is taking place in the Lebanese [political] arena, and which is filmed and broadcast to the world at large that watch what is happening and laugh." Also in Asharq Al-Awsat, Diana Mukkaled described the scene as "the defence of the state through the strengthening of a non-state institute, and the defence of the judicial system by strengthening an illegitimate and unlawful institute." Mukkaled wrote that Hizbullah was keen to invite extensive media figures, as El-Sayed "was flanked by more Hizbullah security guards than those that escort Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah when he addresses the media." "Hizbullah has come out to flex its muscles in front of the media, highlighting the state's inability to confront the organisation," Mukkaled wrote. This reflects, Mukkaled maintains, a crack in the foundations of Lebanon that cannot be healed. Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashid took a more moderate tone. Also in Asharq Al-Awsat Al-Rashid wrote that he only met once with El-Sayed, whom he described as becoming "a controversial figure in the Lebanese political arena" with regards to his pursuit of the "false witnesses" [who falsely implicated him in Al-Hariri's assassination]. Having met Jamil El-Sayed, Al-Rashid wrote, "he was a smart and eloquent man with extensive political knowledge which qualified him to be a future leader." Al-Rashid added that his impression was further reinforced by El-Sayed's tendency to remain out of the limelight, in a country that is known for propaganda and for granting fame to all those who seek it, regardless of their position. "It therefore came as a complete surprise to me when Jamil Al-Sayed, who was known for his low-profile, incited a media storm by screaming at the top of his lungs in order to attract public attention to his accusations against Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri." Some may say, Al-Rashid continues, that it is only natural for any figure who has been imprisoned for four years to be released without ever having been charged or convicted of a crime to "scream hysterically". However, Al-Rashid wrote, Al-Sayed is appearing to the public "as nothing more than a small button that screams whenever it is pressed." "Does he want to continue in this manner, thereby erasing the political progress he has made so far, or should he instead fight this battle utilising the legitimate weapons of the law and the media rather than appearing as an outlaw threatening the prime minister? Does he want to turn away from being an innocently accused prisoner and instead become a member of a militia?" Al-Rashid wondered. If Al-Sayed has a case regarding the issue of false witnesses, Al-Rashid concludes, he is entitled to appeal. Taking legal action is an option that everybody respects, because it shows that Al-Sayed has respect for the state, its institutions and its laws, particularly considering the fact that he was once a legal official himself. "However, if he continues with his media outbursts, he will not get very far." Focussing on the fate of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process following Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision not to renew the 10-month moratorium on Israeli settlement building which expired on Sunday, Abdel-Bari Atwan wrote in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, "how will we know that the Palestinian delegation carried out its threats and withdrew from the negotiations, as President Abbas and Saeb Ereikat said several times they would?" Atwan argues that Netanyahu wants the negotiations to continue, and so does US President Barack Obama, each for his own reasons. Atwan explains that the Israeli prime minister wants to break his international isolation and appear before the world as a peace dove while the US president looks to achieve "something" in the Islamic world now that he has lost his two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Palestinian negotiators who are isolated at the Arab level and who lack legitimacy at the Palestinian level are helpless, Atwan maintains. "They cannot reject because they have no will, and if they have the will, they do not want to practise it for fear of this action's consequences on their weak authority [the PNA] to which they cling with tooth and nail." This Palestinian weakness, Atwan explains, causes concern because it cedes the Palestinian card, the most important one in the Islamic world, to the Americans and Israelis. "This card will be used as a possible cover for any new aggression against Lebanon or the Gaza Strip and perhaps against Iran and Syria, too, exactly as it was used twice against Iraq and a third time against Afghanistan," Atwan concludes. The Jordanian newspaper Addustour wrote that the Israeli halt in its settlement freeze means the tarnishing of direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis and reveals the goals of the occupation forces who are taking the peace negotiations as a troy to impose a status quo. "These gangsters are concerned with neither peace nor negotiations. They are only concerned with settlement expansion plans regardless of the international community's vision on the matter as well as the Fourth Geneva Conventions."
