Top Iraqi official fired for visiting Israel

Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has fired one of its most senior members for visiting Israel, a spokesman for the group said Monday.

During an emergency meeting, the leadership of the former exile group decided to "fire Mithal al-Alusi from the Iraqi National Conference," spokesman Haidar al-Mousawi told The Associated Press.

Al-Alusi's visit to a terrorism conference angered his colleagues, who said they only knew about the trip from the media. A part of Chalabi's inner circle, al-Alusi headed the de-Baathification Committee, which fired thousands of members of Saddam's Baath Party from their jobs.

Haaretz quoted al-Alusi as saying that many elements in Iraq are interested in diplomatic ties with Israel.

"His statements, which were carried by the media, do not represent the Iraqi National Congress' point of view," an INC statement said.

Well, we now have Iraq Redux in Lebanon. While the media (and many a blogger) are engulfed by enthusiasm, as they observe the Lebanese anti-Syrian demonstrations, here is the wet blanket called reality. Under the innocent heading, "Beirut protests leave Hizbollah with a dilemma", the Financial Times, 3 Mar 2005, reports as follows:

Lebanon's opposition, flush with success after forcing the collapse of the pro-Syria government, has intensified appeals to Hizbollah, the Shia Islamist movement, to join its ranks...

Shia Muslims are the only large community that has not joined what the Lebanese refer to as the "intifada for independence" - the protests against Syrian dominance over Lebanon that helped topple the government on Monday. Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims have all taken part...

To encourage Hizbollah, the opposition has portrayed its struggle against Syria as an extension of Hizbollah's war of liberation against Israel...

But Washington faces two problems. Hizbollah argues it must remain armed to liberate a parcel of land, called Shebaa farms, that it claims remains occupied by Israel, despite Israel's UN-backed withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000.

Hizbollah also has a long history of enmity with the US, which considers it a terrorist organisation. The US and Israel lobbied hard, but unsuccessfully, last month to persuade European governments to include Hizbollah on their list of terrorist organisations.

JPost carries today this corroborating gem:

Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera he preferred a truce with Israel rather than a peace treaty. "Peace with Israel harms Lebanon. We don't want that," he said.

All of which comes to me as no surprise. Having studied the Middle East history with Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall" in mind, I have any doubt that unless the Arabs and Islamists are defeated soundly and definitively, Western Civilization, including Israel, will have no peace. De-Nazification started with the Nazi defeat.