So what if it was the Syrians who bumped off Gemayel? He was a pro-Israeli death squad fascist

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Wednesday November 22, 2006 14:28 by Wahid Gordja

Pierre Gemayel (zh?m?'?l) was the leader of the Kataeb, the fascist Maronite Christian Phalangist party. These are anti-arab race supremacists who hark back to the good old colonial days when the French put them in charge of the 'wee province' of Lebanon they had partitioned off from Syria. In those days the favoured Maronites were at the top of the racial hierarchy which the French used to secure their control.

Shatila Refugee camp, Sept 1982. Thousands of Palestinians massacred by the Israeli-backed Christian Phalange

With their position threatened by the weakening of France's grip in the region, in the 1930s Gemayel's grandfather, also Pierre, aka Sheikh Pierre Gemayel, an admirer of the Nazis, advocated a non-Arab independence for Lebanon and founded the Phalangists, moddled on the Nazis and their Spanish namesake, the Falange. While Sheikh Pierre had initially been sympathetic to the Palestinians' plight, he turned against them when the PLO came out in support of a non-sectariant government in Lebanon. He began cultivating ties with Israeli secret services. Pierre junior's father, Amin, and uncle, Bashir, had both been Phalangist senior statesmen in the 70s and 80s, a time of regular massacres of Palestinians by the Phalange, and spent their time in office stoking the civil war by actively sabotaging any power sharing deal with Moslem Arabs, and illegally putting the notorious Christian General Aoun in power. As Phalangist leaders they were the heads of the notorious Christian militia death squads backed by the Israelis to do their dirty work during the 1982 invasion and responsible for the September 1982 massacres of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps, among other atrocities. The Gemayels were all fascist shits. Pierre Gemayel was doubtless up to no good with his Israeli and American paymasters when he got rubbed out.

The Gemayels and Phalangists have lots of enemies right across the political spectrum. To say that Pierre Gemayel was anti-Syrian and that therefore Syria had him assassinated is a bit like saying that Johnny Adair was anti-Irish and that attempts on his life were therefore carried out by the Irish secret services. Gemayel could have been killed by pro-Syrians, with or without Damascus' approval, or he could have been killed by members of any one of Lebanon's political factions, including his own. He could also have been assassinated by the Israelis or by the CIA. In the last analysis, even if it was the Syrians who ordered his assassination, they have more justification for defending their intrerests. In terms of realpolitik, the Syrians are also the only power that have the ability to bring some kind of stability to the region. The Americans, Israelis, French and British might miss Gemayel, and kick up a fuss about his killing. Inside Lebanon, however, he will only be missed inside his narrow sectarian Phalangist Christian circles.