Three Lebanese Ministers Explain Taif Accord

By Pat McDonnell Twair

The Los Angeles World Affairs Council sponsored a July 1 discussion on Lebanon with three of the nation's cabinet ministers. Panelists at the dinner session, moderated by Egyptian-born Professor Afaf Marsot of the University of California at Los Angeles, were Khatchik Babikian, Minister of Justice and leader of Lebanon's Armenian minority; Minister of State Raja Deeb; and Boutros Harb, minister of education and fine arts, who filled in for Ali El-Khalil, minister of finance and a leader of Lebanon's Shi'i community.

The ministers previously had addressed the Lebanese Task Force in Washington, DC, but Minister El-Khalil returned to Lebanon when the Lebanese army confronted armed Palestinians in the Sidon area.

The Lebanese ministers were united in their explanations that the Taif Accord of 1990 has, in Babikian's words, "worked miracles." Harb said the Taif Accord is regarded as a national consensus that cannot be termed a choice between good or bad so much as between fair or worse.

"We knew continuation of the 16-year civil war was a sure way to self-destruct."

"We knew continuation of the 16-year civil war was a sure way to self-destruct," stated Harb. He explained that the Taif Accord calls for unification of the Lebanese army within one year, dismantling all militias, Syrian withdrawal by Sept. 21, 1992, and for Israel to observe UN Resolution 425 and withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon.

Deeb, representing the Kutaib (Maronite Christian "Phalange" Party), noted that the Palestine Liberation Organization forces and Hezbollah hadn't yet agreed to disarm totally. He added that if Israel is to honor UN Resolution 425, Lebanon must guarantee that no armed infiltrators will enter northern Israel from Lebanon.

Deeb explained that the Taif Accord split power evenly between Lebanese Christians and Muslims, and that for important decisions, a two-thirds majority vote will be necessary.

Asked about the Lebanese government's position on foreign hostages being held there, the ministers said that although the kidnappings took place on Lebanese soil, the hostages were taken because Lebanon's sovereignty wasn't respected by the foreign militias who did the kidnappings.

"The Iranian Islamic revolution is holding hostages, " Harb said, "and we are trying to rebuild our army so as to finish this shameful period in our history."

Israeli Turnaround

For years, local tabloids and even the Los Angeles Times Magazine have spotlighted the lurid story of Charles LeBros, who hired two Israelis to murder his in-laws for their fortune and multimillion-dollar estate in Montecito, south of Santa Barbara. Israel declined to extradite its two citizens to stand trial for murder in California.

No political motivations, only greed, were involved in this case, and perhaps that is why the Israeli government finally agreed to try the suspects, Yair Orr, 30, and Nadov Nakan, 33, who were sentenced to life in prison June 25 for killing Jack and Carmen Hively as they slept in their home.

LeBros was a business partner of Orr, who reportedly asked his childhood kibbutz buddy Nakan to abet him in the murder of the elderly couple. Off's jilted California girlfriend confessed he had been in California the night of the killings. When Israeli police were brought into the case, they acquired damaging evidence after they wiretapped the suspects' homes, a procedure that is legal in Israel.

After 5,000 pages of reports were "meticulously" translated into Hebrew, more than 35 witnesses were transported from the US (and paid for by Santa Barbara County) and a guilty verdict was announced. The verdict will be appealed to Israel's Supreme Court.

Whereas Orr and Nakan were simply thugs killing for a price in California, a more tangled court drama is that of Robert and Rachel Manning, American immigrants to Israel who are suspects in a string of bombings in the United States under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The most famous of these is the 1985 pipe bombing murder of Alex Odeh, a regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in Santa Ana, California.

The Mannings' finger prints were found on the wrappings of a bomb that killed a Manhattan Beach secretary. Reportedly, the Mannings, once members of the Jewish Defense League, prepared a bomb for a Los Angeles-area realtor (and former JDL leader) who was angry over a failed real estate sale. In covering the story, the Los Angeles Times has repeatedly failed to state that the accused realtor is a major financier of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAQ) Israel's principal American lobby.

The Mannings have been living openly at the right-wing settlement of Kiryat Arba on the West Bank.

Until recently, the Mannings have been living openly at the right-wing Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on the West Bank, because the US did not want to recognize Israel's jurisdiction over the West Bank by authorizing the Israeli government to arrest them there.

Extradition procedures now are in progress, covering only the bombing of the secretary, Patricia Wilkers on, and not the slaying of Alex Odeh.

PAS Walks In Hollywood

Shopkeepers along Hollywood Boulevard are not easily impressed, but on June 8 most stepped outside to observe participants in a Palestine Aid Society 10-kilometer walkathon marching down the tinsel town street. With the Palestinian flag unfurled, the procession of more than 150, most in matching T-shirts, drew cheers from onlookers.

Nearly $13,000 was raised at the Los Angeles event, launched from Griffith Park by speeches from, among others, radio host Casey Kasem, former Beirut hostage Jeremy Levin, and Rhoda Shapiro of the Los Angeles Coalition to Stop US Intervention in the Middle East.

The Rev. Darrell Meyers stated: "We're walking to raise awareness, we're walking to raise consciousness ... to raise blood pressures of those who might not like to see us walk, and we're walking here because the Palestinians can't walk without possible peril."

Citing the successful US-led campaign to end Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, Egyptian born anthropologist-filmmaker Fadwa El Guindi implored President Bush to be morally consistent and stop supporting and financing the violent Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.