Hezbollah, really?

[Joecoolyo]

Anne Frank diary offends Lebanon's Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AFP) – Anne Frank's diary has been censored out of a school textbook in Lebanon following a campaign by the militant group Hezbollah claiming the classic work promotes Zionism.

The row erupted after Hezbollah learned excerpts of "The Diary of Anne Frank" were included in the textbook used by a private English-language school in western Beirut.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel ran a report slamming the book for focusing on the persecution of Jews.

"What is even more dangerous is the dramatic, theatrical way in which the diary is emotionally recounted," said the report aired last week and also published on the station's website.

It questioned how long Lebanon would "remain an open arena for the Zionist invasion of education."

A member of the school board, Jimmy Shoufani, told AFP the school dropped the textbook from its curriculum after the controversy erupted. He asked that the school not be identified.

Hezbollah officials could not reached for comment.

In the Al-Manar report, party MP Hussein Hajj Hassan had criticized the school for showing poor judgement in picking out its textbooks.

"These respected, established schools are teaching the so-called tragedy this girl lived, and yet they are ashamed to teach the tragedy of the Lebanese people, the tragedy of the Palestinian people... the tragedy of the people of the south under the hands of Zionist occupation," he told Al-Manar.

Paris-based organisation Aladdin's Project, which fights Holocaust denial and first translated Anne Frank's diary into Arabic, issued a statement condemning Hezbollah's "intimidation campaign."

Hezbollah fought a devastating war with the Jewish state in 2006. It has since refused to surrender its weapons arguing they are necessary to fight Israel, which withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after close to two decades of occupation.

The militant party last month also took aim at another textbook used in a leading private school in Beirut in which Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are referred to as "terrorist organisations".

The chapter in question is usually blanked out by Lebanon's censorship bureau, but an uncensored copy purchased by a student abroad apparently sparked the uproar.

Lebanon, which remains technically at war with Israel, bans the import of products from the Jewish state.

Attorney Naim Kalaani, a member of a committee to ban Zionist products, told Al-Manar that use of the book was a violation of Lebanon's penal code and "tantamount to a step toward normalisation" in ties with Israel.

However journalist and criminologist Omar Nashabe rejected such arguments as unfounded.

"The law talks about the state of Israel -- the Israeli flag, Israeli institutions, the Israeli entity, as a nation," Nashabe told AFP.

"Besides Anne Frank is not Israeli," he added. "Anne Frank is part of world literature."

He also pointed out that Frank's diary was available online.

Frank wrote the diary while her family hid from Nazi police and sympathizers in an Amsterdam attic from 1942 to 1944.

She later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, and the diary was published posthumously.

Original Article

I really do not know what to say here....

 

[cardgame]

Aww, can't Israel just go in guns blazing?

 

[Lord Baal]

Aww, can't Israel just go in guns blazing?

Tried that, didn't work. Still, this is a definite sign of Hezbollah stupidity and intransigence. The only thing Anne Frank's diary promotes is adolescent homoeroticism. Best thing they gave us to read in high school.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Tried that, didn't work.

This is because Israel didn't use it's full force, if it did, they would have won easily.

 

[Lord Baal]

This is because Israel didn't use it's full force, if it did, they would have won easily.

Define 'win.' Conquering Lebanon wouldn't be terribly difficult, but that's hardly a victory. It would cause more problems than it would solve.

 

[Tee Kay]

"What is even more dangerous is the dramatic, theatrical way in which the diary is emotionally recounted," said the report aired last week and also published on the station's website.

It's a diary, Hezbollah.

This Jews = Judaism = Zionism = Israel sort of thing needs to stop.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Israel and Lebanon should get rid of Hezbollah once and for all. Lebanon unlike Palestinian regions won't have a new group just a few years later.

To bad Hezbollah has so much influence on Southern Lebanon...

 

[emzie]

It's a diary, Hezbollah.

This Jews = Judaism = Zionism = Israel sort of thing needs to stop.

Hezbollah, officially, says there's a clear distinction between Zionism and Judaism. However, intellectually saying Jews and Zionists aren't the same, and then blaming Jews for the spread of HIV, is a weebit contradictory.

I admit that in the past I've been an apologist for Hezbollah, and I still think they do some good for Shi'a Lebanese, but I can't pretend they're not a group of anti-Semites.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Define 'win.' Conquering Lebanon wouldn't be terribly difficult, but that's hardly a victory. It would cause more problems than it would solve.

No, not conquering Lebanon, what would the point of that be? I guess, the goal Israel was striving for in that war was wiping out the Hezbollah.

 

[Lord Baal]

No, not conquering Lebanon, what would the point of that be? I guess, the goal Israel was striving for in that war was wiping out the Hezbollah.

And they failed miserably. You can't wipe out Hezbollah without either; a large-scale invasion and occupation - which is more likely to lead to the creation of other such groups, not to mention other massive problems for Israel - or; a long-term diplomatic and intelligence offensive to deny Hezbollah their funding and arms, as well as bringing the Lebanese, and preferably Syrian and Iranian governments into line, combined with eliminating the economic conditions in whcih Hezbollah currently thrives.

The latter route takes longer, but is better, and that's the one Israel seems resigned to, though there are still those who think all Israel's problems can be solved by bombing everything in sight. Defeating Hezbollah means removing its lifelines and destroying its popularity. Military force alone won't achieve that, because even if Israel gets lucky and actually kills Hezbollah, someone else will take their place.

 

[amadeus]

Well, let's look at all the good things Hezbollah does before we go and criticize them.

 

[Elrohir]

Original Article

I really do not know what to say here....

Hezbollah kills Jews on a regular basis, and receives major support from a nation with a president that denies the Holocaust - are you really surprised that they want to censor something that portrays certain Jews in a sympathetic light?

It's human nature to want your allies to be seen as good, and your enemies to be seen as bad, and to want whatever goes contrary to that go to away. Hezbollah is, shockingly enough, made up of human beings with certain agendas. This isn't surprising at all, honestly.

 

[otago]

Aww, can't Israel just go in guns blazing?

Read the Winograd report dear boy, the IDF strolled into one Lebanese town with weapons slung then complained bitterly how unfair it was they got ambushed.
Same as sending their tanks forward that they believed were immune to all known anti tank weapons, they were not.
Putting infantry into a house within range of Hezbollah anti tank missiles was not very bright.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Read the Winograd report dear boy, the IDF strolled into one Lebanese town with weapons slung then complained bitterly how unfair it was they got ambushed.
Same as sending their tanks forward that they believed were immune to all known anti tank weapons, they were not.
Putting infantry into a house within range of Hezbollah anti tank missiles was not very bright.

Not to mention they suffered nearly equal losses against an enemy they outnumbered 3 to 1.

 

[Karalysia]

Well, let's look at all the good things Hezbollah does before we go and criticize them.

They do a lot of charity for the Lebanese poor. And war victims and widows.

 

[amadeus]

They do a lot of charity for the Lebanese poor. And war victims and widows.

As did a number of fascist, Marxist, and assorted totalitarian regimes and outlaw groups do. Does that make those places any less bad?

 

[sophie]

The only thing Anne Frank's diary promotes is adolescent homoeroticism. Best thing they gave us to read in high school.

This is so true it isn't even funny.

 

[Dachs]

Not to mention they suffered nearly equal losses against an enemy they outnumbered 3 to 1.

Sounds about right for the offense.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

See how you sometimes should not encourage people to read?

Or think:

In the Al-Manar report, party MP Hussein Hajj Hassan had criticized the school for showing poor judgement in picking out its textbooks.

"These respected, established schools are teaching the so-called tragedy this girl lived, and yet they are ashamed to teach the tragedy of the Lebanese people, the tragedy of the Palestinian people... the tragedy of the people of the south under the hands of Zionist occupation," he told Al-Manar.

If he just had left out "so-called" he just may have had a point from his own point of view.

 

[Tee Kay]

As did a number of fascist, Marxist, and assorted totalitarian regimes and outlaw groups do. Does that make those places any less bad?

Makes them better than totalitarian regimes that did nothing for the people they're supposed to serve at least.