Introduction

Islamic Nation’s Supreme Spiritual Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that Lebanon should continue its resistance until a “total retreat by the Zionist regime from south Lebanon” a reference to the Shiba Farms which “Israel” still holds.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was quoted as saying:

“If Lebanon resisted the “Israeli” aggression, it is the duty of Arab and Islamic countries to help,” adding that “Iran is interested in the reconstruction of lebanon and considers it a revolutionary, national and Islamic duty.”

However, the “Israeli” enemy warplanes broke the sound barrier over the capital Beirut on Sunday after flying over southern Lebanon, a Lebanese aviation source said.

Meanwhile, Beirut military court handed down 121 sentences overnight against Lebanese accused of assisting “Israel” during its 22-year occupation.

Iran's top leader calls for Lebanon to resist against “Israel” (1)

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Refic Hariri that Lebanon should continue its "resistance" against “Israel” and promised Beirut reconstruction aid, Iran's official news agency IRNA said Sunday.

"Lebanon plays a crucial role in the Palestinian issue. And great efforts are being deployed to break the resistance," Khamenei said at the Saturday meeting, adding that resistance to "the Zionist regime's threats" went hand in hand with Lebanon's reconstruction.

Khamenei also judged a peace plan proposed by US President Bill Clinton "ridiculous," assuring that the Palestinian intifada, or uprising against “Israeli” rule, "will continue no matter what be the pressures of the Zionists and their allies."

He said Lebanon should resist until "a total retreat by the Zionist regime from south Lebanon," an allusion to the Shebaa Farms, which “Israel” kept following its withdrawal in May last year from Lebanon, saying the region was captured from Syria.

Khamenei voiced support for Syria's all-powerful role in Lebanon, paying tribute to "Syria's role in recent Lebanese victories" and criticizing groups "who seek to weaken (ties)," a reference to Christian and other Lebanese groups that have called for more balanced ties between Beirut and Damascus.

Iran and Syria are the chief backers of Hezbollah, the militant movement that spearheaded opposition to “Israel's” 22-year occupation of south Lebanon.

Khamenei assured Hariri of Iran's "strategic support" and said Tehran "will help it in all ways it can to rebuild."

Hariri has launched a massive campaign to rebuild from Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war and has been lobbying for foreign help to assist the reconstruction of the former “Israeli”-occupied south. It is Hariri's first trip to Iran since he returned to power last year.

Tehran vows to help get South back in shape
Khatami Hizbullah is a source of pride for Islamic & Arab world (2)

Prime Minister Rafik Hariri returned home on Sunday from a two-day official visit to Tehran, bringing with him an Iranian pledge to support Lebanon’s reconstruction as a reward for ejecting “Israel” from the South.
The pledge was made by President Mohammad Khatami, one of several Iranian leaders Hariri met with during his visit.
The premier’s trip was designed to discuss the latest Middle East developments and explore ways to expand political and economic ties, including the prospects of pumping Iranian oil to Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Khatami, Hariri described the visit as successful and affirmed that “there is a political decision in Iran to help Lebanon’s reconstruction in general and the southern region in particular.”
He said Lebanon’s relationship with Iran was “strong, historic, and enduring. Iran’s support for Lebanon is not new.”
Sources close to the Lebanese delegation described Hariri’s talks with Khatami as “excellent, dominated by complete understanding of the regional situation and the peace process.”
They said it was agreed that an Iranian delegation, including the governor of the Islamic Republic’s central bank, would visit Lebanon prior to a meeting of a joint Lebanese-Iranian body to discuss reconstruction efforts.
Khatami also expressed support for a project that would lay an Iranian pipeline to Lebanon across Iraq and Syria. He said contacts were continuing with the countries, the sources added.
Earlier in the day, Hariri discussed ways of developing  cooperation in the field of electric power with Iran’s energy  minister, who will visit Lebanon in two months.
Similar talks were held with the Iranian minister of housing on developing financial ties.
Shortly after returning to Beirut, the prime minister talked with President Emile Lahoud, whom he briefed on the outcome of the visit and talks held with Iranian leaders.
A statement from Baabda said Hariri informed Lahoud of “matters agreed upon to strengthen Lebanese-Iranian cooperation in various fields, especially as regards rebuilding the South.”
Tehran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying: “If Lebanon resisted the aggression, it is the
duty of Arab and Islamic countries to help.
“Iran is interested in the reconstruction of Lebanon and considers it a revolutionary, national, and Islamic duty,” he added.
Khatami’s comments echoed those made on Saturday by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who also promised to help rebuild the war-torn South.
Both Iranian leaders praised Hizbullah’s role in forcing “Israel” to pull its troops out of southern Lebanon.
Hizbullah, strongly backed by Tehran, was a “source of pride for the Islamic and Arab world,” Khatami said.
He added that Hizbullah’s success was a source of inspiration for the intifada.
Khatami rejected any imposed deals by the US or other countries over Palestine.
“Palestine belongs to Palestinians and they should decide about their country and any deals made by superpowers or other countries in this regard do not count,” he told Hariri, who was making his first visit to Iran since returning to power last year.
He reiterated previous calls for a sovereign Palestinian state and promised Iran’s continued support for Lebanon and Syria.
In turn, Hariri underlined that Middle East peace negotiations were “fragile” and “not fruitful because of “Israel’s” nature.”
At a meeting with Hariri on Saturday, Khamenei said Lebanon should resist until “a total retreat by the Zionist regime from south Lebanon­ a reference to the Shebaa Farms, which “Israel” still holds.
He also voiced support for Syria’s role in Lebanon, criticizing groups which “seek to weaken ties,” an allusion to Christian and other Lebanese groups that have called for more balanced relations between Beirut and Damascus.
On Saturday, Hariri also held talks with Iran’s first vice-president, Hassan Habibi.
At a joint press conference, Hariri said ties between the two countries were “continuously developing to the better.”
For his part, Habibi said that Iran’s support for Lebanon and Syria, as well as for the Palestinian intifada, was “historically based and in line with a political decision.”
Hariri was accompanied on the trip by a delegation that included Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, Economy and Trade Minister Basil Fuleihan, and a press team.

“Israeli” warplanes again violate Lebanese air space (3)

“Israeli” warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut on Sunday after flying over southern Lebanon, a Lebanese aviation source said.

The planes dropped military observation balloons near the “Israeli”-held Shibaa Farms area and over Tyre and Sidon, the largest cities in southern Lebanon, according to reporters at the scene.

Lebanon sentences 121 more for "collaboration" with “Israel” (4) {Collaborators}

A Beirut military court handed down 121 sentences overnight against Lebanese accused of assisting “Israel” during its 22-year occupation, including two people who each received 10 years in prison, a judicial source said Sunday.

One of the Lebanese to receive a 10-year sentence was found guilty of killing and injuring Syrian workers by bombing them as a member of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), “Israel's” proxy militia during the occupation.

The other received 10 years for collaboration with "enemy" intelligence services, the source said.

Most of the Lebanese convicted overnight received one year in prison and fines of 400,000 Lebanese pounds (267 dollars) for joining the SLA.

Three women each received three weeks in prison and fines of one million pounds (667 dollars) for entering “Israel”, while two other women were convicted in absentia for the same crime and sentenced to one year in prison and a 200,000-pound (133-dollar) fine.

One defendant was found not guilty and five others, accused of collaborating with “Israeli” intelligence, were released for having also assisted the Lebanese services.

The convictions bring to 2,162 the number of sentences handed down since June 5, just two weeks after “Israel's” withdrawal, when Lebanon began trying more than 2,500 Lebanese accused of collaboration.

Eleven people have been sentenced to death and three others to life in prison, but all in absentia.

Hezbollah, which spearheaded anti-”Israeli” operations during the occupation, has frequently criticized the sentences as too light.

Family returns to Bastara, despite danger (5) {I.A.}

The sickly odor of death hung over the Bastara farmstead. Swarms of flies and wasps were drawn to pools of congealing blood and melted fat from the rotting, partially burned corpses of tens of goats that were killed by “Israeli” shells last week. The sight brought tears to the eyes of Ghalia Zohra.
“God, I can’t bear the smell,” she said, sighing and dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.
On Wednesday, Ghalia’s brother, Qassem, and the rest of their extended family returned to their ramshackle collection of goat pens and stone hovels perched on an isolated hilltop on the edge of the Shibaa Farms. They had collected the decomposing animal corpses and burned them in three separate pyres.
“We raised all these goats with the same affection as we raise our own children,” Ghalia said. “How can we but hold them dear?”
The goats were killed when an “Israeli” mortar shell exploded in their pen early Wednesday morning during a heavy bombardment of the Bastara farmstead. Estimates of the number of dead goats vary from “over 60,” according to UNIFIL, to “at least 200,” according to the Zohras.
Remarkably, all 13 members of the Zohra clan escaped the bombardment unhurt. But the Zohras decided that living on the frontline of the Shibaa Farms was simply no longer possible, and they began to look elsewhere to live and raise their goats.
Ghalia said that Qassem had searched for alternative grazing from Naqoura, on the coast, to Kfar Shuba, 5 kilometers north of Bastara.
“He couldn’t find anywhere for the goats. There was nowhere else for us to go, so we have no choice but to stay. We’re stuck here,” Ghalia said.
The traditional attachment of southerners to their land has been sorely tested in the Zohra’s case. While the rest of the South embraces the calm of a post-occupation existence, liberation has spelt disaster for the family.
Despite receiving routine harassment at the hands of “Israeli” troops stationed in the vicinity of Bastara during the occupation, the area was the quietest sector in the former enclave. But now they are caught in the middle of attack and counter-attack as the campaign over the Shibaa Farms plods on around them.
Their nearest neighbors ­ other than the “Israeli” troops in the Ramta outpost towering above Bastara ­ are in Kfar Shuba, a half hour’s drive away along a narrow rutted track.
Ghalia’s other brother, Hussein and her niece, Layali, were nearly killed a month ago when “Israeli” troops fired mortar rounds near them as they grazed their goats just south of Bastara.
“We don’t take our goats further than the farm anymore,” Ghalia said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Shepherding ­ that most pastoral of lifestyles ­ has become a dangerous occupation since the border heated up along the Shibaa Farms.
Saad Abdel-Aal, 18, from Halta, one of three villages facing the Shibaa Farms, said that if he approaches the border, “Israeli” troops open fire at him.
“The last time was two days ago,” he said pointing at the hilltop Jabal Summaq outpost.
The position was barely visible in the murky late afternoon light as a blanket of gray cloud slowly descended on the mountain peaks.
Abdel-Aal, who was tending his flock with the help of several siblings, said that he had lost 50 of the 800 goats in his care since military operations began in the Shibaa Farms in October.

Intifada ‘needs more violence’
Beirut conference argues that Palestinians must deploy more radical tactics (6)

Armed struggle should be encouraged as a key element  of the success of the intifada, political and academic personalities said over the weekend.
At a conference organized by the Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation at the Commodore Hotel on Saturday, speakers argued that the current uprising should be prolonged and intensified.
Khaled Ayed, a researcher at the Center for Palestinian Studies, advocated training Palestinian police to partake in a wider scope of guerrilla warfare, as well as increasing accessibility to homemade weapons so that key settlements and crossings could be attacked.
“The Palestinian security system created by Oslo needs to be rehabilitated to protect the land and the people and not the security of the occupying force,” he said during a session chaired by MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc.
Ayed said a major stumbling block remained a lack of unity in the movement’s political goals, saying that some parties accepted a state created in territories occupied during the 1967 war and others aimed for the liberation of all of Palestine.
Others who are “trying to contain the intifada peacefully are working against it,” he said. “We shouldn’t minimize the level of violence.”
Ayed also supported tighter control on the more than 100,000 workers who commute between “Israel” and the Palestinian territories, saying they have been used to infiltrate Palestinian society and target prominent personalities.
““Israel” has been able to form a 5,000-person network of collaborators, and the Palestinian resistance should deal with this firmly” he said.
Palestinian society, Ayed continued, needs to be prepared for long-term resistance and become as independent as possible from the “Israeli” market by switching to home and cooperative production and abstaining from luxury items.
Islamic Jihad representative Abu Imad Rifai stressed the importance of training not only Palestinian security bodies but also prisoners, many of whom are affiliated with Islamic Jihad or Hamas.
“Just like you can’t press a button and transform a person from a prison guard in the Palestinian Authority to a resistance fighter the next day, you can’t turn a prisoner from Hamas or Jihad into a fighter tomorrow,” he said.
Rifai argued that the Palestinian people had little power in the current intifada because the Palestinian Authority had severely restricted the power of Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine representative Hussein Abu Namel, who discussed the intifada’s economic dimension, echoed many at the conference in advocating emulating the Lebanese example in overcoming “Israeli” occupation.
“Are military weapons more effective than economic weapons or should they go hand in hand (as with the Lebanese resistance)?” he asked. “Incorporating both is a condition for success.”
He refuted “Israeli” allegations that its economy was independent of Palestinians and advocated using the Palestinian workforce as a weapon. Abu Namel  argued that much of “Israel’s” economy was based on Palestinian and Arab-”Israeli” workers.
“With $100 billion in “Israel” earned from local production … and more than 300,000 Arab-Israelis, according to 1998 figures, working for Jews,” he said, “the Palestinian market in “Israel” is a vital one and can be used as a weapon.”
Abu Namel cautioned, however, that effects on the Palestinians should be understood before any attempts were made to paralyze “Israel’s” economy

(07:30) Body of abducted “Israeli” found
By The Jerusalem Post Internet Staff (7)

The bullet-ridden body of Ronni Tsalah, 34, was discovered a short time ago by the “Israel” Army trackers in the vicinity of the hothouses near Kfar Yam in Gush Katif.
Tsalah was working with his Palestinian employees at the hothouses when he was abducted last night.

Security sources believe a Hamas group was behind the murder. Palestinians working with Tsalah are suspected of involvement in the killing.

His torched car was towed to an intersection near Khan Yunis earlier this morning.

Gunfire was reported in the area of the hothouses soon after the body was found.

Firing flares into the night sky, the “Israel” Army, last night closed main roads in Gaza and sealed off its borders to search for Tsalah. The Army's Druse Herev unit combed the area near the hothouses and conducted house-to-house searches of Palestinian farmers' shacks and homes situated nearby in an area under “Israeli” security control.

Tsalah's car, carrying a locating transmitter, was tracked to Khan Yunis. Local residents told “Israel” Radio it was found in flames at the Red Cross station in the city.

Tsalah's father-in-law, Shimon Mor-Yosef, a Gush Katif ambulance driver, alerted officials to his disappearance after calls to Tsalah's cellphone went unanswered. Shortly after 6 p.m., he travelled to the hothouse a kilometer outside the community and discovered that Tsalah's car was missing, the generator was running, and Tsalah's cellphone and other belongings were inside the hothouse.

Tsalah had gone to check on the hothouse where he grows cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. He has lived in Kfar Yam for 10 years and is married to Oshrit. The two have an 18-month-old son.

Datia Mizrahi, a neighbor of the Tsalahs, said he worked with Palestinian laborers.

Two Palestinians executed for collaboration with “Israeli” occupations (8)

 Two Palestinians convicted of providing the “Israeli” occupation with information that led to the assasination of Palestinian intifadah activists were executed Saturday.

Majdi Mikkawi was the first Palestinian collaborator to be executed at the main Gaza  police station in the town of Rafah.

Later,in the West Bank city of Nablus, Allan Bani Odeh was shot in a public square as thousands chanted "God is Greatest".

Of those assasinated as a result of the collaborators' information is Jamal Abdel Razek, a senior Fatah leader and Mikkawi's uncle. He was killed with three other Fatah members on November 22 in an “Israeli” army ambush.

Odeh was convicted of aiding “Israeli” troops in planting a bomb in the car of Ibrahim bani Odeh, a Hamas leader, leading to his martyrdom near the West Bank town of Nablus.

Following the executions ,the Palestinians Authority called an all those collaborating with "“Israel”" to turn themselves over.

Palestinian Justice Minister Freij Abu Madyan promised those who will surrender themselves " a fair trial if they had committed a crime".

The Occupation destroys more Palestinian plantations (9)

 Witnesses said clashes broke out on Saturday in the West Bank city of al-Khalil(Hebron) between Palestinian stone-throwers and “Israeli” soldiers who fired rubber-coated metal bullets.

Al-Khalil was the scene of the latest fatality when a 22-year-old member of Arafat's Fatah faction was shot dead by “Israeli” soldiers on Friday.

Witnesses said the “Israeli” army surrounded five Palestinian villages near Beitlahm with three tanks on Saturday and flattened fields with bulldozers.

The “Israeli” occupation says Palestinian gunmen often use fields to provide cover but Palestinians say the bulldozing destroys crops and is punitive.

Footnotes:

1 – AFP 14-1-2001

2 – The Daily Star 15-1-2001

3 – AFP 14-1-2001

4 – Same source

5 – The Daily Star 15-1-2001

6 – Same source

7 – Jerusalem 15-1-2001

8 – Manar TV 14-1-2001

9 – Same source