In the news

Hizbullah making preparations to seize power in Beirut

Sources in Lebanon said that Hizbullah is preparing to seize power in Beirut should the UN Hariri tribunal implicate the group in the assassination of the former prime minister, Lebanon's Asharq Alawsat reported on Tuesday. The report said that the group is preparing for a "zero hour scenario," conducting security simulations in the capital city.

The report said that Hizbullah, Amal and other pro-Syrian groups were in close contact and coordination relating to a plan to take control of Beirut, the road to the south of the city, and neutralizing Christian and Sunni areas. The sources said that the groups were already plotting zones of who would control which areas, in a day-after scenario.

Additionally, the report indicated that the "zero hour" refers to a scenario in which indictments are issued by the Hariri tribunal, followed by civil unrest in the streets of the Lebanese capital devolving into violence and a security vacuum.

Hattit concluded that "if this scenario does take place, Hizbullah would be able to seize power in three days, or a week at most," and that the "era of Hariri in Lebanon" would end forever.

Debka weighs in on the same topic:

Hizballah's 'zero hour' exercise for toppling Beirut

Hizballah last Thursday, Oct. 28, conducted a command exercise in all parts of Lebanon to test its armed militia's readiness for what its leaders called "zero hour" i.e. asserting its grip on Lebanon and "cornering" Prime Minister Saad Harir

DEBKAfile's military sources report the exercise took all day and led up to the sabre-rattling speech delivered by Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah that night, which was interpreted by all Lebanese factions interpreted as a declaration of war on their government and the prologue to heating up the border with Israel.

The "zero hour" exercise demonstrated, according to Hizballah sources, "the quick implementation on the ground" of the necessary deployment. They claimed that in "less than two hours" they were able to "maintain a security and military grip of large areas of Lebanon."

In other news:

PA to Ask United Nations to Force Israel Back to Freeze

The Palestinian Authority plans to ask the United Nations to force Israel into renewing a freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria.

According to a report published by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, the plan is backed by Egypt, which supports a joint Arab initiative to demand the U.N. unilaterally grant statehood to the PA

Such a plan has been on the table for months; PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad described a similar initiative in a public speech earlier in the year, and warned he would unilaterally declare statehood by August 2011 if talks were not brought to a successful conclusion by that time.

Erekat reiterated the PA’s desire to create its new country based on Israel’s 1949-1967 borders – including much of Jerusalem – and rejected proposals by Netanyahu for transitional stages to a final status agreement.

Jerusalem and its status back in the news:

Fayyad: Jerusalem suburbs are part of Palestinian capital

On Monday, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch signed the order stating that Israeli law prohibits Palestinian Authority officials from taking part in political activities within Israeli territory without first obtaining special permission.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told security officials not to allow the PA to conduct ceremonies within Jerusalem’s municipal borders.

The measure underscores the sharp divide that exists between the PA and Israel on the issue of Jerusalem, and is likely to raise tensions between the two governments on the eve of Netanyahu’s trip to the United States next week.

And this:

Christians and Jews Once Again in the Muslim Line of Fire

With the attack on an Iraqi church and the mailbombs addressed to an American synagogue, while the media worry about Islamophobia—Christians and Jews once again find themselves in the Muslim line of fire.

Let’s apply a simple test. Western Muslims constantly complain about Islamophobia (which is rather like rapists complaining about Rapeophobia) but how many of them have actually picked up and left?

I can’t count the number of European Jews that I have met, who were forced to leave Europe because of Muslim Anti-Semitism. I have yet to encounter anything similar on the Muslim side. The largest communities of Mizrahi Jews (from Muslim countries) are in Israel and Los Angeles. Not in the Muslim world. Jews from Muslim countries today exist primarily as refugees of an unacknowledged Nakba, who have gotten on with their lives, instead of endlessly dangling housekeys in front of the camera.

The Jews have vanished from most of the Middle East, for the same reason that the Christians are vanishing. Because of the elephant in the room that no one will talk about. An elephant with a Koran and a gun. You can’t write about him. You can’t draw cartoons of him. And you certainly can’t single him out at the airport for any special attention. You had just better hope that the plane he decides to bomb isn’t the plane that you’re on.

And that is the ugly truth at the heart of it all. Muslims are not victims. They are victimizers. They have reduced every minority in the Middle East to second-class status, and then when those minorities try to demand some semblance of human rights, they’re machine gunned, set on fire, bombed and shelled to within an inch of their lives. And then the victimizers laughingly dispatch flotillas to the aid of their own fanatical terrorist gangs.

Islamophobia? What Islamophobia. The last remaining Jewish and Christian communities look carefully to their Mukhbarat (secret police) minders and denounce America and Israel. Then they go back to the few remaining houses of worship that they have, and hope that no one will kill them this week. They do their best to send their children out of the country. To Europe, to America, to Israel. Anywhere but a Muslim country.

Having made a proper hell of the countries they seized and occupied, Muslims are promptly moving to make a hell of the rest of the world too. Jews are once again fleeing Europe, not because of the brownshirts this time, but because of the brownrobes. Not the Mein Kampf and the Swastika, but the Koran and the Crescent and the Star. Out of, dare we say it, “Islamophobia”. The irrational fear of being murdered by people whose religion tells them that there’s a golden ticket to Mohammed Wonka’s virgins and rivers of wine paradise… for anyone who dies killing the infidels.

Its too bad that we are living in an age in which the truth is politically incorrect.