LEBANON: Alien robot invades Beirut for groundbreaking Arab animation fest

A new invader has descended on Beirut: He is Grendizer. 

The iconic Grendizer of 1970s anime fame is the official poster boy (bot?) of the Beirut Animated film festival, which opens today as a collaboration between  Beirut-based Samandal Comics and the Metropolis art cinema.

Grendizer is a unifying figure for an entire generation of Lebanese who grew up during the country's bitter 15-year civil war. When Beirut was being torn to pieces by local warlords and their foreign-funded militias, the Grendizer cartoons were a welcome distraction for children who were more likely to miss school because of shelling than chicken pox.

Although Grendizer has been a great marketing tool, Metropolis' Rabih Khoury said he and the other organizers tried to emphasize the artistic range of animation, which is often dismissed as kid's stuff. To this end, Beirut Animated will feature 40 animated films and shorts, with a special emphasis on Arab productions.

The festival already has generated buzz with a number of clever mixed-media Internet shorts reimagining Beirut under siege by aliens, monsters and robots, both benign and menacing. The clip below features a somewhat awkward encounter between the cameraman and the robot guarding the entrance to the Candlelight Bar, an infamous prostitution den known locally as a "super nightclub," in West Beirut.

MIDDLE EAST: Israel, Hezbollah in warning war

Israel keeps an eye on its northern neighbor. An ear, too. After a long silence during which multiple espionage rings were uncovered in Lebanon, Israel informed the United Nations that it would continue to gather intelligence in Lebanon so long as the government isn't in full control of its territory. 

This was Israel's answer to an official Lebanese petition to the U.N. after the discovery in late October of suspected Israeli listening devices in southern Lebanon. A few days later, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon also confirmed that Israel was gathering intelligence. When Hezbollah is disarmed and the border becomes one of peace, we will stop, he said.

Hezbollah isn't disarming. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the Lebanese government to extend its control over all Lebanese territory and for the disbanding and disarming of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. That's not happening. Hezbollah is holding both ends of the stick, entering the political and governmental system while holding on to its arms.

LEBANON: New government greeted mostly with pessimism and a dash of hope

Even while the Lebanese press and many analysts welcomed the new Cabinet and national unity government in Tuesday's papers, many harbored doubts over whether Prime Minister Saad Hariri will be able to bridge the deep divisions between his coalition and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran.

"Government of the Two Trenches," read a headline carried in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is considered to be close to the opposition.

Lebanon's national unity government received warm plaudits amid the questions over whether the rival U.S. and Saudi-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition would be able to set aside their long-running disputes to work together. 

The new government underwent internal tussles over distribution of ministerial posts even in the first hours after its formation on Monday.

LEBANON: Israel admits spying on its northern neighbor

Israel has openly admitted to collecting intelligence in Lebanon, an uncharacteristically frank admission and a slap in the face of its neighbor.

Of course, everyone spies on everyone in the Middle East. 

But in the past, for the sake of politesse, Israel has refused to acknowledge mounting espionage operations in Lebanon, although their existence is an open secret.

Lebanon has arrested dozens of alleged spies working for Israel this year alone, and recently found and destroyed a number of eavesdropping devices attached to Hezbollah's communications network. 

At the time, Israel said allegations of spying "did not warrant a serious response."

But during a recent visit to the volatile border separating Israel from Lebanon, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon confirmed Israel's information-gathering activities in Lebanon, which he said targeted Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia and political organization that maintains de facto control over southern Lebanon.

"The moment Hezbollah renewed their attacks, we began to collect intelligence. ... We will stop when Hezbollah disarms itself and the border is a border of peace," Ya'alon said, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"When we are in conflict with an enemy, we gather information about them," he added.

LEBANON: Militant group's attack on Israel complicates the situation along tense border

For years, Israel's main concern on its northern border was the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, a tightly organized resistance movement that participates in the Lebanese government but still maintains its own military and social infrastructure. 

But now another player has appeared, a previously little-known Islamist group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, a branch of the Abdullah Azzam Brigade, that has now claimed responsibility for its second rocket attack on Israel this year.  Ziad Jarrah was a Sept. 11 hijacker, and Abdullah Azzam a mentor of Osama bin Laden.

Although Hezbollah has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, it often coordinates with the Lebanese army and the U.N., which maintains a peacekeeping force in the south.

The Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, on the other hand, are thought to have connections to Al Qaeda, using the well-known Jihadist Fajr media center to claim responsibility for the rocket that was fired on northern Israel on Tuesday from the Lebanese border village of Houla. 

LEBANON: Hezbollah releases video, denies Israeli 'rocket' claims

 
Hezbollah has released its own video claiming that the "rocket" captured on Israeli surveillance tape after an explosion at the home of Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon was nothing more than the rolled-up metal door to the garage where the explosion occurred.

On Monday, Issa, a Hezbollah member, was reportedly injured in the blast that scorched the garage of his home in the village of Teir Felsay. Competing claims surfaced immediately as to whether the explosion was caused by a Hezbollah weapons cache or an unexploded Israeli ordnance, with Israel airing footage taken by an unmanned drone supposedly showing Hezbollah fighters removing rockets from the site of the blast.

Hezbollah's footage, which originally aired on the group's Al  Manar television channel, shows men loading the door into a covered truck while UN peacekeepers look on. Click here to watch both videos on the BBC's website.

A piece posted on Hezbollah's website wa3ad.org explains that accidents with unexploded Israeli ordnances are not uncommon, and that some people may take them home and try to defuse them (Arabic link) in order to then sell the emptied shell to scrap-metal dealers. At least 290 people have been killed or injured by unexploded Israeli ordnances in southern Lebanon; a number of those incidents have been linked to scrap-metal collection.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, a top official in Hezbollah, has denounced the Israeli drone's violation of Lebanese airspace as the "real attack on Lebanon." Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told the Lebanese daily As-Safir that he intends to file a complaint with the UN Security Council, of which Lebanon is a non-permanent member as of Thursday.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Al Manar aired footage Thursday supposedly showing the "rocket" captured on Israeli surveillance film was actually the rolled-up garage door. Credit: almanar.com.lb

LEBANON: Israeli army says video shows Hezbollah blast site was weapons cache

The Israeli Defense Forces has released a video it says shows Hezbollah fighters clearing munitions from the home of party member Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon, where a mysterious explosion took place Monday evening.

The grainy surveillance video, which was purportedly shot by an unmanned Israeli aircraft, shows dozens of figures loading trucks at the site of the blast before the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers arrived on the scene. Click here to view the video on the IDF's website.

The incident is under investigation, with contradictory news reports saying that the site was a Hezbollah weapons cache or that the explosion was caused by old Israeli ordnance. No one was killed in the blast, but Lebanese authorities confirmed that one person was wounded, reportedly Issa.

Israel filed an official complaint with the United Nations after the explosion, which it said proves Hezbollah is continuing to store weapons in southern Lebanon in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Hezbollah, which describes itself as a resistance movement, has never denied its weapons and often boasts of its military capacity.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

LEBANON: Mysterious explosion in Hezbollah member's house

A mysterious explosion went off in the home of Hezbollah member Abdel Nasser Issa in southern Lebanon on Monday evening, sparking a flurry of contradictory reports regarding the cause of the blast and number of casualties.

Hezbollah denied initial reports that five people had died, including a party official and his son. Local media claimed that no one was killed but that Issa was undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital for serious injuries.

The Israeli army issued a statement claiming the explosion "proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon" under U.N. Resolution 1701, and Israeli resident Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of turning Lebanon into a "powder keg." But as of this afternoon, Hezbollah's news channel, Al Manar, was favoring an AFP report suggesting the explosion may have taken place while Issa was attempting to defuse unexploded Israeli ordnance he found next to a nearby river.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. peacekeeping force confirmed that the Israeli Army requested an investigation into the explosion, which comes just a few months after another mysterious blast in an abandoned house near the Israeli border which was widely believed to have been caused by a Hezbollah weapons cache. Hezbollah has maintained that the building contained unexploded Israeli shells from the 2006 July war.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: the first-floor garage where the explosion took place was scorched when a still-unexplained explosion went off Monday night. Credit: Naharnet.com

LEBANON: Druze leader Jumblatt says Iran can supply nation's weapons

The leader of Lebanon's Druze community says the country should buy weapons from Iran, among others, to use to defend itself against the Israeli "enemy," Iran's English-language Press TV is reporting on its website. 

The U.S. has given Lebanese security forces millions of dollars in aid, equipment and training. 

But Washington refuses to give Lebanon any weapon that could harm Israel, a staunch American ally. 

That's OK, says Walid Jumblatt. If the United States fails to provide Lebanon with such weapons, it could turn to the Islamic Republic, which already is believed to supply weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite political organization and militia.

LEBANON: Hezbollah chief denies links to allegedly crooked moneyman

It's turning into the biggest financial scandal to hit Lebanon in years, perpetrated by a businessman being dubbed  the nation's Bernie Madoff. 

Now, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is weighing in on the topic amid allegations that Salah Ezzedine (pictured, at right) was a financier of the Shiite militant group and political organization. 

In a speech last night, Nasrallah said the party had nothing to do with Ezzedine, now in jail after allegedly losing $1.5 billion of investors' money in what some are calling a Ponzi scheme.

Ezzedine was a financier and owner of a publishing house close to Hezbollah. But Nasrallah denied allegations that Hezbollah leaders had invested huge unexplained sums with Ezzedine, who reportedly offered returns of between 25% and 55% to investors, luring families.as well as charities to pour cash into his company.

"I tell you that these are false allegations," he said. "These Hezbollah leaders own nothing of the funds that people claim they own."