Hell on Earth

There is a totalitarian state in the Middle East where people who express any type of political dissent are dealt the most brutal tortures imaginable. Some are stripped naked and burned with cigarette butts on the most sensitive parts of their bodies; others are hung upside-down for long periods; their scalps are set on fire; their fingernails are pulled out, one by one; their genitals are electrocuted and mutilated; their bodies are stuffed inside the hollow rims of car tires and then battered with clubs; they are doused with boiling water; their lungs and stomachs are force-pumped with air and water; chunks of their flesh are torn away with pliers; they are forced to drink their own urine; they are thrown into basins of electrified water; they are tied to the backs of cars and dragged at high speed until their bodies are torn apart. Every institution in the world that struggles to defend human rights has published documents exposing and condemning the tortures carried out by this nation's barbarous dictatorship.

Perhaps its most infamous atrocity occurred twenty years ago, shortly after its dictator had not only banned all political parties other than his own, but had also executed the leaders of opposing parties and outlawed all freedoms of the press. In response to this oppression, a group called the Muslim Brotherhood attempted to form a new political party to challenge the existing regime's stranglehold on virtually every aspect of both public and private life. Determined to snuff out this rebel movement before it gained too much popular support, the aforementioned despot deployed his military to carry out one of the most ruthless extermination campaigns in the recorded history of mankind.

Because Muslim Brotherhood members were located principally in a city named Hama, the dictator aimed his crosshairs in that direction. On February 2, 1982, he commanded his air force to drop bombs on the city, destroying all roads so as to make escape impossible. Then his army tanks and artillery shelled the town relentlessly, causing hundreds of homes to crumble upon their living occupants; those attempting to flee were shot dead in the streets. Within hours, the city was reduced to rubble. The next wave of attacks came in the form of soldiers, who hunted down and killed anything that moved. Family members were slaughtered in front of one another; babies were disemboweled while their mothers held them. Finally, to ensure that no one was left alive anywhere amid the ruins, the army used generators to fill the air of Hama with cyanide gas. All told, it is estimated that nearly 40,000 people died in this abomination.

The stage upon which these ugly scenes were played out is in Syria, where the tyrannical rule of Hafez al-Assad and his successor (Assad's son, Bashar) has created a hell on earth. But not satisfied with consigning their own population to such subservience and suffering, these bloodthirsty tyrants have also inflicted a repressive occupation on neighboring Lebanon for more than a quarter-century. Currently stationing some 35,000 troops in Lebanon, Syria controls the Lebanese presidency, government, and press. Syrian secret agents roam Lebanese streets, eavesdropping on conversations in search of a seditious word. Should they overhear anything objectionable, the offender is beaten, arrested, tortured, and in many cases simply "disappears," never to be seen again.

Moreover, the Assad dynasty has systematically flooded Lebanon with more than a million Syrian emigrants - drastically altering Lebanese demographics and thus ensuring that the "proper" candidates win the sham elections conducted there. In addition, these Syrian emigrants take jobs away from Lebanese natives, causing them great financial hardship. The combination of economic destitution and political oppression has forced some 850,000 Lebanese to leave their country during the past dozen years. This calculated form of ethnic cleansing shifted into high gear in October 1990 when Syrian military forces, capitalizing on Western preoccupation with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, invaded and extinguished virtually all remaining strongholds of Christian Lebanese resistance.

Ziad Abdelnour, president of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon, describes the current situation in Lebanon as "a Gestapo state . . . exactly [like] France occupied by Nazi Germany." Lebanese expert George Haddy puts it this way: "Day after day and for the last 25 years, Lebanese at large have most probably witnessed the most horrific human rights abuses and economic hardships a modern nation has maybe ever been through."

It is logical to wonder why this situation has drawn so little international attention, whereas Israel's presence in Palestinian regions remains perhaps the most hotly debated geopolitical issue on earth. Those who so freely accuse Israel of anti-Arab savageries are mute with regard to the very real horrors that Syrian forces inflict upon innocent Lebanese civilians every day. Elias Youssef, founder of the Lebanese Liberation Party, attributes this double standard in part to the fact that, unlike the Palestinians, "the Lebanese people choose to fight their occupation with international lobbying, peaceful protests, and words instead of violence." Because the Lebanese are "strongly opposed" to committing such "barbaric acts" as suicide bombings, says Youssef, their plea for help has gone almost entirely unheard. "I beg of all those who seek to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to not forsake us due to our peaceful ways," he says.

And of course, there is one additional element that brings the resentful wrath of Arab lands down upon Israel, but not upon Syria. Plainly put, the religious bigotry and intolerance that pervades Muslim nations causes them to issue frenzied denunciations of even the smallest Israeli transgression - be it real or only perceived - while turning a blind eye to the unrivaled monstrosities carried out against both Muslims and non-Muslims all over the Islamic world.