Middle East, Lebanon and dual-citizenship

Daily Telegraph ^ | 19 July 2006 | Piers Akerman

[Fair Go]

THE latest Middle East conflagration has flushed out a new class of dual nationality super-snivellers who believe mere possession of an Australian passport guarantees them security in their “other” homeland.

A number of Lebanese-Australians are berating the Australian Government for not doing enough to get them out of Lebanon.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, up to 25,000 Australians - who also hold Lebanese passports - live permanently or semi-permanently in Lebanon.

Of these, some 6000 are registered with the Australian Embassy, presumably because they expected they might need assistance that Lebanon was unable to provide.

Preposterously, they have been hitting the airwaves and the front page of the Sydney (note: shouldn’t that be Syrian?) Morning Herald with their carping and cavilling criticism that the Australian Government isn’t doing enough to help them.

Leaders of the Lebanese community have said they are so frustrated with the Federal Government’s “shameful” attempts to rescue Australians from Lebanon they are willing to fly there and do it themselves.

Dr Abraham Constantine from the World Lebanese Cultural Union of Australia and Asia said people were lining up to help get the Lebanese-Australians home.

“If the Australian Government needs manpower to assist with the evacuation, hundreds of Australian-Lebanese are ready to get on a plane and assist with the evacuation process,” he said.

“We are ready to assist with money, we are ready to assist with manpower, we just need a safe plan to get the people out of Lebanon.”

Dr Constantine said the Australian Government must use its strong relationship with the US to influence Israel into effecting a 24-hour ceasefire in order to get Australians out.

Rockdale Mayor and ALP stalwart Shaoquett Moselmane said the Government had shown no urgency evacuating Australians and instead had “cut and run”, leaving Australians in fear.

He said the Government had not shown the same “decisive action” in evacuating citizens from the Middle East as it had from East Timor earlier this year.

“In Lebanon, the Federal Government’s delayed reaction was soapparent it could only be described as shameful in the full meaning in the word,” Mr Moselmane said.

“At citizenship ceremonies as Mayor I tell our new Aussies that they have the same rights and privileges as any other Australians,” he said.

“Those Aussies left stranded in Lebanon today are probably wondering if that statement was ever true.”

While this bunch of insufferable ingrates whinge and whine, the stressed and overworked team at the hard-pressed Australian Embassy in Beirut is pulling out all stops to arrange evacuation aboard a ferry chartered at extortionate cost to all Australian taxpayers.

That it is absolutely unreasonable in such circumstances to expect the Government to be able to organise a sea-lift overnight seems to have escaped the Constantines and Moselmanes, just as their obligations to this nation seem to have slipped their attention.

Lebanon is half a world away, not an hour’s flight from Darwin.

While it may be convenient for these gentlemen to keep a foot in both nations, how inconvenient is it for Australian Australians to foot the bill for them to enjoy this privilege?

Apparently 400 of the dual citizens demanding assistance to leave are in southern Lebanon, that part of the nation occupied by the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organisation, which, with the Palestinian Hamas terrorists, has long been dedicated to erasing the nation of Israel from the map.

Presumably, some of these Lebanese-Australians vote in the Lebanese elections and, just as probably, also voted for Hezbollah candidates, though the group is listed by the Australian Government as a terrorist organisation.

And while the coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald goes out of its way to blame Israel for belligerence, intransigence and even, most laughably, for a lack of “proportionality” in its response to aggression, it must not be forgotten that this current crisis was triggered by a Hezbollah raid into Israel and the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

This is not a war of Israel’s making. This is part of the ongoing jihadist war to dominate the world.

Nor should it be forgotten that it is six years since the Israelis left southern Lebanon, and Israel also insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli settlements in Gaza earlier this year in the vain hope Hezbollah and Hamas would recognise such commitments to peace and honour their agreements.

Fat chance of that.

The UN Security Council also required all militias in Lebanon be disbanded. This has not occurred.

A recurring but telling image on the television news is of Israelis taking refuge in bomb shelters from Hezbollah missiles fired from Lebanon or those fired by Hamas from Gaza.

Bomb shelters are built by groups at risk of attack. Pictures from Lebanon and Palestine usually show civilians running in the streets - no shelters - which probably indicates the lack of fear of sudden attack among Lebanese and Palestinians.

The Israelis have every reason to fear Hezbollah because it has already fired about 1500 of the 13,000 missiles it was supplied by Tehran.

The Lebanese-Australians squealing about the Australian Government’s performance should direct their attention to their other government. Its surrender to Hezbollah has guaranteed instability.

[Fair Go]

Staright to the point!

[Fair Go]

Seems this applies to Canada as well!

[ncountylee]

Sure, but some Lebanese-Australians gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "Leb style." Guess they figure that earns them special cultural treatment like they demanded when on trial.

[LeoWindhorse]

don't let ANY moslems immigrate or obtain citizenship in countries other than the lands of their ancestral birth . They only bring troubles with them , it's their karma . We need not share it .

[Fair Go]

I really think it is time to do something about dual citizenship. Why not make the rule if they leave Australia to live in Lebanon they automatically forfeit their Australian citizenship? They didn't deserve Australian citizenship in the first place.

[ncountylee]

They didn't deserve Australian citizenship in the first place.

They don't deserve citizenship in any civilized country. Back to the Turdistan where they were hatched and the same thing for our (US) illegal aliens.

[Rte66]

Excellent, excellent! Will we see anything like that written here in the US?

[rawcatslyentist]

>"a lack of “proportionality” in its response to aggression,"

Here's proportionality for em!!!

Sura 9:5 of satans “Koranus,”

“Slay the idolaters muslimes wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”
Hey my gawd commands me to murder Rabtard muuughhamhead (Pigs be inseminating him) worshipers! If you dont like it we'll issue a fatwah for your murder. We'll brainwash entire civilizations to become homicidal suicidal murderers and send them to murder you.

We'll sneak attack you without provocation, and declare a cease fire, then we'll sneak attack you again!!!

I'm all for proportionality!!!

Aap aap ahh dap dap!!!!!
It's a religion of peace
It's a religion of peace

It aint Slim W, but this'll gitr done!
Kill A Commie For Mommie

Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[Lancer_N3502A]

Is it me or does half the Lebanese population have "duel" citizenship for when the SHTF?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

People should have citizenship to only one earthly country.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Odd--your comment is about Muslims (or Moslems), but you invoke hinduism for your argument.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

a) Some of them are probably native Australians.

b) Some of them are Christian, not Muslim. c) None of them should be illegal aliens to their country (the civilized one), so why'd you bring up illegal immigration when it's off-topic? (rhetorical).

[taxesareforever]

And the U.S.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/

[river rat]

And therein lies the insanity of "dual citizenship"..

Everyone should have to decide -- to which country they owe allegiance...

Beginning to look like most Muslims should NEVER be permitted into the non-Muslim world..
They simply aren't "wired" right to assimilate..


Semper Fi

[raygun]

That's the way it works in the U.S. By becoming a U.S. citizen one forfeits all allegience to any other nation (and must surrender any passports possessed that have ben issued by any other nation). By and large this means meeting residency requirements within the U.S.A.

However, after naturalizing there's nothing to prevent one from moving to another country and meeting their residency citizenship requirements. This may or may not entail surrenduring foreign passports and citizenship.

I lived for 35 years in the U.S.A. as a German foreign national. I served in the U.S. Air Force. My resident alien - green - card functioned in lieu of a visa and guarenteed me re-entry into the U.S.A. so long as I'd not been absent longer than one year. I never had a passport, in that I never travelled outside the U.S.A. where I needed one. I did run into a problem one day at the U.S./Canada border trying to get back to my home in Detroit after a bachelor-party jaunt to Windsor, Canada and my "green card" had expired (I've lived almost my whole life in Detroit). All the passengers in my car where free to go, but after searching my vehicle, my belongings, and my person, I was taken into custody. Everybody that was with me was left stranded.

Anyways, long and short, I was let go. Rather than renew the green-card, I naturalized.

Prior to that I didn't need either a passport or visa to travel to my "Father" country (Germany). I never paid one pfennig in German income tax in my entire life. As far as I'm concerned, a U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen.

What's amazing is the dearth of stories about how great its to be back home. Nobody has any idea how great the U.S.A. is until they get in trouble with the law in a foreign country. All those rights enshrined in The Bill of Rights, they don't apply any longer. I got into some trouble when I was a teen-ager, and when the cops found out I was an alien, they had a cow. They were telling me they were going to deport me, and I had no rights whatsoever. What rights does anybody have in Turkey under suspicion of drug trafficking? They might discover your "rights" after twenty years of incarceration, grant the requisite day in court, and levy a sentence of 5 years incarceration (with credit for time already served), and then unequivocally state GTFO.

Everybody is so preoocuppied with "rights" and yet have no concept whatsoever respecting "responsibility".

[Fair Go]

We certainly need to get back to the truth that with rights come responsibilities.

[OldFriend]

Seems HelenThomas brethren are all alike.

[sgtbono2002]

They are like the Lion Tamer who sticks his head in the Lions mouth and gets pissed if he closes it.

[hyperglitch]

Hmm...Every time I worry that the United States is a place of ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance I remind myself about Australia.