Not one…But Gebran Tueni
Dr. Walid Phares/Face Book/April 07/18
Not one of the members of the Lebanese Parliament -except- Gebran Tueni- since 2005 accepted to sign a document by international Lebanese NGOs and addressed to the UN Security Council, or the US Administration, and calling for the full implementation of UNSCR 1559 under chapter 7. So that the friends of Lebanon in the US and the West could mobilize the international community to act against Hezbollah in order to disarm it. Not one member of a Parliament elected twice “after” the Cedars Revolution, accepted to come to Washington or New York, to make such demand officially. “Ya khayye shu badde bi hal shaghle'” they would say. Meeting at the White House? They’d love it. In Congress? Amazing. Fundraising in some city? The best! But acting seriously and strategically for the liberation of Lebanon? Not one time…
Those who were elected have nothing to compare with those who stood on the battlefields in the 1980s, facing the Syrian army or those who marched in demonstrations under Syrian occupation.
The hidden chapter of Zahle’s battle
Dr.Walid Phares/Face Book/April 03/18
During April 1981 while the battle of Zahle was underway and the Syrians were trying to push via the “Gurfet el Frensewiye” in Oyoun el Simane, intense diplomatic efforts were taking place to end the conflict. I was one of the (very young) persons in charge of the outreach to the UN as a volunteer in a commission under the Kasleek Group and the Lebanese Front. I remember when Western diplomats told the commission that Assad had ordered his forces to take the city (Zahle) as soon as possible because he was afraid that his army is threatened in Lebanon. Surprised the participants asked the diplomats: “His forces are pounding the coast from Beirut to Kesrwan, are advancing in the jurd and suffocating Zahle. What is he afraid of?” The diplomat answered that Assad assessment is different: “He was fighting the militias in Ashrafieh in 1978 and now they are fighting him in the heart of the Bekaa in 1981. If he doesn’t stop there, they would surge in Besharre and Batroun and other communities could follow.” We were surprised and wondered if this was a joke. But Albert Sara a Lebanese Melkite bourgeois, member of the Christian Leagues, who was born in Syria whispered in my ear: “That’s how Assad think. He has read about Lebanon more than many Lebanese have. He has read Boutros Daou’s book. He fears that a prolonged fight will draw international support.”Indeed the international intervention materialized after few weeks. All it took was for the local resistance to stand firmly for as long as it took and the leaders demonstrating strategic resolve. How far is Lebanon from these times of clarity…
(From memoirs)
Face Book Comments By Dr. Phares
*Lebanon’s politics currently: It is about the management of local politics as lucrative as possible: electoral campaigns empty of national security, bureaucratic positions, asphalt, gas, contracts, electricity, stuff. While the management of Lebanon’s national security, foreign policy and regional destiny is in the hands of the real regime, Hezbollah’s…
*When the next legislative elections in Lebanon will be over, the Lebanese public will realize that it was an exercise to grant Hezbollah and its allies four more years of additional control of the country. For the next majority will be in their hands, and the next minority will be seeking to join that majority whenever it can. Lebanon continues to live in the “May 7” era, an extension of the “October 13” era.
