True Lebanon has always been a contradictory state and the funny thing is that both opposite things happen under the same roof.

In late 1969, the Lebanese government at that time under Rashid Karami officially endorsed what was later to be known as Cairo agreement. Without getting into details.
This agreement established the right of Palestinian residents to join the Palestinian revolution through armed struggle.
Subsequently, the PLO effectively established “a state within a state” in Lebanon and that was one of the crucial factors that paved the way to the Lebanese civil war of (1975-1990).
Now that was in the past.
Today the same mistake is being repeated again but this time with the government of Saad Hariri when they approved all Hezbullah’s conditions. This compromise totally undermined the state and its existance.
Finally, Mr Karam, I think all the political settlements past and present never solved the inherent contradictions of this country. It simply postponed stalemates and crises that ultimately lead to episodes or phases more violent then before.
An example of the dates.
1958 2008
1975 ?
1989

Hello Ghassan.. F.Y.I God willing if God grants me a boy his name will be Ghassan (after my father):P Not that I prefer a boy but just saying lol… Okay enough of that.

So..Im kinda lost.. What is the resolve? Should we have no government.. because we can’t instantly disarm the hizb? Should we start another civil war because we can’t disarm the hizb by simply asking them and they complying? Should we destroy Lebanon because we can’t stop the hizb?

You are speaking in extremes Ghassan, Our country has history of instability, occupation, and war for 30 years.. and before that it existed only for 40yrs with a constitution adopted from a foreign country that we “had” no common grounds with except for our christian brothers who shared the same faith as the french. While taking into account all the dynamics of how Lebanon was being affected by WW2, and the occupation of Palestine.

Your always taking swings at the PM.. and its baffling.. the person who is working the most towards what you are preaching for, but without having to resort to civil war with fellow Lebanese nor wars with enemies on our boarders. Trying to reach solutions on a diplomatic basis in a realistic way.

There is a national defense quorum set june 13 and the fact that they are discussing it with the Hizb gives me hope that we can resolve the arms issue.. all in due time.. The Hizb has been around with arms for 30 yrs backed by Syria and more recently Iran.. I don’t think it will take 1 vote of a majority of people to peacefully have them disarm. We will need to be strong on our opinion and get them to come around while at the same time eliminating any reason for them to exist through diplomacy.. ex: what the PM is doing.

As far as i am concerned Lebanon is more democratic then many many countries. We don’t have dictatorship ruling, we have freedom of speech, press and we manage to stick to it regardless of the assassinations and wars that we experience.

The topic is not Black and White.. It is a grey area.. Its not like us Lebanese chose this.. we are working towards what is best for all of us.. starting from a low low negative point.

Ghassan, what are you saying we should do?

Respectfully.

Peace

The difference between the 60’s and now is the Muslims of that time felt oppressed by the elite of the country who were overwhelmingly christian.. which pushed them to sympathize and even exploit the problems that the Palestinians were baring with. SO there was a lot of bitterness between the sects and much instability.

But now we see a different dynamic.. The Christians and Muslims are united, live equally and share equal rights and powers.. We have integrated within each others micro communities. We all have soo many friends from different sects and you can see a more open and secular upbringing in which you see our generations accepting other confessions as their brothers keeper and not to mention the interfaith marriages.

Hizballah is also not the PLO they are lebanese.. even though highly influenced by outsiders but still they are lebanese take away the arms they are a lebanese political party.

So i don’t think its the same case we are in now. Now we have a majority of all the sects and the people of those sects on the same frequency. A stable, secure, and prosperous country for all our religions to live side by side. That wasn’t the case in the 60’s.

Peace

I dont think Harriri had much of a choice. With no backing he cant do anything. The Army didnt do anything on may 7. Not even deploy and seperate the 2 sides. They were at his door steps and could have killed him, but wanted to look like they are willing to reason ( after killing a few hundred people and invading beirut ). The mistake was what happened in 1969 witch is what Ruined Lebanon. No Kataib, LF, Hizbolla, Amal, SSNP or anything like this would have been possible if they did not agree to sign. What were they thinking? Why ruin a country for another. Why didnt Egypt, syria, jordan and lebanon all allow them to fight from Lebanon? they all border Israel. Why did they pick Lebanon and why did our Stupid government at the time agree. They caused this! The palistinians came to Lebanon and ruined it. then they tried to rule it. Its one thing to allow civilians to live in lebanon witch I am with, but whats the deal with allowing another countries army to come in and take over and start a war? My god basically the same people we call our arab brothers invited this to happen to us…..

Moustapha,
You have to be fair, I do not take swings at the PM only. I have revealed my disagreements with practically all of them. I guess that you can call me an equal opportunity critic:-) Obviously though, my biggest disagreement is with Hezbollaha military wing.
The problem of Lebanon is a systemic one i.e. the only solution is to get rid of all the current architecture and all the representatives. We need to get rid of political feudalism, introduce responsiveness and accountability, we need to abolish political sectarianism and enact civil laws in all areas, we need an independent judiciary, we need social justice, better educational opportunities and more taxes on the top 10% of the public. But above all we need qualified people who also have the capacity to lead, and the courage to speak the truth.If Lebanon ’s main concern is to regain Sheba’a then we should evaluate all possibilities and not be beholden to a Syrian dictatorship, a Saudi archaic monarchy, an Egyptian pharoah or an Iranian Grand Ayatollah. If we are independent then let us act as if we value our independence and if we are democratic then let the best person win. It is not enough to say that we like each other, we have to make sure that we are not delluding ourselves through only wishful thinking.. An objective, any objective, without a plan is a wish and wishes are a dime a dozen. To allow a group to hijack democracy and independence and then pretend that no such event took place is to live in denial and we all know what is the outcome of that. I sincerely hope that I am wrong but this contrived love fest will not have a happy ending. It just cannot.

Sebouh
Obviously that is one of my concerns, that we are essentially moving from one crisis to another . Each successive crisis becomes more violent and more destructive. Lebanon is increasingly loosing control over all its issues, political and economic. The final resolution of the current crisis will eminate from Qom and Damascus and so the Lebanese national interest will Not be paramount.

I concur with you Ghassan.. but how do we implement that? How do we do what you are saying we must do. All the things you say we need are something we all want and we share. How do we get to that?

I think realistically speaking we can’t act as if all these regional players you have pointed out to don’t exist.. in the end Lebanon is based on its financial sector and tourism/expatriates…and thus we need to be part of the middle east and not isolated..especially with Israel instigating instability and war whenever it wants.

The only solution i can find is to have an industry that is unique to the rest of the regional countries in addition to the two you are talking about. But we can not act as if we are not part of huge melting pot that is just messed up. and even if we have that industry we can jnot function properly as long as we have the Israeli issue knocking on our door everyday.

Once we don’t have to worry about that the country can thrive without worrying about rebuilding the next infrastructure that we just finished building last month from the previous war.

hehe.. i guess it seems that your taking a lot of swings at Saad since he is to be seen a lot on the news.. But that is a good sign.. that means he is hustling and working

I am so sick with this idea of democracy. As if it were a great system. This system of democracy is nothing but a facade and a big lie. You do not choose your leaders in a democracy. They are already chosen for you. There is an illusion of choice for the working man, but in reality it is no choice at all.

The media can manipulate peoples perceptions of candidates in ny election. Freedom of the press is nothing but an instrument for the rich and powerful to support their chosen candidate. The masses of people will then choose this candidate based upon what information is given through the bought off media.

So the lebanese lootis need to stop thinking of this idea of democracy, and start finding a leader that will support them.

And remember looti’s, you do not live in a vacuum.

No matter how hard you want to be like the gays of the west, and how much you want to be westernized the kuffar will never accept you until you become exactly like them.. And even then they will be traitorous to you, just ask the Southrn liberation army how israel abandoned those sandbags.

As for the idea that taking the west as a friend will help you, it will not.

When the lebanese army is strong enough to defend lebanon, will it? The future of lebanon is present Jordan.

A country with a strong military like Jordan, with a peace agreement with Israel. Yet reviled throughout the arab world.

As long as our brothers and sisters in Palestine are suffering, we muslims, particularly arab muslims must come to their aid. What is lebanon doing?, wat is syria doing? what is jordan doing? what is egypt doing?

Of course it would be suicide for any one of these countries to go it alone..

But divide and conquer always works.

Look how the jew for the past 50 years have been trying to separate iraq from the arab muslims, 10 years ago sanctions and media manipulation were imposed on Iraq, then iraqwas invaded.

No one protected the women and children of Iraq.

No one will protect lebanon, especially since many lebanese are hellbent on isolating lebanon from the arab problems in the middle east. From isolating itself from reality, yet trying to isolate itself in the wests protection will nver work as the west andamerica, israel are the worst traitors.

Just ask the sandbags called the southern lebanse army, that israel abandoned.

What the hell are you talking about? SLA, Gays, Democrocy????? I dont get it at all. No disrespect meant I just dont get your point.

Lebanon did a lot for palistine. We allowed them to come to our country with weapons, Destroy it and fought Israel with them at the same time. Tiny Lebanon while the rest of the arabs were eating kabsi. We Have 500,000 palistinians in lebanon MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TINY LEBANON. Palistinians are fighting eachother and playing into Israels plans. Its up to lebanon to become like jordan as you mentioned AND THAT WOULD BE TO HAVE PEACE LIKE JORDAN. Let the Palistinians Remember that before the second Intifada Barak offered arafat 98% of all the land taken before 1967 and almost all jeruselem exept for the Armenian Area witch wanted to be Israeli and they said no. Now they have nothing and we finally have a country with the basics and I think I like it like this.

Jim.. or Jimmil hehe.. Cool to have muslim brother with the name Jim.

Actually every time i say it, it reminds me of that character in the Office hahaha.. love that show.

Annnyways. I don’t see where the debate of the idea of democratic system came up and how it has any relevance to this article. But whatever system you want to call it.. it should be based on what the people of Lebanon want and not what some politicians can make money off of.

Jim,
I have no idea what your rant was about except that you do not think very highly of democracy:-) Maybe that explains why the Arab world is ruled by dictators, and lags the rest of the world in practically every metric.

Hi Rabih,

The events that took place in May 7th 2008 is very similar to what happened in 1958.

In July 1958, Lebanon was threatened by a civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslims.
At that time, Lebanese Muslims pushed the government to join the newly created United Arab Republic, while the Christians wanted to keep Lebanon alligned with western powers.
These hostile tensions were diffused by the so called Eisenhower doctrine which gave the US a self proclaimed right to intervene in countries threatened by international communism. To keep the long story short.
The presence of the US troops successfully quelled the opposition and ultimately President Chamoun resigned and was replaced by a moderate Army commander general Fuad Chehab. Notice this deal was brokered by Egypt at that time.
Now in comparison to the May 7th 2008 we conclude that the causes are still sectarian in nature and once again we were about to have a new round of civil war and luckily this was averted by the Doha agreement which brought general Michel Suleiman as a so called consensus leader of Lebanon.
Finally, my dear friend Rabih like I said before non of these temporary political settlements past and present solved the internal contradiction of this country.

Personal truth is relative. Common truth is reality. Those who oppose defending Lebanon are opposing both truth and reality. They care not for their little cousins or brothers or sisters in the country who might get bombed because they are calling on Hezbollah to disarm. Let history not repeat itself a billion times. Remember what the Druze did to us in the mountains of Lebanon in the 1860-1880s. The Israelies want us to disarm so they can massacre us. Enough said. Take it or leave it.

I hate to bring it to you Jimmy boy, but Palestine has a good number of Christians who fought and still fight for their existence and freedom. Palestine is the cradle of Christianity. So when you say “we muslims, particularly Arab muslims must come to their aid” you sound that you already marginalized the Arab or Middle Eastern Christians as non-trustworthy to share the struggle.
Also, please do us all a favor and stop with your semantics “kuffar” and “lootis” etc. it is a tired argument. No one wants to listen to this Middle Ages stupid argument any longer.
The ONLY looti I see in here is you hiding behind the name Jim cowardly afraid of revealing his identity.

But look how much Future Movement loves the Resistance:
http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=1551&ChannelId=36131&ArticleId=2811&Author=
It’s true that they keep on referrnig to the Shebaa liberation. It seems a common issue that binds them so nothing has to change for nobody.

You got me on that one. I Guess I wrote the comment out of anger and didnt think it threw. I remember reading about that and seeing it in a documentary I have about Lebanon. It was Egypt and Syria that united at the time and were funneling weapons into lebanon. Again Seb, you turned out to be a pretty smart guy.

Umm Idriss,
We have an uncanny capacity to gloss over some major differences by assuming that all is well. If Sheba’a is Lebanese then Lebanon should follow a strategy for getting it back. But under no circumstance should that strategy be the acceptance and the dependence on a supramilitary organization whose existence contravenes the very basic idea of what a state should do. But as Noam Chomsky said a few days ago in his lecture at the UNESCO Arabs like empty rhetoric and often confuse that with effective policy.

I think the solution to our dilema is multi faceted.First Iranian regime has to transform onto democracy or has to be weakend economically, second Syrian regime has to stop arming and fending parties and regimes outside their country also weakend so they mind their own business, thirdly some meaningful peacefull resolution to Palestinian and Israely conflict ,thus others do not have cause celebre anymore to interfere and instigate conflict,the uneducated of Lebanon has to be educated on university level and the government has to create a fund by putting aside some of the revenue by raising taxes on the rich or whatever, if I am in a Huzallah leadership I will educate my young people when this conflict is over how will they take care of themselves, be body guards most of them or what you need to teach them a marketable skills so they will be self sufficient and can use their own brains to think on their own whats best for them ,eternal war or having a decent education a honorable job where you can support your kids with your college level wife thus raising educated kids or jobless kids. Then and then Huzallah have to give up the arms and integrate in army or society, This is not an answer for all our problems but it is an analysis of things to happen!

I agree with you Ghassan.One does not understand where these political leaders are taking their country!They have to understand that no one group can dominate or impose its political policies or strategies on the other!As Hourani says in his book ,Arabic Thought In The Liberal Age..¨Lebanon is a blend of two worlds ..divided into religious communities each claiming the first loyalty of its member ..not only a religious diversity but a social and intellectual as well..¨He continues and says that for this ,¨There must be no revolutions or upsets which bring communal loyalties and therefore communal divisions …and there must be no dominance of one community over another …only laws which can be applied to all parts of the nation should be adopted¨!!!He continues on to say that¨¨ for Lebanon political freedom is a necessary condition of life ¨!!It must be friendly ¨with the masters of the world and the Near East¨!Lebanon must be a free sovereign state with a government that has control over its political policies and strategies!!!

Fauzia,
Thanks for reminding me of this classic by Hourani. I have assigned it many times in some of my courses. It sure is one of the better books about alnahda.

gents, please understand, its simple, there is no lebanon now, do not believe otherwise as u will be fooling urselves.

you talk as much as u like, but deep down we all know its all gone now.

its wat matters on the ground and when u have a goverment inside lebanon called iran becuase it is, and its more powerfull than lebanon’s real goverment, it give u this unconfortable feelings of lust.

its quite clear we have been obducted by iran and the evil syria, this little beautifull lebanon is bullied has and still been eaton alive.

oneday and far away, time will come when tables will turn and modern free lebanon only, wins.

forget it now,

why dont huzbula give thier arms to the lebanese army and be in this army? defend lebanon from israel but through the leb army.

why they won’t..? simply clear.. they are not lebanese.

israel is not interested in lebanon if they do.

be lebanese. if u dont u want to live else where, because we are not buying it and stop being scum

Rafik,
I think that a lot of your analysis is spot on. Currently the solution to the armed wing of Hezbollah is not to be found in Lebanon. The Lebanese Pasadran will always find an excuse to maintain their arms as long as Qom wants them to.
And of course you are right about education. Education has always been important but in the 21st century it is more important than ever. To be competitive and prosperous in the world we need to have a highly skilled labour force.

Omar,
I might have used different words in the original post but we are both saying the same thing.I am in total agreement with your sentiments.

ya ghassan,
great article, very philosophical,very logical and methodic, but your conclusion is not necessarily suitable with reality in a country like lebanon.

you mentioned quotes from goebbels the nazi propagandist and that is somewhat appropriate but i would have mentioned instead the italian fascist maximus leader mussolini. he unfortunately inspired and still inspires a lot of lebanese political organizations and militias from all sects.

you are saying and i am quoting “…democracy and authoritarianism are opposites…” yes that is true but whoever said we have a democracy in lebanon by western standards is far away from the truth.

we have a simili (like in simili leather) democratic regime that looks from the outside like a democracy to conveniently fool the western world, but from the inside is nothing but a tribal feodal sectarian governing system.

hezballah is one of the most flagrant democracy antithesis.
if we take all what lebanon portrays himself to be vis a vis the outside world: an elected democratic government, a peace loving pluralistic society, a middle east touristic hub, openness to all civilizations from east and west, and civil rights guaranteed for everyone by constitution, we unfortunately find a huge contradiction in all aspects defining the governing system.

contradiction that spelled disaster in 2006 when millions of tourists, that came to spend their summer vacations, believing the official touristic propaganda: “all was quiet and under control”, scrambled to get the hell out of lebanon, after the “ooops” war instigated by hezballah alone broke out without any warnings.

take the taef constitution for example, it is a big lie! why?? because it has been used like a restaurant menu a la carte where each political leader that was supposed to execute this constitution a la lettre picked and chose only the items that suited him and his clan and discarded the rest.

most government and elected officials from top to bottom lie to their people before and after being elected and steel the government in the meantime, while enacting laws prohibiting people from doing the same.

the government has been promising its citizens to spread its authority over all leb territories and beef up its institutions including the military ones; that is another lie.

as you say “…the big lie will ultimately fail…” but you have a situation where most of the middle east is becoming a big and dangerous lie and whomever has the capacity to change this situation around is not born yet.

so until this happens the majority of the lebanese out of despair are forced to pray for two gods until some one, i dont know who is it gonna be, from outside come and help them out of this mess; meanwhile the corrupt, weak and scared government will continue to praise and sweet talk the bullies who are undermining the whole nation hoping to get their share of fringe bones in return.

Voice of Truth,
You are right to say that many political groupd in Lebanon were impressed by the Fascists but I used Goebbles because even more were influenced and even cooperated with the Nazis, chief amongst them is the Mufti Al Husseini.

Nice try Moustapha, but you didn’t succeed.
You say that now the dynamic is different. That Christians and Muslims are united and the HB are Lebanese(even though “influenced by outsiders”) and a political party, “take away the weapons”. Yeah, well, take away the sun and the atmosphere, the earth is still a planet, but not one that supports life. Kind of an important little fact don’t you think?
It’s hard to distinguish between fellow Lebanese and/ or Palestinians (or any other outsider)when you have the same gun pointed at your head. Looking down the barrel of an AK47, they both look the same to me my brother. Having friends or family from Lebanon’s different sects/ religions does not mean I have to accept one groups’ demagoguery over the whole nation.
You write, “The Christians and Muslims are united, live equally and share equal rights and powers”, and to that I say, what are you talking about?? This political party (take away the weapons!!) that you speak of lost in a free and open election, but they have conveniently ignored the will of the people, the majority, as if no election ever took place. They continue to impose their ideas, beliefs, agendas, policies (foreign and domestic) on the whole of the country and people. As if somehow they hold some moral/ holy high ground. It’s as if they are some prophet dictating God’s will and imparting on the rest of us an essential truth. There is no “unity” or “sharing equal rights and powers” when your brother is armed to the teeth and you have nothing BUT your teeth! On top of that, your brother dictates to you what you should do, when you should do it and in what manner it should be done all the while stroking his AK47 and making sure you see it! Where’s the equality in that scenario?

The scenario between the now and 60’s is exactly the same brother Moustapha, only the names have changed. HB instead of PLO, Nasrallah instead of Arafat. They both believe(d) they are/ were right in their cause. That they had a legitimate cause and their ends ultimately justified their means. They may be right, but they may also be wrong. Either way, I don’t think that the rest of us should be the guinea pigs in their experiment.

Ok,….would you like to suggest something better than democracy?!! There is no real democracy in this world, but this flawed democracy that does exist is certainly better than anything else around! I guess you’re suggesting we find a strongman like Nasrallah or Saddam Hussein or Assad to “support” us!? Rule over us is more like it! I’ll take a flawed democracy over a perfect dictatorship any day Jimbo!