The key issue in the 40 year history of the Lebanese problem.
Finally, after 40 years of destruction, the key issue in the 40-year old Lebanese problem is coming to the surface: Should Lebanon be destroyed to (maybe) save Palestine? The recent Israeli Gaza operation has exposed the ultimate failure of Hezbollah and all of the other “resistance”-minded Lebanese, Arab and Islamic nationalists who are responsible for the destruction of Lebanon. All of them, the Lebanese Sunnis and the Left-wing Lebanese movements of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s who supported Arafat’s PLO, followed by the Shiite movements of Amal and Hezbollah in the 1990s and 2000s, driven by an inferiority complex towards the Arabs, burned their own country to prove that they are more Arab than the Arabs themselves, or even more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves.
Had all these people listened to the Christian Lebanese in the late 1960s and early 1970s, who implored them not to shove Lebanon into becoming the only Arab war front against Israel, Lebanon would not have been destroyed.“We told you so”, Lebanon’s Christians are telling their fellow Muslims today, “Unless all the Arabs come up with a joint strategy of warfare in which everyone contributes in blood and treasure, Lebanon should not be made into the scapegoat of Arab impotence.” Yes, Hassan Nasrallah’s “resistance” platform was, and still is, the old joke behind which Arab machismo hides the debilitating impotence of backwards societies that have yet to catch up with the rest of the world. Truth be told, Lebanon’s Sunnis seem to have learned the lesson of the past 40 years, but it remains to be seen to what extent, as exemplified by the fence-sitting political acrobatics of Hariri, Hoss, Siniora, and the other Lebanese Sunnis vis-à-vis the empty and stale slogans of “resistance”, “liberation”, “Syrian and Arab brotherhood”, and the “Israeli enemy”.
The fallacies and failures of all Arab strategies in dealing with the state of Israel have finally come to the surface, thus exonerating the Lebanese Christians from all the accusations of being “isolationist”, “neo-Crusaders” and “Zionists”. All that the Lebanese Christians had always wanted was the preservation of Lebanon, and having lost all the battles, they are ultimately winning the war because time and history continue to vindicate their single claim: Regardless of whether or not the Palestinian Cause is a just cause, Lebanon should not be the only one to defend that cause at the expense of its wellbeing, its blood and its integrity.
The impregnable façade of Arab unity, which for long had succeeded in maintaining Lebanon hostage to some hypothetical defeat of Israel, is now cracking along several fault lines of which the Sunni-Shiite divide is only one. For example, in a video released on the internet, Al-Qaeda’s Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi attacked Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah for failing to defend the Gaza Strip from the three-week long Israeli offensive attack last month. Here are a few excerpts:
"I would like to send a message to Hassan Nasrallah - Answer me, why have you shed all these tears for Gaza and for the people of Gaza? Didn't you say that you had warehouses full of 20,000 missiles that could reach Tel-Aviv?"
"Didn't our brothers in Gaza deserve you launching, in their defense, one thousand, two thousand or three thousand rockets instead of these tears?"
"Is Lebanese land more valuable than the blood of the Palestinians? What is the difference between you and (Egyptian president) Hosni Mubarak who protects the Jews?"
While Sunni al-Qaeda is attacking Shiite Hezbollah for failing to launch rockets, Sunni Egypt has also attacked Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, calling him an “agent of Iran”. Nasrallah had earlier mounted a verbal tirade against Cairo for failing to open the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt and bring relief to the Palestinian during Israel's military assault on the Palestinian territory.
"Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," the Egyptian government charged in a statement.
From the standpoint of Lebanon’s Christians, if these exchanges between otherwise proper nationalist Arabs prove anything, it is that all the wars and occupations that Lebanon was made to suffer for 40 years were vain attempts by Arab impotence to hide behind tiny and weak Lebanon. All the Lebanese who stood firm against the destruction of Lebanon for so-called “Arab causes” should stand proud today because history is vindicating them. Here we are 40 years later, still asking the same question: Why is Lebanon the only Arab country not to be engaged in some peace process with Israel? Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties and embassies with Israel. The Palestinians have recognized Israel and are negotiating their final status with Israel. Syria has being engaged, forever it seems, in direct or indirect negotiations with Israel, has never shot a bullet across the occupied Golan Heights since 1974, and votes side by side with Israel every 6 months at the UN for the renewal of the UN observer force on the Golan. Qatar, Tunis, Mauritania, and God knows which other Arab countries, all have relations with Israel. Why is Lebanon the only one still in a “resistance” and “enemy” complex with Israel?
The Lebanese Christians never had the inferiority complex, but the Lebanese Muslims still do. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora continues to utter the asinine phrase: “Lebanon will be the last Arab country to make peace with Israel.” Which Arab country is Siniora waiting for to go first? Iraq? Libya? Saudi Arabia? Why should Lebanon be ashamed of seeking its own peace and stability? For what Arab cause is Lebanon still fighting? If the Palestinians themselves are unable to decide how to decide their own future, why should Lebanon continue to put its own wellbeing, stability and people at risk for someone else’s cause?
Yes, Lebanese land and blood are more valuable than Palestinian land and blood.
