Since the late 1960s, the legitimate Lebanese Army has been denied access to the border zone with Israel, while the area was leased by Lebanon's Muslims to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian PLO (1969-1982), then to the Iranian Hezbollah (1982-present time), supposedly to liberate Palestine. But they haven't liberated a single inch of Palestine. All they did instead was to destroy Lebanon, once a prosperous, liberal country that served as a model of religious coexistence.
When the Christians try to salvage their country after exercizing patience and caution, they ask their fellow Muslims not to be more Arab than the Arabs, or more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves: All Arab countries, including the Syrian bully, have ceased fighting Israel, have made peace or arrangements with it, have opened embassies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and have otherwise normalized their relations with it. But among all the Arab countries, only tiny Lebanon with its "alien" half-Christian composition has to prove its "Arabity" by sacrificing itself as the only open war front against Israel. This perfidious cowardice is expected from Arab dictators and monarchs. No surprise there. In fact, having always lost to the "alien" half-Jewish Israel, the Arabs have turned on the other "alien" half-Christian Lebanon to scapegoat it; it makes them feel good about themselves despite having sold Palestine out.
What is truly revolting is that the West, led by the Americans, not only ignores the Christians of Lebanon and their demands for the rule of law to return to the country, but it actively acts to betray them, sell them, and stab them in the back whenever Arab interests stand in the way. Such has been the fate of Lebanon since the late 1960s. Right now the Christians preach and pray, speak and discuss, write memos and travel the world capitals to try to convince the international community that Lebanon does not have to be sold for mere crumbs in the filthy geopolitical bazaar to the Arabs and Israel. They tried that pacifist approach for a decade between 1965 and 1975, and when it didn't work they took up arms against the PLO Palestinians that the West itself had labeled as terrorists. But the West accused the Christians of being racists, isolationists, self-hating Arabs, agents of Israel, neo-Crusaders etc...such that the Christians lost the 1975-1990 war in favor of Saudi Arabia's proxies in the country, thanks in large part to Western treachery.
The same scenario is repeating itself, but this time with the Iranian militia of Hezbollah which has over the past 40 years dismantled Lebanon, decimated its institutions, violated its constitution, invited 2.5 million illegal Syrians into the country, prevented the election of a president, controls both lawless borders with Israel and Syria, waged endless wars against its domestic opponents and against Israel, denies the legitimate Lebanese Armed Forces access to these lawless border areas in which Hezbollah wages wars (along the Israeli border) and conducts unlawful smuggling activities (along the Syrian border), and brought the country to its knees for the sole objective of doing Iran's bidding.
Now that the Christians have lamented this state of affairs for decades and suffered massacres, assassinations and threats, what will the West do? Accuse them again of being the problem like it did in the 1970s and 1980s? Will the US sacrifice Lebanon by handing it to Iran in exchange for a cessation of Iran's nuclear program? Or some other criminal treacherous deal involving Saudi Arabia like it did in 1989? Lebanon does not need stabilization with bad short-term deals concocted by Amos Hochstein and other western envoys. It needs to no longer serve as a battleground for competing Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim and Jewish theocracies. Lebanon's multi-ethnic, multi-religious model of coexistence remains valid despite all its ailments. Lebanon is very small and poses no threat to anyone when it is freed from the tentacles around.
[For more, see earlier post: https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2024/04/unlike-in-iraq-syria-and-israel.html]
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Associated Press
BASSEM MROUE and ABBY SEWELL
May 1, 2024
MAARAB, Lebanon (AP) — The leader of a main Christian political party in Lebanon blasted the Shiite militant group Hezbollah for opening a front with Israel to back up its ally Hamas, saying it has harmed Lebanon without making a dent in Israel’s crushing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday night, Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces Party said Hezbollah should withdraw from areas along the border with Israel and the Lebanese army should deploy in all points where militants of the Iran-backed group have taken positions.
His comments came as Western diplomats try to broker a de-escalation in the border conflict amid fears of a wider war.
Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israeli military posts on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.
The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators have been scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed 12 soldiers and 10 civilians in Israel. More than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon including 273 Hezbollah fighters and more than 50 civilians.
“No one has the right to control the fate of a country and people on its own,” Geagea said in his heavily guarded headquarters in the mountain village of Maarab. “Hezbollah is not the government in Lebanon. There is a government in Lebanon in which Hezbollah is represented.” In addition to its military arm, Hezbollah is a political party.
Geagea, whose party has the largest bloc in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, has angled to position himself as the leader of the opposition against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah officials have said that by opening the front along Israel’s northern border, the militant group has reduced the pressure on Gaza by keeping several Israeli army divisions on alert in the north rather than taking part in the monthslong offensive in the enclave.
“All the damage that could have happened in Gaza ... happened. What was the benefit of military operations that were launched from south Lebanon? Nothing,” Geagea said, pointing the the death toll and massive destruction in Lebanon's border villages.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, caused wide destruction and displaced hundreds of thousands to the city of Rafah along Egypt’s border. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to launch an offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah despite international calls for restraint.
Geagea said Hezbollah aims through the ongoing fighting to benefit its main backer, Iran, by giving it a presence along Israel’s border and called for the group to withdraw from border areas and Lebanese army deploy in accordance with a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Geagea also discussed the campaign by his party to repatriate Syrian refugees who fled war into Lebanon.
Those calls intensified after a Syrian gang was blamed for last month's killing of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Suleiman, allegedly in a carjacking gone wrong, although many initially suspected political motives.
Lebanon, with a total population of around 6 million, hosts what the U.N. refugee agency says are nearly 785,000 U.N.-registered Syrian refugees, of which 90% rely on aid to survive. Lebanese officials estimate there may be 1.5 million or 2 million, of whom only around 300,000 have legal residency.
Human rights groups say that Syria is not safe for mass returns and that many Syrians who have gone back — voluntarily or not — have been detained and tortured.
Geagea, whose party is adamantly opposed to the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria, insisted that only a small percentage of Syrians in Lebanon are true political refugees and that those who are could go to opposition-controlled areas of Syria.
The Lebanese politician suggested his country should follow in the steps of Western countries like Britain, which passed controversial legislation last week to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
“In Lebanon we should tell them, guys, go back to your country. Syria exists,” said Geagea, who headed the largest Christian militia during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.
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