13 Comments. Add your own...

• 1. tareq | August 10th, 2006 at 7:56 pm

  you can only go against the wind when you are strong. have you looked at your christian community? did you see how many syrian agents and double agents and people who don’t care except about eating and dancing there are? did you see how many pick up their stuff and leave everytime there’s a problem? this is not a community that can create another israel in the region, when they used to hate the LF because of the monthly tax of a few liras and paid them back their sacrifices by turning against them with Aoun. The christians of Lebanon make most of their money from their business with the Arab world, and now most of them work in the Arab world, you can’t create another Israel when your community is weak and most of it is not willing to make a sacrifice.

• 2. N10452 | August 10th, 2006 at 9:49 pm

  tareq, back in 1982 you had a strong community and a strong political party with external and internal support.

• 3. Michael | August 10th, 2006 at 10:39 pm

  Hello Everyone,

  First time posting here, just found this site late last night, and I do mean late. My name is Michael, and I live in Florida, USA. I’ve already added this site to favorites, to keep a eye on.

  N10452,

  Very interesting piece, considering for Lebanon to survive, this may have to be the out come of this war. When you think about it, who would attack Lebanon if Israel was their allied. Its time to quit killing in the name of hate and racism, as this only keeps breeding more of the same on both sides. After this is over, the Lebanese need to stand back up, and demand no more. Your military has to be built to protect Lebanon, from outside and internal treats. And you need to try and insure that the military can only be used for Defense.

  I understand that your military is always under a Shiite PM. Can he take your country to war without the approval of the President?

  Michael

• 4. N10452 | August 11th, 2006 at 1:53 am

  Dear Michael,
  Thank u for ur answer.
  First of all, the army is under the command of a Christian maronite and not a Shiite. What is happening now is that Hezbollah a shiite group armed itself under the pretext of fighting Israel during the Syrian invasion and has dragged Lebanon into a regional war by kidnapping 2 Israeli soldiers.

  Second, our Lebanese society is a very complex one and so allying with Israel was a major decision to take, but cause of whats been going, i think we should have considered this option before.

  Its impossible nowadays to do so anyway.

• 5. nell | August 11th, 2006 at 11:03 am

  just wanted to say that i guess u r very bias and never forget that this media is spread all over the world so try to keep up with the leader’s opinion (El Hakim) and try to avoid this christian/muslim issue, i mean just be objective.

• 6. Michael | August 11th, 2006 at 4:11 pm

  I watched a program on TV, about 3 weeks ago, that said the military was always under a Shiite PM, and your President is always a Christen, I guess they got it wrong. Do you have or know of a link that tells how your government is setup, in English.

  I understand who Hezbollah is, and how complex your society is. I have been watching Lebanon fairly closely since your Cedar Revolution. I had hoped that Lebanon was going to be the model country of the ME. And I still haven’t ruled it out. Hopefully this will end soon and measures can be put into place to prevent this from happening again.

  I do not feel it is impossible for Lebanon and Israel to become Allies. Look at history around the world in the last 100 hundred years, and you can see, it can happen. Who would have thought American and Japan, or the Germans and the British, and the list goes on and on, could be Allies in 1946. It didn’t happen overnight.

  I think a lot of the world knows that there needs to be major changes in the ME. And there has been major changes happening all over it for a few years now. The internet is allowing us to communicate and see things for what they really are. If we are able to start our conversations here, and agree to disagree sometimes. Maybe we will be able to learn to do it face to face some day.

  I have a couple of questions for you. Do you think Israel wants to be in this war? And if given a chance do you think Israel would sign a peace treaty with Lebanon? And vice versa with Lebanon on both questions.

  Stay safe,
  Michael

• 7. Othello | August 11th, 2006 at 6:02 pm

  Well Michael…
  what you say about an eventual peace agreement might be true, except that it will take a very long time, especially after ths war and all the blood that has been shed because of the bombings of IAF/IDF…
  many people in Lebanon wish to live in peace with their neighbours…without any intervention…remember we were the first to have a pact of non agression with Israel from as far back as 1949!!!!
  Does Israel want to be in this war? well…they could have averted it by pulling out of Shebaa farms thus taking away from Hezbolla any excuses for them to remain…had they done this as far back as 2000, where would we be now????

• 8. PQ | August 12th, 2006 at 12:10 pm

  I think Bashir Gemayel protected what was left of national unity by taking that decision. He knew the geography and mosaique of the Lebanese people and opted for a naitonalistic approach to the issue with Israel. We cannot keep looking at the past now; I am a Muslim and I say that the main issue should be on rebuilding the real country with real sovereignty and burying all of the civil war’s memorabilia forever. Opening the door for the civil war to return to Lebanon will the signal the death of the Taef agreement and mean that all of the martyrs and deaths of 2005 and pre-2005 all went to waste…

• 9. Dgreat1 | January 9th, 2007 at 12:05 am

  BG made a few strategic errors; the main would have been the lack of strong pact /alliance to stand side by side with Israel when he had a chance; it seems that both he and Amin wanted to have footing on both sides of the fences; they should have had the wisdome to realize that Israel is here is stay and would have been a great power to have on your side………it is a shame that neither made the right choice…..

• 10. Modern Pharaoh | January 29th, 2007 at 5:01 am

  What a disgraceful topic! you would be happy allying yourselves with the Zionists?? You bring that up even after what they did to your country last july! You Lebanese should just go Join the European Union with your rediculous thoughts! Thats why that country will never prosper!

• 11. Ali Arz | February 11th, 2007 at 6:23 am

  Hi Michael,

  It is with great enthusiasm that I am learning about your interest as an American on the issues of Lebanon and it’s present turmoil.

  Concerning Israel, the following is what I can say…

  You seem to know a lot on the Middle East and you have a sound political understanding of our society in general, so of course, Lebanon can be at peace with Israel, Syria, future Palestine, etc, just like the French, German, British and the rest of Europe did in post-WW2.

  Not only can the Middle Eastern countries live in peace with each other, but they can also work together like the Europeans did with the EU solution.

  However, to do this, every single nation in the ME must be sovereign.

  For the case of Lebanon, it is not so, because all the leaders have found an ally in foreign countries, respectively (ie: U.S, France, Iran, Syria, etc).

  In other words, the outsiders are taking advantage of our ignorance and weakness.

  Israel cannot survive as a country in the way it is now. This is a well known fact, I have read all books on Lebanon in my local libraries, and there is always a chapter on Israel and it’s interests in Lebanon. You can look for it, but in summary, I will tell you what their intentions are…

  Economically-speaking, the Israeli leadership want to annex the Litani River of South Lebanon to their territory, in order to become a nation that will depend less on the military.

  The land of Israel is predominantly deserted, like all of the Middle East–not so with Lebanon. It is the only nation in the region that doesnt even have a desert!

  For this reason, the Israelis cannot survive without the water market. They depend on the water more then on anything else.

  In Israel, the settlements are always on a hill or near a lake…equiped with state of the art aquifers, in order to live a non-deserted life.

  The Litani River of Lebanon has been a life long Israeli dream.

  They still think about it, because without the conquest of South Lebanon (making it a future Israeli territory), they won’t be able to get rid of their constant military operations against their neighbors.

  To put it in another way, if South Lebanon becomes Israeli, then the Israeli leadership will no longer depend much on their military actions in order to survive as a nation.

  This is a big problem, because the Lebanese will never give up their land to anyone: Syrian, Palestinian, Israeli, etc.

  But the Israeli lobby in Washington is very powerful, in fact, nothing can stop them…so as long as they want the Litani River, then as long as Lebanon will remain unstable in the way it is today.

  You can find this issue in most books on Lebanon, starting from 1900 to present-day editions, you will find your answer right away.

  There are even books written by ex-PMs of Israel, and they go into details about their plots in Lebanon, and why they want the Litani River.

  Even before the State of Israel was created, there was a meeting in the 1920’s in Paris, in which the Zionist lobby of Chaim Weizmann asked the Lebanese Lobby of then Lebanese President, Emile Edde (a Maronite Christian), to hand in South Lebanon to them, and make it Palestinian (since Israel was not completed yet).

  The Lebanese Lobby refused, and a harsh clash between Edde and Weizmann happened.

  The British backed the Zionists, while the French backed the Lebanese, and at that time, the French where more powerful then the British on that matter, so the Lebanese Lobby won their first, peaceful victory against the Zionist colonial project.

  Ever since then, the Zionists has been spending all of their energies on a project to annex South Lebanon and expand the Israeli territory.

  Right now, the unstability in Lebanon is based for just that, even U.S Secretary of State, Miss Rice, has said: “we need a new Middle East”.

  They are looking forward to change the map in the region, and that will be possible now, especially if there will be an explosive war in the Middle East this year (ie: Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Gaza, West Bank, planned for possibly Spring 2007, along with a strike in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan).

  In other words, the Middle East today is a lot like the unstable state of Europe prior to WW2.

  If things get out of hand, then the ME will get into a WW3, which will be bad for all of us.

  I think that after a certain anarchy of this sort, then maybe the Middle East will become modern and live like the West do so today.

  Aside from the Indo-European culture, I beleive that the Middle Eastern one has changed the world in so many ways…history is saying so.

  My friend, please do not lose hope in us, we as Lebanese, we are in a very bad situation, but we know we will make it, and your trust in us at such a moment is certainly apreciated.

  Take good care,

  Mazen a.k.a: Ali Arz

• 12. SONIA | August 28th, 2007 at 2:48 pm

  I HAVE LIVED IN israel for fifty years,and read more than one newspaper. This is the first time I have come across this Litani river annexation idea. What else can you creators of fairy tales come up with?

• 13. A lebanese | August 31st, 2007 at 5:27 pm

  Sonia:
  http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Maps/Story1045.html

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