So one of FPM’s strong nationalistic arguments stated during the 15 years of exile was: “… When it comes to accepting an occupying army as a friendly one, namely : necessary & temporary, the country needs a national consensus: It is enough that one Lebanese party or movement refuses the friendship of this army for that army to become an occupier therefore an enemy to the nation as a whole.” A true vision of national solidarity and national priority settings, facing politics that transformed friends to foes and vice versa.
Based on this amazing principle, it suffice that either Hezbollah or the Syrian Social National Party to consider Israel as an enemy for me, as a Lebanese, to step out and view it as such, simply by solidarity and respect to a compatriot with whom sharing the nation becomes top priority over and above any other interest with anyone else.
How do we behave as Lebanese? Do we remain sorry that these figures are being murdered? Do we blame them for their arrogant political position? Do we spread conspiracy theories that this is some machiavelic plan to discredit the Syrian Regime? Do we remain faithful to our party’s position at the expense of what is Right? Do we switch side we vote and support the victim? Do stay supportive of the victim & not question its moves based on any previous experience? As weird as it may sound I say No, to all these positions: Saying yes to callers of such questions is what we have done for the past 8 years with no overwhelming results, and only hovering on the same shitty place. And 8 years is about 20% of any adult working years… a lot of time to waste on repeating the same thing for a third time.
Yes, it remains our responsibility to clear our systems from that virus. The virus of a dying regime. And this is costing lives. There is a beautiful connotation in arabic between liberation and freeing one’s self (tahreer w taharror) This is taharror.
What is shocking is the resistance of true freedom fighters such as Hezbollah & the FPM to such quest. What is shockingly selfish & immature, is their support to the idea of what we Believe make us a Better persons, while instead only Behaviour does….
On February 02, 2012 I wrote about the “inevitable downfall of the Shiite politics in Lebanon” and hoped it would not be a violent transition. I have seen this not by reading politics but by reading behaviour and comparing it to a recent double experience. Here is another reading: the behaviour of the coalition that is ferociously fighting the Syrian regime’s remnants in Lebanon, will not bring national unity, should it completely succeed in its plans, instead it will bring on another time bomb waiting to explode, simply because is actually fighting the holder of the message instead of the message with the same ferocity. This attitude had two failures before: the first when Hezbollah had to count on that same Syrian occupation to enforce, not convince, unity behind it, and the second is the FPM that was left alone to fight outside and today has switch this same anger into hatred…. So March 14 supporters beware, the outcome of your actions as they are today, might not seem as beautiful as you are made to believe…
I’ll leave you with this thought: during the Israeli attack on south Lebanon, the American, the French & the Canadian armies came to pull out their citizen from there. Did they filter which of them was pro-west and which other was pro-Hezbollah listed by them as a terrorist party? No. Had they done so, they would not need an “operation” to pull out their citizens, instead only a couple of taxis would have done the job… Taking extreme sides today will only lead us to become blind to such values…
Fady,
The catch here is that both Syrian & Israeli “Influence” over Lebanon & Its politics is non other than actual Lebanese citizens most often in high positions. So in this highly divided sectarian nation to the hilt, polarized to the core how do you cleanse.
The fun part is that the concept you so nicely put at the get-go does not really work here (the citizen solidarity).
My enemy is my enemy & should be yours and your enemy is your enemy alone, If it happens that my enemy is yours as well then great, if not, well YOU gotta change sides cause YOU are on the wrong side of history (right ey ? ey ?)
The country was founded on one party using external powers to leverage its position over the other and shall be doomed for this as well as the circle is still closed and perpetuates itself (and it is, and it will).
See the beauty of it is, EVERYONE is GUILTY but no one wants to see it. Everyone give themselves excuses and reasoning but never extend this same reasoning to others.
Unless we learn how to answer each others fears we will never move forward.
Hey Nadim,
I would have never been able to describe the reality of things better than you did… These are facts, from an operational & managerial perspective. They are as realistic as the one that once was: “Syria will never get out of Lebanon, Israel will keep its buffer zone down south, Hezbollah will have FPM as an ally, Joumblatists and LF as well” when seen back in the 90′s… Yet as much as we want to believe that there is a patronizing force forecasting things, I think that giving value to local efforts is as valid, if not a slightly bit more…
So yes you are right: this is the s&*^t we are in and everyone, me onwards, is guilty. The thing is, we all dream of a better future for us and our kids, in our home land. I used the word “dream” on purpose so the sceptics can say “dream on”, and the dreamers can keep on dreaming, but the true changers will make a difference at a time… And in my dictionary, credit of the inevitable change should go to all three types.
three types are: the changers, the dreamers and the skeptics that it….