The Lebanon We Want To Build TEXT OF THE DOCUMENT
ISSUED BY THE LEBANESE FRONT
ON THE 23rd OF DECEMBER 1980
AT DEIR AOUKAR
FOREWORD
Three issues are
decisively at stake today: the survival of the state of Lebanon as a free,
independent and sovereign state; the survival of the society of Lebanon as
a free, open and pluralist society; and the survival of the Christian
community of Lebanon a free and secure, enjoying complete mastery over its
own values and destiny. How to avert these three dangers is precisely what
is meant by the term "the Lebanese Cause".
If the political
independence of Lebanon should be overwhelmed or undermined, if its free
society should be altered so as to conform to the pattern of the other
societies of the Middle East, and if its Christian community should cease
to be master of itself and its destiny, as it has been in the past, a
major transformation in the balance of forces in the Middle East Wold
result.
This fate is not inevitable; it can still be
warded off. The first
requirement towards that end is a full knowledge of the facts of the case.
So far as the will and the views of the Christian community of
Lebanon are concerned, the present document, which is intended to be an
historic one, can meet this requirement.
Lebanon cannot save itself by itself. It
needs help from outside. When have nations in great peril in modern times
saved themselves without the aid
of their friends? The destruction of the free, open and
genuinely pluralist society of Lebanon, and the disappearance of the only
remaining free Christian community in the Middle East, while the rest of
the world is merely looking on, are not simple events: they are world
events.
Not only moral, human and spiritual
values are at stake, but precisely because this is the case, other factors
of a material and concrete nature are involved. The mountains of Lebanon
are, physically speaking, the most strategically impregnable part of the
Middle East; whoever gets firmly entrenched in them can significantly help
in defending the Eastern Mediterranean. Nor can the peoples of America and
the West find more reliable and lasting friends in the Middle East than
the people of Lebanon. Moreover, there are some who affect to seek in the
Middle East and who think they have found a substitute for the free
and open society of Lebanon so far as affording facilities for
international finance, commerce and communication and for free exchange of
ideas is concerned. Given the realities of the Middle East, there can
never be an adequate substitute for Lebanon. Again, it is not in the best
interests of Middle Eastern, and indeed world, stability for tire peace
loving Lebanese, who are passionately attached to their freedoms and land,
to get radicalized, There are enough disaffected and embittered people
around to add to them now tire Lebanese. And there is absolutely, no need
for that. Finally, care should be taken lest the tide of world subversion
engulf Lebanon and lest Lebanon become a permanent base for international
terrorism.
Consequently, the
arguments to be urged are not only
sentimental and moral, but of 'the most practical arid hardheaded order.
The truth imposes itself once it is known.
The Lebanese Front is composed of
Christian leaders who assumed, arid continue to assume, great
responsibilities in their life. Its forces withstood a formidable
onslaught of strangers and mercenaries upon Lebanon. The aim of this
assault has been to overrun arid subjugate Lebanon. But tire Lebanese
Front arid tile heroic Forces of Resistance associated with it continue to
control the larger part of Christian Lebanon. The Front, therefore, can
claim that it speaks in tire name of the Christians of Lebanon.
The present document sets forth the basic
principles and objectives of tire Front. Many of the non Christians would
also openly subscribe to it if they were free to express their opinion.
But they are not free.
The document sets
in motion a fundamental debate among the Lebanese themselves. Tile
Christians have formulated their views with the utmost sense of,
responsibility. Let tire others now put forward theirs. A fruitful
dialogue should then ensue. One hopes that it will also provoke an
examination of conscience by tire governments and peoples oj' the world,
both East and West. No one responsibly concerned for the great events
unfolding in the Middle East today can afford now to ignore the
convictions of the Christians of Lebanon, as authoritatively expounded in
this document, about their freedoms arid the destiny and place of their
own country.
January 5, 1981
Charles Malik
At this moment of decision in the history of
Lebanon and the Middle East, the Lebanese Front wishes to make clear,
before the people of Lebanon, before world public opinion, and for
history, its fundamental positions and objectives.
I
In the Name of Our Heritage, Our Values and
Our People
The Lebanese
Front is fully conscious that it speaks in the name of a cumulative
Lebanese heritage relatively uninterrupted for 6,000 years. Although the
continuity of this heritage has been somewhat checkered, its discontinuity
cannot be compared with other discontinuities in the Middle East. There is
no continuity in the Eastern Mediterranean comparable to that of the
Lebanese heritage.
The Lebanese Front is also fully conscious
of the value of this heritage at once to Lebanon, to the Middle East and
to the world. Only in the light of this value in which the Front believes
and to which it firmly clings can its fundamental positions be understood.
The Front is most anxious to preserve the customs, values and freedoms of
Lebanon's way of life, and to serve as a bulwark against all perils
besetting it today. Its faith in Lebanon and its unique values, and its
absolute determination to defend them, explain all the positions of the
Front. The Front is fully aware of the fact that Lebanon is entrusted with
a treasure than which nothing is more precious or holy, and it refuses to
permit any particle of this trust to fritter away.
The Lebanese Front also knows that it speaks in the
name of an overwhelming majority of the people of Lebanon, although it
recognizes that part of this majority is not in a position to express its
opinion freely. Therefore the Lebanese Front is honored by the feeling
that it represents not only those who can express their opinion freely,
but also the others who do not at present enjoy this freedom.
II
The Political Structure
The Lebanon we
want to build is what has been unique and constant about Lebanon down the
ages; a Lebanon that refuses to be absorbed by any other entity or to be
qualified by anything other than itself; a state, therefore, independent,
sovereign and free.
We oppose any
attempt at dissolving Lebanon in its environment or in something other
than itself, a dissolution that will cause its distinctive characteristics
to disappear.
The borders of the Lebanon we want to build
are its present borders as determined by its Constitution and as
internationally recognized.
The political system of the Lebanon we want
to build is republican, democratic, parliamentary, pluralist, free and
open, in the technical senses of these terms as universally recognized.
While preserving
its total sovereignty and independence, Lebanon establishes relations with
other states on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect.
The rule governing
these relations shall be the common interests, culturally, economically
and politically, between Lebanon and the other states, be they Arab,
Middle Eastern or other.
We shall not build up the free, sovereign
and independent Lebanon we want alone, but all its children, both here in
Lebanon and abroad all over the world, will also participate with us in
this process, together we shall all be responsible for its defense,
the orientation of its policy and the organization of its administration.
The Lebanese Front believes in the necessity
of reconsidering the structural formula which has determined the
politics of Lebanon since 1943, with a view to modifying it in such a way
as to prevent any friction or clash between the members of the same
Lebanese family.
This reconsideration might issue in an
alteration of the structural formula into some kind of decentralization or
federation or confederation within a comprehensive framework of a single
unified Lebanon. Such has been the trend of the modern constitutional
systems throughout the world. The aim of the alteration is to ensure that
no disaster like the many disasters which befell Lebanon since 1840 will
recur in the future. The new formula will be agreed upon among the
Lebanese themselves in a climate devoid of compulsion or intimidation,
whether arising from within or without.
In the
determination of the principles of its existence, Lebanon will be guided
by the terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially with
respect to the fundamental rights and freedoms of man.
III
Religious Freedoms
Lebanon's
principal concern is to ensure individual and group freedoms for all its
children and institutions.
Owing to the fact that the first fundamental
problem of the Middle East, as indeed of all Asia and Africa, nay even of
more than
Asia and
Africa, is the problem of minorities; and owing to the fact that the
fundamental minorities in the Middle East are religious minorities; for
these two reasons Lebanon is compelled, having regard to its composition
and history, to pay special attention to its religious communities with a
view to ensuring their freedoms.
Our aim is
that Lebanon enjoy the clear distinction of being the only country in the
Middle East in which the problem of minorities has received its complete
resolution.
There
shall not be in the Lebanon we propose to build up any discrimination or
inequity against any one of its communities.
The
Lebanon which has revolted against the perennial problem of minorities in
the Middle East shall not permit this problem to lift up its head in it.
The Christian
society in Lebanon occupies a special position owing to the fact that it
has been free and has enjoyed a continuous history down the centuries. For
this reason the Lebanon we want to build up is anxious that the Christians
in it remain in fact free, secure and masters of themselves and of their
own values and destiny, exactly as Christians are in any country in the
world where they are in fact free, secure and masters of themselves and of
their own values and destiny. Lebanon considers this charge as one of its
most sacred trusts.
The Christians
of Lebanon do not want more for themselves than they want for others, but
at the same time, they do not accept less for themselves than
others want for themselves.
The
freedom of the Christians in Lebanon is not to be confined to a particular
section of Lebanon only, but it must extend to every Christian and every
Christian society in all Lebanon.
The freedom
and security of the Christians in Lebanon, and their mastery over
themselves, their values and their destiny, do not depend on any
demographic consideration or any political orientation.
Most
certainly the Lebanese Front does not understand by the Christians of
Lebanon the Maronites only, but all other Christian communities which, by
reason of their deeply rooted traditions and their free development, since
the days of Christ and since some of them took refuge in this hospitable
mountain, have contributed so much to the flourishing of this special,
distinctive civilization.
As to the
lacerative winds blowing upon the Maronite community today, the Lebanese
Front, while anxiously preoccupied with them, does not consider them a
concern that can possibly last.
For in the
face of the grim dangers now threatening us, the Front believes that when
every one of us rises above his own wound, we will then turn, all of us,
to the healing of Lebanon's wound. And we shall succeed in healing it.
Moreover, the
Lebanese Front believes that the Christians, all of them, cannot part from
their brethren of the other minorities who have, for hundreds of years,
contributed with them to the formation of this homeland, so unique and
brave and with such a distinctive personality of its own in the Middle
East.
The Lebanese
Front believes that Lebanon is not a meeting place of two great religions
huddled together against their will, and therefore forced to resort to all
sorts of ruses and stratagems in order to maintain a precarious mode of
coexistence always subject to collapse as each of them sharpens its own
craving to dominate and rule. It views Lebanon rather as a federation of
communities comprising sixteen minorities, all bent in a spirit of mutual
trust and cooperation on preserving, in the face of the overwhelming
majority surrounding them in the Middle East, the freedom, dignity and
equality they all enjoy in Lebanon, regardless of demographic and social
inequalities that may exist among them.
The maxim of the Lebanese Front in its
impartial and just view of all Lebanese is: no Lebanese is superior to
another except on the basis of his loyalty to Lebanon and to its freedoms
and values.
For it holds
the firm conviction that the guarantee of the survival of Lebanon is not
mere loyalty to Lebanon, but a loyalty infused with love for
Lebanon.
IV
The
Peace of the Middle East is Determined
by the Peace of Lebanon, and
the Peace of Lebanon is Determined by the
Peace of the Christians of Lebanon
The peace of
Lebanon is one of the keys to the peace of the Middle East. Peace and
stability cannot prevail in the Middle East so long as Lebanon is
shattered, politically and spiritually, and its peace shaken, troubled and
precarious. The instability of Lebanon means precisely the instability of
the Middle East.
If the peace
of Lebanon is one of the keys to the peace of the Middle East, the
fundamental key to the peace of Lebanon is for all the religious societies
of Lebanon to be free, happy, secure, at ease in their own minds, and
masters of themselves, their values and their destinies.
Whoever imagines that free Christianity in
Lebanon can be oppressed without producing a tremendous world reaction and
tremors of a fundamental revolutionary character all over the Middle East,
is misled and mistaken. Such a person does not know either the power of
freedom, or the truth of Christianity, or the actual state of affairs and
the histories of the peoples of the region, or the inevitable development
of their relations among themselves in the future.
The future does not belong to oppression but
to liberation. The future will not bring about a contraction of existing
freedom but a widening of its scope. The future will not conduce to the
enlargement and grounding of slavery but to diminishing its scope and
getting rid of it altogether. The future does not belong to discriminating
against the religious minorities but to these minorities themselves
winning complete equality in their responsibilities, rights and
obligations. The future does not belong to the realm of darkness but to
the realm of the light which shone and continues to shine in Lebanon.
If Christianity has been present and active
in the Eastern Mediterranean for 2,000 years without interruption; if it
is living and active, and shall remain living and active, in the West; and
if the Mediterranean has been throughout history a living space for the
West or the West for the Mediterranean; then it is not reasonable for
active Christianity to disappear today from the Eastern Mediterranean. On
the contrary, what is reasonable, nay what is inevitable, is that
Christianity shall deepen itself and become more authentic in its action
and freedom in the Eastern Mediterranean.
V
Total Liberation from the Two Occupations
The Syrian
occupation must be lifted. Every agreement of whatever kind arrived at
under the shadow of the bayonet cannot be a free agreement, and therefore
we consider it null and void.
Certainly No to
settling the Palestinians in Lebanon. This absolute rejection has been
embodied in all the previous statements of the Lebanese Front, and in
particular in the statement it issued on Tuesday, May 20, 1980, in which
it declared:
"The Front hastens to declare its total
rejection of any settlement of foreigners, particularly of Palestinians,
on any Lebanese territory, no matter how small in size and wherever the
settlement should take place. It intends to resort to all means, no matter
how onerous, to prevent this act of aggression from taking place, an act
that will have the effect of sealing the fate of Lebanon from now."
The Lebanese Front has been pleased to note that the position expressed
by the Foreign Minister in the Government's statement before the General
Assembly of the United Nations on October 2, 1980 conformed to its views;
we quote the following passage from this statement:
"We wish to emphasize here what the
President of Lebanon said on more than one occasion: We absolutely reject
any project for the settlement of foreigners on Lebanese territory, as
well as every measure that may lead to such settlement, whether directly
or indirectly. We shall oppose any disguised project of settlement in all
its phases with every means at our disposal. This opposition springs from
our faith in our sacred right to our homeland, a right which nobody shares
with us. The land of Lebanon is not free for all, neither is it a
commodity offered for sale in auctions held in some international bazaar."
It is precisely this absolute rejection
which every Lebanese shouts from the housetops with his deepest, firmest
and most strenuous voice.
From the outset we were determined to
nullify at any cost every project aiming at settling the Palestinians in
Lebanon.
All the sales or transfers of real estate
which occurred here and there with a view to enabling Palestinians,
whether directly or in some roundabout way, to own Lebanese property,
shall be abrogated.
For the land of Lebanon belongs to the
Lebanese only and there is no land in Lebanon for non Lebanese.
Likewise every illegal acquisition of
Lebanese nationality, regardless of who has acquired it, shall be
abrogated. Certainly No also to partition.
But with the
same strength and certainty, No to every measure that conduces, or that
might conduce, to the weakening of personal, existential, human,
responsible freedom.
The
reconciling of these two Noes, No to partition and No to the erosion of
responsible freedom, is the fateful desideratum at this critical moment in
the history of Lebanon.
VI
The Existence of Lebanon an Imperative
Necessity
Lebanon is a necessity for itself, an Arab
necessity, a Middle Eastern necessity, and a world necessity.
In all the sectors of its society, Lebanon
fought, is now fighting, and shall continue fighting; Lebanon stood firm,
is now standing firm, and shall continue standing firm; all in defense of
its existence and freedoms, and all for the protection of its own values.
Lebanon will not accept any encroachment upon its freedoms and values,
even if the whole world stood in its face. And when the world wakes up
from its slumber, it will appreciate the greatness of Lebanon's dogged
attachment to its values even to the point of death, not only for itself,
but indeed for the entire world.
And because Lebanon is an Arab necessity,
owing to the fact that its climate is the climate of freedom, it devolves
upon the Arab world to appreciate its situation and do everything in its
power, not to enfeeble it, or oppress it, or curtail its vitality, or
absorb it, but to vouchsafe for it the assurance, in truth, that it is
totally secure from any Arab or Islamic peril, and to leave it to itself
to develop in its own way according to the pleasure and will of its own
peoples.
The thought that the good of the Arabs and
Islam consists in assimilating and absorbing Lebanon, and that "Lebanon is
a thorn in the side of the Arab world" which must disappear, is a false
thought, let alone the fact that the realization of this thought is
impossible.
Again, because Lebanon is a Middle Eastern
necessity, owing to the fact, first, that the emergence of an order of
peaceful interaction among the peoples of the Middle East is an inevitable
development, and, second, that Lebanon is destined to play an effective
role in the midst of this order, it behooves all the countries of the
Middle East, including Turkey, Israel and Iran, to reassure free,
sovereign, independent, secure and healthy Lebanon that, in truth, it is
not in danger of extinction.
Finally, because Lebanon is a world
necessity, owing to the fact, first, that Lebanon in the essence of its
being is human and universal, as it has made, and continues to make today,
many contributions of a universal and human character, principally in the
domain of thought and of material and human intercourse; second, that
Lebanon serves as an authentic window at once of the Middle East to the
world and of the world to the Middle East; and third, that Lebanon is a
moderating and reconciling factor among the peoples and civilizations of a
region, the Middle East, which has always displayed, and all the more
displays today, a universal world character, in relation to world
religions, the economy of the world, world strategy, and world history:
For all these reasons the whole world must
concern itself with Lebanon; it must even protect it; it must realize that
should Lebanon lose its freedom and its distinctive identity with its
universal character, its contribution would dry up and the world itself as
a result would lose a value unique and irretrievable.
Consequently the Lebanese Front holds that
the interest of the whole world requires the world to rise to the duty of
providing this small‑great country, Lebanon, with formal, actual and
effective guarantees, to the end that Lebanon be assured a firm existence
in which it will be at once free and master of itself, and therefore able
to continue to carry out the message with which it has been charged since
the dawn of history.
If Lebanon is given these guarantees, its
mind will be set at ease, and it will then be free to act and create; and
if it is not given them, it will still act to be free in order to create;
and in any event, Lebanon will remain a distinctive civilization by
itself.
VII
Lebanon Universal and Human
In the essence of
its being, Lebanon is authentically rooted in the one universal human
civilization. It therefore rejects and resists every attempt at tearing up
its deep roots in this civilization. Indeed its continuous historical
existence is itself the expression of a firm will to this rejection and
resistance.
We likewise reject every attempt at
attenuating Lebanon's traditional existential relations with Europe and
the Western world in general. For down the centuries and generations
Lebanon has always acted on this world and interacted with it, and we
shall not accept in these last days cutting Lebanon off from this world.
Every attempt at this act of cutting Lebanon off from the West we shall
categorically reject.
The Lebanon we want to build will not admit
that any summit of thought or spirit in history and in the world be not
accessible to its children. Therefore Lebanon will design its system of
education on the basis of complete responsible openness to all sources of
reason and truth and spirit in history and the world.
We also reject every attempt at weakening
Lebanon's traditional free and creative interaction in all fields with its
Arab and Middle Eastern environments.
Finally, we reject every attempt at severing
the Lebanese overseas, whether sentimentally or culturally or economically
or politically or administratively, from Lebanon, their fatherland. We
aim, on the contrary, at making the relations between Lebanon and the
Lebanese overseas as intimate, solid and firm as possible.
On the occasion of
the convening of the recent annual conference of the American Lebanese
League in Washington between October 18 and 20, 1980, we commend the
felicitous endeavors undertaken by the League with the United States
Government and the public opinion of America. We also laud the constancy
of its sound view of everything that pertains to the essence and destiny
of Lebanon.
We wish also to express on this occasion our
pleasure in the Second World Maronite Congress which was held in New York
between October 8 and 12, 1980, and to welcome the decisions it took and
the recommendations it formulated, notably:
the affirmation of
world Maronitism of its attachment to free, sovereign and independent
Lebanon;
the affirmation of
its rejection of every settlement of the Palestinians on Lebanese
territory; and
the affirmation to
His Holiness the Pope of the supreme human-world value of free Lebanon.
Four factors
appearing on the horizon threaten, whether or not by design, to rupture
one or another of Lebanon's essential features:
rupturing Lebanon
from its deep and relatively unbroken roots throughout history;
rupturing
Lebanon's intimate ties to the one human world civilization;
rupturing
Lebanon's creative interaction, or curtailing this interaction, with its
Arab and Middle Eastern environments, and
rupturing Lebanon's organic and living
ties with its children abroad throughout the world.
The Lebanon we want to
build rejects categorically all these four rupturings.
VII
The
New Lebanese Society
The new society of
the Lebanon we want to build shall be characterized by the following
features:
lofty
morals;
responsible
freedom;
truthfulness; respect for others;
placing the common good above the
individual good;
curbing material greed;
the supremacy of law;
promoting community spirit and
cohesiveness;
social justice;
enlarging the scope of social security, and
the example of the leaders.
We shall endeavor to implant these virtues,
and all that goes with them, through the family, the school, popular
literature and art, the public media of information, social intercourse,
and the law.
IX
Addressing
the World
In
the past the West used to understand the reality of Lebanon and to take it
seriously, but the West of today either does not understand it or, if it
does, turns its gaze away from it.
Owing, however, to the splendid steadfastness manifested by all sectors of
Lebanese society, the West lately appears to have renewed its readiness to
understand it.
It is this
indifferent, if not unfriendly, West whom we wish now to address.
We address the states
and peoples of the West, both west and east.
We address France and
the French people.
We
address West Germany and the West German people.
We address
Britain and the British people.
We address Holland,
Belgium and Luxembourg and their peoples.
We address Italy,
Spain, Greece, and Ireland and their peoples.
We address the
Scandinavian states and their peoples.
Then we address the
United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Latin American
world, all of which include great Lebanese communities ‑ we address them
all, governments and peoples.
We address these states and peoples in a
spirit of confidence and hope, because the systems, outlooks and values of
all of them are the same as our system, outlook and values here in
Lebanon. Their systems are democratic and free; our system, too, is
democratic and free. Their values are the values of freedom and man, ours,
too, are precisely the same.
We say to them all:
"We are persuaded that
part of the responsibility for the havoc that has afflicted Lebanon falls
on your shoulders. You were for the most part spectators and unconcerned,
while it was within your power, if you mustered the will, to contribute
effectively to sparing us this ordeal, or at least to reducing it to one
tenth of its magnitude.
"We believe in the
same values in which you believe.
"These values are
integrated into our being as they are into yours.
"We fought and are
fighting and we died and are dying for the same outlook on life for which
you fought and are fighting and died and are dying.
"Our war is your war
and if we are overcome in it, we shall not be overcome alone: you too will
be overcome.
"Our survival is your
survival, and if we survive with our values in these parts, you and your
values will survive with us.
"We presume to feel
that we love the peoples of this region more than you do, for we
resolutely cling to the values we have been tending, values which were
ours before they became yours, and because the peoples hereabout are in
the most dire need for our unwavering living witness to them.
"The narrow and
grudging eye appears to have succeeded, in one of your uncritical moments,
in impressing upon you, falsely, the thought that your interests cannot be
safeguarded except by sacrificing our life of dignity and mastery over our
own destiny.
"The liberating of
yourselves from the sway of this grudging and sickly eye is indeed your
problem.
"Who painted to you
that our continuing to enjoy the fife of freedom in which, far from
inflicting any harm on anybody, we live, as we have been living all along,
at peace with everybody, conflicts with your interests?
“Where is your
freedom, where is your ancient and venerable tradition, where are your
authentic values, where is your foresight, where is the lofty
discrimination between spirit and matter which adorned the thinking of
your forefathers for centuries and centuries?
"We are certain
that the capabilities of your diplomacy can, provided the will were
forthcoming, felicitously and quite easily reconcile between preserving
all your vital interests in the Middle
East and our continuing to live a life of
freedom, dignity and mastery over our own values and destiny.
"Nay our continuing to
enjoy such a life serves to bolster up at once the interests of the Middle
East and your own interests in the Middle East.
"We do not believe
that your diplomacy which succeeded in the past by its resourcefulness and
skill in overcoming a thousand and one conflicts, cannot now, quite
easily, discern and cancel out the spurious conflict between your
interests and our living a life of dignity and freedom,
Indeed, we may
have more confidence in you than you have in yourselves, for we believe
that someday you will wake up and appreciate the heroism of our eternal
tragic struggle in the defense of values which are exactly your values as
they are ours.
Then
we turn, again with confidence and hope, to the Soviet Union and the
states which revolve in its orbit, and address them as follows:
"Our system is
different from your system and our outlook is different from your outlook.
"But this difference
need not inhibit our interest in and understanding of one another.
"How can you be harmed
if we preserve our system and values and do not threaten in the slightest
your systems and values?
"How can you be harmed
if we conduct transactions with you on the basis of mutual respect, taking
into account your and our interests, despite the differences that may
subsist between your and our systems and values?
" You conduct
transactions with systems other than your own precisely on this
basis.
"Some of your values
coincide with some of ours, and it is on the basis of this common fund of
values that we can meet.
"We are confident
we can understand your situations, and we trust it will be possible for
you also to understand ours. On the basis of this mutual and tolerant
comprehension we should be able, together, to build up free, creative and
sound relations with one another.
We shall never forget all those who stood by
our side in the tribulation that has befallen us.
And as we
belong to the group of states and peoples that labor in the vineyard of
man for the good of man and we are permanently committed to this task, we
shall persevere in cooperating intimately and energetically with any state
belonging to this group, until we pay every man our debt to him, and every
state the obligations we owe it, and until we earn and justify our
rightful place in the world.
X
A Call to the Lebanese People:
Total Confidence in the Future.
The Lebanese Front wishes to stress its
total confidence that the Lebanese people will overcome all adversities
and obstacles, no matter how complicated or tortuous or obscure the path
still before them may be. It bases this confidence on the sturdiness
manifested by our people throughout history, and on the remarkable
steadfastness which has characterized the Lebanese Resistance, in all its
sectors. in the ongoing events. This resistance has offered, and shall
continue to offer, almost superhuman sacrifices. The Lebanese Front
reaffirms its faith that Lebanon will emerge from the fiery furnace in
which it is being tried an oasis of freedom, humanism, prosperity,
openness, concord, joy and peace, as it has always been in the past.
We now address the
Lebanese people of all persuasions:
"Doubtless you
recognize the voice addressing you. You are accustomed to hearing ft. The
same voice is now calling you.
"The Lebanon we want to build up belongs both to you and to
US.
"It is equally your home and our home, regardless of who builds more in
it, you or we.
"We have willed
it, both to you and to us, a sanctuary of pride, honor and dignity, and a
pasture in which freedom and well‑being can bask.
"You and we are
sick and tired of a foreigner who intrudes on our privacy, helps himself
to our livelihood, and violates our sacred honor;
“a foreigner who
destroys our institutions, our property and the sources of our welfare and
happiness, and who darkens what looms ahead of our days;
“a foreigner who
tries to topple our traditions and do away with our history;
“a refugee who
wants to reduce us, under his aegis, to refugees in our own country,
strangers in it and enemies unto himself.
"Finally, you and
we are sick and tired of a usurper who tries to add his name to ours on
the billboard of accomplishments which our efforts and sacrifices and
sufferings have pinned on the brow of Lebanon.
"The Lebanese
cause, which is your cause and ours, is a world cause. Its events unfold
themselves on Lebanese soil. While its solution can only be a world
solution, yet, whatever the solution might be, it can only be effected
through Lebanese hands.
"These hands are your hands.
They can convulse the entire world if they determine to organize
the vast Lebanese potential here and abroad methodically, meticulously and
responsibly, without allowing a single particle of it to be dissipated.
"History is our witness that every time
we set our heart on something we attain it.
"We reap according to the abundance of our heart, and our heart is full of
matter and determination.
"No man full in his heart as we are can be excused if he is overcome with
fear or irresolution or even the frustration consequent upon failure.
"Unite, and you
shall overcome.
“And, with God's
help, we shall overcome."
Camille
Chamoun Pierre Gemayel
Abbot Boulos Naaman
Charles
Malik Fouad Afram Boustany
Edouard Honein
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