The Lebanese people cannot have their cake and eat it too. They have two basic options ‎to choose from:‎

Option ‎‏1‏‎ – There is NO state of war with Israel. This means that like Egypt and ‎Jordan, and even the majority of Palestinians, Lebanon no longer assumes Israel to be the ‎theoretical enemy. As a result, certain actions need to be undertaken by the Lebanese, ‎officially and otherwise. These actions, at a minimum, are as follows:‎
‎-‎ Disarm and disband Hezbollah, with the help of the United Nations.‎
‎-‎ No longer consider Shebaa to be occupied. Instead treat Shebaa for what it is, ‎a dispute over a sliver of land that has been complicated by a long history of ‎illegal land grabbing behavior by Syria and previous Israeli-Syrian wars and ‎whose status needs to be determined legally under certification by the United ‎Nations. This removes the “Resistance” argument from Hezbollah.‎
‎-‎ Send the Lebanese Army to the border.‎
These actions will immediately pacify Lebanon and put it on a course of normalization ‎that it has lacked for the past ‎‏35‏‎ years. ‎

Option ‎‏2‏‎ – There IS a state of war with Israel. This means that like Syria and Iran, ‎Lebanon considers Israel an enemy in principle, an enemy that is an immediate threat and ‎that has territorial and other ambitions over Lebanon. As a result, the following actions ‎and positions will be natural logical consequences of this second option:‎
‎-‎ Do not disarm or disband Hezbollah. Instead, grant Hezbollah – and any other ‎movement or party that wants to join the “Resistance”, including the Lebanese ‎Army itself – the right to fight Israel as necessary.‎
‎-‎ Consider the Shebaa Farms to be occupied Lebanese territory that must be ‎liberated by force. ‎
‎-‎ Send the Lebanese army to the border to fight side-by-side with all the ‎Resistance movements operating in the border region. ‎
This second option will not pacify Lebanon because it is logical to expect that a state of ‎war with Israel will have consequences that range from a lack of economic development ‎on the mild side, all the way to the devastation we witness today. ‎

There is really no viable third option, an “in-between” option, as the past thirty some ‎years have proven to the Lebanese. It is illogical to expect Lebanon to be simultaneously ‎in both a state of war and a state of peace. You cannot on one hand be sanctioning the ‎actions of private “Resistance” movements against an enemy, continuously mobilizing ‎mentally and emotionally your population against the enemy, complaining about the ‎occupation of land by that enemy, refusing to send the Army to the border in violation of ‎international resolutions, and at the same time, expect your country to enjoy peace, be ‎economically developed and enjoying booming tourism seasons and vibrant ‎reconstruction, and most importantly, the respect of the international community.‎

Lebanon officially agreed to the Blue Line after the UN-certified Israeli withdrawal in ‎‏2000‏‎. Lebanon accepted UN resolution ‎‏1559‏‎ and its clauses pertaining to disarming all ‎militias. Lebanon is still bound by the ‎‏1989‏‎ Taef Agreement that also stipulates the ‎disarming of all militias. Lebanon has repeatedly stated that it remains bound by the ‎‏1949‏‎ ‎Armistice Line separating Lebanon and Israel. Syria has indicated that it relinquishes its ‎claims to sovereignty over the Shebaa Farms. There is consensus among the Lebanese ‎that Shebaa is Lebanese. It is expected that Israel will immediately withdraw from ‎Shebaa the moment the UN certifies an official cession of sovereignty by Syria to ‎Lebanon over the territory. The international community has taken a unified position to ‎helping Lebanon remove itself from a situation of war and into a situation of peace, with ‎several resolutions passed to that effect. All the preceding is a platform for a peaceful ‎Lebanon that is uncoupled from the ideological traps of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian ‎conflict. So why do the Lebanese insist on pretending to “liberate” when everything else ‎indicates that they aspire to peace and tranquility? Why the forced coexistence of good ‎and evil, of contradictory positions and self-defeating and masochistic behaviors? Why ‎do the Lebanese follow the ideological inanities of the puppet Hezbollah that is ‎manipulated by the Iranian puppeteer and suffer the consequences, when they claim to ‎want peace and live by the Mediterranean dolce vita?‎

The choice is simple: If the Lebanese government wants to liberate Palestine, it has to say ‎so and act according to a state of war, like Syria and Iran. It has to raise armies, buy ‎missiles, impose the state of emergency, train its population to withstand acts of warfare, ‎establish alliances with other countries to fund and arm the state of war, such as with Iran ‎and Syria.‎

If the Lebanese government wants peace, it has to say so and act accordingly. Which ‎means abandon the idea of liberating Palestine and let the Palestinians do that, disarm ‎Hezbollah and all the other “liberation” militias and movements, dispatch its army to the ‎border like any sovereign state does, and focus on developing Lebanon economically, ‎technologically and otherwise, like Egypt and Jordan are doing. ‎

When Lebanon was first dragged into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, circa in ‎‏1970‏‎, by ‎the Syrian-PLO tandem, the Lebanese fell into the trap head first. They willy-nilly ‎supported the Palestinians and gave the PLO sovereignty over the south of the country. ‎Israel “defended” itself and invaded in ‎‏1982‏‎, ridding Lebanon of the PLO. Then, Iran and ‎Syria invented Hezbollah to replace the defunct PLO, and Lebanon was back to square ‎one in the vicious cycle of violence. After the Israeli withdrawal of ‎‏2000‏‎ and the Syrian ‎withdrawal of ‎‏2005‏‎, who can the Lebanese blame today, if not themselves, for the ‎ambiguity, the incoherence and the deceitful double-standard of their position? ‎

No wonder then that no one believes the Lebanese crying wolf anymore. All Lebanon’s ‎‎“friends” have turned the cold shoulder to a Lebanese Prime Minister begging for a ‎cease-fire, complaining about Hezbollah not having consulted him before taking its ‎reckless actions, and still complaining about Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The UN ‎yesterday had nothing to say about the violence, and the US, the EU, Russia and even the ‎Arabs like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are telling the Lebanese: We told you so. You ‎want to “liberate”? Then go ahead and liberate yourselves from the duality of peace and ‎war, from the confusion of positions, and from your own self-inflicted tragedy.‎

Dr. Joseph Hitti
*Joseph Hitti, President of New England Americans for Lebanon
*Political Commentator
*Active Lebanese Lobbyist in the USA
E.mail joehittimass@yahoo.com

Boston, Massachusetts-USA