The Mockery of the two tracks
By: Minister Issam Abu Jamra
(Free translation by: Elias Bejjani)

A one-sided rhetoric stance is what we have been hearing from His Excellency General Lahoud for the last nine years in his daily instructions to the Lebanese army in his capacity as Army chief. General Lahoud maintained his same rhetoric stance in the presidential oath speech after he managed to climb the ladder to the presidential palace. At the same time the Prime Minister in his daily and weekly statements as well as the rest of the Syrian-appointed Lebanese officials all are following Lahoud’s example…They have all been talking like parrots the same mockery, empty language and preaching for the Syrian-Lebanese unity peace track with Israel.

They all are calling for the unity in both Syrian and Lebanese peace tracks with Israel. The question remains: How could they allege that the fate of the two countries is one? How can they do that? In Lebanon, only the Syrians steal, break the law, compete with the Lebanese on their bread and committee all kinds of crimes against them and their country, while a Lebanese has never committed even one crime inside Syria or infringed on its laws or regulations.

From Lebanon only and from the Lebanese-Israeli borders Syria pushed Hizbollah guerrillas to wage skirmishes and provoke the Israelis. Israel responds by annexation of a Lebanese village or shelling a Lebanese infrastructure that has cost the Lebanese millions of dollars. What is this while at the same time the Syrian-Israeli borders at the occupied Golan Heights are tranquil, peaceful and kinds of resistance are made taboo by Syria.

How then we can claim that there is a Lebanese-Syrian unified fate, and according to which criteria this unity exists? Lebanon, because of the Syrian hegemony on its appointed regime has lost its sovereignty, thousands of martyrs, billions of dollars, its people have been impoverished and exposed to the deadly consequences of instability in security and peace.

The people of Lebanon are wondering:
Till when their country’s national decision has to remain under the control of foreigners and their sovereignty infringed?
Till when the presidential and the other high ranking official posts shall be given to those who are blindly willing to keep Syria in Lebanon and claim stupidly that its troops are needed for stability and security?
Until when will the free world remain deceived by these false claims and in Lebanon only?

It is time for the Lebanese to stand for themselves and reclaim their occupied country, and it is time for the whole world to have the courage and decency needed to witness for the truth and support the just Lebanese Cause.

Long Live Free Lebanon
France. April 19/1999
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