By General Monzer Al Ayyoubi
Translation: Dr. Pierre A. Sarkis
It is a major turning point in their history; in spite of their natural general diversity, and their artificial religious and confessional disagreements, in addition to their supposedly mental, social and ideological distinctions, the Lebanese people have refused to consider the day of 17/10/2019 similar to all other days, on the ever evolving calendar. That day was not by any means a usual day, as the streets and the squares of Beirut welcomed them in their civilized protests and peaceful demonstrations, as they displayed their opposition to dismal government performance, not subjected to regulations or laws.
The purpose was to overthrow the hegemony of the state oligarchs, who are allied with feudal families and political parties and had seized the material and human resources of the country, directly or by proxy. Days, even hours passed on the potential hot ashes of change and the reformation of the system which now, and because of their protests, seemed within reach especially when Prime Minister Saad Harriri resigned. They saw in that resignation not a heroic act, but a forced upon act, an acknowledgement and declared responsibility for the scandalous delinquency and decline of wise and enlightened governance, which failed to pinpoint national priorities and needs, and implement solutions to issues and demands, as well as, plan future strategies for the country to advance, while providing prosperity and welfare to the Lebanese people.
They saw the Emirate of Dubai as the best civilized example of a people, deserving a national home, a country among the best in the world. However, deep inside, they knew very well that they, in Lebanon, were many light years away from reaching a white hole, which would relocate their planet, in this case, their country Lebanon, to another dimension in space where peace and prosperity become synonymous with their dreams, and matches what all of humanity aims for, especially from the perspective of the productive Lebanese Diaspora, which is spread around the world. The Ministry of Happiness which was created by the Ruler of Dubai, the Jewel Emirate, is known to be the medleys of dreams, which Lebanon cannot be compared to, at least when it comes to obtaining the corollaries of rightful citizenship because of the total indifference of rulers who have divided power among themselves, while consistently violating the people’s simple, and most basic living conditions, as example and not exception… electricity, water, communications, medical insurance, free hospitalization, education, security, a just judicial system, and the forced immigration of the Lebanese with the absence of stability…
In Comparative Philosophical Dimension, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, the founder of the constitution of the International Feminist Movement states in her book, The Second Sex (Le Deuxieme Sexe) that “a woman is born a human first, then proceeds to make herself a woman”, stressing that a woman’s stolen will is the result of men’s overpowering dominance. A woman’s own salvation from such dominance depended on her ability to liberate herself from the chains of the stereotypes created by society… In comparison to the Lebanese identity, Lebanese warlords who became the actual present-day rulers, established after the 1975 Lebanese war, a constitution in which they implemented terrible, unpleasant, inadequate, and irresponsible policies leading to actions whose results were catastrophic after several decades: a huge national debt of $17000 for every new born, without him being responsible for it. This became a systematic confirmation of the robbing of national resources, and the swindling of people’s money and life savings without any accountability.
From another perspective, and without going into intricate details, the plot to thwart the civic movement and counter it, was based on several headlines: to can it and portray it as a religious, then a confessional movement to thwart its national purity; to divide it along the usual geographical demarcation lines established since the civil war; to engage it in blind violence against some of the security forces, aided by the latter’s calculated style of inserting agents and informants among the protestors, to ensure that the protests remain peaceful, or veer and guide the protest to a course of subversive activities and destruction of public property, as dictated by the dark political action rooms; to tune it to the frequencies of political and party leadership as to derail it, or to pro-activate it by “fortify the nerve”, an ugly expression used in style and essence; to infiltrate the movement to make it “on demand” in accordance with the operational capability needed for the multi-goals of its leadership; to paralyze what remains of the national economy and to bankrupt productive companies and institutions, in collusion with smuggling bank deposits and capital money of the conspirators themselves abroad, and deal a knockout blow to the national currency leading to its collapse; to prevent the movement through political infiltration of its entity, from producing and introducing a new class of efficient, capable and neutral youth leadership, able to lead the movement to achieve its goals and demands, even at different intervals; Then came the expression “Glare of Weapon” which includes a double meaning as the word glare is beautiful in principle but is different in its descriptive meaning.
Naturally, the aforementioned “weapon” refers to the weapons of Hizbollah (The Party of God) which is included in the chosen goals of the movement, but actually surpasses and transcends the capacity of the popular civic movement, whose demands are summarized by providing solutions to the living worries at all levels; the main issue of the weapons of Hizbollah is thus, to integrate them at the right time in a defensive strategy for a Lebanese state that is supposed to be rightfully capable. But now these weapons are deeply embedded between two contradictions, with no third, as it is these weapons of resistance that enforce the equation of deterrence and the balance of terror with the Israeli enemy. Otherwise, we would have seen the enemy’s naval warships protecting the rigs, digging to extract the oil and gas located in deep Lebanese waters, from block 4 facing the North-Western coast of the capital, Beirut, and not block 9, which is adjacent to the borders of occupied Palestine. Therefore, there would be no need to draw any demarcation lines, as it is mentioned in the book of Genesis, in the Old Testament (your borders Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile); from another perspective, the “Glare of Weapon” now rises around Eastern Iraq and sets by the coastal horizons of Western Yemen, which transcends the size of Lebanon, the gloomy country, which cannot bear the damages, repercussions and consequences of those Hizbollah weapons. Therefore, people don’t have the capacity to force change, but they are not obligated to commit to Hizbollah’s axial and regional choices…
So here is where we stand today: After the revolution became more or less a flare-up, and the protest movement a random movement failing on its wager to force change, the result was two-folded: the first was a political one, when it became apparent that the system will not fall; and the second was the impossibility of reforming the system, correct its obliquity, develop it and trim the nails of its guardians and sponsors. This entails the start of serious prosecution of many of the leaders of the state, “the shallow not the deep” on the account of confluent crimes committed, such as, corruption, the seizure and takeover of private and public assets and money, with the results being the destruction of the pillars of the sacred motherland, and the brazen desecration of the sanctity of its prestige, and dignity of its people, “bread equals dignity”…
Bloodied and bloody in its second resurrection, Lebanon is drowning in ashes still smoldering as a result of a nuclear explosion, which destroyed a third of the capital Beirut, killing approximately 200 people and injuring thousands, including disabled people, with another third of its population migrating. All of them, fell victims… Following this tragedy, the flowers of the universe withered, mothers wept, bereaved, fathers wept from the pain, children wept for becoming orphans, and relatives disappeared; the investigations included reports of a crime without a criminal, and a full speed attempt at manipulating the investigation started, to avoid implicating and determining whose responsibility it was, and thus cover up the full truth. Then came French President Emanuel Macron who attempted to brush the tears with a will of steel, and to remedy the loopholes and obstacles among the conflicting Lebanese parties, in order to preserve what remained of decayed fragile bones, in a rescue effort and mission, which was betrayed by many Lebanese leaders, covertly and openly, with malignant timidity, not shame, on the precedence of action and reaction…
Back to square one, the main complex issue which has held the forelock of the country, and gripped the throats of its citizens for so long, turned out to be the attempt to form a national government of salvation or a government on a mission, for the state and its politicians seem to roam in the usual vicious circle: from adhering to powers or customs, by creating canned and camouflaged interpretations of a constitution that includes in its articles, several different explanations or none at all, while they adopted unified, unclear, and intertwined standards for the majority of its articles. Added to this are imposed and prescribed American sanctions, in parallel with French and European mediation turned powerless and helpless, with half-bred constraints; or successive international attempts, with exclusive disclaim and abandonment of any Arab initiatives, which had always tended to save Lebanon politically and financially, as well as, the embrace of authoritative religious figures, ensuring the commitment to a unified belonging to the nation by conviction, or the lack of support for officials who became involved in bad governance, and neglected their responsibilities, or for judicial and security officials who defaulted on their duties…
On the other hand, at the intersections of the scene, lie some fatal expectations of some strategic issues on the regional front, in which Lebanon is deeply involved, such as, the transition from Trump’s oval office to Biden’s, but not before Trump bids farewell to Lebanon and the region with a painful military strike. This will be in accordance with the desire of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, the enemy, a strike beseeched and urged upon by his daughter Ivanka’s husband and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with the possibility of such a strike ever taking place, fading with every passing day, as well as, the reactivation of the Iranian Nuclear Deal by incoming President Joe Biden, who might put this deal on a cold plate hoping for a possible settlement.
In concluding, the nation rotates and alternates on the ashes of hell, with its days hazy and black, and its nights brutish and pitch dark; the President, the hope salesman, cannot offer his people anything but the hope of salvation, as proposed by the seller of hope, French president Emanuel Macron, who hopefully will not bring bankrupt solutions, especially after the fact that fate was not compassionate, and conspired against Lebanon when President Macron was diagnosed with the Corona Virus… And while anticipating his much awaited return, the Lebanese wonder if he is going to sell them ventilators, with the country’s terrain utterly ruined and stagnant… Will he put them on an artificial respiratory system, whose strangled voice and squandered words are dispersed among the castles and sacred seats of politician? Can the dead trick the martyrs into believing that they, the martyrs, did not pass away, or deceive the living into believing that their silence is more valuable than their screams? The nation is in ruins and the spikes of dreams crash on the cornerstones… The subdued citizens of the country pray for its recovery, for maybe and perhaps, something appears at this blessed Christmas time as an equivalence of hope.
