The Lebanese people are not so naive as to believe Hizbullah General Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's cleverly camouflaged recent effort to adopt the "10,452 square kilometer" slogan that was raised by Lebanon's slain president-elect Sheikh Bashir Gemayel in the early seventies (in reference to the total area of Lebanon as claimed by Gemayel). Nasrallah has tied the slogan to the Sheba'a farms and an area called the Seven Villages, on the Israeli border.



It is worth mentioning that a few months ago, during the pro-Syrian Riad El-Solh Square demonstration, Nasrallah appropriated the Lebanese flag and boldly opposed - from behind a barricade - the withdrawal of the Syrian occupational forces from Lebanon in accordance with United Nations' Resolution No. 1559. He threatened and menaced all those, Lebanese and non-Lebanese, calling for its implementation.



With Hizbullah's leader adopting Sheikh Bashir's slogan after "booby-trapping" it with the Seven Villages, his (electoral) steamroller - in partnership with Mr. Nabih Berri, head of Amal, the other Shi'ite armed militia - crushed the will of the people of South Lebanon. They sent twenty-three MPs to the parliament in a fake election, against the will of many of the southern, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities.



To continue the charade, Nasrallah and top Hizbullah clergy decreed (in a fatwa) to their Shi'ite followers in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa districts to vote only for candidates allied with their party. They took the same religious approach in South Lebanon's elections. Doesn't proclaiming a religious decree in electoral matters have an unfortunate precedent in Lebanon, an act that contradicts the principal of coexistence? Doesn't it contravene the Charter of Human Rights and attempt to limit the freedom and will of others?



The Lebanese people will not fall for this venomous tactical move, nor for the traps that are being set up for them in order to taint their slogans and principles; first, by apparent adoption and parallel suppression of opposition, and then, by making the slogans meaningless. If genuinely Lebanese and loyal to Lebanon, Nasrallah, and others who carried the Lebanese flag during the Riad El-Solh Square demonstration in support of the Syrian occupation and against UN Resolution 1559, should not have foreign slogans for their parties; Hizbullah should not have distributed coffins to its followers at a previous massive, hostile demonstration in the Beirut suburbs against the American liberation of Iraq - a demonstration at which the Lebanese flag was nowhere to be found.



Sheikh Nasrallah, who adopted Sheikh Bashir's slogan, is the same Nasrallah who previously told the whole Lebanese nation: "In case Syria is forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon, then we, the Hizbullah, will be its army." If actually genuine in his new stances, Sheikh Nasrallah is expected first to believe in Lebanon as an entity, in its national identity, internationally recognized borders, history and roots, and most importantly, to honor the first article of its constitution, the one addressing communal life and coexistence. Hizbullah's main, declared objective is to erect an Islamic state in Lebanon, a replicate of the Iranian one, in total contradiction to everything that is Lebanese, unveiling the militia's camouflaging tactics.



In the eyes of the UN and international law, the Seven Villages have not been Lebanese territory since 1918. Nasrallah's tying of these villages to Sheik Bashir's slogan is a trap intended to void the slogan of its substance, since these villages are not part of Lebanon's internationally recognized borders, fall in Israel and their area is not included in calculating Lebanon's area - the 10,452 sq. km. - although they are historically Lebanese, like the Turkish Iskandaron region that was historically a Syrian region.



It should be pointed out that Nasrallah's remarks about the Seven Villages came two days after a statement by a high-ranking Hizbullah official in which he declared that the party will not disarm even if Israel withdrew from the Sheba'a farms. That statement mirrors Nasrallah's speech before the elections in the southern region, when he stated that any hand trying to disarm Hizbullah is an Israeli one and it should be severed.



The notion of "a nation protecting the resistance" raised by Nasrallah, along with his adoption of Bashir's slogan, is a fantasy and a way to perpetuate a historically unprecedented situation for Lebanon and the Lebanese, imposed by Hizbullah. The logic behind not disarming Hizbullah because Israel occupies the Sheba Farms is erroneous. Characterizing Hizbullah's arms as a "Lebanese consensus" is contrary to reality. Not sending the Lebanese army to the south in order not to be complicit in "guarding Israel's border", in addition to pretending that the resistance (Hizbullah's arms) imposes a balance of fear with Israel, is a heretical fantasy furthest from the truth.



Everyone in Lebanon should realize that building a free, sovereign and independent state cannot be achieved with the presence of armed Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias cutting from the country their own cantons. Everyone in Lebanon should realize that the resurrection of Lebanon from occupation, tutelage, fanaticism, terrorism and chaos requires, before any thing else, the disarming of all militias, including Hizbullah, the Palestinians and others.



The recent bizarre and opportunistic electoral stances adopted in the Beirut suburb of 'Ain El-Rummaneh by some Christian leaders, who do not represent the people of the Mount Lebanon region, calling for the protection of Hizbullah's arms, have no credibility at all. They contradict the wishes of the majority of the Lebanese people and infringe on the Lebanese constitution, as well as on UN Resolution 1559.



Lebanese leaders who wish to honestly protect the so called "resistance", should protect the Lebanese state resistance, and only the Lebanese state, and support its official armed forces. All stances in support of Hizbullah maintaining its arms come at the expense of the state's legitimacy, are unconstitutional, negate the principal of coexistence and communal life, destroy Lebanon's national identity, and infringe on the freedom and dignity of Lebanon's multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities.



Whoever is honestly trying to protect Hizbullah, and the respectable Shi'ite community that is forced to embrace it, will not say one thing in the open and do the opposite behind the scenes, like many opportunist Lebanese politicians seeking Hizbullah's electoral votes here and there. Whoever is honest in wanting to protect Hizbullah's members' fates, future and safety will advise the leadership of this armed Shi'ite militia to join Lebanese democratic political life, to willingly disarm and to give up its non-Lebanese aspirations.



UN Resolution 1559 was passed in order for it to be implemented. In the same way that Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after refusing to voluntarily leave, the remaining clauses of 1559 will be enforced, in particular those related to the disarmament of Hizbullah and all other militias. The fate of those opportunist Lebanese parties, leaders and clergy, pretending to protect Hizbullah's arms, will be the same as that of Syria's puppet allies, who turned against her as soon as Syria lost its hegemony over the country.



The Free Patriotic Movement leader, General Michel Aoun, who was victorious in the third Lebanese parliamentary election round in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa regions, is one of very few politicians who are approaching Hizbullah's disarmament in a very honest and straightforward openness. Aoun, who recently returned to Lebanon after fifteen years in exile, was the only Lebanese politician who sent a envoy to Damascus advising its leadership to withdraw from Lebanon with dignity and to prepare for such a withdrawal with its Lebanese counterpart, all the while advising them of the ultimate effectiveness of UN Resolution1559; but he was not taken seriously. Currently, General Aoun, the most popular Lebanese leader, is using the same transparency with Hizbullah's leadership. Is Hizbullah going to take what happened to Syria as an example or it is going to make the same mistake?



We hope from the bottom of our hearts that reason will prevail, for the sake of Lebanon and the Lebanese. The patriotic, stubborn, peace-loving Lebanese people, both in Lebanon and in the Diaspora, believers in the "10,452 sq. km." doctrine, are civilized, consciousness, wise, open-minded, tolerant and forgiving. They are steadfast in their nationalistic positions, proud of Lebanon's distinctive identity, of its national flag and the holy Cedar tree that adorns it - representing their painful moments, as well as their proud ones.