On Wednesday, July 9 of this year, national news agencies reported that the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora had refused, without any declared justifications, a peace initiative presented to him by Italy's Ambassador to Lebanon, Mr. Gabriel Kekya. News reports stated that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who was on an

One wonders what prevents Lebanon from doing what every other major Arab country has done.

official visit to Israel, had asked his country's ambassador in Beirut to inform Mr. Siniora that he is willing to seriously mediate peace talks between Lebanon and Israel.


Mr. Siniora, bizarrely and for unexplained reasons, had also rejected on the tenth of last June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call for bilateral peace negotiations with Lebanon. Siniora rationalized his refusal by alleging that the outstanding issues between Lebanon and Israel are all governed by UN Resolutions, including that of the Sheba Farms. As such, there is nothing to talk about. Olmert's call came a month after the unveiling of ongoing indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel under Turkish auspices.


Lebanon's emotional and ignorant stance of stubbornly refusing peace talks with Israel is no longer acceptable, nor is it logical or justifiable.


One wonders what prevents Lebanon from doing what every other major Arab country has done in initiating contact for purposes of peace with Israel, including, especially, Baathist Syria. Lebanon needs to relieve itself of the Gamal Abdel-Nasser Complex, and bury once and for all the stigmatizing Arab anti-Israeli phobia. Like it or not, Israel is a reality like the rest of the Middle Eastern countries, and will remain so for many years to come.


Lebanon's leadership is obviously afraid from Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and other fundamentalist Arab regimes and Islamic armed militias. Accordingly, it keeps on avoiding any kind of peace talks with the Israelis. Yet we find that those same countries and organizations are actively talking with the Israelis on many levels and on numerous issues.


Foremost in this context is Syria, which adopts two completely contradicting stances. Overtly, and of course rhetorically, Syria tells its people and the Arabs that Israel is the enemy and it should be dealt with accordingly, while covertly it is begging the Israelis for a peace treaty. During the past thirty years, and without any sort of fear or embarrassment, Syria has never retreated from negotiating with the Jewish state either directly or through mediators. The latest series of talks are still ongoing via Turkey.


Many Syrian officials are even bragging about the extensive progress they have made in their negotiations with the Israelis, and are calling on the US (the Great Satan, as Syria and their allies the Iranians like to call it) and France to sponsor the whole process and assume full partnership in it. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who side-by-side with Israelis attended the 43-nation Union for the Mediterranean summit in Paris, told Arab broadcasters on Al-Jazeera TV that Damascus would establish "normal" relations with the Jewish state, including the opening of embassies.


In April 2007, Syrian-American negotiator Ibrahim Suleiman, who is a very close friend to the Syrian ruling al-Assad family, visited Israel and gave a speech publicly in its Knesset. He called on the Israelis to engage with the Baathist Syrians in a negotiating process in a bid to sign a peace treaty between the two countries. Reports that came from Israel during his visit stated that he offered the Israelis Syrian promises and guarantees that, once the peace treaty is reached, Syria will disarm and dismantle all the terrorist and fundamentalist Islamic organizations, including Hizbullah and Hamas. In return, Syria was asking for Israeli and American guarantees that the Assad family and its Baath party will be supported enough to remain in power.


We can not fail to point out that the assassination of the notorious Hizbullah terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh, on February 13 of 2008 in the center of the Syrian capital was considered by many respected international observers as a Syrian blood message. To both the USA and Israel, Syria said: secure our control over Syria and, in return, we shall eliminate all the organizations and elements that bother you.



The Lebanese people have the right to know why their government is refusing to talk peace with the Israelis while turning a blind eye towards Hizbullah's ongoing negotiations with the Jewish State under German and UN auspices. Hizbullah's Secretary General admitted in one his fiery speeches last month that his group is negotiating with the Israelis through the UN, who assigned a German mediator for this task.


The Lebanese people have the right to know why their government is refusing to talk with the Israelis, while the Palestinians themselves became full partners with the Israelis after the Oslo Accords. They accepted the right of Israel to exist and renounced their armed struggle against it.


The Lebanese people have the right to know whether the rulers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, the Arab Gulf states and other members of the Arab League are all traitors because they have either forged peace accords with Israel or have established diplomatic, trade and intelligence relations with its government.


The Lebanese people have the right to know why Hizbullah, Hamas and the Palestinians, all the Arab and Muslim countries, the Iranians and every other country and individual on this Earth, are allowed to talk with the Israelis while the legitimate Lebanese authorities are singled out and forbidden from doing so.


The painful and shocking reality is that Lebanon is to remain the final battleground and an attractive arena for all Arab armed extremists, terrorists and fundamentalist groups, as is the situation now with Hizbullah. The armed Iranian militia has erected a state inside the Lebanese state, and is on its way to topple the whole Lebanese regime to erect an Iranian one in its place. It has been devouring Lebanese institutions day after day, while the whole world is watching and doing nothing.

The armed Iranian militia has erected a state inside the Lebanese state.



No, this official Lebanese position is not acceptable under any pretext, and there must be an immediate end to it.


Lebanon's officials, and its sovereign religious and political leaders, have a legal and national obligation towards their fellow Lebanese citizens. They ought to put on the table all the reasons and elements that force them to keep Lebanon alienated from the Middle East process.


In case they are all helpless and threatened by Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, they have to publicly admit these intimidating obstacles and officially call on the UN, the Arab League and Free World countries to take over and face the Axis of Evil militarily, as was the situation in Afghanistan, East Timor, Iraq and other African countries.


We call on Lebanese officials and religious and political leadership in general, but especially President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, to stop squawking like parrots their dhimmitude-rich rhetorical and humiliating slogans. They essentially say that Lebanon will be the last Arab country to negotiate with Israel and sign a peace treaty with it. In fact, Lebanon is the only country in the entire Middle East that is still holding itself hostage in this bizarre and unrealistic anti-Israel and futile position.