The Central Command of the Guardians of the Cedars Party – the Movement of Lebanese Nationalism – convened its weekly meeting and reviewed the general situation in the country. The following communiqué was issued at the conclusion of the meeting:
As the region is in the midst of a deteriorating crisis situation, while the domestic situation remains stagnant, we note the continued absence of any view to salvation that would reassure the Lebanese citizens for their future, guarantee them a dignified livelihood, and make them stay in their homeland instead of joining wave after wave of emigration. Now that the municipal elections are over, which were for the most part a distraction for the Lebanese people away from their real concerns, while also a race for prominence by candidates who care nothing for development and public service, the crime of Dahr Al-Ayn did open a new wound on top of older wounds that never healed, thus widening the chasm even more within the ranks of the one household.
This crime is not isolated in time and place. It is tied in memory to tragic events that began late during the two-year war and climaxed in the Ehden Massacre of 1978, which we described at the time as a split at the top, and whose repercussions continue to this day, without any glimmer of hope that this sad page could be turned once and for all and the bleeding finally come to a stop. But it was followed by the Safra Massacre in July 1980, and the tension continued building until it reached its peak in the War of Elimination of 1990 that destroyed everything and voided the accomplishments and sacrifices of the Lebanese Resistance, flinging the door wide open for the Syrian Army to consolidate its takeover and occupation of all Lebanese regions, and for Syria to impose its political program in Lebanon. Those successive events were essentially a collective suicide by an entire community that had prepared itself to lead the country toward a better, promising and prosperous future.
An overview of Lebanon's religious communities today shows that they each have reached some internal understanding and found some optimal way to deal with their differences and problems, except the "Christian" community whose dismemberment continues day by day, for no apparent reason other than a sharp political division and a race for position and influence. If a difference in opinion is a sign of wellbeing and vitality, the divisions within the "Christian" community are instead of source of worry and concern, and fear for its future. More critically, the leaders of this community have not learned the harsh lessons of the past; instead, they persist in their enmity and feud, as if determined to annihilate whatever remains of their people's sense of wellbeing and their resistance.
Our journey through all those events and our observations of their course, have led us to conclude, in our customary candor, that both the spiritual and political Maronite leaderships are to blame, to various degrees naturally and since the days of independence, for the largest share of responsibility for the political and spiritual decay of the country's existence, its people and its institutions. Accordingly, we demand, today and not tomorrow, a creative initiative that would forever seal the bloody and divided past, and open a new page of cooperation and harmony that is based on the principle of civilized competition for the public good, all the while each party and side maintaining its own character, beliefs, and traits.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz