An Open Letter to H.E. PM Ehud Barak

By A Lebanese Freedom Fighter

 Dear Mr. Barak,

We congratulate you as well as all the people of the Middle East for your election as Prime Minister of Israel. We all look forward to the speedy implementation of a permanent peace. We hope for the establishment of cordial and friendly relations between Israel and Lebanon. This is a historic time when together we shall shed off the legacy of war, hatred, and the waste of our people's lives and energies. Let us embrace in peace. Let us become brothers, holding the flame of freedom high to shine in all the dark alleys of the Middle East. We are the braves you have been seeking, and we look forward to shaking your hand in friendship. Our hearts are open to all Israelis, and all the other people of the Middle East.

The Lebanon of the last few years has been a prisoner nation occupied by the Syrian dictatorship. The Lebanese bare no ill feelings towards the Israelis. The conflict has been a Syrian war against Israel behind a Lebanese mask. As everybody knows, the current Lebanese puppet regime is totally subservient to Syria and has no legitimacy among the Lebanese. It has no foreign policy of its own, and all echelon of the state take their orders from Damascus. This explains to us your intent to solve your Lebanese problems through an agreement with Syria. We believe however, that it is futile to make peace with the Syrian dictatorship. Peace of the brave can only be made between free people. The Arab masses are not free because dictatorships practice oppression, which breads fear and results in lies. Oppression, Fears, and Lies cannot be presented as Brave. Peace with the Syrian dictatorship is only appeasement. History clearly recalls that no peace treaty, signed in this century between a democracy and a dictatorship, has resulted in a lasting peace.

Let us not squander this historic opportunity. We are however fearful of a peace, that will neglect the national aspirations of the Lebanese people. We have been under the combined Syrian-Israeli occupation since 1976, the date the Syrian occupation troops first invaded our country.

By surrendering Lebanon to the Syrian dictatorship, the Syrian propaganda machine has had a free hand in fomenting hate and despair among the Lebanese. Hezbollah, despite its respectable social accomplishments, is a political Syrian-Iranian confection. It manipulates the Lebanese public opinion under the Syrian sword into constant hatred of Israel. We and the world know that Israel has already accepted UN resolution 425 and on numerous occasions offered to withdraw from our occupied lands, only to be reject by the Syrian-appointed puppet regime in Beirut who is putting the Syrian Golan ahead of the Lebanese south. It is time to stop the charade. Enough brainwashing of the masses. Let us de-program the people from their hatreds and rejection of peace.

We are not collaborators. Israel, Syria, our people and the world know that we are the only patriotic current in Lebanon. All other parties on the ground have collaborated with one occupation and/or the other. All except us. We represent the honorable and authentic in Lebanon. We strive to be the conscience of Lebanon. We the Free Patriotic Lebanese love ALL our people, regardless of religion, color, age, gender, ethnic, or national origins. We care for every Lebanese from the Naqoura in the south, to the River Al-Bared on the northern border. We are humanists and Democrats. We respect the human rights of all humans regardless of their national origins. We only wish to build a new FREE Lebanon with a human face.

A democratic nation, where all people have an equal chance to the blessings of liberty and opportunity. We are secular, peace loving, and civilized in our Ghandi-like rejection of all occupations of our homeland.

Making peace with the Tyrant Assad, does not make peace with the Lebanese people. You will have a cold peace as long as Syria occupies Lebanon. The Lebanese already know that we have been a victim of a tripartite US-Syrian-Israeli conspiracy against our nation. We urge you not to lose the historical opportunity by making peace with the Syrian dictatorship at the expense of Lebanon. Making peace with us however, will be the true and rewarding peace. Because we strive for and protect ALL our people. We are not the Christians, we are not the Muslims. We are neither the left nor the right. We simply care for all our people, the 3.5 million Lebanese. Every single individual is sacred. Our only red line is the absolute rejection of all occupations and the violation of our people's human rights.

Israel can be safe only when living in a democratic Middle East. Where human rights and the rule of law is respected. When Human energies are freed from tyranny and dictatorships. True strategic security can only be achieved when true, friendly, and loving relationship is established between all people of the ME.

We also truly wish to establish a warm and friendly relationship with the Syrian people. Unfortunately, the Assad Dictatorship has poisoned the brotherly feelings between the Lebanese and Syrians by its brutality in and occupation of our homeland. We have been bombed by hundred of thousands of Syrian and Israeli shells for 24 years now. It is time for Both Syria and Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and allow the Lebanese to rule themselves in sovereignty and dignity. We feel we are in a worse situation than the Palestinian people. The Palestinians are getting their sovereignty and state back and we the Lebanese, have lost our sovereignty and state under the Syrian Iron Curtain.

Let the canon fire go silent forever. Let the birds freely fly across our borders. Let the winds blowing through the trees of south Lebanon embrace the winds of Kiryat Shemona. Let us open up all sort of exchanges between our people, cultural, artistic, and economic. We would like your people to feel free and safe to come to Beirut, Tripoli, and Bikfaya. Come and ski our mountains. We would love to visit you too. Let our children play together, learn about and respect each other's history. Let us share our human destiny that binds us as neighbors. Let us become true, warm, and caring friends.

Peace of the Brave can only occur between Free People. There cannot be peace in the Middle East without a Free Lebanon.

Long Live Free Lebanon