How Did We Get Here?

Yet another return to war, a war that is still not ours, one to avenge the death of a theocratic dictator.

It is said that in times of misfortune, solidarity is in order, and that we should only settle our scores afterwards. This is, moreover, what moralistic voices advocated in 2023-2024.

No!

Today more than ever, we must once and for all denounce the causes of our misfortunes.

Our misfortunes are obviously due to Hezbollah, but also to political complacency, to the acquiescence to a state of affairs, from all parties.

Complacency to avoid 'civil war'; acquiescence which translates into unnatural alliances, for the sharing of positions or to preserve confessional quotas.

Political hypocrisy! That is the real source of the problem.

This hypocrisy was reflected in the government's latest decision: 'Hezbollah's military and security actions are illegitimate'.

It is astounding to (still) make a distinction between the military and political branches of this militia, especially since the two are combined: the leader of the parliamentary group is himself the number 2 of this paramilitary organization.

What led us to disaster is the weakness of a political system that preferred accommodation to truth.

In November 2024, we were told that stability had to be preserved, not to provoke the sensitivity of the losing side, not to blame them for anything, the fault being solely that of the 'oppressor enemy' who only dreams of establishing Greater Israel...

We were also told that criticizing Hezbollah amounted to dividing the Lebanese, as if the division did not come precisely from the existence of an armed organization that alone decides on war and peace. As if national unity could exist when some citizens live under the authority of the law and others above it.

In reality, this attitude was nothing but a gradual surrender.

Every concession made in the name of 'preserving social peace' further eroded the sovereignty of the State. The ink of the council of ministers' decision banning Hezbollah's military actions had not yet dried when the militia launched rockets and drones on Israel.

The truth that suffers no interpretation: as long as the anomaly persists, Lebanon will remain condemned to endure wars that are not its own, with its share of deaths and destruction.

We are as responsible as Hezbollah for what is happening to us. Our silence and our complacency are far more dangerous than its arsenal.

Learning from our mistakes, even in wartime, so that if peace ever returns, we will finally be able to preserve it....