Bassil to Hezbollah: Weapons are not greater than homeland
Free Patriotic Movement chief Gebran Bassil has noted that the Lebanese people had “embraced” Hezbollah’s armed struggle against Israel because it “liberated the land and defended the nation against those who aggressed upon it.”
“However, they will not embrace Hezbollah if it forces political choices upon the State and its citizens that they do not want. It is of no use to win a military or political battle only to lose the idea of Lebanon -- the idea of equal partnership within it,” said Bassil in an op-ed commemorating slain Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that he published in al-Akhbar newspaper.
“There is a huge difference between Lebanon supporting the Resistance, and the Resistance becoming a substitute for Lebanon,” Bassil pointed out.
“They want the Resistance and its weapons first, second, and third, and only after that comes the State,” Bassil lamented.
He warned that “weapons alone cannot protect a sect forever, especially in the face of an entity like Israel.”
“What protects us all is the State,” he emphasized.
Bassil added: “If these weapons come to be seen by the Lebanese as a tool of domination over them to impose unwanted choices, they transform into a project against the State and become a source of internal fear before being a deterrent to external foes. And if these weapons become a source of danger to the homeland -- without being able to protect it or deter enemies from attacking it --they become the very root of panic for the Lebanese, rather than reassuring them and providing their security.”
Addressing Nasrallah’s “comrades” in Hezbollah, Bassil said: “Do not lose your compass or your objective. The game of regional axes may cost you yourselves and the internal front. Do not allow Lebanon to be an arena for others; leave it as a space for its own people.”
“Weapons are not greater than the homeland. Take care not to lose both. Lebanon needs you and all of us; there is no national unity without you, and Lebanon has no meaning in the absence of your component,” Bassil added, addressing Hezbollah’s officials.
Source: Naharnet
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