Partitioning of Lebanon - FOR or AGAINST?

Lebanon's Partition may be a good interim solution

Charles Jalkh - 8/31/2007

The formal partition of Lebanon into two states; a multi-ethnic Christian-Sunni-Druze democratic and liberal state, and a Shiite fundamentalist state is a good thing for the following reasons:

1. Each side will finally achieve its national and cultural aspirations. After a 30 years of Syrian-Iranian occupation and indoctrination, the Lebanese Shiites have been virtually lost, their identity erased and rebuilt as an Iranian group in spirit, economics, culture, and self government. While the rest of the Lebanese who form a majority still maintain their authentic Lebanese colors and yearnings. We Lebanese, will get our long awaited peace and stability and move forward to rebuild our nation, make peace with Israel and shield ourselves from its retaliations.

Hezbollah will get its wishes by creating its Islamic state and can continue to wage its futile wars against whomever it wishes without dragging us all behind its evil madness. We cannot force nor convince the Hezbollah crowd to fake loyalty to Lebanon, and at the same time, it is unfair to impose them on us as citizens of our nation. The US doctrine of never ceding territory to terrorism does not apply in this case, since Hezbollah already controls the territory.

2. Syria will be satisfied since it has always rejected "Le Grand Liban" starting in 1920. It would gain an official foothold and influence on "former" Lebanese territory to continue its proxy wars. Iran should also be pleased to formalize its Lebanese colony and continue to have its revolutionary guard division named Hezbollah on Israel's border.

3. Israel should be pleased, since the presence of a new Free Lebanon state will mean peace and commerce, and the presence of a radical Hezbollah state means the justification of its continuing occupation of the Golan or future Hezbollah-state land.

4. The World community would benefit by stabilizing a good part of Lebanon after failing to stabilize the whole. The lesson of Iraq, is that it is better to rely on smaller, strongly allied and either ethnically or ideologically homogenous states then on a weak central government with theoretical claim over the totality of the country but effectively a limited control on the ground.

The scenario of a Lebanese federated state, as an alternative to complete partition is also unfeasible. A federated state assumes a minimal agreement over the central government Defense, Foreign, and Economic policies. We are in strong disagreement over all these areas. "Our" Lebanese want to end the state of wars, make peace with our neighbors, and join the global community in peace, progress, and under international law. Hezbollah wants to build an ideological state, maintain the state of war, and prepare its masses for the return of its "Mehdi".

So it is not really a catastrophe to divvy up Lebanon. Former Yugoslavia is much better today divided then united. Also, the argument that Lebanon is too tiny to be divided into viable nations does not fly. Luxemburg is one forth the size of Lebanon and it is thriving. Bermuda is a 30 kilometer long and 5 kilometers wide island paradise with the highest per capita income in the world. Hong Kong thrived in its tiny spot. Greek Cyprus is doing quite well despite its division. We can do it too. Let the sword slice the land and not the people. Chances are, that Hezbollah's new state will end up either like lawless Gaza, or Turkish Cyprus, recognized by no one in the world except the 2 members of the axis of evil Syria and Iran.

While our Free Lebanon state will again become, the Switzerland of the Middle East!
The only losers would be the Lebanese citizens whose homes will fall on the wrong side of a new border. Yet, partition can, and should be done, in a peaceful manner as Czechoslovakia did it, and need not be violent. Compromises on both sides will be required. Hezbollah would need to abandon all presence near the capital, such as the "Southern Suburbs", on the other hand, some Sunni-Druze-Christian villages in the Bekaa will end up in Hezbollastan. The army can also be peacefully divided and its members join any side they desire.

It is better to have a 35,000 member modernly equipped army that truly defends us, then a 70,000 member army that stays neutral in fear of divisions. It can be done amicably, and without drama, without a single bullet fired nor any drop of blood spilled. If we do it through a war, we will end up anyway with the same demarcation lines that we could have reached in peace. So why not do it peacefully.


The Partition of Lebanon is already a reality that simply awaits and needs to be recognized. Hezbollah has erected its own state since 1982, maintains an independent army, its own sources of finances and economic structures, runs its own foreign policy, manages its own social services, pays no taxes while consuming centrally funded services, owns TV stations and newspapers, and has even just finished creating its own independent telephone network. All is left, as Prime Minister Saniora stated yesterday is, for Hezbollah to hire a musician to compose its new national anthem, and perhaps print its own currency. Our army seems unable, or unwilling to disarm it. Israel has failed to defeat it, and the world seems unable, at least at this stage, to deal with its patrons Syria and Iran. So, it seems like a reasonable interim solution for us Lebanese to "officially" accept reality, that we need to disengage from Hezbollah for our own survival, as the threat of massive destruction resulting from Israeli retaliations is still very real. Perhaps in a generation or two, we may conduct negotiations for reunification, and perhaps not. In the meanwhile, and until these Middle East issues are resolved, we will finally achieve our own national aspirations.

We have waited a century for this Christian-Sunni-Druze allegiance to Lebanon, we cannot wait another century in wars and tribulations, for the Shiites to join us.

by Charles Jalkh