جبلنا ماغازين – نيويورك

وجه السفير السابق الدكتور هشام حمدان - المقيم في أوستن (تكساس) - رسالة إلى الرئيس الأميركي جو بايدن دعا فيها الإدارة الأميركية إلى قيادة مجلس الأمن لتنفيذ القرارات المتعلقة بلبنان تنفيذاً كاملاً. وقال في رسالته: "إن بقاء لبنان وحرية مواطنيه على المحك". وأشار إلى أن القضية الآن هي كيفية نزع سلاح الميليشيات في لبنان، وخاصة حزب الله ، وفقاً لقرار مجلس الأمن رقم 1559.

وجاء في رسالة السفير حمدان التي أرسلها لبايدن عبر بريد البيت الأبيض أن "الوضع الحالي في لبنان يهدد دول الشرق الأوسط برمته، وليس فقط إسرائيل. لا توجد دولة في العالم تقبل الخضوع لحزب مرتبط بدولة أجنبية من حيث الأيديولوجيا والسياسة والمال والسلاح". وسأل: "أليست هذه ذروة الخيانة الوطنية في مفاهيمك القانونية الوطنية والدولية"؟ وأضاف: "نناشدكم وقف أي مفاوضات بين لبنان وإسرائيل خارج اتفاقية الهدنة.  ون دعم الحياد الإيجابي للبنان واتفاق الهدنة مع إسرائيل هو أفضل وسيلة للتوصل إلى سلام دائم في هذه المنطقة بحسب نص القرار 1701.

وقال حمدان في رسالته: "نيابة عن اللبنانيين الأحرار، أناشدكم أن تنظروا في رسالتي. إن أمريكا مكلفة بموجب ميثاق الأمم المتحدة بحماية السلم والأمن الدوليين المهددين في لبنان. ويجب أن تساعد في إنقاذ البشرية من كافة أشكال انتهاك حقوق الإنسان اليومية المرتكبة في لبنان. نناشدكم حماية نظامنا الديمقراطي الذي استولت عليه سلطة فاسدة تدعم حزب الله بشكل كامل".

وأوضح حمدان في اتصال مع "جبلنا ماغازين" أن توجيه هذه الرسالة هي شكل من أشكال الـlobbying التي يمكن استخدامها لإيصال الصوت إلى دوائر القرار، خاصة وأنه معروف بأن المسؤولين في الإدارة الأميركية عادة ما يطلعون على ما يردهم من رسائل.

وهنا النص الكامل للرسالة باللغة الإنكليزية:

Dear Mr. President,

Perhaps President Macron of France did not know Lebanon before 1975, when the civil war began. Of course, he does not know anything about the prevailing circumstances that forced Lebanon to sign the ill-fated Cairo Agreement of 1969. But I hope that you, President Biden, whom we pray may have a long life, still remembers that Lebanon was labeled as the Switzerland of the East until this Agreement dragged it into the Arab Israeli war. Lebanon, which was the Mecca of the Western and free world, and all those fleeing persecution in the neighboring dictatorial countries, was forced to sign that ill-fated Agreement or otherwise face a civil war.  Lebanon, the refuge of families eager to offer the highest standards of education to their children, or seeking the best medical hospital in this East, or wishing to know the meaning of cultural openness, and enjoying human freedoms and the natural and historical blessings of God in Lebanon, became a hell of wars, terrorism, kidnappings, and left like this till today.

Lebanon has adhered to the armistice agreement with Israel since 1949. It did not enter into any war against it after that. But the dominating Arab dictators, mainly in Syria, forced Lebanon to open its borders for the Palestinian armed groups, thus destabilizing peace at the boundaries among the two neighbors. The Palestinian armed groups left Lebanon in 1982; why should Lebanon continue to be a battlefield and keep paying such a high price in human fatalities, home destruction, dignity, role, and children's future? Mr. Biden, Lebanon has participated with President Roosevelt in establishing the United Nations in 1945. It also participated with Mrs. Roosevelt in writing the Bill of Human Rights in 1948. Is it permissible to be left to suffer in this despicable form? Should you leave it now to the fate of the Hezbollah black-minded ideologists?

Maybe Mr. Macron forgot that Beirut was the center of the Francophone in this East,  but did you forget Mr. President that Lebanon was the cultural bridge for your country to enter the Arab world? Did you forget that the Evangelical School, founded there in 1862, has turned into the most important American university in the East? Late Senator Robert Kennedy said in the sixties that the number of graduates working in the United Nations exceeded the number of graduates from any other university globally, including Harvard?

Where in the world the wall of a church is also the wall of a mosque, and only 400 meters far is a Jewish synagogue? Where other than in Lebanon are churches, mosques, and synagogues spread in the same area and remain active peacefully for hundreds of years? How could the US ignore that Lebanon was the seat throughout its history for so many schools, cultural centers, and universities from almost all types of educational systems?

 Have you forgotten, Mr. President, that democratic Lebanon and its public freedoms were your key entrance to the Arab way of thinking? Its free information system was an open space for thinkers fighting Communism and dictatorship. Its banks opened the way for Arab money to reach yours. Its beaches, mountains, and plains that are full of evidence of human transformation, and Its historical landmarks since the Phoenicians five thousand years ago, made Lebanon a very attractive place for scholars, researchers, and those eager behind the secrets of nature, history, and man.

The Old Testament referred to Lebanon and its cedar more than seventy-five times. Its cedar was the song of the sacred books, and its wood was the material to build fleets that sailed the seas as the first indication of the importance of trade for world peace. Christians would never forget that Saint John Paul II, son of Poland, said in 1997 that Lebanon is more than a homeland and is a message to Humanity. Lebanon was the only country in the region to assure Christians a free country and hold them, leaders, to economic and cultural prosperity. The Lebanese Christians and other minorities that took the mountains of Lebanon as a refuge against the Tyranny and persecution of several empires gave blood for thousands of years to keep Lebanon a free country for them. Do Christians and other minorities like Druzes (I am a Druze) give up their freedoms to Hezbollah?  Your predecessors, Mr. President, especially President George Bush Jr., said in a conference in Washington in 2007 together with President Nicolas Sarkozy that Lebanon is necessary to democratic West. President Bill Clinton said at the 2015 Dallas Conference about leadership that sound leadership in Washington means helping restore stability to this small, model country in the Middle East.

Your Excellency,

The Lebanese in your country have actively and effectively contributed to its progress and prosperity. I live in Austin and have visited the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio and saw incredible stories about hard-working Lebanese in this State. Is it permissible for great Americans to turn their back on their families in their mother country?

The survival of Lebanon and its freedom is now at stake. It is not anymore a thorny issue related to Israel's peace and security. Supporting Lebanon's positive neutrality and the armistice agreement with Israel is the best means to keep peace in that area for a long time, as stipulated in resolution 1701. The issue now is how to disarm militias in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah, according to SC resolution 1559. The ongoing situation in Lebanon threatens the countries of the entire Middle East, not only Israel. No country in the world accepts to submit to a party affiliated with a foreign country in terms of ideology, politics, money, and weapons. Is this not the height of national treason in your national and international legal concepts?

We appeal to you Mr. President, to halt any negotiations between Lebanon and Israel outside the Armistice Agreement. Your predecessor indulgence in this regard pushed Russia and Syria to expand into Lebanon's territorial waters and its oil in the north. The continuation of such policy will Jeopardize American role worldwide, for he who sows the wind reaps the storm.

All we ask of you, Mr. President, is that you kindly lead the Security Council to implement its resolutions on Lebanon fully. NATO is leading the UNIFIL International forces. We want these forces to be authorized to bring all closes of Resolution 1701 (2006) into effect. Our people do not need financial support, but they instead need their country back from Iran and its mercenaries in Lebanon. Lebanese have all the capabilities to bring back Lebanon to its traditional role and prosperity. This resolution is bound to the Armistice Agreement. Therefore, it derives from Chapter VII, Article 40 of the Charter, referred to in that Agreement to which Lebanon and the United Nations are parties. The Security Council must enable the international force to implement the resolution taken, even if it has to use force.

We hope that no permanent member may object to such a resolution in the Security Council. But if any member objects, Resolution 370, titled "Uniting for Peace" of 1950, allows the General Assembly to take up the case and adopt such a decision. Your country has reverted to this resolution several times during the cold war era. A United Nations Force was deployed in Lebanon in 1958 upon a resolution taken in the general assembly under resolution 370.

On behalf of free Lebanese, I appeal to you, Mr. President, to consider my letter.  America is entrusted under the United Nations Charter to protect the international peace and security threatened in Lebanon. And must help to save Humanity from all forms of violated human rights daily committed in Lebanon. We appeal to you to protect our democratic system, seized by a corrupted authority that fully supports Hezbollah. Our people deserve your support. Would you please not betray them at this fateful station?

Please, Mr. President, accept the assurances of my high respect.

Hicham Hamdan (Ph.D.)

Ambassador of Lebanon (R)

Permanent Resident since 2013