Rahbani's Letter to Fouad

There have been quite a rage of discussions lately – starting with MJT’s completely innocuous (well, not exactly completely ...) post, ending up with another post by Lebanon.Profile - mainly centered around Bashir. Of course, in such things – a mention of Bashir (or of others) never fails to bring about defenders who say “Well, what about” … you can check the comments in MJT’s blog.

Personally, I don't care too much for these discussions – well, my comments on the second blog probably show that I do care, and I DO if they are going to impede Lebanon from at least moving forwards. I don’t mind this “two steps back and three steps forwards” theory– as long as we take those three steps.

So – due to a discussion I had with a friend, who once again mentioned Rahbani – below is the transcript for Rahbani’s Letter to Fouad. Now, we all know Rahbani’s political leanings … so for those who think that this is biased against the Kataeb, replace a few choice nouns with the ones you desire. Unlike the Letter to Abdou (which dealt with the rightist nature of Kataeb), this can be done here. This isn’t the issue though. Rahbani wrote this in the 70’s, so the situation isn’t the same. A discussion on history and whether it repeats itself or not has taken place on a few other blogs in the past, so I won’t get into it here. The main point to be taken is that there are certain myths – such as Fouad’s beliefs – that cannot keep being propagated if Lebanon is to have constructive sustainability.

I am mainly doing this because I have gotten bored (years ago my anger melted into frustration into disbelief … but even that eventually decayed into boredom) of the same topics that are being tossed in the air. The War is Over. But there are several things that have to be done, if only so that the incessantly unproductive war of words gains some meaning. One of them is to not say – if X was alive, then Lebanon would have been better (this doesn’t only apply to Bashir). Another would be to try and remove the concrete (and completely meaningless) cultural divide that people put so much faith in. Third is to at least try to make a more fundamental attempt at national reconciliation (and I think I’ll write a more detailed piece on this eventually). Finally, we have to learn from the mistakes that were committed in the decades past. The proclamation by Jund El-Sham today (although there are some reports that it might have been “planted”) is dangerous in more ways than one.

So – without “further ado” … here is the letter to Fouad.

Fouad was martyred, and he was fighting with the Kataeb and the Ahrar in Hadath. He was martyred four months after the war [he actually says “ahdas”] began. This letter will reach all the people who are still alive, and you will not get it because you died, of course. But I want to send you a letter, because there are a lot of important things, a lot, that you have to know. You have to know them to settle the truth about history, for the faith that you put into the leaders before you were martyred. And there are a lot of important things you have to know, it’s unbelievable, you should know it, because you martyred yourself for a specific goal. They persuaded you, they gave you a goal, and you were martyred based on that, and because of honesty, I have to tell you a few things.

First thing is that you are a hero. On my honor you are a hero. We are against you, true, we are against you, but you are a hero. Let me tell you why. A hero, because you were convinced by something, and you gave your life for it. In other words, you are a person who will sacrifice his life for something he believes in. And only heroes do this. And you are a hero.

But because you are good and don’t ask questions, you didn’t ask. They told you one thing, and something completely different happened. You died, but … you never found out what happened. Things that you would never think of happened. For example, when you were still fighting, there was the issue of sovereignty. And today ya Fouad, what can I tell you about this sovereignty. There is no sovereignty. It doesn’t exist now. It has become a rumor. It is now part of our heritage – and that is also a rumor by the way. Sovereignty? It has reached the point that if someone says something about it, they tell him shhh what are you saying people will laugh at you. It died because of your group’s insistence on sovereignty. It died. You died, and the same way, it died.

Initially, they didn’t let a foreigner interfere in Lebanon’s affairs, and especially if he is Arabic. And Camille Chamoun and Pierre Gemayel were against Syria, because it is Arab and foreign. When you died, they supported Syria action. And they only supported it. There came a point when they united with Syria against us, and fought alongside each other as well. Now maybe if you went and asked them about this, they might tell you yeah we work with Syria even if it is foreign and arab, but the important thing is that they help us to get rid of the Palestinian foreigners. Definitely that is what they will tell you.

At the same time I will tell you, during the time you were fighting, they were with those you were fighting against. If they were such friends, then why were you fighting?

Just to die?

And then there came a point when they told you, we want to expel the Palestinians from Lebanon. And when you died, they had so many committees with the Palestinians. They even had a declaration that gave the Palestinians the right to stay in Lebanon. And what’s even worse than all this, is that today the Palestinians were not expelled from Lebanon, and are going to stay in Lebanon, and the Cairo Treaty will still exist. And your leaders are satisfied with this. The Cairo Treaty. If only you knew the Cairo Treaty – nothing in it changed. And anyway no one disagreed on it. And today, your leaders, to explain themselves are saying we are the ones who wanted it. So no one knows why they started the war. There must have been a misunderstanding – no more than a misunderstanding. And you are a victim of this misunderstanding.

It’s possible. There is no other explanation. Because here is the Cairo treaty – no one disagrees on it, and it is going to be implemented. It will be implemented ya Fouad, believe me, I wish you were here, just so that you could see it all. Words are not like seeing.

They told you the Palestinians want to occupy Lebanon. And today it is obvious to all that the Palestinians do not want to occupy Lebanon. You might tell me they weren’t able to – I tell you it’s not that they weren’t able to. They never wanted to, for them to be able or not to be able to.

They told you as well – in the days when you were still alive and when they could still tell you – they told you that the leftist parties had a communist agenda. And when you died, Bashir Gemayel declared that he is with their reformist program.

Then – why were you martyred?

My God how much they did in your absence. It’s unbelievable. I swear, if you came back to life – if you could live that is – and you came and saw them, you would think that they were your enemies. You wouldn’t believe that these are the same who encouraged you to go and fight and die. Didn’t they tell you that they aren’t arab and that they are against the arabs? Ok, and in your absence, they worked with all the arabs against us. They worked with the Saudi’s against us. And not only that. They accepted for the Arab armies to enter their areas as a deterring force. Of course, at the beginning they maneuvered slightly, and refused. Well, they had to do it, so the people don’t go against them and so that your death has a purpose. So that they could say that you didn’t die for nothing. But in the end they accepted.

Anyway, they couldn’t do anything else. Because, in your absence – you don’t know this – they asked the Arab countries to take responsibility and to take a position on the Lebanese War and on the Palestinians. And the Arabs came, and they entered their areas.

Ya lateef, the things they did in your absence. They did things in your absence – if only you could come back and see – they fought to bring Sarkis. They fought against Raymond Edde and Sarkis came, and then it turns out that Sarkis wants Lebanon to be Arab. And they don’t want Lebanon to be Arab. That’s what they made you understand. And they stood against Sarkis, then they accepted Sarkis, and they accepted Lebanon as Arab.

What else is there? The order? They want to defend the order? When you were still alive, the order still hadn’t disintegrated. Today, it’s gone. Everything’s gone. And everyone is convinced that this order needs reform. And even if no reform takes place, it is impossible for it to go back as it was. In other words, the order that they made you defend, they also began to say that the government has to modernize, and to become more just. Once you died, they started talking about all this.

What more can I tell you? They lied to you. They gambled with Lebanon as much as they gambled with you – because you are good and don’t ask. Because you believe them regardless of what they say. Seriously, I can’t explain how much they did in your absence. If you go back today and see them, I’m sure you won’t fight with them and die.

But you have died, what can I do. And you can’t come back so that you don’t die. You can’t come back and see how they are going to explain and prove and talk to redeem their image in front of people. And to explain that you didn’t die for nothing. The one thing that they might have suggested, and that came true, and that they can tell to the people, is you. They can say, we wanted Fouad to die. And he did die.

posted by Lazarus, 12:23 AM