National Bloc: Lebanese Unity Requires Unity of Decision

Today, the Lebanese people live in great fear and confusion about whether the ongoing skirmishes on the southern border will escalate into a war that encompasses all of Lebanon. So far, about 30,000 Lebanese from our people in the south have been displaced due to Israeli shelling, and a large number of Lebanese citizens have been killed on the border and others injured.

Lebanon's further involvement in the war raging on its borders is a major decision with huge consequences and disastrous implications, and will place Lebanon at the eye of the storm and turn it into a focal point and a bargaining chip in a comprehensive regional war: a decision whose results will affect all Lebanese without exception for decades, and that requires unity and solidarity among society as a whole.

One of the most important components of national unity – especially when the country is on the brink of war, and despite the fundamental disagreements among the Lebanese – is at the very least the unity of decision and unity of fate. No Lebanese or foreign faction should monopolize the decision of war and peace, imposing its results on all segments of society; rather, it should exclusively be in the hands of the state and its official institutions.

Because every time the state has conceded this sovereign decision in favor of any party, the result has been more wars and destruction.

On this occasion, today coincides with the 54th anniversary of the signing of the ominous "Cairo Agreement". Will the lesson be learned?