[LCM Events] RE: Reply to Pierre

[NAME REMOVED]

Agreeing on the ultimate fate of 300,000 Palestinian refugees and Shebaa
farms is potentially easier than that of Palestine, Jerusalem, the
Golan, though of course all of these issues are related.  Egypt and
Jordan were able to cooperate with Israel despite criticisms, and there
is no question that the economic benefits from cooperation with Israel
are huge. The Lebanese are incapable of doing this because one minority
groups becomes paranoid that the other minority group is using Israel
for its own gain. In that sense it is maybe not viable.

-----Original Message-----
From: R//H [mailto:rhartm1 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 12:40 AM
To: NAME REMOVED
Cc: 'LCM Events'
Subject: Reply to Pierre


 You are saying that piecemeal peace with Israel is
viable. I don't see how.
 --Randa

.................................................... 


--- NAME REMOVED <XXXXXXXXXXXXXX at mit.EDU> wrote:

 Hi 

My name is Pierre I am new to the group.  I have a
simple point to make:
 
Talking about the legitimacy of Lebanon as a country
is in terms of its policy towards Israel--with the
presumption that being allied with Israel is
categorically bad for the country and unrepresentative
of the collective interest of the Lebanese
population--
is completely ridiculous.  This is what the woman was
insinuating in her reference to Zionist interests, the
lobbies in Washington, the evangelical Christians, and
whatever else.  We are entitled to view the policy of
Israel towards the Palestinians and towards Syria as
unjust, but this should in no way concern Lebanon. 
Lebanon's disagreements with Israel are arguably more
amenable to compromise, and the responsibility of the
Lebanese government is to defend its country's
interests, not the Palestinians' or Syrians'. That's
simply what good foreign policy is. In this respect, I
think the woman's comments were misguided.
 
On the other hand, she could have said more properly
that the minorities in Lebanon are often tempted to
use their connections with foreign powers as a means
of empowering themselves within their country relative
to their rival minorities.  This is not specific to
the Maronites of course, so there is no reason to just
pick on them. 

 Pierre




		
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