Lebanon, once upon a time - but now.....

When in Brazil, I had many Lebanese Christian friends before I moved here 18 years ago. In a sign of appreciation towards the good relations the Jewish and Israeli community had with the Lebanese Christian, I received the entire collection of speeches by Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated by the Syrians at the age of 35, shortly after he was elected President of Lebanon in 1982.

Slowly (or perhaps not so slowly) but surely, the Lebanese Christian, once the largest and thriving population in what used to be called the "Paris of the Middle East" have been wiped out by the Muslim not just in Beirut, but in entire Lebanon.

The latest absurdity happening in Lebanon, is the inclusion of Hizbullah in the Lebanese government, and that government's authorization for the terrorist organization to hold on to their armaments and own "army".

Here's what a member of the dwindling Christian community in Lebanon had to say about this:

"The new move by PM Saad Hariri only shows that Muslims are regrouping in Lebanon brought together by a common enemy, Israel. Hariri would not have done this without the blessing of or even direction from Saudi Arabia. The US is the big sucker in this now. We just handed Hezbollah under the title of "aid to Lebanon" over $1 billion in military and peripheral weapons to use freely against Israel. And I suspect Hezbollah will soon find a way to drag Lebanon down a very nasty conflict and get that weapon in the name of "resistance."- not just because Israel remains their target, but also gives them an opportunity to neutralize the Christians of Lebanon once and for all. Two birds in one stone.

"First comes Saturday and then comes Sunday."

Then Hezbollah empowers the palestinians to march down with them and Israel faces enemies on three major fronts; Hezbollah, Hamas and the world of public opinion.

There has to be a major move to shake up the Lebanese Christians to regroup as they did in 1976 because quite honestly, the Christians of Lebanon are toast. They are about 3 steps from being told "check mate" by both the Sunnis and the Shiites.

Someone needs to keep the US from delivering the rest of installments of that $1 billion that is yet to be handed over in 2010.

Israel can but shouldn't be the only entity trying to neutralize Hezbollah. They need to find and strengthen an internal ally. The US can't and won't touch this. Europe is too influenced by the Arabs. Israel seems to be alone and isolation is not a good thing. UN is useless and words don't heal.

Time for some serious strategies."