Dear President Aoun |
My name is Jose Lev. I am an American-Israeli scholar, veteran, and member of a people that has buried too many of its sons because leaders mistook delay for wisdom. I write not as an enemy of Lebanon, but as someone who believes your country is too historic, too strategically important, and too full of promise to remain hostage to a group of thugs that answers to Tehran rather than Beirut.
You were right to say recently that Lebanon does not belong to Iran. You were right that Lebanese lives should not be bargaining chips in negotiations between Tehran and Washington. You were right that Israelis and Lebanese should not be condemned to permanent war. But accurate statements without decisive action are theater. Lebanon does not need another diagnosis. It needs a president willing to perform the surgery.
In my humble opinion, Hezbollah is not Lebanon’s shield. It is Lebanon’s parasite. It has mortgaged your country’s future, spent its citizens’ blood, shattered the credibility of its national army, driven away investors, and turned southern Lebanon into an Iranian forward operating base. Every rocket fired from Lebanese soil guarantees Israeli retaliation against terrorist targets. Every tunnel, depot, and command post hidden among civilians ensures that Lebanese families pay the price for Iran’s regional strategy. That is not resistance. It is occupation by proxy.
You know the Lebanese Armed Forces better than almost anyone alive. You commanded them. You understand their officers, their fractures, their pride, and their remaining potential. Use that knowledge seriously. The republic you lead must declare, without ambiguity, that the decision of war and peace belongs exclusively to........