Within the next few weeks, the Lebanese parliament will convene to decide on a new president, which may not mean much to most Americans, but could change the face of history.
Tensions are running high in this moderate state with extremist troubles. The pro-western government is fighting for its legitimacy against the opposition led mainly by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist group, quite possibly the best organized, most financially capable and largest threat to global security. The past few years in Lebanon have been marked with brutal assassinations, war, riots and strikes. Come election time, the world will turn their eyes toward the tiny nation to witness which way the tides will change in middle-eastern politics.
Which way should things go? As a Lebanese-American, an impartial response to these questions is difficult, but I will attempt an answer.
The issue with Lebanon is that it has not been a sovereign state since the start of the civil war and has been the battlegrounds for various nations and ideologies throughout the world. The civil war saw many faces, from religious struggles to class struggles. Most of the weapons and even some of the fighters were foreign. Unfortunately, now not much has changed.
On one end there is Hezbollah who claims to be Lebanese Nationalist, yet its ultimate goal is the annihilation of the state of Israel.
And what did Hezbollah resort to when Israel retaliated for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in 2006? They hid with women and children and launched rockets from civilian areas, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
Hezbollah is known to be funded and directed by Syria and Iran and it is time for the Lebanese people to reject the exploitation of these nations. No longer should they deal with the bidding of foreign nations; the Lebanese have no place in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
On the other end are the pro-Western leaders in Lebanon. It makes me proud to know that America, the nation I consider home, supports a free-democratic Lebanon. But the Lebanese leaders must not use the west as a safety net. They cannot come running to America, France or the United Nations on a whim. The Western world proved powerless to defend the Lebanese people from Israeli air strikes in 2006.
Even if Lebanon has powerful allies in the west, it cannot rely on them to defend their soil. What Lebanon needs are leaders who, rather than hope for exceptions and pity from the west, will take a real stand against the hijacked sovereignty of their nation.
If the pro-Western leaders in Lebanon prevail, there will be war from the opposition.
If the opposition and Hezbollah prevail, we could witness the beginning of an entire regional war, perhaps even worse. Strong leadership is the only positive option to unite the country from within and secure peace for the entire region.
Haber is a fourth-year global studies student.