Mohamad Morsi, Challenges and capabilities!

Mohammad Morsi, the first democratically elected president in Egypt has come his way from being a political prisoner into being the President of the biggest Arab nation, unlike Hosny Mubarak, who went right from presidency to prison.

Morsi, and the party he came from, the "Muslim Brotherhood" that have been struggling for power for more than 60 years knowing it had the support of the majority of the faithful population of Egypt. Now they had the chance and came the moment that they won and took their breath at last.

The Muslim Brotherhood movement all over the Arab and Islamic world felt the great outcomes of its struggle for power. Celebrations were all around upon the results of their winning to the presidential elections in Egypt.

However, the movement might have been tricked to get to power at this transitional stage in Egypt, which can be one of the hardest periods of the Egyptian history where the president has a lot of responsibilities and duties and expectations from him are very high. The president will face a lot of challenges that will ensure his failure according to opponents, or his success according to his supporters.

Challenges facing Mohamad Mursi are first of all internal, he is the president, but the real struggle is that this president should get real power, and get the rights that grant him the ability to make the change needed in his country.

The question then comes, is Mursi able to challenge the military council and retake the presidential powers from them after they have taken it in what they called the constitutional declaration?

His first challenge would be in standing up for the military and get them under his control, of the state's control. Just like what Recep Tayyip Erdogan did in Turkey, but after 8 years in power and a referendum.

The next step includes equally hard challenges which are basically economic and social. Mursi has to start a new era in Egypt's history and improve the economy in such a way that fulfills the need of 80 million Egyptian who are looking right at him demanding jobs and high living standards. Economy will get Morsi facing the international affairs wisely, Egypt can be fought easily since it owes a lot of money for foreign countries who might be able to control Morsi and his future as a president of Egypt.

Thirdly, the whole Arab and Islamic world is looking now at Mursi as the new leader of the area and the Muslims, the Palestinians in particular are expecting a lot from Mursi to make a change in their lives as well. As the first educated president, people are waiting for Mursi to start the change that will go along the scope of the Arab world, in preparation for a period where Islamists hold to power and start that Arab dream that we have always been waiting for. Which implies that Morsi will have to adopt a very smart foreign policy balancing between the relations between Iran and Israel until he stabilize the country and be in a strong position to stand for Israel and its violation of International law and human rights.

Lebanese internal crisis: How can Youth become the solution?

Unlike most countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Lebanon has had democracy since its independence in 1945. We were never under any dictator that deprived us from our political or social rights. In Lebanon we choose who is our president and we vote freely for our parliament and we never had a single party state.

The Question is, why is Lebanon still politically unstable even when the public gets to choose its fate?

Well, in this small country it is more complicated than a simple democratic process, it consists of 18 different ethnics who all call for their right have a say in the decision making process.

Religion and ethnicity has never been a problem for an ordinary Lebanese who has lived and interacted with all his fellows from all different religions in those 10,000 km2. However, the problem is that our politicians are too smart and took advantage of divisions started during the civil war in 1975. Those leaders, after being responsible for thousand of lives and millions of losses for people, met in Taef city of Saudi Arabia and reformed a new political system known as the Taef agreement. This agreement (although not fully applied) gave the country its secratarian face and gave those leaders the exclusive right to win parliament seats and denied a free willed candidate from his chance to get into the parliament and participate in the policy making process.

After 1990 there has been no major change in the political scene in Lebanon, we ended up being the hostages of political parties that do not have democracy themseleves and therefore we vote for a whole party based on what the leader says with no regard to its agenda or the members that are running in it.

And now, we hear calls from SayyedHassan Nasrullah for a new national conference to make a new system in Lebanon. But Mr. Nasrallah, with all due respect, we shall not repeat the same mistake again! You and Mr. Foad Seniora have been responsible for May 5^th incidents and the black Tuesday, we will not grant you again the right to decide our country's fate!
But where does the Lebanese youth stand between all that?

Our youth nowadays is very busy away from politics, some of them are trying to find a proper job, others are getting paid to hold weapons and terrorize the public, some are leaving and the rest is staying desperate unwilling to make a change. Every single Lebanese is afraid not to vote for his traditional leader that "promises" to protect his ethnicity from others so that the other one doesn't take over and rule.

However, the good news my fellow Lebanese is that there is a way out! We, the youth, have the power to make the change but all what we need is a strong will! We need to dare and say no and start with our own to get things done.

Establishing a Think Tank is the first step towards manufacturing free youth able to make decisions and write policies in addition to reviewing the current policies and evaluating their advantages and weaknesses. The Think Tank is a starting procedure where youth will get trained and reach way above the level of our parliament members in policy making (we have seen how long they sleep in the parliament). The think tank will tackle issues from different topics including but not limited to:

- Foreign Policy- Defense and Security- Education- Economy and Finance- Energy and Environment

(all respect Mr. Bakradonian)

The next step would be with a national youth shadow government, this government will follow day to day the work of each ministry and write monthly reports about the work done and the work that has to be done by this mnistry. If you say that there is one already existing, my answer is yes, we need to form another, more modern, more effective and more popular one!
Policy makers in the think tank, along with the shadow government will be strong enough to prepare the next generation of young leaders who will dare sooner or later to join the real politics and change the balance of this country from up to down, the level of ordinary people.

This process takes time indeed, and more complicated than it seems, but it has to start now, and better today than tomorrow. Youth have to go out of the box and think of our country and not our ethnicity and for sure we all can.

The Lebanese Institute for Youth PolicyMaking has taken the first step towards that, and we believe goals can be achieved sooner than expected. Join us and lets start making the change together regardless where we live, to which politician we vote, or what our religion is. A Lebanese passport or ID alone is enough to make us believe in starting the change and disappoint our "traditional" secratarian leadership who have planned our lives for the next 10 years if not 20.

Think Tank Lebanon

In the light of the recent Arab uprisings which spanned throughout the Arab World, toppling Presidents and overthrowing regimes, it became critical for each and every country to adopt a new approach towards policy making and legislation. Leading a nation is not the sacred privilege of a certain government or party, but as it proved to be during the last years’ revolutions, is a consensual and cooperative effort which includes the vast array of the political and the social spectrum of the nation. Part of the groups, which in the past neglected, has strongly affirmed its say through a massive campaign and an active involvement in the recent uprisings: Youth!

Youth have been side lined in favor of a closed and elitist branch of the Arab society, thus having no say in how the country operates or what the government priorities should be in the different social, economic and political domains.

It is time for youth, however young and inexperienced they are, to expose their ideas and ideals on an open forum, and make from these opinion and recommendations a raw material able to be processed by the authorities in such a way that it becomes politically, socially and financially applicable.

The Lebanese Institute for Youth Policy Making is a Think Tank which regroups Lebanese students in and outside Lebanon, a Think Tank with a vision shared by each and every one of us Lebanese: Let youth have their say on how The Arab world ought to be shaped and sculpted. The Think Tank is an open forum for discussion, debate and contribution with ideas and recommendation to the different organs of the Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese Institute for Youth Policy Making is a true intellectual hub which regroups one of the finest conglomerations of Lebanese students both in High School and University, a center for creative ideas generation meant to be a landmark in the development of the involvement of youth in Policy making of their nation.

I.                   Vision:

The Lebanese Institute for Youth Policy Making holds a reformative vision empowered by a staunch belief that development cannot be achieved without the active involvement of Youth. Our vision and aspiration for the future of The Arab world is to witness the flourishing of a nation following the path of democracy, while strongly preserving the cultural and religious features of the society. This vision is well embodied by the youth who are engaged and actively involved in various forums through their opinions, ideological and political views as well as their ideas of reform and development. Channeling and voicing these opinions, values and ideals through a single platform is what this Think Tank aims for in its struggle to shape and sculpt Lebanon through the eyes, voices and actions of its sons and daughters.

II.                Goals:

I.                    Short Term Objectives:

v  Raise awareness among youth about the importance of policy making and Public Administration

v  Create a suitable environment for youth discussions on matters of various concerns ranging from politics to economics, as well as social justice and religion

v  Equip youth who benefit from the Think Tank seminars and workshops with critical thinking and knowledgeable mentoring in various fields

v  Concentrate youth opinions and ideas in a compiled report issued each 6 months where further recommendations are made to policy makers

v  Encourage youth to become part of policy making and local affairs management

v  Catalyze a fruitful dialogue between youth and the financial and political elite as a mean of establishing understanding and building bases for cooperation

v  Offer workshops on civic and political rights to educate youth on the basics of civic and political activism

v  Facilitate a forum for discussion, criticism and proposals of ideas and opinions online

v  Measure the public tendencies and street opinions on political, social ,financial and religious matters and create polls to register and record the street pulse for internal and public usage

v  Provide counseling and advice for youth in matters of movements, campaigns and projects making

v  Train youth on the usage of social media in organizing, mobilizing and operating movements and campaign within the civil society

v   

II.                  Long term objectives:

v  Recruit and train a group of youths active in the domain of politics and economics with critical thinking and revolutionary ideas

v  Establish the foundations for a more active and involved role of the youth groups in policy making and affairs management

v  Create a paradigm shift in peoples’ understanding and appreciation of politics and render it a domain open for everyone eager to contribute and make a change

v  Issue recommendations and reports with description and predictions over issues of critical importance, making these materials an important reference for policy makers and the authorities

v  Establish an operating cell: Arab youth institute on foreign policy directed towards the analysis of the Arab foreign policy

v  Building partnerships with the civil society, existing NGOs and institute as well as partnering with the authorities on various levels

v  Establish a Research center for youth led investigations based on subjects the members are passionate about.

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/LebaneseInstituteForYouthPolicyMaking

Email:

basem.remesh@gmail.com

A Letter from the Israeli Prime Minister to the Syrian President!

Dear President Assad,

Shalom.

I am writing this letter for you after years of our friendship, to express how thankful I am to your Excellency.

President Assad, I-and on behalf of the state of Israel- am really impressed by you and your friendship to our state.

You and you father Hafez (May he rest in peace) have done Israel a great favor. You have been for more than 40 years a great friend of Israel, providing security and kindness to our state. Adding to that, Mr. President, you have offered us a very kind gift which enables us to have more control over the Palestinians and the Arabs in the region, you kindly gave us Golan Heights and never demanded it again.

In addition to that, we are all in Israel so impressed with what you are doing in Syria nowadays, you have killed more than 10 thousand innocent people, a number, with all our crimes and apartheid policies never achieved in 1 year and you denied the so called "Syrian revolution". We can never forget your great favor of denying the Syrian public-who hate our state-to vote freely and have freedom, because this will endanger our existence.

What impresses us more is that, in addition to all your crimes, you could deny it and ignore the whole world which has proved to me and my ministers how well do we go along in our policies against the Arabs and what will get us closer in the future. You could as well Mr. president make them all believe that you are a Jihadi against us by supporting Hezbollah, which serves as a good excuse for us to attack Lebanon and impose sanctions on Iran at the same time. Your great political nimbleness got the whole world to confuse your allies from your friends, which, as well ended up in our favor.

Mr. President, keep going, kill as much as you want, nobody will dare to get you out of power because us and the United States are fooling the western world by making them believe that Russia and China are the ones who are defending you, which is in fact upon our request. But in case you had to leave power, we will make sure a puppet regime comes after which we will force to sign peace at any price with us.

Me, and my administration will thoroughly offer you to work for our government, as an advisor for me and the war minister, a special advisor on how to commit war crimes against Arabs. We believe you will add great effort to our future policies, and therefore we will offer you an Israeli passport. We will never forget your favors and will be great supporter of you and your regime till the end.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Netanyahu 

Who is your Spark?

A while ago, i have been asked by a university to write a 900 words essay answering "Who is you Spark"
I though i would share something :)

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

     This is the quotation that I want to start my essay with, but it does not mean that Mahatma Gandhi is my spark. It is quite hard to find a spark as a person, but rather as a personality, which might, after all, not exist; A personality which works as a trigger for you to start something new, or make a change in our world. A spark for me is the person who is full of creativity and eagerness, fully believing in himself and ignoring all sentences that include the word impossible while staying realistic to a large extent. My spark is a person who is able to make something out of nothing, a person who is able to make things possible and has the ability to convince people that it is possible.

My Spark should not have a spark, rather should be the pioneer of the original, the pioneer of the belief of a new world full of peace and understanding. If you have a Spark, then you are depending  on others, you wait for others to say things that you will obey, you wait for others to do things so you can copy, you wait for others to go somewhere so that you can follow. A Spark should be oneself, the one that we can trust the most and the one we can expect the best from. It should be a person who never hesitates to do what is right, since hesitation is the enemy of the mind and creativity.

    My spark is myself, I am the one who believes in himself, who believes that whatever he aims for can be achieved and can be done. I had a hard life and a struggling childhood which showed me that impossible is nothing, and I decided to start from my life as a source of inspiration,  convincing myself that I will be the change I want to see in the world, starting from within, my family, friends, society, country and the world altogether.

I struggled a lot in my life in order to support myself and my family financially and to pay for my school fees and transportation. I sacrificed my time, my chances of academically succeeding for the sake of my family even though I am the youngest. I sacrificed my creativity, filled my time with school, work and sleep. I never had time to do extra academics, or think of an invention or write an article about politics or life. This is what I had to pay so that my family can survive, and so that my brother can go to college. My spark is myself who was able to make sacrifices and suffer in order to give value to its achievements and give a possibility for his dreams.

 Since the age of ten, I had clear aims and goals, which were as simple as that nobody should have the childhood that I had, my country should not go to war anymore, and children my age should go to school for free, enjoy peace and proper education. Living under war never made me think that I should hide or that I should surrender, it made me start thinking how to make peace and give up a lot so that all the coming generations have peace. I made my plans to make a change in our world, and they are all achievable. I am the one who will face the unknown where I have to face reality and make a turnover in my life. I trust myself for being able to change; I aim high and try to achieve. I aim to be in the position where I can force peace and sustainable living for the country and the society. To make sure nobody will suffer what I suffered. My spark should not be afraid of dreaming big, having great ambitions and working for their realizations. This is what made me come to a place I have never heard of, and take an international education with all its stress and demands, and now I have great projects and dreams in mind of success and leadership. I have never failed before in trying new ideas, but the moment I failed, it meant it was a moment to learn and keep on succeeding. It is not impossible to be what you want to be as long as we decide to and take the challenge. Impossible is nothing, nothing is impossible.

        This is why I do not have a Spark, for the spark for me is myself not somebody, not a book, neither a movie, nor a leader. If I believe in leadership, I should be the leader, if believe in change I should be the change, if I believe in something, then it is myself and my abilities and my responsibility towards the globe which provided me with everything I needed. A spark should not be afraid of recognizing its limits and should be ready to admit its mistakes even if it might be embarrassing....A spark lives inside each and every one of us but we need to search for it, it is never somewhere else rather than our will and ambitions and our belief in our capacities.

And I will end my essay saying “Be the Spark you wish to see in the world…”

يا شعب وطني الحبيب

إلى شعب لبنان،

يا شعب وطني الحبيب، أنا مواطن مغترب، أو شاب مغترب أو طفل مغترب.

أكتب لكم هذه الرسالة لأوصف لكم كيف يراكم شعب لبنان المغترب و الذي لطالما أحب وطنه و لكن ظروف الحياة أجبرته على الهجرة إما للتعلم أو للعمل.

أنا هنا أعيش وحدي بلا أمي الحنونة التي تبكي يوميا و تنتظر عودتي و لقائي بأمل أن تراني على حال أفضل و مستوى أعلى...

أنا هنا أعيش وحدي بلا والدي القوي الصارم الذي لم يذرف دموعا أمامي سوى اللحظة التي غادرت بها أرض الوطن....

أعيش وحدي بلا أخوتي الذين ضحوا بنجاحهم لكي أنجح، و أصدقائي الذين أعطوني أجمل أيام عمري و شبابي..

أعيش هنا من دون الأكل اللبناني..لبنة...زعتر...ملوخية...

أما بعد،

أردت أن اقول لكم أنكم لستم أذكى، و أقوى و أشطر الشعوب كما تظنون...أنتم لا شيء و لن تكونوا شيء حتى تحسنوا أنفسكم.

مضينا سنين و سنين نضحك على الحماصنة و ننكت على السوريين، و لكن ذرفت عيني دموعا عندما رأيت المواطن السوري و الحمصي ضحى بحياته بإسم الحرية و لكي يعيش الوطن. فهل تفعلها يا لبناني؟

رأيت المصري الذي يعمل عندنا براتب نعتبره أقل من مستوانا و هو يقاتل لكي يتحرر و نجح، رأيته قويا شجاعا متعلما حكيما.

و لكن أنتم يل لبنانيين لستم بمستوى هؤلاء الأبطال الشجعان و لن تكونوا طالما أنتم مستعدون للموت من أجل زعيم يدعي حمايتكم...

البلد ما فيها شغل، ما فيها كهربا، ما فيها مصاري...لك زفت ما فيها...

إنتو أغبياء ضحكت عليكم الزعماء و شعوب الأرض...أغبياء تصفقون لزعمائكم كالأغنام و أنتم لا تملكون سعر ربطة الخبز...

كفوا عن الظن بأن لبنان منارة الشرق و أن السياحة شيء مهم بلبنان...من ورا السياحة سعر الشقة ببيروت أكثر من 200 ألف دولار...معكن تشتروا؟؟ لأ لازم تاخدوا قروض سكنية و تعيشوا كل حياتكم تحت الدين.....تحكموا فيكم مدراء البنوك و أصحاب رؤوس الأموال الذين يدعون زعامة طائفتكم....

ما بقا تشوفوا حالكم و تستعرضوا بالسيارات يللي معكم...تواضعوا...عيشوا على قدكن...

تظاهروا فلتوا بالشوارع...طالبوا بفرص عمل...كهرباء، طبابة مجانية...ترخيص الأسعار...و ليس التضخم و زيادة الأجور...

لا تسكتوا عما يحدث في سوريا، بغض النظر عن إنتمائكم السياسي...من يوافق على قتل السعب في سوريا سوف يوافق على قتلكم فيما بعد...

ليس لديكم الكثير من الوقت...ثقوا بي...سنوات قليلة و الصواريخ ستغمرنا إن لم نتحد تحت شعار العيش الكريم، و التعليم العالي و الديمقراطية الحرة و ليس التوافقية...

العالم يرى لبنان دولة الخراب ثقوا بي...هذا وقتكم لتتحركوا معا... و إلا........................

Lebanese Foreign Policy (3/8)

In a period where the whole Arab world is going through uprisings and revolutions, and the world in general is taking a different direction away from the New World Order introduced by George Bush the father, adding to that the world economic power, the collapse of the Euro and the Chinese economic development I decided to write this article and introduce a NEW FOREIGN POLICY that has to applied in Lebanon.

Bear in mind that the foreign policy that I am going to talk about will not be applied right now, but rather when the new leadership takes place at the time where one leader only will be ruling Lebanon uniting the country under his rule and justice.

This policy will be using the philosophy of as close is the country as strong the relations are, the policy will make sure that all the neighboring countries will have strong unbreakable bonds which will provide the country with security and prosperity with the exception of Israel, which has a special case I will be talking about in the last article where I will explain some intentions and actions required to deal with this sensitive issue.

In the previous articles when I talked about Syria and the Arab league, the mission to sustain strong relations is relatively easy since Lebanese-Arab relations are quite strong now.

However, going out of the Arab world, it is always hard to sustain strong relationship with mutual respect between Lebanon and other countries. Lebanon, between the strong key players in the area is looked at as a chance or a place to dominate and use in the negotiations among them. Therefore, Lebanon will have to prove itself as a strong state, with strong security forces and obsessively smart fascinating armed forces which are the most important factors for a state to have its say in our current globe and throughout the ages.

After achieving this aim, Turkey and Iran would be two interesting countries to get along with no matter what kind of relations they have between each others. We will be using key factors and ideas to attract the two countries towards Lebanon and force them to support our state and defend it when necessary.

The key factors I am talking about will be mainly based on demography, where Shias and Sunnis are two big sections of the Lebanese community and will be used in a wise way to strengthen relationships between our beloved state and the two strong Moslem states.

In addition, the two populations mentioned above also have social and religious connections with those two countries and having strong relations with them will play a great role in the sustainability of out state and of the new regime.

When the Iranian president Mahmud Ahmedi Nejad visited Lebanon he was warmly welcomed by the Lebanese people in the southern district of Beirut and in the South of Lebanon.

Which means a big part of our community thinks that the Iranian president is a hero and they admire him. Moreover, Iran has been providing money and weapons in enormous amounts to the Shia in general and to Hezbollah on particular for years after the Islamic revolution took place in Iran in 1979. Therefore, our government, after securing that no single gun is outside its control will be seeking for good relations with Tehran offering protection for the Shia and promising a better life for them against any Israeli aggression or maybe an internal one from Sunnis or Christians, this will be the only way for Iran to take care of its fellow Shias in Lebanon and therefore strong relations will be established and support will be directed towards the Lebanese government itself not the Shias in particular.

Moreover, for Iran, Syria and Lebanon mean access to the Mediterranean Sea in terms of trade and strategic purposes no matter what kind of regime existed, which will provided to them generously by Lebanon and Syria of course with restricted conditions and terms.

Same strategy applies for Turkey, where Erdogan himself came to Lebanon and visited Beirut and the North of Lebanon along with the former prime minister Saad Al Hariri showing strong support for his fellow Sunnis. 

However, Turkey’s worry would not be securing them but rather supporting them and satisfying Turkey’s aims to spread their influence in the Arab world through the Islamists, just like what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco and maybe later on Syria and other Arabic countries. The Turkish influence is inevitable and the challenge in this case is how to divert means of influence in a way that benefits the state to the Sunnis themselves. For that, Lebanon has to move for the Islamic ideology which will be surrounding it everywhere, I know it is dangerous in a multi religious state but I will explain further.

Another small point to mention, in case the Lebanese-Syrian economy developed fast and proved to be strong enough, and in case Turkey does not join the European Union, the point of joining Turkey to our union will be considered, using the Lira as common currency which will be a great economic and social facility to Lebanon by having greater market and access to the European market in an easier way.

Iran and Turkey would be competing who will have more influence in Lebanon, and a strong state would know how to use this advantage for its benefit by having a strong hold of the economy and security where the only influence would be on the President himself and the state not the public.

You should not misinterpret and say that my agenda is for an Islamic state in Lebanon where the Khalifa or supreme leader takes the power. Lebanon is multi religious, and any religion trying to take over will end up in civil war in the country. However, when it comes to foreign policy, the whole area of the Arab spring and Turkey is now moving towards the Islamic part of the political spectrum and for that our spectrum should have close ties with them otherwise we will be out of all the advancements they will reach together. In addition, our internal policies and laws would very far from religion, rather abolishing anything related to religion in our constitution while still taking benefit from any successful Islamic law held in any other country especially when it comes to economics which probably can take us out of the European crisis.

The whole aim behind this strategy is to secure a tiny Lebanon between the Middle East and North Africa and not to isolate it, or make it the victim of the ideology conflicts. That is because the anti Islamists will happily choose Lebanon as a base to fight Islamism in the Middle East and Lebanon will end up being the victim if it did not engage itself with regional ideology and rather went to the west seeking for the protection of the Christians.

Bassem El Remesh

Lebanese Foreign Policy (2/8)

In a period where the whole Arab world is going through uprisings and revolutions, and the world in general is taking a different direction away from the New World Order introduced by George Bush the father, adding to that the world economic power, the collapse of the Euro and the Chinese economic development I decided to write this article and introduce a NEW FOREIGN POLICY that has to applied in Lebanon.

Bear in mind that the foreign policy that I am going to talk about will not be applied right now, but rather when the new leadership takes place at the time where one leader only will be ruling Lebanon uniting the country under his rule and justice.

This policy will be using the philosophy of as close is the country as strong the relations are, the policy will make sure that all the neighboring countries will have strong unbreakable bonds which will provide the country with security and prosperity with the exception of Israel, which has a special case I will be talking about in the last article where I will explain some intensions and actions required to deal with this sensitive issue.

   Arab League:

The reason why I separated Syria from the Arab-League is because if the special status between Lebanon and Syria which will affect the relation between Lebanon and the other Arab countries.

Now let us have a look at the Arab world, Lebanon will divide it into three parts: Arab Peninsula, Al Maghreb Al Arabi (North Africa), Iraq and Jordan.

As I emphasized before, economic ties would be strong enough to make the Arabs overcome their political conflicts and from the same theory my idea about Lebanese-Syrian relations came.

I will give an example of the Gulf Cooperation Council which came to existence because of the same interest of the 6 countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Oman). They became an economic unit aiming to protect Sunni Kingdoms in Arabia. Therefore, economy is the strongest tie that can link them and prevent foreign intervention. And their case is successful even though it is not as strong as the EU.

In addition, soon enough after some dictatorships collapse in North Africa an Idea of North African unity will see the light even though it might not be as strong as other Arabic unities. However, this will depend how successful Lebanon and Syria will turn in their economic unity. In case Lebanon and Syria made a very strong economy, more countries will be willing to join which will turn very positively for Lebanon. And another will try to form their own.

To be clear from the beginning, Lebanon will maintain its very strong ties with the Arab League both for political and economic reasons. Politically, Lebanon is a part of this League or Arabic group represented in the Security Council or anywhere else, for it is always necessary to belong to something big and powerful which will back you in hard times such as voting in the UN or political support against other countries. Economically, the world economy now is shifting east, and the oil in our areas- If not exploited by settlers- will shift the world center to the Middle East and especially the Gulf. This implies that whatever the situation is, Lebanon has to maintain those strong relations with the GCC in order to be secured economically and benefit from their advancement.

In the case of Jordan, this is a little bit sensitive as well economically but not politically. Politically Jordan is a very close country that Lebanon will have to maintain the same relations that exist nowadays. On the other hand, economically Lebanon will not accept Jordan joining the Lebanese-Syrian union as long as it is a Kingdom with full power for the King which means that it is the king who decided to enter the union to the Jordanians, In addition to the negative effects that the economy will face in case of an uprising or a revolution. In case of Jordanian Republic or a constitutional monarchy Jordan will be a good link between Lebanon and the Gulf and would be a good plan to introduce later An Arab Union forced by the economic success of those small unions.

In total, nothing new regarding the Lebanese foreign policy with the Arab league except for the Lebanese aims to expand the economy country by country until we reach an Arab Union that the majority of the Arabs would love to see. The Arab Union Idea will be discussed in another article far from the foreign policy.

The whole idea will be creating more unity within the Arabic Region which will be a strong alliance for Lebanon to rely on economically and politically.

When it comes to North Africa, the same policy will be followed as friendship and brotherhood and the North African political alliance will be more important than the economic one because our foreign policy will be concentrating on geographically close countries which will provide security and economic prosperity.

To be continued...

Bassem Walid El Remesh 

Lebanese Foreign Policy (1/8)

In a period where the whole Arab world is going through uprisings and revolutions, and the world in general is taking a different direction away from the New World Order introduced by George Bush the father, adding to that the world economic power, the collapse of the Euro and the Chinese economic development I decided to write this article and introduce a NEW FOREIGN POLICY that has to applied in Lebanon.

Bear in mind that the foreign policy that I am going to talk about will not be applied right now, but rather when the new leadership takes place at the time where one leader only will be ruling Lebanon uniting the country under his rule and justice.

This policy will be using the philosophy of as close is the country as strong the relations are, the policy will make sure that all the neighboring countries will have strong unbreakable bonds which will provide the country with security and prosperity with the exception of Israel, which has a special case I will be talking about in the last article where I will explain some intentions and actions required to deal with this sensitive issue.

This policy will be divided into eight sectors,

     Syria

     Arab League

     Turkey and Iran

     East Asia

     Europe

     North America

     Latin America

     Israel

   Syria:

(Note: this flag is the Syrian flag after the revolution, for hopefully the regime will collapse soon and Syria will have freedom. Another reason for selecting it is to show support for our Syrian brothers and sisters and to mercy 6000 martyrs who passed away till now)

I will start off with Syria for many reasons. Syria the only friendly neighboring country which surrounds us from east and north, therefore the Lebanese-Syrian relationship has to be the strongest. Lebanon and Syria are one country when it comes to Geography, Lebanon is a small extension of Syria in the South West. The people in those two countries share almost the same traditions and culture and their dialect in the Arabic language is the same. However,  Sykes-Picot agreement  in 1916 invented a new small country  called Lebanon. The creation of this small interesting state was essential to protect minorities especially the Christians who feared that they might be deprived from their rights in a big Muslim country. Bad or weak relations with Syria will mean a weak Lebanon standing alone.

For those reasons, it is possible and totally correct to merge the two countries again, not politically but economically. The economic unity with Syria is essential as the most reliable way to get the countries and the citizens very close. Establishing free trade in addition to the “Arabic Lira” as one currency for the two countries will help developing both states fast.

The reasons why free trade is essential is because Lebanon containing 4 million citizens will not require a very big market to rely on and Syria with its 22 million people will help consuming the Lebanese production which will grow during the new era or the new regime hopefully will be established. Moreover, the common currency will help us getting rid of our currency which is very low and permits inflation to kill out citizens in addition to establishing a new strong currency which will fit the new strong economy that will emerge.

The strong ties with Syria will not be limited to economy, but rather to the military matters. The establishment of a Syrian-Lebanese co-operation united which will preserve the non-aggression pact and will connect the fate of the two countries and makes it one. United against a common enemy will be our aim.

You should not misinterpret what I wrote in the above paragraph in two ways. It is not right so mention that my article says that the two friends will attack a third, but rather a common defense forces so that each country will be able to defend the other at any foreign attack or intervention. Another point is for Lebanese people who will disagree saying that we all suffered from all the Syrian intervention, let me clarify few points:

1.      Lebanon and Syria will be two independent states each have its own political system.

2.      The military co-operation will be very limited to military bases.

3.      Internal Security will be internal issue to each of the countries.

4.      Syrian soldiers will have no authority on Lebanese soil and Lebanese soldiers will have no authority on Syrian soil.

Because of this, Lebanon will secure most of its borders, and rather will expand itself east until Lebanon has access to Europe easily and has huge market to sell its products and would have taken a good key ally and will benefit from some changes that will be mentioned later. Even though this ally might not be strong economically and in armament wise, without it our small state will not find way or access to further countries and will find economic hardship. Syria will be the land and key used to start a new era of development for Lebanon and to merge the two nations. 

To be Continued...

Bassem Walid El Remesh