Gebran Bassil Expels Israel's Ambassador

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Gebran Bassil is Lebanon’s Minister of Energy and Water, and a member of the Free Patriotic Movement headed by General Michel Aoun. He is a Christian. I am not one who believes in sectarianism, but I mention that he is Christian in the hope that his conduct might serve as a lesson to those Muslims who are drowning in national and religious betrayal, and who compete with him for entry into paradise — indeed, who deny it to him in their own religious rulings and claim it exclusively for themselves.

Before heading to Cyprus to take part in a conference on oil, Mr. Gebran Bassil made clear that he would not attend the conference if Israel were present. When he set out for the conference on June 26, 2012, he received word that the Israeli ambassador to Cyprus would be attending, and so he decided not to participate. Cyprus tried to dissuade him from his position, but he refused, on the grounds that Israel is a state hostile to Lebanon. Faced with this stance, Cyprus was compelled to ask the Israeli ambassador to leave the conference hall.

Gebran Bassil represents the courageous, authentic, patriotic, and pan-Arab Arab position. This is how men act, and this is how honorable women act, when they face situations that demand manhood and glory. This is sound historical logic: how can the proud, courageous man sit with the killer of the sons of the Arabs, the usurper of their land, the destroyer of their homes, the annihilator of their crops and their offspring? Bassil has restored us to the correct, sound position toward the Zionist enemy — a position we must all reclaim as the general Arab stance. In taking this position, Bassil insists that Lebanon remain at the vanguard of the Arab nation, the true embodiment of its unyielding will and its raised head.

Perhaps someone will say that Bassil’s position is patriotic and courageous, but that this does not justify accusing others of treason — those who make peace with Israel, shake its hand, and normalize relations with it, and so on. No — we feel no shame, and we do not hesitate, in accusing of treason whoever places his hand in Israel’s hand, or sits with it, or bargains away the fixed rights of the Arab nation and the Palestinian people. Those who extend their hands to Israel are the very ones conspiring against Bassil and those like him, working to frustrate him, cause his failure, and inflict defeat on him and on those who share his line and his goal. These are the same people who conspired with Israel in the 2006 war, and in the winter war of 2008/2009, and who are weaving plots with Israel and America to destroy the Arab nation.

No thanks are owed to Bassil, because what is required of us is to follow his example, not to thank him for a patriotic, pan-Arab duty he has performed. Bassil did his duty and honored the blood of Lebanon’s martyrs and the Arab nation’s martyrs, bowed before the pain of the orphans and widows in whose fathers’ and brothers’ chests Israel has fired its bullets, and kept faith and covenant with all who have sacrificed for Lebanon, Palestine, and the Arab homeland at large. He is a man who valued what he believed in, and then followed it with action.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “جبران باسيل يطرد سفير إسرائيل” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.