Thread
1- @NationDuLiban wrote that on this day some 100 years ago the honorable #PatriarchEliasPeterHoyek was busy at work consolidating international support for the establishment of Greater Lebanon. #Hoyek's efforts throughout the 1914-1918 Great War, which devastated Lebanon,
1- @NationDuLiban wrote that on this day some 100 years ago the honorable #PatriarchEliasPeterHoyek was busy at work consolidating international support for the establishment of Greater Lebanon. #Hoyek's efforts throughout the 1914-1918 Great War, which devastated Lebanon,
2- and the international support networks that he activated in the run up to the #ParisPeaceConference1919, during the conference itself, and in its aftermath, culminated in the establishment of #GreaterLebanon on September 1, 1920.
3- @NationDuLiban draws a valid parallel here between #Hoyek’s work and the ongoing efforts that #PatriarchRaï is engaging to insure international support for Lebanon’s neutrality. Although the parallels are tempting, and indeed I argue valid, it may be too early to tell whether
4- whether #Raï has #Hoyek’s principled determination, his political bluntness, and his moral backbone. Indeed Hoyek was a towering figure and a resounding voice at #Paris1919. Likewise, Lebanese lobbies around the world were a formidable network of opinion shapers
5- tirelessly advocating for the establishment of Greater Lebanon. More importantly perhaps—and an aspect of this parallel that is not extant in our time—France was a world power with tremendous clout in 1919, and a superpower already sold on #Hoyek’s vision.
6- Indeed, in 1919 France was guided by a millennial emotional attachment and dedication to Lebanon, particularly its Uniate populations. Alas, none of those conditions are in place today. #Raï has been wishy-washy since he took the helm of Lebanon’s National Church.
8- characteristics that, thus far, have been sourly lacking in #Hoyek’s modern counterpart. More importantly perhaps, there are no coherent vocal Lebanese lobbies in the diaspora, and France is no longer the superpower-friend-of-the-Lebanese that it once was;
9- France no longer calls the shots in France proper, let alone does it have clout in the Levant.
But going back 100 years (and what a difference a 100 years make in the life and death of a nation,) here’s a snippet of a dispatch that #Hoyek sent to his friend, Camille Barrère,
But going back 100 years (and what a difference a 100 years make in the life and death of a nation,) here’s a snippet of a dispatch that #Hoyek sent to his friend, Camille Barrère,
10- then French Ambassador to Rome (you can find the entire quote and its archival source in my book, #CharlesCorm, pp. 57-59. And please note Hoyek’s powerful language herewith; I would say his HUBRIS, and the sort of expectations he had of France, a superpower at the time):
11- “I have just witnessed the proclamation of the establishment of Greater Lebanon, and I am still under the shock of profound emotion. I was deeply moved by this solemn moment in time, which gave France the opportunity to bring to fruition its noble millennial mission
12- and her and commitment to us, and allowed the Lebanese to see their national aspirations fulfilled… 'This is your man' [c’est l’homme qu’il vous faut] you had told me in Rome [about Henri Gouraud,] and I am pleased to tell you that you were not mistaken...
13- In a profoundly faithful country such as ours, General Gouraud, steeped in Christian values, is an exemplar…”
The moral of the story (going back to my earlier response to @NationDuLiban,) is that France, and the Judaeo-Christian West in more general terms,
The moral of the story (going back to my earlier response to @NationDuLiban,) is that France, and the Judaeo-Christian West in more general terms,
14- have lost the moral compass that would have otherwise driven them to maintain a sovereign neutral Lebanon. They also don’t have the Levantine moral authority of a #Hoyek egging them on.
15- If Raï wishes to channel #Hoyek and his aura, he ought to memorize Hoyek's speeches at the #Paris1919, and enunciate them verbatim, clear-throatedly, today, all over the world’s chancelleries: “Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty as proclaimed by the Lebanese delegation
16- on May 20, 1919 HAVE to be recognized and protected; this independence is not only an independence stemming from the collapse of the Ottoman authority! IT IS ABOVE ALL A COMPLETE AND TOTAL INDEPENDENCE VIS-À-VIS ANY ARAB STATE THAT MAY COME INTO BEING IN SYRIA…
17- Without having to hark back to the Phoenician ancestors, the Lebanese have always constituted a well-delineated national entity, distinct and separate from neighboring groupings in terms of language, customs, trends, and a Westward-looking cultural orientation…”
18- ALSO have to be recognized and protected in #Hoyek’s telling are; “the restitution of Lebanon to its historical and natural frontiers and the recovery of territories that were torn from it by the Turks; the imposition of sanctions against the perpetrators or instigators
19- of the atrocities and executions committed by the Turks & Germans in Lebanon, & the demand for reparations, which are crucial to the rehabilitation and re-population of a Lebanon that has been all but decimated by the systematic starvation campaigns organized by the Turks…”
20- Anything less than this, anything bereft of clarity like this, and Lebanon is lost.
