If not for the sixth of February
Written by Nasser Kandil,
In the history of nations there are days that turn into inspiring history and to a commemoration that worth the revival due to their related shifts, but it is rarely to coincide with a day in two different dates as what is represented by the sixth of February 1984 and 2006. It can be said that if it was not for the sixth of February we were not here. It is wrong to think that the second was possible without the first or to think that the first could achieve its goals without the second, or to think that it is possible to put the two dates in opposite directions.
Simply, I had the honor of contributing modestly in these two dates. The sixth of February 1948 is the date of the uprising which ended the era of the US hegemony in Lebanon culminated by the departure of the Marines and led to the fall of the Israeli era by overthrowing the May 17th Agreement, it linked Beirut with the South and with Damascus. The resistance has become stronger and more powerful; It could achieve liberation after liberation by imposing the withdrawal from Sidon on in its early days, followed by the withdrawal from Zahrani to the outskirts of the occupied border strip since 1978. Then, the understanding of April, the birth of the strength of deterrence, the preparation for the liberation of 2000 and the historic victory in July 2006 have been achieved.
The resistance which started on the sixth of February 1948 is the resistance which participated in making the sixth of February 2006 which is based on the national unity and the preservation of the resistance. These two recommendations were drawn by the first sixth of February which also put the foundation of the Taif Agreement through a series of settlements starting from Geneva and Lausanne in 1948, passing by the tripartite agreement in 1958 and ending with the Taif Agreement 1989 which ended the war and paved the way from the civil peace and reconstruction of the state.
For those who care about names and details, it is important to remind that the uprising of the sixth of February 1984 has reconsidered the role of the Lebanese army which was turned by the regime of the American hegemony and the Israeli control into a part of the civil war, but it was reunited under the leadership of the General Michael Aoun at that time as a commander by a suggestion by Nabih Berri. Michael Aoun was the most prominent candidate by the Minister Nabih Berri in the late eighties versus the project of the extension of the President Amin Gemayel.
On the sixth of February 2006, the resistance in the person of the Secretary –General of Hezbollah Al Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met the Christian popular Movement under the leadership of the General Michael Aoun, who ended the siege of the resistance and the projects of the civil strife fell. The war of July 2006 occurred to confirm the validity of the option and the greatness of the achievement, thus it achieved what it missed during the absence of the Christian partner to be a completed revolution. The Sixth of February 2006 completed the path of unity.
The meaning of the integration between the two dates is not that one of them completes the other only, but in the awareness of the parties of the need to integrate rather than to compete. The leaders and the followers of the Free Patriotic Movement must be aware that what they have achieved with Hezbollah in 2006 has been established by the achievement led by the Speaker Nabih Berri in 1984, and the leaders and the followers of Amal Movement must be aware that what they have achieved in 1984 has been culminated by the achievement of Hezbollah with the Free Patriotic Movement in 2006. The war of July occurred to show its deepest meaning. Therefore, the two parties have become aware that when each one of them is inextricably linked with Hezbollah then what is the significance of using the term ally of the ally, since the turning of the bilateral into a tripartite opens a new historic path for a third “sixth of February” in which the meanings of liberation, the relationship with Syria, the preservation of the resistance, reform, and change become integrated.
- God, from my humble position, I have delivered the message, may You be my witness.
Translated by Lina Shehadeh,