Lebanese Presidential Candidate Plans to Establish Federal State in Lebanon

“The federal regime… First, people must get it out of their heads that it means partition. The purpose of a federal regime is to prevent partition. If we do not establish a federal state, we will reach partition. A federal state is meant to prevent partition. Is the United States partitioned in any way? It is a federal state. Is Switzerland partitioned in any way? It is a federal state. Is Germany partitioned? It is a federation. The UAE is a federal state. Why is the UAE a federal state, even though they are all Sunnis and they all speak Arabic? There are no Christians, Druze, Shiites, Kurds, Armenians, or Greek Orthodox over there. They are all Sunnis, yet they established a federal state. Why? The most stable country in the Arab world today is the UAE. Not only the UAE – all the countries with a federal regime are the most stable and prosperous countries in the world. That is because they have a federal regime. If we do not establish a federal regime, where are we headed? Either we will continue with the current regime, continue to fight and slaughter one another, or else one of the sides will try to establish a religious state. It will use its majority to take control, and will try to establish a religious state. This will be very difficult, and will also lead to massacres and fighting. Otherwise, we have no choice but to move over to a federal state.”

There are more details listed…essentially each of the proposed provinces will have the right to determine its own internal policies: i.e. a Sunni province could ban alcohol, while a neighboring Christion province could allow it, etc.

This idea makes a LOT of sense…unfortunately, it may make so much sense that it could not be adopted in today’s middle-east. So sad!