Melissa wrote this comment on Linkedin under Rawan Osman post which, was addressed to the Lebanese about peace to Israel.
Dear useful idiot,
Half of my family is Lebanese and the other half is Syrian. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Lebanon. So before you lecture me about Lebanon and this region, understand that you are speaking about realities I have lived, while repeating talking points from a distance.
And since you invoke morality so confidently: where was this same passion when over half a million Syrians were killed, millions displaced, cities flattened, and Hezbollah openly fought to keep Assad in power? Were you advocating for them with equal intensity?
You say my perspective lacks “hard facts,” yet lived experience is also a fact. Whether you agree with me or not, my perspective carries more legitimacy than someone commenting from afar with no personal stake in the matter.
Now to your claims:
1. “History did not begin yesterday.”
Correct. Which is why history also did not begin with Israel. Long before Hezbollah existed, southern Lebanon was used by armed Palestinian factions to attack Israel. The PLO built a quasi-state inside Lebanon, often called “Fatahland,” dragging Lebanon into conflicts many Lebanese never chose.
2. The 1982 invasion.
You mention it as though it happened in a vacuum. It followed years of cross-border attacks, assassinations, shelling, and the collapse of Lebanese sovereignty in the south. Context matters, even when outcomes are tragic.
3. Sabra and Shatila.
A horrific massacre carried out by Lebanese militias. It remains a stain on history. But if we are discussing causes, then discuss honestly the Lebanese civil war, the armed factions, Syrian occupation, sectarian collapse, and foreign interventions that created that nightmare.
4. “Israel destroyed Lebanon.”
Lebanon was not ruined by Israel. Lebanon was devastated by corruption, sectarian warlords, Syrian domination, Iranian proxies, Hezbollah’s state-within-a-state, economic looting, and leaders who chose ideology over nationhood.
And regarding 2006: even Hassan Nasrallah himself later admitted that had he known the scale of the consequences, he would not have ordered the cross-border operation that triggered the war. In other words, the very man who dragged Lebanon into that catastrophe acknowledged the recklessness of his decision. Who are you to absolve him of responsibility when he himself recognized it?
5. “Occupation.”
The greatest occupation in modern Lebanon has been the occupation of the Lebanese state by armed groups acting on behalf of Tehran while silencing Lebanese dissent.
You speak in slogans that earn applause from those who already agree with you. I speak from memory, family history, and lived consequences.
So yes, the audacity is remarkable: that someone with no roots in this struggle feels entitled to lecture someone who actually lived it.
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