The Guardians of the Cedars and its commander Mr. Etienne Sakr (Abu Arz) have been the target of a nasty smear campaign with the apparent purpose of discrediting the party. The instigators of this campaign are very well known to the Guardians and the reasons for such underhanded tactics are also known.
On the 15th of September the Islamic Internet newsletter iviews.com published an article where they claim to have revealed connections between a Lebanese terrorist and American Jewish organizations. This supposed terrorist they are referring to is the commander of the Guardians of the Cedars Mr. Etienne Sakr. To discredit the organization and its leader, iviews.com writer Ismail Royer uses outright lies and every other dirty trick in the book.
The events Royer referes to that occurred during the war are completely untrue. The Guardians of the Cedars never deny taking part in cleansing the occupied territories from the Syrian and Palestinian armed aggressors . As for the accusations of committing atrocities, our record is as clear as our Ideology and mission statement. The members of the Guardians of the Cedars are innocent of any such accusations and they have got the consciousness of the Lebanese people as testimony.
Mr. Royer referred to the Guardians as a right-wing pro-Christian, extremist militia. Nothing could be more wrong. The Guardians of the Cedars, recognizing God as one of the cornerstones of their ideology, do not anywhere in their political program or other ideological texts favor Christianity over any other religion. As a matter of fact it is clearly stated that our aim is to turn Lebanon into a secular country where any qualified Lebanese can be a part of the government regardless of religion and sect. The Guardians also have many Muslims among their ranks. As for being right-wing our political program will speak for itself: .
Mr Royer has turned our participation in the war against the Syrian and the Palestinian military machines in Lebanon into a war against the Muslims. This could not be further from the truth. If Mr. Royer had done his research properly, he would have discovered that the war was not and still is not a war of religion. It is a battle against foreign aggressors whose aim is to destroy Lebanon and dissolve its identity as Lebanese, it is not a battle one religion against another. The Guardians of the Cedars are a pro-Lebanese movement whatever the religion might be. Yet another evidence of Mr. Royer's ignorance concerning the religious identity of the party is that he refers to it as being Maronite. How can that be possible when its leader is Catholic, not Maronite.
We can only speculate in why iviews.com has decided to publish this piece of anti-Guardians propaganda. One theory is that the successful lobbying by some Jewish organizations that prevented the appointment of Salam Al-Marayati to an American Congressional commission made them upset and now they are ready to go to any length to smear those organizations and anyone who dealt with them. We would like to enlighten the responsible at iviews.com that these kind of revengeful actions does not help their cause at all, we can only pity you for having to resort to slander in order to soften the painful feeling of disappointment.
At the service of Lebanon
The Guardians of the Cedars