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Following are excerpts from Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on June 17, 2009.
Walid Jumblatt: [Lebanon] is not yet out of danger. The Israeli violations by air, land, and sea have not ceased. We have not succeeded... My comrades in the March 14 Coalition should forgive me... The foreign media considered this to be a victory for the West. We do not want this Western victory. What has the West done?
Interviewer: You are talking about your victory in the elections?
Walid Jumblatt: Yes. Has the West, with all its greatness, restored the village of Ghajar to us? Has it restored even a part of it? It cannot.
[...]
We are going to end up like the government of Karzai or Zardari. I don't want Lebanon to have a government like that of Karzai, who controls only Kabul, or a part of it, or Zardari, who stumbles in the Swat Valley and elsewhere.
Interviewer: You are calling for a political revolution.
Walid Jumblatt: An ideological revolution. When you focus on the basics again – on the danger of Israel, on national unity, on partnership, on the need to incorporate the resistance into the army, and on normal, yet strategic, relations with Syria – this does not constitute a revolution.
Interviewer: This is an ideological revolution for you personally as well.
Walid Jumblatt: It was not easy for us to attend the funeral of yet another comrade every three months. It was not easy for us to bid farewell to Rafiq Al-Hariri. But we must not be stopped by our sorrow and our tears. We must read the political [map], which is much more dangerous than it was in the past.
[...]
Offense is the best defense. We should fortify the eastern front, and bring Egypt back from its split from the Arab world, because Camp David has brought us... I'm not here to denounce Camp David, but it has brought us to a dead end. In order to avoid further catastrophes, the agreements with Israel must be reconsidered.
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Today, the March 14 Coalition issued a statement in support of what is going on in Iran. We are the ones who have denounced the Islamic Republic time and again for interfering in the affairs of Lebanon. Why is it our business what is happening in the streets of Tehran?
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There is no alternative to a real political partnership among the Lebanese, or, in other words, forming a national unity government, and redefining our priorities, in the face of the Israeli expansion and dangers. There is no alternative. The talk about sovereignty, independence, and freedom is all very well, but let us not forget the main thing – we are Arabs, and Israel is our enemy.
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