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Every Lebanese citizen is praying that President Suleiman will succeed in building a national consensus to save Lebanon. They are hoping that the consensus president can take advantage of the momentum that brought him to power to convince the belligerents to sit on the table and discuss all the controversial matters in a true spirit of reconciliation.

This is a singular opportunity in a decade for a President of Lebanon to head such a round table "in" the country without foreign tutelage and conduct a Lebanese dialogue locally.

What are the issues that should be tackled on the table? How can the president handle the dialogue? What are the means that would help lead to a consensus? Should the president be neutral on the issues or should he take strong positions defending matters of national interest?

What should the agenda be? Hizbullah arms, defence startegy, palestinian arms, relationship with Syria, power sharing formulas, neutrality of Lebanon, Lebanon as Hanoi or Hong Kong, etc.

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Issues to be tackled by the ministers and should not be alone the burden of President Sleiman: (Agree on the 10 Commandments which are the fundamentals for a constitution) 1 - Agree on modernizing Lebanon to become the most civilized country as a pioneer of the Human Rights Charta to enable it to compete with MDC instead of being an LDC producing human resources for the world. 2 - Agree on properly allocating our resources (factors of production in all their aspects) and put the technocracy of the ministerial work as top priority. 3 - Agree on avoiding any "fiery speeches" (resisting society and such BS, "war speeches" and "treason policy speeches" so that the economy would not be affected and to provide a stable and secure atmosphere for our children and families. 4 - Agree on putting the education system as second most important issue after the economy with a higher budget including workshops/seminars/conferences to make out of our society an educated one instead of a "botox/BMW/jagal" society. I.e. insert a "world religion book" and a "common history book" and a "human rights book" in the curriculum of ALL SCHOOLS (Public and Private). This would eliminate the factor fear of the unknown, since the unknown would become known and people/children acquaint with each others culture/religion/attitude/behavior/concerns etc. 5 - Agree on removing the word "resistance" from our Lebanese dictionary. Hizbullah should meanwhile know that we love them and they do not need to kill us in order to show off, they remind me of a small boy who aggressively kicks and bites just because he lacks attention. So to Hizbullah: Remove your weapons and PROVE TO US THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO WORK FOR LEBANON THROUGH POLITICS, MINISTRIES, and MPs, through projects and not guns and blabla, and stop hiding behind empty slogans like Israel wants to kill us, or we are the deprived, or we do not have any rights in this country, we are second degree citizens. IT DOESNT WORK ANYMORE!! Tell Hizbullah that they should stop their self-victimization and become good big boys!!! Let them start acting and showing us they can be socialized and part of this country instead of isolating themselves and first step is disarm IMMEDIATELY and begin fulfilling ministerial projects. (To Mr. president: Motivate them, award them, tell them they are good boys each time they do something good, let the others talk good about them) Who knows maybe someday they will all grow mature and behave!! They owe it to the Lebanese people!. 6 - Agree on embracing all parties and all cultures and that each should respect the other and not try to dissolve it in its features/traditions/customs. Teach the Lebanese to share their highs and downs with each other by being role model leaders. 7 - Agree on renewing all laws which are stuck in the 60s!! We are in the year 2008!! Give MOTHERS their rights in giving their children the citizenship and stop screwing around with the demographic BS!! anyway all polls showed that in 2080 the Shia would be 44%, the Christians 17% and the Sunni 34% of the population, so stop your racism because by then we would have a completely different country, a modern one based on Human Rights, against corruption, with qualified people WHO RESPECT EACH OTHERS without receiving their orders from Iran or Saudi Arabia or Syria! 8 - Agree on reforming the Health Ministry because it is dreadful to know how much people are dying because they cant pay the bill, and inability to be insured. 9 - Agree on reforming the EDL and the ministry of energy to ensure good contracts for gas and fuel not like the missed opportunities of the previous ministers who cost us at the end 1 billion each year (and this year will cost us even 1.2 billion US$) 10 - Listen to people's concerns like those writing here from whom I read that some want the reform of the Law of rent which actually is really BS having one prior 1992 and one post-1992! Change it! Listen to the people, and be near to them so that they can finally begin loving, trusting and electing you. All the best on the national dialogue table, prove to us that you all can act as MATURE RESPONSIBLE MEN who can take care of a natin and its people to achieve peace and prosperity. We want to believe in you. Joumana Gebara, Wed Aug 06 18:36:30 +0300 2008

Mr. President, I hope you are having a nice day? I agree with Miss Joumana Gebara who said for a certain amount of credibility we should get some answers from you knowing that your hands are full. In my first question I made a statement that you have put yourself in a trap by becoming our new president. Do you see that since you became president you are compromising to please all sides? Sir, I want to remind you that Jesus Christ came down to earth and died for us, but he did not manage to please everyone. I want to know how you are going to govern a nation from a compromising position always. ONCE MORE GOOD LUCK. ELIE NAHRA ELIE NAHRA, Tue Aug 05 20:32:16 +0300 2008

Mr. President, the most important issues for Lebanon today are the disarmament and dismantling of the Hezbollah Militia and Lebanon's sovereignty. Hezbollah has destroyed the country over the last several years. They claim that they are for Lebanon, yet they did not even hesitate to turn its weapons against the very citizens and country they claimed to protect. So long as foregin nations continue to meddle in the business of Lebanon, the country will not be stable. By "meddle" i do not mean those nations that have worked tirelessly to instill peace throughout our beautiful country (such as those members of the Arab League). I refer to Israel, Iran, Syria...just to name a few. We are not a place for them to solve their own political issues. We are not a battleground for them to fix their own internal problems. We are Lebanon and Lebanese, a free and soveriegn nation who only strive for peace and prosperity. I wish you the best of luck as we move forward to get through these difficult times. I support your presidency and stand behind the nation of Lebanon. Joelle, Thu Jul 24 17:42:33 +0300 2008

Mr. Presient, Can u pls put on the agenda of the Round Table the issue of Neutrality of Lebanon. We do not want to be the place (Saha) for everybody to fight their wars. We do not want to be neither with Iran and Syria nor with America and Israel. We want to be neutral with full respect for evrybody John, Sat Jul 19 18:30:00 +0300 2008

Dear President Suleiman. Lebanon has one simple and perpetual problem : it has no central autjority strong enough to protect, and rule itself. Our state was laways weaker than the regional divergences, which caused Israel to enter, the Palestinians to enter, Syria to enter, and all those militias to arm. Our army has to be the strongest armed entity in the country, and the government has to be the strongest authority in the country. The political parties have to be slowly stripped from their power and their grip on people and the weapons must be banned from social or political use in Lebanon. How , in your vision, can you make our army this strong and our government this powerful? Frédéric Sfeir, Thu Jul 17 23:37:10 +0300 2008

Two (2) issues should be at the table, Hezbollah's weapons and the Lebanese detainees (wrongfully) in the Syrian jails! Taking their guns to the streets, killing and terrorizing innocent civilians make them "arms of terror". For Syria, no normalizing relations until detainees are returned and killers delivered to justice! Tony, Wed Jul 16 00:42:18 +0300 2008

you have 3 proploim electric water car mekaneek solve this we are ok first next school and hosbital to much money we baid thinks zouhair khowiess, Tue Jul 15 13:53:30 +0300 2008

after all what happend .. the only way hizbullah get stripped out from his weapon that is going to be used only against civilians and who ever think the opposite is a dreamer. the only way for the beirut civilians and sunni`s in general to forget about what happend witch is a bit hard is to make a full stripp for this militia. minimize it and bring it back to the lebanese schedual as it is really belonging to DAWLAT AL FAQIH and the iranian agenda in the middle east. and this is a clear advice from a conservative sunni. be really carefull becoz wen its time for the hole sunna to wake up and start deffending in lebanon its going to be critical for all of us . 1st of all hizbullah will never gona survive 2nd of all they`l be worked to bring al quaeda to lebanon with their own hands witch never benefits any of us 7AZARI MIN YAKAZAT AHL AL SUNNA to open up a new page is that. hatem, Tue Jul 15 13:52:28 +0300 2008

I would like to see added to the agenda the issue of how to build mutual trust amongst the different Lebanese religious communities. It seems that when the tough gets going, most of the Lebanese (me included) refer back to their religious communities, be them religious or not. To truly arrive at a society of sharing and mutual respect, the issue needs to be addressed and with hgh importance. Of all the models where multi cultural / mutli ethnic societies thrive, there always is a common denimonitor which is a thriving economy, the rule of law, a transparent political system where politicians are mere adminstrators of the will of the people, and pushing most of the decision making responsibilities to the people. Gentlemen (and unfortunately I will not be able to say ladies as well as so far the fialogue has excluded ladies), what can you do on that front??? Tony, Tue Jul 15 11:07:23 +0300 2008

Please ask Hezbollah what they intend to do with "their" arms if all the Lebanese territory is liberated and everyone signs a peace treaty with Israel? Tell them that this excuse about Strategic Defence Strategy does not fool us? And even if done, it should cater for ALL ennemies from within and accross all our porous borders. Ask Hezbollah about the statement of Naim Kassem that even if the Israeli threat is elliminated, the Hizbullah arms should remain to protect the "Moukawama society"? Does he mean that Hizbullah will keep its arms forever - a state within a state? Georges, Mon Jul 14 16:02:42 +0300 2008

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