While waiting for events to become clearer in Syria, come let us dream of another Syria:

• A Syria ruled by a democratic parliamentary regime, in which sovereignty springs from the people and their will alone.

• A Syria concerned with building its society and state on the foundations of patriotism and citizenship; concerned that its relations with its neighbors be excellent. They do not interfere in Syria’s internal affairs and Syria does not interfere in theirs.

• A Syria that spends on development what it spends today on security, the “army” and the rest of the parallel armies. It achieves a just peace with Israel and benefits from this peace to exercise political and diplomatic pressure on the Jewish State in order to establish a Palestinian state.

• A Syria in which there are many political parties. Opinions and the media flourish, and the opinions of its intellectuals, artists, and innovators are heard and broadcast instead of the opinions of colonels and generals.

• A Syria that opens its arms wide to its refugee and exiled children, who it forced abroad with persecution, reclaiming their abilities and competencies for nation building.

• A Syria that exports commodities, books and ideas to us instead of weapons, and imports commodities, books and ideas from us.

• A Syria that intervenes among the Lebanese sects and communities only to promote reconciliation and assist in overcoming the fears that unite them. In exchange, we offer our joint experience in the coexistence of communities and sects, and perhaps tomorrow our experience in reaching a new secular horizon.

This is a rich Syria – rich in its people, land, resources and the cultures of its communities. We love this Syria and long for our friends and relatives there. We long in fact to visit Damascus and al-Ghouta, Homs, Hamah, Halab and Latakia, without our having to “drink a cup of coffee” with the security men. We would love today to discover Daraa and to go into the east and discover Deir az-Zur and al-Qamishli.

We would love to look from these cities and see Turkey, Iraq and Jordan – to rediscover this welcoming land that, since 1963, has been narrowed and shortened.
We would love to love this Syria, and we will keep dreaming that it will arrive soon.