For 30 years, you have been oppressed. For 30 years, you have been lied to. For 30 years, your liberties have been taken away. For 30 years, you have been opinion-less.

But for a few days, you took back your opinions. You stood up for what you, deep down, believed in. You stood up and said no to a ruler who has been governing you for 30 years with an iron fist.

For a few days, you stood up for your rights. You stood up for all the electoral fraud this ruler committed, for all the injustice he inflected upon you, for all the poverty he has been leading you to…

And that ruler was afraid… he disconnected you from the world. He excised your country from everything and left you stranded. Yet you did not succumb.

I have Lebanese friends who are protesting with you today, fighting for your cause. And yet, after this tyrant addressed you, as a nation, yesterday, many of you believed him and abandoned the cause you lost men and women for.

I’d like to believe he will keep by his promises – because ultimately that’s what you’re all fighting for. But as they say: fool you once, shame on me. Fool you twice, shame on you.

This person has been fooling you for 30 years. It’s high time you learned.

Don’t leave my Lebanese friends stranded in Tahrir square, waiting for you to come back. Go join them. Keep on fighting. It is your cause, not theirs. If you’re not going to fight for your rights, do you expect the rest of the world to stand up for them?