advocating its domestic policies was revived during the Cedar Revolution in 2005, which forced the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon and led to expectations of political reform. Ideological beliefs The Lebanese Renewal Party is ethnocentric, and believes that Lebanon is not an Arab country. It labored extensively to create or discover non-Arab cultural expressions, and went so far as to design a new alphabet for Lebanese Arabic, which it claims is a language in its own right. Accordingly, the party was staunchly opposed to Pan-Arabism, which was advocated by many in the left-wing Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and Palestinian movements. Another distinguishing element of the party's politics was that it advocated cooperation with Israel. While there were several other movements on the Christian side in Lebanon that cooperated with Israel during the war, the LNR was the only organization openly and ideologically committed to this, regarding a Lebanese-Israeli axis as the best protection against Arabism and the Palestinians. Attitude towards Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims The GoC was strongly anti-Palestinian, and argued for the forcible removal of all Palestinians and other non-Lebanese (e.g. Syrians) from Lebanon, both civilians and armed fighters. Critics labeled this a call for ethnic cleansing or genocide. GoC leader Saqr summed up the organization's attitude to Palestinians in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on July 23, 1982: "It is the Palestinians we have to deal with. Ten years ago there were 84,000; now there are between 600,000 and 700,000. In six years there will be two million. We can't let it come to that." His solution: "Very simple. We shall drive them to the borders of brotherly Syria ... Anyone who looks back, stops or returns will be shot on the spot. We have the moral right, reinforced by well-organized public relations plans and political preparations." However, in contrast to the policies of many other sectarian militias (such as the Kataeb), and to their own attitudes towards Palestinians, the Guardians took some care to avoid the impression of religious conflict. The party, while essentially a Christian militia and in violent conflict with most militias during the war, was formally secularist as it publicly stressed this Secular Nationalist identity. End of the militia 1989 saw the Guardians once more fighting the Syrians alongside the Lebanese Army in support of the military interim government of General Michel Aoun. In a statement in 1990, the GoC greeted the occupation