"The Guardians of the Cedars’ mission statement includes restoring Lebanon’s alphabet “to its Phoenician origins after liberating it from the defacement that was caused by the Arabic language” and “cutting down the number of foreigners in Lebanon...” The South Lebanese Army were allied with Israel during the 1975-1990 Civil War. Saylor believes that Romney’s selection of Phares shows the Republican candidate’s growing conservative leaning, possibly in an attempt to court evangelical Christian voters. He noted that when he was running in the 2008 election Romney said that he would be open to appointing a Muslim to his cabinet if elected president, the New York Times reported in November 2007. “Romney, overall, has been better [than the other candidates],” Saylor says. “This is a troubling direction.”
In fact, Romney’s main competitors’ inflammatory comments about the Middle East have caused even bigger stirs. In early December, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich called Palestinians “an invented people.”"
