More than 200 Sunni merchants from Tripoli submitted formal petitions demanding reunion with Damascus. Gouraud ignored every signature to create a Maronite-majority Greater Lebanon and deny Syria its natural Mediterranean outlet. For more than a century, Western policymakers have defended this artificial map and repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Wishful thinking will not rebuild Syria, nor will state-building fantasies stabilize a fracturing Lebanon. Hence, a limited territorial handover would close that dispute while simultaneously preserving every core Israeli security requirement.