Before her eyes was the violent blue sky — nothing else. For an endless moment she looked into it. Like a great overpowering sound it destroyed everything in her mind, paralyzed her. Someone once had said to her that the sky hides the night behind it, … Unblinking, she fixed the solid emptiness, and the anguish began to move in her. At any moment the rip can occur, the edges fly back, and the giant maw will be revealed.
Paul Bowles, "The Sheltering Sky."
Things are moving in Lebanon, and not all are good. On the heels of last weekend’s explosion in a Christian community near Beirut, a series of fake bombs have been discovered. It’s not clear who planted them. It’s not clear why they were planted. Nor is it clear what, if anything, a fake bombing would accomplish — although perhaps we should be mildly comforted to now be debating faux, rather than real, terrorism.
In other words, Lebanon retains that remarkable combination of the Byzantine, the dangerous, and the ridiculous that seems to accompany everything that occurs in the Middle East. It’s a Kafka story written by Camus featuring Jacques Clouseau — except in Camus’ re-envisioning, Clouseau is a bumbling assassin and not a police inspector.
But no matter. Blame is being fixed for the real bomb that injured eleven people sleeping in an apartment building. The Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, has decided (not without evidence) that Syria is at fault, as has at least one Christian opposition leader. Of course, Jumblatt — being Jumblatt — is not content merely to blame Syria. He also has to imply that he will meet eye with eye and tooth with tooth:
He added: "We warn Syria not to let these midgets carry out security actions in the country."
(I believe that the preferred term is "little people." No matter.)
Meanwhile, anecdotal reports suggests that violence against Syrians — who make up a significant proportion of Lebanon’s work force, as well as the tourists who flock Lebanon’s coast and bars — is on the increase. Some Syrians are reportedly boycotting Lebanese goods in counter-protest to the complaints of the Lebanese democrats, although, I quickly add, one shouldn’t easily trust self-serving reports from a dictatorship. Or at all.
Still, there are some hopeful signs. (We’re not counting the rash of faux bombings as "hopeful.") Lebanon’s economy remains remarkably strong, and has started to recover from the damage wrought by Hariri’s death. Lebanon’s displaced civilians are reclaiming their homes from Syrian troops. And Hizbollah — yes, the terrorist group — is honoring Hariri’s death with demonstrations and calling for calm:
Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrilla group called for national dialogue and warned the opposition was making a mistake by rejecting talks, although civil war was not imminent.
"We back any national dialogue that takes place … We will not tire of calling for national dialogue," said Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. "There are no grounds for civil war, but we must not create grounds."
No one should think that progress in Lebanon is guaranteed. Or that the good guys will win. Or that all of the good guys are, in fact, "good." There’s always plenty of room to fail. But there’s room to succeed, too.
Watch, move carefully, rule nothing out, and rule nothing in. That’s my convoluted mantra.
Von, von, von…
Freedom, my friend, is On The March.
…and it is heavily armed.
Nice post, von. I think it’ll be okay. Syria’s trying to make itself seem necessary.
Publius Pundit has a lot of info:
I’d hate to be in Assad’s shoes.
What do Lebanese want? Social Science Students from Lebanese University conducted a survey in the Greater Beirut region. Some results: Are you with the opposition or with the [Lebanese] government? 37% with the Opposition, 39 % Government. Are you in favor of UNSC 1559? 26% yes, 68 % no. Are you in favor of disarming the Hizbullah? 18 % Yes, 72 % no.
posted by As’ad @ 6:56 PM link
“Hizb’allah’s hold is weaker as well”
Hold on what?
I think it may be useful to quit, everyone, the idea of seeing the ‘vision thing’ as a thing that was somehow decided already in the past. There are endless arguments about the past and the righteousness of vision that can be made by most people who have a keen interest in world events, from either side or all sides. The point seems to be that we have gotten to a place where I say, alright, you’re fucked for thinking the way you do about what I see, just like I am to you from your way of seeing(speaking generically of course), but some day will come when it’s finally time to build some vision in common for the future. The middle east opening is a good place to start.
wunderdog: posting rules. (No profanity, in deference to those who want to read us at work and have odd filtering stuff. Also, since we try to have something resembling civil discourse between left and right, this turns out to be more useful that I would have thought.)
No one should think that progress in Lebanon is guaranteed. Or that the good guys will win. Or that all of the good guys are, in fact, “good.”
Does anyone else remember that Bloom County cartoon where Binkley asks his father to explain Lebanon to him?
The Bowles quote made me think of Terry Schiavo, regardless of one’s views.
Lebanon comes to America.
Sorry about that, my bad. Also, it looks like I should try to keep my comments under about four words, that way even though I might look like a fool, I won’t prove it. No. More. Paragraphs.
These bombings are being used to incite fear in the people and interject doubt as to whether Syria should really withdraw. Unfortunately for the Syrians, the Lebanese are smart enough to see right through their intentions. With respect to Syrians boycotting Lebanese goods – that has to be the biggest joke of the week. Most of the 1 million-plus Syrian workers in Lebanon save all their money up and send it back to Damascus. They never really contributed to the Lebanese economy, so good riddance.
Ya Libnan published some predictions for 2005 that I recommend you check out.