The Opposition’s Enemy Within

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Lebanese politics

Nothing harms the opposition more than the lose tongue of their Northern ally Sleiman Frangieh.

Dangerous

It wasn’t only NBN’s Saeed Ghrayyeb who was dumbstruck by the words coming out of his interviewee’s mouth.

Mr. Frangieh went on and on: Patriarch Sfeir is an American stooge, a forgetful 90-year old flip flopper, he’s on the payroll of Mr. Hariri, he can’t be trusted with the Christians’ future.. etc

I don’t think that the opposition’s leadership sanctioned, let alone planned, Mr. Frangieh diatribe. I’m inclined to believe that the strategists at Hezbollah are scratching their heads now and are moving to damage control.

Some analysts and politicians are saying that Mr. Frangieh’s attacks are part of a larger campaign against Bkirki. But if you ask me, this looks more like the dangerous improvisations of a man famous for stepping on his own toes.

The snowballing Christian backlash against Mr. Frangieh’s comments (with the Majority fanning that flame) should have been expected. The Patriarch commands great respect among many Lebanese Christians, and his influence can never be under-estimated.

Many in Mr. Aoun’s coalition are uneasy with the disrespectful language targeting the Patriarch. Mr. Frangieh’s comments could end up being the boulder that will eventually break that camel’s back.

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Discussion

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This is a recovered post. Here are the comments that were made to it.

1. Danny Says: [January 18th, 2008 at 7:23 am]

If it were not a part of a campaign, Aoun and at laest some of his drugged followers; MPs would have distanced themselves from them…

2. Mustapha Says: [January 18th, 2008 at 9:28 am]

Well Danny, I’d keep an eye on ne3emtallah abi nassr and the Zahleh folks..

3. Dania Says: [January 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am]

just now gerben bassil(yes gerben)son in law of claoun went on LBC’s Nharkon Said to say that had the Patriarch listened to their call and not been biased to M14 he would’ve spared himself these diatribes and that the orangies were right to call on him in the past to step aside from the political arena etc. My guess its a planned thing but slimy got outa hand.

4. Danny Says: [January 18th, 2008 at 1:03 pm]

Remember LBC’s Bas Mat el Watan’s hassouneh flick?? It did not take long for the cockroaches to pour out of Dahieh and indignant Christian voices attacking LBC…
Mustapha, It has been almost three days what are you Nam’la and Zahle folks waiting for? A permission from Damascus??Give me a break.

5. Ace Says: [January 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm]

Mustapha, Michael Young had an interesting column about the Syrian attack on the Church on July 6, 2006 called “Preparing a path to Christian disillusion”. You might want to google it and read it. None of this is an “accident”.

Posted by Mustapha | January 19, 2008, 11:42 pm
I still dont get it. What is it dangerous? It is only a personal aggression to Sfeir, jsut as everyone is doing in Lebanon, since unfortunately we are forgetting to respect each other. And if you guys, for one moment, try to remove your judgements and prejudice about Sleiman, wouldn’t you consider it very dangerous and hurtful to say he is a collaborator? So try to respect that the idea for some that he is not and this is a hell of an aggression.

Posted by sometolerence | January 20, 2008, 10:10 pm

Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.