Now that Hezbollah has proven that it can block government decisions it doesn’t like, should it still insist on having a blocking third share of the government?
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The beirut spring is a blog that is interested in Lebanese society and its politics. It started in February 2005 after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
May 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I’m depressed the gov’t revoked its decisions, I don’t understand why they ended up doing it :(
May 14th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Thank the international community for this.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
i think all this discussion is moot. What’s the point of having a government making decisions if it ultimately answers to a gun pointed at its head?
The first thing to discuss before anything else, is an agreement by all parties to abide by a set of rules.
And one of the first things to discuss has to be HA’s weapons.
The rest is entirely moot.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Read Tony Badran’s analysis at Across the Bay for a great take on why they revoked the decisions. The decisions couldn’t have been implemented anyway. All this did was it proved to people that Hezb was a militia and now the government took away its “excuse” for starting a revolution!
I agree that it starts a very bad precedent (anyone who doesn’t like a government decision can just get armed and take to the streets!). But the hope is that there are strong initiatives by March 14 and the government in the days ahead to begin to identify and define the boundaries of Hezb al Silah’s authority. Lets also hope that people all over lebanon wake up and realize what a threat hezb’s weapons are and that no matter how much you dislike March 14 leaders or how incompetent you think they are..they are the lesser of the two evils! Vote for people who stand for the state, its institutions, the army and a peaceful and prosperous Lebanon!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
You were claiming the 14 march was about to politically win, tonight it sounds more like a political defeat as well.
Maybe there will be as well major changes inside Beirut’s and Saida circonscriptions in case of new legislative elections.
We cannot right now predict how the people would behave… maybe one thing is predictable, the shia will continue to support Hezbollah…
this is a real defeat…
Things should have been turning differently if another politic has been applied 3 years ago.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
not a mischievous question, but a very LAME question.
in the final analysis, this zionist rear-guard government is impotent, and will remain impotent, as will all future zionist rear-guard governments, deservedly.
bye bye for now!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I hate to throw down the sectarian card here, but considering HA’s following is a good chunk of the Lebanese shia, and that these guys are busy shooting in the air to celebrate the government revoking the decision, it seems to me that not EVERYONE gets that HA has proven once and for all their weapons are not for resistance only.
In other words, the shia sect (in general) is not seeing things as “Wow! HA’s weapons were a sham all along!”. Instead, the shia sect is more than ever thinking they’ve achieved yet another ‘divine victory’ over the people they’ve been brainwashed to hate.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
bad vilbel, you’re the one who has brainwashed to hate, and brainwashed to misrepresent the viewpoint of others.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Who cares since we know the government has as much power as Queen Elisabeth.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It doesn’t come as any surprise because this is the way things are usually done in the ME. If you want to get your way you have to have the guns - screw the votes. If the majority of the people see this as an illegal grab for power why aren’t there hundreds of thousands of protestors out on the street. If spontaneous peaceful protests don’t develop quickly count on more of the same by the bad guys. People get the government they deserve. And BTW, light a candle for the passing of what used to be the only real Arab democracy (maybe it wasn’t perfect, but what is) in the ME.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Hezbollah was forced into that position by the weak government. They should be grateful. Before Hezbollah came along. Israel conquered Souther Lebanon. If it wasn’t for Hezbollah Israel and their traitorous Christian allies would still be torturing innocent civilians.
Why can’t they leave Hezbollah alone? If you want to politically oppose them. Fine. Don’t try to damage their fighting capability. It will only make Israel take advantage.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Could they have least got something in return of revoking, like dismantling the camps downtown? If that was the case, i’d feel a little better about this, but right now this feels ugly.