We’re the beacon of the oppressed. The house on the hill. We welcome the persecuted with open arms. As long as they don’t overstay their welcome of course:
The Phalange Party called on the government on Monday to carefully follow up on the flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon, warning of a “new form of naturalization” facing the country.
Filed under crass insensitivity and terrible timing..
The critics of PM Mikati’s policy of dissociation are loud and relentless (this blog included). MTV has even dedicated a TV feature to a quote by Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.
But as I watched yesterday’s demos, I couldn’t help but notice that even March 14 is somewhat complicit in dissociation. Yesterday’s turnout in the rival demonstrations was exclusive to Salafis and Baathist. The demonstrators were not joined by other mainstream anti-Syrian (Future Movement) and pro-Syrian (Hezbollah) parties. It was as if there was an agreement behind the scene between the FM and Hezbollah not to show up. Why? Because that would contribute to social unrest in Lebanon and nobody wants that.
I don’t know about you, but avoiding an anti-Assad demonstration to prevent civil strife sounds like textbook dissociation to me.
As an aside, yesterday’s exercise in controlled democracy –where extreme marginal parties were given a space to let off steam without affecting the system or the balance of power in any way– is a testimony to the sophistication of the political game in Lebanon and its ability to manage tension.
– A Threat? –
The Lebanese Salafis are feeling confident. They are emboldened by the rise of Islamists in the Arab world and by the void in Lebanese Sunni politics that Mr. Saad Hariri has left behind.
They are making a play for power. They are coming up with charismatic leaders, organizing demonstrations and are getting louder than ever. Today’s demonstration is their first in Beirut, and they are getting a sympathetic ear in March 14 media because they are expressing the people’s anger against the monstrous Syrian regime.
The good news is that they’re not about to dominate Lebanese Sunni politics any time soon. They don’t own media conglomerates and they are far from Lebanese mainstream public opinion. But they can cause great harm to the Future Movement (FM), a movement which until recently was the de-facto umbrella movement for most Sunni parties in Lebanon.
The FM likes to sell itself as the voice of Sunni moderation, an image that is diametrically opposed to that of the Salafis. And yet whenever the Salafis show up in public events, The March 8 propaganda machine manages to portray them as an extension of Hariri’s embattled political empire.
This is bad because it’s scaring Christians and other minorities who are sitting on the fence and watching how Islamists in the Arab world (and Nigeria) are massacring Christians and driving them away. And yet the FM, beholden to the Saudis who also support the Salafis, can’t pull off anything more than issuing weak statements to distance themselves from the hardliners.
In the past, the FM got away with cozying up to the Islamists, but in today’s world this is complete folly. Future TV and Almustaqbal newspaper should keep featuring moderate Muslims lambasting the medieval thinking of the Salafists, their antiquated treatment of women, their penchant for violence and their deeply intolerant beliefs. The salafis should be constantly attacked, ridiculed, made fun of until any association with them becomes an embarrassment to any average Lebanese Muslim.
Great infographic by Iyad..
How dare you donate worn-out, obsolete, ancient and out-of-circulation money to the Syrian revolution?
If true, this is very serious. But it could also be an elaborate hoax.
In a somewhat misleadingly titled piece, the Daily Star reports that “Gemayel backs Lebanon’s dissociation policy”:
“This has been my policy [dissociation] from the start. If the government adopts it, that’s good. Principle and logic compel me to adopt this position. I don’t like the term dissociation but [prefer] positive neutrality, one that truly isolates the Lebanese scene from sharp divisions born of conflicts with strategic dimensions,” Gemayel, the head of the Kataeb party, told Al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published Monday.
This does indeed sound as if Gemayel is joining the Mikati bandwagon on Syria, but the crucial difference, the difference that makes Gemayel’s position more honorable and one that I can easily stand behind, is that he is not afraid to call things by their own names:
In the interview, Gemayel also reiterated that his party supported the “Syrian revolution.” “Nobody paid the price of the ‘barbarism’ of the Syrian regime like our party and family did and this is a primary and sufficient reason for us to support and stand in solidarity with the Syrian revolution with our calls, which are spontaneous emotional and political cries,”
Can you imagine Mikati ever using those words? Herein lies the crucial difference between a true policy of positive neutrality, a pragmatic approach to complex political events that doesn’t prevent you from expressing your honest opinions, and Mikati’s so-called dissociation, which is nothing more than subservience to the position of the Syrian regime disguised as neutrality.
Brian Whitaker on the participants of the “Friends of Syria” conference:
There is something surreal about a group of “friends” promoting change in Syria that includes so many autocrats and, as one of its leading lights, the country most notorious for resisting progress: Saudi Arabia. [...] The reality, of course, is that for all countries attending, national interests (or what they perceive as their national interests) come first and the Syrian people second. In some cases a distant second, even among the “brotherly” Arabs.
Great point, but Whitaker did not mention the honorable exception: The Democratic government of Tunisia, the organizer of the conference and arguably the only country that wishes for Syria what it had itself: A transfer to a real people-powered democracy.
This amazing video report from inside Homs is not your regular amateur footage of bloodied corpses and noisy blur that TV stations and twitter keep pumping at us these days. This is a professional report from a French video Journalist, Mani, who appears to have nerves of steel. The fighters around him are shaking and yet he keeps remarkable steadiness as he records detailed footage of a city under siege. (Thanks Haytham)
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