Beirut Spring

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Remember that politics move quickly, and people and their opinions evolve.

Hariri’s Plan?

October 1, 2010 · Mustapha Hamoui

A plausible theory by Qifa Nabki:

Rather than pushing back against Nasrallah with his own maximalist position (i.e. that Hizbullah pulled the trigger, with Syrian and/or Iranian assistance), Hariri is signaling that he would be willing to help sell the “Israel-did-it” theory, but at a cost: that Hizbullah give up the members who had been “infiltrated” by the enemy. This mechanism would fulfill the favored “no victors, no vanquished” formula that is the unspoken rule of Lebanese politics. It would give everyone a way to save face: Hariri would get to say that he had avenged his father’s death and Hizbullah would be able to say it was right all along about Israel

This theory sounds so much like Lebanese politics that I’m willing to believe it.