❊ On Stability In Syria and Lebanon

Walid Jumblat:

We remind the Lebanese who are betting on an imbalance in Syria of the strategic equation that has proven again and again, through experience and through induction, that Lebanon’s security derives chiefly from Syria’s security, and that Lebanon’s stability derives from stability in Syria […] This is why betting on unrest in Syria is tantamount to insanity

And Nawaf al Mussawi (Hezbollah):

No stability in Lebanon without stability in Syria, and no security in Lebanon without security in Syria

Forget for a moment that the Lebanese pro-Syrians are all creepily and simultaneously repeating this same talking point in unison. Let’s just focus on the meat of the argument.

Maybe I’m not as old as the politicians telling us about what history has proven, and perhaps I should listen more to Walid Jumblat lecturing us about insanity. But in my relatively short political life, I never really saw a relationship between security in Lebanon and security in Syria.

In fact I know that the inverse of that relationship is not true: Instability in Lebanon doesn’t affect Syria; all the bombings and assassinations in the last 6 years didn’t affect Syrian stability in any way. All the so-called resistance is only taking place on Lebanese territory, while the Syrian occupied Golan is enjoying rock solid resistance-free “stability”.

The only kind of “stability” I can associate with the Syrians is one where Syrian masters dictate to Lebanese yes-men how things should be run in the country. The kind of stability that was as artificial as the stability that existed pre-revolution in Tunisia and Egypt and the one that exists today in Syria. Is that really what Mr. Jumblat and Mr. Mussawi are imploring us to preserve?