POLITICS BY ASSASSINATION

...It appears to view America’s occasional and hesitant reaching out to it as nothing but weakness...

...American diplomats and support personnel can move around Beirut or the country at large only in carefully planned security convoys...

...It did recently impose economic sanctions on some Lebanese closely linked to Hezbollah, freezing their assets in the U.S...

...When I visited the most heavily bombed Haret Hreik area of the city with another Lebanese, there were signs everywhere of rebuilding...

...Nobody pays attention to the hired security guards who inspect every single visitor’s tote bag or briefcase...

...The U.S...

...In fact, the Hezbollah-controlled areas of Beirut are indeed in the southern part of the city, but only a few blocks south of those narghil-smokers of Verdun 732...

...Eof introductions and even paperwork...

...Even in daytime they are not allow g ed to - the CD store the assistant located a phone number Seniora could be whittled away to minority status for Hezbollah public affairs...

...Lahoud’s term in office expired November 23, W s group’ Lebanese the Though is Emile president oing outg timing...

...He was right...

...Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has made 3 2 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R f e b R U a R Y 2 0 0 8 d a v I d a I k M a n multiple trips to the country, alternately pleading and cajoling for a resolution...

...Its trump finan card t e o a s a a n r e c t hat made general hajj’s murder more to he in fa vestigate of inte further natio . Syria l dem has nd dug th in t s its m heels of i in s - the country’s leading politicians have been walkA renewal of the Lebanese civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1990, would be disastrous for both Lebanon and its neighbors...

...Foremost among the foreign states urging a resolution of the presidential crisis has been France, Lebanon’s former colonial ruler...

...In one afternoon Nasrallah damage was done,” replied my Lebanese friend told them to go back to their bombed-out homes, and smoothly...

...There was a snag, though...

...be questioned by the UN...

...beirut by by David Aikman It’s hard to grasp the reality of a country that for several years has been on the brink of implosion and civil war when you are enjoying a latté at Verdun 732, a fashionable shopping mall and cafe haven in the heart of Beirut’s consumer district...

...It is time now to elect a new president,” he told reporters, as though this idea had never occurred to most Lebanese...

...ing on eggshells attempting to select a successor...

...Before anyone in Hezbollah would agree to see me, I was politely told, I would need to fax over a résum...

...Welcome to Lebanon,” says the man serving me...

...Valentine’s Day—when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was blown to pieces by a car bomb whose sophisticated control system pointed clearly to Syrian engineering, Lebanon has suffered no fewer than nine political assassinations by bombing...

...nantly by Lebanon’s pro-Western elite...

...You never know where they are...

...General Hajj was a military professional with relatively good relations with Syria...

...Fatah al Islam is a Sunni insurgent group believed to have links to al Qaeda...

...Until the army promptly stepped in and removed the tires, the protest could have served as a tipping point for a new conflagration...

...Washington sent over its own assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, David Welch, in mid-December...

...Once again, my Lebanese friend East”) recently reported that Nasrallah had been had a smooth-tongued answer...

...Syrian involvement in Hariri’s assassination was so widely suspected that the Lebanese government invited the UN to send an international commission cier is Iran, its supplies, and sometimes the cash, have to come through Lebanon’s neighbor Syria...

...The latest victim, in midDecember, was unusual in that he was the first major public target not to have been a known opponent of Syria...

...the following day General Hajj was assassinated...

...Puppet or not, Syria’s sense of entitlement to dominate events in Lebanon goes back even before its troops entered Lebanon’s civil war in 1976, ostensibly to restore order...

...No one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria,” said Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa in the second week of December...

...introduced himself in excellent English as a veteran But, suggestive of Hezbollah’s total subordination to of “several touristic trips to the U.S.,” and equally Iran, the Saudi-financed and London-based Arabic- firmly, though not unpleasantly, wanted to know language newspaper Esharg alawsat (“The Middle what I was doing...

...worrisome Since than usual, however, was its officials Hezbollah...

...Of course, nothing in Lebanon is that simple...

...Serving army officers, according to the Lebanese constitution, must be two years out of the military before standing for public office...

...I called one of the Hezbollah public affairs phone numbers on my cell phone...

...Since the expiry of President Lahoud’s term in office November 23, there have been eight scheduled votes on a new president, but all have been postponed...

...Youths started burning tires on the roadway...

...The “March 14” parliamentary faction that backs pro-Western Lebanese prime minister Fouad Seniora in theory could elect whomever it wants...

...Technically, if the assassination pro atch w sniper a is there case in curtains their open ven so, it’s virtually impossible to make contown Beirut...

...Since February 2005—actually St...

...Israel has certainly assassinated enemy politicians—notably from the PLO—outside its borders, but the notion that it wants chaos in Lebanon is infantile...

...Politics Assassination The political plight of multicultural Lebanon...

...has almost no leverage with Syria, not even having an ambassador there, and very little inside Lebanon...

...There is, however, simply because too many of is group’s MPs have been no way of showing up at an office and picking up a killed off...

...A few locations were still Israel, Hezbollah was reported to have a strong base in the “southern suburbs” of Beirut...

...In addition, the U.S...

...But not everyone in Beirut takes the brownouts with cheerful equanimity...

...Iran, which bumped up its annual subvention of $400 million to more than $1 billion in the wake of the war, has made sure that no Shiite Lebanese goes hungry or lacks a roof over his head...

...Tmonkey is Hezbollah...

...Brigadier General Francois Hajj had commanded the wildly popular assault on Fatah al Islam in the Palestinian Narh el-Bared refugee camp north of Beirut...

...Because the stakes in Lebanon are high, and not just for Lebanon’s own population, hardly a week has gone by since mid-summer when there has not been a foreign visitor or delegation of renown visiting the country and consulting its national political figures...

...In practice, the political balance of power in Lebanon is held by Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Shiite political party that has for several years acted essentially as a state within a state...

...Hezbollah is backed by Syria, which was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2006 in response to Lebanese anger at its suspected involvement in Hariri’s assassination...

...He was referring to the Al-Manar site, a young man came trotting up, Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah...

...A Lebanese So was security...

...At the other cafe on the mall, just across the walk-up patio from Starbucks, two fashionably dressed and good-looking Lebanese women are each smoking a narghil, the Arab world’s emblem of relaxed tobacco use, the smoke percolating up through perfumed water...

...A few moments later, as I started to film by nightfall they had all gone...

...The American Spectator Foundation, 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901 Arlington, VA 22209 3 4 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R f e b R U a R Y 2 0 0 8 For further information please contact Patrick Pyles, Director of Development at 703-807-2011 ext...

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...embassy in Beirut has been under extremely tight security concerns for several years...

...Its main building, first blown up by a Hezbollah bomb in 1982, and later targeted by RPG rockets in 1984, is guarded only a tad more tightly than Fort Knox...

...It is even possible that his murder was carried out by Fatah al Islam members or sympathizers...

...They are constantly on Syria, meanwhile, appears to show not the least the move,” said a Lebanese journalist...

...It’s a complicated political structure...

...At a two-story Starbucks, business is brisk, the servers behind the espresso machine cheerful, and at least trilingual (Arabic, French, English...

...Hezbollah press handout...

...In theory, the tight secrecy is also true of the Syrians who, as noted, don’t even have an embassy in Beirut...

...During the July 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah was reported to have a strong base in the “southern suburbs” of Beirut...

...A renewal of the Lebanese civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1990, would be disastrous for both Lebanon and its neighbors...

...Heaven knows, Lebanon has not been short of tipping points in the past few years...

...Iran finances both Hezbollah and Syria in a way that made one Lebanese observer say disgustedly to me, “Syria is Iran’s puppet...

...I was to know what I was doing...

...Not surprisingly, Hezbollah, at Syria’s urging, was holding out for sufficient cabinet positions in the new government of Fouad Seniora to veto Seniora’s decisions...

...The election of Suleiman required the additional component of an amendment to the Lebanese constitution that would permit Suleiman to be president...

...What Israel desperately needs in its neighboring Arab states is stability, not chaos...

...Let Your Legacy Be One of Freedom...

...Seeing how much bomb amazed,” he admitted...

...casually, as we entered a CD store...

...In the city’s heavily populated Shiite southern districts of Haret Hreik, hard hit by Israeli bombing during Hezbollah’s war with Israel in July 2006, resentment at electricity rationing spilled out into the streets in mid-December...

...As I was filming at one bombprofessor who is an American citizen was wondering site, a middle-aged security guard in olive drab and nervously whether these displaced Lebanese would with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder demanded return to their homes once the war was over...

...Suburb” is a total misnomer, suggestive of the manicured lawns of Chevy Chase or Rolling Hills in Los Angeles...

...3 0 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R f e b R U a R Y 2 0 0 8 Assassination When the lights go out and the espresso machine whirs to a halt, everyone shrugs...

...For several weeks, the fear of assassination has kept 40 Lebanese MP’s holed up in a carefully watched wing of the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel in downembarrassment about allegations of its murderous involvement in Lebanese politics...

...Bombings are almost a weekly national event, and no place in the city is totally secure from them...

...In fact, the U.S...

...During the 2006 war with Israel, at least a million Lebanese Shiites were forced to evacuate their homes in southern Lebanon and take refuge in safer locations just outside of Beirut, often in elegant Hezbollah’s TV station Al-Manar—but dozers and and leafy suburban enclaves inhabited predomi- construction crews seemed ubiquitous...

...At doesn’t end, the parliamentary majority of Fouad m a r tact with Hezbollah officials without a lot ing them...

...The Lebanese express During the July 2006 war with b t , o a b L i r g i h n ough oo s m yria n is e alw n ays n the its elephant unpredic in a the le liv pe - t totally bombed-out caverns in the ground—notably astonishment at Hezbollah’s incredible internal discipline...

...Tehran, with Persian carpet logic, blamed his murder on Israel, on the grounds that Hajj’s military contribution to Lebanon’s sovereignty interfered with Israel’s f e b R U a R Y 2 0 0 8 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R 3 1 P o L I T I c s b Y a s s a s s I n a T I o n alleged desire for “chaos” in Lebanon...

...As of mid-December, the parliament was scheduled to vote on December 17, the candidate most generally agreed upon being army chief of staff General Michel Suleiman...

...relieved of all his military positions by Iran’s supreme “There’s a lot of money in this area,” he said religious and political leader Ali Khamenei...

...Support The American Spectator in Your Will One of the best ways to ensure future generations have access to a powerful voice in conservative journalism is by including The American Spectator Foundation in your will...

...david aikman’s books include Great Souls: Six Who Changed a Century (Lexington Books) and Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush (Thomas Nelson...

...Hezbollah, therefore, is essentially Syria’s proxy in Lebanese internal affairs, threatening to disrupt the normal process of politics any time that the mood among Lebanese politicians seems to be too hostile to Damascus...

...Technically the selection of a president requires only that he be a Maronite Christian and that a majority of parliamentarians vote for him...

...embassy welcomes the French participation, and Washington considers the involvement of Paris in this particular area of the Middle East useful rather than a nuisance...

...Since their troops were forced to leave Lebanon under international pressure in 2006, their presence in the country has been invisible, except where there has been a bomb-blast aimed at some politician or other who is opposed to them...

...The American Spectator Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and our federal tax identification number is 23-7002632...

...Syria, amazingly enough, has never established diplomatic relations with Lebanon, evidently considering it simply part of its natural “hemisphere,” an Arab version of the Monroe Doctrine...

...Contrary to what I had expected, f e b R U a R Y 2 0 0 8 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R 3 3 P o L I T I c s b Y a s s a s s I n a T I o n I saw almost no Hezbollah-style beards on young men and no more hijab-clad women than in the rest of Beirut...