Article: Lebanon for Hezbollah

800,000 on streets in revolution to put Lebanon in hands of Hezbollah
Nicholas Blanford, Beirut
Pro-Syria crowd packs city centre
Protesters vow to change government
UK Times

It was last year’s “Cedar revolution” in reverse. Hundreds of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters waving Lebanese flags rallied yesterday in central Beirut, vowing to remain in the streets until the Western-backed Government was overthrown.

Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister, says that the Government is determined to remain in power, accusing the Hezbollah-led opposition of attempting to mount a coup and acting on the orders of Syria and Iran.

With neither side willing to give way, many Lebanese fear that the political deadlock will be broken only by violence.

The huge crowd, numbering perhaps 800,000 or almost a quarter of the population, packed two squares in the city centre. They had travelled from all over Lebanon.

“Siniora out, Siniora out,” chanted groups of young supporters of General Michel Aoun, the former Lebanese army commander who is an opposition ally of Hezbollah.

General Aoun is also a Christian leader, emphasising that opposition to the Sunni-led Government goes wider than Shia Hezbollah.

Highlighting the sectarian divisions in Lebanon’s power struggle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country, telephoned Mr Siniora and every member of his Cabinet to offer his personal support.

Mr Siniora and his ministers sat out the rally in the heavily protected Grand Serail, his offices overlooking the city centre. Troops had slung rows of razor wire across the approach roads, increasing the impression of a government under siege.

Mr Siniora has increased hugely the numbers of security personnel around him amid assassination fears. Last month Pierre Gemayel, the Industry Minister, died in a hail of bullets aimed at his car.

“I call on the Prime Minister and his ministers to quit,” General Aoun said, to the cheers of protesters. “I wish that the Prime Minister and his ministers were among us today, not hiding behind barbed wire and army armoured carriers. He who has his people behind him does not need barbed wire.”

About 20,000 troops were deployed on the streets to forestall any outbreak of trouble. Armoured personnel carriers equipped with heavy machineguns were parked at road junctions. About 15,000 Hezbollah marshals channelled Shia Muslim protesters along the main roads from the southern suburbs of Beirut to the city centre, ensuring that none strayed into Christian neighbourhoods.

“We want to topple the American government in Beirut,” said Iman Shehadi, wearing a full-length black chador, who had travelled from Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon. “We want a government of people willing to sacrifice themselves for Lebanon,” she added.

The turmoil has been festering since the end of the war between Hezbollah and Israel four months ago. The catalyst was the imminent formation of a tribunal under UN auspices to try those accused of murdering Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister who died in a truck bomb explosion in February last year.

A UN commission has suggested that Syria was responsible and the anti-Syrian Lebanese Government believes that Damascus has instructed its allies in Lebanon to create a political crisis to forestall the establishment of the tribunal.

But bigger issues are at stake. Lebanon has become an arena for a struggle for control of the Middle East, pitting the West and its Arab allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, against an anti-Western alliance grouping Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

The US views the Lebanese Government as a useful tool to maintain pressure on neighbouring Syria and to block Iran’s ambitions to influence directly the Arab-Israeli conflict through Hezbollah, its ally.

But the anti-Western axis is seeking to weaken US influence in Lebanon by replacing Mr Siniora’s Government with one more sympathetic to Damascus and Tehran. Inevitably, the political struggle in Lebanon takes on a sectarian edge, with the Government supported by most Christians and the Sunni and Druze communities against an opposition overwhelmingly composed of Shia Muslims. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Druze and a harsh critic of Syria, said that the rally was an “attempted coup, but we will remain strong”.

Hezbollah says that it will increase its actions if the Government refuses to yield to the opposition’s demands, raising fears of a prolonged crisis.

“It will take some weeks,” said Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese minister and Syrian ally who attended the rally.

“I hope that change comes about through compromise, if not we are going to have real problems.”

What’s next for Lebanon?

If the opposition triumphs

The Siniora Government falls because of street action by the Hezbollah-led opposition
Pro-Syrian Lebanese form the next government and delay formal approval of the Hariri international tribunal
Washington’s influence declines, Syria’s increases and a Paris-hosted international aid conference scheduled for the new year to fund Lebanon’s postwar recovery is postponed

If the Government survives
Bombings and murders continue, as the UN investigation into Hariri’s murder draws to a conclusion
Hezbollah and its allies escalate their opposition to the Government with continued strikes and sit-ins, further crippling an already ailing economy
Washington may begin to lose interest in Lebanon as it is urged to arrange deals with Syria and Iran over Iraq

Hezbollah Protests Continue to Fill Streets of Beirut
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post
Saturday, December 2, 2006; 11:36 AM

BEIRUT, Dec. 2 -- Hezbollah and its allies escalated Lebanon’s month-long political crisis into a popular confrontation Friday and Saturday, sending hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets, parking lots and sidewalks of downtown Beirut, vowing to topple the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and reorient the country.

The city’s stylish downtown, to some a symbol of recovery from the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, was awash in red-white-and-green Lebanese flags, interspersed with banners in the colors of various sectarian and political leaders. The winter sun glinted off coils of wire and barricades encircling the colonnaded government headquarters nearby, where Siniora and other ministers have taken up residence. But the crowd was more festive than angry, more celebratory than militant, as the theater of the moment intersected, perhaps a little dissonantly, with the drama of a struggle as decisive as any in Lebanon’s history.

“I wish that our prime minister and his ministers were here among us today, rather than hiding behind army tanks and barbed wire,” Michel Aoun, an influential Christian leader allied with Hezbollah, told the crowd. “The one who has support of his people does not need barbed wire.” Moments later, he added, “I call on the prime minister and his ministers to resign.”

In symbolism, numbers and aims, the protest marked a collision between two countries that have coexisted uneasily inside Lebanon following the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005, when dueling protests convened in downtown Beirut over Syria’s 29-year military presence here. They share almost no common ground: the culture of resistance to Israel celebrated by Hezbollah or the accommodation promoted by Siniora’s government; the influence of Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran and Syria or that of the government’s French and American allies; a divided social perspective, one more religiously traditional, one more liberal. Also at issue is the extent of power due the long-disenfranchised Shiite Muslim community, the country’s single largest, that Hezbollah and its militia largely represent.

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters camped out in tents in the center of the city on Saturday, keeping up the pressure on the Siniora government to resign, the Associated Press reported from Beirut.

Following Friday’s demonstration, participants set up hundreds of white tents across downtown, just yards from Siniora’s offices, the AP reported. They kept up their noisy, carnival-like protests for a second day in a row with occasional chants of “Siniora out!,” the news agency reported.

“One Lebanon, one voice!” people shouted Friday. But the question playing out across downtown Beirut, under the statue of one of Lebanon’s founders, Riyad es-Solh, was the same question asked at Lebanon’s independence in 1943 and so often since: What kind of Lebanon?

What is happening is more than just a political struggle unleashed by Hezbollah’s demand in October for a share of the cabinet that would give it an effective veto over government decisions. Competing narratives of the country’s past and future are on display.

Both sides utter the same words -- independence, sovereignty, national unity -- yet they hold two visions of what those words represent. In broadcasts, both Hezbollah’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah, and Siniora urged their supporters to fly the Lebanese flag, either at the protest or, for the prime minister’s supporters, from their homes. Each man speaks with sincerity underlined by the desperate conviction that the other side poses an existential threat. Both claim legitimacy from a long list of martyrs, whether Hezbollah’s dead in this summer’s war with Israel or Hariri and other anti-Syrian figures assassinated in Beirut since his death.

And both speak with certainty of a majority they claim to represent in Lebanon.

“Us,” sign after sign read Friday. In Arabic, the consonants used can also mean, “We want a clean government.”

“The government ruling us right now is dictatorial. It’s a minority claiming to be a majority,” said Boudy Mbarak, 24, a Christian supporter of Aoun from the village of Balouneh. “And I think we’re showing today who’s the majority.”

Behind him, chants cascaded across the crowd: “Siniora out! We want a free government!” Drums added a cadence to the slogans thundering from banks of speakers. Youths danced in circles: “Hey, hey, you government of thieves!”

With Friday’s protest, the crisis now gains momentum. Hezbollah has said the demonstrations will be open-ended. Long after nightfall, white tents went up in the downtown area, where thousands of people were expected to stay indefinitely, and speakers blared Hezbollah anthems. Groups lit fires with placards, one reading, “All of us for the nation.” Others played cards or smoked water pipes in a carnival-like atmosphere.

“I’m staying until the year 2100 or until Sayyid Hasan speaks again,” vowed Hassan Karnib, a 20-year-old protester, using an honorific for the Hezbollah leader.

If the protests fail to force the government’s resignation, flatly ruled out by Siniora in a speech Thursday, Hezbollah’s supporters have talked about resignations from parliament, work stoppages or civil disobedience to shut down ministries.

The group’s opponents, sensing that Friday’s mass demonstration was the biggest card it had to play, promised to wait.

“They decided to go to the streets. Let them do that, and let them stay there as long as they want,” said Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze community, who has shifted alliances since the civil war and is now one of Hezbollah’s most outspoken opponents. “We will stay in our homes, raise our flags and wait one month, two months, as long as they want.”

Hezbollah announced the protest Thursday, and by early morning the movement, among the best-organized in the Middle East, was in full swing. The southern suburbs, devastated by Israeli bombing this summer, were almost frenetic, with buses plying roads and flags of Hezbollah and Lebanon flying from windows. Mopeds sped through streets plastered with portraits of Nasrallah, who has inspired a cult of personality among his followers and others in the Arab world. “I promise you victory always,” read one of his posters near a warren of shops along a street snarled with traffic.

Protesters ventured downtown along streets adorned with the iconography of Hezbollah’s opponents. One sign read in French, “I love life.” Another, written in red, said in Arabic, “We want to live.” Both were critiques of Hezbollah’s celebration of martyrdom.

“They don’t love life; they love the throne,” quipped Maha Kanj, 16.

A Hezbollah placard read: “Because we love life.”

Each side boasted of the numbers, or lack thereof, at the protest. Hezbollah’s television station, al-Manar, put the figure at 1.5 million. Future Television, loyal to Hariri’s son, Saad, who has inherited leadership of the Sunni community, estimated tens of thousands. Although it was larger than last week’s funeral for assassinated cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, it appeared smaller, according to anecdotal impressions, than the March 14 protest that climaxed last year’s demonstrations.

While al-Manar provided minute-by-minute coverage of the protest’s early hours, Future broadcast a cooking show. During the protest’s peak, Future broadcast a split screen. On one side were images of an empty Martyrs’ Square, with troops, armored personnel carriers and firetrucks barring demonstrators from entering. On the other were images of protests the night before in support of the prime minister. On al-Manar, the numbers themselves were the message: “This is probably the view Siniora had of the demonstrations,” the announcer said as footage rolled. “We wonder whether he heard and saw.”

Hezbollah went to lengths to portray the demonstration as less its own and more an expression of what it calls the national opposition. No Hezbollah speakers appeared; Aoun, a Christian, gave the main address, although the number of his supporters paled in comparison to Hezbollah’s. The demonstrators themselves were eclectic, from sober-looking clerics in traditional robes to supporters of Aoun who had dyed their hair his group’s trademark orange. Others had donned orange wigs and cowboy hats. Some of the slogans were sectarian: “God, Nasrallah and all the southern suburbs.” At times, though, the crowd aimed for chants with broader appeal: “Green, yellow, orange,” the colors of Hezbollah, an allied movement and Aoun, “we want to topple the government.”

The slogans played on themes that Hezbollah and its allies have pushed relentlessly since the crisis began. Corruption was a key complaint. Many chants were directed at Siniora, some ridiculing him for crying in public during the war. “We’ve had enough lies and tears,” one went.

Often the language was directed against the United States’ sway in Lebanon. Nasrallah has called the government more loyal to U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman than Siniora himself, and in conversation after conversation, protesters, occasionally even Aoun’s supporters, cast the protest as a way to deflect U.S. influence, usually ignoring the roles played by Iran and neighboring Syria as Hezbollah’s allies.

“This is the government of Feltman!” shouted Zein Sleiman, 16.

“Siniora is an Israeli,” added his friend Samer Salim.

“No, he’s an American,” Sleiman answered. He paused. “There’s no difference!”

In some ways, the most poignant theme was the legacy of this summer’s war: Hezbollah’s opponents blame it for starting the conflict; Hezbollah celebrates it as a victory, with anger at what it sees as the government’s lack of support as it fought. The war’s imagery suffused the conversations and message of the protest. In Lebanese politics, the conflict left Hezbollah emboldened, and the sequence of events has proved an unbroken chain, with Hezbollah now pressing for unprecedented power.

As Ali Younis sat with his three sons, he used the words heard so often among Hezbollah’s supporters in southern Lebanon during the war: pride and empowerment.

Behind them a banner played on a slogan from the conflict: “As with victory, change is coming, coming, coming.” Younis spoke with the fervor of a man who wants to be listened to.

“I’m staying until the government falls,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “Dignity is more important than anything else.”

Special correspondent Lynn Maalouf contributed to this report.