Lebanon and Syria, and the future challenges of Arab states integration
Regional, Analysis, 9/28/1998

It has become clear that Lebanon after its civil war is still incapable of functioning as an independent country and as a democracy. The reason for that is not the presence of foreign troops on Lebanese soil but rather the sheer incompetence of the Lebanese in understanding and practicing civics and democracy.

Lebanon is having a difficult time finding presidential candidates for its upcoming presidential elections. Since Lebanon is undergoing tremendous internal changes as it continues to come out of its civil war and is into its reconstruction process, Lebanon is not yet capable of providing for its own security in a real sense, be it internal or external.

Syria, invited into Lebanon by the Lebanese, has assumed much needed responsibility into bringing stability into Lebanon. Without stability, there is no hope of political or economic progress. Lebanon without Syria continues to be extremely vulnerable to internal strife, and external threats and pressures from Israel, which occupies part of south Lebanon and supports a renegade militia group called the South Lebanon Army.

Lebanon's internal vulnerability stems from many factors. While it was a Christian president with support from the Christian minority in Lebanon that called for Syrian intervention to save their forces during the civil war when Muslim militia groups where making rapid advances on their sectarian enclaves, the Christians currently harbor resentment against Syria that is not expressed publicly. The Lebanese Christians' feelings stem from the moral support the Lebanese in general have given to the Lebanese resistance (mostly Moslem) against Israel and the Israeli-supported renegade militia group in the south (mostly Christian), and from the lack of the political control that the Christians have been accustomed to exercising in the past.

Without clarifying that Lebanon endured a brutal and long lasting civil war where the Lebanese excelled at butchering each other in ways Genghis Khan would have been proud of, nothing we say here will make sense. The details of the brutality with which different religious and political sects dealt with each other is too gruesome to detail here. But cutting off ears and genitalia and placing them in the mouth of the innocent victim simply because they happen to have had a Christian or Muslim name does not begin to tell the story of the hate the Lebanese people expressed toward each other during the civil war. This from a Lebanon that has given the world so much from its Phoenician alphabet to Gibran Khalil Gibran to the beautiful mosaic of its religions groups and mini-cultures that at times of peace resembled the best in all of us.

Can the terrible past repeat itself? The answer is a definite yes. The same forces that existed in the past are still there in their completeness and complexities.

But one merely need focus on the greatest external threat of all: Israel. Israel desires instability in Lebanon for many reasons that have been explored on our pages, and we will not recite them beyond saying that they are many and strategic at the Lebanese level and the regional level. Israel would be very capable of playing the sectarian cards effectively without a Syrian presence in Lebanon, and without an effective Lebanese government and without he Lebanese people recognizing themselves as Lebanese first and not subject to religious and sectarian powers next.

But religion is a very personal matter, and many Lebanese view it as more important than loyalty to and love of country. This fact, strengthened by lack of civic education and practice, is the weakness in the construct of Lebanese tribal politics that has in the past and will continue to allow forces, foreign or domestic to destabilize Lebanon.

Without the Lebanese realizing that their fate is lumped together and their duty is to support the integrity and well-being of their country together, not much can be hoped for in building strong public and civic institutions that will allow Lebanon and the Lebanese independence and democracy as well as the freedom and economic benefits derived from them.

This means that all Lebanese should join to participate in expelling Israel from their territories and calling on the renegade militia group to surrender itself to the government. Due to past circumstances as a result of the civil war, exceptional measures may be considered in resolving the issue of the South Lebanon Army, and that is a subject for the Lebanese to determine, but a solution to this problem must be found that will express two fundamental points: that all of the Lebanese will be of one mind that treason is not allowed and that mercy can be expressed.

Also, all Lebanese leadership at every level must develop an understanding that can be communicated to citizens that their own protection and the protection of those who are in a minority status will not be successfully achieved through sectarianism and enshrining sectarianism in the constitution and in their daily practices. Political assignments based on religious affiliation should have no place in law. This may be inappropriate at this time of great turbulence, but there is no other long-term solution other than having the government run by competent individuals elected by the populous in general, regardless of their religious affiliation.

The government's function is to treat all equally. Strong protections in the constitution for individuals and the protection of people and minorities -- all minorities, without any enumeration is the only guarantee of protection for one and all. As long as religion is a factor in the functioning of Lebanon's government, religion will be a factor in Lebanese politics, thus dividing the Lebanese people along sectarian lines, instead of having them act in a civic manner.

When governments treat and respect all of their citizens in the same way, all of the citizens feel allegiance to the government that governs them; otherwise, resentment, factionalization and instability are only some of the negative consequences of a government that is biased according to religion. Arab states are mostly Moslem in population, and it was Islam that freed the slaves and spoke of equality and tolerance.

Previous Stories:
  Syria vs. Israel on Lebanon   (4/9/1998)
  The failure of US foreign policy in Iraq   (2/10/1998)
  Ethnic divides in the Arab world   (9/16/1997)

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