Birds Of A Feather

President Emile Lahhoud and Speaker Nabih Berri are both on the wrong side of history. It would be reckless to single out one of them. Either sack them both, or keep them both.


In a television plea last evening, Walid Jumblat was instructing his supporters to be calm in the event of his assassination. His concerns seem to be genuine; his life is in real danger, and it seems the killers are on the loose. But the question to ask is this: why the dramatic T.V. performance? Do you actually need to go on T.V to tell your supporters to be calm if you were assassinated?

I for one don’t trust Jumblat’s sincerity anymore. His appearance seemed to me more like emotional blackmail, consistent with his party’s aggressive policy to discredit and remove president Lahhoud from office.
But gimmicks aside, is such a policy the best way to go forward? Why then is president Lahhoud getting more and more sympathizers, from NewTV to Aoun to the Patriarch?

It’s because the PSP’s policy, by singling out President Lahhoud and ignoring Speaker Nabih Berri (who was as corrupt and pro-Syrian as the president), is perceived as unfair and hypocritical. It is also feeding into Christian unease about the latest “Moslem deal” to bring back the 2000 electoral law.

Ali Hmedeh, a writer in Annahar and the brother of PSP number 2 Marwan Hmedeh, wrote an article today titled. “What’s most important is to save the Lebanese from president Lahhoud”. He spoke of a “diabolical pact” between Aoun, President Lahhoud and the Moukhabarat to bring Aoun to the Presidency. This is why, he advised, the “disillusioned” Aoun has to repent and join the right side of history.

What Ali Hmedeh is doing is a classic PSP mistake: Focus on Lahhoud, forget about Berri. He doesn’t know that Aoun, by siding with the president, is only expressing a fair sentiment of his (Christian) constituency.

To play the devil’s advocate, I’m going to assume that Aoun has his own Ali Hmedeh. What would he write?

Let me guess, maybe an article called: “What’s most important is to save the Lebanese from speaker Berri”. He would speak of a “diabolical pact” between Jumblat, Hariri and Berri to keep their seats by restoring the 2000 electoral law.
He would also advise the “disillusioned” Hariri and Jumblat to repent and join the right side of history.

So Mr. Jumblat, save the tears and balance out your position: either kick both Berri and Lahhoud out, or just live with the idea of having them both around.