Column Two

February 2005

Walid Jumblatt’s request of the “internationalization” of the Lebanese crisis came as a surprise to many and gave the Lebanese authority the justification to accuse Jumblatt and the opposition behind him of being collaborators.

Jumblatt, whose national reputation survives beyond the attempt of Syria’s Lebanese clients to defame him, was being pragmatic. Jumblatt is not the first Arab leader to put the suppression of Arab regimes to international arbitration. Almost all oppositions in the Arabs world, most of whom are afraid for their personal security and live in exile, have asked for international protection.

What Jumblatt and the opposition are saying is that, there is no national dignity, sovereignty or independence without freedom of expression. “I’m trying to talk to them (the Lebanese authorities), but they are shooting at me. Would you call this dialogue?” Jumblatt replied to one of the questions during one of the several interviews that he gave after the assassination of Lebanese Primer Minister Rafik Hariri.

Jumblatt also put an end to suppression under the banner of defending land and honor, better known in the Arab world as resistance. “They’ve done their job, we thank them for that.”

Jumblatt said in a statement that signals the end of the Lebanese popular support of Hizbullah which transformed itself from being an anti-Israeli resistance to a pro-Syrian faction threatening to turn its weapons to inside frontiers as its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warns of possible civil war with any redeployment of Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon since 1976.

The third Jumblatt eye-opener is that there is a thin fine line between healthy Lebanese-Syrian relations and Syrian occupation. If the relation is based on mutual respect, the relation falls under the banner of Arab cooperation. If the relation is based on the rule of Syrian intelligence of the Lebanese political life, then it is occupation.

All in all, Jumblatt is telling everyone now that the Lebanese-Syrian relations have drifted into a Syrian occupation and that Hizbullah has become a faction bogged in domestic rivalries. The correction of this situation comes through the end of the Syrian occupation and disarming the party that is threatening to turn its arms from the Israel front to the internal front. This is UN resolution 1559.