Lebanon’s streets have witnessed unprecedented violence over the past few nights. Some observers and activists expected this scene to be repeated and repression to increase, before and after the nomination of a prime minister, and even in isolation of it.
If it is true that we are still very far from the Iraqi numbers, all hope is that we will not get close to them. The extent of intransigence facing the revolution’s complex and thorny attempt is not simple.
It is enough to enumerate the four main enemies, which, on October 17, the Lebanese men and women chose to unite against and challenge their hegemony.
First, we find the “neo-liberal” economy, which is represented today by the bank.
The latter, which is robbing public money through activities that are further fueled by the interference of the political group and the banking community, is now looting individuals, one by one, with no barriers whatsoever.
However, the bank is not a marginal detail in the composition of the Lebanese economy. Lebanon has lived for a long time, and in the eyes of many, as a great bank for which Michel Shiha composed ideas, just as the Rahbani brothers composed songs.
The centralization of the bank has practically developed in the past thirty years. Its economic weight has increased, so did its recognition in the prevailing policy and convictions. The bank’s challenge in its current form involves reconsidering the structure of the Lebanese pillaging of the economy itself, and its operation methods.
Here - unlike the many contradictions among the ruling group - we find pure unity against the “neo-liberal” system.
The second dragon is sectarianism. It is the conscience of the country and the pillar of its ideology, since 1860, in the Moutassarifiah of Mount Lebanon and as of 1920, with the establishment of Greater Lebanon.
But sectarianism is not just a conscience. Without it, politics and national economy cannot be understood. Without it, one cannot explain the country’s many wars and little peace. Many intellectuals - the most prominent of whom is Kamal Youssef al-Hajj – have praised its virtues and blessings.
Today, for the first time since 1860, we are witnessing the greatest separation between confessionalism and the people. The system of “misinformation” that prevailed due to the power of sectarianism is no longer operational.
Third, there is Hezbollah, which represents a poisoned extension of the sectarian composition: After many experiences in using minimal violence to improve a sectarian position with the “national coexistence”, the “party” showed its ability to use maximum violence to subdue this “coexistence.” Its foreign relations were an extension to the policies of a certain sect. Today, its national policy merged with the Iranian foreign project in an inextricably tight manner…Hezbollah nowadays represents the sword of sectarianism.
In 2005, when most Lebanese accused Syria’s Bashar al-Assad of assassinating ex-PM Rafik Hariri, that party (which was not accused at the time) prevented the completion of the unity of the Lebanese position.
Now the same thing is happening again. The party is preventing a large sect from joining the revolution, while granting the dilapidated ruling authority a power that it does not possess.
In the fourth place, there is the climate of counter-revolution in the Arab world. This climate is the most poisonous in Syria, blowing its winds on Lebanon, and against the Lebanese revolution.
What Beirut is experiencing today says that Bashar Assad has not accomplished his mission yet.
Here lies one of the sources of hatred that Assad’s supporters rely on in their hostility to the Lebanese revolution. They fear that the gains they made through Iranian and Russian support on Syrian soil, would be lost in Baghdad and Beirut.
The four dragons that are being targeted by the Lebanon revolution underline the difficult and heroic task. This explains how the ruling parties seek to expand coordination and integration among them, starting with the tight security control witnessed over the past few days.
Perhaps the current revolution will be defeated. But what is certain is that fighting the four dragons will be a long-term task, which one generation will pass to another.
