Could one die while he is an elder and yet a young man at the same time? This Lebanon's state today.
The horrifying and incomparable crime at Beirut’s port declared the country’s death at its 100 years of age. It can be added that omens of death have always been murmured throughout this country’s history, during both of its first and second republics. In the first republic, there were the 1958, 1969, and 1973 before the 1975 war, which lasted 14 years but was not the last of our sorrows. The country was 32 years old at the time. In the second republic, there were 1996, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2019-2020, in addition to the long periods during which parliament had been suspended or there was a presidential vacuum and forming governments had been difficult.
Then came the crime of genocidal nature. The Lebanese who had been awaiting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s verdict on Rafic Hariri's assassination, are now awaiting an international investigation into a bitter and more serious crime. The people of Lebanon are in absolute despair.
The Lebanese project has always been difficult, and it has always had a strong propensity to die out. But now, with hundreds dead, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands displaced and suffering, all the pillars of the country are collapsing:
- Its system of governance and the class that governed it are collapsing. In its bankruptcy, it can do nothing but declare a state of emergency and hide behind the military's authority.
- Its economic system, which is closely tied up to politicians, is collapsing. The banks, which had been the economy's major source of pride, are now reeling.
- The state of affairs wherein amassing arms and establishing parallel armies that drag the country into avoidable regional conflicts is collapsing.
- A cultural system, with all its faces and different orientations, is collapsing, as it is incapable of taking on the tasks presented by this difficult project.
- Despite signs to the contrary, some of them empty symbols, what remains of "sectarian coexistence", which was the backbone of the Lebanese regime and national consensus, is collapsing.
- The tide of immigration is rising, especially among potential innovators: The educated and qualified young men and women, and those in the upper half of the social pyramid. All kinds of institutions are deteriorating, from universities to hospitals ... Until further notice, Lebanon will not have cities or ports...
These crises befall the country amid a major economic crisis that has recently been crowned by the recent disaster and the need for reconstruction.
It has become difficult to envision traditional methods solving things, to say nothing of the traditional political elite, while there are no substantial alternative political forces that cut across groups and sects on the horizon. As for the world’s ability to provide aid, it remains limited and is in doubt for several reasons, some of which have to do with Lebanon and others with the world: The massive volume of assistance required amid a global economic crisis, and also amid internal discord, rampant corruption and hesitation to reform, Hezbollah’s weapons, and conflicting positions amongst influential regional and international sates. All of this, and we have not gotten to the investigation yet, while its process and revelations may conclusively destroy what is left of the superficial peace.
In other words: “Lebanon’s revival”, this time, is far less likely than its death. Who knows, after a short while, the situation in Lebanon and Beirut may devolve into desertification, as happened to other devastated cities and countries (Baghdad after the conquest of Hulagu in 1258?).
The pain and grief invoked by this image are compounded by the fact that Lebanon remains an urgent need, not only for itself but for the entire region as well.
What is meant here is the freedom its elected parliament allows, its free press, and the parties and unions that are freely established and free to compete. What is also meant here is an economic and cultural openness to the world, especially the West, and a relatively wide margin of freedom of thought and freedom to do what one pleases with his or her body. What is meant is a formula that managed to evade transformation into a military regime and avoided its repression, and did not impose an official ideology on society that defines right and wrong. What is meant is that minorities did not feel, at least not in times of normalcy, afraid because they are minorities. What is meant here is the role played by this small country (when it had not yet been a country) in what has become known as the "Arab Renaissance.”
Reality is seldom removed from its idea, nor is an idea often removed from its reality, as is the case in Lebanon today. Thus, the dying country stops being merely a country, but rather a symbol of a mind-set and relationship that we neglected and mistreated until it eventually left us.
In this sense, Lebanon will die young, its people and the region will lose a lot as a result of its death. They will lose an image of the future, a project to emulate, and a potential path to modernity.
This is what justifies including the current - latest Beirut's disaster amongst the major disasters faced by Levantine Arabs: The 1948 Nakba in Palestine, the 1967 Arab defeat, the rise of military and security regimes, and the Khomeinist revolution in Iran... and this is the path we are walking down.
