For at least the past four years, Lebanon, both as a state and as a nation, has been facing three major crises, in addition to the calamitous Beirut port blast. These crises are persistent, intertwined, and extremely resistant to the state management:
An unprecedented economic-financial-monetary crisis has hit the living standards hard, pushing the vast majority (80 percent) of the Lebanese citizens below the poverty line.
A political-national crisis faces us amid our flagrant and chronic inability to elect a president for the republic or rebuild constitutional institutions. These failures have paralyzed and undermined the Lebanese state, its institutions, and facilities. The failure to elect a new head of state since the previous president’s term ended last year has placed the question, a national-sovereign question par excellence, in the hands of foreign powers.
A persistent and deepening Syrian migrant crisis now poses a real threat to the unique social composition of Lebanon, which is known as a country of coexistence. This crisis also has social and economic implications, and it poses security challenges (Syrian refugees now make up around 40 percent of Lebanon's population). Compounding this issue is the call for using Lebanon as a platform for sending the displaced to Europe.
These persistent and intertwined crises have been managed by negligent and inept politicians, who have failed to address them due to their bad governance and their preoccupation with petty, vindictive, personal, and self-serving battles that have turned Lebanon into a failed and isolated state.
Amid these aggravating crises, the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation was a predictable outcome of Israel’s systematic abuse, terror, punishment, and pursuit of the genocide of the Palestinian people for decades. Given the lack of hope for a sustainable political solution, this uprising flipped our understanding of many previously well-established notions on their head, and it could potentially open new horizons, forcing adherence to international resolutions that condemn the occupation and affirm the need for a two-state solution.
Caught in this perilous situation, the Lebanese see the uncertainty and intersegment crises gripping their country on one side, and the ongoing crimes against humanity being committed against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank on the other. They look and reflect on the substantial sacrifices they have made for the Palestinian cause over decades, alongside the Arabs at times and acting on all of their behalf at others.
Then, they turn to look in a third direction and ask themselves what to expect in the event of misadventure: could turn Lebanon into a second Gaza - with its current state of affairs and/or what the coming days and hours might hold for it given the talk of a ground invasion - lead Israel to perpetuate another unprecedented massacre!? Is there another role we could play, one that maintains our historic loyalty to Palestine without compromising Lebanon? Indeed, "God does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear"? This other role is one that Lebanon can perform effectively and forcefully?
I firmly believe that the most realistic, needed, fruitful, and appropriate role for Lebanon, given what was mentioned above, is one that plays to its experiences and what remains of its strengths. Lebanon should play a political and diplomatic role, as well as try to shape the narrative, nothing more and of course, nothing less. Moreover, based on experience, particularly during the July 2006 war, I believe that political and diplomatic resistance often tends to be more powerful and effective than military resistance, especially if we agree on calculated measures that rule out improvised decisions and are not corrupted by tyranny.
Furthermore, this resistance must be made by the state, which represents the national consensus, if it is to be successful. Otherwise, if there is a multiplicity of partisan leaders seeking to "outbid” and undercut the state, the country can only incur heavy losses. This is another lesson I learned: when everyone backs the state, we see success, and whenever factional interests are put ahead of the state and it is ignored, everyone loses, and the regret expressed afterward does nothing!
This escalating violence across Palestine has become bigger than heedless Israeli retaliation. What is happening now in Gaza, the collective punishment and inhumanity we are seeing, has rapidly developed into a situation that the future entire Arab region and its shared interests hinge on. The considerations of major international powers, currently more polarized than ever due to the war in Ukraine, will play into this event in one way or another, perhaps more forcefully than ever before.
If we put the excess to one side, particularly in our sentiments and aspirations, and avoid opportunism and the allure of illusions, it becomes clear, from the logic of history, the lessons we have learned from experiences, and our moral values, that the Palestinian question cannot be resolved by annihilating the Palestinian people.
Let's say that the Arab mind that has allowed itself to mature through previous cases and disappointments, as well as what we Arabs and Palestinians have learned and undergone, recognizes this historical and moral truth. It succeeded, not so long ago, in finding "common wording" in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
The Western mind and conscience, after having won two world wars, gave something it didn't own (Palestine) to those who didn't deserve it (the Zionist movement) based on a false premise ("a land without a people for a people without a land"). The West subsequently turned a blind eye to Israel's persistent refusal to implement any international resolutions, standing by its side as Israel thwarted any solutions that could allow for a two-state solution. Meanwhile, the Arab Peace Initiative announced at the 2002 Beirut Arab League Summit took a historical and moral act of courage befitting the Arab intellect and conscience.
It could safeguard the sovereignty of both peoples, who deserve a dignified life. It should be clear to everyone that the demand made by the Arab Peace initiative (in exchange for normalization and peaceful relations), then and not now, is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Anything less would be nothing more than an empty ruse without solid foundations.
What we need to do to face the ordeal in Lebanon, and to allow the country to come out with the other side with the least damage possible, is to put the Lebanese state at the forefront of the response. Everyone who needs to hear this should listen! Even though our state is in the condition we see it in today, all major forces and figures - we exclude no one, and we are not pointing fingers - must set aside their long-running differences and work together on closing the gaps in the wall of the state, so that we can protect the homeland and spare it the horrors of war and crisis.
An inclusive national position must be adopted, one that prioritizes and focuses on saving Lebanon from this crippling and multifaceted crisis, everyone can be protected if the homeland and the state are safeguarded, not the other way around... May God have mercy on the man who said, "Never let a good crisis go to waste!"
