The year 1982 might be when the national basis of Lebanese politics broke. Indeed, this basis had never been solid, and they had always been vulnerable to breaches. However, it was in 1982 that another fully-fledged political system emerged both theoretically and practically, swiftly overwhelming and subjugating the country’s traditional politics.
What happened at the time, as the season of political migration from Lebanon began, is that, shortly after the Israeli invasion, President Elias Sarkis formed a "National Salvation Committee" that included prominent sectarian leaders, among them Nabih Berri, the head of the Amal Movement. However, in response to Berri’s decision to take part, Hussein Al-Moussawi broke with Amal and then established "Islamic Amal." Moussawi accused Berri and Amal of treason and derogatorily called them secular as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives were flocking to Baalbek through Damascus.
"Islamic Amal" soon turned into one of the constituent elements of a new party established inside the Iranian embassy in Syria, Hezbollah. Within just a few months, Hezbollah youths and IRGC forces launched a joint effort to occupy the "Sheikh Abdullah Barracks," the army’s most prominent barracks in the Bekaa region, successfully taking it over and turning it into their palace of residence.
Hezbollah’s foundation, which coincided with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq war, provided Tehran with a base whose custodians had no intention of working alongside other Lebanese actors to find solutions for the Israeli occupation or the regional issues and conflicts aggravating the situation in Lebanon.
Since then, the foundations of Lebanese national politics have been systematically destroyed along an increasing number of axes. Until 2005, with rare exceptions, the proliferation of these axes was tied to the Syrian security and military apparatus in Lebanon.
For the first time, a state ideology emerged in Lebanon, teaching us how we should think, what we must accept, and what we must reject. Thus, Syria’s "Lebanon of Arabism" gave rise to the trinity of "the army, the people, and the resistance," which was included in governments policy statements. Paralysis became a hallmark of Lebanese institutions; parliament’s gates would be closed, governments would be brought down by a "blocking third," and presidential elections would be disrupted or a particular candidate would be imposed, all for reasons that are difficult to link to political and constitutional life.
Violence, in all of its forms, became a feature of public life. Before and after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the number of murdered and kidnapped politicians, writers, journalists, officers, Lebanese, Arabs, and Westerners in Lebanon rivaled the number of professionals registered in Lebanese syndicates.
Although the final quarter of that era witnessed a severe economic collapse and the Beirut port blast, Hezbollah clamped down on the reform movement of 2019 and obstructed the investigation into the port explosion, reminding many of how it had hindered the investigation into Rafik Hariri’s assassination.
After broadening friendships with both Arab and Western countries had been a pillar of Lebanese politics, the new wisdom became to alienate both and broaden hostility to them, leaving the country isolated and undermining its capacity to address its economic disaster.
After Lebanon was liberated in 2000, Hezbollah maintained its illegitimate arsenal, and six years later, it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, dragging the country into a devastating war. Although this conflict was brought to an end through UN Resolution 1701, in practice, the army was prevented from heading south, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was hindered from carrying out its duties and accused of collusion with Israel. As for UN Resolution 1559, which Resolution 1701 had built on, it was turned into a joke.
A war of occupation was launched against the Syrian people, fueling violence, human rights violations, and displacement, in parallel to interventions in Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere. In addition to the rise of unprecedentedly sharp sectarianism, ultra-reactionary ideas and social values regarding women, freedoms, and progress were propagated...
Today, we are told that Lebanon is on the verge of entering a season of migration in the opposite direction - a season of migration toward Lebanon, its political traditions, and the pillars of what the country means and how it functions. The speaker of parliament and prime minister issued an atypical statement calling for a ceasefire, the implementation of Resolution 1701, and the election of a president. Lebanon's United Nations Representative spoke in terms we have not heard in four decades.
Nonetheless, these initial steps are extremely modest when measured against the magnitude of the catastrophe that has befallen us and the disaster that could unfold if Israel’s madness drives it to occupy the South or a segment of it.
We are in dire need of a consensus on ending the war, which must include Hezbollah if the world is to take us seriously and exert real pressure on Israel to end its mass murder, thereby allowing us to deal with our isolation, rebuild, and address our aggravating displacement crisis.
Lebanon should be re-founded on the basis of its bitter experience and the lessons we have learned from it, not on the basis of the "support for our steadfastness" we received from the Iranian foreign minister on his visit nor his Supreme Leader’s call for more resistance, which promises nothing, in practice, but dignified funerals.
Lebanon’s re-establishment must break with the past and the era of militias, as well as announce the adoption of neutrality toward armed conflicts, that its legitimate government makes its decisions, and that its army is solely responsible for implementing those decisions.
There is no other path that leads us out of these suicidal wars and allows us to avoid constantly living on the brink of or under the shadow of civil war. Until then, talk of the season of migration back to Lebanon will not be convincing.
