When will this story end? And why do its protagonists keep sneaking onto the Lebanese stage? It is a story of love and resentment of the most beautiful Arab country, the country that brought modernity to the Levant.
From writing and publishing to dictionaries and encyclopedias, from journalism, the arts, and thought, thousands of Lebanese names could be written without hesitation for their contribution to shaping modern Arab consciousness.
Do we begin with Gibran Khalil Gibran, Ameen Rihani, and Mikhail Naimy, and not stop at Butrus al-Bustani, Nasif al-Yaziji, and the pioneers of the Arab Renaissance?
And can we overlook Charles Malik, who helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or Husayn Muruwwah and Mahdi Amel in thought and philosophy? Can we forget the poetry of Said Akl, al-Akhtal al-Saghir, and Khalil Hawi, the singing of Fairuz and Sabah, and the music of the Rahbani Brothers and Wadih El Safi?
As for politics, the current generation may not know Fouad Chehab, Kamal Jumblatt, Saeb Salam, and dozens of others.
Lebanon was never merely a small state on the Mediterranean. It has always been a grand cultural idea, a beacon in the Arab world whose influence exceeded the limits of geography. Everyone is enamored with Lebanon to the point of killing it. Love can kill.
One side wants it for itself once, then takes revenge again and again, as though Lebanon were a testing ground and an open firing range for rival powers. For a century, storms have ravaged it from every direction, as though its unique geography had become part of the tragedy of its ancient people.
We remember how rivers of blood flowed in the era of the butcher Jamal Pasha, and how, throughout their modern history, the Lebanese have known oppression, violence, and tutelage. Now they find themselves between the hammer of Israel and the anvil of Iranian interference. Their country seems to remain an arena by regional powers that refuse to leave until they have secured their share of the spoils.
Has the time come to end the tragic Lebanese story? Has the time come to rid the country of the filth of sectarianism and confessionalism, which have drained its state and weakened society, so that the Lebanese can live their land without being abducted by this axis or that?
The German sociologist Max Weber’s defined the state as an entity that monopolizes arms and exercises legitimate violence. Lebanon is in urgent need of recovering this principle, so that the state alone makes the decisions and no center of power within the country rivals it or rises above it.
Lebanon’s fate placed it in the trap of an inflamed geography. It was among the first countries to pay the price of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since the sudden creation of Israel in 1948, Palestinian refugees have flown into Lebanon, and following successive wars and Israeli invasions, Lebanon has become part of a complex regional formula breaking its back.
At the same time, those with regional projects found in its fragile sectarian structure an easy entry point for influence and power. Whenever the region was struck by turmoil, Lebanon was among the first candidates to pay the price, as though it were the weak link in a chain of interwoven conflicts.
Can we say that the lesson is over? That the war that erupted on October 7, 2023, can no longer bear expansion into new fronts? Could this round of violence be the last episode in a series of wars that has drained the region for decades?
The late Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, would demand “Take your hands off Lebanon” when forces that entered under the pretext of keeping the peace turned into hegemons.
Today, that call seems more urgent and broader: take your hands off Lebanon, and off the rest of the Arab region’s states, for these nations can no longer bear paying the price of others’ projects.
Regional and international powers, whatever their slogans, do not view the region as a homeland for its peoples, and this has become clear in recent years.
Signs of a new Arab moment are appearing on the horizon, taking shape among a number of powers in the region. Seeking is to protect Arab national security, reinforce the concept of statehood, and avoid the sharp polarizations tearing the region apart.
Experience has shown that building states is more worthwhile than destroying them, that development is more enduring than wars, and that the future is not made by militias or projects of domination, but by stable states capable of protecting their citizens and safeguarding their interests.
The question remains suspended: when will this sad story end? When will Lebanon return to its natural role as a beacon of culture, thought, and creativity? When will Lebanon the arena give way to Lebanon the homeland?
Lebanon, which gave the Arabs poetry, music, thought, journalism, and a renaissance, deserves to live, to write its next chapter by the hands of its intelligent sons and daughters, and to return to what it has always been: a homeland of life and a bridge of culture, not a land where killers test themselves. I say it frankly: forget Lebanon for a little while.
