The Outremere: Temporary respite in Lebanon

The Parliament of the Republic of Lebanon finally elected a new president ( a position left vacant since November '07) and hopes run high that a measure of stability will be restored.

Former Commander in Chief of the Lebanese National Army, maronite Michel Sleiman, was chosen as a personality of general acceptance to lead the country to the 2009 elections where a government and a proper prime minister will be elected.

Stability by itself is not enough, of course, to solve the issues that plague and divide the multiconfessional population of Lebanon, issues that have compiled enormous blood debts unto the existing hatreds.


Photo of me under the flags of the major opposition parties of Lebanon, at the crossing to a Hezbollah-controlled district of Beyruth (click to enlarge and notice the posters of Sayeed Hassan Nassrallah to my left, Imad Mughniah almost directly behind me and to my right, the picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). The Hezbollah operative on site did not allow us to use a camera, so this is a hurried cellphone picture. Photography by Thanassis Dimopoulos.

For the moment, however, any kind of truce is welcome, since Lebanon has seen no respite since Rafiq Hariri's assasination in 2005 which was followed by the Cedar Revolution and the withdrawal of the Syrians, the Hebrew bombings and invasion of 2006 and the ascension of Hezbollah as the most prominent political force in the country which undermined the sunni-maronite hold on power.

"Everybody in the Lebanon, we've got a ceasefire" video on the Mitch Benn son after the Hezbollah forces repelled the Hebrew invasion (and it seems rather appropriate now) :

PS:
" 'cause you know by Monday morning they'll be bombing us again but there's a ceasefire / and sing: Hezbo-, Hezbo-, lah, lah, lah, Hezbo-, Hezbo-, lah, lah, lah, Hezbo-, Hezbo-, lah, lah, lah, lah, lah, lah!!"

:)


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