Laurie King-Irani writes about Lebanon.
“Despite conspiracy theories and grim assessments to the contrary, something new, amazing, and precious is indeed being born in Lebanon: an indigenous, responsive, truly plural form of democracy that is not Made in the USA, but forged out of a long and difficult Arab experience. Apparently, many thought this would be a Caesarian delivery under strong anaesthia. Wrong: it will be a painful, protracted, and loud labor and birth. Although considerable debate is now heard inside and outside Lebanon about this baby’s parentage, ideological DNA tests do not indicate that George W. Bush is the father.”
King-Irani’s article interested me, not only because of the parallels to my own recent piece on hypocrisy, but because it reminds me of the parallels between Israel and Lebanon that are often forgotten. Lebanon was the “Christian” country in the Middle East, just like Israel is the Jewish one. The Christians were in a position of political and economic ascendency. The Lebanese civil war began as a class conflict and rapidly deteriorated into warfare along ethnic and religious lines.
Before the Lebanese civil war, Israel had relatively peaceful relations with Lebanon, and always viewed the Lebanese as “good arabs,” because they viewed them as Westernized Christians in a sea of Muslims, just as Israelis viewed themselves as a European Jewish enclave in a sea of Muslims. Israel intervened in Lebanon on behalf of the Christians largly because of this identification. In a way, the existence of a Christian Arab country, justified in Jewish Israeli minds, the existence of a Jewish enclave as well.
Perhaps Israel stubbornly stayed in Lebanon in hopes of restoring such a Christian enclave. But the Lebanese civil war ended precisely when the warring ethnic factions saw that ethnic warfare was leading nowhere. The only way out was to recreate Lebanon as a multi-cultural state, a state of all its citizens, not just the Christian ones.
In the so far peaceful “war of demonstrations” each side is careful not to fan the flames of ethnic and class warfare, even if one can see such divisions still exist. And that is a hopeful sign indeed. Perhaps after all the wasted lives, the Lebanese did learn a lesson. They are one state for multiple peoples, and whether or not they like or respect each other, they need to somehow get along.
Israel is still trying to meddle in Lebanon, still hoping a Christian-dominated enclave will re-emerge. A peaceful, mutli-ethnic Lebanon is in some ways a “disaster” for Israelis, because it points to the only realistic solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict – a peaceful, multi-ethnic Israel/Palestine, which is neither Jewish nor Muslim nor Christian nor Arab, but a home for different people from different backgrounds.
If George Bush truly cared about democracy, that is precisely the solution he would be encouraging in both Lebanon and Israel/Palestine.
