The Assassination of Antoine Ghanem and the Decisive Moment
Walid Shoucair writes in Al-Hayat:
With each assassination targeting Lebanon, certain people - including those of the Lebanese opposition - are quick to highlight the state and security forces' responsibility for exposing the perpetrators in a clever attempt to turn a blind eye to the intentions and goals of such operations. This comprises a campaign to turn people's attention away from bids to alter the balance of power through murder, to foster an acceptance of such methods and to place the murderers on a level above that of the entire political community. This implies a legitimization of murder as just another tool in politics - akin to casting a vote, to issuing a policy statement… or to forming alliances based on temporary convergences of interests.
The assassinations that began in 2004 have resulted in an increasing sense of helplessness among Lebanese and a growing belief that those who challenge the assassins ought to know what they are getting into when they do so. Thus, the thinking goes, we have no business involving ourselves in such disputes, and that anyone who chooses to must be ready to bear the consequences - including assassination.
Such was the reaction of many Lebanese to the assassination of member of parliament - the gentle, modest and moral man and martyr - Antoine Ghanem.
Certain people have pointed to the responsibility of the government and security forces to investigate the crime - hinting at its benefits to the victim's political coalition. This is a vulgar joke over which we can no longer waste time arguing during the bleak times in which Lebanon has been passing.
The view that holds politics to be ignoble because it encompasses deception, maneuvering and lying to our adversaries cannot justify these people's sadistic approach to the slaughter of their enemies - and certainly does not justify their defense of the murderers.
Just so we do not lose track of the chain of events, the assassination of Ghanem in Lebanon's current political context is aimed at hindering the election of a president favored by the majority by eliminating its members and transforming it into a minority. It aims at preventing a change in a key Lebanese post usually decided by election - a prevention taking the form of bloodshed and murder. Ghanem's assassination - despite the differences in the positions of the two victims - is reminiscent of that of martyred Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. His murder was similarly aimed at preventing a shift in another key political institution - through the Lebanese parliamentary elections that Hariri was set to sweep at the expense of Syria's allies.
This latest assassination coincided with a statement by the council of Maronite Bishops considering any potential boycotting parliamentary elections akin to boycotting the nation itself. The Bishops came out against handicapping parliament by withholding quorum while identifying an important quality of the new president: independence from foreign influence. The killing of a Phalangist Christian MP is a message to all Christian MPs (and to their authorities) that abiding by these requests could be fatal - even if these requests enjoy the backing of the Vatican whose Pope, Benedict the 16th, had a major role in formulating the Bishops' statement.
The killing of MP Ghanem will yield numerous consequences in the pivotal phase through which Lebanon is passing. This will concern the possibility of the emergence of a political order different from that of the past nine years - or the past nine months, which saw the stalling of the political process following the resignation of the oppositions' ministers from government and the subsequent downtown sit-in. The assassination is a message to Western and Arab powers seeking to prevent a presidential vacuum in Lebanon and to secure the election of a president free from foreign influence - unlike that of President Emile Lahoud and the extension of his term. In this sense, it is also a message to the attempt by France's Nicolas Sarkozy to mediate a solution to Lebanon's crisis.
Finally, Ghanem's killing is a message to Speaker Berry's initiative - insofar as the initiative aimed at forging a compromise between the opposition (or part of it) and the majority, and to anyone who is saw it in this light.
It is a challenge to the statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calling for the international tribunal to be set up in cooperation with the Lebanese government - an announcement made the day of the assassination…
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/09-2007/Article-20070921-27d5e8f2-c0a8-10ed-00c3-e8c4032b404c/story.html
With each assassination targeting Lebanon, certain people - including those of the Lebanese opposition - are quick to highlight the state and security forces' responsibility for exposing the perpetrators in a clever attempt to turn a blind eye to the intentions and goals of such operations. This comprises a campaign to turn people's attention away from bids to alter the balance of power through murder, to foster an acceptance of such methods and to place the murderers on a level above that of the entire political community. This implies a legitimization of murder as just another tool in politics - akin to casting a vote, to issuing a policy statement… or to forming alliances based on temporary convergences of interests.
The assassinations that began in 2004 have resulted in an increasing sense of helplessness among Lebanese and a growing belief that those who challenge the assassins ought to know what they are getting into when they do so. Thus, the thinking goes, we have no business involving ourselves in such disputes, and that anyone who chooses to must be ready to bear the consequences - including assassination.
Such was the reaction of many Lebanese to the assassination of member of parliament - the gentle, modest and moral man and martyr - Antoine Ghanem.
Certain people have pointed to the responsibility of the government and security forces to investigate the crime - hinting at its benefits to the victim's political coalition. This is a vulgar joke over which we can no longer waste time arguing during the bleak times in which Lebanon has been passing.
The view that holds politics to be ignoble because it encompasses deception, maneuvering and lying to our adversaries cannot justify these people's sadistic approach to the slaughter of their enemies - and certainly does not justify their defense of the murderers.
Just so we do not lose track of the chain of events, the assassination of Ghanem in Lebanon's current political context is aimed at hindering the election of a president favored by the majority by eliminating its members and transforming it into a minority. It aims at preventing a change in a key Lebanese post usually decided by election - a prevention taking the form of bloodshed and murder. Ghanem's assassination - despite the differences in the positions of the two victims - is reminiscent of that of martyred Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. His murder was similarly aimed at preventing a shift in another key political institution - through the Lebanese parliamentary elections that Hariri was set to sweep at the expense of Syria's allies.
This latest assassination coincided with a statement by the council of Maronite Bishops considering any potential boycotting parliamentary elections akin to boycotting the nation itself. The Bishops came out against handicapping parliament by withholding quorum while identifying an important quality of the new president: independence from foreign influence. The killing of a Phalangist Christian MP is a message to all Christian MPs (and to their authorities) that abiding by these requests could be fatal - even if these requests enjoy the backing of the Vatican whose Pope, Benedict the 16th, had a major role in formulating the Bishops' statement.
The killing of MP Ghanem will yield numerous consequences in the pivotal phase through which Lebanon is passing. This will concern the possibility of the emergence of a political order different from that of the past nine years - or the past nine months, which saw the stalling of the political process following the resignation of the oppositions' ministers from government and the subsequent downtown sit-in. The assassination is a message to Western and Arab powers seeking to prevent a presidential vacuum in Lebanon and to secure the election of a president free from foreign influence - unlike that of President Emile Lahoud and the extension of his term. In this sense, it is also a message to the attempt by France's Nicolas Sarkozy to mediate a solution to Lebanon's crisis.
Finally, Ghanem's killing is a message to Speaker Berry's initiative - insofar as the initiative aimed at forging a compromise between the opposition (or part of it) and the majority, and to anyone who is saw it in this light.
It is a challenge to the statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calling for the international tribunal to be set up in cooperation with the Lebanese government - an announcement made the day of the assassination…
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/09-2007/Article-20070921-27d5e8f2-c0a8-10ed-00c3-e8c4032b404c/story.html
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