Lebanon the Nation

The "Red and White" revolution currently going on in Lebanon promises to be a genuinely transformative experience for the Lebanese people. In the past Lebanon's great problem has been diversity that could not be contained within their political system. Religious and ethnic antagonisms provoked civil war that ultimately provide an opportunity for Syria to move in and take over. The experience of Syrian rule and, most importantly, the experience of making common cause to oppose it has forged a nationalist bond that overrides the earlier sectarianism.

Witness this report from ABC:

"We will be here every day until the last Syrian soldier withdraws from our land," one activist said through a loudspeaker. The crowd, blowing whistles, chanted back: "Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence."

They sang in rhyming Arabic: "We are all, Muslims and Christians, against the Syrians."

If the Red and White Revolution succeeds it will mark not only the end of Syrian occupation, it promises also to be a major step toward ending the sectarian divisions that have so long plagued Lebanese society. Lebanon the nation is being born there on Martyr's [now rechristened "Freedom"] Square.

UPDATE:

Perhaps I have been guilty of "irrational exuberance" myself. Across the Bay reprints a Reuters article by Lucy Fielder that notes:

SHI'ITE CHALLENGE

A main challenge for an opposition movement that is touted as cross-sectarian but mainly Maronite, Druze and Sunni is that Lebanon's biggest community, the Shi'ites, have largely stayed away. "Most Shi'ites have absolutely no problem with the Syrians leaving," Young said. But Syria backs and arms their largest party, Hizbollah.

Growing dissent against Syria puts the "Islamic resistance" that drove Israeli occupying forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 in an awkward position. Jumblatt, a main opposition figure from Lebanon's Druze community, says the opposition must talk to the guerrillas. "Clearly there is an effort to move Hizbollah towards a middle ground and a notion that if they can get Hizbollah to withdraw its support for the current regime, it will become weaker and more willing to make concessions," Baroudi said.

Read it here.

I never said it would be easy, but an effective nationalist coalition is emerging that gives me hope for Lebanon's future. I do not think that, having experienced Syrian occupation and liberation from it the Lebanese will sink back into civil war.