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Lebanon in statist purgatory as Aoun rises to the presidency

American democracy: The general takes over, people sidelined

Alameen Templeton
What America wants, America gets in Lebanon, a truism reflected in the predictable elevation of Washington-sanctioned candidate General Joseph Aoun to the proxy state’s presidency this week.
As Markaz Sahaba predicted two months ago, Aoun, the head of the Lebanese military, was nominated in the country’s parliament Thursday under the approving gaze of US, European, and Arab officials.
Gagging the voice of the street
His nomination  confirmed Lebanon’s enduring role as a quasi-state, a proxy in position to represent the interests of foreign powers, condemned to a marginal existence in a statist purgatory at the behest of outsiders’ convenience.
It’s a description that defines many a Muslim “country” in the world today, where the desires and needs of ordinary Muslims are sidelined according to the dictates of global power plays and where the “elites” enjoy privileges ringfenced inside petrodollar escrow accounts in London and Atlanta and live a goldfish-bowl existence under the careful gaze of foreign “advisors”.
The goldfish bowl came to Beirut’s parliamentary building Thursday for Aoun’s ritualistic nomination as the country’s new president after a two-year hiatus during which Lebanon chugged along without a head of state.
As Lebanon’s News Agency (NNA) reported, “A parliament session devoted to electing the 14th president of the Republic has kicked off in the presence of French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Saudi envoy Yazid bin Farhan, the ambassadors of the Quint committee (Egypt, France, the US, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) and a panel of diplomats.”
Lebanon’s strange constitution is a child of several regimes that have ruled this patch of Sham, as Ottoman, French, British, American and Israeli pogroms have devastated the country and pitched Christians, Shias, Sunnis and other minority communities into ferocious confrontation that has torn apart the social fabric and devoured uncounted lives.
National inertia
The constitution is one of compromise, reflecting the ethnic and faith divisions that have scarred Lebanon’s history. So, the presidency is always reserved for a Christian, the prime ministry for a Sunni and the Speaker’s seat for a Shia.
Most people wonder if the constitution really works, or even what it is intended to do, other than provide politicians and lawyers with employment. The country plodded along, carrying a metastasising financial crisis and feeble attempts to address it for two years without a president.
Qatar, probably acting on the prompting of Washington, grabbed the initiative in the face of the parliamentarians’ inertia to kick start Aoun’s rise to the presidency.
He’s Washington’s choice, now it remains to be seen if he’s also Washington’s man.
The US drew a line under Aoun’s name over two months ago when its ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, summoned the parliamentarians to a “briefing” in which she cajoled and threatened, promising solid US support to the Lebanese military if they nominated him as president.
Washington wants to use Aoun to drive Hezbollah out of the country, something Johnson made plain in her address: “He [Aoun] will appoint a strong commander for the Lebanese Army, and we will support the Army in restraining all Hezbollah supporters. You will have backing from Arab states and the West. But the time to act is now.”
She added: “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.’”
A call to arms
The ambassador added, “The Lebanese people must show their desire to rise up and get rid of Hezbollah and return to the context that emerged after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, especially since the regional, international, and field circumstances are in your favor.”
So, despite knowing what Israel did last time it was in the country, despite knowing it and the US work hand-in-glove, and despite knowing Hezbollah is the only organisation capable of countering an encroaching Israel, the parliamentarians have kowtowed to Washington’s bidding and yielded to the historic narrative that surrenders the country to external powers, rather than its people.
It’s typical of the 3rd-rate democracy Americans and Europeans prefer to confer on subjugated people, so they can hold it up as a grimy mirror that confirms they’re still “the good guys”.
The Cradle summed it up: “The process is a stark paradox: while Lebanese sovereignty – or the lack of it – is a frequent topic in public discourse, the outcome of presidential elections is dictated by foreign ambassadors, whether American, French, Saudi, or Qatari, against the backdrop of accusations of Beirut’s submission to Iran.
“Armed with threats of sanctions, blockades, and delays in reconstruction, these envoys impose candidates without room for debate, reducing Lebanon’s democratic process to little more than scripted theater.
“As long-time Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri once quipped, perhaps it would be simpler to let ambassadors sit in the seats of MPs, as they are the ones truly deciding the president.”
His own man
Aoun is a Maronite Christian who has received military and university training in the US and is regularly hosted there by Congress and senior politicians from both sides of the house.
The big question, however, is if he’s willing, like so many “politicians” in the beggared country, to be America’s attack dog, a role someone like Phalangist leader of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea would love to shoulder.
Disparate forces have suggested Aoun is a pragmatist who prefers to be his own man. Most Lebanese would prefer to have their own country. It remains to be seen if either will have the strength to achieve their dreams.

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