Right Wing Nut House

As if it’s not bad enough that every diplomat in the Middle East is taking turns trying to tell Prime Minister Siniora’s government how best to capitulate to Hizbullah’s demands that he resign and that a “Government of National Unity” be formed, the PM now has to deal with that special kind of groveling defeatism that only the United Nations can bring to the negotiating table.

A momentous initiative aimed at finding a settlement to end Lebanon’s critical political deadlock and would soon dispatch a delegate to “tranquilize” mounting tension.
Annan spoke on Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about the need for stability in Lebanon.

He “urged them to counsel the parties concerned to exercise patience and resolve their differences through dialogue,” said a statement issued by his spokesman.

Annan’s phone conversation with both leaders came a day after As Safir daily, citing Arab diplomatic sources in New York, said the U.N. chief has decided to “launch a political initiative aimed at tranquilizing the political situation in Lebanon.”

Since Annan won’t mention it and the chances that Assad or Ahmadinehjad will bring it up are just about as close to absolute zero you can get, one fact in this entire crisis engineered as a power grab by Hizbullah seems to have been lost in the shuffle.

To wit: In June, 2005 the Lebanese people went to the polls and overwhelmingly elected the March 14th Forces to represent them in Parliament. The democrats won nearly 3 times the number of MP’s as the next closest party. It was a slaughter. It wasn’t even close.

And now, less than 2 years later, most of the world has forgotten that one salient fact and are rushing to give Hizbullah what they want, all in the name of “stability.”

If the world backed Prime Minister Siniora’s government with half the enthusiasm with which they now wish to destroy it, I daresay that democracy would be on much firmer footing in Lebanon and Hassan Nasrallah and his bully boys would be retreating to southern Lebanon with their tail between their legs to take up commiserations with their French sympathizers in UNIFIL.

Instead, Nasrallah is biding his time, letting his patrons in Syria and Iran orchestrate a diplomatic dance that can only have one possible outcome; the ouster of Siniora and his cabinet followed by either the formation of a government with enough Shia ministers that would give Hizbullah veto power over major government decisions or early parliamentary elections that would give Nasrallah the opportunity to flex his muscles in the streets of Beirut and perhaps bring him to power.

That latter scenario is a longshot to be sure. But the leader of Lebanese Forces Samir Gaeges points out the value of political assassination and how it may be a path to power for Hizbullah:

Geagea told Reuters that the government now has 17 ministers, if 3 of these ministers were eliminated then the government will automatically fall.
Geagea did not rule out appointing Shiite ministers who are loyal to the March 14 the forces but preferred to continue all efforts to bring back the Amal and Hezbollah ministers.

He would not say who might try to kill ministers, but said Syria has some minor allies in Lebanon who may attempt the assassinations to prevent the international court from taking place.

The March 14th Forces are standing firm. Party leader Saad Hariri has made it absolutely clear that Hizbullah will not achieve with bluster and threats what it could not achieve at the ballot box:

Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri has ruled out giving Hizbullah and its allies veto power in government, assuring that the return of the resigning Shiite ministers to the cabinet would be a first step toward a settlement.

“No one will activate the annulled one-third which is capable of toppling the government any time it decides,” Hariri said in an interview with the leading daily An Nahar published Saturday.
Hizbullah has been threatening to stage street protests to bring down Prime Minister Fouad Saniora’s government if its demands for the formation of a national unity cabinet that would give it and its allies veto power over key decisions were not met.

He said such resignations would “threaten vital decisions, topped by Resolution 1701 which calls on Israel to stop renewed assaults on Lebanon and, therefore, preserve Lebanon from going back into a destructive arena for regional interests.”

“Second of all, is the international tribunal which is going to be created and there is no doubt about that because it is the only guarantee for the Lebanese,” Hariri added.

Kofi Annan is dispatching a special negotiator to Lebanon this week. Since Hizbullah is starting from the premise that the government must go and that no compromise on that score is possible, the UN negotiator will try his best to come up with plans and formulations that will help Nasrallah achieve that goal - perhaps not right away - but too soon for the winners of that glorious election that capped the Cedar Revolution and which held such promise for the Lebanese people.

To watch the whole sickening process of betrayal unfold before our eyes may be too much to bear for those who care about democracy in Lebanon. One more reminder as the world careens toward crisis over Iranian nukes how truly useless the United Nations has proved itself to be.