Syria : Has it won? at The Ouwet Front: A Lebanese Forces Blog

Syria : Has it won?

Posted by Y

Nov 26th 2009 | DAMASCUS
From The Economist print edition

Under its surprisingly durable leader, Syria has stubbornly nudged its way back into the heart of regional diplomacy. It can no longer be ignored.

SIX years ago, President Bashar Assad looked weak, stumbling and isolated. In the words of the neoconservatives dominant in Washington after the conquest of Iraq, his regime was “low-hanging fruit”. Its fall would complete a circle of Western influence in the area, with Turkey, a NATO member, to the north-west and Israel to the south. The decline of Syria seemed to hasten when, after it was widely blamed in 2005 for the murder of Lebanon’s five-times prime minister, Rafik Hariri, it ignominiously lost its place as master of its small neighbour. Only Iran, among Syria’s friends, stood fast against the West. Yet now the position has drastically changed. Mr Assad is increasingly viewed as an essential part of the region’s diplomatic jigsaw. He is fast coming back into the game. Even America would like to embrace him.

Nothing illustrates this better than the recent flip-flop of Walid Jumblatt, hereditary head of Lebanon’s Druze minority. He has cause to loathe Syria. Its agents were thought to have killed his father in 1977, a crime that eased Syria’s penetration of Lebanon as a peacekeeper whose forces lingered long after the end of its civil war of 1975-90. Still, Mr Jumblatt reconciled himself to Syria’s then president, Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, for many years doing his bidding. But the Druze chieftain broke openly with Mr Assad’s filial successor after the murder of Mr Hariri, an old ally. Championing the movement that ousted Syria from Lebanon, Mr Jumblatt drew applause in Washington for calling it “a country hijacked by a family and a mafia”.

Yet Mr Jumblatt has recently changed tack again. Syria, he now says, is the core of the Arab world; Lebanon is destined to be on its side. If he had once spoken ill of Bashar Assad, it was only in the heat of emotion, Mr Jumblatt told al-Manar, the television station run by Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia party-cum-militia, which is staunchly backed by Syria and Iran. Only last year Hizbullah’s forces clashed with Mr Jumblatt’s.

The Druze boss, one of the Middle East’s more accurate weathervanes, is far from alone in pointing to Damascus, Syria’s capital. A flurry of foreign dignitaries has recently courted Mr Assad, including the Saudi king, the French and Croatian presidents, the prime ministers of Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Spain, and a stream of ministers and MPs, plus a string of prominent Americans. Mr Jumblatt himself is expected in Damascus soon, as is another Lebanese leader with a personal animus, Saad Hariri, now filling his slain father’s shoes as Lebanon’s prime minister.

This sudden popularity marks a triumphant turnabout for the 44-year-old Mr Assad. As a hereditary ruler in an ostensibly republican system, as a member of Syria’s historically marginal Alawite minority, and as a second son with a background in medicine rather than war or statecraft, he looked unlikely to succeed when he took power nine years ago.

His tenure has not been easy. The period from 2002 to 2006 was especially grim. Not only was Syria vilified in the West for its long-standing alliance with Iran, its support of violent Islamist groups pitted against Israel, and its nasty human-rights record. Mr Assad also stood accused of busting sanctions against Saddam Hussein and then, after the Iraqi dictator’s fall, of sheltering Baathist renegades and sending jihadists to kill Americans. Many Lebanese said Syria plotted a rash of bombings in their country between 2005 and 2008, to perpetuate its influence after the forced withdrawal of its troops in 2005. The killing of Mr Hariri, a friend of France’s then president, Jacques Chirac, and of an array of Saudi royals, prompted the UN to launch an investigation that many expected to finger top Syrian officials.

Syria also seemed to face looming economic collapse. Decades of central planning under the Baath party’s stifling rule had left it with few competitive industries and surging unemployment, even as its meagre oil resources rapidly shrank. An influx of more than a million Iraqi refugees, plus the sudden return of hundreds of thousands of Syrian labourers from Lebanon, added extra burdens.

America piled on the pressure, slapping on sanctions in 2003, recalling its ambassador in 2005 and staging raids across Iraq’s border until as recently as last year. Israeli fighter aircraft buzzed Mr Assad’s beach house in a humiliating display of effortless aerial supremacy. The European Union, for its part, suspended talks on an association agreement in 2004, leaving Syria the only Mediterranean country without a preferential trade deal.

Yet Mr Assad’s regime has not only endured but thrived, along with Syria’s economy. Its GDP, its foreign trade and the value of loans to its private sector have all nearly doubled in the past four years, as reforms have tapped suppressed entrepreneurial vigour. For decades Damascus looked as dour as Bucharest under communist rule. Now it pulses with life. New cars throng its streets. Fancy boutique hotels, bars and fully booked restaurants pack its rapidly gentrifying older quarters, while middle-class suburbs, replete with shopping malls and fast-food outlets, spread into the surrounding hills.

The revenue of Damascus’s swankiest hotel, the Four Seasons, is said to have doubled between 2006 and 2008. Bank Audi Syria, one of several Lebanese banks prospering there, made a profit within six months of launching in 2005. It now boasts $1.6 billion in deposits, and recently led Syria’s first-ever private syndication to finance a cement plant, a joint venture between France’s Lafarge and local businessmen costing $680m. In March Syria relaunched its stock exchange, moribund since the 1960s and still tiny. But with new rules allowing foreign ownership of equity, investors are showing keen interest.

Abdullah Dardari, deputy prime minister for economic affairs since 2005, lists simple reasons for the turnaround. By slashing widely evaded taxes and import duties while reducing subsidies, the state has boosted revenue and reduced its dependency on oil. A liberalisation of banking, prices and trade has released pent-up potential in a country that 50 years ago was the most prosperous in the region.

It is not just the promise of Syria’s own market of 22m people. Trade with Iraq, a traditional market for Syrian goods, has surged. Syria is a natural transit hub for the region’s energy exports. In October it signed a series of agreements with Turkey. A decade ago the Turks had threatened to invade; now they can drive across the border without visas. Last month the EU also abruptly signalled its eagerness to sign a long-delayed association agreement, leaving the Syrians to ponder whether it needs revision in light of their stronger bargaining hand.

Many businessmen credit Mr Dardari with crucial policy changes. Yet they worry that he lacks institutional backing. They also fret about the longer term. Flashy new private industries and services outshine the rusty socialist economy that still employs a quarter of the workforce, but they have yet to replace it. The reforms so far have been the easier ones. Pervasive corruption and creaky infrastructure will impede progress. So will a school system that, despite the opening of some 15 private universities, is far from supplying the skills needed for a modern economy.

Free the politics too

Moreover, economic reforms have not been matched by a liberalisation of politics. On taking power, Mr Assad lifted hopes for change by such gestures as closing the notorious Tadmor prison, in Syria’s eastern desert, where thousands of political prisoners had rotted—hundreds of them dying there—in the 1980s. Damascus enjoyed a brief spring of dissent in 2001, but as international pressures mounted, the opening was quickly slammed shut. Repression is far less severe than under Mr Assad’s father, who ruled from 1970 to 2000. But it is equally effective. The secret police remain unaccountable, ruthless and omnipresent. Human-rights workers, bloggers, and members of the 1.5m Kurdish minority all risk imprisonment under such charges as “spreading false information” and “weakening the national spirit”.

But although Syrians whisper about palace intrigues and bumps in the night, a striking number reckon silence is a reasonable price to pay for stability. Punishment is harsh but at least the rules are clear. Syrian society is as complex in sectarian make-up as neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq, and harbours similarly volatile groups, including jihadist cells that the government ruthlessly squashes. Yet it has experienced minimal unrest in recent years. The most serious incident was a car bomb that killed 17 people in Damascus last year. The calm, say some, results less from heavy policing than from clever intelligence, including the co-opting and manipulation of extremist groups. With the exception of the Kurds, Syria’s minorities enjoy a sense of security envied elsewhere in the region.

If Mr Assad’s hard line at home has earned grudging respect, so has his firmness in foreign relations. Rather than flipping on Iran or abandoning ties to Hizbullah or the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas, in order to please the West, his regime has upheld “resistance” as the best way to apply pressure on Israel, while offering to negotiate with it. Frightened by the invasion of Iraq, Syria nevertheless yanked the American lion’s tail by letting insurgents slip into the fray. Such nerve, along with Syria’s generous accommodation of Iraqi refugees, improved Mr Assad’s Arab nationalist credentials just when America’s moderate Arab allies looked callow and spineless.

For sure, Syria’s dogged refusal to kowtow has been costly. Its hurried exit from Lebanon was humiliating. Its failure so far to accommodate itself to the new establishment in Baghdad has been expensive too, with Iraq’s rulers accusing it of plotting recent deadly bombings. Israel, meanwhile, clobbered Syria’s Hizbullah ally in 2006 and its Hamas friends in Gaza earlier this year. Israel also bombed a suspected nuclear site in the Syrian desert in 2007 and recently intercepted a shipload of Iranian arms apparently bound, through Syrian ports, for Hizbullah.

The rewards of saying no

But Mr Assad’s tenacious immobility has proved a winning course overall, reinforcing Syria’s centrality to regional issues. As stalemate prevails, from Iraq to Palestine, Mr Assad has slowly regained many of the cards he appeared to have lost.

The case of Lebanon is instructive. Since retreating in the face of a popular uprising against its interference, Syria has clawed its way back to a position of less overt but almost as effective dominance. Exploiting Lebanon’s fractiousness, Syria pushed its allies to undermine the pro-Western coalition that won Lebanon’s general election in 2005. Though pro-Syrian parties failed to end the coalition’s parliamentary majority in a more recent election, in June, they have hamstrung its attempts to govern. Only when the pro-Western coalition, known as the March 14th alliance, frustrated in politics and outgunned on the street, quietly addressed Syria’s concerns did Mr Assad’s Lebanese allies suddenly fall into line. The price appears to be that Hizbullah will keep its private army and that March 14th will not press for the UN to implicate Syria in its investigation of Mr Hariri’s death. Moreover, with Mr Jumblatt now hinting that he may jump ship, March 14th may well sink.

Syria’s stubbornness over Israel, while letting militia allies in Lebanon and Gaza harry the Jewish state, has paid dividends too. The Israelis’ assault on Gaza and their willingness to put only partial limits on expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, outlined this week, have made it easier to bring Syria in from the cold. And Israel’s continuing failure to squelch Hamas or Hizbullah has left Syria with some useful chips. It hosts Hamas’s exiled leadership and still serves as a conduit for Iranian arms and money to Hizbullah. This gives Syria bargaining power in its long-standing demand for Israel to return the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967.

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, tried to provoke a reaction from Mr Assad, when visiting President Nicolas Sarkozy in France, by calling for negotiations without preconditions. Syria had no preconditions, answered Mr Assad on his own Paris visit, but rather rights that everyone recognised. Indeed, Mr Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, seemed to accept that the Heights would one day have to be returned to Syria.

In the capitals of America’s Arab allies, a sense is growing that, in the light of the persistent stalemate between the Palestinians and Israel, stubbornly bloody-minded Syria has been canny all along. In the past, countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been waiting for Syria to come truckling back into the moderate fold. Now people in Damascus think the moderates may come truckling to them.

Filed under: Lebanon
Posted by Y on 11.27.09 @ 10:29 am | 30 Comments

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30 Comments. Add your own...

1. Elie.F | November 27th, 2009 at 11:04 am

Every President or regime who stayed in power all that long,is the best agent that they can wish for.

Hosni Mbarak, Mo3ammar qazzafi, El Assad family, King Abdullah Ibn el Hussein,Bou Taflika, Zein el 3abideen bin Ali,
and before Saddam Hosein.

Inno who is better that Bashar for Israel? oukhwan el moslimeen?Who is better than Hosni Moubarak now and later his son,is it the oukhwen el moslimeen? who is better than King Abdullah,is it the extremist Palestinians who are 80% of the population in Jordan? they have Bashar who is their real pussy, who is better than him when it comes to shut up on an occupied land for 30 years,who is better than him to hide when Israeli F-16 bomb next to his presidential palace,who is better than him to keep the financial and military assistance pouring from the USA to Israel by backing HA with weapons?

Amma wa qad ba3oo el Joulan birommatihi, w qabado min thamanihi ajma3, ayn el 3ouroobati w honaka fil sahra2 3arabiyyon yaqba3, 3afwan sayyidati Feyrouz ajras el 3awdati lan taqra3.
2. paul | November 27th, 2009 at 11:45 am

…wakhazoukon doukka walan youkla3
3. Mike | November 27th, 2009 at 11:46 am

I’m going to tell you guys something that might be a bit controversial.

Assad and Khomeini are already in it with America. They already have a deal for the situation here. Egypt and Jordan have it overt. While they have it seriously covert.
4. paul | November 27th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

Mike,our friend Doc don’t like what you said,he is independent from the usa and from capitalism.
5. mano | November 27th, 2009 at 1:45 pm

mike thanks la ma3loometak il thameene
6. danny | November 27th, 2009 at 3:56 pm

What a revelation!
paul leave the cyber bytari alone! He has been cut up to pieces lately and has resorted to beastiality (screwing dogs)…
We have a few riff raffs chiming in!
Mike can I have an advance copy of your movie?
7. arz elrab | November 27th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

A donkey will never learn to play PIANO, no matter how long he stays in power.
Look at the in Syria: how long they stayed in Lebanon and how much did they steal: no effect at all, they are still backwards like camel dunk.
8. ja3far | November 27th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

The road to damascus is always open for the resistance and its allies
9. mano | November 27th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

arz il rab masboot inno hal donkey yalle ma bidi2 pieano w hala balad yalle mitkhalaf dallo 3indak 15 years w li3ib feena w b zo3a2imna il 7ilween ? what does that make us ?
10. Doc1559 | November 27th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

paul

people are free to speak their mind ! basita paul..

Danny

The impression bloggers form about you is based on what they hear you saying, you have nothing good to say and always tend to run away from your political failure by blaming everthing on HA and Aoun ..and OHHHH wait by also turning the debate into personal attacks .. You’re si-ck , go clean your mouth little boy.. You are the one who got destroyed on all levels, siyesstak al feshle comes first ..

Woof !
11. Doc1559 | November 27th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

mano 9

That makes us a7mar min a 7amir w a7mar min al 7amassneh li minakit 3layun !!

Yalla mitel al chatrin ra7 bizuru suriya, including samir geagea..
12. danny | November 27th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

doc…I’m sure you have been told so many times…So simply go fornicate yourself! The day you learn to write or formulate a sentence is the day Hassoon the rat will resurface! buzz off stinky lonely pedophile!!
13. danny | November 27th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

A gem by the cyber dog of dahiye:

Here’s what the amazing articulate land owner from Dearborne (doc 198789) wrote:

“danny
woof woof puppy !! you got fu-ck-ed in the a$$ fanny !! I love your M14 ”

Now how great a vocabulary do you have mr. washroom cleaner?
14. danny | November 28th, 2009 at 12:23 am

Doc,

I have tried to exchange opinions however I have no patience for I*DI*O*TS like you who are lonely and want a validation for their life on this blog…You should learn how to rebutt with facts and links…NOT by sleazy language …If you want to sleep with your farm animals that’s ok…I know you can”t find company.
Now I have paid much too much time shallacking you and exposing you for the egghead that you are! Now, if you write anything dumb(I know you can’t write anything else) get ready to be knocked off! This is not your shack and your mate fido is not here…

Now go peacefully into the night!
15. Ahmed making a point | November 28th, 2009 at 1:56 am

Danny

Even though I don’t agree with doc most of the time, but you also have to stop your vulgar insults toward those who politically disagree with you. Otherwise,you are as filthy as they are.

11. danny | November 26th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

Paul the cyber bytari said in above:

“The right to resist is a fundamental principle of govs, we a free people with free wills, we reserve the right to resist our enemy no matter what rules surround us. There is no rules when it comes to defend our land from foreign occupiers.”

hah? What a crock of S*H*I*T…Anybody decipher Feline language?
16. danny | November 28th, 2009 at 5:33 am

Ahmad,

What I said is NOT an insult!!! It’s matter of expression…Anyway, the point is doc or whatever is a loser and an idiot!! those are not insults but facts through his exoposure of filth, lies and plagiarism as well as in coherent bla bla….

So take care…and make a point
17. Doc1559 | November 28th, 2009 at 6:58 am

Ahmad

For the first time ever : THANK YOU !!

Danny

I have exposed your lies .. your dirty plans to create sectarian debates has been uncovered, i will not answer you anymore, ru7 mut bi 72idak la 7alak , wa7ad wissikh nitin, tfu 3lek pirate !!

I humbly ask all mu3rada bloggers to boycott danny. We should not lower our standars to meet his from now on..
18. hochoz | November 28th, 2009 at 8:17 am

Danny,

Doc and the rest of the hezballah pieces of sh*t feel offended because we call things the way they are…. Yi3ne elli sta7o metoo…

Hezballah thugs are raising guns to the back of our heads and expect us to take them with open arms….

Yalla their clock is ticking, the future is ours,
Wanabka…
19. Mike | November 28th, 2009 at 8:38 am

This blog is becoming filled with a parody of insults between bloggers. Take it easy guys. Be coherent and sensible in your replys and prove your point accordingly.
20. Doc1559 | November 28th, 2009 at 10:08 am

hochoz

stop lying to your children about santa claus, stop lying to yourself about HA, stop with your nonsense about HA holding weapons to the back of your head !! HA never fired a bullet at you, HA never came near your cities, I am not talking about little individual incidents here and there, I am talking about big organized attacks by HA leadership, it never happened NEVERRRRRR.. don’t tell me may 7 , inta ma khassak bi may 7.. inta kinet mabssut bi may 7 2inu al chiaa wel sinniye wel druze 3m bidab7o ba3ed..

Why is it so hard for you to understand that we the SHIITE (Sorry) will not allow HA to create a wilayet faqih state ?? ne7na ablak ma mni2bal wla mnissma7 la HA ya3mel wileyit faqih bi lebnen.. mniz3bun mitel ma za3bun kemil al assad iza badun yifta7o 3la 7ssebon..

Let me ask you something amigo if your doctor lets say if MD geagea said you had a medical problem, and you have to run a 25 mn a day or you would die, wouldnt you in this case shift your priorities to meet dr’s command ?? I bet you would !! SO listen up from someone who knows the system very well, THE AMERICANS AND THE ZIONISTS BEHIND THEM HAVE A PLAN TO GET YOU OUT OF LEBANON. They want you to leave bala raja3.. 3m bi tejro fikun chmel w yamin w into sektin.. Wake up and shift your priorities , wake up and learn from others, wake up and learn from your past, wake up and learn from GMA, There’s no way around it, do or die !! Believe me, you’ll thank yourself for it…

w tabka iza bakayt fi lubnan !!
21. danny | November 28th, 2009 at 2:04 pm

Doc

PLEASE get a life! mou3arada bloggers boycott….hhahahaa..

We are here for exchange of opinions and ideas; except for you! You are looking for some kind of help from your lonely and worthless life! Now buzz off and please BOYCOTT ME!!
22. hochoz | November 29th, 2009 at 12:17 am

Doc,

I was surprised u didn’t reply to my long post on the “LF must quit the government” topic….. you should take a look at it…

“HA never fired a bullet at you, HA never came near your cities, I am not talking about little individual incidents here and there, I am talking about big organized attacks by HA leadership”…
These individual attacks here and there are worth to me than any large scale Hezballah attack… Cuz in case of a large scale attack, we’ll fight because war will have started… But small attacks here and there are just used to scare my community and force everybody to walk with their heads down…
I come from a culture that believes in democracy and freedom of speech, meaning i’m entitled to do anything I want (such as make fun of ur political leader) without having to put up with packs of thugs storming my region…. Just the fact that you guys are asking for special treatment while u dare (over and over) to make fun of our religious leader means u have ur guns pointed at us…. And unlike Aoun and cowards following him, i’d rather die with my head high, rather than live on my knees.

“THE AMERICANS AND THE ZIONISTS BEHIND THEM HAVE A PLAN TO GET YOU OUT OF LEBANON”….
We, the maronites, have been fighting for survival for centuries and will keep doing that for decades….Ma tkhef, we’ll outlast you guys for the years to come….As a christian, I believe in Divine Intervention and don’t need to rely on anybody to survive…. I didn’t see anybody helping for 1500 years…

Finally, my main point is that even if Dr Geagea and the whole LF didn’t exist, there’s no way in hell that I would accept living like a dhimmi on the country that my ancestors helped preserve….. To me Aoun and his followers are traitors and sellouts….

Wanabka
23. hochoz | November 29th, 2009 at 12:18 am

*worse
24. Mike | November 29th, 2009 at 3:45 am

Hochoz the only way we will be living as dhimmies is if we continue on our political stances that are plaguing the LF.

The zionists want us out of the region starting with the henry kissinger plan. They would rather give them our land than give the palestinians back the land they stole from them.

Since that didn’t work. They want all the christians to leave leb because they think if the country is predominantly muslim(espicially sunni) then leb will nationalize the palestinians and they will become Lebanese. They are even trying to bribe us with cancelling our debt.
25. reader99 | November 29th, 2009 at 7:19 am

Mike and Doc

Good work .
26. reader100 | November 29th, 2009 at 10:52 am

danny Paul and hochoz.

Good work .
27. avi | November 29th, 2009 at 11:26 am

Ay yeah great work you guys have earned your marriage sharmuta.
28. hochoz | November 29th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Mike,

“Hochoz the only way we will be living as dhimmies is if we continue on our political stances that are plaguing the LF.”

And your point is?… So u suggest the LF sells out on its principles and turns to Syria for help?…. We tried them in 1976 and look where they got us…. Like Syria would give a crap about christians….

The only possible solution from what you’re saying would be to act like Aoun did and ally with hezbollah which has weapons. This makes it an uneven alliance enabling them to dominate us just like they do to Aoun who doesn’t bother to ask about his political detainees anymore and who’s forced to defend Syria over and over….

The only realistic solution for me would be to disarm hezbollah, or arm the whole lebanese population resulting in civil war. Eventually, one of the 2 will happen…
29. Doc1559 | November 30th, 2009 at 7:58 am

hochoz

76. Doc1559 | November 30th, 2009 at 7:56 am

Hochoz

No prb, here is my answer;

You say : Do not Ever forget that you were part of a whole conspiracy that aimed on making the way to Haifa start from Jounieh….. We fought to survive while you lined up with pretty much the whole arab nation to have us killed because the idea of christians running an ARAB SPEAKING, not arab country, way better than any other arabs was bothering you

Answer : Half of history is hiding the truth from the youth, what you’re saying above does not describe to the shiite of Lebanon nor it belongs to their political stand at the time, the Jouniyeh conspiracy belongs to PLO, Murabitun and Kamal junblat, the shiite were not part of it nor supported its sectarian war. You need to read more about Moussa al sader and OUR political stand against those who murdered you and tried to take over your jouniyeh, Sader’s political relations with the PLO were tense at all time and mistrusted on many level. Imam sader recognized the insecurity of the Maronites, and supported them in public for years b4 his kidnap. Like the shiite, the Maronites were a minority in Lebanon and therfore many of their leaders found a strong ally in Mousa al sader ect.. here is a small example ;

موسى الصدر في كنيسة الكبوشية ويوحنا بولس الثاني في الجامع الأموي

كريم بقرادوني

الإرادة أقوى من المرض، والإيمان أقوى من التاريخ. بإرادته الفولاذية تغلب البابا يوحنا بولس الثاني البالغ من العمر واحداً وثمانين عاماً على مرض “الباركينسون” الذي يعوق حركته لينجز رحلة صعبة وتاريخية على خطى القديس بولس.

وبإيمانه المسكوني الجامع حاول أن ينتصر على الصراعات التاريخية التي تتحكم بالعلاقات المسيحية – المسيحية والإسلامية – المسيحية، ليكون أول بابا يزور أثينا منذ الإنشقاق الكبير في العام 1054 بين الكنيستين الكاثوليكية والأرثوذكسية، وأول بابا في التاريخ يدخل مسجداً حين صلى أمام ضريح يوحنا المعمدان في الجامع الأموي الكبير في دمشق.

من أثينا أظهر البابا مدى حرصه على إعادة اللحمة بين المسيحيين على الرغم من اعتراض عدد من رجال الدين في الطائفة الارثوذكسية على زيارته، ومن دمشق أثبت مدى تمسكه بحوار الأديان، وقد شجعه في سعيه الاستقبال الحار الذي أعده له السوريون على خلاف اليونانيين.

زيارة أثينا هي خطوة مهمة على طريق المصالحة بين الكاثوليك والأرثوذكس. وزيارة دمشق هي خطوة أخرى على طريق التقارب المسيحي – الإسلامي في العالم بدءاً من الشرق الأوسط، وهو مهد الديانات الثلاث، وتأسيساً على النموذج اللبناني الذي خصه البابا في العام 1997 بزيارة لافتة وارشاد رسولي مميز.

لحظة الإعلان عن عزم البابا يوحنا بولس الثاني على أن يصلي في الجامع الأموي، اتجهت أفكاري تواً إلى صلاة أخرى اقامها منذ ربع قرن ونيف الإمام موسى الصدر في كنيسة الكبوشية ببيروت في شباط1975، وقد أمَ المؤمنين المسيحيين والقى فيهم عظة كانت الأولى التي يقيمها إمام مسلم في كنيسة مسيحية.

بابا يصلي في مسجد وإمام يصلي في كنيسة، بهذا يسير العالم إلى خلاصه. ويبرز لبنان شهيداً وشاهداً: شهيداً لفظاعة حرب الأديان، وشاهدا على إمكانية التعايش فيما بينها.

لم يسمع أحد الصلاة الصامتة التي أداها البابا منذ أيام أمام ضريح يوحنا المعمدان في الجامع، غير أن العديد من اللبنانيين ما زال يذكر العظة التي ألقاها الإمام منذ سنوات في كنيسة الكبوشية. ولا أخطئ إذا ما زعمت أن بعض صلاة البابا الصامتة اليوم تلتقي وعظة الإمام العلنية في الأمس.

صلاة البابا الدائمة هي من أجل الإنسان والإنسانية والسلام والوئام. وعظة الإمام في كنيسة الكبوشية جاءت تحت عنوان: ” حفاظاً على الإنسان”. واختار الإمام هذا العنوان ليؤكد على أولوية الإنسان ووحدة الهدف بين الأديان. وقد استهل عظته بالقول: ” اجتمعنا من أجل الإنسان الذي كانت من أجله الأديان.. والأديان واحدة حيث كانت في خدمة الهدف الواحد: دعوة إلى الله وخدمة للإنسان، وهما وجهان لحقيقة واحدة.

وتابع الإمام عظته فأشار إلى أن الخلافات بين الأديان بدأت تظهر وتكبر حين ” اتجهت الأديان إلى خدمة نفسها، ثم تعاظم اهتمامها بنفسها حتى كادت ان تنسى الغاية، فتعاظم الخلاف واشتد، وازدات محنة الإنسان وآلامة”.

ولو أردت أن أقارن بين ما قاله الإمام في بيروت وما يقوله البابا في كل أرجاء العالم لوجدت تطابقاً شبه كامل في نظرتهما إلى الله والإنسان والكون. وقد رأى كل من منظاره وأحياناً بألفاظ متقاربة بأن الأديان هي في الأصل واحدة لأنها تؤمن بالله الواحد، وهدف الأديان هو الإنسان الواحد، ومصير هذا الكون واحد. وفي كل مرة ابتعدنا عن الله وعن الإنسان تفرقنا شيعاً ومذاهب وطوائف ودخلنا في حروب لا تنتهي.

حذر الإمام من آفات الكذب والنفاق والغرور والكبرياء، ومن أنانيات التمييز العنصري واحتقار الآخرين وحب الذات حين يصير عبادة للذات، وحب المال حين يصبح هدفا يسحق ويفرق، وبه يبلع الكبير الصغير. ووصل به المنطق الى الإعلان أن ” المال هذا فتنة” فارتجت جدران الكنيسة واهتزت ضمائر المؤمنين.

ذكر المسيحيين بقول الحبر الأعظم حينذاك بولس السادس بأن ” المسيح والفقير شخص واحد”. وأشار إلى ما ورد في الأثر الاسلامي الثابت:” أنا – أي الله – عند المنكسرة قلوبهم، أنا كنت عند المريض عندما عدته، وعند الفقير عندما ساعدته، ومع المحتاج عندما سعيت لقضاء حاجته”.

نادى بالحرية، وندد بمعارضيها والمعتدين عليها، وندد بكل ما يمسها ” من الاستبداد إلى الإستعمار، ومن الاقطاع إلى الإرهاب الفكري، وادعاء الوصاية على الناس واتهامهم بأنهم لا يفهمون”.

نبهَ إلى مخاطر الإنزلاق إلى الإقتتال بين اللبنانيين نتيجة تنمية بعض الطوائف والاتجاهات وحرمان البعض الآخر. فعندما تنمو السياسة والإدارة والسوق والعمران بصورة غير منسقة تصبح حياة الإنسان على حد قوله ” متارجحة بين الحروب الساخنة والباردة، وبين فترة تضميد الجراح والسلام المسلح.. فكلما نمت حاجة من حاجاته على حساب الآخرين أصبحت وبالاً. وكلما نمت جماعة أو حاجات الجماعة على حساب جماعات وحاجات أصبحت وبالاً ومصيبة.

عظة موسى الصدر في شباط 1975 جاءت قبل شهرين من اندلاع حرب لبنان، عسى أن تكون صلاة يوحنا الثاني في مدينة القنيطرة وغرسه شجرة الزيتون في أرضها إيذانا باقتراب السلام في الشرق الأوسط.

البيرق

Second, you say : We the Maronites have been making sacrifices for the past 1600 years. We’ve been fighting for our survival for centuries and will keep doing it for decades to come. It should never occur to u in any of your twisted ideas that u ever achieved something to be proud of. We on the other hand take full credit in the establishement of Lebanon, the great nation that u and your fellow terrorists are destroying.

answer : do not generalize and do not label as you go, a big portion of the maronites are on our side , what do you call them ?? traitors ehhhhh, ah ya charif inta !! we are not teror**st , nooo, it is your LF militia that has the worst record ever, no need to go there. The Maronites of Lebanon never had their own state, they were bunch of communities linked together, so please spare me your ”our country” conspiracy theory. ma 7adan da3ss 3la ra2btak la twfi2 3la lebanon 1942 !! ma trabi7na jmileee.. Now tell me what have you achieved in the past 50 yrs istez hochoz ???? Nothing maybe ??

Lastly , my right to resist is a fundamental principle to me, we WILL resist and fight back.

The occupiers could stay 10, 50, 100 years, but in the end they leave. I believe this occupation will be resisted.
Quotation of Hassan Nasrallah
30. xs | November 30th, 2009 at 9:11 am

Well said