road to Damascus

(Image via Iraq the Model)

Yesterday's WaPo column by David Ignatius has already made the rounds, but the choice parts are worth repeating.

Over by the Martyr's Monument, Lebanese students have built a little tent city and are vowing to stay until Syria's 15,000 troops withdraw. They talk like characters in “Les Miserables,” but their revolutionary bravado is the sort of force that can change history. “We have nothing to lose anymore. We want freedom or death,” says Indra Hage, a young Lebanese Christian. “We're going to stay here, even if soldiers attack us,” says Hadi Abi Almouna, a Druze Muslim. “Freedom needs sacrifices, and we are ready to give them.”

Brave words, in a country where dissent has often meant death. “It is the beginning of a new Arab revolution,” argues Samir Franjieh, one of the organizers of the opposition. “It's the first time a whole Arab society is seeking change — Christians and Muslims, men and women, rich and poor.”

The leader of this Lebanese intifada is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt's mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus. […]

“It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq,” explains Jumblatt. “I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world.” Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. “The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.”

Strange indeed, for as this NY Sun article from last December attests, Jumblatt's anti-Americanism is of long standing. (Via Jonah Goldberg.)

More recently, Mr. Jumblatt gave an interview to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on February 12, 2004, in which he said: “We are all happy when U.S. soldiers are killed [in Iraq] week in and week out. The killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is legitimate and obligatory.” The Progressive Socialist Party leader has also said he felt “great joy” at the 2002 destruction of the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia, because it carried an Israeli astronaut.

The Lebanese MP is also known for espousing conspiracy theories against America. On April 28, 2004, he gave an interview to Al Arabiyya TV, in which he detailed how America was really behind September 11: “Who invented Osama bin Laden?! The Americans, the CIA invented him so they could fight the Soviets in Afghanistan together with some of the Arab regimes. Osama bin Laden is like a ghost, popping up when needed. This is my opinion.”

Mr. Jumblatt was asked “Even 9/11?” and answered: “Even 9/11…Why didn't the sirens go off when the four hijacked planes took off?…The U.S. always needs an enemy…According to this plan or ideology of the born-again Christians who formed an alliance with Zionism - Islam is the monster, Islam is the target.”

In addition to hating America, Mr. Jumblatt has also spoke against the countries that support America. Lebanon's Daily Star published a February 3, 2003, article quoting him as saying that the true axis of evil is one of “oil and Jews,” calling President Bush a “mad emperor,” and insulting Prime Minister Blair, Prime Minister Berlusconi, and Jose Maria Aznar, the former Spanish prime minister: “The oil axis is present in most of the U.S. administration, beginning with its president, vice-president, and top advisers, including [Condoleezza] Rice, who is oil-colored, while the axis of Jews is present with Paul Wolfowitz.”

If his conversion is genuine, I might someday forgive that crack about Dr. Rice.

Events in Lebanon are unfolding rapidly. On Wednesday, the pro-Syrian Prime Minister offered to resign. Parliamentary elections—previously scheduled for the end of April—have suddenly taken on much greater significance. But perhaps more astonishing yet are the signs of dissent appearing inside Syria itself.

About 140 Syrian intellectuals and human rights activists yesterday published an open letter urging Damascus to withdraw its estimated 14,000 troops from Lebanon to avoid further international censure.

The letter, addressed to the Lebanese opposition, said: “We support your demand for the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon and in correcting the Syrian-Lebanese relationship.”

Syria deals harshly with political dissent. The intellectuals who signed the letter criticising their Government risk being jailed. […]

Michel Kilo, a Syrian human rights activist and one of the letter’s signatories, said Syria had to change its policies towards Lebanon. “You have the international community against Syria. The Lebanese are no longer with Syria. The Syrians are feeling scared and isolated,” he told The Times.

More than 100 Syrian journalists rallied in Damascus yesterday to denounce the Hariri murder. The rally “reflects the sadness of the man in the street in Syria after the misfortune which has struck our two brotherly countries”, Saber Falhout, head of the Syrian General Union of Journalists, said.

The Syrian occupation of Lebanon won't last until summer. That much, at least, is a safe bet—though I'm willing in addition to wager that the Assad regime in Damascus will fall before this year is far spent.

MORE: Arthur Chrenkoff provides yet another of his trademark roundups, this time regarding Lebanon. And in other regional news, it seems that Yasser Arafat's legacy is proving to be far more fleeting than anyone might have predicted.

Back in the era of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian lawmakers were inclined to rubber-stamp just about anything their longtime leader asked of them. Even if they didn't, the autocratic Arafat would simply ignore their wishes.

But this week, something unusual happened in the halls of the Palestinian parliament. Lawmakers rose up and vehemently declared they did not want corruption-tainted cronies of Arafat to serve in the new Cabinet.

On Tuesday, after two days of stormy debate, some of it held in the predawn hours, Prime Minister Ahmed Korei agreed to overhaul the Cabinet lineup. In a face-saving compromise, he told lawmakers he had decided to appoint technocrats rather than politicians to key posts and promised to present a new roster of ministers for approval as early as today.

Reform-minded lawmakers cheered the turn of events, even while warning that only the final outcome would tell whether things had really changed since the wheeler-dealer days of Arafat, who died Nov. 11.

“This is the beginning of what could be very good news,” said Mustafa Barghouti, who ran for the Palestinian Authority presidency last month on a reformist platform. “It shows that people are really fed up with nepotism and corruption and are seeing how democracy can change that.”

Maybe the cowboy is on to something.