Since last October, Lebanese have been out protesting in the streets against the mismanagement and corruption of their political class. Those nonviolent protests were put down violently by Hezbollah bezonians, following the directions of Hassan Nasrallah. In the spring, the coronavirus epidemic took its own toll on the protests, because many were afraid to show up for, and take part in, crowded gatherings. The blast at the Port changed that. Now the protests are more massive than before, with the crowds now properly masked, and enraged more than ever with the politicians whose carelessness and indifference they blame for the huge explosion at the Port of Beirut.
And now Nasrallah, and his ally President Aoun, are being hanged in effigy. The story is here.
Police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Lebanon’s capital on Saturday at the start of a planned protest over this week’s massive explosion that devastated large parts of the capital and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and around 5,000 people injured.
Thousands of people were pouring into Beirut’s main square, where they had set up symbolic nooses to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday’s explosion at the Port of Beirut. Among the cardboard cutouts hung by protesters were those of President Michel Aoun and of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terror group, a key power broker in Lebanese politics.
“Resignation or hang,” read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. A number of protesters chanted “Hezbollah is a terror organization,” according to video footage….
As scuffles broke out on the fringes, a group of protesters led by retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry in central Beirut and declared it the “headquarters of the revolution.” The takeover was aired live on local television.
Retired army officer Sami Ramah read a statement on the building’s steps after dozens of protesters pushed their way into the building. “This authority must step down,” he said….
This has become a much more serious challenge than the earlier protests, which had been directed against particular policies of the government, examples of mismanagement and corruption, that had led to the economic collapse in Lebanon. Now the angry Lebanese in the street have demanded much more. When 200 protesters seized one of the most important government buildings, the Foreign Ministry, and called the site the “headquarters of the revolution,” and further demanded that “the authority [meaning the government] must step down,” that signified there will be no compromise with the ruling political class. Nothing short of the total replacement of the present government will now do.
It is worth noting that Hezbollah was not out on the streets beating up protesters, as it had in the past. Nasrallah no doubt deemed it best to avoid such a confrontation, given the unquenchable rage against Hezbollah, which so many Lebanese blame (wrongly, it now appears), for the explosion of the ammonium nitrates.
In a show of anger, the president of the Christian opposition Kataeb party said its three legislators have decided to resign from Parliament over this week’s “disaster.” Sami Gemayel called on every “honorable” member of parliament to resign and work for the “birth of a new Lebanon.”…
It is worth noting that the Christian Kataeb Party’s three legislators, who chose to resign as a way of encouraging the other members of Parliament to do likewise, have themselves not been connected to any misdeeds. They are among the handful of honest MPs. On the other hand, the most important Christian politician, President Michel Aoun, has given every indication that he intends to stay in power, where he no doubt plans to continue as before, doing the bidding of Hezbollah, helping his relatives obtain sinecures, and enriching himself still further.
“We will support Lebanon through all available means,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting Aoun on Saturday morning. Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanon’s demands to the international community.
Later on Saturday the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey’s vice president and the country’s foreign minister arrived Saturday morning and met Aoun, saying that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut’s port and evacuate some of the wounded from Lebanon to Turkey for treatment….
No mention, however, is made of the offer by Israel to treat Lebanese patients in four Israeli hospitals, an offer the Lebanese government turned down, because were it to have been accepted, that “would make Israel look good,” and that, of course, would never do. Better to let some Lebanese die than to let Israel be seen as the Good Samaritan it has, in fact, always been.
The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and in explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded.
In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port, where it stayed until the explosion.
The material was not, contrary to the earliest stories, owned by Hezbollah. But it was likely that Hezbollah knew about such a large supply of ammonium nitrates being stored at the Port, and the terror group was well aware of the dangers of an explosion. Four years before, Nasrallah had threatened to blow up with a missile the ammonium nitrates stored in the Port of Haifa, claiming that the result would be “like a nuclear explosion.” Hezbollah apparently did not add its voice to the warnings that were given to the Lebanese government, urging it to do something about the nitrates — to store them more safely, and divided among several different sites — so as to lessen the likelihood of a major explosion. Had Hezbollah done so, something would surely have been done by the government, as the terror group is the most powerful force in Lebanon. Could Hezbollah have been planning at some future date to use the chemicals in an attack against Israel? It’s certainly plausible. The role of Hezbollah can be successfully investigated only by an international panel of inquiry; if such an investigation were to be left to the Lebanese, they would not dare to conclude that Hezbollah bears any responsibility for the blast; they know what happened to Rafik Hariri.
Ideally, France will take the lead in dealing with the aftermath of the blast. The Lebanese President Macron met while he went walking in Beirut pleaded with him not to send aid to the government, for they claimed that aid would “only be stolen.” Instead, they asked him to have such aid from foreign donors distributed directly to the Lebanese, presumably by their own militaries, or members of UNIFIL, or NGOs with long experience in the direct distribution of aid. The deep distrust of the Lebanese for their own government was palpable. That is surely why Macron called for that international inquiry into the blast and those who were — at each step — responsible, rather than agree to let the Lebanese government investigate itself.
President Aoun has made the preposterous claim that an international inquiry would be a bad idea, for it could “dilute the truth.” The only dilution of the truth in this tragic tale that might conceivably arise would come from Lebanese officials themselves, eager to shield themselves and their cronies from any responsibility or blame.
It would be of tremendous benefit to the people of Lebanon if the donor nations collectively made a public appeal for there to be an “international inquiry” — as Macron first proposed – in order to “get to the bottom of the tragedy in Beirut.” How long could Aoun hold out against such widespread pressure, coming both from the community of foreign donors, and from the Lebanese protesting on the streets, who have erected mock gallows on which they hung cardboard cutouts of their leaders, have taken over the Foreign Ministry, where they tore up pictures of hated President Aoun, and have demanded a “revolution”? And what if the donor nations do not merely call for that “international inquiry” but make the delivery of further aid to Lebanon conditional on the country’s acceptance of such an inquiry? What could Michel Aoun, or Hassan Nasrallah, do then?