In Lebanon, there is rage building against the entire political class, the politicians who for years have, through mismanagement and corruption, helped to lead Lebanon to economic ruin. Lebanon’s Debt-to-GDP ratio is the second highest in the world; the currency is cratering; unemployment has skyrocketed; young Lebanese professionals dream of emigrating. The collapse of the currency has caused many Lebanese to lose their life savings. The Gulf Arab states that once lent money to, and invested in, Lebanon, have ceased their financial support now that the country is in thrall to Hezbollah, the Shi’a terror group linked to Iran. Western states, and private parties, too, have not been investing in a country that, at any moment, could be dragged into a war with Israel by Hezbollah, a conflict that, because Hezbollah has hidden its vast arsenal of weapons, including 150,000 missiles, in civilian areas across southern Lebanon and southern Beirut, would inevitably lead to large-scale destruction of infrastructure. And the coronavirus pandemic has caused lockdowns leading to still more job losses in Lebanon, on top of those caused by decades of economic mismanagement and theft.
And now there is the blast in Beirut. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. So far there are 154 dead, with 50 missing, 5,000 wounded, 300,000 homeless, and $10-$15 billion in damages. We know now that the cause was the result of government inattention to the highly-explosive 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrates, carelessly stored pell-mell in Hangar 12 at the Port of Beirut, for six years, while many complaints were made by Port officials about the danger of an explosion, but all their warnings went unheeded by those higher up.
Now that the blast has taken place, the fury at the political class has also exploded. It began to express itself months before. Street protests have been held against the government, over economic grievances, beginning last October. Since then the non-violent protestors have been put down violently by Hezbollah, which has become the government’s protector and enforcer. That makes sense, given that Hezbollah controls the government, not only through its own members, but also through non-members who follow its instructions, including, most scandalously, the Maronite President Michel Aoun. In the wake of the blast, enraged Lebanese are now demanding that the government resign. They are erecting mock gallows for the entire political class. They spare no one. They want an end to the permanent cast of characters who have brought Lebanon down. Still the government holds on. But for how much longer?
The latest developments are here.
Major protests are expected in Beirut amid growing anger at the corruption and incompetence that appears to have paved the way for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has ever seen.
Beirut’s battered residents are demanding answers and accountability for their city’s tragedy. More than 150 people died in the blast, around 5,000 were injured and at least 60 are still missing, according to the health ministry.
“After three days of cleaning, removing rubble and licking our wounds … it is time to let our anger explode and punish them,” said Fares Halabi, a 28-year-old activist who planned to join an afternoon protest….
Mass protests last year eventually toppled the prime minister, but the system that he presided over survived almost intact, and in the face of economic pressure and the coronavirus the movement faded….
The “movement” – that is, the street protestors – “faded” not only because the coronavirus made people less willing to congregate, but because they were violently put down by Hezbollah bully-boys. Hezbollah’s role as the enforcer for the government should not be overlooked.
Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, vowed on Friday that all officials responsible for the explosion would be brought to justice regardless of their positions.
A preposterous claim – “all officials responsible…would be brought to justice” – that no one believes. It was met with scorn by the Lebanese public, whose contempt for Aoun is well known, and that contempt has grown mightily since the day of the blast. Of course there will be a coverup, protecting those who, at the very top, bear the most responsibility for the failure to heed the warnings from Port officials about the dangerously-stored ammonium nitrates.
Yet few in Beirut have any confidence that a government that allowed an enormous stockpile of deadly explosive to sit for years in flimsy sheds in the heart of Beirut can be trusted to investigate the accident.
In one sign of disgust with the entire political class, one of the country’s leading broadcasters, LBC, announced it would no longer broadcast any political speeches or statements by leaders about a promised probe into the catastrophe….
This defiant act by the broadcaster LBC, refusing to carry the speeches either of the President (a crook, as well as a Hezbollah puppet), or of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, about a “promised probe into the catastrophe,” demonstrate the total mistrust felt by the Lebanese toward their leaders. It also shows the risks LBC is now willing to take, in angering the vindictive Nasrallah and his willing collaborator Michel Aoun. It’s an entirely new level of rage that Lebanon has never before experienced.
France called for an international inquiry into the catastrophe, already regarded as one of the biggest industrial accidents in history….
When Macron visited Beirut, he was swamped by Lebanese who urged him not to give aid to the Lebanese government, which protestors said would only be stolen. Only aid that can be delivered directly to the people should be sent by France, they shouted; otherwise, it would be better for Lebanon that it not be sent at all, for it would only help prop up the current intolerable government, and prolong the rule of the incompetent and corrupt politicians who had brought Lebanon, this time through their criminal negligence, to such a pass. Macron saw their anger, took their point, and called for an “international inquiry” – a clear slap in the face of the Lebanese government.
But Aoun has already rejected widespread calls for an international probe, telling a reporter he saw it as an attempt to “dilute the truth.” He also suggested that “foreign interference” may have been to blame – something many Lebanese see as laying the groundwork for powerful players to avoid justice.
Michel Aoun is the very symbol of all that is wrong with Lebanese politicians. He’s a Maronite, but does not represent Maronite interests. He’s “on the staff” of Hezbollah. He’s self-serving and corrupt, having somehow amassed, as a politician, a $90 million fortune. He’s not only a past master at enriching himself, but well practiced in the related art of nepotism, having helped his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to become Foreign Minister.
And now he has rejected the calls for an international inquiry into the Beirut blast, claiming that it would “dilute the truth.” What could he possibly mean? Why would non-Lebanese wish to “dilute the truth”? Plenty of well-placed Lebanese, of course, with Michel Aoun at the top of the list, would like to do so, and therefore he insists that any inquiry be conducted by fellow Lebanese, no doubt in Aoun’s view to be handpicked by the government, and likely to go easy on fellow members of the political class, including Michel Aoun himself.
Not content with rejecting an international inquiry, President Aoun has also claimed that the blast might have been the result of “foreign interference” – which suggests Israel might have been involved – and he reinforced the hint by claiming that the blast could have been caused by “negligence, a bomb, or a missile.” He made this claim days after everyone else, including even Hassan Nasrallah, had ruled out the possibility of a “bomb or a missile” and had concluded that “negligence” — the careless storing of the ammonium nitrates, and the equally careless storing of fireworks near those chemicals in the same hangar – explained the blast.
Let the protests begin, and keep going, gaining strength enough to face down Hezbollah enforcers, until the ruling politicians finally take the hint, and to end those protests and restore calm, without which it is impossible to govern effectively, resign as they ought to have done years ago. And leading the list of those compelled to resign should be the despicable Michel Aoun. He can piously claim, in his usual self-serving fashion, that “I have decided that it is time for me to retire. I have served my beloved country for many years, I have always done my best to remain true to our nation’s ideals and best interests. But now I have decided that it is time for new leadership in Lebanon.” What a sigh of relief will be heard across the land. They will say of Aoun, channeling Shakespeare, that “Nothing became him so much in life as his leaving the leadership of his land.” And besides, he’s not exactly sacrificing. After all, Michel Aoun still has those 90 million dollars, pocketed from sweetheart deals and government coffers, to sustain and comfort him in his retirement.