It is not easy for Lebanon to live with the fire raging in Syria. There is no need to explain this at length. For decades, Syria was the primary player in the Lebanese arena. Syria supported, invented and wrote off entire droves of politicians. It appointed presidents, ministers, deputies and mayors. It left its marks on the politics, security and the economy of the country. What Syria is undergoing now is no simple thing. It is an unprecedented earthquake and almost all its results are painful: If the regime survives, it will remain injured, accused and under siege. And if Syria drowns in a protracted civil war, then the price will be steep for both it and the region. Clearly, there can be no return to the strict stable situation that existed prior to the outbreak of the protests. Syria now is a beleaguered country that has been firmly transformed into a playground, having hitherto been a player itself. Meanwhile, the situation in Lebanon is beyond being thorny and complex. It is at once very bad and very dangerous. There is no state, or even the hint of a state there. What is left of it is evaporating and vanishing by the minute. The existence of posts, motorcades and flags does not invalidate this. Experience has taught us that flags can fly even over ruins. The government seems very strange and detached, despite the prudent policy of self-dissociation. I have visited many beleaguered and miserable countries, and yet I have never seen a painful government as this one: Tense and warring isles that exchange leaks and accusations, and ambush one another. There is no state, or even the hint of a state there. All what had once brought the Lebanese together now divides them, from the Syrian fire to Hezbollah's arms, and from Lebanon's position to the positions of the sects and communities that inhabit it. The same goes for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, all the way down to traffic law violations. The state is no longer a reference point, even for its own security and military apparatuses. Now, the mere arrest of a youth from another sect threatens to cause strife. Never before have Sunni-Shiite relations reached such a level of tension. Since we are bored of politeness, etiquette and euphemisms, we argue that Lebanese fragmentation has reached such an extent that the elections may well become merely a chapter of the civil war. As I read the morning papers, I become bemused, with the papers' ink and poison. When I watch the evening news, I quickly escape to sleep. They have no mercy and no pity. Above the arena that is at the risk of collapse, they decide to open wounds and rub them with salt. It is as if they have an alternative homeland. I know the playground, the players, and the threads, and I know the extensions and the wagers at stake. Nevertheless, I am sometimes taken by the same sense of naivety of a foreign correspondent. With summer around the corner and with the Lebanese anxious to see tourists coming in, how I wish that a one-month truce is declared, during which the politicians would refrain from making any statements or appearances in the media. The Syrian revolution will not collapse if [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri refrains from reiterating his support for it. He can make use of this month of silence to put his house in order in the Future Movement, especially vis-à-vis the attempts to infiltrate it or steal the Sunni public opinion from the movement. The Syrian regime will not collapse if Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah refrains from reiterating his support for it for a month. He can make use of this month to think about the future of Lebanese Shiites in the new Arab world, which is lost between the attack of the Spring, the Iranian onslaught and infiltration by Al-Qaeda. He can also think about the future of Shiite Arabs. Speaker Nabih Berri can use the month-long truce to hold a training workshop for young MPs. The goal of the workshop would be to convince them that profanities and accusations such as the ones they exchanged under the roof of the Parliament are harmful to the country and its people, or what is left of them, and that comical posturing is nothing but resounding contempt of the citizens and the viewers. Dr. Samir Geagea can use the month of silence to prepare the Lebanese Forces for the elections, especially when the assassination attempt against him had proven the premise that he is ‘wanted' in peacetime as much as in wartime. What applies to Samir Geagea also applies to Walid Jumblatt. Neither the Syrian regime is surviving because of the support of the Lebanese nor is the revolution continuing because of it. A truce would also be beneficial to President Gen. Michel Suleiman, as it would at least spare him the attacks of Gen. Michel Aoun. Finally, Prime Minister Mikati can use the one month period of silence to reaffirm his policy of self-dissociation. How I wish you would leave the television screens for one month, and have mercy on the citizens and let the tourists flock to Lebanon. Your positions will not be shaken, and the ground beneath your feet will not crumble. Who knows, you might like the experience and decide to extend it until the end of summer, and if you did, then we will praise you for a long time afterwards. Of course, the truce must also be observed by second-rate and ninth-rate politicians as well as the army of political analysts. Also, His Beatitude [i.e. the Maronite Patriarch] can spend a month in meditation and prayer, away from the thorns of the Arab spring.
