Lebanon experienced a state of chaos on Wednesday, which revealed the wretched performance by armed opposition groups in Syria, some leaders of the political opposition, and leading figures of the Free Syrian Army in dealing with the issue of 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in the town of Azaz, near Aleppo, and the kidnapping of Lebanese national Hassan Salim Moqdad. These two kidnapping incidents were the spark, excuse or justification for unleashing chaos in Lebanon. It can be said that Lebanese political groups exploited this spark as a pretext for spreading deliberate chaos, similar to 7 May 2008, when Hezbollah attacked the capital, Beirut, and the beginning of 2011, when the party's black-shirt-wearing cadres deployed in several neighborhoods, threatening dire consequences if the leader of the Future Movement, Saad Hariri, returned as prime minister. This indicates the depths to which Lebanese groups have sunk, in exploiting the tragic kidnappings. However, this does not cancel the fact that armed Syrian opposition groups have behaved irresponsibly vis-à-vis the kidnappings. They have behaved suspiciously, or cavalierly, to the degree that only inspires fear among some Syrian dissidents, as it drags them toward a quasi-mafia logic of behavior, and nothing more, or in the direction of paralysis, which is likely linked to intelligence agencies. What is more painful, when it comes to the supporters of the Syrian uprising, is that some Syrian opposition members comment that some of the hostages belong to Hezbollah, or that they were sent by the party to Syria, or by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Many people in the know believe that Hezbollah is implicated in its activities in support of the Syrian regime in certain areas, and that Iran sends experts and trainers. But there are Syrian political opposition members and others from the Free Syrian Army who talk about the presence of Hezbollah members among the 11 hostages, which is a stupid excuse for seeing them remain in Syria since May. Moreover, there were contradictory claims by opposition members that four of the 11 were killed in the bombing of Azaz. But the accusation that all Shiites belong to Hezbollah resembles exactly the generalizations that have been used by the authoritarian Syrian regime. The Lebanese have suffered from such generalizations and have been fed up by them, before the Syrians have been. The regime says that those who do not stand with it are part of American and Israeli plots, and that they are “Arafatists." Do people remember how prevalent this accusation was in the 1980s and 1990s in Beirut? While one should appreciate the anger of Syrian dissidents and rebels vis-à-vis the policies of Iran and Hezbollah, in support of the dictatorial Syrian regime, the belief that Lebanese Shiites belong to Hezbollah is an accusation that not only resembles the secret police-style behavior of the Syrian regime, but also indicates that some of them cannot leave behind the mentality that was spread by the rulers of Damascus, in subjecting Syrians to the ugliest forms of oppression, which required the terrorizing of people with ready-made accusations. It resembles the accusations by Hizbullah against its fellow Lebanese who oppose its policies and weapons that they are carrying out what Israel wants and that the Syrian opposition is serving the cause of foreign intervention... and is “selling" Syria to the United States and its plots. When the captors of these Lebanese refer to them as "guests," it resembles the policy of Syrian intelligence, in inviting those it wants to insult “to a cup of coffee," in order to break their will and insult them, prompting them to admit their lowliness before their captors. Using the word “guest" in such circumstances is a bad joke, as in the case of the 11 hostages in Azaz. There is a conviction by many Lebanese that the kidnapping of the Moqdad family member was the work of a Syrian intelligence agency, to spur reactions in Lebanon and spread chaos, as a response to the detention of former minister Michel Samaha. It is the right of many Lebanese to view the wretched performance of members of the Syrian opposition about the kidnapping of the 11 as a reason for cementing their fears that some of these opposition figures long toward behaving arrogantly toward Lebanon and the Lebanese, just like the Syrian regime did, which was responsible for the rebellion against this regime that has existed since 2005. There have been accusations – which some believe are spontaneous – by some of the “families" of the kidnapped, against Saad Hariri and Fouad Siniora, and attacks against Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and MPs from the Future Movement, along with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. If this behavior mistakenly blames the victims, the political groups that are behind these accusations are in harmony with the wretched behavior of the captors, and invent accusations, just like the kidnappers do. Despite the political circumstances that surround such incidents, they are sufficient to feed the chaos and disorder when certain people want to exploit them.
