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Jun

7

Lebanon elections show cautious promise for (slow) sea change


A couple of weeks ago, I went to a small breakfast hosted by the American Jewish Committee (I’m being installed onto their board later this week – isn’t that a weird expression – sounds like a stereo into a car) that featured Jason Isaacson, AJC’s Director of Government & International Affairs.  There were less than 20 of us I think and we had a chance to talk about many topics and ask questions.  One thing I’ve been noticing is how Lebanon has been pretty much absent from almost any mainstream Middle East peace conversation, and I was finding that so incredibly sad.  

Lebanon has the potential to be a pilot project, an excellent location and demographic, to show what can be possible in a country with multiple faiths and political ideologies within one set of borders, no matter how gerrymandered we could argue they are.  As the New York Times says in its coverage that will be printed tomorrow:

Lebanon has long been seen as a proxy battlefield for regional and global interests, and so foreign powers from Washington to Tehran have paid close attention. But its politics are also intensely local, with power divided among sect leaders who jealously guard their interests.

I made this point on CNN.com/LIVE just last week.

But as I read stories leading up to today’s elections in Lebanon, I was extremely fearful about Hizbollah taking a greater hold on that country’s government.  The fact that all reports indicate that that’s not what happened and that in fact there was a record voter turnout doesn’t mean that Lebanon will see smooth sailing. Far from it. We now must wait and see what Syria says and what Iran says – is there some other endgame? (The BBC has a data-packed article here.)

But hopefully we will hear from strong voices that seek to continue to build a democratic nation with multiple political parties and faiths governing to prosperity that for many years seemed to be Lebanon’s destiny.

The next thing to watch for: whether President Obama’s speech in Cairo had an impact on voters and their morale that could have persuaded them that they had nothing to lose by voting for non-Hizbollah allies.  Can Lebanon lead the way?

See for example already this Huffington Post entry and tweets about The Obama Effect.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:56 pm June 7th, 2009 in Barack Obama, democracy, Government, Israel, leadership, middle east, peace, Politics, Religion, Voting, war 

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