One man, One Nation

by R.H. Wood and J.P. Orak

February 14th 12:55pm, I was walking down the Old Damascus Highway, a road once known as the “Green Line” during the civil war; dividing Beirut into West (Muslim) and East (Christian). It all happened so fast. The brutal force of the explosion resounded through my chest. Startled, I searched for answers. The uncertainty settled in my stomach, a band of butterflies fighting within me. The streets flooded with the curious masses. All too familiar with such events, they seemed aware of things I could not comprehend. My first instinct was to look up to the sky for an Israeli F-15, a common pest to the Lebanese, but instead of the expected “sonic boom” a mushroom cloud of black smoke rose over the city. I will never be able to adequately express my sense of fear and frustration or the emotional response of the people.

To people of Lebanon St. Valentine’s day is forever changed; Transformed from a day of heart filled balloons to one of nightmarish despair. It only took a matter of seconds and the demons of Lebanon’s not too distant past emerged from their shallow slumber to claim yet another victim. Not just any victim. But Mr. Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri.

In a country still rebuilding from the dark days of civil war, a war which forever stained the hands of nearly every Lebanese politician with the blood of innocents, Hariri was the one exception. He had spent the war years, 1975-90, amassing his fortune in Saudi Arabia. However, unlike many of his fellow expatriates, Hariri did not make his money and leave. Instead he used his influence and fortune to help assuage the pain of his people. Eventually his efforts worked as he was the impetus behind the Ta’if Accord, the treatise signed in Saudi Arabia by the different Lebanese faction that ended the brutal 15 years of war.

After Ta’if he returned to his country of birth with a vision to rebuild the nation that he once new and to work for its collective future. In life he rebuilt the war torn neighborhoods, created charitable foundations, invited foreign investments, and brought an independent movement to politics. All the while he dreamed of an inescapable unity in Lebanon. In death that unity was realized. As the masses of Muslim, Christian, and Druze prayed at his grave, as they march in the street in his honor and protested the Syrian presence that was thought to have killed him, he brought them together. How long this unity will last and what it shall accomplish is still unknown, as is the truth behind Hariri’s murder.
Hariri’s assassination has ignited a plethora of conspiracies putting the blame on anyone and everyone possible. The most telling is a sample of what can be heard from the Lebanese directly. “It was Syria 100%” a woman from Baalbak claimed as she continued, “but I am sure that America was behind it somehow.” Others have said that they will not decide who was responsible until hearing the report from the international investigation. Some remain very pessimistic about the political instability, “the removal of the Syrian troops will open a power vacuum in Lebanon comparable to the expulsion of the PLO from West Beirut” explained a Palestinian resident of Beirut, alluding to an increase in violence that occurred during the early 80s of the Civil War.

Sifting through the conspiracies to find the truth is an act of futility which may never bring the truth to fruition. Hariri was a threat to many different elements of the Syrian-Lebanese relationship. The Lebanese have been subjected to a Syrian presence both through its military and intelligence apparatus since 1976. Any Lebanese will tell you that the Syrian mukhabarat (intelligence agents) are everywhere. “They are running the fruit stands, they drive the taxis, and even the beggars are mukhabarat,” a Lebanese woman explained to me. This leads to why most of the Lebanese believe that Syria must have been behind the brutal assassination. There is even debate as to whether the assassination was carried out by a car bombing or if the bombs were planted underground. This conspiracy incorporates the Lebanese pro-Syrian government as being involved in the assassination plot.
Regardless of the answer, the assassination of Hariri has mobilized the people of Lebanon. They have been taking to the streets daily. Even after the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami’s government, the people continue to gather in Martyr’s Square.

Hariri’s vision of Lebanon is being realized today. People from all regions and religions of Lebanon flooded to the burial site to pay respects to their fallen Martyr and his family. Side by side, in unison, they chanted the Muslim prayer for the dead and performed the fatiaha. Together they mourned; a collective tear of sorrow fell from their faces. Within that tear, the dream of one man and the hope of a nation, and as the world watches hopefully that tear will wash away the memories of war and irrigate the fields of unity and understanding.