GEMAYEL's Assassination: Police had little to report, Pro-syrians accuse.. the VICTIM..

Police said today, they had little to report about the assassination.

One must admit, it is rather dazzling, this declaration.

A man, in his car, in a moderatly crowded christian neighborhood, in broad daylight, gets bumped in the back by another car, of which 3 gunmen come out, and shower the man's car with bullets, killing him and his bodyguard..

Did I forget anything ? ah yes... this man, is a Cabinet Minister !!!

What am I missing ?? how could the police say they have little to report ?
Is it for the secrecy of the investigation ?? well I thought about that, but no, it couldn't be the right answer. Just look at all the previous assassination attempts where the police gave the same statements.. no suspects have been apprehended yet !

But now it is even stranger, because it happened in a different manner. No boobytrapped car, no remote controlled detonations. No. The murderers were there in their flesh and blood.
yet...."little to report"...



The funniest thing, though, are the responses of the pro-syrian camp.
Basically, they accused march 14 (some specified Geagea) of killing Gemayel, to prevent the pro-syrians from staging their demonstrations..

Let's remember together that Franjieh had in the past accused Saad Hariri of murdering his own father, Rafic Hariri, to gain power..

Syrian FM said that they should investigate with Geagea, because he predicted the murder days before.

Strange world, where the primary suspects accuse the victims... If you needed another proof of guilt, there you go...

Jean
--
Veritas Vos Liberabit, Veritas Lux Mea..

Final confrontation ? Oh solution, FEDERALISM is thy NAME !!

Things have been happening very fast these past few days.

National dialogue talks resumed, and then (surprise...) failed again, like in the good old pre-July-war times.
However, one thing was different, as subsequently to the failure, all the 5 shiite ministers submitted their resignation from the Lebanese government.

The next day, a christian minister, a protégé of the pro-syrian Lebanese president, walked in the footsteps of his shiite collegues.

This however did not prevent the cabinet from convening and approving the U.N. draft text setting up an international tribunal to try former prime minister Hariri's suspected assassins.

Lahoud (the president) was quick to announce the illegitimacy of the cabinet without its resigning ministers, followed by Speaker Berri, both pro-syrians.

A few days afterwards, Hassan Nasrallah announced in a speech that "they" offered tens of thousands of "martyrs" to Lebanon, and hence Lebanon is theirs. (he probably said it better than me, and more convincingly, I'm sure, but the essence is there...)

Today, Hizbullah (HA) threatened with public obedience.

Aoun is, like usual, still barki.. uh... complaining like a crybaby all the time, but overshadowed by his so-called "ally", Hassan Nasrallah.

Good. So now THE solution.

First, I think I have said it enough. How does HA dare critisize the government, while it is the origin of all the government's troubles ?

But, something new, a new term is born, for you my dear readers (ok, drop the "dear"):
HA and Aoun are becoming masters at the art of Selective Unconstitutionalism !

For HA, it is perfectly unconstitutional for a cabinet to meet without its shiite ministers, and hence its decisions are void.

BUT, and there is where it becomes fun, it is perfectly constitutional to WAGE A WAR without informing your government, attack a neighboring sovereign nation (Yes "dear" readers, Israel exists, as a sovereign nation, for those who are still trying to ignore the "zionist entity").
It is perfectly constitutional to wage violent demonstrations, to destroy whole neighborhoods in the Nation's capital, just because some journalist drew Mohamed on a piece of paper in... Danemark.. or just because a Lebanese satirical show exposed Nasrallah's real intentions..

The list goes on, but I guess you get the idea.

Moreover, and this is one of my favorite parts, HA and Aoun are calling for a national unity government, in the name of democracy.
wow.. what a sentence.... let's take a closer look at it, shall we..

What do HA and Aoun mean by national unity government ? easy, one third plus one seats go to them. This would give them veto power on important governmental decisions... Otherwise known as political death to the country.
But they ask for it in the name of "democracy"..

Strange, call me stupid, but I used to think that democracy consisted of a party in power, and a party in the opposition..
When did the democracy become "all parties in power, let's get ready to rumble !".....??????
Can anyone answer that question ?

Let alone, Aoun, accusing the government of bad infrastructure... for you see, it seems that some roads were filled with water when the first rains came.... do I need to say that this problem exists since ages ?? Is Aoun really so desperate as to attack the government on such stupid and irrelevant topics ?

I guess that Aoun forgot that he was offered ministry seats in the goverment, that he refused, because he wanted specified ministries (defense and exterior, if I'm not wrong)...
So Aoun, a fan of "give me the best, orelse I'll say you are bad" ?

Here comes the part where I'll lose the few of you who are still agreeing with me up until this point.
HA doesn't want to negociate anymore (FM Fneish just said so today). Aoun seems pretty much incapable of admitting his error.
Where do we go from here ?

Easy: Federalism !

Okay, I'll give you 2 minutes to get over the shock and get back in your chair.
Ready ?
Think about it, why not ??

Let's leave the old stupid clichés for a minute. "Lebanon is the example of living together", "Lebanon has 18 sects that live together in harmony", "Lebanon is the place where everybody can live with everybody"....
Wrong ! wake up ! it's a bad bad dream !!

We CANNOT live together, not in the actual shape of the country !
Let federalism solve it ! we will all remain Lebanese, but we will also live in different federations, like it's the case in Switzerland for instance. Weren't we the switzerland of the east ?... ;)

Give me just ONE good argument againt the federal system.
We would all still sing the "kuluna lil watan", no problem there.
HA is clearly unwilling to compromise on anything unless it is in power.
Well, let it be in power in its region. We'll see how this goes.
Let us not be ashamed to say, that what made Lebanon the most democratic and advanced country in the region is not HA.

I tell you, let's forget our taboos and our illusions. Let's sit and study seriously this option.
If it turns out to be a bad one, so be it, but at least let's study the possibility !

UPDATE 1: Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel just got assassinated, november 21st. It seems like a final confrontation is inevitable. Will the Lebanese once again shy away from the truth ?

Jean
--
Veritas Vos Liberabit, Veritas Lux Mea