Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War

This reported from MEMRI:

Against the backdrop of the worsening crisis in Lebanon, Lebanese Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel was assassinated yesterday (November 21, 2006). Pierre Gemayel was the son of former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, and he served as the representative of the Phalange party in the Al-Siniora government and was a senior figure in the “March 14 Forces” political alliance.

OK. Typical mid-eastern political action again…the language reminds one of the sort of thing heard in Germany just before the Austrian anschluss, and again before the seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

In the days preceding the assassination, there had been a sharp escalation in tensions in Lebanon, and especially in statements by Hizbullah spokesmen. Following Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech before the popular action committees on November 19, 2006, in which he called on his followers to take to the streets and to topple the government, Hizbullah’s website declared that within a few days a government would be established in Lebanon that would represent the true majority in the country. In addition, a daily close to Hizbullah promised that if the government did not fall within 40 days, it would receive a “decisive blow” that would topple it. For their part, senior figures in the “March 14 Forces” warned that Lebanon was on the verge of a political putsch, and said that it was Syria and Iran that had ordered Hizbullah to create the crisis.