Gemayel’s funeral draws huge anti-Syrian crowd
posted at 12:52 pm on November 23, 2006 by Allahpundit
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On any other afternoon I’d be blogging the hell out of this but as it is I’ll turn you over to Rick Moran, who’s updating continuously. Hezbollah had planned massive rallies for today in hopes of toppling the anti-Syrian government. Massive rallies are exactly what happened — by crowds who turned out to mourn slain minister Pierre Gemayel and ended up burning posters of Assad and their own puppet president, Emile Lahoud.
Nasrallah called off the Hezbollah demonstrations at the eleventh hour.
A couple of tidbits to call to your attention. According to Abu Kais at From Beirut to the Beltway, there’s a rumor circulating that the entire Lebanese government has holed up together to ensure that no more ministers are killed before the cabinet can formally approve the establishment of an international court to investigate Rafik Hariri’s assassination. If you don’t understand why that’s so important, see here.
Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit relays a report from a Kuwaiti newspaper that seems too good (or bad) to be true — that someone from Syrian state media phoned an unnamed Lebanese paper for details about Gemayel’s assassination … 55 minutes before it happened. Anton Lefendi of Across the Bay runs through a few reactions from noted Middle East “experts,” including blogosphere favorite Juan Cole. And Instapundit thinks Bush’s new “realist” approach might lead him to reprise Chamberlain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia by basically ceding Lebanon to Assad in exchange for a little peace and quiet in Iraq. If he does, I’m off the Republican bandwagon forever, and I won’t be the only one.
I leave you with a photo from today’s funeral. In the center is Amin Gemayel, former president of Lebanon; on the right, Saad Hariri. One has a dead father, the other a dead son, both in all likelihood at the hands of a regime we’re now seriously considering doing business with.
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I believe the fellow on the left is Walid Jumblat who lost a father to Syrian assassins in 1975.
rick moran on November 23, 2006 at 12:56 PM
Nope. I was wrong.
rick moran on November 23, 2006 at 12:57 PM
The man on the left is Samir Geagea, head of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LN) Party. He was imprisoned 12 years by the Syrians.
rick moran on November 23, 2006 at 1:07 PM
If the hair was a bit longer and he looked a bit older, he could be Walid Jumblatt’s twin brother.
SilverStar830 on November 23, 2006 at 1:30 PM
Sad. Forty years ago Lebanon, Beirut in particular was considered the Riviera of the middle east. It was the banking capitol for all the heavy hitters in the arab world as well as a favourite vacation spot. The only secular democratic country in the middle east. The Palestinians and other assorted arab extremists took care of that and this is what it has degenerated into. Truly sad.
jewrick on November 23, 2006 at 1:47 PM
AP, you just posted some crack heads who simply could not articulate their thoughts in an attempt to smear the bush administration. They seem to implicitly blame the bush admin for the assassination, which prompted my initial statement. I think that the so-called talks should be placed on hold. Syria needs to address this murder immediately.
Ouabam on November 23, 2006 at 1:57 PM
Why should we be negotiating with Syria at all? I agree that you’re right to be mad at Bush for letting talks with Assad go ahead.
Avi Green on November 23, 2006 at 3:48 PM
The Christians have a good hold and appear to be doing the right things behind the scenes. Now if we can keep away for a fortnight, they may solve the problem before Condi can screw it up under orders from her boss.
I have two years of Christmas cards from 43 and I’m thinking of sending them back. His foreign and middle east policy decisions are, IMHO, the work of a retard. Of course, I don’t have the daily briefings that he does, and he may be more informed, or just doesn’t deal well with the ideas of his party(conservative side). There are a more good ideas than useless/damaging. Too bad no one uses them.
tormod on November 23, 2006 at 8:22 PM
Talk about being ahead of the news cycle… 55 minutes ahead.
I question the …..nevermind. Just couldn’t do it.
Anyone hear from Rick Warren?
Hey Rick, how’s that workin’ for ya, so far?
shooter on November 23, 2006 at 10:11 PM
Amazing how mad they’ve stayed, just ’cause they invaded a tiny new country, TWICE, and LOST LAND. Not many big bad invaders actually lose land after their invasion, even if it was only a few hours.
Sunni’s and Shia’s been fighting and killing each other since 30 years after muhammed (pissbeuponhim) died. Not much gonna grow in that environement.
But I hear it was quite beautiful pre-’67.
shooter on November 23, 2006 at 10:20 PM
Hey Rick, Allah pointed us to your blog buddy. You tryin’ to double dip?
Just Kidding. Thanks for pickin’ up Allah’s slack.
Troy Rasmussen on November 23, 2006 at 10:44 PM
…turn on a light…the cockroaches scurry back into the greasy darkness.
I seem to remember that the Lebanese Christians were, numerically, not an inconsiderable bloc in Lebanon. Imagine a Christian regime in the land, allied with the Druze, allied for muscle with Israel. That would put the cat among the pidgeons.
…then, if, blaming Syria, they asked the “Palestinians” resident there to either work with the new order or get their dusty, squatting butts to Syria, or join their compatriots in Jordan…cat among the pidgeons….
Puritan1648 on November 24, 2006 at 2:33 AM
…Rick’s probably out hugging a tree.
He’s already disavowed all of this, blamed it on Syria’s news agency, blah-blah-blah.
John 18:36
“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’
…two kingdoms, Rick…two kingdoms….
Puritan1648 on November 24, 2006 at 2:37 AM
they refused our help and hate us too. or am I wrong, the Lebonese ar ein bed with terrorists and hate the USA and Isreal.. just is it that they want? They can’t protect themselves, or they refuse to… oh well, have fun..
again, am I wrong?
retired on November 24, 2006 at 1:17 PM
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