No one knows how politics manipulates fear more than the Lebanese. Yet at the same time, the small Levantine country, which has witnessed so much tragedy in the past four decades, has been able to put conflict behind it again and unite to create one of the most energetic — even if it is at times erratic — private sectors in the region.
This ability to bury the past and move on was demonstrated at the Taef peace talks, held in Saudi Arabia in 1989 to end 15 years of brutal civil conflict, and in Doha in 2008 after Lebanon came perilously close to plunging itself once again into the abyss. The Lebanese may at times be powerless to the political maneuverings of bigger nations, but they have witnessed first hand how regional tremors can derail prosperity and they know how to be pragmatic, even when pragmatism comes at a personal cost.
There can be no better example of this than Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s trip to Damascus last month. The visit may have been held in line with his government’s ministerial policy statement and as part of a regional effort to, “reunite Arab states and unify Arab positions on regional challenges,” but one cannot forget that the Syrian regime is still the prime suspect in the murder of Hariri’s father, the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Saad Hariri has clearly decided that he would not allow Beirut’s relations with Damascus to be shaped by a personal feud. After all, the consequences of his father’s assassination went well beyond solely a Hariri family tragedy — it put in motion events that reshaped the geopolitical power dynamics of the region and galvanized action by the most powerful leaders in the world.
Now, there are big challenges ahead, but for the moment we can at least say that Hariri came of age on the tarmac at Damascus Airport.
