Pierre Gemayel, the 34-year old Minister of Industry, who was gunned down in broad daylight in Jedideh in East Beirut on November 21, was the fifth member of one of Lebanon’s most prominent Maronite dynasties to meet a violent, untimely death. Gemayel, who won a parliamentary seat in 2000 as a representative of the Phalange Party, the once dominant Christian faction established by his grandfather in the 1930s, became the youngest minister in the 2005 Siniora government. As the latest incident in a string of violent attacks targeting anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon over the past two years, the assassination will arguably have more influence on local politics than Gemayel had during his lifetime. Nonetheless, during his short tenure as minister of industry in a country whose economy is driven by the service sector, he accomplished a great deal, and will be remembered equally for his commitment to the principles of
