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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/11/us-parties-lebanon-protests-pushing-country-war-roadblocks/#more-17767">https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/11/us-parties-lebanon-protests-pushing-country-war-roadblocks/#more-17767</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">US-backed parties have infiltrated
Lebanon’s protests, pushing the country toward war amid
economic collapse</h1>
<strong>By joining the roadblocks around Beirut, protesters
allowed themselves to be used by US-allied parties playing a
dangerous game that has the potential to explode into open
warfare</strong></div>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<h3><strong>By Rania Khalek</strong></h3>
<p><strong><em>This is the second installment of a
two-part report. <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/01/us-working-lebanon-corruption-protests-hezbollah/#more-17277">Read
part one here</a>.</em></strong></p>
<p><span>The US is desperate to ride the revolutionary
wave in Lebanon, hoping it can fracture a governing
coalition that includes Hezbollah, a top target of the
Trump administration and its friends from Tel Aviv to
Riyadh. To this end, political figures Washington has
cultivated and parties the US backs have penetrated
the protest movement that has swept the country and
are now on the frontlines of blockades obstructing
roads around the country. </span></p>
<p>In <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/01/us-working-lebanon-corruption-protests-hezbollah/#more-17277">the
first part of this report</a>, I surveyed the role of
the US in weaponizing NGO’s and civil society activists
to co-opt the nationwide anti-corruption protests. In
this installment, we will see how the influence of the
US and its Gulf allies also extends to feudal lords and
warlords from Samir Geagea to Walid Joumblatt to Saad
Hariri, and how it is being used to destabilize the
country.</p>
<p><span>When this seemingly conflicting cast of actors
began lending its support to the anti-corruption
protests, many common Lebanese citizens began to look
upon the demonstrations with a jaundiced eye,
precisely because these political figures are living
embodiments of the corruption that spurred the
protests in the first place.</span></p>
<p><span>By joining the roadblocks around Beirut, the
protesters have inadvertently allowed themselves to be
used by these US-allied parties. Whether they know it
or not, the media-friendly artists and students at the
ring road in downtown Beirut have given cover to the
Lebanese Forces roadblocks in the north and the PSP
and Future Party roadblocks in the south. </span></p>
<p><span>Lebanese citizens in the majority Shia south have
expressed outrage at the roadblocks. They have been
especially frustrated with those in the town of
Khaldeh, south of Beirut, because they made it
difficult for residents of the south to drive up to
Beirut. </span></p>
<p><span>The blockades only deepened the divide between
the protest movement and Hezbollah’s working class
base. Lebanon lacks the infrastructure for public
transportation, so road closures infringe on
everyone’s freedom of movement and leave no
alternatives for getting to work. No one despises the
road closures more than taxi drivers. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>On more than one occasion angry youths associated
with Amal, who are typically working class and poor,
have physically attacked the middle class ring road
protesters due to the inconvenience caused by the
closure and out of anger over insults to their revered
symbols. </span></p>
<p><span>They may have also been dispatched by Amal’s
leadership to send a message to protesters, as they
have repeatedly attacked and burned down their tents.
Although Hezbollah was not associated with these acts
of violence, youths nevertheless waved Hezbollah flags
as a show of muscle and defiance. Some of the ring
road protesters are Lebanese Forces supporters, so the
two sides have at times further provoked each other
with intentionally provocative chants. </span></p>
<p><span>Each time clashes like these have broken out,
Western media has </span><a
href="https://apnews.com/a599c7dca9d04ed4a80675088343707b"><span>wrongly
identified</span></a><span> the Amal attackers as
Hezbollah supporters or have erased Amal’s involvement
when both party’s supporters participate in
intimidation tactics. Hezbollah supporters now worry
that their reputation will suffer if Amal makes good
on its threats to attack the protesters. </span></p>
<p><span>There is also a clear class antagonism that many
protesters are reluctant to admit. The protesters in
downtown Beirut are mostly middle class while
Hezbollah and Amal’s base are poor and working class.
</span></p>
<p><span>There does not appear to have been any attempts
on the part of the downtown Beirut elements to reach
out to Hezbollah or Amal’s base of support. Instead,
when these youths have attacked the protest
encampment, the demonstrators have often
condescendingly called them animals and thugs who fail
to appreciate their sacrifice. Naturally, this middle
class savior complex has only compounded the sense of
alienation between the two sides. </span></p>
<p><span>Car accidents and several scuffles have also
taken place at the roadblocks, including one that
turned deadly. A man called Alaa Abou Fakher, a
Choueifat Municipality official and member of the PSP,
was </span><a
href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2019/Nov-14/495549-alaa-abou-fakher-to-be-laid-to-rest-thursday.ashx"><span>shot
and killed</span></a><span> under suspicious
circumstances by a member of the army following a
verbal altercation over the roadblock in Khaldeh. He
is believed to have helped organize the roadblock. </span></p>
<p><span>The man who shot him was the driver of a relative
and member of Mount Lebanon army intelligence. They
“knew each other well,” according to local media
reports. In conspiracy-riven Lebanon, many privately
speculated that Joumblatt had him killed. </span></p>
<p><span>As tensions escalate, suspicion and
conspiratorial speculation have become prevalent. No
one believes the official story about anything. A week
after his death, massive billboards of Abou Fakher
were erected in downtown Beirut calling him “the
martyr of Lebanon and the revolution against the
oppressors.” There is speculation that Joumblatt
himself paid for these billboards. </span></p>
<p><span>At Nahr El Kalb, Lebanese Forces supporters began
erecting a cement wall inside a tunnel to block the
highway as they did during the civil war. This sparked
panic that a new civil conflict was about to erupt. </span></p>
<p><span>The roadblocks are organized and coordinated
through WhatsApp groups. They ebb and flow depending
on the latest outrage of the day. As of this writing,
the roadblocks have ceased, but that could and will
likely change tomorrow or perhaps next week. When
these roadblocks receive coverage, those behind them
are always referred to as “protesters” but their
political affiliations are almost invariably omitted,
as are their acts of flagrant intimidation.</span></p>
<p><span>What earns one the title of protester in the
media is all about political affiliation. FPM,
Hezbollah and Amal supporters are routinely castigated
by their opponents as thugs and hooligans while the
protests in their support are dismissed as marginal.
For example, when some 20,000 FPM supporters drove to
Baabda with several convoys that took up some five to
ten kilometers of the highway to show their support
for the President who is the leader of their party,
local media mocked and dismissed them. </span></p>
<p><span>When an FPM supporter shot in the air at
protesters comprised of Lebanese Forces supporters who
had been blocking the highway in Jal el Dib, his
political affiliation was reported and he was branded
a thug. Yet the political affiliation of those
blocking the highway has scarcely ever been disclosed
in media accounts. They are simply referred to simply
as protesters. </span></p>
<p><span>In private quarters, it is well known which
parties are blocking which roads, but scarcely anyone
dares to speak the truth publicly because of the fear
of delegitimizing the movement as a whole. By refusing
to name the bad actors, members of the movement are
essentially opening up the protests as cover for the
dangerous game carried out by the political parties
doing the blocking. </span></p>
<p><span>None of these parties want a war, yet they are
using the threat of a war to pressure their
adversaries – especially Hezbollah and FPM – into
making concessions. It is brinksmanship at its most
cynical. </span></p>
<p><span>And it is likely being encouraged by the US,
which makes no secret of its ambition to reverse the
political gains made by Hezbollah and its partners in
the 2018 elections. Perhaps all the street pressure
will translate into concessions. But there is also the
chance it could lead to an all-out war.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>And then there is the role of the army and army
intelligence. In Lebanon, everyone is vying for
power. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Joseph Aoun, the head of the Lebanese army, has
ambitions for the presidency. It is widely rumored
that he has not spoken to President Michel Aoun in
weeks. The tension between the two highlights another
friction point that the US has sought to exploit. </span></p>
<p><span>The Lebanese army is </span><a
href="https://lb.usembassy.gov/fact-sheet-u-s-lebanon-military-assistance-and-defense-cooperation/"><span>trained
and equipped by the US</span></a><span> and
dependent on Washington and the EU for its survival.
Over 32,000 members of the Lebanese army have received
training from the US and 80 percent of the army’s
equipment comes from the US. The belief in the US – as
</span><a
href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/11/01/with-lebanon-making-fragile-progress-now-is-the-wrong-time-to-pull-u-s-assistance/"><span>argued
recently by the former US ambassador to Lebanon
Jeffrey Feltman</span></a><span> – is that by
empowering the Lebanese Army, Hezbollah will become
obsolete.</span></p>
<p><span>When Trump’s national security council announced
a hold on $105 million in aid to the Lebanese army,
hawkish pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers Eliot Engel
and Ted Deutch urged the administration to reconsider.
“As Hezbollah grows in sophistication and capability,
it is critical the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces]
continues to grow and serve as the sole legitimate
defender of Lebanese sovereignty and security,” they
argued in a </span><a
href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/1/d/1d24fcaa-be96-4fba-aac4-ddbe7ff7628d/5F2FEC146CE4D8D6AEDB3F158E778C73.11-8-19---chairman-engel-deutch-letter-to-omb-nsc-re-lebanon-fmf.pdf"><span>letter</span></a><span>
to the White House that clearly signaled their desire
to isolate Hezbollah.</span><span> </span></p>
<p>On December 2, the Trump administration <a
href="https://apnews.com/ed82bdb9355544cabc43f2aa5a0de7e9">ceded
to the pressure and released</a> the military aid
package.</p>
<p><b>In the South, Hezbollah and Amal clash</b><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Western and Gulf media have attempted to portray
the protests as an </span><a
href="https://www.france24.com/en/20191022-lebanon-s-hezbollah-under-rare-street-pressure"><span>uprising
against Hezbollah</span></a><span>, losing
themselves in an anti-Iran fantasy. There may be some
elements of the protests that have chanted against
Hezbollah and their weapons, but they reflect a small
minority. Despite all outside attempts to co-opt the
movement, the protests remain solidly focused on
opposing corruption and the government as a whole. </span></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, the international media has continued
to erase the Hezbollah supporters who were crucial to
the first two days of protests. The Western press has
also ignored the ever-present </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/raniakhalek/status/1193192694912364545?s=21"><span>chants
against Israel</span></a><span> and burning of
American and Israeli flags. </span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>When Amal supporters from a nearby Shia
neighborhood beat up protesters in downtown Beirut for
blocking the main road, Western media falsely </span><a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-29/bloody-fistfights-at-beirut-roadblocks-raise-pressure-on-hariri"><span>identified
them as Hezbollah</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>And when clashes broke out in Nabatiyeh, a town
in southern Lebanon that is dominated by Hezbollah and
Amal, Western and local media zeroed in on the
violence. </span><span>Local protesters, with
communists among them, had been violently cleared out
by local municipal police, including supporters of
Hezbollah and Amal. </span></p>
<p><span>Hezbollah and the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP)
have a notoriously antagonistic history. Some in the
LCP blame Hezbollah for being complicit in the
government’s corruption and they were outraged when
Hezbollah supporters in the municipal police attacked
their comrades in the Nabatiyeh protests. Hezbollah
supporters maintain that LCP holds a grudge against
them for fighting the communists and absorbing much of
their Shia base during the 1980s. </span></p>
<p><span>With this background of conflict, it is no
surprise that the LCP has been harshly critical of
Hezbollah throughout the protests, as have many
leftist groups. </span></p>
<p><span>This bickering has been exploited by the Western
press and Gulf-funded outlets, which also </span><a
href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/11/4/pro-hezbollah-newspaper-hit-with-resignations-for-its-pro-government-line"><span>celebrated
the resignations at Al Akhbar</span></a><span>, one
of the most widely read newspapers in Lebanon and a
rare outlet that is explicitly pro-resistance and
anti-imperialist. </span></p>
<p><span>The disproportionate focus on these rifts
obscured the reality of southern Lebanon, where
tensions have been brewing between Amal and Hezbollah.
Amal and Hezbollah were rivals in the civil war. These
two forces have already engaged in a conflict referred
to as “the war of the brothers” – its name inspired
by Shia families in the South turning against one
another according to their members’ allegiance to Amal
and Hezbollah.</span></p>
<p><span>Hezbollah has been compelled to maintain a
peaceful alliance with Amal in spite of the rampant
corruption of its rival’s leadership. It is determined
to avoid another Shia civil war and maintain a
powerful coalition in the government. Meanwhile, Amal
leader Nabih Berri, a civil war-era warlord who has
been speaker of the parliament since the end of the
civil war, has enriched himself on the back of his
community. Many Shias are angry about Berri’s
corruption and during the protests openly chanted
against him and his wife Randa. </span></p>
<p><span>Berri has also demonstrated his willingness to
side with the US and Israel against Hezbollah, at
least behind the scenes and for purely opportunistic
reasons. According to <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06BEIRUT2407_a.html"><span>Wikileaks
cables</span></a>, during Israel’s 2006 war on
Lebanon, Berri told the US ambassador at the time that
the war’s potential to weaken Hezbollah was a positive
development and he decried how few Hezbollah fighters
Israel had managed to kill. </span></p>
<p><span>Fear of Amal, hatred of corrupt leadership, and
lack of ideology</span></p>
<p><span>In Tyre, protesters tore down Berri’s posters and
torched the Tyre Rest House Resort, which they believe
is owned by Randa Berri, though Nabih Berri <a
href="http://nna-leb.gov.lb/en/show-news/108760/nna-leb.gov.lb/en"><span>denied
it</span></a>. When I visited Tyre two weeks
later, hundreds of new posters of Berri had been
erected that read, “the guarantor of Lebanon” and “we
are all with you [Berri].” </span></p>
<p><span>The posters surrounded the small protest
encampment located in a roundabout on the beach road.
The protest was part art fair, part concert for
families, with liberals and a few leftists filling the
ranks. Demonstrators were careful not to name leaders
like Berri in their chants and when interviewed, they
often spoke in vague terms out of fear of Amal. Later
in the night, Amal members provoked the protesters in
a familiar attempt at intimidation. </span></p>
<p><span>Scenes like this are playing out in smaller towns
too. </span></p>
<p><span>Residents of the southern town of Machghara say
Amal is taking names of protesters, deterring many
from participating. As in Tyre, Amal emblazoned
posters of Berri and new Amal flags around the streets
to intimidate. </span></p>
<p><span>At the protest in Tyre, blaring music made it
difficult to have a meaningful conversation with any
activists. But I managed to interview a few
organizers, none of whom liked one another.</span></p>
<p><span>One woman rushed to me after I interviewed a
protest organizer to insist to me, “He’s not a
legitimate protester. He left when the Sayyad [Hassan
Nasrallah] told people to leave. So he has no right to
speak for the movement.” Everyone I spoke to at the
Tyre protest was supportive of Hezbollah as a
resistance organization to Israel. All they wanted,
they said, was a secular government that could provide
basic services – hardly a rebellion against
Hezbollah. </span></p>
<p><span>If there is anti-Hezbollah sentiment to be found,
it would be in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest
city and the site of ongoing sectarian violence. It is
also one of the poorest areas of Lebanon. Yet in
Tripoli’s Al-Nour Square, no one seemed to be
protesting Hezbollah. Like virtually everyone else
around the country, they were railing against economic
inequality. </span></p>
<p><span>The overwhelming majority of people at this
protest were unemployed. And they had erected an odd
mix of banners: one outlining the values of the
protest (nonviolent, nonsectarian, etc), another
listing important sites in the city, and then one by
families of Islamist prisoners demanding the release
of their loved ones. </span></p>
<p><span>Of the dozens of people I spoke to, only one
mentioned Hezbollah. “Part of the problem is we
[Sunnis] don’t have anyone but Hariri, and he doesn’t
have guns like Hezbollah and Amal. We have nothing,”
said an unemployed 28-year-old father of three. There
was also a great deal of praise for Turkey’s President
Erdogan, but this is nothing out of the ordinary for
conservative Tripoli. </span></p>
<p><span>It seemed that everyone in this protest had a
complaint about the high cost of living and inability
to provide for their families or pay for necessary
medical procedures. Unlike the protesters in downtown
Beirut who insisted on having a leaderless movement,
people in Tripoli were desperate for a charismatic
leader. And while they yearned a fresh face to vote
for, they had no one in mind.</span></p>
<p><span>When asked if they would vote for any of the
alternative groups involved in the protests, they
responded in the negative. One of the demands of the
protests has been early elections. But it is unlikely
that early elections would produce results much
different than those in the 2018 elections, in which
the civil society alliance of alternative parties won
only one seat in parliament, which ultimately went to
a woman in Sabaa. </span></p>
<p><span>There was little political organizing to be found
in these protest camps, except perhaps for the LCP
holding a discussion in a nearby garden about the
importance of opening up public spaces. Otherwise,
people just sat around chatting about the revolution,
waiting to be organized.</span></p>
<p><span>As the festivities filled up, vendors whipped out
cotton candy, the music started pumping, and a protest
instantly transformed into a nighttime carnival. The
almost instant depoliticization of the event made me
wonder who exactly was behind the music. </span></p>
<p><span>Scenes like these help explain why protesters
tend to be so short on political education. They are
desperate for a better life but there are few
organizations with the capacity and resources to
organize them on a massive scale, especially in a
leftist direction that highlights the root causes of
their plight: neoliberalism and imperialism. A man in
the protest ranks highlighted the problem when he
exclaimed to me, “Please someone save us, even if it’s
America. I don’t care.” </span></p>
<h3><span>Cooperation and integration versus the West’s
recipe for fragmentation </span></h3>
<p><span>The Lebanese economy is facing imminent collapse.
Unemployment is spreading, prices are spiking and the
street price of the Lebanese lira continues to
devalue. There is little that can be done to avoid the
collapse, which has been thirty years in the making.</span></p>
<p><span>The implosion of the Lebanese economy is <a
href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-11-29/syria-latest-financial-crisis"><span>spilling
over into Syria</span></a>, which was already
teetering on the edge of economic collapse due to
eight years of war, government mismanagement and US
sanctions designed to collapse the country. Syria was
relying on Lebanon as its access point to purchase
goods for imports. Now that too is gone. Lebanon’s
economic crisis is also affecting Syrian elites who
placed their money in Lebanese banks during the war
and cannot access it now due to the collapse of the
banking sector.</span></p>
<p><span>One solution being floated for Lebanon’s economic
woes is greater cooperation and economic integration
with Syria. Syria, unlike Lebanon, has the capacity to
produce with thousands of factories and a labor force.
Lebanon produces nothing but has the ability to market
and distribute without being hindered by international
sanctions. Unfortunately none of this is on the reform
agenda of the protests.</span></p>
<p><span>Iraq, too, could be a market for Lebanese dairy
and agricultural products, which would transit through
Syria if the Americans ever unblocked the Tanf
crossing between Syria and Iraq. Hezbollah’s leader,
Hassan Nasrallah, has mentioned this in his speeches.
The solution for Lebanon and its neighbors is
cooperation and integration, not further fragmentation
as is promoted by the West. </span></p>
<p><span>One figure involved in the protest who is pushing
the idea of regional economic integration with Syria
is Charbel Nahas, secretary general of the political
party Citizens In A State (CIAS). While CIAS refrains
from identifying itself as left or right, it is clear
from its platform that the party has a leftist
progressive bent. CIAS has influenced some of the
protest discourse but not when it comes to Syria,
which is viewed negatively by the dominant forces on
the ground in the protests.</span></p>
<p><span>The Lebanese Communist Party, for its part, is
advocating nationalization of the banks and the
cancelation of the public debt as well as other debts,
though this too is not a part of the mainstream
discourse. </span></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, the US has been scheming to exploit
Lebanon’s economic desperation against Hezbollah.</span></p>
<p><span>After Hariri’s resignation, the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Israel
think tank, hosted a <a
href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-lebanon-protests-views-from-beirut-and-policy-implications"><span>panel
discussion</span></a> on the protests sweeping
Lebanon. The event was moderated by WINEP fellow Hanin
Ghaddar, a native of Lebanon who has devoted her
career to lobbying against Hezbollah. She was elated
by Hariri’s resignation. </span></p>
<p><span>Among the panelists was Makram Rabah, a lecturer
at the American University of Beirut and consultant
with Quantum Communications, a marketing firm that
played a crucial role in the so-called Cedar
Revolution in 2005 that ousted the Syrian army from
Lebanon and birthed the pro-American anti-Hezbollah
March 14 coalition. </span></p>
<p><span>Rabah was joined by Lokman Slim, who runs Hayya
Bina, a Western-backed NGO that has partnered with an
array of US government-funded entities, <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08BEIRUT579_a.html"><span>including
the National Democratic Institute</span></a>, a
subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy and
partner of <a
href="https://www.usip.org/recent-grant-program-award-recipients"><span>the
US Institute for Peace</span></a>, which were both
founded under Reagan to push regime change in
adversary countries under the cover of “democracy
promotion.” </span></p>
<p><span>“The USG has been working quietly with Slim for
some time” according to<a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08BEIRUT488_a.html"><span> Wikileaks
cables</span></a>, which also showcased Hayya
Bina’s<a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08BEIRUT579_a.html"><span> close
coordination with the US embassy</span></a>.</span></p>
<p><span>Through Hayya Bina, Slim runs the website<a
href="http://www.shiawatch.com/"><span> Shiawatch.org</span></a>,
which supposedly monitors the malign activities of
Shia groups the US doesn’t like. It’s difficult to
imagine Western support for a website called JewWatch,
but anti-Shia bigotry has been normalized by Western
governments as a tool against Iran.</span></p>
<p><span>The WINEP panelists emphasized the need for the
US to harness the protests against Hezbollah. </span></p>
<p><span>Mike Pompeo expressed his support for the
protests, claiming that protesters “want Hezbollah and
Iran <a
href="https://twitter.com/walid970721/status/1201768186783420416?s=21"><span>out
of their country</span></a>.” Hezbollah is
Lebanese, so Pompeo’s declaration was essentially a
call for expelling Lebanese people the US does not
like from their native country. </span></p>
<p><span>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also <a
href="https://twitter.com/hadinasrallah/status/1202348322025037824?s=21"><span>threw
his support</span></a> behind the protests,
framing them as a movement against Hezbollah. </span></p>
<p><span>Statements like these encapsulated the danger the
protests pose against an imminent economic collapse.
So far, American involvement has been minimal and the
protests have remained focused on the organic concerns
of ordinary Lebanese citizens. But if the US chooses
to escalate its involvement, the situation could take
a nasty turn.</span></p>
<div itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope=""
itemprop="author">
<p><br>
</p>
<div>
<p>Rania Khalek is an independent journalist living in
Beirut, Lebanon. She is the co-host of the <a
href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/unauthorized-disclosure/id824470090?mt=2">Unauthorized
Disclosure</a> podcast.</p>
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