11-25-06, 10:24 am

BEWARE of jumping hastily to the conclusion reached immediately by right-wing Maronite Christians in Lebanon and their imperialist backers with regard to the murder of Pierre Gemayel.

As far as this chorus of reaction, backed up by the imperialist global media, is concerned, Syria has been charged, found guilty and should be punished.

But why should Damascus have authorised a murder that was bound to stir up a hornets' nest at the very time that it is building bridges with Iraq and, by extension, with the US and Britain?

Both Tony Blair and George W Bush have decried Mr Gemayel's killing as an attack on Lebanon's democracy, which they purport to support.

Is this the same fledgling democracy that they were quite prepared to see pounded to oblivion by Israel's artillery and planes during the invasion of Lebanon?

This democracy is, in fact and at best, flawed since it shares out government posts on a confessional basis imposed by French colonialism which exaggerated the size of the Maronite Christian population and underestimated that of the Shi'ites.

The Hezbollah resistance movement, which enjoys the support of most Shi'ites, had planned a campaign of street protests to demand a greater role for itself in the current coalition government.

Is it conceivable that, two days before the campaign was due to start, it would assassinate the scion of a Christian Phalangist dynasty in a deed that would be likely to spark violence - and possibly civil war - as a result of street confrontations between Maronite mourners and Shi'ite protesters?

The answer, of course, is that we don't know who carried out this murder.

However, we should not leap to judgement and condemnation of Syria, as the warmongers in London, Washington and Tel Aviv would like us to.

Nor should support for Lebanon's independence extend to backing for a currently unjust internal balance of political influence that marginalises forces that are committed to decolonisation of the region.



From Morning Star