Thank You Sir May I Please Have Another Three!

The Constitution of the Lebanese Republic, where foreign pressure and domestic war-weariness hold a tenuous consociational democracy together, is under attack. The Syrian occupiers twisted enough arms to make the Lebanese parliament amend its constitution to allow current President Emile Lahoud to remain in power for a three-year extension beyond his constitutionally limited five-year term.

Outrage within and without the Republic has tainted the glossy positivism of the Lahoud regime. Four Lebanese ministers have quit the government, including Environment Minister and presidential hopeful Ferris Boueiz* and the entire represention of the Druz-dominated Democratic Gathering party**. In New York, France and the U.S. worked together to slam a tough resolution through the U.N. Security Council demanding that Syria quit interfering in Lebanese politics. Syria should understand: they're pretty put out that we've been filling the same role in Iraq as they fill in Lebanon. * Ferris Boueiz is presumably from the same family as my great-great-grandfather Nicholas Boueiz of Ein as-Sindeineh, who emigrated around 1905 from Ein as-Sindeineh to Lawrence, Mass.
** While I'm name-dropping, I should add that my class at A.U.B. enjoyed an hour-long audience and candid interview with Druz (and DG party) leader Walid Jumblatt at the traditional Saturday constituent visiting hours at his palace, Mokhtara.