The Case for Optimism

On second thought, the News are not all that bad.

After yesterday’s unfortunate speech by president Assad of Syria, we all got carried away in various moments of anger and drama. A quick look at the comments in my previous two posts gives a general idea of the mood in Lebanon.
But our instantaneous emotions aside, Mr. Assad’s speech shouldn’t get more credit than it deserves, lest the Syrian president think he can actually brake our back with a few words he utters.

Most of us were too blinded by disgust to have the BBC’s emotionless assessment that the Syrian president declared that he’s going to cooperate with the investigation. In retrospect, Mr. Assad was simply panicked, The Daily Star’s editorial scoffed at the “predictable” “reflex response of an injured regime”. Mr. Assad is simply trying to sink everyone with him by scaring us into pessimism. If we get scared, he wins.

But through the darkness of Mr. Assad’s words, shine those of our wise Mr. Seniora, who refused to sink into Assad’s low-level rhetoric:

“I would like to address all the Lebanese inside Lebanon and abroad, and all the Arabs that the will of Lebanon and the Lebanese to hold on to a life of independence, freedom, democracy, and sovereignty will remain [unshaken]. Lebanon will remain committed to being part of the Arab nation and its causes, and its identity regardless of what has been and is being said. Lebanon is Arab, independent, sovereign, free, and democratic, and the unity of the Lebanese is the basis. Lebanon will remain attached to these values and will remain open to all cultures, first and foremost to the French culture.”

Mr. Seniora was not being foolishly optimistic. Although the noises of doom and gloom from neighboring Syria are very high-pitched, the most eloquent of all indicators of optimism has spoken: The Beirut stock exchange has risen about 2 points because of strong results from Solidere, BLOM and Byblos Bank (the latter two might have benefited from Syrian capital influx since Mehlis released his report). The notoriously coward capital apparently still likes to call Lebanon home.

Lebanon is also making new friends. Yesterday, Mr. Seniora got a call in mid cabinet session from the King of Jordan, who seems to be losing patience with Assad (not a single word of condemnation for the Amman bombing in Mr. Assad’s speech). It was noteworthy how Mr. Aridi, the government spokesperson, referred to Jordan as “the brother”, Al Urdun al-shakik, an expression used almost exclusively in the past in reference to Syria.

In short, let’s not fall into Bashar’s trap. Things are looking good after all.