❊The Lesson: In Lebanon, Violence Works.

There are many demonstrations taking place right now all over Lebanon. Some of them have taken a violent form with people burning tires and blocking roads because Mr. Saad Hariri did not get elected as prime minister. The majority of the demonstrators are Sunnis who felt pushed out of the Lebanese government.

In reaction to that, Hezbollah and Aounist apologists did what they did best. They rose on a pedestal, wagged their fingers and started lecturing us about Sunnis being sectarian and thugs.

Oh please shut up. How can you blame them for being angry and behaving like that? If there is one lesson our country learned from Hezbollah, it’s that violence works. All the money, soft power and so-called influence is rubbish when it comes to raw boots on the grounds and heavy weaponry.

Hezbollah used violence to secure the Doha veto by virtually blocking an entire city for almost two years. They cowed Walid Jumblat by physically assaulting his people, and they scarred the Beiruties by sending their armed thugs into peaceful neighborhoods and imposed their wills.

They preach about sectarianism, while they’re the ones who monopolized Shiaa representation and used that to shut down government whenever their Shiaa Ministers resigned. And just because the Sunnis are being straightforward about it (as opposed to the loaded keywords used by Hezbollah like “Sha3b Hezbollah” and “Ashraf al naas”), that doesn’t make them monopolists in that department.

If there’s anything those demonstrations are saying, it’s this: This is not a level playing field. The people with the guns are the ones who are winning every time. Maybe we should play their game for once.

And for all those naive souls who think that Najib MiKati enjoys any modicum of Sunni support at this moment, this is as laughable as saying that Ahmad El Assad would have Shiaa support if he was forcefully installed in an anti-Hezbollah government.