Lebanese society on verge of further breakdown
In Lebanon, new security threats arise almost daily, threatening the country's stability.
When watching Lebanese TV, you can hardly follow a story to its end. As one begins to watch a report — for example, the coverage of a young man’s funeral who was killed in a recent bombing in Beirut — the TV anchor suddenly shifts to another suburb of the capital or another Lebanese city, to cover a news conference condemning the torching of a Christian-owned library in Tripoli or to a report on the death of Majid al-Majid, an al-Qaeda leader and one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted terrorists.
With the proliferation of terrorist attacks in Lebanon — not to mention the delay in forming a national unity government and the direct impact of the ongoing civil war in Syria — the country is rapidly becoming an arena for regional powers to compete for influence and settle accounts at the expense of Lebanon's stability. The impact on Lebanon is almost instant, explaining the dizziness that many Lebanese feel as a result of regional and domestic events.
As the region deals with sectarian and civil wars, Lebanon’s body politic will remain vulnerable to serious threats, which could lead to the breakdown of the national fabric, as evidenced by the current scene.
This must be immediately addressed. A citizenship that celebrates diversity has to replace pluralism as a criterion that consolidates the sectarian system.
