LEBANON AT PEACE?

Downtown Beirut. May 22. Thursday evening. Around 11 pm. Noisy. Humming. The traffic is almost impossible. You get out of the service cab, you hardly find your way across the street and then you struggle to make your way among the people. People are literally pouring from everywhere. Laughing, walking hand in hand, smiling. Young people, old people. Huge coffee shops that stretch on half of the street are filled with people. Not even one free table. An old man shouts from a distance at his friend sitting in a coffee shop and opens his arms. They meet, kiss three times, the Lebanese way, and they sit down for a talk. They congratulate each other. They hope and feel it’s time for their country to have a rest.

Downtown Beirut used to be the Camps Elysees of the Middle East. You can find here all the famous designers’ shops; you can smoke the nargil, have a cup of cappuccino and talk to a friend for hours. There is even a Place de l’Etoile, where students meet and usually sit on the side walks.

In the middle of it all they staged a tv show. Live on LBC, the national television, a debate to celebrate peace. To celebrate something that Lebanon hasn’t known in decades- an agreement between the factions that a few days ago were fighting in the streets. A TV debate in the middle of the street. True, surrounded by soldiers, but they weren’t more than 4 young soldiers guarding the stage. A huge act of courage that would not have been possible…. No. An act of courage that WAS never possible in a country where people get assassinated for speaking about what they believe in.

Six months ago, the whole place was deserted. Nobody was there except a few shy soldiers who’d ask you to open your bag. All the museums were closed; the shops were almost out of business. And nobody adventured there. The Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah had staged a sit in. They demanded enough seats in the cabinet to wield veto power over any decision the government makes, despite the fact that they couldn’t win enough seats in the last election.
The Parliament building in Place de L’Etoile was surrounded by barbed wire and the door remained closed for a few months. That’s actually why they weren’t able to elect a new president. The parliament was not functioning, cause the Hezbollah did not show up for the vote.

And then there was the Situation. With an S. A tension you could even touch and try to cut with a knife. People would avoid investing in their businesses because of the Situation. They avoided refurbishing a house because of the Situation. And made people startle when they heard a tire exploding or even fireworks. But on Thursday night it was all gone.

There have been agreements before; there have been attempts to rebuild the country. But none of them had the privilege to be the one that people believed in.
The Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the Parliamentary Majority leader, Saad Hariri, son of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the Speaker of the Parliament, a close ally of the Hezbollah militia reached an agreement on Wednesday in Doha. They will form a national unity government and elect the new president - Michel Suleiman, the head of the army.

People are really optimistic. Happier. And they are aware of that. They see each other smile and it makes them smile again. Life got back to Beirut this week. But still everybody’s asking for how long it’s going to last.
“We, Lebanese, are like that. We just snap. In and out of war. Just like that. That’s why people don’t trust us as a country.”, B says as he snaps his fingers. But he still admits things are different now.