"... The mechanisms for change in Lebanon, Sudan and Tunisia – rather than their results – represent important new dynamics that in turn reflect the increasingly desperate need among ordinary citizens for a better way to run their countries. Of the three, Lebanon is the most complex and troubling, Sudan is the most sophisticated and heartening, and Tunisia is the most dramatic and universal, and thus most likely to be copied in other Arab countries.
Lebanon requires consensus among 18 different sectarian and ethnic groups; the massive foreign interference in Lebanese internal affairs via local proxies and partners; and the fact that achieving consensus is immensely more complicated due to Hizbullah being stronger militarily than the government ..... The simultaneous expression in the country of one-sided strong-armed tactics alongside a perpetual quest for consensus by all parties is impressive, but probably unworkable. ..... the struggle now is about the much deeper issue of the identity and ideological direction of Lebanon as a cosmopolitan, pluralistic, secular Arab, Islamic, Christian society. The political battle now under way over the next prime minister, the tribunal, and Hizbullah’s status and role in Lebanon will be epic .... (Continue, here)"
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