Lebanon: “Instability Is the Only Constant You Ever Know”

Well, it's a pleasure for having me.

I'm always a fan of appearing on anyone's show where the host is a prolific writer as well.

So the honor is mine.

Thank you for reaching

out.

Thank you.

Thank you very

much.

In a remembrance of your father published in 2021, you wrote the following.

Principles, fantastical or not, are the only pillars we can build from.

There is simply no place for an armed Hezbollah should Lebanon turn the page and put an end to half a century of violence and decay.

Selective justice is inconsistent, and 30 years since the official end of the Civil War, inconsistency defines our post-war order, intermittent waves of prosperity followed by periods of battle, breakdown, and failure.

Can you elaborate on that a bit?

wow you are one of the few people that actually pulled out something that i wrote years back i i don't remember and uh i don't remember where that was and i have to think back now 2021 it's probably a reference to many things at once i'll give you the bigger picture if that's okay and then we can zoom in to what's happening right now um I suppose the narrative of post-Civil War Lebanon tends to fall flat when you have nothing but repeated wars since the last 35 years or so.

In other words, a post-Civil War scenario, when that's offered to other countries, it's usually one of upward trajectory, one of economic growth, and one of perhaps a sense of peace and stability that's relatively good for society.

Lebanon, up until a few weeks ago, and actually even depending on how you look at it and what you're watching, is a permanent battlefield, meaning areas that are off limits to civilians, homes that are bulldozed to the ground, drones that buzz above.

Beirut post-ceasefire, infrastructural damage that's visible and permanent, and of course, civilian deaths.

And we're just coming out of another round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

You can't really define this as a post-Civil War journey only.

There's a certain disorder.

And the language too, I think there's a disorder in referring to it as post-Civil War Lebanon.

I think that kind of If you look at it less as the post-Civil War era and more in a permanent battlefield situation that Lebanon has been in for the better part of nearly five decades, if not longer, then maybe you can begin to see Lebanon in a slightly different framework, not one of competing militias, not one of sectarian warlords, not one of sectarianism or corruption only.

One of Lebanon's geography that has been largely hijacked by external regimes that seem to have a permanent focus on permanent instability.

This is where I see a role for Hezbollah.

This is where I see a former role for the Syrian regime as it once occupied the country.