There Are Some Lines You Just Don’t Cross

Remember Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party who made a big splash four years ago when he began raving about the wonders of the Bush Doctrine? Probably not, to the relief of many a neocon. He was an embarrassing ally for the warbots even back then, but now he’s gone and done the unforgivable:

A surprise reconciliation between the leaders of Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party was followed on Friday by Walid Jumblatt’s re-directing his rhetoric south, to Palestine, and warning of the “absolute extremism” of the Israeli government. “I call on all of our people in Palestine to reject sectarian and non-sectarian violence and cling to their Arabism and Palestinian national project, to confront Zionist projects that promise to be more dangerous and fiercer in the coming phase,” Jumblatt said in a statement.

The PSP leader said the Israeli government had no interest in a peace settlement and “insisted on absolute extremism” in its current policies.

I suspect we won’t be seeing any more sympathetic profiles of this “insightful interpreter of the fluctuations in Middle Eastern politics” any time soon.

One thought on “There Are Some Lines You Just Don’t Cross”

  1. And Hariri will now have to accept that Hezbollah has a veto on anything concerning the Resistance. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jumblatt offerred to jump ship from March 14th to March 8th, but Nasrallah told him to stay where he is as Hezbollah does not want to be part of the government just as long as no-one messes with it!

  2. This is an extremely important event. Jumblatt is Druze, and one of the wiliest, most intelligent figures in the Near East. Aristotle distinguished deductive signs–tekmeria-which were always true and inductive signs–semeia–which were likely but not certain. For a Druze like Jumblatt to signal a change like this is a semeion that approaches a tekmerion, and signals a huge sea change going on under the radar. Thank you very much for posting this.

  3. Jumblatt is correct to maintain that Israel has “no interest in a peace settlement.” Israel under Bibi or Olmert, is about the ethnic extermination of Palestinians. Would seem that Jumblatt is quite cognizant of Israel’s using Lebanon as whipping boy for Israeli mood swings. For Jumblatt to pronounce solidarity with Hizbullah makes perfect sense.

  4. As Ronald Reagan discovered, and as even the Right Wing Israelis well know, Druze, whatever they are, are no joke, nor is Jumblatt. As I said, he is an interesting semeion, or should one have put it more simply as weathercock instead?

  5. the importance of the jumblatt and the christian factions to israel and america is nothing to do with “fighting efficacy” or election numbers but rather it is to maintain the narrative about western enlightenment vs Muslim barbarians and so when ever the christians side against the us or israel its hard to blame the violence on “Muslim extremist”

    ” to confront Zionist projects that promise to be more dangerous and fiercer in the coming phase,””
    indeed some one seem to be paying attention.

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