"It has never been this bad" explains the proprietor of a neighborhood grocery store, agreeing with ever more of his fellow countrymen, who seem now to be openly cursing both sides in public.
A few brief examples from the past week illustrate the rapidly intensifying sectarian clash. As Hezbollah continues boycotting parliamentary electoral sessions due to disagreements with the mainly Sunni March 14 camp over a compromise presidential candidate, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, himself a presidential candidate, this week accused the Shia Resistance of "blocking Parliament in to order to blackmail political blocs into electing their puppet, Michel Aoun." Aoun, who like Geagea, is anti-Palestinian, denies the current media speculation that "the ongoing obstruction is no longer a political maneuver, but an attempt to target Lebanon's political system."
In joining the Syrian war, Hezbollah is also being accused of sacrificing Lebanese young men while killing many innocent Syrians solely on orders from Tehran. According to one March 14th member of Parliament, "No one believes, not even the Hezbollah leadership, that Hezbollah is fighting in Syria to protect Lebanon, whose people are paying a big price for their adventure." Other Sunni opponents of Hezbollah, including the spokesman for the March 14th Alliance, claim that terrorists, or the so-called Takfiris, would never have come to Lebanon had Hezbollah not invaded Syria and started killing Sunni.
And then there are the largely Sunni families of the 27 captive troops and policemen being held for ransom by the al-Nursa front. The families are blaming Hezbollah and the Shia leader of Lebanon's Internal Security Force, (ISF) Major-General Abbas Ibrahim, for not acting seriously to negotiate their loved ones' release from captivity, a shortcoming they allege has been for purely sectarian reasons. On 10/30/14 the families threatened again to escalate their protests, and have been burning tires at the Riad al-Solh Square in downtown Beirut while their relatives' captors, al-Nusra Front, increasingly are setting up sleeper cells and advocating for the Sunni community in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, both Notre Dame University -- Louaize and Saint Joseph University decided this week to suspend student elections for the current academic year as the sectarianism spreads. "The political and security situation in Lebanon, which could impact the campus, will not allow the students to practice their democratic role positively," USJ's Board of Members said in a statement.
The United Nations has warned again this week that foreign, religiously-motivated jihadists are swarming into the twin conflicts in Iraq and Syria at "an unprecedented scale," some of them coming from countries that "had not previously contributed combatants to global terrorism." More than 1,500 foreign fighters are arriving in Syria each month--a higher rate than when US airstrikes against Da'ish began in September. The trend line established over the past year would mean that the total number of foreign fighters in Syria now exceeds 16,000, with the pace eclipsing that of any comparable conflict in recent decades, including the 1980s war in Afghanistan. The "democracy success story and Arab Spring winner" Tunisia has been reported as the country contributing the most jihadists, while meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has announced that 560 people have been killed in the US-led airstrikes, among these 32 civilian deaths, including six children and five women. The Pentagon, for its own part, estimates that each of the more than 600 US airstrikes in Syria and Iraq costs the American taxpayer approximately $9 million, which if the Syrian Observatory figures are accurate would average out to $ 1.4 million per corpse.
As noted above, many of the jihadists are moving into Lebanon, especially the north near Tripoli and into the largely Shia Bekaa Valley East of Beirut and to the Sunni are of Saida to the south. The north of Lebanon continues to experience sporadic fighting between Sunni and Shia-backed militia. If one credits social media, some of the Sunnis want to fight Hezbollah, which they oftentimes label the "Party of Satan" or "Iran's militia."
On 10/30/13 Saudi National Guard Minister Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, directing his comments to the KSA's arch foe, Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nassrallah, proclaimed that "The parties embracing terrorism in the region have become well-known." Within minutes, Saudi media outlets opened with commentary and statements like those currently appearing in the Lebanese Naharnet:
"Yes those supporting terrorism--they are the same who killed Rafik el Hariri and the remaining M14 leaders. They are the same who refuse to abide by Lebanese justice and deliver the accused/witness for investigations, they are the same who in order to remain in power, decide to destroy their country and kill their people and allow a huge inflow of terrorist into their land to show a worse alternative."
Such sentiments are shared by what seems to be a growing number in the Sunni community. Unlike during the years following the 2006 July war and Hezbollah's widely acknowledged success against the Zionist regime still occupying Palestine, such critics are no longer reluctant to openly castigate Shia Muslims generally and Hezbollah specifically.
Where this all ends is anyone's guess, but a ceasefire in the Syrian conflict, even one limited to certain areas as Washington, Tehran and Moscow are discussing, would perhaps help. Yet as various analysts and scholars postulate, the latest Sunni-Shia manifestation of Bellum Sacrum may well take a long time to heal--tens of years, or even centuries. Only time will tell.
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