There have been two broad interpretations of how the Lebanese armed forces have behaved in the ongoing protests in Lebanon. Both are inaccurate and both fail to understand what really drives the country’s military.
One interpretation – that held by many protesters – is that the army has protected demonstrators and, within the limits imposed by the sectarian political system, has supported their demands. The second, advanced by politicians and pundits on the political right in the US who support Israel, is that the armed forces are a facade for Hezbollah. Even a cursory look at what has taken place in Lebanon in the past six weeks disproves both narratives.
While the army has defended demonstrators in many places, it has also done more than that. Protesters have been detained and even mistreated in some locations. Earlier this week, for example, soldiers forcibly removed demonstrators blocking a main coastal road. At other times, the army has stood by while thugs associated with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement attacked protesters and destroyed their camps. This surely does not suggest that the military is explicitly on the side of the uprising.
On the other hand, the armed forces have definitely not been taking orders from Hezbollah. Where the political class had expected troops to break up protests using force, in fact the military strenuously avoided taking such a radical step. This earned it criticism from the two main Shiite parties, Hezbollah and Amal, underlining how the armed forces pursue their own agenda.
The reality is much simpler. Lebanon’s armed forces are a reflection of the country's sectarian society, with all its disagreements. To reduce the pressures this might place on the organisation, it has long adopted a corporate identity over and above sectarian divisions. This identity has been focused on preserving the institution and managing its underlying contradictions from within.
What has this meant in terms of Hezbollah? While the party has allies in the army, Hezbollah is not in a position to compel the military to act in a certain way, nor are any of its branches fully under its sway. Rather, the armed forces are made up of myriad interest groups that seek to preserve the status quo from which they benefit, by avoiding a clash among themselves for the greater benefit of the organisation. Some might engage with Hezbollah, others might not. But the different sides will not threaten military unity by turning this into a matter of internal discord.
The principal motives explaining the military’s behaviour in the Lebanon protests have been threefold – to avoid being drawn into the political divisions that the uprising has exacerbated, to retain popular support while portraying the military as a supranational institution free from corruption, and to protect public institutions but without doing so in a way that threatens public support.
In many regards, the model to which the armed forces continue to adhere is that put in place by independent Lebanon’s first armed forces commander, Fouad Chehab. In 1952, there was a political crisis when then president Bishara Al Khoury resigned under pressure from his political foes. At the time, Chehab had shielded the military from the political disputes, agreeing only to head an interim government until a successor to Al Khoury could be elected.
In 1958 another political crisis came about when Camille Chamoun sought to use manipulated elections to extend his presidential term. What ensued was a shortlived civil war in which Chehab again kept the army on the sidelines while it actively prevented any one side from gaining a decisive advantage. By playing the role of arbitrator, Chehab not only safeguarded the military institution, he also gained enough trust to be elected president to succeed Chamoun.
The paradox is that while army commanders will strenuously avoid politicising the armed forces, many have had the ambition to become president. In the past two decades, three former armed forces commanders have been president. The current commander Joseph Aoun might well have a similar ambition.
That could partly explain why he has been so keen to preserve the neutrality of the armed forces and avoid alienating the public. Mr Aoun does not want to engage in repression of the population, particularly as its demands are entirely justified. Moreover, he certainly does not want to do so on behalf of a discredited political class, whose number includes the controversial figure Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and a presidential hopeful.
There is an illusion among some Lebanese that the armed forces represent a solution to the current political crisis. With politicians’ reputations in tatters because of the way they have plundered the state, the notion that the military can successfully take over power is dangerous. Not only would it undermine everything the military has tried to do since the protests began, it would go against the balancing game that has long allowed it to overcome its paradoxes.
That’s why it is a mistake for opponents of the protests to try to enrol the military in the suppression of demonstrators, and it is why trying to punish the military for being an alleged Hezbollah cat's paw is reckless. Lebanon’s military, like most national institutions embodying unity in otherwise divided states, is a reflection of Lebanon itself. Its survival often means embracing uneasy inconsistencies.
Michael Young is editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East programme, in Beirut
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
The%C2%A0specs%20
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday
Saint-Etienne v Montpellier (10.45pm)
Saturday
Monaco v Caen (7pm)
Amiens v Bordeaux (10pm)
Angers v Toulouse (10pm)
Metz v Dijon (10pm)
Nantes v Guingamp (10pm)
Rennes v Lille (10pm)
Sunday
Nice v Strasbourg (5pm)
Troyes v Lyon (7pm)
Marseille v Paris Saint-Germain (11pm)
McLaren GT specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 630Nm
Price: Dh875,000
On sale: now
THREE
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Second legs:
October 23
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Results
Final: Iran beat Spain 6-3.
Play-off 3rd: UAE beat Russia 2-1 (in extra time).
Play-off 5th: Japan beat Egypt 7-2.
Play-off 7th: Italy beat Mexico 3-2.
The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C600rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E320Nm%20at%201%2C500-4%2C000rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E10.9L%2F100km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh119%2C900%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Biography
Favourite Meal: Chicken Caesar salad
Hobbies: Travelling, going to the gym
Inspiration: Father, who was a captain in the UAE army
Favourite read: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Favourite film: The Founder, about the establishment of McDonald's
SUZUME
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START-UPS%20IN%20BATCH%204%20OF%20SANABIL%20500'S%20ACCELERATOR%20PROGRAMME
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