Burning Aoun

Lebanese Christians tore down and burned portraits of Hezbollah’s tactical Christian ally Michel Aoun in Sassine Square (Achrafieh, Beirut) and elsewhere in the city.
When I first moved to Beirut, Bashir Gemayel’s portrait hovered over that square like a deity, around the corner from a shopping mall and across the street from a Starbucks. Bashir was assassinated shortly after being elected president of Lebanon in 1982, most likely for his anti-Syrian, anti-Palestinian, and pro-Israeli position. Pierre Gemayel, murdered just yesterday, was his nephew.
I’m not sure when, exactly, but at some point Michel Aoun’s portrait went up in Sassine. It looks like the ghost of Bashir owns the square again now.
(Note: the particular incident shown in the video is not the torching of the Sassine Square portrait. That portrait was bigger, and its burning seems to have taken place off-camera.)
UPDATE: Mustapha at Beirut Spring says “today will herald a new age of Hezbollah Isolation,” since Aoun’s group is attending Gemayel’s funeral. He may well be right. Hezbollah, properly cowed by the Lebanese majority, cancelled their scheduled riot today.

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