January 9, 2009
Following events, far from home
Events in Charles Hassan's native Lebanon got him out of bed before sunrise in Palisades Park, N.J., yesterday to turn on a satellite news channel for live pictures of the pro-Syrian rally in Beirut.
It was at first disturbing, he said. Stark images from the huge demonstration - from black-clad Hezbollah guards handling security to placards reading "No to Foreign Interference" - loomed at cross-purposes with his desire for a quick and painless end to three decades of Syrian rule.
But he said he remains hopeful for an independent Lebanese parliament, concluding the demonstration was a nice piece of stagecraft by Syria and its Lebanese allies to secure a place in the coming parliamentary system. It was not, he said, a bid to foment another brutal civil war.
"Hezbollah has to wake up and smell the hummus, you know what I mean?" Hassan, 37, said at Al Bustan, a Lebanese restaurant in midtown, where he is the general manager. "The people want their country back, and no one wants violence. The path of history has been set."
Following the story minute by minute, Hassan's sense of where things may be going was reprised by other Syrian and Lebanese emigres living in the New York area - those worried about family members back home and others, like Khalid Kabbara, who dream of returning.
"Politics in Lebanon has matured," said the Lebanese-born Kabbara, 25, a computer technician for LaGuardia Community College in Queens. "No one wants to go back to the era of civil war - that was hell. Now it is the time for Lebanon to acknowledge its debt to Syria for 30 years of governance, and to become autonomous and free."
Still, the Bush administration's support for democracy in Lebanon has raised the eyebrows of a Muslim community leader on Long Island, Ghazi Khankan.
The Syrian-born Khankan, who arrived in the United States in 1954, said America's highly selective support of democratic movements, no matter how worthy those causes, is viewed skeptically in the Arab world. Why, he asked, is the United States not equally forceful about ending Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights in Syria? "Why is this never discussed? It does not show we are serious. Rather, it shows hypocrisy," Khankan said. "I believe it is in America's best interest to make our foreign policy more credible."
On Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue, Ghassan Matli, who left Lebanon 16 years ago, described as pivotal the Bush administration support for this "people's movement."
"I was happy to see Lebanese flags at the rally, not Hezbollah flags," said Matli, 45, the manager at Damascus Bakery. "I can tell you, this is really patriotism and democracy for Lebanon. We thought we'd never live to see it."
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