LEBANON: The Nearness of Nasser

Tiny, bustling Lebanon (pop. 1,500,000) is the most stable of all Arab countries, with sturdier traditions of literacy, representative government, religious tolerance and international trade than any of its neighbors. But the announcement of the Syrian-Egyptian union and President Nasser’s dramatic visit to Damascus—only a two-hour drive from Beirut—has had an explosive effect among the half of Lebanon’s population who are Moslems. A delegation headed by ex-Premier Abdullah el Yafi, leader of the opposition, rushed to Damascus to call on Nasser and extend its congratulations. An estimated 100,000 Lebanese, about 10% of the little country’s adult population, have made the trip since.

In a republic whose Christian Arabs dominate business life and whose Christian President Camille Chamoun, a Roman Catholic of the Maronite rite, has accepted the Eisenhower Doctrine, Moslems have become increasingly dominated by a persecution complex. Going to Damascus has become a deliberate act of defiance against the government of Chamoun and his 75-year-old, waterpipe-smoking Premier, Sami Solh. “O Chamoun, Lebanon must join the Arab Union!” chanted thousands of Lebanese last week in Damascus, as Nasser beamed down from his balcony. Replied Nasser: “As I see my brothers from sister Lebanon standing side by side with their brothers from the region of Syria and the region of Egypt, I feel I am witnessing the return of matters to their natural course. The artificial boundaries that have been put up between Arab countries by the imperialists cannot estrange us.”

In the midst of this clamor, President Chamoun has apparently decided to try to change the constitution so as to run for a second term this fall. The Nasser sympathizers seized on this issue to bolster their cause. One night last week a gang of gunmen sneaked up on the President’s summer residence, empty at this time of year, and riddled it with bullets. The government banned all demonstrations and ordered all pictures of Nasser pulled down. There was a brief Cabinet crisis, in which Premier Solh shuffled his ministers in a faintly propitiatory manner.

The outlook: the opposition may try to call out the street mobs in an attempt to destroy not only the Chamoun regime but Lebanon’s pro-Western policy.

Even in stable Lebanon, the fever of Pan-Arabism that Nasser had loosed in the Middle East ran dangerous and strong. Said the newspaper L’Orient: “The country finds itself in a situation which literally calls for a war Cabinet—war for internal peace and order.”