Lebanon rejects Hezbollah

Confounding pre-election polls, Lebanon this week turned toward the U.S. and away from Iran when voters handed a U.S.-backed coalition a big victory in parliamentary elections. The secular, pro-Western bloc, known as the March 14 coalition, won 71 seats in the 128-seat parliament, while the pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian bloc led by Hezbollah took 57. Seats in Lebanon’s parliament are allocated along religious lines, and analysts said Christian swing voters made the difference. Many of them were reluctant to back the Hezbollah bloc because they feared Iran would have too much influence in Lebanese affairs.

Billionaire businessman Saad Hariri is expected to become prime minister, replacing ally Fouad Siniora. Hariri, 39, is the son of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in a 2005 car bombing widely blamed on Syria. After the murder, Hariri led protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after nearly 30 years.

The result was clear: “President Barack Obama defeated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran,” said Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. Lebanese voters, likely influenced by Obama’s outreach to Muslims with his Cairo speech last week, rejected Iran’s message of death to Israel. The election won’t change things overnight: Hezbollah “remains a powerful, armed force,” and Hariri must include some of its members in his Cabinet. “Nevertheless, something important happened here: The Lebanese mainstream, armed only with ballots, not bullets, won.”

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If any U.S. president deserves credit for this welcome news, said Amir Taheri in the New York Post, it’s George W. Bush. It was Bush who strongly backed the Hariri-led demonstrations and insisted on Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, paving the way for this week’s triumph of democratic forces. “Bush’s freedom agenda is alive and well in the Middle East.” Obama would be wise to “adopt it as his own.”

Don’t count Hezbollah out yet, said the Beirut Daily Star in an editorial. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has already made ominous noises about having a “popular majority,” even though he doesn’t have a parliamentary one. Last year, Hezbollah brought the country to the brink of civil war, and we can’t assume its forces won’t take to the streets again. Nasrallah is “walking a thin line” when it comes to accepting the election results—as is Lebanon’s fragile democracy.