Commentary From Robert Fisk: Mistrust Fuels Cycle Of Violence In Lebanon

When, oh when, will the Lebanese Christians stop destroying each other? General Michel Aoun's Free Democratic Party (colour them bright orange) stood yesterday, along with their pro-Syrian allies, against the Phalangist candidate Amin Gemayel, former president and father of the assassinated incumbent MP, Pierre, murdered - by Syrians? By rival Christians? You name it - last year.

For Gemayel, read authority, the power of the democratically elected parliament, the government of Lebanon and, much more to the point, the US-supported government of Lebanon. For Aoun - who once claimed to be "liberating'' Lebanon from Syria in a disastrous 1990 war, but who would now like to be Syria's president in Lebanon - it was a heady moment. His candidate, Camille Khoury, may not win, but he will reformulate the politics of Lebanon where "pro-Syrian" may become once more a respectable political label.

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