The Arabs have a very short-term memory – a bottomless vessel, in which no experience is retained, nor its meanings and lessons preserved. From Lebanon to Syria, Iraq and Egypt, and up to Yemen, ruling regimes, political forces and social groups, old and new, repeat the same mistakes, as if they had never suffered through or witnessed what had brought some of them to such a low point of backwardness, splintering and infighting, while the world around them progresses and builds on its experiences, passing laws that prevent them from being repeated. Lebanon, which is plagued with sectarianism and an unfortunate neighborhood, had been, and continues to be, the prime victim of such short-term memory. Its system of government is a platform for undeclared civil wars and constant divisions, and its political forces sink inside their shells while waiting for signs from across the border. It is as if the fate of this country was to remain a model for the triumph of sect, region and family over the state and its laws, as well as a model of corruption that does not spare anyone or anything. The Lebanese can barely discuss any issue, no matter how of small, without becoming divided, each turning to their weapons, money and media outlets. The country is the least of their concerns, and the historical narrative is always ready for modifications by those who emerge victorious. Thos who succeed at politics are those who have a talent for provocation, and those who rise to prominence in trade are those who can market spoiled food and medicine – and there are those who bring the two together shamelessly. And despite the shining example of Lebanon for all to see, there are Arab peoples who fall in the same trap, as if unwillingly driven to it. The sectarian clashes shaking Egypt are only a sample of Arab cloning of the Lebanese disease, as if no one sees or wants to see the outcome of not recognizing others, denying them their rights and treating them like bothersome guests, while waiting for the right moment to attack them and drive them away. In Syria, on the other hand, the regime's police state is driving the country's social constituents little by little towards certain confrontation, under the slogan of the fear of minorities. Indeed, either it remains or no one does. Lebanonization seems to have become perfectly entrenched in Iraq, where sects and groups crush one another using methods and means well beyond what the Lebanese founders could have imagined, and where the state is looted in elaborate ways, with the looters deriving their strength from party, sect and tribe without stirring. Iraqis are defining for their “state” roles limited by latent riches and the approval of their more powerful neighbor, after having replaced the tyrant by many tyrants, and compensated for the one party with a mosaic of loyalties. Yet the case most expressive of such cloning is Yemen. There too, as in the early days of the Lebanese Civil War, there are committees to resolve the clashes erupting here and there, most of the time without any explanation; kidnappings on the basis of regional, tribal and political identity; trenches dividing the capital into several sectors; streets and squares the names of which enter news reports as symbols of sudden mass killings; an army divided between loyalists and sponsorists; groups that are completely out of control establishing “emirates” and “states” on the rubble of homes whose inhabitants have been displaced by the violence; and young people who dream that the image of the country they call for will be stronger than centuries of backwardness, that the reeds of peaceful change will be more resilient than the forests of weapons, and that a pamphlet will be sufficient to establish a country for all citizens. The Arabs are rebelling and changing their rulers, but they are not changing what is within themselves. They watch each other and wait for others to make a mistake so they can repeat it after them. The revolutions change flags and faces, yet keep inherited instincts and divisions between groups and factions. And when they gather under the flag of their League, they decide that they cannot save yet another country from repeating the same experience.
