For many years, Lebanon meant different things to different Syrians. That is why the Syrians loved Beirut, and that is why they are happy today, hoping that if General Michel Suleiman gets elected to the post of president, they would feel secure enough to go there - having been absent in large numbers since 2005. That is why the Syrians will not tolerate an anti-Syrian president in Beirut.
Whether the Lebanese like it or not, they are situated in a troubled region, with two ambitious and stronger neighbours - Syria and Israel. Due to the weakness of Lebanon, there is no such thing as a president who is "Made in Lebanon". There never has been. That is a sad reality perhaps - but a reality, nevertheless.
Presidents in Lebanon have been "made" in Paris, Washington, Damascus, Cairo and Tel Aviv. Back in 1943, the Syrians supported Bshara Al Khury because he was allied to the statesmen in Damascus, particularly president Shukri Al Quwatli. When Al Quwatli was toppled in 1949, his successor General Husni Al Za'im tried to oust the Khury regime in Beirut.
A few years later, Khury's opponents were given political and financial assistance by the Syrian regime of General Adib Al Shishakli. Then came a joint Syrian-Egyptian effort to oust president Camille Shamoun for what came to be known as "the first civil war of 1958".
Members of the Lebanese opposition -statesmen such as Kamal Junblatt and Saeb Salam -came to lead their "revolt" from Damascus.
Frantic, Shamoun turned to the US, seeking protection. His successor Fouad Shihab came to power with the direct blessing of Jamal Abdul Nasser (then ruling both Damascus and Cairo). In his memoirs, the veteran statesman Raymond Edde, running for the presidency in August 1958, recalls how the then US ambassador to Lebanon Robert McClintock visited him to congratulate him on being elected president - only to be stopped short by a US diplomat - who advised him to "wait" because Abdul Nasser had decided - with the state department - to name Fouad Shihab for Lebanon.
The saga continued with the civil war, with Israeli support for Bashir and Ameen Gemayel in the 1980s. Then came the last two "Made in Damascus" presidents, Elias Hrawi and Emile Lahoud.
Candidate
This all leads us up to the presidential candidate General Michel Suleiman. Was Suleiman "made in France?" Or was he "made in the United States" or "made in Syria?" Or was he "all of the above?"
The Syrians wanted him because he was close to Hezbollah and sees Israel - rather than Syria - as the enemy. If elected to power, he would hamper UN resolutions 1559 and 1701, which target Hezbollah power in Lebanon, and certainly, grant more political room for the Shiite community.
Initially, the Syrians pretended to support Michel Aoun (without saying it), and this discredited Aoun in the Lebanese street. Deep inside, they did not trust Aoun. They wanted Suleiman. The General was suddenly supported by the Americans, the French and the Saudis.
One can understand the ambitions of strong regional countries and the vulnerability of small and weaker ones.
Let us pretend that we had a different Lebanon -a Lebanon with no Arab surrounding, no Palestinians, no Syrians, and no Israelis. Let us pretend that we had a Lebanon with no confessional rivalries, where everybody loves everybody else.
Simply... I couldn't see it. The Lebanon I see was one of 19th-century feudalism and sectarianism. In 1940, the Muslims of Lebanon complained that president Emile Edde was treating them as second-class citizens. Reportedly, he replied sarcastically to the complaint, saying: "Lebanon is a Christian country. Let the Muslims go live in Makkah."
In 1946, King Abdullah I of Jordan toyed with the idea of uniting Syria and Jordan under his Hashemite crown in a scheme he called "Greater Syria".
The Maronite patriarch Antune Arida supported the plan, but only if Abdullah would annex the Muslim territories of Lebanon to Greater Syria.
In 1976, tension between both parties escalated tremendously, encouraging president Suleiman Franjiyeh to issue a constitutional document giving Muslims some key concessions. The proposal was flatly turned down by the Muslims themselves.
When then Syrian president Hafez Al Assad met with Kamal Junblatt for 12 stormy hours on March 27, 1976, he asked: "Why are you escalating the fighting? The constitutional document gives you 95 per cent of what you want. What else are you after?" Junblatt angrily replied that he wanted to get rid of the Christians "who have been on top of us for 140 years!"
That is the Lebanon I see, and with statesmen like these (they have not really changed), it would be difficult to expect a leader who had been "made in Lebanon".
Dr Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
