Back to Iraq

I was speaking about the assasination of Pierre Germayel with a friend of mine and he posed the question, what are the objectives of Hizbollah, I mean, why do they turn against their own people? I didn't have a good answer but I think Chris Allbritton's Blog Back to Iraq may shed some much needed light on recent events.
Chris points out:
"The cabinet is normally made up of 24 ministers, with 16 needed for a quorum. Last weekend, five Shi’ite ministers and a pro-Syrian Christian minister resigned, threatening the stability of the government. Then Pierre Gemayel was killed, bringing the number of absent ministers to seven. If two more ministerial seats became vacant, Siniora’s government would be automatically dissolved. "

Destabilize and control is the short version of Hizbollah's objectives. But to what end? A return to Syrian control and a greater say in the direction of the country by proxy? It seems the waring factions in Lebanon, or perhaps better said, those pulling Lebanon apart, are extreme polarities. The division cuts across religious lines. Prime Minister Fuad Siniora is a Muslim and President Émile Lahoud is a Christian, disputing the myth that only Muslims are in support of Syrian control and that Christians are aligned with the west. This is not a war of Christianity vs. Islam. Of course, there are elements of that on the most basic level; fighting in the streets will invoke religious identities as Christian and Shi'ites prepare themselves to take up arms.
The saddest bit of this is that history repeats itself so often in Lebanon

Lebanese Christian Politician Killed

Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his Phalange Party Voice of Lebanon radio station reported.
His fatal shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if he does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.