Anti-Syrian Lebanese cabinet member murdered in Beirut suburb
Allahpundit

Via Snapped Shot. They’re not 100% sure yet that it was a political assassination but Fox just broke in to say the shooter was a sniper. If the Syrians are behind it, it’s both par for the course and incredibly stupid, coming as it does two days before Hezbollah is set to take to the streets to try to “peacefully” topple the government and four days before that super-keen, let-the-healing-begin summit between Iraq, Syria, and Iran. And at a moment when even people like Tony Blair are urging us to talk to Damascus.

In fact, this is so stupid that I’m thinking it might be too stupid even for Assad. What’s going on here?

Update: Syria restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq yesterday ...

A Familiar Refrain In Lebanon
Ed Morrissey

Once again, a politician opposed to Syrian hegemony in Lebanon has been assassinated, and again the victim hails from a family with a long history of supporting Lebanese independence. Pierre Gemayel, whose brother Bashir was also assassinated in 1982, died in a suburban hospital after a shooting:

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.

The shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision-making. ...

The assassination of Rafik Hariri set a popular revolt in motion that eventually saw most of Lebanon rise up peacefully against their Syrian occupiers, forcing them out of the country. That assassination came in the form of a sophisticated car bombing, which made it clear that the Syrians committed it. It seems they learned a lesson from the last time, or their Hezbollah proxies did.

Will this assassination resonate like Hariri's? Perhaps. ...

***

Not again: Lebanese Christian official assassinated
Michelle Malkin

This is the big news of the day. Or rather, in a non-O.J., non-Hollyweird-drenched, non-trivialized world, it would be the big news of the day.

The Lebanese Daily Star reports another assassination of an anti-Syrian Lebanese government official. Pierre Gamayel was a prominent Christian politician. He was shot in his car in Jdeideh on Tuesday.

Gemayel is the fifth figure to be assassinated in the past two years in Lebanon. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005. The journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings in June last year in addition to lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December. ...

... Free Cedar: God help Lebanon.

The Beirut Beltway has eyewitness reports on protests amassing in the streets:

Update. Angry crowds are gathering outside the St Joseph hospital and chanting anti-Aoun and anti-Hizbullah slogans. As Anton Effendi said, this assassination guarantees that any street protest now will devolve into clashes. The Kataeb party, of which Gemayel is a member, is calling on people to excercise self restraint.

With this assassination, March 14 has lost a member of parliament and a cabinet minister. For the Assad regime, one less March 14 vote means one less vote to ratify the international tribunal.

The eyes now are on the UN Security council, which must endorse the international tribunal as soon as possible

Update 2. Syrian-installed president Emile Lahoud has canceled the November 22nd independence day celebrations to mourn the loss of what he now referred to as a minister. Not long ago, he considered Gemayel and the rest of cabinet illegitimate following the resignation of the Shia ministers and the pro-Lahoud minister.

Meanwhile, Interior minister Ahmad Fatfat has accused Syria of standing behind Gemayel's assassination.

Update 3. ...

... Rick Moran: "I have a feeling that things are going to go south very soon in Lebanon."

Assad and Hizbollah, professing shock and denouncing the murder, do their best O.J. Simpson impersonations.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 10:05

Video: Hezbollah blames Israel for Lebanese assassination
Allahpundit

Lost today in the furor over Pierre Gemayel’s murder is a report of a second assassination attempt on a Lebanese minister. What’s going on? Anton Efendi of Across the Bay explains:

A few days ago, LF leader Samir Geagea expressed his fears that Syria would attempt to assassinate three ministers in order to deprive the majority of the ability to convene the required two thirds quorum to ratify the international tribunal…

Syria has a primary objective that outweighs everything else: kill the Hariri tribunal, and redominate Lebanon at any cost.

Michael Young made precisely the same point in his must-read column today for Opinion Journal. The Hariri probe and what it means for Assad are at the heart of this. Hence the absurdity of what you’re about to see.

Samir Geagea has also reportedly been marked for death, along with Walid Jumblatt, Saad (son of Rafik) Hariri, and the prime minister himself, Fuad Siniora. Hezbollah’s mass government protest is still set for Thursday; the country is bracing now for street confrontations between Shiites and angry Christians — which, according to Efendi, could play right into Assad’s hands by destabilizing the country and creating a power vacuum for Syria to fill.

[video link]

Update: One more element of absurdity — the Phalange party, to which Gemayel belonged and which his family dominated for decades, was allied during the Lebanese civil war with … Israel.

Update: Rusty Shackleford points me towards this post last week at Internet Haganah. Could the assassination have been AQ’s handiwork? ...