Inside the Phoenicia

As most of you probably know, the majority of pro-government MPs are holed up in the Phoenicia Hotel at the moment, fearing for their lives. They are secluded from the everyday guests of the hotel, and protected by multiple levels of army security. Despite the protection, it is hard to not worry about security while walking into the Phoenicia. It is probably the most critical building to defend in Lebanon. One catastrophic bomb in the Phoenicia could shatter the government's Parliamentary majority and, in my opinion, would create a near-inevitable downward spiral to civil war.

While the public is kept out of the Phoenicia, the MPs are also kept in. Many of them have been separated from their families; I know of at least one March 14 MP whose wife is living at their home while he lives with a Parliamentary colleague who doubles as a roommate, in what amounts to an extremely opulent college dorm room. It may be a golden cage; that does not change the fact that it is still a cage.

Perhaps the most troubling fact for the MPs is that the threat to their lives does not necessarily end with the Presidential election. No matter who is elected, the surviving March 14 MPs serve an essential purpose: they guarantee the survival of the Siniora government and they must vote on legislation that reaches Parliament (should that blessed event ever reoccur). With no guarantee that it will be safe for the MPs to leave the Phoenicia once a new President is elected, their stay may be extended indefinitely.

"You can't go home again," wrote Tom Wolfe. He should have been reporting on Lebanon.