No Lebanon Redux 1976

Another bombing has targeted a popular shopping centre in Christian East Beirut yesterday. The Lebanese Daily Star is reporting this:

At least seven people were reported wounded in the latest blast to hit a Christian area east of Beirut in 12 days. The blast detonated in the underground car park of Broumanna's Rizk shopping center at 9:45 p.m., hitting yet another of Lebanon's commercial centers. A dozen cars were destroyed as the explosion ripped through the surrounding area, shattering windows and setting several cars on fire, reducing them to blackened hulks of twisted metal.
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The bomb, the fourth in less than two weeks, has severely damaged Rizk Plaza, causing fires to rage in the clothing stores and furnished apartments above. People were being evacuated through windows and from balconies, as heavy rain fell to smother the fire, leaving behind a thick cloud of black smoke.

In the hours that followed, the blast was judged to be the least damaging of the recent explosions. But the incident indicates a shift in modus operandi, as Broumanna is the first residential area to be targeted. Broumanna is known to be a popular destination for Gulf Arabs who vacation here all year round.

Somebody really wants to replay 1976 and re-ignite the civil war that fractured civil society in Lebanon again but the innate problem lies that this time not all the players are in play, and for those who are – they are not playing by the old game book. There is no PLO presence to lay the dynamite or ignite the fuse. The democracy forces in Lebanon are no longer divided by religious or ethnic lines.