Messages of division, and a sometimes less-than-subtle call to arms, are blasting through Lebanon's many television channels. The antagonism is coming not just from the array of talk shows, but is implicit in carefully produced commercials.
The Future channel, owned by the Hariri family, has kept up relentless pressure on viewers to "remember the martyrs," or assassinated politicians. Cartoons show Lebanon as a prisoner with a ball and chain, presumably Hezbollah, around its leg, or as people choking on black fumes, also representing Hezbollah. "Let us live," runs the slogan.
On Hezbollah's Al Manar channel, the Lebanese government is routinely referred to as "Feltman's government" -- a reference to U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman.
A commercial tells viewers: "We are the resisters. We are the ones whose homes were destroyed. We are the ones who were buried alive. We are the defenders of the nation. We are a sovereign Lebanon."
"I can't deny that Hezbollah is Lebanese, but they are supported by Iran. And I don't know what they are doing, where they are going," said Omar Alewian, a Sunni student. "If we have to do something ... I'm ready to die."
Meanwhile, a handful of Cabinet ministers have taken up residence behind the gun-toting guards, high walls and armored personnel carriers that ring the prime minister's headquarters in downtown Beirut.
If any more ministers are killed, the government could collapse.
With rumors racing of a Syrian-backed plot to kill off opposition Cabinet members, the ministers are frightened for their lives.
"I'm nervous about my country blowing up," said Nayla Mouawad, the Christian minister of social affairs. "The people are put back with their old devils."
For ministers such as Mouawad, the sprawling hilltop headquarters has turned into a prison. Mouawad's hairdresser and secretary come through the checkpoints to visit her, but she refuses to leave. She knows well the dangers of political assassination; her husband, President Rene Mouawad, was killed in 1989. She blames Syria for the slaying.
Dressed neatly in a charcoal suit, smoking one Marlboro Light after another, Mouawad said she didn't anticipate getting her freedom back. Not any time soon.
"We expect the crisis will last," she said. "I expect violence."
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megan.stack@latimes.com
