The crisis over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is understandably attracting a significant number of mediators, and would-be mediators. Whether it’s France, whose president Nicholas Sarkozy has been receiving representatives of both sides of the divide, or Turkey, or the S-S duo of Saudi Arabia and Syria, or Qatar, a foreign capital is prepared to undertake such efforts.

With Lebanon on the brink of a conflagration, generating a solution is in the interest of many; both its immediate neighbors and countries further away want to contain any possible outbreak of civil strife.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s political class, along with the public, plays the role of spectator; they watch the tickers on the bottom of the television screen, to keep an eye out for who is meeting with whom. Armchair analysts, whether in the street or in the media, put out their spin on the latest developments, and their implication for the country’s future.

The positive element – certain countries undertaking sincere mediation efforts – is offset by an unsettling aspect, namely that Lebanon has to depend on foreigners to solve its problems. It’s an insult to Lebanese, who pride themselves on supposedly being quite intelligent, whether it’s in terms of academic degrees or street smarts. Lebanese find themselves helpless, beset by problems they’re unable to address on their own.

In fact, this is a staple feature of modern Lebanese history, ever since the founding of Greater Lebanon after World War I. The country’s centennial is a decade away, and its politicians still haven’t created the institutions capable of addressing serious deadlock and the kind of national division that tears nations apart.

Moreover, these divisions have been worsening, as most ordinary people can sense. It does seem that in the past, there were statesmen who managed to act decisively at certain junctures, to stave off crisis. Today, however, there appears to be a complete lack of trust among Lebanese leaders, which gives those leaders’ Arab and foreign patrons even more reason to intervene.

But whatever solution comes from the efforts of these patrons, in the end, the Lebanese will be responsible for ensuring that it’s viable. The key is not to enforce a solution; the Lebanese need to make the solution their own, cemented by true national accord.

This accord is neither an empty slogan nor a rigid set of rules. Profound political disagreements happen in many places in the world. The only place that everyone has an identical point of view is in the most extreme type of dictatorship; it’s healthy to disagree, as long as there are pillars of common agreement.
All Lebanese agree on the overarching slogans, such as peace, security, freedom and democracy, but if Lebanon’s politicians don’t guide their nationals, feasibly, on how to get there, all of the intensive mediation efforts will eventually come to nothing.