A brief of today’s news bulletin:

• Bassil extorts Hezbollah with a paper of understanding, how will the latter respond?
• Are we heading towards a general lockdown after the swift spread of Covid-19 infections?
• How do the Lebanese with their different religions and sects share the joy of Christmas?

Gebran Bassil was weird in his latest press conference, for two reasons, the first is his quick transition between playing the role of the victim and the role of the hero. Sometimes he claims chastity, purity, and achieving liberation, and at other times he talks about a global attack on him, a political assassination targeting him, and a war waged against him in the elections. But Bassil, have to decide whether he is a victim or a hero?

The second weird reason is his ongoing complaint of obstruction of all kinds: the suspension of the Council of Ministers, the Parliament, the Constitutional Council, as well as the constitutional and governmental institutions. But did Bassil forget that he and his uncle, the President of the Republic, and their ally Hezbollah, were the ones who introduced the culture of disruption to political life and democratic process in Lebanon?

Had it not been for the disruption that was practiced throughout Michel Sleiman’s era, would Bassil have become a minister in all successive governments from 2008 until the outbreak of October 17 uprising? Had it not been for the disruption that was practiced at the end of Sleiman’s reign, would Michel Aoun have become President of the Republic? So, let Bassil stop crying and wailing over the democratic system.

It is his practices and the practices of his party that have brought the country to its current situation. Regardless of the weirdness in Bassil’s remarks, today’s press conference can be considered as a bid to Hezbollah. Bassil, in the parliamentary and presidential elections, wants to extort Hezbollah, and he has no means of blackmail other than a memorandum of understanding.

That’s why we see Bassil waiving by the stick, and ready to develop and activate it if the party favors him over Nabih Berri, but if Hezbollah continues to prioritize Berri over Bassil, all possibilities become open. What will Hezbollah do in this case? Does he submit to Gebran’s blackmail, so that Bassil becomes a hero, or does he leave him to his fate, so that he becomes a victim?