"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false." Bertrand Russel (1870-1970)
THE ghost of Rafik Hariri loomed large over Lebanon in recent weeks as Israel destroyed 14 years of reconstruction that the murdered former Prime Minister set in motion after the civil war.
Mr Hariri always feared that Hezbollah's anti-Israel militancy would lead Lebanon to catastrophe. The construction tycoon spent years negotiating to prevent the disaster that has been inflicted on Lebanon.
When Mr Hariri became Prime Minister in 1992 he viewed Hezbollah and its campaign of resistance against Israeli troops then occupying south Lebanon as a short-term phenomenon. The Middle East peace process had begun a year earlier in Madrid and Mr Hariri was gambling that by 1996 the conflict with Israel would be over. But the peace process stagnated and Hezbollah grew more powerful.
In 1993 and 1996 Israel began punishing offensives against Lebanon to force the Government to curb Hezbollah. But Hezbollah was supported by Syria, the real master of Lebanon, and there was little that Mr Hariri could do. The relationship between Mr Hariri and Hezbollah was mired in mutual distrust during the 1990s.
After Israel withdrew its forces in May 2000, Mr Hariri hoped that the conflict with Israel was finally over. But with Syrian blessing Hezbollah began building a military infrastructure in south Lebanon. Mr Hariri stood by helplessly. In June 2004 Mr Hariri began meeting Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. Mr Hariri recognised that Hezbollah could not be forced to disarm without risking a civil war. So he reached a compromise in which he promised to defend Hezbollah's weapons before the international community as long as the Shia group did nothing to jeopardise Lebanon's efforts to revive its economy.
That compromise ended in the huge explosion that killed Mr Hariri and 22 others in central Beirut on Valentine's Day last year.
His assassination set in motion a chain of events that 17 months later culminated in Israel's devastating war against Lebanon, the disaster that Mr Hariri had always dreaded. By Nicholas Blanford in Beirut The Times
