Joseph Aoun's swearing-in speech struck a chord with the heirs of both Fouad Chehab and Bashir Gemayel. Even Michel Aoun's supporters could embrace it without hesitation — if not for Gebran Bassil's political calculations. In a country where the state has gradually been hollowed out, where a militia acting under foreign orders has replaced and consumed it, where zaims (political leaders) and their affiliates see themselves as above the law, and where the ability to defraud the system is constantly highlighted within society, the new president's first words resonated deeply with the minds and hearts of many Lebanese. By pledging to restore the authority of the state, announcing the return of order and unequivocally calling for an end to the militia anomaly, Joseph Aoun articulated precisely what Lebanon's silent majority has longed to...