As Lebanese legislative elections approach, traditional parties target their opponents

"We want to know who insulted Imam al-Mahdi during the 2019 protest." That was all it took for Mohammad Barakat, a journalist fiercely opposed to Hezbollah, to once again find himself in the crosshairs of the party’s popular base after making this statement during a televised interview on Friday. In a climate of increased polarization since the government decided on Aug. 5 to dedicate the monopoly on arms to the state, such smear campaigns no longer surprise anyone. However, one rare fact stands out: while Christian political heavyweights seize every opportunity to celebrate "political pluralism" in their community, the Lebanese Forces, through their leader Samir Geagea, sparked surprise by attacking one of their opponents in their stronghold of Bsharri. This trend reflects a mistrust among so-called traditional...