The Axis of Peace/Religion of Evil strikes again...

coup de vent by Richard Gall
You know I have a lot of good Lebanese friends and so anytime things start perking in Lebanon I get interested. What a shame about Pierre Gemayel, so handsome and brave. So committed to a free Lebanon. The Axis of Peace/Religion of Evil wants Lebanon in it's clutches - when are we going to stop pretending otherwise???

Iran makes a big to-do with its overture to Iraq, focusing the attention there while Assad, their Syrian houseboy and pet thug, Nasrallah try to take down the Lebanese government.

In the hindsight's 20/20 category: First, it was the protracted wrangling over the Rafiki assassination and the debate about the formation of an International Tribunal to investigate it got hot. Then the Sunni faction withdrew from the Lebanese government in an attempt to further challenge its legitimacy. Today, a prominent Christian member of the Lebanese cabinet was assassinated. Lost in the media shuffle is the report that another assasination attempt was also made on another cabinet member which would have spelled curtains for the pro-American Siniora administration. Per Michael Totten (lots of juicy updates here):

UPDATE: Just spoke to a friend of mine in Lebanon. I did not realize until now that Gemayel was a member of the Lebanese cabinet. The Hezbollah/Syrian axis has been trying to bring down the government by pressuring three more members to resign. One down, two to go. Looks like the coup d'etat is in progress.
UPDATE: Abu Takla
in the comments says "one more to go, not 2. If they assassinate one more minister, the cabinet is automatically dissolved, because it would lack the two-thirds + 1 it needs to be constitutional."
UPDATE: Another member of Lebanon's political cabinet, Michel Pharaon was targetted with assassination today. He survived. But if the bastards had gotten him,
the government would have fallen and stage one of the coup would be over.

Gateway Pundit has put together an awesome piece on Gemayel and the activities of the day. As has Rightwing Nuthouse. Lots of juice.

Lebanese Assasinations since 2005. (ed. note: More 'peaceful' Muslims at work.)
Feb 2005: Former PM Rafik Hariri
June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir
June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi
Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni
Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

The President's Statement here.

Hope all the so-called 'realists' (James Baker et al) heckling from the peanut gallery get a load of Syria and Iran's assassination antics. Douglas Farah lays it all out for them (and us!) here.

"... shows the dangers of engaging terrorist states in dialogue as if they were not rational actors, as realist and James Baker and other proponents of the “realist” world view.

It seems fairly certain that Syria and its allies in Hezbollah, smarting at the loss of influence in Lebanon and wanting to halt the investigation into the Hariri by whatever means necessary, had a hand in what was correctly labeled a terrorist attack. Hezbollah and its allies in Amal are actively working to destabilize the current government in hopes of extracting more power. Syria and Iran are among the most powerful forces moving the Lebanese drama.

The timing of the attack on Gemayel is interesting. With the Baker Commisson clearly leaning toward recommending a U.S. dialogue with Iran and Syria on Iraq, the two terrorist sponsors are now the new power players in the region. The Bush administration will need them to implement the recommended changes on its Iraq policy, and, since the mid-term elections, is already operating from a position of weakness...."

Update 8:50 pm: Claudia Rossett has Lebanon street cred. Read her take here. Walid Phares gives us this next step.