The Lebanese government of Prime Minister Omar Karami has resigned a mere two weeks after the assassination of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Harari. There are demands that President Emile Lahoud resign as well, and the protestors camping outside of the Parliament building chanted "Lahoud, your turn is coming!" The U.S. State Department is dubbing the events in Lebanon the “Cedar Revolution.”

The Lebanese and Syrian governments did not have the stomach to crack down on the demonstrators, and there are signs some of the Lebanese soldiers and security forces support the peaceful uprising. No effort was made to contain the size of the protests. The mere threat of traditional Arab strongman tactics just could not contain the Lebanese people’s desire for justice.

Hundreds of soldiers and police ringed Martyrs' Square, but there was no violence, even as more and more protesters evaded the cordon and join the demonstration. Protest leaders urged their followers not to provoke the security forces, and some security officers appeared to sympathize with the illegal demonstration. Protesters gave red roses to some soldiers, and sang the national anthem and chanted: "Syria out!" and "We want no other army in Lebanon except the Lebanese army!"

Syria claims it can quickly withdraw from Lebanon, but is dangling “peace with Israel” a precondition for ending the occupation (translation – the return of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel after the Arab armies attacked and were defeated by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967).

The Lebanese opposition disagrees:

Druse opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, responding to Assad's published remarks, said Lebanon "cannot wait for peace to be achieved" in the Middle East and demanded a speedy troop withdrawal.

The days of Arab despots successfully using Israel as a bludgeon against their own people may be at an end. The Lebanese people could care less about Syria’s grievances with Israel; it is their peace and freedom that matter most. They recognize their true oppressors - Syria and Lebanese quislings.

The Arab Street may actually be on the cusp of understanding who really is responsible for their miserable state, just as the Afghani, Iraqi and now Lebanese Streets have done. The citizens of the Middle East are beginning to look inward, not outward, to recognize where their problems originate, much to the dismay of the region’s princes, dictators, despots, autocrats, mullahs and presidents-for-life.