To be sure, some Christian politicians were quick to show loyalty to Saudi Arabia, rather than to President Michel Aoun's position in calling for Hariri's release. But a recent Ipsos poll showed that 81 percent of Christians (and 79 percent of Lebanese people as a whole) considered Aoun to have done a good job handling the crisis. Surprisingly, this included 67 percent of Sunnis, who have generally been hostile to Aoun in the past.
Hezbollah has employed a winning strategy when it comes to its relations with Lebanese Christians. It needs to be noted before proceeding that "Christians" in Lebanon are not a monolithic entity. I am using the term here to denote elected Christian parties based on the 2009 parliamentary elections. That said, Hezbollah's success with Lebanese Christians is not a value judgment, but a mere reading of the state of affairs in the country - one that helps understand the complexity of the Lebanese mosaic. [...]
To understand the significance of Aoun's election, we need to remember that he has been widely described as Lebanon's first "strong president" since the end of the civil war in 1990. This is because previous presidents lacked Christian popular support and were elected during the Syrian tutelage (1990-2005) or as a result of a political settlement (2008). [...]
While most Christians would naturally side with the sovereignty of the state and would support the need for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons, there is a general perception that the party has played a role in protecting Lebanon against ISIL, despite attempts by Saudi Arabia and its allies to equate the two as being one and the same manifestation of terrorism.
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