Walid Joumblatt (rear RTL وليدجنبلاط) born the August 7th 1949 is one of the political leaders of the community Druze of the Lebanon and a very popular personality at the Druze S of the Middle East. He is the heir to a feudal big family Druze, the Joumblatt which played a big role in the history of this community since the 17th century and especially the 19th century. Called affectionately “Walid Bey” by his partisans, it resides alternatively at Moukhtara remains traditional of Joumblatt and with Beirut. It is the president of PSP ( Socialist party progressist ). Fine expert of the area and follower of sentences shocks, Walid Joumblatt handles as well the irony as the Kalachnikov. Its influence uncontested on the community Druze enables him to change his position and its alliances and to remain in phase with the regional reversals in order to preserve the interests of its community. Its main adversary is the sheik Druze Farid Hamadé. The Hamadé family which belongs to the clan of Yazbaki prevented Walid Joumblatt from having the monopoly on the community. Farid Hamadé was the first Druze to be combined with the moderate Christians of Lebanon, thing which displeased to the chief of the PSP. After the alliance of Joumblatt with the Syrian occupant lasting nearly thirty years, Farid Hamadé regained the exile under the Syrian pressures.

The period of the war 1977-1990

After studies with the American University of Beirut and in France, it carries out a life of Bohemia until 1977. The assassination of his/her father Kamal Joumblatt at the instigation of the Syrian secret services in March 1977 propels it in the political arena. At the end of the period of mourning, it will meet Hafez el Assad which, in an allusion to the fate of Kamal will inform it in these remarks remained famous: “How much you point out your father to me, the last time that I saw it, it had sat on the same chair as you”. The fate of his/her father will encourage it to be very careful in its relations with Syria. This prudence was regarded by the Lebanese one a treason and for half of the Druzes (Yazbakis) as a very high treason. To be combined with the supposed assassins of its father, contributed largely to the depression of Lebanon in the occupation and the lack of sovereignty.

With the general surprise, the young dandy of the pre-war period moults himself as a pitiless war leader and becomes one of the main actors of the Guerre of Lebanon. He takes the control of the Socialist party progressist, the party with Druze majority rested by his father and fact proof of political realism while being combined in Syria, from now on opposed to the Christian camp. He quickly becomes one of the chiefs of the camp known as palestino-progressist and fights the Christian militia.

In June 1982, it takes the party of neutrality and does not engage its combatants against the battalion Druze of Tsahal deployed in its stronghold of Chouf. This episode will be worth sour criticisms of Syria and parties pro-Syrians to him. In 1983, following the withdrawal flash of Tsahal it tries to take again with the Lebanese Forces (Christian) the control of the Chouf (populated area of Druze S and Christians at the time). With the favor of the Israeli withdrawal the PSP quickly gains the victory after a blood bath, operating a true religious purification and force with the exodus the Christian inhabitants of the Chouf (episode of the Guerre of the mountain). After the rout of the Palestinian militia following the Israeli invasion, it is found with the most powerful militia of the camp Palestino-progressist, his control including most of Beirut-West.

Post-war period

In 1989 it accepts the agreements of Taëf which devote the influence of Syria to Lebanon. PSP deposits the weapons and Walid Joumblatt joined the government. With the liking of various alliances, he regularly is re-elected appointed in his stronghold of Chouf and becomes titular ministry for moved on several occasions. He is the subject of strong criticisms of the Christian opposition on the management of the funds intended for moved war. He will belong to all the governments until 1998.

The election of the chief of the army Emile Lahoud in 1998 with the presidency of the Republic with which it maintains a competition and personal enmity changes gives it. He refuses to take share with the parliamentary meeting which will see the election of Emile Lahoud and of the cracks start to appear in its alliance with the Syria.

The death of Hafez el-Assad in June 2000 and the setting with the variation of the Head of the State major Hikmat Chihabi (his main ally in Damas) weaken the position of Joumblatt in Syria. It then tries to make pressure in Damas while approaching the adversaries of Syria in Lebanon. At the summer 2000, for the legislative ones of August-September, Joumblatt initiates a bringing together with the parties of the Christian opposition. It launches calls for a “rebalancing” and a “correction” of the relations with Syria without however cutting the bridges with Damas. These calls will be worth to him public threats of dead on behalf of Assem Qanso, chief of the Ba' Lebanese ace, as a full parliamentary session (November 6th 2000). Joumblatt joined the new government Hariri which has just gained the elections. The regional upheavals (death of Hafez el-Assad, taken again Intifada, attacks of September 11th and war in Iraq) make him adopt a careful policy, between Syria and the opposition. Between 2000 and 2004 it gives alternatively pledges to the two camps.

Opposition to Syria

In August 2001, it is reconciled with the Christian community at the time of the round of the patriarch Maronite in the Chouf. It improves its position with respect to Syria while making fear in Damas the appearance of a multiconfessionnelle opposition. The final estrangement takes place only in September 2004, when Bachar el-Assad imposes an constitutional amendment to prolong the mandate of Emile Lahoud. At the Parliament, Joumblatt is one of rare not to vote this amendment. The resolution 1559 (September 2004) consolidates its position. One of its more faithful lieutenants, the deputy and former minister Marwan Hamadé escapes an attempted murder to the car bomb on October 1st 2004 into full Beirut.

With the Christian parties and gradually in an increasingly clear way the Current of the Future of Rafiq Hariri, it then becomes an adversary solved of the Syrian presence to the Lebanon after one of its closer to be combined with the country to the cedar. The assassination of Hariri it (February 14th 2005) precipitates the end of the Syrian influence to the Lebanon. Walid Joumblatt becomes one of the main actors of the Révolution of the cedar which shows the withdrawal of the Syrian troops of the Lebanon.

It directs to the Parliament the block of the democratic Rencontre, gathering 15 deputies of Baabda, Aley, of the Chouf and Rachaya and constitutes with Saad Rafiq Hariri and to samir Geagea one of the leaders of the parliamentary majority and the movement known as of March 14th, in reference to the popular demonstration which joins together in Beirut more than one million Lebanese one month after the attack against Rafiq Hariri, which fights for the independence of Lebanon against the coalition of opposition, largely made up of parties pro-Syrians and pro-Iranian.

Quotations

The February 14th 2007, at the time of a speech, it is addressed in these terms to the president Syria N Bachar el-Assad: " Oh tyrant of Damas, O you it unknown monkey of nature, the snake of which all the snakes are afraid, you it shark vomit by the ocean, you it wild beast of the desert, you it creature which are only one half of man, you which are the product of Israel to the detriment of the corpses of the Lebanon-South, you it lying and the criminal archi-killer, you it which pours blood in Lebanon and in Syria, we take again on you the words of the large poet Nizar Qabani: " Every twenty years a man armed comes to massacre the unit in the cradle and to kill the rêves". "

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