Hariri's people -- his sons and wife are known to be funding much of the opposition's efforts -- come from the Sunni upper class of Lebanon. They are now aligned with the Christian groups they fought during Lebanon's bloody civil war, a war whose scars are still visible in Beirut.

Getting the Sunni of Lebanon to accept a peace deal with Israel, while the Palestinian and Syrian tracks remain unresolved, is a nonstarter. And despite the religious rift between Sunni and Shiite Islam, and the social and political gap between them in Lebanon, Sunnis hold Hezbollah in high esteem for liberating south Lebanon and defeating the Israelis.

Adding to the uncertainty is the failure of Emile Lahoud -- current president and perceived Syrian toady -- to replace the government that resigned this week. It was thought he might put together a bland technocratic government to hold the country until the elections scheduled for this spring. But as of Friday there has been no announcement, so the opposition doesn't know what the next step should be.

The local papers call this an intentional maneuver by the government as its remaining members cling to power. "Internal political developments are following the rhythm of foreign contacts, and this has been translated in the delay in announcing a schedule for the special parliamentary consultations to form a new government," said the As-Safir newspaper.

"The state procrastinates and no consultations before Monday," read the headline of the top-selling An-Nahar newspaper, which said, "There are no positive indications at the horizons so far." "It seems that [the authorities] want to exploit the fall of the government -- under pressure from the opposition -- by causing an open-ended government crisis and holding the opposition responsible for the consequences." (These translations of local newspapers were taken from wire reports.)

And there remains a dispute over whether Lahoud himself and the heads of the security services should be pressured to resign, or whether street protests should be held off until the elections.

"We want Lahoud to stay -- we hate him as a Syrian-backed parasite -- but we'd rather finish the job through the elections. If he resigned, the current Parliament remains loyal to Syria and might replace him with someone else for a six-year term. So we want to wait," a FPM student organizer told me over drinks a few days ago.

But even as that appears to be the opposition position, Jumblatt has called for the entire government to be removed immediately, and small crowds -- a presence remains by Hariri's grave to keep momentum going -- often chants "You're next, you're next" whenever Lahoud is seen on the giant television screens set up for the protests.

In an ambiguous speech to parliament on Saturday, Syrian President Bashir Assad, who has been under enormous international pressure to withdraw, promised to withdraw Syrian troops to the eastern Bekaa Valley and then across the Syrian border, as called for in the Taif Accords. But his speech contained hints that left open the possibility that Syria's role in one form or other might continue. "We should not remain in Lebanon one day after there is a Lebanese consensus over our presence," Assad said. A massive Hezbollah turnout Tuesday would reveal that there is no such consensus.

"Both [the opposition and Hezbollah] are warily eying each other," one local newspaper editor explains. "The opposition has the power of many Lebanese and the international community, even today we see Egypt, Saudi, the U.N., the U.S., France, all backing the opposition. So Hezbollah is scared. It knows it will probably lose its Syrian support. I think we all know their troops and [intelligence services] will be forced to leave or will have such diminished strength that they cannot support Hezbollah anymore." But the opposition has no clear policy on this issue either. The FPM and the Lebanese Forces (an opposition group that promotes a very militant Christian stance) want to see Hezbollah weakened or destroyed, but they know their strength cannot compare with Hezbollah's.

"It's intriguing and very dangerous," he sighs. "Thank God the Israelis have had the good sense not to provoke anything here."

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