Could the Pope Have Helped Lebanon Politically?

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00:00Professor, you're making it sound like this is a bit of a missed opportunity by Lebanon's political class.

00:05Here you have an American pope who clearly, obviously, speaks English as well as French,

00:09and he used a few words of Arabic as well, we're told during the visit,

00:12who's got the ear of President Trump.

00:15And there he is in Lebanon talking to all the leaders, all the different religious leaders,

00:20almost offering to help. And he could help, couldn't he?

00:23Definitely he could. And I think everyone wants to help Lebanon,

00:26but the Lebanese political establishment doesn't want to help itself.

00:30You can actually hit the lottery if you go and you buy the ticket.

00:34So this is what the international community and more important, the Gulf states have been telling Lebanon.

00:38We are willing to bankroll any renaissance, any rebuilding process, as long as you disarm Hezbollah.

00:45And this is something, I actually had an article out in Arabic that says this is a culture of missed opportunities.

00:51It's like having the perfect opportunity and you throw it in the garbage,

00:55just because you're not willing to change and you're not willing to read the region around you.

01:00Yes, Pope Leo has the ear of Trump. He has the ear of J.D. Vance, as well as Marco Rubio.

01:07But at the end of the day, he is the Pope. He speaks on behalf of Christianity in a way.

01:13And his visit was yet another reminder that we need to act.

01:16The Pope visits you as a way of rewarding you for success or actually trying to warn you that you need to clean up your act.

01:26And this is, I think, his visit is not to celebrate Lebanon, but rather to tell them that the idea of Lebanon is at risk.

01:33You need to act and act now.

01:34Right, so a little bit of a warning in what he was saying.

01:38Indeed it is. Indeed it is.

01:39Because he did address the Lebanese and he believes that the Lebanese, particularly the young generation,

01:44including those who parrot the words of Hezbollah, they want peace.

01:48But his warning and his demands were to the political establishment and the policymakers,

01:54which haven't been acting like policymakers since ever.