Beirut has been in a political crisis since December 1 and some might easily argue that timeline out even longer. On the 11th a political rally downtown brought Beirut, the capital, to a stand still of gridlock as up to 1 million people showed up in an anti-government rally.
Hezbolla is using its political strength to attempt to push out the Prime Minister Fuad Saniora even offering Saniora an ultimatum of resigning in a "few days" or else.
Saniora is not backing down. If he steps down it will set a new precedent in the Middle East that mass protests can bring about the downfall of a government and powerful governments like Saudi Arabia and Egypt do not want this type of precedent set. In fact outside of protests in Israel which is atypical, nothing like this has been seen really since the late 1970's when Iranian protests toppled the Shaw of Iran.
This gridlock as a weapon has been used by the Palestinian movement in Israel, but there it may have done more harm to the Palestinian people than it hurt other Israeli's.
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