Karl Marx doesn't get quoted much these days. But his view that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, has an uneasy resonance as former Premier Omar Karami looks set to settle into the prime minister's chair less than two weeks after he was thrown out of it by an unprecedented demonstration of "people power."Even allowing for the fast-changing unpredictability of recent weeks, Karami's latest comeback is a shock. More worryingly coming in the wake of the huge demonstration organized by Hizbullah on Tuesday, it also smacks of a regime that has suddenly grown in confidence again and is determined to flex the muscle it believes Hizbullah may have provided it with. But for everyone in this country that believes the status quo is no longer an option, the question is whether Karami wants to beckon us all - opposition, government and Hizbullah - to a new future, or whether his expected anointment will drag us all back to an unwanted past.
Karami's decision to delay accepting the poisoned chalice of the premiership may well prove to be the first positive move toward breaking the current political logjam that has paralyzed parliamentary politics since the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. If, as sources close to Karami suggest, he has metamorphasized into an honest broker seeking to form and head a genuine government of national unity, it is both a commendable and long overdue step in the right direction. Who knows, it may even placate what is sure to be an angry reaction from Martyrs' Square, the people who effected his abrupt departure from office and who are likely to see his reappointment as a direct challenge. But you don't have to be camped out in Martyrs' Square to see his appointment as a government throwing down the gauntlet to the anti-Syrian pro-democracy movement. And that is certainly how it will be seen in Washington and Paris.