Who Will Save "Lebanon's Titanic" in 2023?

The incident of the Lebanese army rescuing about 232 people who were close to drowning in an illegal escape attempt on a stricken boat off the coast of Saluata on the last day of 2022 serves as a powerful symbol of the tragedy faced by the Lebanese in the midst of various political, economic, and social crises, pushing many to desperate and suicidal ventures through illegal boats and death journeys. While the army successfully prevented this incident from becoming a tragic disaster on New Year's Eve by rescuing 232 individuals from drowning, except for a Syrian woman and her child, it reinforces the symbolism of Lebanon's descent into its national catastrophe with the famous comparison made by former French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who likened Lebanon to the most famous ship in history that sank, the "Titanic." For a long period, during Paris's and President Emmanuel Macron's multiple initiatives, Le Drian warned of "Lebanon's sinking and decline," akin to the fate of the Titanic. As reported by "An-Nahar," Lebanon welcomes the year 2023 at an exceptionally high level of peril, regarding both the ambiguity and gloom surrounding the presidential vacuum crisis, as well as the dangerous slide into the depths of financial and economic collapse and its severe social repercussions. No one has any clear objective assessments of when, by whom, or how Lebanon can be saved from the inevitable tragic fate if rescue does not begin promptly with the election of a president who represents the starting point for re-establishing trust in the state and the system as a means to halt the collapse, curb the migration bleed, and begin emerging from the "hell" that the previous term led Lebanon into, both in word and deed.