Bernie Sanders receives a vote for president of Lebanon as army chief wins

Vermont senator receives a vote for president in Lebanon’s parliament, as Joseph Aoun elected following two year deadlock.

By Ben Sales, JTA

Lebanon has elected a new president after two years of political indecision, but not before some unexpected characters received votes — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, an American Jew.

Lebanon’s president is elected by the parliament for a six-year term and, under the country’s system, must be a Maronite Christian.

The eventual victor was the country’s military chief, Joseph Aoun, whose win on Thursday ended two years of political crisis in which 12 successive votes failed to reach the requisite majority.

The vote also took place less than two months into the ceasefire that ended a devastating war between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

But on the road to Aoun’s triumph in the second round of voting, some lawmakers cast protest votes. At one point, according to video shared by Al Jazeera English’s news editor, Saad Abedine, a legislator put in a vote for Sanders, the 83-year-old Vermont independent who is the unofficial dean of progressives on Capitol Hill.

Sanders won another term in the Senate last November but, for multiple reasons, is ineligible to lead Lebanon.

The video shows multiple men in the parliamentary chamber saying Sanders’ name, followed moments later by a loudspeaker enunciating “Bernie Sanders!” across the room. The next vote appears to be for Aoun.

Aoun (no relation to the previous president, Michel Aoun) has led Lebanon’s military since 2017.

His victory is a sign of Hezbollah’s weakness, according to The New York Times, after the terror group was heavily battered in its war with Israel. Hezbollah, which also has a political arm, had blocked previous attempts to elect a president. This time, its candidate dropped out.

In his remarks after his election, Aoun drew applause for saying the state would be the only force to carry weapons, a reference to an agreement that the Lebanese military would reassert control of southern Lebanon, which had been controlled by Hezbollah.

He also vowed that Israel would withdraw its remaining troops from Lebanon, as it is slated to do, and said, “My pledge is to rebuild what Israel destroyed.”

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