Cuban rebel's spirit lives in Lebanese bar

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>]

Chicago Tribune
May 24, 2003, 1:03AM

Cuban rebel's spirit lives in Lebanese bar
Pub is hub for radical leftists, socialists
By DEBORAH HORAN
Chicago Tribune

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Che Guevara may be long gone,
but at Abu Elie's, a hole-in-the-wall bar in west Beirut,
his revolutionary spirit lives on.

Remnants of Beirut's radical leftists meet to talk politics
over mugs of beer, patrons still proudly carry cards proving
membership in the Communist International, and Lenin's
stern visage vies for wall space with Trotsky and Stalin.

For almost a decade, the tiny pub has attracted men
belonging to socialist parties and shadowy Palestinian
groups who once belonged to Lebanon's many militias.
They crowd around five tables and a short bar underneath a
draping red banner and a sketch of an American Indian.

Elsewhere in Beirut, there are two newer pubs dedicated to
Guevara, whose romantic rebel image resonates among
Lebanese who view themselves as vanguards of revolution
and resistance. But it is Abu Elie's that attracts
authentic,
if aging, guerrillas.

"You have mostly ex-fighters from the civil war," said
Makram Rabah, one of the younger patrons. "It's like
a blast from the past."

Abu Elie's was opened in 1995, five years after Lebanon's
civil war ended, by Naya Shahoud, a die-hard communist
and Guevara devotee. That makes it one of the older
establishments among Beirut's abundant bars and nightclubs.

In the past three years, 105 new places have popped up in
the Lebanese capital, according to one nightclub owner, who
said he keeps close tabs on the competition.

Shahoud, who goes by the name Abu Elie, plastered the walls
of his establishment with pictures of the famous Cuban
revolutionary: Che smoking a cigar, Che wearing a beret with
a star, Che laughing with a sideways glance, Che angry.

The pub soon became a hub for members of Lebanon's Communist
Party, a Druze socialist party and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, a left-leaning group still on the
U.S. list of terrorist organizations, among others.

The pub has attracted famous names from among Lebanon's
leading socialists, a collage of pictures behind the bar
reveals. One photo shows Ziad Rahbani, the son of the famous
Lebanese singer, Fairouz, and a hard-core communist, smiling
with Shahoud and other patrons.

The centerpiece picture displays a highlight in Shahoud's
life, according to his son Elie Shahoud. A few years ago
Guevara's son, Ernesto Che Guevara, visited Abu Elie's and
hugged the elder Shahoud.

"He was very proud," said Elie Shahoud, referring to his
father. "He lived during Guevara's days. He has books
about him."

He also has a dry sense of humor. On the wall he has
scribbled in Arabic his version of the Ten Commandments.
No. 1: No parking in the parking lot. No. 2: No talking
politics.

Little else is discussed under the bar's dim lights by men
smoking cigarettes and sipping from glasses of beer and
whiskey. At 2 a.m., the bar is packed. Those still around at
dawn get breakfast made in a tiny kitchen in back of the
bar.

"We discuss politics, more politics, more politics," said
Hussain Abdel Hussain, another patron. "Why did Syria
say this or that? What is America's hidden agenda?"

Guevara's appeal, said Abdel Hussain, arises from the lack
of "a good Arab leader" in Lebanon, a country whose
politicians are firmly in the grip of neighboring Syria,
whom these would-be revolutionaries despise.

"People here see this young guy, a symbol of resistance,
who was killed at a young age," Abdel Hussain said.
"He's a figure unspoiled by politics."

The clientele is specific. No one from Saiqa, a Palestinian
organization with Syrian backing that allied itself with the
Lebanese right during the civil war, would dare step foot in
Abu Elie's, patrons said. Also barred are men from the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a splinter
of the PFLP that claims the mantle of socialism but
maintains close relations with Syria.

The fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe hasn't
dimmed these men's zeal for a socialist revolution or kept
them from admitting membership in the party. Here,
communism is the ideology of choice, solidarity with
the oppressed is a virtue and Lenin is king.

Elie Shahoud carries a red membership card of the Lebanese
Communist Party that features a cypress tree, the symbol of
Lebanon, and a hammer and sickle. His father's red business
card depicts four tiny pictures of Guevara, Lenin, Trotsky
and Stalin.

No one at Abu Elie's describes these icons of socialism as
relics from a bygone era.

To the clientele here, the flame of revolution still burns.

"We might seem romantic," Rabah said. "But this is what
keeps us alive."