Samir Kassir
Other views maintain that Lebanese anger against perceived Syrian hegemony had been simmering for decades, and the assassination of a popular leader was the spark that gave birth to the movement, independently of foreign and regional developments. Lebanese opposition leader and newspaper columnist Samir Kassir, for example, wrote that "democracy is spreading in the region not because of George Bush but despite him." He gave far more credit to the Palestinian uprising as an inspiration to Lebanese activists.