The car-bomb assassination on Wednesday of General François Hajj, chief of operations for Lebanon’s army, is being attributed to a variety of suspects. Ministers in the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, France and the United States, blame Syria. Syria, while condemning the murder, blames Israel. Others point to al Qaeda-inspired jihadists whom the army crushed last summer, in a vicious three-month campaign led by the slain General Hajj.

His murder, the ninth political assassination since the murder in 2005 of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, highlights the fragility of the Lebanese state. The Hajj murder came as Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France was shuttling between the Siniora government and the pro-Syrian opposition that has been boycotting Parliament. Hajj’s murder, as well as the political backdrop, reveals a Lebanon teetering on the edge of an abyss. Kouchner had been trying to avert a political deadlock, preserve Lebanon’s unity, and prevent a replay of the disasters of the 1975-1990 civil war. This is an effort that deserves support from Washington, and the soundest way to help is for it to lend its backing to negotiations for an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement. The entire Middle East would benefit, and nobody more than the Lebanese.