When Antoine Ghanem, a member of the Lebanese Parliament, was assassinated on September 19 in a horrific car bombing, he became the eighth anti-Syrian legislator to be killed. To members of the March 14 Movement, an anti-Syrian coalition, there is no mystery about the ultimate power behind it.

Leaders of the March 14 coalition have accused the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad of Ghanem’s murder. The assumed motive is crudely political: to kill enough lawmakers in PM Fouad Siniora’s anti-Syrian coalition to deprive it of a parliamentary majority. The benefit for Syria would be preventing legislators from electing a new president who, unlike current President Emile Lahoud, would not be in thrall to Damascus.

Gangsterism on this scale may sound too brazen to be believable, but those familiar with the Syrian regime know otherwise. This alludes to the need for consensus on the next president. The Lebanese Parliament failed to elect a new head of state on Tuesday, but the anti-Syrian majority and the opposition renewed talks to seek agreement before the House meets again on October 23. Friends of Lebanon in Washington, Europe, and the Arab world should encourage the Lebanese factions to elect a president who will stand up for Lebanon’s independence.