Businessman Osama Mohammed is so insulted by the anti-Syrian curses Lebanese protesters are chanting and by reports of Syrians being murdered in Lebanon he has stopped going to Beirut to shop, dine and watch movies. "I'm boycotting everything Lebanese until my dignity is restored," said Mohammed.Hotel executive Imad Mansour has withdrawn his life's savings from a Lebanese bank because he has lost trust in Lebanon's economy - which has been a boost to Syria's economy for years - and worries he will have no access to his money if that country becomes too dangerous for Syrians. And Ali Serhan, who has been driving his cab to Lebanon for 10 years, barely finds customers for the three-hour trip across the border. Many Syrians suddenly feel embittered and insecure in a country where they had always felt at an advantage. During 29 years of control in their tiny neighbor, Syrians have come to see Lebanon as an engine of wealth, a place to play and a source of jobs for Syria's many unemployed. And they have always been told by the government that their troops - deployed in 1976 initially as peacekeepers in Lebanon's civil war and reaching up to 40,000 at one point - were benefiting the Lebanese by helping preserve stability.
But that control has started to erode after Syria completed the pullback of its forces and intelligence agents from western Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley a few days ago. Now Syrians are seeing the sneering banners, jibes and chants - sometimes outright obscene - that Lebanese protesters have directed at the Syrians during street rallies, and they have heard the anti-Syrian jokes, some of them racist and cruel, spread by e-mail and phone text messages in Lebanon. And they're hearing reports of attacks on Syrians. One Syrian has been confirmed killed and several injured in stabbings and limited clashes following the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, blamed by many Lebanese on Syria or the Damascus-allied government. Reports in the Syrian media say 35 Syrians have been killed, but there has been no official Syrian or Lebanese confirmation of that figure. Lebanese opposition leaders have urged protesters not to attack Syrians.