Beirut will be divided Thursday into two worlds, separated by an abyss. At 10 A.M., in the Martyrs Square in the center of town, the third annual memorial will be held for the murdered former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Four hours later, at 2 P.M., Hezbollah will flex its muscles during a mass funeral for the assassinated terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah.

Lebanon is a divided country, and its citizens have a sharpened sense of political awareness. The two events that will be held the same day in the same city are expected to turn into a competition over death: in which event will there be more participants?

On Wednesday, Hezbollah announced that it is calling on all its supporters to attend the funeral "in order to carry on the resistance and achieve victory."
At the same time, the Shuff mountains awoke Wednesday to the sound of loudspeakers carrying the speeches of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the late Hariri, announcing rallying points from which convoys of participants in the memorial in Beirut would embark passengers.

The government of Lebanon announced the closing of schools and public institutions in the capital Thursday, hoping this will enable as many Hariri supporters as possible to attend the memorial. Of course, this will also enable opponents of Hariri to participate in the competing rally.

Car rental agencies have already made their entire fleets available to parties, and in Lebanon they say that there are no minibuses available for transporting people anywhere but to the rallies. Hoping to ease the traffic situation, security sources in Lebanon announced changes in the traffic patterns and banned trucks from the roads.