The Aoun Challenge

The debate about whether Michel Aoun should become President or not raises a fundamental issue in our democracy: In our political culture, what should constitute a red line? When is it that a political discourse becomes un-acceptable?

Today, columnist Nassir el Assad writes a very “below the belt” criticism of the opposition leader M.P Michel Aoun. [...]

How To Squeeze A Regime

The world is slowly setting the noose around Syria’s neck

Right after the Syrians decided to play hard-ball with the international community, they got simultaneous bad news from three of their neighbors:
1- From the west, in Lebanon, it was reported that Mehlis refused to interview the 6 Syrian officials outside of Lebanon, effectively throwing away the [...]

Cooperation Syria Style

The Syrians have begun playing their dangerous game

“Syria will cooperate fully with the international committee headed by Mehlis, and we have no reservations, except for the [preservation] of Syria’s sovereignty”
This is how Faruq Al Shara’, Syria’s Foreign Minister, effectively told the world that they reject having their 6 officials interviewed in Lebanon, as Mr. Mehlis, [...]

An Even Louder Cock?

Something is stirring in the mind of Gebran Tueni.

“Perhaps the most illuminating rejection of Assad’s intransigence has come from Gebran Tueni, one of the leaders of the March 14 anti-Syrian revolt touched off by Hariri’s assassination, who labeled Assad’s speech as an outright declaration of war against the new Lebanon.”
This was how Naharnet, until recently [...]

To Open Lebanon Users

This is just to remind you that two very good Lebanon-affairs blogs are up and running but are (currently) not appearing on the Open Lebanon updates.
Doha and Raja, friends and star writers of The Lebanese Bloggers have changed the URL of their blog to http://lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com (they added an “s” to the end)
Raja wrote recently on [...]

The Case for Optimism

On second thought, the News are not all that bad.

After yesterday’s unfortunate speech by president Assad of Syria, we all got carried away in various moments of anger and drama. A quick look at the comments in my previous two posts gives a general idea of the mood in Lebanon.
But our instantaneous emotions aside, Mr. [...]

For History

The Syrian President insults the Lebanese people

Assad’s Speech

The Syrian President has chosen the path of confrontation.

It’s amazing to see those words come out of Bashar’s mouth. The man seems to really believe the nonsense he’s uttering.
Seriously though, things are not looking good at all. As Bashar asks his “friends in Lebanon” to foil “the Zionist plot”, calls our Prime Minister “the stooge [...]