Hello from New York City.
I just wanted to apologize for the dearth of postings. I just can’t seem to get hold of a reliable internet connection that I can access at any point in time.
I’m sure there’s a lot of new exciting stuff going on in the Lebanese political scene (ok I was kidding), and I hope that by the middle of next week, we should be back to some serious blogging where we can discuss Lebanese serious and not-so-serious issues. Thank you all for your patience.
In the DC conference, I got to meet a lot of interesting people. One of them is Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey who enjoys watching Lebanon and, ehm, cheering. He told me his theory about Lebanese politics.
“What you Lebanese need is more soccer”, he told me.
“I beg your pardon?”
He explained: The Lebanese treat their politics like other countries treat soccer. “All the props are there. You have team flags with various colors, you have buses that shuttle the fans, you have the bitterness and ecstasy that follow defeat and victory, and you always blame the referee”
I admit, I never looked at it this way. What if all we really needed was more soccer? What if all we need was a channel to vent our frustration and mistakingly think politics is it? After that we can just go back and talk. Have you realized how peaceful Lebanon becomes during the worldcup?
Ouwet Vs Hezbollah anyone?
Update: The international Herald Tribune picked up the topic of soccer in Lebanon. In “In Lebanon, even soccer is tainted by sectarian strife”, James Montague explains why soccer cheering is dangerous in these troubled times:
All the major Lebanese political figures finance teams in their communities. Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister who was assassinated in 2005, funded Al-Ansar, the current league champion, which has support from the Sunni majority. After Hariri’s death, his family continued the tradition and also helped bolster the budgets of Nejmeh, which is largely supported by Shiites, and Racing Beirut, which is owned and largely supported by Christians. Druze politicians and the Hariris help finance the club Safa. Meanwhile, Shabab Al-Sahel is also predominantly supported by Shiites, as is Al-Ahed, which has strong links to Hezbollah.
Read the entire thing
How this blogger was charmed by the city everyone loves to hate.
After a tiring, long winding trip, I finally landed in Dulles International Airport.
Meeting Washington DC was destined to be a complicated matter. To someone like me who’s been following current affairs, Washington can summon intense pictures of angry protests, harsh, intrusive security arrangements and imperialistic Presidents.
In the Middle East, Washington means so many bad things to so many people. It’s the unfair bully who sides with killers, the hypocrite that cherry-picks dictators to start fights with and befriends others, the culturally insensitive monster that wants to invades our countries for reasons no one actually believes… Even outside of the Middle East, Washington has many haters. To them, Washington is the symbol of ravaging consumerism, spiritual emptiness, superficial materialism and unbridled violence. The Land of bimbos, guns and McDos.
It is easy to be caught up in the world and words of pundits and critics, and it is difficult to try to assess this symbollicaly saturated place without preconceptions. This is why I found out that the most striking thing about Washington is how normal it is. It is a place filled with life, with friendly people who commute daily to work, countless magnificent museums of sciences and arts, theaters, shops and picturesque landscapes. It was also calmer and more peaceful than I thought it would be. I was actually shocked when the police man smiled at me. In fact, the only tension I witnessed so far was that between a couple of squirrels who were quarreling in one of the parks.
Is it too bad if I wish Lebanon was more like Washington? Is it blasphemous? Bad presidents come and go, but in strategic matters like the soul of a country, the choice doesn’t seem that difficult between the mullahs in Tehran who advocate a culture of death and nihilism, and the lively spirit I found here among the nice people of Washington DC.
PS: Thanks for all the nice comments on the previous post. I really appreciate that you care 
I will be traveling this evening to Washington DC to attend a conference. The next post on this blog will hopefully be on Saturday.
Some things on my mind:
Wish me a good trip
As if the pro-Hezbollah, anti-American daily read my post yesterday. In a typical Assafir fashion, they “expose the conspiracy’s details” in their leading story.
The story has taken off..
The daily begins by asking: Why have high ranking American military commanders been visiting Lebanon regularly since the July war, visits that were crowned this week by the arrival of the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Issues, Mr. Eric Eidelmann, at the head of a Pentagon delegation?
After you thank God for Assafir’s “trusted sources” and reports from “official American corners”, sit back, relax, and read how the newspaper unravels the mysteries of the evil American plan to dominate our poor Middle East.
The “Self hating Israeli left” sees further proof in the prisoners’ exchange that it was Nassrallah who won Last July’s war
The Israeli left-wing daily, Haaretz, wrote an article in which it argued that the asymmetry of the exchange proves that Nassrallah still has the upper hand and that the war, a total waste, didn’t change anything:
the prisoner exchange deal in the works between Israel and Hezbollah suggests that Nasrallah won the Second Lebanon War. This despite the fact that in the balance of losses – in terms of lives, destruction suffered, political and security capital – he lost. If Israel releases Samir Kuntar for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, without receiving Ron Arad or at least information about his whereabouts, the war was pointless and its cost was for naught. This does not necessarily mean that a decision to carry out such a deal would be mistaken, but we should not evade the meaning of the decision. The whole affair deserves to be seriously addressed in the report of the Winograd Committee.
Do the Americans have plans to rehabilitate the northern airport of Kolei3at and use it as a military base strategically close to Damascus?
Landing soon in an airport near Tripoli?
I found the story yesterday in the LF’s website, but I couldn’t find it today. It now surfaced again in -Iranian mouthpiece- Press Tv‘s website, with an apparent confirmation by an ex Lebanese General:
“According to US plan six military bases will be set up, three in Iraq, one in Jordan, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Lebanon. It is believed that the Lebanese government is approving the establishment of the base and the name of the base will be the US-Lebanese Center for Rehabilitation of the Army in order to cover the real activity of the base,” Amin Hotait, a retired army colonel told Press TV.
The story is not impossible. The Sunni North is now USA friendly (you can tell by the 2 McDonalds restaurants that opened recently in Tripoli). But if it were true, you’d expect the mainstream pro-Hezbollah media (Assafir, Alakhbar, Almanar, tayyar.org) to pounce on the story like a bunch of starving wolves over red meat.
Anyway, If any of you gets a confirmation or a , please let me know in the comments section.
Update: The Story has now been taken up by the Lebanese Main Stream Media.
Lebanon’s troubles with international watchdogs just don’t seem to end. After the incident with Human Rights Watch, now Amnesty International is slapping Lebanon on the wrist.
If this was a hotel, how many stars would it get?
Amnesty international has just released a damning report on Lebanon.
We are apparently treating the Palestinians as “second class citizens”. Although this is supposed to shame us, I think the typical Lebanese reaction would be something along the lines of: How dare you use the word “citizens” to describe Palestinian refugees?
David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute has written a column for the Los Angeles Times pressing the Bush administration for immediate action against Lebanon’s political assassinations.
Not enough ?
After a lengthy introduction to why the MPs are killed, Mr. Schenker goes to the point:
For Washington, the key will be to craft a policy to prevent Syria and its Lebanese allies from subverting the government in Beirut. One possibility is to deploy, at Lebanon’s request, international forces — under the auspices of already-in-force U.N. Security Council resolutions — to protect targeted politicians. A more effective but politically difficult option would be to hold Syria accountable for all future political murders in Lebanon.Regardless of how Washington proceeds, immediate action is required.The ongoing thinning of the majority raises the very real specter that the results of the 2005 parliamentary elections in Lebanon will be reversed by terrorism. Should this trend of assassinations continue unchallenged, the pro-Syrian opposition, led by the Iranian-sponsored Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah, waits in the wings.
The issue of international protection of Lebanese MPs can be explosive (no pun intended). It remains to be seen if any “immediate action” will be in the offing.
How a Hezbollah link can transform a normal criminal into a terrorist.
All Hussein Zorkot wanted was a wife.
The 26-year old son of Lebanese parents was arrested in Dearborn Michigan last month. He was clad in a dark overall and he painted his face black. It was at dusk, he was on a rooftop, and he had an AK-47 rifle in his hand. He was prepared for a perfect crime.
Investigations reveal the portrait of a troubled man who was sick and tired of his step-mom spreading rumors that he was gay. He told the investigators that he wanted to be seen with the rifle to prove to everyone that he was a real man (it seems prospective wifes are more interested in criminals than in gays).
The excuse was crappy, but then somehow along the lines of the investigation (and its coverage) came Hussein’s sympathy for “Iranian backed terror group” Hezbollah. As anyone from Lebanon would tell you, it is normal for a Hezbollah fan to pose for pictures next to Nassrallah posters. It is also normal to for them to have personal sites (which in Mr. Zorkot’s case is more of a link generating mashup of opposition slogans, banners and web links) dedicated to Hezbollah.
The man is a criminal no doubt, but when the coverage of his crime focuses on his “relationship” with Hezbollah, he officially becomes a “terrorist”.
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