A little clarification on the political views expressed in this weblog…

In a previous post, many readers expressed a form or another of disappointment — in comments and in emails– that I’m becoming less fair and less balanced.

I want to make it clear that I never suggested before that I was somehow dissociated from what is happening in Lebanon, and I never suggested that I was a “neutral” observer. Perhaps I should have made this clearer before, but I do wear a lot of hats in Beirut Spring, and those are not just the writing, the design and the programming.

Here’s a rule of thumb for the extra sensitive readers: In posts with the category “Plain Talking”, I write with a layman’s voice, without trying to be measured, fair or balanced. I just write whatever comes through my sometimes-angry, sometimes silly and sometimes rude head.

It is in posts with the category “News Analysis” where you should expect the more equanimous, analytical and “balanced” tone that lead some of you to think that this blog was “neutral” . I confess, those are much harder to write (and re-write), and I wish I could write more of them.

It just doesn’t feel right…

(Photo credit: AP)

The Arab delegation has landed in Beirut, but expectations remain bottom low for many reasons.

From the reception committee made by not-quite-resigned Minister of Exterior Fawzi Salloukh, standing proudly next to Brig. Gen. Wafik Shoucair — the man whose sacking supposedly sparked the entire hoopla in Lebanon — , to the composition of Arab dignitaries who obviously went through a rigorous Hezbollah selection process, to the proposal of a roundtable in Qatar –of all places!– for yet another Lebanese 7iwar, things are just not feeling right.

Remember, Qatar’s prince was sitting next to Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad as they both dissed Hezbollah’s coup as a “Lebanese Internal Matter”. Qatar and Syria both declined to take part of the emergency meeting called by Saudi Arabia to look into the Lebanese situation, claiming that the meeting won’t produce any results, effectively ignoring the blood baths that were taking place in Lebanon. How can the host of Aljazeera suddenly become a neutral ground where the Lebanese can kiss and make up?

How can one expect this delegation to be a fair arbiter if they had to go through the Hezbollah gate-keepers? How can one expect anything from them if they can’t enforce their own “initiative”, which everyone, including the French and the Americans, seem to be in denial that it was born dead?

If you have anything else to do, do it. Pouring over the news sites to see what comes out of the Arab delegation is a pure waste of time and bandwidth.