A couple of photos to mark this day
White balloons are released in Martyr square to celebrate the return of life to Beirut (Seriously, who comes up with all these gimmicks?)
Gen. Michel Sleimen gets an unofficial presidential portrait as he prepares to move to Baabda.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I have been blogging about Lebanese society and politics since February 2005. You can also find me on 
Too good to be true. I still don’t trust Hezb.
They will continue to intertwine Lebanon into a more hawkish stance vs. Israel.
Why is Lebanon not signing a peace agreement with Israel now? That would neutralize Hezb and their demands, but the Lebanese gvt can’t do it now because Hezb has veto power.
So, the Syrians will go first and get what they want, and Lebanon will go last and get the short end of the stick.
I still don’t see how Hezb’s arms can survive if Syria makes peace with Israel. I predict they will integrate into the Lebanese army as a special bullshit type of forces.
Lebanon can’t sign a peace treaty with Israel because:
1. Israel is an apartheid state attempting to subjugate and destroy our Arab brothers.
2. Israel has stolen Sheba and has not returned it.
3. Israel has thousands of Lebanese in prison.
I’m sorry that you ally more with Zionists than your fellow Arabs, but you do not represent Lebanon. You are a traitor and a disgrace.
Good luck to all,
On balance, I am glad the shooting paused, and I understand the rationale for those who claim March 14; short of a civil war, they had no other option but this surrender.
But I do not trust they will act any smarter than they have in the past. After all, their mistakes got us here, in large part…
We’ve been there before. We’ve been fooled once. We’ll likely to be fooled again.
Abdule,
It is people who speak like you that makes me think I could never go back to Lebanon.
So since we are Arabs, then by default we have to ally ourselves more with Arabs than with people from other cultural backgrounds? How about using your brain rather than your race to determine who your allies are? In case you have not noticed, there is no Arab brotherhood, Arabs are always fighting against each other, politically and culturally.
Also, get your damn acts straight :
1. 20% of the Israeli population are Arabs, they have the same rights as all other citizens.
2. Your “Syrian” brothers don’t even want to demarcate the borders with Lebanon, why don’t we start there and then decide if Sheba is Lebanese or not? You know why they don’t want to demarcate their borders? You know why they don’t have an embassy in Lebanon? They don’t recognize us as a sovereign state with our respective borders. These are your “Arab brothers”? You can keep them thank you very much…
3. Thousands of Lebanese in prison? I think you are confusing Israel and Syria? According to Hezbollah, there are exactly FOUR Lebanese prisoners in Israel. Do you know how many are in Syria? 300. So please, why don’t you give yourself a break from the bullshit propaganda and buy a brain.
Just for the information, I’m 100% Lebanese and I do represent.
Is it only me or this Doha agreement is a load of crap??
Where is the analysis Mus?
What got accomplished here exactly for Lebanon?
Hezbos arms are still untouchable (the root cause of the problem), Hezbos (i.e. Syria) has got a veto power, no real reform since we are adopting the 1960 electoral law, rather than the one developed by the Election Commission of 2005, oh and we got an ineffective, incompetent president in Michel Suleiman.
Am I the only one outraged at this?
I agree with Imad… What has been accomplished for Lebanon?
The Syrian/Farsi thugs got what they want (Veto power + Holy weapons + war/peace decision + …)
They never lost anything..
Is M14 playing a game here to buy more time (to avoid having Lebanon 100% controlled bu HZB)? Or, they, M14 leaders, are just stupid.
What did we achieve?????
Stop calling HA Syrians and Faresi thugs , they are lebanese more than any of you , they wrote it in their blood, they are not fighting for Syria or Iran, do we have an occupied land? The answer is yes , therefore as lebanese and we all have this mentality , what was taken from us by force, we know how to get it back.
And yes there is thousands of prisoners in Israeli jail, they are not all Lebanese but they were kidnaped from Lebanon illegally during the illegal Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
As all other countries Lebanon is responsible for every person on his land.
Regarding the Lebanese prisoners in Syria, we would like them released asap,(I HAD relatives in their but they were released ) most of them have been there for a long time, where was the Lebanese government to ask the Syrian’s when Rafiq Hariri was in charge , didn’t Junblatt deliver them to the Syrians ( I am from aljabal ) . When we needed to get something threw the Syrians , we used to go to Junblatt’s thugs to pay them and get it done.
First, Burger you are right! We, Arabs abuse each other then we complain about how we are treated in the rest of the world!
Second, Imad and Lebanese Patriot, please wait and see! M14 are trying to get Lebanon out of the Iranian/Syrian influence “peacefully”. It is the only way! In the long run, people are fed up with having Lebanon as a battlefield. The international tribunal will bring to justice the killer of Hariri and Iran will be dealt with separately!
Lewaa New York is forgetting that, yes, Hezb is a branch of Iranian Pasdaran; they say so themselves. And the Faqih is their leader.
Lewaa New York is forgetting that others fought for their vision of Lebanon, and deserve at least as much recognition.
Lewaa New York forgets that the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Lewaa New York forgets that Kuntar gets conjugal visits.
Lewaa New York is forgetting that there are at least 1,000 of prisoners in Syrian jails, not all of them sold by Joumblat; Berri, Hezb, and maybe even Murr had a role in this. And worse, Aoun denied their existence, and that’s unforgivable.
Lewaa New York is forgetting that, for all his defects and corruption, Hariri NEVER engaged us in ruinous wars. He did turn the other way when Syrians and Hezb continued their exactions, and he was no war criminal.
I’ll take Rafik Hariri any day over any other Lebanese leader, divine or not. But Lewaa New York is welcome to join his Sayed in his march to glory.
The Doha deal is indeed a piece of crap. M14 gave in on all fronts and Hezbollah got all its demands. Just wait for the next cycle with Emile Lahoud’s shadow looming over.
I am really disgusted and disappointed at those M14 leaders who keep digging a grave for all Christians. When will they ever see the light?
Mr. Moron (A.K.A Lewaa)
You tell me how much Lebanese those thugs are:
http://beirutspring.com/blog/2008/05/09/at-ransacked-future-tv-office-hariri-photos-down-assad-photos-up/
Strangely, the world over everybody is pleased with the accord EVEN IF Lebanon is now politically and militarily at the mercy of an armed militia. Even Rice is pleased.
I suspect you aren’t going to like what comes next.
GK
I am tired of waiting for M14. They need to realize that this problem cannot be resolved by keep giving in. It is like feeding an aligator, he will keep taking from you until he can have you for dinner.
With all these concessions, we will be unable to fight back.
M14 have not been able to use the mandate they were given by their own constituency, the backing of the Arabs, the Europeans, and the Americans to their advantage.
Lewaa New York,
Who said they are Farsi or Syrian thugs? I was simply pointing out that peace with Israel is not less likely than peace with Syria.
“As all other countries Lebanon is responsible for every person on his land.”
No they are not. What the hell? Didn’t you know Lebanese officials are not allowed into the Palestinian refugee camps? They are in no way responsible for them. Didn’t you know Lebanese officials get kidnapped when they go into Hizbollah controlled areas? Lebanon (the state) is NOT responsible for every person on his land. Also… I would like to know where you get your statistics of “thousands of people”. Or is it just something you heard on Al-Manar?
“where was the Lebanese government to ask the Syrian’s when Rafiq Hariri was in charge”
Who said anything about Rafiq Hariri? I was talking about Syria… Why does every single reply from a Hizbullah sympathizer have to include some bashing of the Hariris? PLEASE STOP BEING A DRONE TO AL-MANAR PROPAGANDA AND USE YOUR BRAIN TO THINK LIKE AN INDIVIDUAL.
For the zionist sympathizers here
How about peace with Israel if they allow the palestinian refugees in Lebanon who have documents showing they owned land in Palestine to return back?
If that’s too much to ask, how about they at least accept them going back to the west bank?
Oh, that’s right, they want the palestinians they kicked out to be Lebanon’s problem.
Let’s sign a peace treat!
al,
The Palestinians were kicked out very violently from Jordan before they came to Lebanon. Then we put them in refugee camps and made them live like animals in dumpsters. They still live there and we don’t give a flying f*ck about them. So don’t give me crap about caring for the Palestinians, if we did care we would allow them to live with us like human beings. We are no better than the zionists who kicked them out in the first place.
Same names, same commentators, all of you having discovered Lebanese politics Feb 14th 2005 or later. I like to refer to you as the “Arab Neocon blog set”. I have enjoyed reading all your thoughts, inspired by the propagandarists of the State Dep, people like Mustafa attempting to shroud his Sunni Neofacism in slogans such as democracy, and the saddest thing is that all your hopes where pinned on a grouping of ethnic cleaners, warlords and corrupt businessmen. This is the reason why the Lebanese never really sided with the so called “March 14″ or “Cedar Revolution”.
Lebanon has never functioned when major groups or sects are marginalized, Doha was a readjustment in the right direction.
Abdule,
DO NOT insult me or get personal. I will not lower myself to respond to personal attacks.
Nonetheless, where are the Arabs that have kept this problem fester for 60 years without doing anything meaningful to help the Palestinians? They are the traitors and a disgrace to all.
What is the end-goal? If one believes like you do, there will never be peace, and that’s a stupid way to rob us or our children from a better future.
Wake-up and smell the hummous. Syria is talking to Israel. Game is over. Peace will happen, and Hezbollah will be neutralized.
Just reading the comments here i see nothing’s changed,and nothing will ever change…..
And i see there is no reason in celebration and oppening the champagne,though it’s good they came to a certain agreement,to help this country breath a little,but can’t you see you fools that the same bozos responsible of all the lebanese problems and sorrow are still there,and the same same lebanese fools follow them blindly…..
The main issue is not to have few mp here or loose few there,or if the goverment,or if Hizbo shit beat Future shit in doha or in any election…
What did we do after march 14 and the syrian withdrawal from lebanon????we gave some corrupt pro syrian criminals the power under the moto anti syrians,we called them goverment,and they showed how they LOVE LIFE by being apt pupils to their then syrian masters and they xeroxed their way of ruling opposing to another pro syrian then bunch,who stayed pro syrian militia and called itself resistance,and we added the great comback to the fanatic salafist,who can be seen clearly everywhere…..
Wake up you fools,stop following your leaders blindly,and lets start to build a new state,with new clean faces…..
I am one of those who is very pessimistic as to the Doha accord. I cannot push aside the idea it is no coincidence that when Syria and Israel started their constructive peace dialogue, the Lebanese stalemate was over. TThis reminded me of what happened when Syria was the last Arab contry to support the liberation of Kuwait by the Americans. Those who are regular to Mustapha’s blog and others know my views with regards to Michel Suleiman, soon the door fo the return of Syrian Hegemony will be open.
So rejoice my fellow Lebanese, for this state of happyness will be short lived.
Given the fact that the Doha agreement arrived around the same time that the Syrians and Israelis were talking does this mean that:
1- Syria is ready to cut a deal for the Golan by offering to defuse Hezbullah
Or
2- Hezbullah, anticipating that they could be blindsided by any Syrian/Israeli talks, decided to pre-empt the situation by using force to grab all they could before any agreement on the Golan
Syrian interests are materialistic – not religious. That keeps them in this world rather than in the Kingdom of Heaven and easier to deal with than, say, Iran. A lot of what is going to happen also depends on whether M. Suleiman is a leader or a follower.
Its funny that both opposition and so-called government camps took their battles to this blog.What is funnier ai that u people dont care about lebanon as a country, u care for ur people(sects), makes me sick to read all ur silly comments where everybody are trying to be politicians when we all now that u are nothing and never will be. Ur highlight of the day is this blog….get a fu**ing life. Try to unite instead of divide….i really wish u all a good luck in the re-birth of “your” country.