[Sayyed Nasrallah] could not tell us why he can support the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt and Bahrain but not in Syria. His arguments were not convincing at all. He said that the difference is that Bashshar [sic] is more open. Open? Where? The prisons and dungeons are open but that is about it.
A rare moment of agreement..
Great work from Qifa Nabki. He assembled quotes by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, and then asks us to spot the odd one out. Hezbollah’s hypocrisy can’t be highlighted better than this..
A good analysis by Tony Badran on how Syria’s relation was severed with its three most important friends (France, Turkey and Qatar), and how the new Egypt, Turkey and Qatar are all encroaching on its strategic territory..
Words of wisdom:
If you have a social media expert on your payroll, you’re wasting your money [...] Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge.
True, but I think the author is a bit harsh. If a company heard good things about twitter, but all its employees are clueless about it, they might need to hire a “social media expert” for a small teaching session. Compared to those who are clueless about twitter, any user with decent twitter following can be considered an “expert”. So I’m suggesting we call the person instead a “social media coach”.
The acting minister of telecommunications Charbel Nahhas was prevented by force (photo) by an ISF unit from dismantling some mysterious communications equipment in an OGERO building. Mr. Nahhas had described the equipment as “beyond the control of the ministry” and is therefore dubious and should be dismantled. After being prevented from entering the building, Nahhas accused the ISF in a fiery press conference of a “coup d’etat”, asking the Lebanese army to intervene.
The head of the ISF, General Ashraf Rifi responded that the equipment was installed based on a 2007 directive by the Lebanese government, and that only such a directive at a cabinet level can dismantle it. He added that he received a written request from the director of OGERO to protect the equipment. Rifi also accused Nahhas of withholding sensitive communications information from the ISF and of pursuing an old vendetta with it.
Here’s what I think is going on, and this is purely speculation. The equipment in question could be one of two things:
The reason I’m assuming the equipment is sensitive is because the ISF would not have otherwise intervened so blatantly to publicly confront a minister from shutting it down, risking major PR damage and a big loss of face for Minister ziad Baroud..
This ironically is reminiscent of what happened in 2007, when the Lebanese cabinet decided to dismantle Hezbollah’s communications network. The consequence back then was the storming of Beirut by Hezbollah which forced the cabinet to withdraw its plans.
This could turn out to be an equally major battle with big stakes. Keep your eyes on it.
Almustaqbal, Mr. Hariri’s newspaper, seems to have adopted an official “pretend he doesn’t exist” policy on covering Sayyed Nasrallah’s speeches. In today’s edition for instance, there’s not a single mention of yesterday’s speech on the front page. Not one.
This can come across as amateurish or childish, and it could turn off readers who think that the 10th anniversary of the liberation of the south deserve at least a passing mention. A better way would be to do what Aljazeera did: Focus on the objectionable things that Sayyed Nasrallah said, and if you want to be really aggressive, add some context (past statements) to highlight his hypocrisy in dealing with the Arab spring.
Twitter
Facebook
RSS