Blogging Lebanon since 2005

Many Americans are surprised by Lebanon’s defiant attitude towards the withdrawal of American military aid. They shouldn’t be.

Yesterday, the Lebanese Minister of Defense said that we don’t want American Military Aid if it came with strings attached. Of course it is possible that he is saying something entirely different in private, but the truth remains that this is the overwhelming gut reaction of many Lebanese, who felt justified in using those weapons against the perceived Israeli encroachment on our land.

This dismissive attitude of “we don’t want your filthy money” is striking some Americans as galling:

The problem is that instead of Lebanon refusing the largesse, it is demanding that such aid comes without conditions. If the Lebanese think that in taking aid from the United States based on conditions is tantamount to selling its soul, then simply refuse it. Where else can beggars be choosers?

I understand why they should think that, but this shows just how little they understand the country. Lebanon is at the center of a large power struggle between regional and international powers. It is being constantly showered by ‘largesse’ from different countries in return for influence. So a paltry $100 million lost from America (equivalent to 5% of the net worth of the Prime Minister alone) is a $100 million gained from Iran, Saudi Arabia or even Turkey.

Beggars can be choosers when they have options.

Now the inevitable concession: Many Lebanese would rather receive aid from America than Iran, because they’d like as little influence as possible from a country that still executes women by public stoning. Moreover, America doesn’t only provide money, it also provides military technology that no other country can provide.

That said, American Senators shouldn’t run around telling people that they’ll punish Lebanon by withdrawing aid. Countries have pride too, and in our case, we also have options.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.

This congressional staffer represents the opinion of many US congressmen who might be thinking of reducing military aid to Lebanon:

Whenever there’s somebody who receives foreign aid of any kind from the United States who has a conflict with any of our close allies, especially in the Middle East, which is such a volatile region, you absolutely rethink US support

But that would be a mistake. That would send a message that it’s okay to shoot at fellow Arabs and Lebanese, but not at the Israelis.

The Daily Star:

We heartily welcome Information Minister Tarek Mitri’s call on Tuesday for the creation of a comprehensive media law in Lebanon.

Translation: “Hey guys, here’s our chance to get money from the government.”

We have seen the merger of text, sound and image across a variety of platforms, and yet in Lebanon we still have discrete – and contradictory – laws for published, audiovisual and electronic media. Indeed, the reality has surpassed the legal norms of Lebanon years ago.

Translation “We are being screwed by the internet and we blame the government for it.”

Mitri is highly qualified intellectually for the endeavor of introducing new legislation, but he is also politically astute enough to know that he would have to secure support from both sides of Lebanon’s political divide for such an initiative.

( Kissing A** )

the state can lead this process of creating the environment to foster the growth of our news media. [..] The new media system, meanwhile, does not adhere to the strict old delineation between private and public sectors; a welter of issues surrounds the necessary reinvention of the media’s business model

Translation: The government should protect newspapers by subsidizing them and if necessary making things difficult for competing new media”

Needless to say. That’s a whole load of kool aid. We are seeing this all over the world with newspapers try to grapple with the fact that they’re losing relevance in today’s world. Also, the Daily star is not suffering because the government is not “fostering the right environment”, it’s suffering because it is a lousy newspaper with a lousy website and lousy management. Don’t blame others for your own failures.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.

Oliver Miles thinks not:

[Ambassadors] are not super-journalists, or super-agony-aunts. Their job is to advise their governments on policy, for which deep understanding of the country in which they work is required, to carry out policy and on occasion to advocate and promote it publicly; and to provide a discreet and reliable channel of communication between governments.

Diplomats are laughed at for their “on the one hand, on the other hand” approach, but the problems they deal with are almost by definition controversial and many-sided. Sometimes they have to act quickly, but where possible it is better to think long and hard, and if necessary consult the ministry. As everyone knows who has used them, blogs and email are not conducive to that way of working

Personally, I think embassies should have blogs, but the authors should be professionals dedicated to explaining, in human terms, their government’s policies and actions in host country.

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The Daily Star‘s Michael Young and the Weekly Standard‘s Lee Smith are making similar points on the western media’s perception of Ayatollah Fadlallah and Hezbollah.

Young:

Fadlallah was a fascinating individual, worthy of study and, at times, esteem. But in reading the passages used to describe him, you get a powerful sense that the accolades were really directed at an imagined Fadlallah, the product of the authors’ yearning to conjure up a tolerant Islam in clerical garb.

Smith:

The Western press delights in rattling the bourgeois sensibilities of its audience by showing the multifaceted aspects of Hezbollah–it’s not just a militia with an appetite for slaughtering Jews, it’s also a social welfare outfit that provides educational opportunities [..] This infatuation with Hezbollah has been going on for years

Perhaps, but in the end, Octavia Nasr was fired and Seymour Hersh kept his job. 
 
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The Lebanese editor at CNN is getting all sorts of criticism, from Israel sympathizers (and from Lebanese kiss-asses) for posting the following on twitter:

“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot..#Lebanon”

The critics are using Ms. Nasr to kick CNN, but CNN would be making a terrible mistake if they fired her. Octavia not only knows Lebanon and the region very well, she is very popular with the Lebanese and Arabs on Twitter and the Blogosphere. She has painstakingly built personal relationships with the region’s online activists and she’s the go-to person whenever someone thinks they have a scoop. In fact, one can argue that her offending tweet is something all savvy networkers do all the time: Mirror her audience.

Whether the pro-Israelis in America like it or not, there is a general consensus in Lebanon of “respecting” Ayatollah Fadlallah, and Octavia Nasr, an excellent journalist, did what any professional would have done.

Update: Octavia explains what she meant in her own words. The good news it seems, is that no one is getting fired (for now).

You probably heard about the complaints in Lebanon of “Israel stealing our gas”. While the premise is indeed infuriating, this is one of the topics where facts and cool heads should matter more than macho politics.

It is easy to get worked up about defending Lebanese gas fields “by force if necessary”, but like gas, this issue is highly combustible. Israel has started creating facts on the ground and Lebanon needs to act effectively to secure its rights if it has any.

There are 3 ways to go about this:

1- We can complain loudly and get ignored by Israel because it’s too busy drilling.

2- Hezbollah can start a war in which Israel lashes out on Lebanon, bombs the south to smithereens, and keeps drilling anyway.

3- Lay off the tough talk and start an international PR campaign, with scientific proof of Lebanon’s stake in the Tamar gas field. The clear goal of such campaign would be establishing a UN entity that will give Lebanon its fair share of the proceeds. Nobody dies, everyone benefits.

Which road would you choose?

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