Lebanese BlogoSphere

The 9th Attempt

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 02:30 GMT

So let me get this right, after 3 years of hardship, open-ended circus shows and political blasphemy, the end-result would be that everything the entire country's been through was in VAIN!?

According to Annahar's article today, it seems that Santa Claus decided to re-schedule his busy route and decided to drop by Lebanon a few days before Christmas. His gift, would be a shiny new 'star-spangled' Military statuette to be pinned and glued to a rotten old chair.

Item No.: 15
Item Name: Michel Suleiman
Item Description: 'Star Spangled' G.I Joe figurine with multiple abilities: Stand, Sit, Sign here, Talk, Shushh... are some of the available voice-commands.
Production Date: 17-12-2007 (please allow up to 24 days of delayed shipment)
Expiry Date: somtime around 2013 (usage after expiry date might result in exploding situations)
Pros: A consensus toy "you'll never have to worry about your children fighting again!"
Cons: too numerous to be mentioned, (shifting loyalties might be an issue of concern)
Manufacturer: The Planet's kitchens (except a tiny, irrelevant 10452km)
Ingredients: A mixture of components primarily made of the finest military ingredients including blind discipline, stubborness, narrow mindedness and un-diplomacy.
Usage: To be used accordingly and in-line with the views, aspirations, paths and deals of the various players. ('external' adult supervision is highly recommended)

Pre-mature 'Sahtein' to all the Lebanese for a well studied decision and for the consistency, integrity and transparency of our elected leaders.

A note to our Fannaneen, Moutribeen and Noujoom: 'men fara7 el nass' turned out to be a catastrophe, dont' fall for that mistake :)

Off the Wall

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:13 GMT

From the NYTimes Sunday Book Review:

The visual language of rebellion has a few commonalities that are adapted to individual cultures and countries. The images in Zeina Maasri’s Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War (I. B. Tauris/Palgrave Macmillan, paper, $29.95) are stylistically similar to some of the underground comics created in the ’60s. But the messages in Lebanon from the ’70s to the early ’90s were decidedly more serious than those in the United States. Underground comics were concerned with sex and drugs, among other favored themes; the Lebanese activists were concerned with survival and victory. American undergrounders faced nightsticks and Mace when they demonstrated against government policy; the Lebanese factions used lethal weapons.

This is not a picture book per se, although it is well illustrated with black-and-white and color plates. Maasri, an associate professor of graphic design at the American University of Beirut, provides a detailed analysis of the nature of graphic propaganda and of the issues Lebanon faced during its civil war, along with explanations of various symbols and motifs. The book also includes a provocative chapter on martyrdom. Most of the images reproduced here did not break any new design territory — which makes sense. They were meant to function in a cluttered visual environment amid many messages. There are the requisite portraits of martyrs and a few anti-Israel protests (one with the swastika embedded in a Star of David). But there is one poster in particular that caught my eye for its conceptual curiosity. The designer is anonymous, and it is titled “Towards Independence.” It looks pixelated, like a Whitman’s Sampler box, and depicts a figure running with a torch. In the heat of a civil war, such a well-designed composition makes it seem as if the conflict were basically the Olympic Games.

Here is a write-up on the book and a discussion with the author in the Economist.

1960 Election law won't benefit Christians

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:14 GMT

What better day to talk about democracy than on the Fourth of July? And yes, let’s leave it as an exercise to the reader to decipher if this is meant ironic or not. In any case, the other day L’Orient-Le Jour’s columnist Emile Khoury provided a highly interesting analysis of the impact of the 1960 Election Law the opposition wants to be reinstated. Conclusion: While marginally better than the current one, it still would leave the Christian candidates at the mercy of the Muslim voters.

The reason for this is that most electoral districts under the 1960 law still would have a majority of Muslims in them and thus they would ultimately decide which Christian candidate they’d like the best. According to the stats quoted by Khoury, roughly 40 out of the 64 "Christian" districts are dominated by Muslims. In other words, only 24 out of 128 seats are directly decided by Christian voters whereas the Constitution grants Christians 64 seats.

So why is that a problem? Personally, I would favor the abolishment of the confessional voting system which in my view undermines democracy. In fact, it has been argued that Lebanon is not a democracy for this very reason. [Note to self: blog about this in the near future.] Still, if a country wants to have a confessional system, it better be a representative one.

All Lebanese would agree that the current law used during the last election was anything but a fair law. But the thing is, the new law won’t bring much improvement. Yet, especially Michel Aoun is lobbying feverishly in favor of the 1960 Election law, which in his mind would address the problems of the current law.

So what’s wrong with the current law? For starters, it didn’t get Aoun the expected victory, which according to his followers, is already a major indication something is fundamentally wrong. But seriously (which I already was, actually), the 1960 Law won’t change the fact that Christians will be overruled by Muslims…again.

The opposition must know that their fight for the 1960 Law is merely a fight for fight’s sake. Is Aoun used again by Amal and Hezbollah into fighting for something that won’t improve the situation of the Christians and perhaps would only benefit the Shiites? Now that we know the 1960 Law won’t bring much to the Christians, it would be interesting to see whether it would strengthen the position of the Shiites.

See also this blog for another analysis of Aoun’s position.

Lisa Goldman

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:10 GMT

On August 14th 2007, Lisa Goldman, an Israeli reporter as well as a blogger published (pdf) a story that shocked both, Lebanese and Israelis.

She sneaked to Lebanon (using her Canadian passport) exactly one year after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, resided amongst us for a couple of days and frankly, wrote one of the best 'neutral' reports on Lebanon (as far as I'm concerned).

As soon as her article was published, it was a fuss in Lebanon and elsewhere (wouldn't it be expected?). Hounds started barking, throwing accusations here and there. Conspiracy theorists (ya3ne el khat el 3ouroube el wataneh) quickly vomited their filth, accusing Lisa of being a spy and 'magically concluding' that she was being helped by traitors\agents in Lebanon.

The reason why I brought up her story today, is because she and three other Israeli journalists\reporters who sneaked into Lebanon & Syria, are being probed for "endangering their own lives as well as Israeli security."

It is understandable that consequences like this might happen, given the 'official' war status between Lebanon and Israel, and the presence of lunatic warmongers on both sides of the border. However, isn't it way over exaggerated and\or a childish attempt of trying to hide behind one's finger? Are we (Lebanese and Israelis) dumb enough to think that there is no connection whatsoever between the two of us? do we turn a blind eye on daily 'human' interactions between Lebanese and Israelis living in diaspora?

Since interaction already exists, (heck it might lead to peace after a few hundred thousand years), and since everyone (?) wants peace (presumably), why suffocate every attempt aimed at trying to understand each other better? Lisa's article is a warm, heart-to-heart diary of her few days in Lebanon, it is a highly recommended read and I encourage everyone to remove the shallow masks that we seem to be clinging to.

A note to Arab reporters and wanna-be reporters, open your Kamous and search for the word courage. I envy Lisa for being way ahead of me and many others when it comes to courage and tenacity, I know I'd like to visit the most controversial city on earth one day, but will I ever do? most probably not...

So who's blocking who?

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:05 GMT

Finally and after much delay, the Opposition has given its names and posts it wants in the new government and still there is no cabinet. Why? Because now it's March 14's turn to bicker about the distribution of their seats. What on earth have they been doing the last five weeks?

For once, Aoun is making sense when he says that they don't have the right to delay for even five minutes the line up of the new government.

ABC ad gone wrong

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:01 GMT

The latest ad of ABC's shopping mall is either very humble or just plain wrong. Take a look at the text of the ad below:

"Step into a world of glamour and style where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the standard becomes spectacular"

Hrm...shouldn't that be the other way around, namely that the extraordinary is standard at ABC? It's like a car rental company saying that their compacts are called full-size from now on:-)

Photo 1: Recent ABC add...humble or just plain wrong?

The Hezbollah Model Revisited

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:45 GMT

Following up on my previous post, here's a piece I co-authored with Mara Karlin that appeared in the Washington Times today.

I guess it was a fitting coincidence that it was published on the anniversary of Hezbollah's 1983 attack on the US Marine Barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American servicemen.

Petraeus: Izzat al-Duri is Living Freely in Syria

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:04 GMT

In addition to the strong statements made by Gen. Ray Odierno (see here and here), Gen. David Petraeus made some statements of his own in an interview with Al-Arabiya today.

Petraeus said, "What is worrisome about what's happening there [in Syria] is the presence of people like Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri and Muhammad Younis Ahmad, and these are persons who were close to Saddam, and they are now allowed to openly call for the toppling of the government of Iraq." He added, "they live freely in Syria, and some of them own satellite stations, and this creates an atmosphere of tension between the two countries."

Furthermore, Petraeus downplayed any Syrian role in the decrease in the numbers of fighters crossing the Syrian border into Iraq. Instead, he attributed this to the decrease in the capabilities of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its desire to only recruit suicide bombers, whose numbers are much fewer, even if they cause a lot of damage. Moreover, Petraeus noted, the fighters' countries of origin have made it more difficult for them, prohibiting, for example, the travel of young males with one way tickets to Damascus.

Recently, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the Iraqi Interior Ministry's chief of intelligence and investigations, was quoted as saying:

Iraqi officials suspect the Aug. 19 and Oct. 25 bombings, which targeted the Foreign, Justice and Finance ministries, among other entities, were planned at a secret meeting in Zabadani, a city in southwestern Syria, close to the Lebanese border. He said al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders met with former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party on July 30 to chart out a new strategy.

"They made a plan to carry out major joint operations in central Baghdad targeting important buildings," Kamal said in an interview.

In a statement that seemed to support the Iraqi official position, Gen. Odierno noted that AQI and Baathists were essentially merging:

He said al Qaeda in Iraq has teamed up with remnants of the Baath Party -- a statement that gave more weight to the Iraqi government's claims.

"We have been able to significantly reduce the capability of several groups to include al Qaeda and some of the Sunni rejectionist groups, so what I think we have seen happen over the last year or so is that these groups have started to work together. And so they have started to coalesce, especially at the local level. ... So it blurs the lines sometimes. And I think sometimes it's semantics. Some people say al Qaeda, some people call them Baathists. I would argue that they are probably both involved, they are coordinating at the local level," Odierno said.

When asked if the investigations had indicated any links to Syria, he added, "My experience is there probably was some movement of fighters or explosives coming from Syria."

Update: From AFP: Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani told parliament on Monday that a suicide bomber who attacked the foreign ministry in August made a phone call to Syria before detonating his payload, an MP said.

"He told us that the security services found the SIM card of the bomber in the attack on the foreign ministry, and that the last number that appeared was a number in Syria," Shiite MP Abbas al-Bayati told AFP.

Imad Mughniyeh: Rot In Hell!

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:55 GMT

Around 11.00 A.M this morning, Hezbollah announced the death of Imad Mughniyeh, one of the party's key figures.

Apparently, yesterday's Damascus bombing targeted that rat and successfully gave him a one-way ticket to meet his 72 virgins. (na3iman ya... Imad)

The Lebanese Forces website has a detailed biography of this cock-roach...(arabic)

A wishful thinking to wrap up this post: One down, a few other clowns to go... Oh, and make sure not to miss Hezbollah's announcement, these guys are funny :)

Designer weapons in Lebanon

Tue, 27 May 2008 02:46 GMT

Just received some pictures from a friend that show designer weapons, apparently from this blog. Given the Lebanese penchant for fashion and violence, there must be a market for this:-)

Suleiman’s balancing act

Mon, 26 May 2008 02:37 GMT

If anyone still doubted that general Suleiman would not possess the necessary political skills to run this country, they’d be reassured by his inaugural speech yesterday. A first hint appeared right at the start of his speech: he called for a minute of silence to remember all the martyrs, but continued speaking after only 20 seconds. Military precision has made way for political flexibility.

More seriously, his speech was a careful mix of all the necessary ingredients to keep everybody happy. When speaking about the resistance, e.g., he was (deliberately?) speaking in the past tense: the Resistance played an important role; it did accomplish many things in the defense of Lebanon.

But he didn’t go overboard in praising the Resistance. And how could he? It would be equal to admitting that the Lebanese army he headed for so many years was not doing its job of protecting its citizens. Compare Suleiman to Lahoud and the difference is clear: Lahoud never had a problem with the army’s subservience to Hezbollah’s arms.

By doing so and by stressing the past tense when speaking about the Resistance, Suleiman seemed to make it clear that the resistance’s role lies in the past. From now on, it’s time to formulate a national defense strategy that would incorporate Hezbollah’s arms.

At the same time, Suleiman was clever enough to recognize the importance of the continuing occupation of the Shebaa farms (and the Kfarshouba farms? - is there a renewed focus on the the last group of farms, now with the Syrian-Israeli peace talks possibly leading to placing the Shebaa farms under UN control?) in order to please March 8.

A similar balancing act could be seen when talking about Syria. He stated that diplomatic relationships should be established as well as demarcated borders, but he was careful to only speak of Lebanese held in Israeli prisons and thus avoiding the thorny issue of Lebanese in Syrian jails.

Also, he was clear in stating that the UN Tribunal will be fully supported by his government. Sure enough, the March 8 politicians were not applauding while their March 14 colleagues almost gave Suleiman a standing ovation at this point during his speech.

Another point of interest was his support for the Lebanese Diaspora, saying that they should have a right to nationality. It’s unclear what this entails exactly, but it could be seen as support for giving the Lebanese abroad voting rights.

Suleiman’s political litheness shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, he was the army commander who ignored president Lahoud’s direct orders to prevent a (back then) anti-government demonstration and who prevented the removal of the first Tent City by March 14 supporters. If anything, the Lebanese should take comfort in the fact that having a political able person as the president is a soothing thought.

Inglorious Baathists

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:28 GMT

Here's my commentary on the crisis between Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi government has accused Syria of harboring and refusing to hand over figures who have played a direct role in the latest bombings in Baghdad.

The Syrians, I argue, are playing an old game of theirs, trying to create for themselves a political asset (where none exists in Iraq) using Muhammad Younis al-Ahmad, whom they cultivated in order to attempt and create a splinter faction of the Iraqi Baath party that they would control (think Abu Musa and Fateh Intifada, e.g.). I had blogged about him back in 2007.

The Iraqis are also shining the spotlight on Syria's sponsorship of Al-Qaeda in Iraq as well:

Shemari said when he arrived in Syria from Saudi Arabia, he was met by a militant who took him to an al Qaeda training camp in Syria. The head of the camp was a Syrian intelligence agent called Abu al-Qaqaa, he said.

"They taught us lessons in Islamic law and trained us to fight. The camp was well known to Syrian intelligence," he said.

For more on the infamous Abu Qa'qa', see my old post here.

You'll recall that in the case of al-Qaeda's Abu Ghadiyah, the Iraqis had told the Syrians numerous times to hand him over, to no avail, until the US raided his hideout in the Syrian border town of Al Bu Kamal and ostensibly took him out. Similarly today, the Syrians are playing the same game.

This type of transparent evasive trickery will have repercussions on the already cautious US engagement effort.

Finally, Arabic readers should also check out Hazem Amin's follow-up in al-Hayat:

لكلا التوجهين السوري والإيراني نتائجه الدموية، والمالكي يتلقى صفعاتهما بصفته واقفاً في نقطة وسط. فالبعث الذي يتحدث عنه المسؤولون في سورية هو غير البعث الذي يرغب المالكي في استدراجه الى العملية السياسية. فالبعث، عند الأخير، بعث الداخل، او بالأصح البيئة البعثية بعد سحب الجهاز الحزبي منها، في حين تتحدث دمشق عن الجهاز الحزبي المقيم عندها، والمتورط بأعمال عنف وقتل، قبل سقوط النظام وبعده. أما البعث الذي تسعى طهران عبر حلفائها العراقيين الى «استئصاله»، فلا يقتصر على الجهاز الحزبي الذي كان حاكماً، إنما أيضاً يشمل البيئة البعثية في العراق، وهو ما يعني حرباً أهلية جرب العراقيون بعض نُذرها.

وإذا أجرينا عملية حسابية لما تريده كل من سورية وإيران في ملف البعث في العراق، حصلنا على نقطة مشتركة. فسورية غير مكترثة بالبيئة البعثية، وتطالب باستيعاب الجهاز الحزبي، وإيران غير مكترثة بالجهاز الحزبي المقيم في دمشق، وتطالب بإقصاء «مجتمع البعث». إذاً، الحرب الأهلية في العراق هي ما يلتقي عنده كل من النظامين الجارين للعراق.
...
الأوراق الإيرانية في العراق واضحة، وطهران تجيد لعبها، بدءاً من ضغطها لإعادة إحياء الائتلاف الشيعي وصولاً الى إيوائها قيادات تنظيم «القاعدة» العاملين على خط كابول – بغداد. أما الأوراق السورية فهي، وإن كانت اقل تأثيراً، أكثر طموحاً. فزيارة المالكي الأخيرة الى دمشق لم تُخلف ارتياحاً سورياً بسبب شعور المسؤولين في دمشق انهم حيال ممثل لدولة بدأت تتحسس الطريق الى مصالحها.

Amin is wrong about one thing, however, and that is the notion that the US discussed with the Syrians the issue of drawing in Baathist clients they harbor into the political process and forcing them on Maliki. That's simply not true. It is however the false impression the Syrians want to give, as I noted in my piece about how the Syrians are putting out such nonsense as the US "inviting" them to play a "bigger role" in Iraqi affairs! That's King of Comedy material.

What this Syrian propaganda campaign shows is a perfect example of how Syria uses engagement to screw its enemies (US allies and friends). I.e., it uses US engagement to screw US interests. It targets it in media (or other) campaigns in order to demoralize and confuse US allies and friends, and in order to create impressions about the engagement with the US. This is done to extract concessions from US allies under the illusion of an American cover.

In reality, however, no such "discussion" exists with the US. It's a complete distortion of not just US intentions, but also the actual pace and substance of the engagement process. It's vintage Syrian trickery. It's also a good example of some of the public pitfalls of engagement.

Amin's main insight, however, is that he shows how terrorist extortion is in fact the Syrians' (only) foreign policy tool, which is what I have argued repeatedly. That is what I've dubbed structural and systemic reasons why Syria won't change its behavior, and why its relations with its neighbors and the US will continue to be tense and problematic. Syria cannot have the kind of influence it regards as its entitlement, commensurate with its grossly over-inflated self-image, without sponsorship of terror and extortion of its neighbors. As Amin put it in the conclusion of his piece, "the bombings... are part of the relations with the Iraqi government." I.e., terrorism as state policy.

Gen. Odierno on Syria and Iraq

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:51 GMT

Important statements from Gen. Ray Odierno to al-Hayat (my translation from the Arabic):

General Odierno renewed accusations against Damascus of lending support to armed groups. He clarified in statements to al-Hayat that "during the past years Syria was lending indirect support to some of the fighters, on top of financial support." He added that Damascus "has not changed this type of interference and the American forces are watching that closely, and cannot interfere unless the Iraqi government requests it, that is for us to offer support and backup inside Iraqi territory and not outside it."

Regarding the evidence and documents displayed by Iraq in accusing Syria of supporting the perpetrators of the recent double bombings in Baghdad, and how convinced he was of that evidence, Odierno said: "there are armed groups that receive financial and logistical support from Syria," refusing to go into the evidence and confessions aired by the Iraqi government.

Regarding internationalizing the Syrian-Iraqi dispute, he said: "we support the Iraqi government's request that the UN moves to end the interference of all neighboring countries whose involvement in acts of violence or whose interference in Iraq's affairs have been proven." (Emphasis mine)

Update: Another major statement by Gen. Odierno:

"Syria continues to allow the facilitation of foreign fighters through Syria that both come into Iraq as well as, I believe, into Afghanistan," Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters after meeting with Biden late Tuesday.

"We do know that there are some ex-Baathist elements that are in Syria that are funding operations in Iraq, and we also know that they are operating Web sites that encourage attacks inside of Iraq," Odierno said.

Hizballah: Sunni Disturbances

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:15 GMT

Below is the purported IDF video of villagers from the predominantly Sunni village of Marwahein in southern Lebanon resisting attempts by Hizballah militiamen to store weapons and ammo in these villagers' homes:

NOWLebanon gets boots on the ground and talks to the villagers to ascertain what exactly happened on that day:

“It started with Abu Alaa, three days ago, but it got bigger,” he explains. “They brought around 200 armed men, and all the people in the village came out to fight them. The army came. The police came. Then the secret police came. We called the mufti from Tyre, and somebody senior from Hezbollah was also here, and it is all settled now. Nothing happened. But God knows what will happen next.”

According to Khaled, the problems with Hezbollah started after the July War in 2006. Until then, there was peace and quiet in Marwahein and the other Sunni villages of Em al-Tout, Yarine, Al-Boustan and Bouhaira, which all sit on the Israeli border.

“They do this to us because we are Sunnis, and there are political problems in Beirut,” Khaled says. “Nothing like this happens in the Shia or Christian villages. But here they beat the workers on the land. They beat the women looking for wood. They beat the kids taking care of the cattle. They want to be in charge in this village.”

...

He leans back on his chair and sighs. “We are not against Hezbollah. Make sure you say that in your report. They are Lebanese like us. They helped us during the war. We don’t want the Israelis to get our land. My sister and my brother-in-law had seven children, and they all died in the July War. All we want is to live in peace.”

Meanwhile, allegations continue to surface that Hizballah is arming extremist Sunni groups in northern Lebanon. Naharnet has the latest.

Syria's Premature Triumphalism on Sanctions

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:52 GMT

Here's my commentary on the US sanctions on Syria, which were recently in the news. I'll be back shortly with a post on Imad Moustapha and his hilarious statements on this issue.

Sowar: Snapshots of the Civil War

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:47 GMT

As part of the "Let Us Not Forget" campaign to keep the memory alive of the Lebanese Civil War, the Sowar magazine (lit: "photo's") has dedicated its latest edition to war photography. What is it with photo's from war zones that always make them so fascinating to watch, to study, to absorb?

Sowar's choice is no exception: the pictures are carefully contributed by top photographers, including Pulitzer prize winner Bill Foley, and show the various stages of the Civil War. My favorite is included below, and if you are in Lebanon, be sure to pick up a copy of this magazine at your local bookstore.

Photo 1: A militia member playing the piano at the Holiday Inn rooftop restaurant in 1975

The end of the Doha truce

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:35 GMT

For those who were optimistic that the truce reached in Doha last month would put Lebanon back on track, the recent events must have come as a surprise: everybody was so optimistic and didn't we expect a new government to be formed within "a few days"? Berri was certainly right with his analysis a few days ago that the cabinet should have been formed within the first week.

Not that Suleiman seems to be worried. According to the president-elect, he is "not in a hurry to form a cabinet", the reason being that the government is "the doorway to national reconciliation and not to national dispute". In other words, he intends to adhere to that good old Lebanese tradition of no winners, no losers. By pushing forward too rapidly, he might lose the opposition in the process.

Berri in the mean time has suggested to form a transitional government, which is code-speak for having another round of presidential elections a year from now. It sure would be nice for Aoun as it would give him another shot at the presidential seat. Given his high age, waiting another six years for Suleiman to step down will be next to impossible.

Not that such a transitional government is too likely, mind you. The Constitution does not mention any deadline for forming a new government. In theory, Suleiman can be president-elect indefinitely.

One can only wonder what the purpose was of the fighting in Tripoli during the last two days. Was there a purpose or was it just some local resentment boiling over, a possible pay-back for the events in May when pro-Syrian groups in and around Tripoli were attacked by Future movement supporters. Given the fact that it were Hezbollah supporters who started the fighting, it would be logical to assume an invisible hand steering the events.

Hezbollah has gotten under increasing pressure recently to give up their weapons in case the Shebaa farms will be either liberated or placed under UN command. A few years ago, Hezbollah used to state that this liberation was the condition under which they would disarm. However, they have changed their mind. Not only has Hezbollah announced they will keep their weapons regardless of the outcome of the Shebaa issue, it has added a new condition, namely that all the Palestinians should return home; which is code-speak for never ever ever I promise I swear.

Just for good measure, Hezbollah has accused the government to conspiring against Hezbollah. In all reality, it seems the positive atmosphere of Doha is no longer here. Worrisome articles of a mass weapons influx in Lebanon, Hezbollah expanding its territory, possible another round of clashes in the Bekaa and the actual fighting in Tripoli add to the renewed feeling of doom. But please don't tell the tourists.

Syrian Social Nationalist Party going strong in Hamra

Tue, 27 May 2008 01:50 GMT

Right after Hezbollah's take over of West-Beirut, flags and graffiti of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party appeared everywhere, especially in Hamra. Despite the name, it was founded in Beirut by the Lebanese journalist/philosopher and Greek-Orthodox Antoun Saadeh.

Every year, the party organizes a memorial celebration for one of its main achievements: the killing of two Israeli soldiers in Hamra. Interesting enough, they don't celebrate one of their more remarkable achievements: the killing of Bashir Gemayel by an SSNP member 1982. Anyway...

Below are some pictures I took today that shows the SSNP is still going strong in Hamra, despite the fact that many Lebanese don't hold warm feelings towards their black flag.

Photo 1: Our new president anxiously looking at the SSNP flag in front of AUB's Main Gate

Photo 2: A brand new banner in Hamra: "the SSNP congratulates Michel Suleiman for holding the army together and is sure he will also hold Lebanon together in unity"...hrm...so much for the SSNP's ideals of joining Lebanon with Syria?

Photo 3: Even an SSNP flag right in front of the 'Hariri building' which was just finished before the fighting and subsequently demolished. Apparantly, the building was a donation of the Hariri foundation to some syndicate and thus no longer belongs to Hariri. Still, the glass front was completely smashed anyway. It seems that the SSNP have set up offices in the abandoned gas station a few meters before this building. Be careful when trying to take pictures, though: the men hanging around there sure didn't appreciate me taking a photograph, so I didn't.

Photo 4: A common sight these days: freshly washed flags of the SSNP everywhere you go in Hamra.

Photo 5: If the SSNP flags get to you, just walk 50 meters further to enjoy a nice view on the Mediterean Sea. You'd have to ignore the billboard though, showing a model in a cute SSNP-black bikini. One more color that has been politicized...sigh

Doran on the US and the Middle East

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:51 GMT

I've added a new feature to the blog: the feed of Michael Doran's Facebook blog on the US and the Middle East. It is in the right sidebar on the home page, under my Twitter widget.

Doran is one of the sharpest and most original commentators on the Middle East and US policy in the region. I'm sure you'll learn much from his insights, as I do.

For the Hockey Fans ...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:01 GMT

The Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the oldest and best known hockey franchises in the world, have drafted Lebanese-Canadian Nazem Kadri, as their first round pick.

Via NHL.com:

With the seventh selection, the Leafs selected high-scoring London Knights forward Nazem Kadri. Despite missing time with a broken jaw, the 6-foot, 167-pound center had 25 goals and 78 points in 56 games. He was ranked No. 15 by NHL Central Scouting in its final ranking of North American skaters.

"Our guys loved the energy and skill he brings to the game," Burke told NHL.com. "He's a hard worker, he's a dynamic player, he makes things happen on the ice. … It's a great deal for us."

Canada has a large and active Lebanese community that has contributed to hockey going all the way back to Ed Hatoum in 1963. Kadri will join Alain Nasreddine as the league's two current players of Lebanese descent.

For more on Nazem Kadri's background, readers can refer to the following NHL.com article.