"I Hate Syria" Is Not a Political Platform

It's election season in Lebanon, and what normal democracies expect from their politicians at a time like this is statements about their political platforms. We should expect to hear what they will do to make our lives better.

But in Lebanon these elusive platforms are all but missing from the political debate. And with our multi-party cabinet taking almost all its decisions unanimously, it is hard to see why we should vote for one party over another. Yesterday was the first time we saw a real disagreement in the cabinet over appointing the head of the election campaign supervisory committee. Al-Nahar reported that the opposition used its veto for the first time. (By the way this is simply not true. The question at hand was not one that opposition were allowed to veto: their veto only applies to decisions on "basic national matters," and the real reason the opposition's opposition influenced the final decision was that President Suleiman did not call for a vote until the opposition was satisfied (way to be neutral Mr. President)).

In any case, currently the choice of head for the election campaign supervisory committee is all we really have to go by when choosing who to vote for this year... Well, that and how much they like Syria. In fact, the Syria factor seems to be the core of the election campaign on both sides. With Jumblatt essentially telling us to vote for him or Ghazi Kanaan will come and eat our children at night, and Aoun going around telling us to vote for him so he can make love to Bashar Al-Asad more effectively, I wonder how the average non-affiliated Lebanese will be able to make a decision (if such a person exists at all).

But it's not completely hopeless, every once in a while we do hear some concrete ideas. Michel Aoun recently proposed a national defense strategy whereby resistance elements will be placed in villages and towns all over Lebanon creating something of a national militia, similar to Hezbollah's method, but nation-wide. I frankly think this is a terrible idea simply because I don't trust the Lebanese with weapon caches in their villages.

And just yesterday Aoun's arch-nemesis Geagea also teased us with a vague reference to his own national defense strategy that he intends to present at the next dialogue meeting. He makes an obscure reference to some strategy based on historic precedent namely, the case of Switzerland during World War II and how it managed to avoid attack. Great! Now as soon as Geagea clears his strategy up we will have two solutions to the same problem and we can vote based on whichever of these makes more sense to us...

Right?... Not exactly. From what I understand, the Swiss defense strategy is one of a nation-wide militia with every male citizen between the ages of 19 and 31 keeping a military rifle in their homes, ready to mobilize at a moment's notice. So is this what Geagea is gonna propose? (It's either that or that Lebanon should keep making economic concessions to our enemies and allow our banks to store Nazi gold, which is the only other reason why Switzerland wasn't attacked during the war.) But if this IS what he will propose, to me it sounds painfully similar to Aoun's proposal of a nation-wide Hezbollah-style defense militia.

So even on the most divisive issue, these two arch-enemies seem unable to present significantly different proposals to allow for decent electoral decision making. The only thing more depressing than that is that even with such similar initial proposals, the two sides will probably never agree.

So where does that leave us? Well it leaves us with an easy approach to decide who to vote for: grab the nearest picture of Bashar Al-Assad you can find, stare at it for a moment, if you suddenly feel afraid, angry, nauseous or generally uneasy, then you're better off voting for March 14, otherwise you might find it more suitable to vote for the Tayyar-Hezbollah group.

Black man in the White House

Well this blog is supposed to all about Lebanese politics, but let’s face it, who wants to hear about Hariri or Nasrallah today… Today and probably the next couple of weeks will be all about the new guy in the White House, even more so (if that is at all possible) than the previous weeks have been about who the new guy will be.

But this blog is also about my perspective on important issues, and in the spirit of this blog, I want to go all out and describe how I feel today to see, four to eight years from now, how right or wrong I was.

Experience has told me not to get excited when a new president is elected in the US. Many Lebanese and Arabs insist that all American presidents are the same; they only differ in how they choose to screw us. I remember eight years ago when we were hoping for a Bush victory against Gore, in fear that Gore will continue the pro-Israel policy of the Clinton administration. Until we realized, a few years later, that there is worse than a pro-Israel White House, and that’s an anti-Arab White House.

So experience tells me that I’m going out on a limb here when I say this: I am not only relieved Obama won in the sense that I’m glad it’s not McCain, I am actually genuinely happy, optimistic and downright cheerful. Some may think this is naïve, but I’m afraid I’ve been swept away by Obamania…

I had a hard time sleeping last night, waking up at 4 a.m. unable to bring myself to sleep until I turned on the TV, only for a minute, to see preliminary results showing Obama leading with around 200 electoral votes, McCain trailing behind with 90. I woke up in the morning and watched Obama’s 17 minute victory speech. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever gotten goose bumps listening to an American president speak.

How refreshing it was for me to hear from a US president (or president-elect in this case) a speech that spoke directly to the non-Americans offering a message of hope, and not in a do-what-I-tell-you-and-everything-will-be-fine kind of way.

“To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”

My message to the new Obama leadership is this:

I often hear of a time when America was a nation admired rather than feared, when American democracy was a source of inspiration rather than concern, when American values were sought rather than imposed. But I’m too young to remember any such time… I only hope I am young enough to see it happen again.

Request to Syria

Few months after President Suleiman visited Syria after an invitation delivered to him by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem, Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad officially announced t today the decision to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon. This is a historic first as our two neighboring countries have never had such relations since both gained their independance in the 1940s.

The two countries now have to make a common declaration on the date the respective embassies would be opened, and they have to decide where each embassy will be located.

Finally, many Lebanese will have a place to vent their anger and hold anti-Syria demonstrations and sit-ins. So I ask Syria to consider this when picking a location and to pick a place with a really large parking lot, so demonstrators won't have to clog up the streets causing traffic jams everywhere around.

Photo by AP.

Headlines

It's always nice to point out when interesting headlines show up like this morning's Al-Mustaqbal article (found through 14march.org) about Jubran Bassil that quotes Bassil as saying:

When we talk about terrorism in Lebanon, we say it exists and that it is active in a specific region of the North, they say we are accusing the North of terrorism.

The headline of this article?

Genius son-in-law plays again on the sectarian chord and accuses the North of terrorism.

They sure proved him wrong!

"Chaos" is Not the Answer

Shortly after arriving home, Sheikh Saleh Aridi, member of the Democratic Party and aide to Talal Urslan, got into his car at 9:30 p.m. last night, and that was the last thing he did. 500 grams of TNT, placed under the driver's seat of the car, exploded killing Aridi and wounding several others.

Given that this assassination has come during a period that has seen the most positive political atmosphere since longer than a lot of us care to remember - a day after President Suleiman announced the beginning of national reconciliation dialogue on the 16th of September, Hariri's peace tour that included a reconciliation agreement in Tripoli with Bekaa as his next stop, Nasrallah's reaching out to Al-Mustaqbal, Jumblatt's reconciliatory rhetoric, and even Geagea's belief that dialogue could lead to coexistence with Hezboallah - it is easy to argue that those behind the attack are targeting national reconciliation and are only interested in maintaining a state of chaos in Lebanon.

Jumblatt accused "those who are hurt by reconciliation" (Al-Mustaqbal). PM Sanioura said the attack was meant "to divide the Lebanese," and Speaker Berri said it is a message "against civil peace in Lebanon" (Naharnet). Urslan also said the perpetrators are those who would benefit from internal civil strife in Lebanon, but he went further and directly named Israel as his prime suspect (As-Safir).

Though I'm glad Lebanese politicians agree (more or less) on something for a change, I myself find it hard to believe that someone who is against civil peace in Lebanon would go and do something like that. If the main goal is simply to divide the society and slow down reconciliation, there are far easier (and I daresay more effective) ways of doing so than a highly-professional and surgically precise assassination of one particular politician. If the goal is to target civil peace, the perpetrators would find it easier commit one or more arbitrary acts of terrorism aimed at groups of people rather than target an individual. I'm not gonna give any ideas, but I think you know what I mean.

I think there's more to this than just "someone spreading chaos." You don't spread chaos with 500g of TNT under the seat of someone's car. The questions we need to ask ourselves are: Who is Saleh Aridi? What has he done in his life? What was he doing when he was killed? Who would want him dead? Maybe if we try to answer these questions instead of yelling out "chaos", we might know where to begin looking for the murderers.

Photo by AFP taken from BBC.

Suffrage at Last!

OK, granted I haven't been living outside Lebanon for a very long time, it's still long enough for me to have never voted in parliamentary elections. So obviously I got very excited to hear that the parliamentary committee charged with drafting reforms for the current electoral law has decided to allow non-resident nationals to vote at Lebanese embassies of their respective residence (Naharnet). With more Lebanese living abroad than inside Lebanon, this decision is long overdue.

All we have to do now is wait for parliament to ratify the new reforms, among which there is also talk of reducing the legal age for voting from 21 to 18. Another welcome change as far as I'm concerned.

Poke Wars

A New York based Jewish new group called Yeshiva World News reported that Hezbollah "terrorists" are using Facebook to track Israeli soldiers and possibly befriend them with the intention of kidnapping them or stealing classified information. The IDF is apparently conducting an aggressive awareness campaign to make sure its soldiers are aware of this.

Not really sure about how close this report is to the truth, but either way I think it's funny... Plus it gives me the opportunity to make this cool mock Facebook logo.

Business as Usual

OK, it’s time I came out of my shell and commented a bit on what’s been going on in the past week. Several events took place this week; however the downing of a Lebanese army helicopter by a Hezbollah fighter and the ensuing pro- and anti-Hezbollah rants certainly stole the spotlight.

To start with, the facts (at least the ones agreed upon by everyone): a Hezbollah fighter opened fire on a Lebanese army helicopter while flying over Sojod hills in South Lebanon. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing. The incident resulted in the death of 25-year-old First-Lieutenant Samer Hanna. (I'm not putting a source here cause let's face it, no single source is gonna convince anyone skeptical of this version of the story)...

Hezbollah claims the attack was an unfortunate case of friendly fire, asserting that the Hezbollah fighter acted on instinct and fired at the helicopter thinking it was an Israeli commando drop (Naharnet). Others weren’t so quick to accept this story, with responses ranging the Free Shi’a movement referring to the attack as another “terrorist attack” by Hezbollah (LF - Arabic), to French daily L’Orient Le Jour reporting that the Lebanese pilot was killed on the ground “in cold blood” (Daily Star), to Saad Hariri’s simple condemnation of the attack (Now Lebanon), to Michel Aoun being quick to declare that the attack should have no bearing on the debate on Hezbollah’s weapons (Daily Star).

As diverse as these reactions are, they all have one thing in common: they are all entirely uninteresting. They induce a frustrating feeling of business as usual. Every single person or group said exactly what that person or group was expected to say. No more, no less.

But I’m no different: I readily see this incident as an unintentional accident that with no real malicious intent on the part of the Hezbollah fighter. This does not mean we can all just get over it and treat it as just another regular car accident, but it also doesn’t mean that we should build an entire political campaign on it. What I would like to see is a responsible approach to handle the matter, with the relevant authorities dealing with the matter away from political bickering. Having the Hezbollah fighter turn himself in is a good start. But there needs to be a clear, transparent and just conclusion to this incident. Anything less would leave a Nasrallah-shaped thorn in the hearts of everyone affected by this event… And we know all too well that the Lebanese have enough of these thorns hidden in our hearts and that it is unlikely any good would come out of them.

Photo from Ya Libnan.

Fog of Politics

With most Lebanese media preoccupied with today's parliamentary session meant to approve the new electoral law (or at least a part of it), I wasn't surprised to see them overlook this little anecdote that showed up on BBC.

Apparently Human Rights Watch reported that since 2007, ninety-five migrant maids have died by either suicide or by accident when trying to escape (usually by falling from a high altitude). That's about one per week.

It isn't a secret in Lebanon that the commonly Sri Lankan, Filipino and Ethiopian maids are often abused by Lebanese employers who see them more as household appliances than employees. And with little legal protection and government regulation, these people have very little means to protect themselves against such abuse.

The article describes some horrible stories, one about a woman who was locked up with no food or water for two days before she tried to escape by climbing out of her window and ended up falling and injuring herself.

So when it comes to reasons for being ashamed of my country, this one certainly tops the list. The fact that there are Lebanese people who drive their maids to suicide alone is incredibly disgusting. Top that with how little the average Lebanese cares about this matter and the virtually unanimous indifference our politicians demonstrate in face of this kind of issue. After all, it's not like these women were gonna vote for one party or another had they lived.

What is also amazing is the ridiculously low standard HRW is holding us to: the BBC article says that HRW asked "the official Lebanese committee tasked with improving the status of domestic workers to develop a strategy to reduce the number of deaths." Seriously? So if only 20 maids commit suicide every year instead of the current 40-something, then all will be well?

Even zero suicides from employer abuse is a pessimistic objective. What we need to aim for is to eliminate any kind of employer abuse by offering these women a legal mechanism to make their employees pay for any blatant mistreatment that qualifies as abuse. Some Lebanese people need to be taught a lesson on how to treat other human beings.

I'm curious to see if and where tomorrow morning's Lebanese papers will mention this little story. I'm also curious to understand why the BBC decided to put a picture of a dog for this article... OK I know, there's clearly a foreign maid holding its leash. But still...

Homsi Joke

Hey, did you hear the one about the Homsi who decided to declare himself a prophet?

He went to Saudi Arabia to do it and ended up in jail... Ha ha ha...

So actually, he wasn't Homsi, he was Lebanese... And it's not a joke, it's a true story: Naharnet. And here I thought Lebanese people were smart...

Conflict of Interest?

Issam Abou Jamra, who just took over the position of deputy PM decided that the deputy PM should be given more oversight on the PM’s work. Shocking! (Tayyar.org)

Also, he turns 71 this year. So expect him to decide soon that public officials over 70 should be paid more than those 70 or under.

Photo from Tayyar.org

Bomb in Tripoli

11 people (according to the latest reports at this point) were killed in a bomb blast in Tripoli this morning. The bomb was placed on the sidewalk and apparently detonated remotely.

This particular bus normally transports off-duty soldiers to their positions, so most of the victims were soldiers. So who did it? The correct answer is, "I have no idea. Let's not dish out accusations and wait for the investigation to take its course." But in the mean time, let's bring out the usual suspects:

1. Fateh Al-Islam: a fundamentalist islamist militant group that fought our army last year, were defeated. On January 7, 2008, their leader Shaker Al-Absi made a speech in which he vowed revenge against the Lebanese army (YaLibnan). Some 300 people accused of belonging to Fateh Al-Islam are currently detained at Roumieh prison, and some of them are on hunger strike to protest the delay in their trials (The Daily Star). Yesterday I talked about how their families staged a protest demanding that they be released.

2. Jabal Muhsen/Bab El-Tabbaneh conflict: the sectarian conflict between the Sunnis and Alawites in these two neighborhoods of the north has been going on for a while. With the army trying to end the conflict using force (Ya Libnan), it's possible that one of them is fighting back. But the sectarian nature of their conflict and the very un-sectarian nature of the attack make the matter a bit more complicated.

And of course, no suspect list would be complete without our two favorite accusees:

3. Syria: Our sisterly neighbor is always accused of something. If not directly accused of committing the crime (CNN), then they're indirectly accused of supporting or inciting those who did it (Time). The most common argument is that Syria wants to invoke chaos in Lebanon cause that would permit it to regain its military presence there. But of course we cannot overlook the fact that Syria is quite comfortable these days with the way things are happening in Lebanon. Its allies in Lebanon are now in the government, and our president is visiting Damascus today. Why they would start causing chaos today is beyond me.

4. Israel / United States: Up until 2004, this duo had a virtual monopoly on accusations concerning anything that goes wrong. What about today? Do we have a case against them? I don't think so. Sure, they might be pissed off at the formation of a new government in which Hezbollah has some power. Sure they're definitely pissed off that the new government platform implicitly allows Hezbollah to keep its weapons for the time being (Jerusalem Post). Sure they're pissed off at how the Lebanese celebrated the return of Samir Kuntar (Jerusalem Post). And it’s also possible that they’re not very happy about the Lebanese president visiting Damascus today, a clear sign of improving relations between Lebanon and Syria. But the very nature of the attack all but eliminates the possibility that Israel was behind it. Why Tripoli? Why attack the Lebanese army? Why blow up a civilian bus? I'm sure there are people out there who are already cursing at Israel and the US. But not me. Not this time.

Photo by AFP taken from BBC.

Demanding Justice

"Enough Injustice," reads the poster this woman is carrying during a protest earlier this week demanding the release of alleged islamist fighters who were detained by the army last summer during the Nahr El-Bared crisis.

One of their arguments (from Naharnet (in Arabic)) is that they "see a lot of others who have wronged this country and its people walk free." And on some level, they're might be right. With war criminals being appointed and elected into office, why should these guys have to serve time, especially since they haven't even been tried yet?

But then again, these people aren't Lebanese citizens who got caught up in a civil war and did some bad things to their country and fellow citizens. In fact, a lot of these people aren't Lebanese citizens at all. And they weren't fighting other groups of militants. They were fighting the Lebanese army, which at that point, was one of the few (if not the only) remaining institutions in the country that wasn't paralyzed by politics.

That said, I must note that I agree with these protestors on one thing. These people still deserve justice. They need to be tried, and those that are found guilty sentenced, those that aren't released. We don't want to have our very own Guantanamo Bay.

Going back to the picture... Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a woman, in the burning heat of August, completely covers herself up in black, for no reason other than the fact that she's a woman, and then demands "justice"?

Photo from Tayyar.org

All Men Are Equal

The Nationality Campaign is a popular campaign for granting Lebanese women the same legal rights as Lebanese men especially in terms of their right to give their children and husband the Lebanese nationality.
I feel ridiculous saying I support this demand, but since there are people out there still making it, then it's likely that not enough people are supporting it.

Photo by OTV taken from tayyar.org.

Will We Have Elections Next Year?

So March 14, after a long meeting yesterday, declared a set of principles that will likely govern their policy in the coming days. Among them were many significant statements about the importance of civil peace and coexistence, and about the need to eliminate the different paranoia each community suffers from. But it wouldn't be fun to focus on the stuff I agree with, instead I'd rather focus on those principles I have a problem with, namely:

• "Any solution to the current crisis should lead to eliminating Hezbollah's arms from the internal equation."
• "Resorting to parliamentary elections in order to decide controversial issues is difficult given the possession of weapons by one team and not the other, and in light of the experience of previous elections in which the losing team refused to acknowledge the results by virtue of its arms. "
  (Source (in Arabic): Naharnet)

These principles scare me. Not because they're faulty, but because they're dangerous. I do believe, like any March 14 supporter, that Hezbollah needs to let go of its weapons. I also believe, like any Hezbollah supporter, that now is not the time. I agree with March 14 that we need a strong corruption-free state that has a monopoly on executive, legislative, judiciary and military powers. But I also believe that a strong state is a prerequisite (or at least a co-requisite) of the disarmament of Hezbollah and not the other way around.

The main reason why these principles scare me is that we seem to be headed to a new crisis, one in which parliamentary elections are delayed until an agreement is reached on the status of Hezbollah's weapons. And if our politicians can't agree on the supposedly simple matter of writing the government platform and barring any sudden changes in the regional and international arena, how exactly are they going to settle the matter of Hezbollah's weapons?

There is also a logical flaw in the March 14 principles: Given their assumptions and their stated objectives, their principles lead to a contradiction. In particular:

• Their assumption that Hezbollah could use its weapons in order to prevent election results that are favorable to its opponents.
• Their objective of building a strong independent peaceful and economically viable state.
• Their principle that Hezbollah needs to be disarmed before parliamentary elections.

Here's why these don't fit: according to the assumption, Hezbollah will indeed use its arms to prevent losing in parliamentary elections. But surely that means they will also use their arms to prevent their disarmament (an assumption Nasrallah himself admits - Video 7:46 (in arabic))? And in that case, if March 14's assumption is true and they stick to their principles, then they are leading us straight into one of two options: a devastating civil and regional war aimed at disarming Hezbollah by force or an indefinite halt to our most basic constitutional institution, the parliament. Both of these outcomes seem to contradict March 14's stated objective. QED.

The Case for Lebanese Morality

Israeli media these days is filled with stories about the prisoner swap and in almost every one of these stories there is someone calling the Lebanese people disgusting or pathetic or monstrous because they are celebrating the return of a brutal child-killer who bashed the head of a 4-year-old with the butt of his rifle. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself said, “I pity the people who are celebrating at this time the release of an animal who crushed the skull of a little girl of four.” And I agree… Anyone who celebrates such a brutal man would likely be disgusting, pathetic or monstrous.
For this argument to work, however, two conditions need to be met: (1) the Lebanese people should be aware of the details of the 1979 Naharia attack and (2) they should believe it. And here’s the catch: they don’t.
I don’t have any kind of statistics on the matter, so I might not be able to convince you, but believe me when I say that a lot (if not most) Lebanese have never heard the four-year-old child head-bashing story. I know this because, among the people I know (who are educated middle-class people with multiple university degrees, who live outside Lebanon), many were surprised to hear the story. I myself had not heard that story until after the July 2006 war when my sister (who was living in the US at that time) mentioned it to me to argue against the capture of the two Israeli soldiers.
For those who have heard that version of the story, many of them do not believe it. And why should they? It is important to note that Kuntar himself maintains a different story. His version, as told by his brother, claims that he was on a mission to capture Dan Harran, a nuclear scientist, and other hostages if possible, in order to exchange them in a prisoner swap. The operation went wrong and the policeman was killed in the ensuing gun battle and Harran and his daughter were killed in the crossfire. After his release he also described in more detail the events of that story, claiming he wouldn't have even kidnapped Haran's daughter if the latter hadn't insisted she stays with him. But regardless of which version of the story is true, it is easy to assume that on the Lebanese side, most people are going to believe Kuntar’s story.
The bottom line is that when passing moral judgment, we must look at how people behave given their own beliefs, not someone else’s. The Lebanese people aren’t a bunch of disgusting pathetic monsters. They believe they are celebrating the return of one of them who has spent 29 years in jail after being captured while on a mission to serve his cause. What the Israelis think of that person and what they believe he did is irrelevant.

Photo by Getty Images/AFP

Worst Telemarketing Ever

Here’s a fun story. Several Lebanese people, among them some of my friends, received phone calls this morning from the State of Israel. She told them that Hezbollah are bad people and that they’re trying to build a state-within-a-state. She also threatened devastating retaliation if Hezbollah were to attack them. My question is this: when is the State of Israel going to realize that Lebanon doesn’t really like her? When will she realize that every time she does anything in Lebanon, the almost unanimous response is “Go away!”?
So here’s a tip to Israel. You want Hezbollah disarmed? Then leave us the hell alone!

Google Poll - Samir Kuntar: Hero or Terrorist

So who is Samir Kuntar? Some think he’s a terrorist, others think he’s a hero… But there’s a very easy way to find out: let Google decide! Here’s how it works. You wanna find out if Kuntar is a hero or a terrorist. So you Google “Kuntar terrorist” and then you Google “Kuntar hero” and see which gets you more hits… It’s quite simple really and it seems to work:
On English speaking pages, 88% of pages that mention Kuntar also use the word “terrorist” whereas only 17% say Kuntar and “hero.” Of course this isn’t very reliable since a lot of pages include statements like “Kuntar is not a terrorist” or “Kuntar, the mass murderer, will receive a hero’s welcome.” But these might cancel out and the end result is still a good indicator.
One the other hand, of the 109,000 Arabic speaking web pages mentioning Kuntar, only 8% also use the Arabic word for “terrorist” and 45% use the word Batal meaning “hero.”
Conclusion: Kuntar is seen as a hero by Arabic-speaking people and as a terrorist by English-speaking people. Shocking!

The Two Coffins

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was this morning when I found out the two Israeli soldiers are dead. Actually, I can… I was really really disappointed. And although every possible rationalization led to the conclusion that they are dead, I was still hoping (not nearly as much as their families) that they are alive. I am also somewhat ashamed that on the Lebanese side, we have people who have actually killed two soldiers, stole their bodies, and kept their families in the dark. Whichever way you look at it, this kind of action is not nearly as admirable as the cause for which its perpetrators claim they support.
Finally, I am angry… at the thought that the July 2006 war was fought over the bodies of two dead soldiers. That Israel waged a 34-day catastrophic war in which around 1400 people died, in an attempt to rescue two dead soldiers. It makes you wonder if this whole thing could have been avoided had the Israelis known that the soldiers were already dead. I know it’s simplistic, but it still does make you wonder…
Photo from Getty Images.

Nasrallah Clone

Yesterday I watched a part of an interview with the chairman of Hezbollah's executive committee, Hashem Safieddine. It took me about 10 seconds to convince myself that this isn't Nasrallah himself, and even then I still thought that there's no way this guy actually looks like this and that he's certainly trying to mimic (rather successfully) the Nasrallah look.

The similarities disappear though as soon as you hear him speak. Some say Nasrallah's speeches are arrogant and self-righteous. Well, they obviously haven't seen or heard this guy. He answered almost every question with something like, "Yes, of course we knew this was going to happen. We know everything. We did everything right." His answers were so redundant and void of any kind of meaningful content that if it weren't for the fact that he looked amusingly similar to Nasrallah, the whole thing would have been a total waste of time.

Photo from wa3ad.org.

National Unity

So I go on holidays for 3 days and suddenly we have a new government… But I’m not complaining.
The new government is something we’ve all wanted for some time. Some have waited 6 weeks for it (since the resignation of the previous cabinet), some have waited 20 months (since the opposition demanded the resignation of the previous cabinet), and some have basically been waiting since July 2005 when the previous cabinet took office). But the point is we’re all happy about the fact that the new government is here, so that’s something we agree on.
What we don’t agree on is how much we’re happy and for what reasons. My guess is that most Lebanese, myself included, are just glad there is a new government in place that they hope will be able to look after their needs. But some Lebanese, myself included, have some particular opinions about what they like and what they don’t like about the new cabinet. And in the spirit of this blog, I will make explicit some of my opinions to see if they will come back to bite me in the ass in 2 years time:
What I like:

1. All major (and some minor) parties are represented in the new cabinet. Say what you will about democracy and how in other countries the majority rules. I still think it’s a good thing.
2. Majority still rules: with 16 out of 30 ministers, the March 14 camp still has the final say on day-to-day decisions that affect people’s lives, but with major decisions that affect the identity of our nation require consensus.
3. Hezbollah has only one minister. This undermines the claim that they are trying to control everything in the country.
4. The redistribution of certain portfolios (like Telecommunications), undermines the claim by the opposition that the March 14 politicians cling to power like a dog to a bone.
5. The Interior and Defense portfolios were named by the President who is still seen as a neutral well-respected and patriotic figure.
6. Lot of new names and fresh faces.

What I don’t like:

1. Some portfolios were retained by people who did not do a particularly fine job with them in the past: Defense by Murr and Foreign by Salloukh.
2. The way the seats are distributed on sectarian lines is somewhat disturbing. I know this is expected, but it doesn’t make it any less ugly.
3. Ali Kanso. Partly because I don't particularly like him, but mainly because so many hate him.
4. The fact that the cabinet still needs to propose a platform and gain parliamentary confidence before it assumes its powers… and God only knows how long this would take.

Photo licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Musical Cabinet Chairs

The only thing worse than when one party acts as judge, jury and executioner is when ALL parties act as judge, jury and executioner, and this seems to be what's going on in Lebanon. Prime Minister designate Fouad Sanioura is trying to come up with a cabinet that satisfies everybody, and no one's making it any easier for him. Both sides just keep making up rules as they go along based on nothing but their own agenda.

- Michel Aoun, for some reason, claims he has the right to a "sovereign" portfolio, and spent five weeks arguing about that until he was offered the Vice-Premiership.
- Geagea, whose parliamentary block about four times smaller than that of Aoun, seems to think he has as much rights as Aoun to the point of actually saying, "If Aoun gets a sovereign portfolio, I want one too!"
- Sleiman Franjieh seems to think that the PM designate has no right to reject any of the names suggested by the opposition, including Ali Kanso who is hated by pretty much all of Sanioura's constituancy.
- Then there's Sanioura himself who doesn't seem to care much about his current constitutional role as (a) a resigned Prime Minister with no executive powers "except in the narrow sense of managing affairs", and (b) a Prime Minister designate with no executive powers until his new cabinet gets a parliamentary confidence. So he goes around making Prime Ministerly decisions and statements in between his talks with rival politicians.
- Finally there's Emile Lahoud who, in his capacity as Former President, seems to think, along with many others, that he has the right to set deadlines for the new cabinet formation.

The way I see it, the rules are quite simple. The constitution states that the PM, along with the President, forms the cabinet, and the Parliament gives it confidence. The Doha accord added the constraint that opposition gets 11 seats in the cabinet. So as far as I'm concerned, if you put these two together, the opposition should just play nice and agree to any 11 seats. But of course, the problem now isn't that the opposition doesn’t accept the portfolios given to them, but that they seem to have taken so many, that the March 14 majority can't figure out how to share the rest. Seems that no matter how you flip it, there's always one seat missing... Kind of like a really messed up game of Musical Chairs.

But finally, what I really don't get is: Why is this such a big deal? The elections are in ten to eleven months anyway and if the President gets the Interior Ministry (which oversees the elections), does anyone really care who gets telecommunications or infrastructure? Do all Lebanese politicians think they're so important that the country would collapse if the Economy, Finance or the Labor portfolios were run by someone else for a year?

In-justice

Naharnet reports:

Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri has reportedly worked out a settlement to distribute seats among forces of the March 14 majority giving the justice portfolio to the Lebanese Forces and the public works ministry to the Progressive Socialist Party.

Yep. You read correctly. The Justice portfolio could be given to the Lebanese Forces, a party that was illegal two years ago (made illegal by the same Mustaqbal Movement that is now giving them the portfolio) and whose chief was just recently released from prison, not because he was exonerated, but because he was pardoned with an amnesty law.

Soon, it's actually possible that the guy in the picture (or one of his minions) will be our new Justice minister... If that happens we will all find out a new meaning to the phrase "blind justice."

Photo licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Memory Leak

From the Jerusalem Post:

"Hizbullah must be disarmed," she said. "We now have an opportunity to disarm Hizbullah, and we must not lose it...if we do not do it now, it will be much more difficult later on."

It's official. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's brain has a maximum learning memory capacity of 23 months-worth of history. Anything that was learned further in the past is discarded.

Moral Superiority

Amnon Meranda from YNet reports:

Just a short while after the bulldozer attack shocked Jerusalem, the Knesset approved in a preliminary reading two bills revoking the rights to citizenship from the families of terrorists.

Not much to say here except kudos once again to Israel for shining bright as "the only true democracy in the Middle East." Of course we would need to accommodate this by redefining the word "democracy" to include "mob-like forms of government that substitute vengeance for justice and disregard, when the need arises, basic human rights such as protection from arbitrary or collective punishment." But that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

See, the clever argument here is that, even though it's illegal and downright immoral, it's worth it if it might help save people's lives by preventing future terrorists from commiting acts of terror. Hmmm... Makes sense...

...

Hey, remember last time you tried something like this and went around demolishing homes of suicide bombers in an attempt to prevent future attacks? That totally worked, didn't it...

Consensual Democracy Vs. God

It’s always fun to hear our beloved patriarch speak on political issues. Now, he’s advocating a democratic system of government where majority rules and minority opposes (as opposed to the one we’re currently constructing where both majority and opposition share power in the government). Sure, this sounds like a reasonable suggestion, but the arguments he gives to support it are just ridiculous:

1. In 1993, he went to Australia and he saw that the majority rules and opposition sits and parliament and just discusses things. Ergo Lebanon must be that way.
2. Lebanon HAS been ruled that way since 1920 up until 2 years ago. So why change now?
3. The government is becoming like a "carriage with two horses pulling it from the front and two horses pulling it from the rear. How can it move?”

Source: Naharnet
Are you convinced? I sure am not. And here’s why:

1. In 2005, I went to Switzerland (and I’m still there) and I saw that after every parliamentary elections, the MPs meet and elect a cabinet that represents the political parties in the same proportions with which they are represented in parliament. Reminds you of something? I’m not saying we should be like Switzerland, but why the hell should we be like Australia?
   Also, when you went to Australia, did you see a priest telling the politicians how to run the country every Sunday?
2. Right. Things were going JUST fine… Except for the 16 year civil war that destroyed our country, followed by another 16 years of being run by the government of another country (which as far as we know, doesn’t even represent the majority there let alone here).
3. Yeah metaphors are nice. Here’s another one (from Pat Paulsen): A country is like an airplane, if either the left-wing or the right-wing takes control, it will end up flying around in circles.

I have to admit though, this post is entirely useless and should be replaced by one sentence:
Mr. Sfeir, please stay out of politics!

Blood Money

Ok, this is my first post on the blog and I'm already speechless...

Roni Lifshitz from YNet reports:
Israelis who have lost their dear ones or were injured during the Second Lebanon War have filed a lawsuit in the US against Lebanese banks who they claim had aided Hizbullah during the conflict. The amount of the claim is estimated at $100 million.

Wow... Why didn't Hezbollah think of that before? Imagine how much money they could have made by suing Israeli Banks along with Israeli taxpayers and the US Congress for knowingly providing financial support to the IDF in their killing of over 1000 Lebanese civilians and their intentional destruction of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure during the exact same time period.

I guess when people look at a world larger than their own through their extremely narrow perspective they end up behaving like idiots.

The scary thing though is that US courts aren’t famous for their sane decisions when it comes to these things. Not too long ago a US court “ordered Iran to pay 2.6 Billion Dollars in damages” to families of the 241 US marines killed in Beirut in 1983 in an attack commonly attributed to Hezbollah (AFP).

Ok, turns out I wasn't as speechless as I thought I was.

Update: According to Naharnet the a spokesperson from one of Lebanese banks involved denied being sued and said his bank hadn't received any notification of legal action... Hmmm... If that's true, it makes my first rant kind of pointless...

A Personal Zeitgeist

Every time I read a news article anywhere, I usually end up forming an opinion. I judge the people in the news and based on the positions they take. But it's often very difficult for me to decide whether I'm judging the entity based on the action it takes or whether I judge the action based on the entity that took it. Am I equally critical of everyone's actions or am I more judgmental of some groups and more forgiving of others?

I'm creating this blog as an experiment. To see, as time goes by and as different actors I support and others I reject take different actions, how will my opinions differ over time? Would I find myself in a situation where I have to deny my previous opinions or are there certain fundamental unchanging principles that guide my judgment? I won't have an answer for that for the time being, but I hope I will eventually.

And in the likely event that this experiment fails to provide me with any insight on the matter, it's still a nice way to vent about issues about which no one in my close vicinity is willing to suffer a discussion with me...