Qifa Nabki | A Lebanese Political Blog

Now that the formation of a new government is, ahem, just around the corner, I thought I’d attempt another crowdsourcing experiment, since the last one was so successful.

The theme? Coming up with the agenda for Lebanon’s next government. Feel free to make as many suggestions as you can regarding the most urgent areas that need government action/reform/lip service. The person who submits the largest number of suggestions will win an all-expenses-paid weekend trip to Hummus-Land.

Suggestions can be as ambitious and unrealistic as “eliminating the public debt”, “cracking down on environmental destruction,” or “passing a just and fair electoral law on a non-sectarian basis”… or as modest as “enforcing the seatbelt law.”

After we’ve amassed a sizable number of priorities, I’ll put up a poll where you’ll be able to vote for your top choices. The floor is open.

A few quick things:

1) The Safadi Foundation’s blog (which is good, you should read it) has a useful recap of yesterday’s House Foreign Affairs Middle East Central Asia Subcommittee’s hearing with Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman. Among the highlights, the following question from Chairman Gary Ackerman (who once coordinated with Michel Aoun to turn SALSRA from a dream into a reality… AIG, correct me if I’m wrong about that):

In the two areas we are trying to improve relations with Syria mainly bilateral relations and Middle East peace, are we going to be willing to pay in Lebanese coins?

You see, we’re not being paranoid. Politicians really do talk like that. Click the jump to read more.

2) Rob, of Arabic Media Shack fame, now has a new blog. Wasn’t it Cicero who said that you can take the man out of the blog, but you can’t teach him new tricks? Or something like that. Anyway, subscribe to his RSS feed, but not if you haven’t already subscribed to mine!

3) Listen to Philippe Skaff (president of Lebanon’s Green Party) and Ziad Baroud (Interior Minister/Superman) explain why Lebanon needs urgent billboard reform. (Hint: it has something to do with the panneau blocking the madame from walking along the trottoire with her poussette.)

Like farm animals before an earthquake, the Lebanese daily newspapers are beginning to shift anxiously ahead of what they now believe to be, yes… I think we can confirm… yes, uh huh, there’s absolutely no question this time… it’s gonna… it’s, it’s… oh my God… it’s happening!

THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING, THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING!

Or so they say.

Al-Akhbar predictably claims that America’s evil Vice-Regent (Jeffrey Feltman) has given the green light, while Naharnet predictably claims that Syria’s evil Vice-Regent (Bashar al-Assad) has given the green light. Michel Aoun, in the meantime, is insisting that the light remains decidedly orange.

I remember speaking to Joshua Landis a few months ago about the cabinet crisis, and he suggested to me that while Bashar would love to see Saad Hariri come over the mountains and make the humiliating visit to Damascus, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. had made it clear that no such gesture was in the cards. Meanwhile, as much as America and Saudi would love to see Saad stick it to Aoun and Hizbullah (by assembling a majority cabinet), that is clearly a red line for Syria.

Moral of the story: I personally don’t think that Lebanon’s problem is one evil foreign Vice-Regent but several of them, not to mention all the little local wannabe evil Vice-Regents.

Update (comment from Joshua Landis):

“The word on the street about the Syrians and Saudis is that they have agreed to tell their friends in Lebanon to fix things as they see fit, but that Syria and Saudi Arabia are not going to let their relationship be held hostage by paralysis in Lebanon… Interpret that as you wish.”

This just in from Naharnet: apparently the FBI has caught yet another pair of dangerous criminal masterminds who were allegedly trying to replace Iran as Hezbollah’s main military benefactor.

Patrick Nayyar, 45, an Indian citizen living illegally in the United States, and Conrad Mulholland, 43, were charged by federal prosecutors with agreeing to supply an FBI undercover agent with guns, ammunition, vehicles, bulletproof vests and night vision goggles…

They had already supplied a pistol, a pick-up truck and a box of ammunition to the FBI agent, whom they thought to be a Hizbullah member, the prosecutors said.

Are you guys as relieved as I am? I mean, if Hezbollah had gotten their hands on that PISTOL, who knows what they could have done with it?