Lebanon

The Number One Sunni in Lebanon

Shortly after Najib Miqati became prime minister of Lebanon early last year, he went on Marcel Ghanem’s venerable political talk show, Kalam el-Nas.

Marcel asked him to respond to his opponents’ critique that he was not “Sunni enough” to assume the post from which Saad Hariri had been unceremoniously ejected by Hizbullah and its allies. Miqati responded with a hysterical tirade… Continue reading »

March in Support of Proportional Representation

I got an email about a planned march in support of proportional representation (PR), which will take place in Beirut on May 13. In a way, conditions are ripe these days for Lebanese civil society groups to push their agenda for electoral reform because: (a) the issue is front and center again, and (b) because … Continue reading »

Selling Foreign Intervention (in Syria & Lebanon)

The debate over Syria in the Arab media and social networks has essentially become a debate about foreign intervention, and the most commonly encountered argument on the pro-regime side goes something like this: “The Syrian opposition is a foreign-funded, foreign-armed conspiracy to topple the Assad regime and strike a blow against the Resistance Axis. The … Continue reading »

Whodunit? Politician to be Named in Hariri Murder Indictment

The Daily Star reports that (according to the Lebanese daily al-Liwaa’), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s outgoing Prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, will be issuing a revised indictment in the Hariri case and it will include several new suspects, including a politician. I’ve lost track of the number of rumors about the STL that have been reported by Lebanese … Continue reading »

A Terrible Loss

Anthony Shadid, a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times passed away today in Eastern Syria, having suffered a fatal asthma attack. Like millions of other readers, I’d been a longtime admirer of Anthony’s superb coverage of the Middle East as a reporter for the Times and the Washington Post. He was one of the … Continue reading »