Qifa Nabki
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3000 Years Building Jerusalem…
In a speech given at AIPAC on Monday night, Benjamin Netanyahu declared to a roaring crowd: “The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years, and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement; It’s our capital.” The game of chicken continues. As Netanyahu continues to pursue a hard line on the … Continue reading
Slim Gaillard and his Mysterious Stuffed Grape Leaves
Joshua Landis sent me a 1945 recording of the famous American jazz musician, Slim Gaillard, singing a tune entitled “Yep-Roc Heresay”, the lyrics of which are almost entirely in Arabic. Take a listen below and see if you can make out what he’s saying. That’s right, he’s singing about food: yabra (i.e. stuffed graped leaves), … Continue reading
Lebanese 2009 Election Reports
The National Democratic Institute has released its report on the Lebanese parliamentary elections of 2009. (Download a PDF in English or Arabic.) See if you can spot this blog in the footnotes. The EU Observation Mission released its report (pdf) back in October; the Carter Center has yet to publish a final report. It now … Continue reading
The Prodigal Son
As many of you know, the Lebanese-Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helou was in Lebanon last week meeting with political and business leaders and discussing various projects of interest. Slim, who recently regained his title as the World’s Richest Man, was given a medal by Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman, and fêted in the Lebanese press for … Continue reading
Axis(tential) Questions
A couple of days ago, I sat in on a lecture about Nasser’s foreign policy in the 1950’s-60’s, and the importance of regional axes in the Cold War world. It left me wondering about the extent to which we still live in such a world today, at least as far as Middle East politics are … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…