Qifa Nabki
Lebanon
The Myth of Christian Under-Representation
There’s a lot of great stuff to read about the ongoing electoral law debate in Lebanon. Some of the most relevant stuff is below: Karl Sharro made a lot of the same points I did in my last post, except he made them a week ago. Mustapha at Beirut Spring weighs in on the debate … Continue reading
Could the Orthodox Law Be a Boon for Lebanon’s Liberals?
The electoral law being championed by Lebanon’s Christian parties — also known as the Ferzli law, the Orthodox law, the Orthodox-Maronite Gathering law, or as we like to call it here at Qifa Nabki, the “OMG law” — is the most backward, sectarian, reactionary, bloody-minded proposal to come out of a legislative committee in a very … Continue reading
Some Background Reading on U.S. Military Assistance to Lebanon
News outlets are reporting that the U.S. government has approved a startling increase of military aid to Lebanon, increasing the size of the country’s potent assault helicopter force by an unprecedented 25%. “Six Huey 2 helicopters have been delivered to Lebanon as part of bilateral military assistance,” [a diplomatic source] said on condition of anonymity. … Continue reading
A Questionable Strategy
It didn’t take long for OTV and al-Akhbar to point out the same inconsistencies that I noticed in Okab Sakr’s testimony last week, and release responses comparing the segments “added” by Sakr to the original clips that they had published. (See here for the OTV clip; al-Akhbar‘s most recent response can be found here.) Even if there is … Continue reading
The Eagle Strikes Back: Okab Sakr vs. al-Akhbar & OTV
My, my, my… what a tangled web we weave. The embattled Lebanese MP Okab Sakr treated us to a dizzying piece of political theater today (reminiscent in all of its finger-pointing and high inflection to the most spirited performances of the great master himself) and promised that there would be more to come, thereby threatening … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…