Qifa Nabki
Lebanese elections
A Respectable Election
A couple of recent op-eds by Arab journalists in large Western newspapers ask America not to interfere in the upcoming Lebanese election. Omayma Abdel-Latif, writing in The New York Times, asks Obama to “stay out of our elections”, arguing that his administration’s decision to send Vice President Joe Biden for a morale-boosting visit last week … Continue reading
Bracketology… Lebanese Election Style
This may be even too nerdy for the likes of qifanabki.com readers, but I trust not. Via Richard Chambers, the indomitable chief of IFES in Lebanon, I give you the ultimate pre-election prognostication wallchart: print it, fill it out at your leisure, and don’t forget to keep us informed about how well you did.
Some of my best friends are Shiites…
Mitch Prothero has an interesting piece about the FPM-Hizbullah relationship in The National, in which he recounts a scene at a campaign rally where the Hizbullah partisans bussed in from al-Dahiya to provide a little multi-confessional je ne sais quoi got a little too Shiite for the taste of the Aounist crowd control officials. Here’s … Continue reading
The Good, the Bad, and the Likely
Most people I speak to these days about the upcoming elections are, understandably, not that interested in the niceties of cabinet formation, the constitutionality of minority vetoes, or the viability of consensual politics in the post-Syrian era. Rather, what most people want to know is: “What’s the worst that could happen after June 7?”… or, … Continue reading
The Eagle Has Landed
So. Who else wants to try debating `Uqab Saqr on live television? No one? I thought not. Unless the opposition is willing to dig a lot deeper, I don’t think March 14th’s James Carville is going to see much action for a while. Of all the political operatives on the Lebanese talk show circuit, Saqr … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…