Qifa Nabki
March 8
Is the Opposition Losing Patience With Aoun?
Three developments in the past couple of days have signaled that we may indeed be nearing the end of Lebanon’s five-month stretch without a government. 1) As reported earlier, Suleiman Frangieh — the leader of the Marada party, and a member of the Change & Reform Bloc — expressed his annoyance with the fact that … Continue reading
March 14 Comes Undone
It’s the end of an era. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I can’t quite recall who made this point a few months ago, but it seems certain that the era of high-stakes, zero-sum politics is over, having been replaced by the mundane triangulations of consociational compromise. Or something like that. In other words, Lebanon … Continue reading
Is That a Silver Bullet In Your Pocket…
We’ve entered the third week of deliberations over Lebanon’s next cabinet lineup, and there is no end in sight. Hariri has paid more house calls than a 19th century doctor in typhoid season, and yet for all we know, there isn’t even agreement on the most basic issues, like the number of ministers accorded to … Continue reading
Deconstructing the Popular Vote
Scarcely a day goes by without an opposition leader reminding the Lebanese public about which side won the popular vote in the last election. Interestingly, though, I have not yet read much analysis that attempts to explain exactly how the opposition managed to win as much as 10% more of the popular vote while still … Continue reading
Showdown in Jezzine
I’ve got to hand it to General Aoun. He’s made one district in southern Lebanon worth watching… By now, most will have heard about the unusual arrangement arrived at by Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement over the Christian district of Jezzine. After weeks (and weeks and weeks) of negotiations, Aoun announced that he couldn’t … Continue reading
And the people say…