Qifa Nabki
Nasrallah
A Review of Michael Young’s New Book
I’ve written a review of Michael Young’s new book for The Nation. An excerpt is pasted below with a link to the rest of the review. A Forest of Fathers One weekend during the spring of 2008, I found myself in a discussion with a friend about Lebanon’s latest political crisis. In Beirut the office … Continue reading
Nasrallah To Discuss Hariri Tribunal Tonight
Hizbullah secretary-general Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah will be interviewed this evening on al-Manar at 21:30 PM Beirut time (14:30 PM EST, 18:30 GMT). I expect it to be an important exchange, and the choice of an interview format (rather than a formal address) may suggest that Nasrallah is aiming to defuse tensions resulting from all the … Continue reading
Syria Walks the Tightrope
What is it with Bashar al-Assad? One minute, he’s clinking champagne glasses in celebration of Syria’s return to America’s good graces, and the next minute he’s raising a toast with Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah at a Resistance Reunion. The don’t-trust-Syria crowd is having a field day. There’s something deeply puzzling about this man. Until recently, I … Continue reading
Choices, choices…
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman just returned from a productive trip to Russia. Apparently, he modified Lebanon’s earlier request for a fleet of MiG-29’s, replacing them with an order for several Mi-24 attack helicopter gunships. A sensible idea, to my mind, given the fact that a MiG-29 can fly the length of Lebanon in 6 minutes, … Continue reading
Game-Changer: Nasrallah Announces a New Hezbollah Deterrence Strategy
What began as an apparent mistranslation of Ehud Barak’s remarks regarding Israel’s peace negotiations with Syria has snowballed into the clearest possible articulation of a new strategic posture by Syria and Hezbollah towards Israel. Let’s rewind the tape to last week. On February 1st, Ehud Barak made some remarks at an IDF gathering, saying something … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…