Throughout much of the Arab world, Hezbollah is being celebrated as the champion that was, at long last, able to establish a victory over invincible Israel and its omnipotent western backers. In the Middle East, Hezbollah’s victory has energized movements against imperialism and its system of client regimes. In Canada, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. It is thus illegal to “participate in or contribute to, directly or indirectly, any activity” of this Lebanese political party or even to urge anyone to act in a way that could be construed as benefiting Hezbollah. Read more about Selectively Terrified
When newspapers send correspondents afield to report on world events, the position is fraught with opportunity and responsibility. Opportunity to share meaningful insight into current events, and responsibility to accurately report on them. In many cases, unfortunately, other motivations prevail. For the owners and editors of the few papers that shell out for foreign correspondents, the opportunity to shape public opinion seems too tempting to pass up, even if it comes at the expense of insight and accuracy. The Globe and Mail’s Middle East correspondent Mark MacKinnon has been publishing dispatches on the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon regularly from Beirut. Read more about The Manichean Middle East of Mark MacKinnon
CAIRO (IPS) - Following the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, almost four years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Middle East stands at a crossroads. The execution of Saddam may well create more problems than it could possibly solve. Despite the formation of a permanent national government, Iraq has been reduced to a state of chaos and sectarian violence. The execution is unlikely to bring stability to the country, or credibility to the government. That is after the situation in the country hit an all-time low this year. Read more about The Year of Living Dangerously in the Middle East
But here, in the heart of Beirut, the atmosphere seems quite different. The Opposition is in the streets, holding a sit-in until the formation of a “national union” or “national unity” government or until Fuad Siniora�s government is toppled. Sunni�Shi�a agitation has reached a peak, despite assurances that Lebanon cannot be “Iraqized” [in the past, we have heard assurances that Iraq cannot be “Lebanonized”]. A martyr [whom government supporters described as having been “killed”] has fallen from the opposition ranks. The wounded number in the tens. A Western newspaper talks about new weaponary that has arrived at the Internal Security Forces from an Arab country [United Arab Emirates] in order to counter the influence of “Hezbollah” and Iran. Read more about We All Want to Live!
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Neo-conservative hawks in and outside the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had hoped that Israel would attack Syria during last summer’s Lebanon war, according to a newly published interview with a prominent neo-conservative whose spouse is a top Middle East adviser in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Meyrav Wurmser, who is herself the director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute here, reportedly told Yitzhak Benhorin of the Ynet website that a successful attack by Israel on Damascus would have dealt a mortal blow to the insurgency in Iraq. Read more about Neo-Cons Wanted Israel to Attack Syria
After a two-month investigation, Arab Media Watch expresses its grave concern at the persistent failure and refusal of the Associated Press to explain how it came up with its curiously low Lebanese death toll from this summer’s Israeli invasion. AP’s figure of 850 is around 30% less than most other sources - including the Lebanese authorities, the UN, human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the International Medical Centre, and much of the media and other newswire services such as Reuters and Agence France Presse - which oscillate around 1,200. This discrepancy of around 350 lives is more than double the total Israeli deaths from the war. Read more about Associated Press refuses to explain its low Lebanese death toll
Stand here on these streets and you will know this is a civil war.” So said CNN’s Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware to the network’s viewers on November 27. To illustrate his point, he read from a diary published on Electronic Iraq. Our award-winning websites, The Electronic Intifada, Electronic Iraq, and Electronic Lebanon bring the voices of those living through the most frightening and brutal events to a worldwide audience. We illuminate the cultural and social creativity and resistance through which people proclaim their dignity and pursue peace with justice. Read more about Where do you go when the news makes you want to throw up your hands?
The people of this region are being abandoned by the world to escalating chaos. The political crisis in Lebanon is a manifestation of this chaos, linked more broadly to the catastrophe in Iraq, and the butchery in Palestine. Despite empty gestures, fake goodwill and worn out slogans from a parade of prominent visitors to Jericho, Gaza and some regional capitals, there is no reason at all for hope. Hypocrisy and double standards have reached new levels of shamelessness. Members of the so-called “international community” refused to take any position on the inclusion in October of an openly fascist party in the Israeli government, on the grounds that this is a purely internal matter. Read more about Mounting crises in escalating chaos
Commentators and columnists are agreed. Pierre Gemayel’s assassination must have been the handiwork of Syria because his Christian Phalangists have been long-time allies of Israel and because, as industry minister, he was one of the leading figures in the Lebanese government’s anti-Syria faction. President Bush thinks so too. Case, apparently, settled. Unlike my colleagues, I do not claim to know who killed Gemayel. Maybe Syria was behind the shooting. Maybe, in Lebanon’s notoriously intrigue-ridden and fractious political system, someone with a grudge against Gemayel — even from within his own party — pulled the trigger. Or maybe, Israel once again flexed the muscles of its long arm in Lebanon. Read more about Syria is a convenient fallguy for Gemayel's death
(IPS) - The assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Beirut on Tuesday has interrupted an 18-month relative safety for anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and intellectuals, and signals the kick-off of a series of events aiming at totally destabilising the ailing national government and dividing the Christian community in the country — and possibly plunging the entire region into chaos.
The murder of the minister of industry, shot in his car while returning from a suburban church, is very much in line with the recent killings of 15 political leaders and journalists, which culminated with the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Read more about Chaos Appears On the Horizon
