Decline of the Saudi role? I spoke to one of the best informed Arab journalists in Doha, Qatar. He is covering the Lebanese festival there. He tells me that the biggest story is the extent to which Saudi Arabia has been weakened. He tells me that UAE, Oman, and Kuwait were openly critical and even mocking of Saudi Arabia and its role. The weakness of Saudi Arabia has been reflected in the bargaining position of its clients in March 14. He tells me that Walid Jumblat has asked the US acting ambassador in Lebanon to officially ask the Bush administration to stop their praise for March 14 personalities, and of Fu'ad Sanyurah in particular.

"The U.S. military is holding between 600-650 detainees at the highly secretive Bagram detention center, which was opened in 2002. The authorities do not permit any information to leak out about who is incarcerated there – some have been high value targets in the war on terror. There are cases of detainees held without charges for as long as five years, according to human rights lawyers and the Red Cross."

Now they want UNRWA to be declared a terrorist organization.

Scores of the Bush Doctrine. Not much time to blog on the recent agreement in Doha, Qatar. If I had written that the Ta'if accords merely postponed the next round of civil war, you can imagine what I would say about this lousy sectarian agreement. It can be clearly said that the opposition scored big in the agreement, and an Iranian analyst told AlJazeera that the new axis in the Middle East is the Iran-Syria-Qatar axis and not the Saudi axis. At that point he was interrupted. Qatar does not want to spoil its relations with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and US will not like this agreement, and the opposition could not obtain those concessions prior to the armed actions in the streets. Saudi media are clearly not pleased, and opposition media are trying hard not to gloat. It is, like all other agreements in Lebanon, a sectarian agreement and deals with sectarian matters. The electoral law that they agreed on will ensure the prevention of the formation of national unity, as the electoral districts get smaller and smaller--that is what Patriarch Sfayr (who is touring the US to showcase his impressive hat collection)--always insisted on. The ultimate political question regarding who will hold the majority in the next parliament will be decided in one district or two: namely, the first district of Beirut. We don't know how `Awn standing will be then. This is where the worst part of the conflict is: the fact that both sides care about the promotion of their petty and electoral districts, and both sides are beneficiary of sectarianism. (See Khalid's piece here). I know it does not look likely now, but really don't be surprised if Hizbullah reaches an agreement with Hariri in the elections, and even with Jumblat. Sectarian groupings are always likely to bury the hatchet--literally in this case. True, the March 14 agreed on the candidacy of Sulayman, but he was early on a candidate of the opposition (and of Syria). And this Sulayman comes on the wake of the Lebanese Army's bias in favor of Hizbullah during the recent clashes in Beirut. So now Lebanon will gave a new government, and Bush will stop talking about "the democratically-elected" government of Lebanon because the new government will not have Sanyurah, and will have members of the opposition. Is anybody keeping scores for the Bush Doctrine? And one more time: this is the opportunity for the Left in Lebanon to stand up and assert a new path: neither with the sectarian majority or with the sectarian minority.

"An outspoken critic of the Saudi government who was previously jailed for calling for greater democracy has been arrested, his wife said Tuesday." The US immediately asked for his extradition to Guantanamo.

Saudi singer, Muhammad `Abduah, apologized for saying that Muhammad was "Saudi." He admitted that he did not carry the passport.

Al-Azhar denies a report by Hizbullah TV, Al-Manar, regarding an ostensible Azhar's support for Hizbullah.

The White House says that Bush did not apologize to puppet prime minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, about that US soldier who used the Qur'an for target practice, and the mouthpiece of Prince Salman (Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat), hoping to boost Bush's image in the Middle East, insists (in a headline) that Bush has apologized.c

One of the funniest slogans during the Lebanese civil war was one by Al-Jam`ah Al-Islamiyyah (the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood). It said: "No to sectarianism, yes to Islam."

Saudi religious police chasing the star of...Star Academy.

Suddenly, after Bush's visit to the Middle East, Egyptian leaders speak about the use of force to liberate Palestine. Do you believe them?

The American Left and the Middle East: the case of MERIP, again (the tale of "crazed Shi`i thugs"). I don't have time to give a detailed critique of this piece in MERIP on-line service, but it certainly fits the picture of its editorial congruence with the Hariri Inc, since the Hummus Revolution, when MERIP asked none other than Nicholas Blanford (why not Michael Young, I don't know) (a hagiographic biographer of Rafiq Hariri, and whose book on Rafiq was serialized in Hariri media, and the book is given out by Hariri family members, I am told) to opine on the Hummus Revolution. It was then that MERIP expressed its admiration for the "tele-genic" demonstrators of March 14th, unlike the uncouth rif-rafs of March 8th Movement. The tradition continues. Here, the word "Lebanese" is used to signify Jumblat and Hariri: "Lebanese did not ask themselves, “Why is Israel bombing us?”" Who are those Lebanese that Quilty is talking about? Certainly he excluded the people of South Lebanon--at least, who--perhaps to the consternation of MERIP--did blame Israel for the...Israeli bombing. The ostensibly leftist reporter then adds: "Television images of apparently crazed Shi‘i thugs..." When are militia men crazed and when are they thugs and when are they uncrazed? I doubt that MERIP would accept even a description of Israeli soldiers as "crazed Jewish thugs"--can you imagine the uproar--and rightly so--if that was used? He then says: "the international community has backed Hizballah’s domestic rivals’ demand that the Resistance be disbanded." The sentence is inaccurate on both counts: 1) the word "international community is used to camouflage the role of the US--there is no such thing as the "international community" with all due respect to Micronesia; 2) it is not true that the opposition in Lebanon has been calling for disarming Hizbullah. I don't know what they say in secret, but publicly even Hariri and Jumblat speak about the need to address this issue through dialogue and the possibility of merging the weapons of Hizbullah within the Lebanese Army. And he the says: "this nascent militia (mostly composed, it seems, of underemployed young Sunnis from West Beirut." How cute to call a militia nascent. Is this like Jumblat and Hariri calling their militias "non-militias"? And secondly, most of the Hariri militia men in...Beirut are from the...north. And notice that the author passes over the Hariri militia's massacre of SSNP's members in Halba. I thought that he was going to call it "a misunderstanding", just as Hariri and Jumblat called their government decision to spark the mini-civil war as a "misunderstanding." And in the paragraph in which the author waxes poetic about representative government in...LEBANON of all places--the author seems to believe that all groups that did not oppose Syrian military presence in Lebanon should be excluded from the political process. I certainly would have agreed with that if the author remained consistent by placing Jumblat and Hariri in that camp--those were the staunchest clients of the Syrian regime after all, as was Amal and later Hizbullah. Notice that the author does not mention the role of Rafiq Hariri in the formulation (with Ghazi Kan`an) of the 2000 electoral law, and does not mention that Hariri and Jumblat were its most outspoken advocates. They merely agreed to it, he tells you. And to describe the Israeli role in Lebanon--a country occupied and bombed by Israel consistently since the creation of the state--as "an Israeli government that watches warily", is like describing an elephant as a cucumber. And then the author says: "Security Forces (ISF), also failed to behave in a manner that citizens of North American or Western European countries would expect." But what he is trying to say is this: o Western readers. Don't ever mistake the native for the civilized White Man. And then he provided this account: "When, in February 1984, President Amin Gemayel tried to deploy the army in West Beirut (to fill the vacuum left by Israeli withdrawal...." Excuse me?? What was that about? Israel had left West Beirut humiliatingly in 1982, and Gemayyel deployed that Army not to fill any vacuum but to try to crush a rebellion against his sectarian policies (ironically by sectarian Druze and Shi`ite militias at the time) and against the imposition of the May 17 Agreement between Phalange's Lebanon and Israel. And here is his description of the Lebanese Army's savage destruction of the Nahr Al-Barid: "From May to September 2007 the army had to contend with the crisis at Nahr al-Barid Palestinian refugee camp." A crisis where the entire residents of the camp were displaced and when at least 47 Palestinian civilians were killed. Here is his account of the death toll: "420 people killed, 168 of them soldiers." He only counts the Lebanese Army soldiers it seems. And the author seems to have been touched by the support provided to the Army's destruction fo the camp by the government and the opposition alike: he called it "national unity." This is like calling Nazism "patriotism." And then he says: "the country was principally united against the Palestinians (for having “allowed” Fatah al-Islam to settle in the camp." I don't care if you put the word "allowed" in quotation marks, the residents had no say when the fighters of Fath Al-Islam came to the camp under the watchful eyes of Hariri troops. And then your "leftist" author absolves the Bush administration from responsibility by saying this: "On the other hand, as Washington’s relationship with Israel has amply demonstrated, international clientelism leaves a fair degree of play between patron and client regimes." Oh, yeah. Sanyurh and Dahlan and Maliki exercise as much sovereignty in their decisions as Israel does. I am convinced, are you? He wants to assume that the Bush administration allows Dahlan puppets to act with freedom. This is like saying that Israel allowed Antoine Lahd to do what he wished, or that the Syrian regime allowed Birri or Hariri or Lahhud to do what they wished. And here he offers some words of criticisms (or praise) to Hariri media: "True, the Hariri-owned media (like most Lebanese media) is a neo-feudal institution whose principles of disinterested journalism have badly lapsed since 2005." What was that? So before 2005 those media were objective and only after 2005 their high professional standards "declined"? And is lapses a reference to deadly sectarian agitation and mobilization by Hairri media? The author concludes by a warning about Arab culture: "a complex of shame and desire for revenge." The only thing missing from the piece is a reference to shoes and how they are used for humiliation in Arab culture.

Angry Arab and Rep. Kucinich. I received an email from the office of Dennis Kucinich (House member from Ohio, and former Democratic presidential candidate) that he has read my interview on Democracy Now and that he would like to discuss the Lebanon situation with me. So he called me a few hours later and we talked about Lebanon and US policy in the Middle East. I found him quite knowledgeable and nice: just as he comes across. He told me that he visited Lebanon twice in the last 18 months. He met with Fu'ad Sanyurah twice. He visited South Lebanon (and knew names of villages) and has a piece from Qana that he looks at daily to remember the victims of the Israeli massacre there, he told me. He told me about the bill that was being discussed in Congress: it basically supports the Sanyurah-Hariri side and their militias in the conflict in Lebanon. He told me his arguments and said that he only expect three members of Congress to vote No. I told him (twice) that we need him to speak more on behalf of the Palestinians especially given the cowardice of members of Congress on Palestine. I said that there are no courageous voices on Palestine in DC. He told me that he puts out a weekly statement on the Palestinians, and asked for my email to send them to me. He asked me to meet with him next time I visit Washington, DC, and I agreed. I asked him about his impression of Sanyurah. He told me that during the debate in Congress today one member of Congress disagreed that Sanyurah was opposed to Israeli bombing of Lebanon during the Israeli war and that the member said that "he did not try to stop it."

Samir Ja`ja` slipped. He was on LBC-TV when he mentioned Tripoli-based Da`i Al-Islam Ash-Shahhal: a fanatic Salafi cleric. Ja`ja` said: "He is our friend, and he is not a fundamentalist in the full sense of the word." You be the judges.

"Despite the belief of some students, water pipes may expose users to more toxic materials than cigarettes. Each puff has as much as 100 times the smoke as a puff from a cigarette, the study said. And smokers are also inhaling fumes from the charcoal."

It is awfully quiet around here as of late. What gives? For those who don't care, I shall speak tomorrow on Palestine It will be Wednesday May 21 at 7 pm at the Stevenson College Room 150, at University of California, Santa Cruz. Hummus will be served.

A Lebanese graduate student in the US sent me this (I use with his permission although he does not want his name mentioned): " I wanted to share this with you As'ad, just to present yet another example on corrupt sectarianism in Lebanon. I was leaving for my summer vacation last week, and got stuck in A... airport for five days, sleeping on metal benches with ten other Lebanese citizens, mostly old. The Lebanese consul in A... appeared after three days, only to offer..... a lunch at the airport cafeteria. He dealt with us in such a humiliating way. To add insult to injury, he stressed that he was from al-Mukhtara, with all possible connotations in such circumstances. Then, he started to show different attitudes towards us, based on his estimation of our sects.. When I asked him whether I should go to Amman and thereby to Beirut, or just fly back to NY (what I ended up doing), he raised his voice and said that the ambassador in A has just spoken to Seniora, the latter insisting that there will be no compromise (musawama) whatever THEY did... Just an additional example of the sinister sectarian spirit in everything Lebanese.. P.S., the only Lebanese who tried to help us out, even though he had a Canadian passport that spared him the whole thing, was....Armenian (courtesy of Ridwan al-Sayyed!!!).

One thing is clear. Neither Hariri Inc and its allies nor Hizbullah and its allies cares about the refugees of Nahr Al-Barid.

"Leading Saudi reformist Matruk al-Faleh, who once served almost a year and a half in jail for demanding a constitutional monarchy, has been arrested, his wife said on Tuesday."

On the first anniversary of the destruction of Nahr Al-Barid refugee camp one can only send disrespect to the lousy Lebanese Army, which never showed heroism in the face of invading armies in Lebanon.

Assassination by poisonous manaqish? I say that in the pro-Israeli community, if people like you they plant trees in your name in Israel and get you Israeli bonds. In the pro-Palestinian community, they feed you if they like you. I was sitting at the hotel in Anaheim on Sunday and this man (who I did not know) came with his cellphone and said somebody wants to say hi to you. The man on the phone said nice things to me and said that he wants to bring me food. Within 20 minutes he brought me boxes of freshly baked manaqish and lahm bi-l-`ajin (or lahmajun as our Armenian brothers and sisters call them). He did not know that I am a vegetarian. So I packed the manaqish and brought them with me. I made the mistake of telling this story to my mother. She kept calling worried: she was afraid that the manaqish contained poison. Well, I survived.

I think that the Qatari government put the Lebanese politicians in the Sheraton (and not say, in nicer hotels, like the Ritz or the Four Seasons) because it has large halls. The food of the Sheraton is excellent and I like its buffet better than the Four Seasons' (but people who know me well don't think that I am an expert in food or cuisine as much as I enjoy it). The GYM at the Sheraton is much better than the one at the Four Seasons. The Sheraton is also a walking distance from the City Center mall--which is not as cool as it needs to be. The supermarket inside the City Center is excellent. But the design of the Sheraton is very 60s, especially the rooms and their interior design.

A Palestinian active in the movement for the right of return was meeting with Abu Mazen last year. He told me that Sa'ib `Urayqat approached him and told him to stop calling for the right of return. He told him: I, for example, can represent 6 refugees.

Why did the PLO ambassador in Washington, DC resign? My sources tell me that PLO ambassador in Washington, DC, `Afif Safieh, has resigned in protest (and in disgust) against the heavy-handed intervention in his office's affairs by the Muhammad Dahlan (official or unofficial) front, the American Task Force for Palestine. Apparently, Abu Mazen-Dahlan gang has been so impressed with the close ties between the American Task Force and the Bush administration that they have decided to disregard the PLO office and to treat the Task Force as the actual embassy of the Muhammad Dahlan team. I am told that Safieh would receive from the Task Force texts of speeches that he was supposed to deliver (often in the name of Abu Mazen)--and some of those speeches would contain praise for the American Task force and its president. Safieh will become the PLO ambassador in Moscow.

Did you see Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal talk on Lebanon on AlJazeera? It was riveting TV. It was not as interesting as this (but close): "5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. 6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: 8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

9 ¶ And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: 10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: 11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12 ¶ And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:

13 And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: 14 And all the days of ^aCainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

15 ¶ And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:"

""But you're right. I've got to do a better job of making it clear when I talk about Islam..." Oh, don't worry Mr. Bush. You have plenty of time to correct that misconception. It is not that you are at the end of your term.

Bush Doctrine in your neighborhood: ""Most of them kind of operate like dons in their areas," said 2nd Lt. Forrest Pierce, a platoon leader with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment. They shake down local businessmen for protection money, seize rivals for links to the insurgency and are always angling for more men, more territory and more power."

Poor Sanyurah: "Mr. Bush offered little help to the prime minister, Fouad Siniora — once a poster boy for Mr. Bush’s claimed rising tide of democracy — beyond promising to speed delivery of American military aid and urging Arab leaders to rally to Mr. Siniora’s side."

Nabih Birri asked for an appointment with the Saudi King two weeks ago, and he was turned down. Typically, he did not say one word of criticisms of Saudi Arabia. I notice that today there are criticisms of Birri in Saudi media. Like Syria and Hizbullah, Birri avoids criticizing Saudi Arabia, just like Iran and Syria, which even denies the existence of conflict with Saudi Arabia.

Hariri family adviser, Rudwan As-Sayyid, insults Lebanese Armenians. (Rafiq Hariri always believed that Christian representatives in the parliament (including Armenians) should all be selected by Muslims in Lebanon. (thanks `Ali)

Saudi/Hariri puppet (the ousted (Shi`ite) Muftititi of Tyre, `Ali Al-Amin, who used to offer fatwawawawas to Hizbullah during the decade of kidnapping and hijacking in the 1980s, and then he switched to Amal and now to Hariri family), was interviewed on Al-Arabiya TV. He saluted the Saudi station as "the voice of the free Arabs." (He must have confused Al-Hurra with Al-Arabiyya).

So the puppet Maliki has lied: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said Tuesday that President Bush apologized for a U.S. soldier shooting at a Quran. The White House later said Bush expressed "deep concern."" (thanks Ahmed)

"But the Christians became divided over loyalties to rival leaders, leaving them marginalised during the latest crisis. Lebanese political scientist As'ad Abu Khalil said the community now had "no significant role" in Lebanese politics."

"Outdoor advertising company Maximedia has notified the distributors of 'Sex in the City' Forum Films and its publicist, Golan Advertising - that the movie based on the popular TV series of the same name will not be allowed to advertise in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva, because the word "sex" appears on the signs."

"Palestinian doctors said a boy, 13, was killed and another youth was seriously wounded."

(This was before his release): "90 days after her father was detained for blogging, nine-year-old Raghad Al-Farhan sends a message to her father she has not seen since. Fouad Al-Farhan remains in detention for refusing to apologize for his writings critical of corruption and lack of freedom Saudi Arabia, where he hopes meaningful reform will enable his children have a better life."

Egyptian media only notice the American occupation of Iraq and US embrace of Israeli occupation once a year: when Bush makes a speech in which he mentions democracy--in passing always.

Misogyny in the Saudi Media: what MEMRI will not report. Of course, you don't expect an Israeli (or Saudi) propaganda outfit to give a hoot about women and gender. But read this Sadatite columnist, Anis Mansur, analyzes "the problem" with women. He complains that women have lost "their feminity." I mean, Saudi media are a festival of sectarian agitation, religious intolerance, US administration's propaganda, praise for Saudi polygamous royalty, and misogyny. This guy (who is admired in Israel because of his support of Sadat's visit to Israel despite his long history of anti-Semitic fulminations) calls women "rough, gruff, and aggressive."

This writer in the Hariri royal court attacks Samir `Atallah because he "hangs around" royal courts--he does not identify those royal courts because they are Saudi.

Nobody knows American politics more than Hariri rags. This Hariri rag, for example, reports that if Obama wins the presidency, Bush will attack Iran in the two months separating the election from inauguration.

Did mini-Hariri fire the commander of his militia?

Hamas priorities. Gaza is under siege and Hamas is busy worrying about how to ban pornographic websites.

You will not read this in the New York Times. A Lebanese man (Ahmad Isma`il Musa), 66, was injured by an Israeli cluster bomb in South Lebanon.

The venue of the Lebanese political dialogue conference in Doha, Qatar ensures its failure because Saudi Arabia would never permit Qatar to enhance its diplomatic prestige. Similarly, Syria would have ensured the failure of the conference if it was held in Saudi Arabia. Al-Akhbar is reporting that Walid Jumblat began to voice criticisms of the US.

"Cardinal Sfeir was a tireless supporter of freedom and pluralism in Lebanon during that country’s tragic civil war and occupation by foreign powers. By virtue of his religious leadership, he continues to be a symbol of unity in Lebanon and a source of hope for Muslims and Christians alike." Is this t he same Patrirach Sfayr who pleaded to save the torturers of the South Lebanon Army? The same Patriarch Sfayr who yelled in the 2005 elections: Let the Muslims elect the the Muslim representatives [in parliament] and let the Christians elect the Christian represtatives [of parliament]? Is this the same man who want to design electoral districts to fit into the neighborhoods to avoid any mixed districts? The same right-wing voice who begged pleaded (in the authorized biography on him by Antoine Sa`d) to get a meeting with Ronald Reagan?

Ghassan Tuwayni's columns in An-Nahar are weekly tributes to polygamous Arab kings and princes.

Just like Nazi Germany, Hariri propagandists in Lebanon have assembled a list of all Shi`ite-owned stores in Lebanon and are circulating the list as groups that (ostensibly) support Hizbullah and Amal. And remember that Nazi anti-Semites would try early on to camouflage their anti-Semitic boycotts with political slogans.

"These peasant farmers, who made up the majority of the Arab population of Palestine in 1948, did not discover that they had had a “nation” of their own until they lost it." Excuse me Elias Khoury? Oh, no. You are woefully mistaken. All research on Palestinian nationalism indicate that the Palestinians had "discovered"--whatever that means--that they have a nation long before they lost it. Why would they protest early on against Zionism if they had not "discovered" that they have a nation.

"David Margolick should have been a little less accepting of those of Morris’s assertions that are contradicted by other Israeli historians who have written very different versions of the events of 1948 and Zionist statements and intentions. For example:..."

"SIR – Regarding the “separation barrier”, it is not a wall that Israel is building around Palestine; it is a cage. This is the first example in history of a group of people building a barrier around another group not to keep them out, but to keep them confined. Israel is treating the Palestinian people as though they are cattle or dogs. Not only is the rest of the world watching, they are supporting the keepers.
Matthew Pflaum
Atlanta"

Look at the front page of the mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat: they are making fun of poor people.

You know that you are a lame duck when... your own puppets criticize you. As I was reading tomorrow's Arabic newspapers, it was striking that Mubarak, Abu Mazen, and Fu'ad Sanyurah all criticized either speeches or policies of Bush yesterday.

I don't like flags and I don't like nationalisms. But for Palestine and the Palestinians, anything and everything. (Reuters)

"Pelosi: I trust all presidential candidates in regard to Israel"

I was thinking on the plane: the two people most responsible for sectarian conflict in the Middle East are the Saudi King and the Grand (not at all) Ayatullah, Sistani. (You can add others like Al-Qa`idah, the Badr militia, Hariri family, etc).

The Saudis and their allies keep pushing for sending Arab troops into Lebanon. I don't think that the opposition would mind having Saudi troops in Lebanon. Don't you think?

"The report added that "following a quarrel with her employers, the domestic worker threw the child off of the balcony and committed suicide afterward."" "A quarrel with her employers"? Or a session of abuse? I wonder.

I spoke to my mother. She offers her critiques of my articles in Al-Akhbar every week. She has been telling me: SHORTEN YOUR ARTICLES. She complains that they are too long. Yesterday, she told me: stop repeating yourself with the story about Solange Gemayyel serving food to Ariel Sharon. Enough already, or words to that effect. To which I said: but imagine, a member of the Lebanese parliament used to cook for Ariel Sharon his favorite dishes. Is that not disgusting and unforgivable? And you know what is unforgivable (here, you are supposed to say: what, o all-knowing one?)? How Hariri-Jumblat-Hizbullah helped bring Solange into the Lebanese parliament. That is unforgivable.
PS Please, feel free to disagree with me here. You may write your comments. Oh, I forgot that you can't do that anymore. Nevermind.

"Time to free Barghouti" (That only proves my theory. What theory? Look in the archives NOW. I feel that I now can order you around more with my new powers. By the way: do spewers of hate suffer from hate withdrawals or spewing withdrawals? I wonder.

A leftist critique of the Lebanese opposition.

""I sold my daughter to feed the rest of my family""

Comrade Hanady: "Today, it has become even clearer to Hizbullah that winning in a war with Israel is a piece of cake compared to avoiding the traps of the streets of Beirut."

Class analysis and Hariri support for Salafism in Lebanon by comrade Khaled

Comrade Karim's piece in Counterpunch is the best analysis of the Lebanon's situation that I have read in English. (thanks Karim)
PS And since the comments' section is closed, I should say hi to Harirites and Phalanges on the blog. It is the polite thing after all.

What happened in Halba? Amer sent me this email and it has useful information: I should have said that some of the people in the SSNP office were civilians, like that immigrant from Australia: "Are you sure about the tag you gave SSNPers in Halba (civilians)??? By most accounts I read (including the one by a massacre survivor,) there were several hours of intense clashes before the massacre. The version I found most believable: Khalid Dahir and the Mufti's men wanted to do to the Halba SSNP HQ what they did to opposition offices in Tripoli and other parts of the North (burn and sack it). As the demonstration (along with many armed men) advanced, the local SSNP members barricaded in their HQ and fought back, there were several hours of clashes, with RPGs, mortars etc... several were killed in the fighting including -at least- two FMers and two of the SSNP fighters.Then, a truce was proposed (through a local Sheikh) to hand over the HQ and guarantee the men's safety. You know the rest of the story (according to most account, the videos we saw were "early" ones, before the FMers brought axes and started cutting the dead into pieces. Reportedly, a soldier (they were watching) approached them asking to hand over the bodies and stop the mutilation, a fighter answered "just give us 15 more minutes," and they got it.) They also used creative ways to kill the wounded (those who surrendered and were not wounded were shot and killed right away at very close range.) Reportedly, they smashed the head of one with a rock, and placed the other in a car and burned it. The Army until two days ago was refusing to hand over the bodies to the families as to not incite revenge killings when the families see the mutilated state of the dead." But when you read this disturbing account, please remember that Robert Worth of the New York Times has officially declared the Hariri militia in Lebanon a "myth." So the killers here are mythical killers.

"A week ago in a police station shooting range on Baghdad's western outskirts, the American-allied Iraqi militiaman found what one or more GIs had been using for target practice -- a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book." (thanks Sophie)

In Human Rights Watch reports on Lebanon there is one bizarre element: the calls "on the Lebanese government." Human Rights Watch acts as if there is a state in Lebanon which is above and beyond the warring factions. And then HRW said: "Supporters of the pro-government groups – the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party – also resorted to violence against civilians and offices associated with opposition groups in areas under their control in northern Lebanon, the Beka` and the Chouf. Many of these attacks violated international humanitarian law. Hezbollah reported that PSP fighters detained two of its followers and executed them. Human Rights Watch examined photos of the two Hezbollah members showing that at least one had been shot in the head at very close range while the other appears to have had part of the skin of his forearm removed. Videos posted on youtube.com of the fighting in the northern town of Halba between armed men supporting the government and members of the opposition SSNP show wounded men, apparently belonging to the SSNP, lying on the ground being beaten and ill-treated by gunmen." The reference to Halba makes it sound as if the massacre in Halba was a clash between militias when it was against SSNP civilians, from most accounts. But Human Rights Wach is correct in the premise: that both sides committed crimes against civilians.

It feels weird without the comments. Wow. I feel like a dictator who just gained new powers. Certainly, the professional haters have used the section for sabotage especially as of late. I feel that I now can just praise myself unconditionally: what do you have to say about that, huh? OK. Let me inaugurate the new era with those chants: (repeat after me): praise be to me. Glory be to me. And as Al-Hallaj said (about me of course): I am righteousness. OK. I have a feeling that this new no-comments era is going to be great for my self-esteem, which is quite healthy anyway. (Don't you have the feeling that the professional haters have the urge to break their computer screens as we speak? I do)
PS How come nobody commented here? Oh, ooops. I forgot. OK.

Hasan Munaymnah assures you: there is no American-Israeli plan or conspiracy in the Middle East. And US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never took place. And there are no civil wars in Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Wake up people. He also assures you that Israel does not have any designs on Lebanon.

Robert Worth of the New York Times is getting worse by the second. He will soon deserve to earn the Hassan Fattah prize for lousy journalism. First, notice the headline: like there was no sectarian conflict before last week, and Saudi Arabia and the Hariri Inc have not been funding and propagating one of the most crude sectarian campaigns that we have seen. And he repeats a refrain from Hariri propaganda: that Islamist websites are buzzing with calls for Jihad to support...Hariri militia in Lebanon. What is the evidence for that? This is what happens when you send correspondents who don't know the language or the culture and who become slaves to the handful people who they talk to...in English of course. You really think that Salafites and Al-Qa`idah are so keen on Sa`d Hariri and his leadership? And then Worth does his best to dispel the notion of Hariri militia. He says: "Hariri’s Sunni militia had proved to be largely mythical: its fighters were quickly thrashed." So the existence of the militia is a myth because it did not fight? Does that mean that armies that don't fight, don't exist? So the Egyptian army in 1967 was a myth because it did not fight? And notice that most of the story in the article is based on the account of one person: Mr. Obeid: and only because he spoke English to your correspondent. And then Mr. Worth treats you to the inevitable theory of "Shoes in Arab Culture": "“They are coming after us, and this time with shoes, not weapons, to humiliate us even more.” And it is very clear that Worth received marching orders from the Hariri media office that handles all foreign correspondents in Lebanon--the ones who arrive to the capital clueless and not the ones who know the place and don't need "the help" of Hariri media office. Notice how he reports the massacre of SSNP CIVILIAN MEMBERS in HALBA: he reports it as if "an angry mob" heroically attacked a militia. And notice that his account of the shooting at the funeral in Tariq Jadidah is derived from the early reports of Hariri media, which later were proven to be false: the Hariri marchers threw grenades at the shopkeeper before he leaped out at them with his AK-47. And notice that he reports that they merely asked him for some respect. I also noticed that Hariri media office which fed him the story did not tell him the slogans that the marchers were chanting. And typically he reports the story (he got that one from MEMRI) about Hariri TV's Sahar Al-Khatib: but he did not report the crude and vulgar (and classist) tenor of her remarks. Today, Worth (whose reporting was less horrible before) proved that he is rising in the New York Times. And notice that New York Times reporters now treat the Hariri and Dahlan sides in the Middle East with the same way they treat the Zionist side: can you find one critical remark about the Hariri side in the article? And most importantly: do you learn in journalism school that you need to speak to one side only in a conflict? It must be the Martin Peretz school of journalism. (thanks Amer and Ussama)

Regarding comments: what options do I have if I don't have time to moderate? What about people becoming "members of the blog"--whatever that means? Advise me NOW. The current system of Zionist,Haririte/Haririte, and anti-Semitic spamming is not sustainable. If no options are available I will just close it down entirely in a few days. And the people whose opinions I respect, know my email: and many do send me their opinions anyway.

There are many situations in which in George W. Bush appears so ill-informed about world affairs. But the most glaring ones are the ones in which he addresses Arab/Muslim populations like he did in Sharm Ash-Shaykh. Are there no advisers of his who can tell him: really. You are so loathed and despised by Arabs and Muslims that it would be better if you just don't address them? Unless he suffers from delusions and illusions that gather during his stay at King Abdullah's "farm" in Janadiriyyah.