On the farce of the Lebanese election: For those who know Arabic, there is wealth of information on this section of Al-Jazeera's website (thanks Amir). Christian Science Monitor has an interview with their Beirut correspondent, Nicholas Blanford, on the Lebanese election. Surprisingly, I don't have much problems with it...but there is one error. He says: "The prime minister is selected by the president after he holds consultations with members of parliament and hears their views." That is not true. After Ta'if reforms, and their incorporation into the new amended Lebanese constitution, the consultations that the president holds with members of parliament are binding on him/her--Lebanon will have a female president when the US has one, in a century or two. The President does NOT select the prime minister; the deputies do. So tomorrow is the first round of the Lebanese elections. This is the most predictable parliamentary election in modern Lebanese history. There was less predicability even under Syrian domination. Only in Jabal Lubnan and Zahlah there are some mysteries regarding the results. The rest is predetermined...by French/Saudi/US embassies, Hariri money, and the electoral law that already gave South Lebanon to Hizbullah-Amal, for example. To add to the list of deputies who will not face challengers, yesterday two more names were added. Walid Jumblat and Marwan Hamadah will not face any challengers. Thus, 16 members of parliament have won their seats...prior to the casting of the first ballot. Sa`d Al-Hariri flew to Saudi Arabia yesterday to check on the health of King Fahd. How sweet; and how tender, and how touching. And for harmony and concord, the US embassy yesterday hosted a nice candle light dinner--lunch actually--for Jumblat, `Awn, Nasib Lahhud, and other members of the right-wing sectarian opposition--and all deputies in parliament will be right-wing and sectarian, regardless whether they are Muslim or Christian. I don't believe that any Shi`ites were invited to the dinner. They may be persona non grata in the US embassy in `Awkar. The dinner was held to welcome visiting Senators, McCain, Sununu, and Graham. Hours after they left Lebanon, Sen. Joe Biden came to Lebanon, where Sa`d Al-Hariri immediately made a spread of Hummus for him. How sweet, how nice, and how tender. Al-Mustaqbal reported some of the discussions at the US embassy. It reported that they all expressed opposition to the disarming of Hizbuallh. `Awn told the senators that the civil war was due to external factors, while Jumblat jumped in to say "I fought you for internal, not external, reasons." They did not punch one another from what I read. What a bunch. There may be two surprises tomorrow, or three: 1) the percentage of participation in Muslim and Christian areas. That will say a lot; 2) the contrast between the Christian and Muslim votes in reference to the two particularly loathed candidates (in Muslim areas) Solange Gemayyel and Jubran Tuwayni; 3) the chances of Najah Walim in the 2nd district of the Beirut election. The press conference by Salim Diyab (Hariri's chief campaign manager) yesterday in which he lashed out against Wakim tells me that inside polling may have indicated that Wakim was making inroads (among Sunni voters that is). But the money factor is the second (after Rafiq Hariri's dead body) major voter in this election, not to mention the foreign embassies mentioned above. The Hariri campaign wants the Sunnis to think that their vote is for Rafiq Hariri although the man is dead. Imagine an election where political money is absolutely and categorically unregulated and unmonitored. How democratic were elections in Chicago in the 1930s? I am asking you. Former prime minister `Umar Karami mentioned a conversation he had with the US ambassador (he did not name him but ان اللبيب من الاشارة يفهم
--an Arabic proverb that can be translated as: "the intelligent person can understand by mere signs"). Karami was listening to the ambassador going on about democracy and elections, when Karami reminded him about the vast political money used for bribery and influence in Lebanon by Hariri, Inc. At that point, the ambassador said: "Oh, we have that in my country too." Not to that degree, no.