The outlines of the Middle East conspiracy, and the roles of the various sides, are quite clear now. You really can tell who is playing what role, and what the contours of the conspiracy are--and I am deliberately using the word conspiracy because American propaganda (and Saudi propaganda) want us to deny the existence of conspiracies in general, and in absolute terms. I mean, you look at Hariri Inc media and you see how clearly they are aligned with Abbas against Hamas, for example, when in the past Hariri media did not take sides in such matters. Lines are drawn, and trenches are fortified, and you know where very mini-Hariri is. US puppets are now making a stand: they are fighting--in many cases--for survival. The future is not on their sides, and US troops can't prop them up forever. This is why they are now more desperate than ever. The other side, or the counter-conspiracy is an alliance of fools and mullahs. The Syrian and the Iranian regime and their allies are quite dizzy dealing with the situation, although Iran is far less stupid than the Syrian leadership in reading foreign policy developments, and reacting to them. Hamas looks quite confused, and its leaders seems surprised that there is a plot against the results of Palestinian elections, as if the US alliance really meant it when it babbled about democracy and elections. Hamas still does not seem to realize what is going on, and yesterday Palestinian Prime Minister talked about "respect" for Abbas, while the latter is touring Western governments to fund a private militia that he wants to use against Palestinian voters, and their preferences. You watch these developments and wonder about Arab public opinion: and you also wonder how the US/Israeli/Saudi conspiracy requires a deepening of the Sunni-Shi`ite divide in order to weaken the appeal of the counter conspiracy among the Sunni Arab public opinion. Neither side may win, and Arab public opinion, as Arafat used to say in private, is asleep, or watching Hayfa Wahbi sing and dance on LBC-TV. The masses; the masses. I lost faith in the masses a very long time ago. Hell. I lost faith in the workers a very long time ago; in my first year in college to be exact. I worked hard day and night that year with the janitors at the American University of Beirut to prepare for a general strike. After hours of meetings and gallons of ink, we set up a date. The labor aristocracy (the vanguard of the workers) heard of the preparations. They asked to meet with us (my friend `Isa and I). So we go to meet with this "labor leader" from the Progressive Socialist Party and we both hated him, despised him, and we both knew that he just wanted to abort the movement. So we ignored him and continued in the preparations. On the designated day, tens of them showed up, but not one of them dared to strike. There was no strike. I remember that I devoured so much anarchist anti-Leninist literature that week. And that was that. Good night.