Lebanon has a new cabinet. Now the Lebanese can resume what they do best: getting ready for new fresh rounds of civil strife. The names of the cabinet ministers were not surprising: clearly, `Awn made the biggest victory: not only in getting a large number of ministries but in obtaining impressive (service) ministries. He is very well positioned to prepare for the parliamentary elections next year. The new president sent the worst signals in the three ministers that he obtained. First, Ilyas Al-Murr (the creation of Rustum Ghazalah) is one of the worst ministers in Lebanese history. Syrian intelligence used to insist that Michel Al-Murr or his son Ilyas control the Ministry of Interior. They took orders well. The former physician of Rustum Ghazalah in Lebanon tells how Ghazalah used to relish making Al-Murr wait on the sidewalk in Ramlah Al-Baydah while Ghazalah ate his breakfast. The new Lebanese president also appointed Ziyad Barud. This fellow used to be active in civic associations and was selected in the official election reform committee. Members of he committee told me that he was the most sectarian in the committee because he wanted to please the Maronite patriarch. Such were his political ambitions. Hizbullah was smart in giving two ministries for their allies in the opposition but their choices were rather lousy: Talal Arsalan is a joke of a politician and has a long history of buffoonary. When he was Minister of Tourism he made speeches expressing the Lebanese pride in the rise of an Ecuadoran politician, Abdala Bucaram (of Lebanese descent), although the latter was nicknamed "el loco" and was dismissed in disgrace. And the other opposition ally of Hizbullah is Ali `Qansu, who was used by the Syrian mukahbarat-Rafiq Hariri alliance in the 1990s to smash the labor movement. I am displeased to say that Minister of Ping Pong, Ahmad Fatfat, is no more a minister and he will devote his time to manufacturing a fine brand of tea. Nayla Mu`awwad, according to Lebanese press accounts, telephoned the U.S. Department of State complaining that her exclusion from the cabinet will end her political career. Mu`awwad meets regularly with Cheney and Rice and they think of her as the true representative of Arab women. The Phalangist politburo (during the civil war years and the alliance with Israel), Ibrahim Najjar, is now Minister of Justice. This is like having the Saudi King chair a conference on inter-faith dialogue. Wait: he is doing that. Never mind.