Samir Qasir Foundation and normalization with Israel

Notice this announcement by the Samir Qasir Foundation. First, what do you expect of a foundation headed by my least favorite person on earth, Gizelle Khuri. Everything that I detest about Lebanon is personified in that woman, personally and professionally. Yet, she treats herself as a star and she peddles that she was "awarded" the best Arab journalist distinction by the New York Times. Some Lebanese when they dont win awards, they invent them. Secondly, what do you expect from a lousy foundation which does not see press violations except in Syria. In fact, the foundation refuses to utter a word about press violations in Gulf countries. When asked about that, they say: that they defined the Middle East to exclude Gulf countries. As one comedy character of one US shows used to say: how convenient. Thirdly, notice how they clearly want to please the US/Israel. They are announcing an award which accept candidates from Israel, when Lebanon is still, at least technically, in a state of war with Israel. And notice that it called the Zionist entity, "Israel," while it called Palestine "Palestinian territories." Who drafts the documents of this foundation? Staffers at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy? (thanks Layal)

PS David sent me this:

" You know the Samir Kassir Foundation got about $450k for its "media center" from the Foundation for the Future (see: ). The center, SKeyes describes its funding thusly (see: ):

"The SKeyes center was established through a grant from the Foundation for the Future, an international organization based in Amman (Jordan), whose work is dedicated to freedom of expression. Since its foundation in November 2008, SKeyes has financial support from this foundation, the European Union and IFEX (international network for the exchange of information on freedom of expression). SKeyes also aims to expand and diversify its sources of funding." Foundation for the Future was created by the State Department with about $35 million in November of 2005 (see: ). It enjoyed some brief infamy because it is where Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's girlfriend, was set up with a nice little $200k salary, and yet State had no idea where the offices of the Foundation were or what the foundation was doing (see: ).