...Mea Maxima Culpa

I apologize for the lack of original reporting on this site recently. I realize that opinions are a dime a dozen. I do have an excuse, however: original reporting is hard. Seriously though, the beginning of the school year and of Arabic lessons left me little time in the past few weeks to talk to real people (sources or friends), but that should be changing now. Hey, this is a relatively new endeavor, and I'm learning as I go. I'll get better. As Middle Eastern cab drivers are fond of saying, "No problem!"

All of that said, I have conducted two interviews in the past two days. The first was with the fine folks at 11 March, and the second was with a representative from Loubnani W Bass. I'm interested in these groups because they are made up of exactly the type of people that need to be heard in Lebanon's political debate -- eloquent, liberal, and tolerant. That said, the beliefs of their movement are notoriously hard to pin down. I have a lot more questions to ask before I write my article.

There's a protest being organized on March 3rd as a joint effort between some of these groups. On March 11, the group by the same name will hold an "event." Their rep made it clear to me that this was not a demonstration, like the mass gatherings of March 8th or March 14th. It would be indoors, he said, and consist mainly of businessmen, university professors, and other professionals. There is a growing distrust among these movements of the gigantic mass protests that occur frequently in Lebanon. They are increasingly seen as divisive -- a way for each side to flaunt the size of their following rather than bridge the gaps between the different segments of Lebanese society.

Anyway, I have more to say about this later. Stay tuned. Photo: Reuters

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa...

Speaking truth to the masses:

"And please don't give me any of the 'it's the fault of the political leadership' verbiage. Do not try to peddle any of the cheesy ethnic cliches along the lines of 'When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers'. Those who have driven us to this war are not the few war criminals or corrupt political dealers who rejoice at our stupidity. It is the millions of Lebanese who have flocked spontaneously on February 14, March 8, March 14, December 1, then 8 then February 14 again and continue to do so whenever they have a chance. With great flag waving and slogan shouting these millions of patriots have empowered the rotten leadership towards our destruction."[emphasis mine]

I like this. Well, no I don't, let me rephrase: I agree with this. When I was writing my article on "Beirut Diaries," I asked the director, Mai Masri, what had kept Lebanon's confessional system of government in place. She answered as if it was obvious: it was the politicians, who maintained the system in order to stay in power. They subverted the will of the people for their own nefarious desires.

It sure is tempting. It sets the manipulative, evil politicians against the true and good Lebanese people. But I don't think it is true. The fact of the matter is that many Lebanese want confessionalism, in the same way that they want to maintain the old client-patron relationships with the old, feudal leaders. Confessionalism guarantees representation of their religious sect in the political process, and it keeps them from trying to tear down the other religious sects, if they should become too powerful. The feudal leaders provide them with security, a flag to rally around.

No, sorry, I can't walk down that particular road. If civil war breaks out, the reality will be that we will have nobody to blame but ourselves. No excuses. Lebanon will get the type of government it deserves.

Hariri Revisited

Take a look at this lefty article de-mythologizing Hariri. Here's what the author, writing for The Nation, has to say about the current narrative of the big man:

"The problem with this confectionary tale is that it does almost nothing to explain why downtown Beirut is today the center of a battle for the future of Lebanon, a brewing proxy war for the soul of the Middle East--and for America's tarnished image abroad. To understand why the playground of downtown Beirut has become a battleground once again, you have to look past the glittering surfaces of its luxury stores, past the pretty flags and banners of the so-called cedar revolution. The secret history of downtown Beirut and the man who rebuilt it is more complicated than the fairy tale; because it doesn't go down as smoothly, and is not as easy to report, it remains largely untold. Which is a shame, because compared with the fable, it's every bit as much of a thriller. "

The article doesn't shy away from listing Hariri's alleged crimes -- underpaying middle-class people for their property, cozying up to government officials for sweetheart deals, even being too close to the Syrians (!!). Sometimes, it hits its target, sometimes not so much. The interesting point is that the author comes around on Hariri at the end. Sure, she writes, he gamed the system as much as the next guy. But at least he made friends across sectarian lines, and was able to lessen the old tribal rivalries that threaten to tear Lebanon apart each day. That's a quality that is in short supply these days.

Re-write

I want to revise my opinion of Hersh's piece, after a closer reading. It's not that it's a bad piece -- I have a tough time disliking anything Hersh writes because he's such a good investigative journalist. Even when the conclusions suck, the research behind them is always impressive.

Anyway, Hersh's thesis is that the Bush Administration has adopted a realpolitik position of supporting Sunni forces in the Middle East, to combat Shi'a forces. Now, most of the piece is made up of quotes and research, rather than polemics. Hersh's great strength is the fact that he's not an open ideologue; he lets the facts speak for themselves. But what do these facts say?

Tin-foil hat types seize upon pieces like this and say: "Bush is planning to invade Iran! He's funding Al Qaeda and its allies!" Then follows the type of scream that made Howard Dean famous. But that is certainly one conclusion to draw from the material Hersh presents us with. It remains a mystery in my mind if that is the conclusion he draws, because Hersh rarely descends into punditry.

Personally, my reaction to Hersh's article is disappointment on the current state of affairs in the Middle East. It's ridiculous that societies are divided over who should have been Imam in the 7th Century, and it's sad that the people in Iraq haven't been able to form a non-sectarian, liberal government. But those are regional realities. If the United States wants to have any influence over the course of events, we need allies -- and that means unsavory characters. Those who read Hersh's piece, and then yell and scream about the illiberal forces we support, are very good at criticizing the current situation but not so good at coming up with alternatives. I'm sure their comments make for excellent ripostes at cocktail parties, but they're not so useful when governing.

P.S. As evidence of a Sunni-Shi'a split, Hersh uses the example of U.S. dislike of Syria, writing "Syria's Sunni majority is dominated by the Alawi sect." It's a stretch, as Hersh surely knows, to contend that the Alawis are Shi'as. I bet most Iranian clergy would agree with me (those that don't have a stake in the Sunni-Iran alliance, at least). Anyway, I'm skeptical whether any part of US enmity towards Syria, or even the foundation of the Syria-Iran alliance, is based on the fact that the Alawis are Shi'as. That's a bridge too far.

P.P.S One of the things that I hate most about this world we live in is The New Yorker's use of umlaut marks. I think we all know how to pronounce the word "cooperated," without the blindingly pretentious accent mark.

That Sound You Hear...

...is foreign policy wonks around the world, throwing up a little in their mouth:

"The dead-pan world of the Washington policy wonk looks set for a dash of Hollywood glamour with the nomination of actress Angelina Jolie to join one of the most venerable think-tanks in the US.

The Council on Foreign Relations, whose members include former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, decided on Friday to accept the 32-year-old to be considered for a special five-year term designed to 'nurture the next generation of foreign policy makers'"[emphasis mine]

Somewhere in the world, a doctoral student just flung Waltz's Man, The State, and War against a wall.

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

He's fat, slovenly, updates once in a blue moon, and probably detests you personally, but you should probably check out this blog. He's a Hollywood writer, and passages like this make my day every once in a while:

"It was crazy there for a little bit, what with the all the snakes and planes and depalma and tyra and cancer and killer cyborgs and the apocalypse and that one monster spammer and the fever dreams of anonymous that I should be better at what I do, more of what I was, less of who I am.

It was the rise and fall of the Infinite Monkey, loosed from his cage but unmoored from his tethers, a breakaway pop-culture Rose Bowl float cobbled together from poisoned burritos, free sushi, diet coke and used wax icarus wings bought on Ebay Right Now! for $129.99.

(From his unsteady vantagepoint the Monkey sees one writer's strike crushed without mercy but a labor tsunami at Fairfax and Third poised to swamp this town and drown its inhabitants as they cling hopelessly to the small pieces of scrap and wood that we sometimes call DVD residuals.)"

Because sometimes the world needs less order, not more.

Hersh's Gem

I don't have time right now to make extended comments on Seymour Hersh's new article about the United States' decision to site increasingly with Sunni forces in Iraq and the Middle East at large. But most everything Hersh writes is expertly researched and clearly written, so I advise you to read it. Hopefully, I'll write a longer post about it tomorrow.

My first impression, after a superficial reading, was despair/resignation over the degree which the US now has to play balance-of-power sectarian politics in Iraq. Remember when everyone thought that Iraqis would abandon their sectarian differences and unite to form a liberal, democratic government? That was fun.

A Druze President of the Jewish State

Here's how it all happened: Israeli President and all-around sleazy guy Moshe Katsav is "temporarily suspended" because the Attorney General is investigating him on rape and abuse of power charges. The acting President is Dalia Itzik, but she's going abroad. So the Presidency of the Zionist entity falls to Majali Wahabi, a Druze.

Examples of religious tolerance and flourishing civil rights in Israel poses a problem for Arab intellectuals. There is no example in the Arab world of a religious sect which could concentrate all power, willfully giving control to another religious sect. In Lebanon, power is divided between the sects because it would mean civil war if one party tried to dominate the political scene. In Syria, a religious minority maintains its power through force of arms. In Israel, the Jews are willing to live under an (albeit temporary) Druze President.

I remember that I attended a lecture on the role of think tanks in the Middle East during my first month in Lebanon, and one of the speakers recounted his experience living in Egypt during the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He spoke of it as a major intellectual turning point. There were massive protests of leftist Israelis in Tel Aviv -- but what was happening in Cairo? Not a thing. The Egyptian government had forbidden any public expression of protest.

But hey, let's drop all this. We wouldn't want to risk acknowledging any good qualities of Israel. Quick, someone mention the horrible Israeli repression of the Shebaa Farms!

Lahoud To Stay?

Sorry for the lateness of the updates today. I woke up as scheduled but, probably because of a storm last night, the Internet was down. I'm drawing stares in the local cafe because of my hair shirt.

Now that's out of the way, President Lahoud has suggested the possibility of staying with us, even after his term expires! Here's what he has to say: "How am I supposed to hand over the country to a non-existent government?...I will not."

Lahoud was appointed by Syria when they ran things in Lebanon, and his term was already extended in 2004. As a Christian who takes his orders from Syria, he has no true base of support within the Lebanon population. His exit has been eagerly awaited by anti-Syria types; somewhere on the Internet, I remember seeing a live countdown to when Lahoud's Presidential term expires. I remember when my Arabic teacher mentioned that she came from the same village as Lahoud. She gave that rueful, semi-apologetic smile that is common when Arab civilians talk politics with Americans.

If Lahoud stays, it has the potential to radicalize a lot of pro-government people, and turn them against a compromise with Hizbullah and Co. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

A Syrian Dissident Speaks

Ammar Abdulhamid was one of only 219 Syrians who voted against Bashar al-Assad's regime in 1998 "elections." In 2004, after being outspoken in his belief that Assad ordered Hariri's assassination, the regime kicked him out of the country. Now, he organizes the Syrian opposition from Washington DC. Check out this interview of Abdulhamid.

Abdulhamid has formed an umbrella organization called the National Salvation Front, which includes Muslim Brotherhood dissidents. Though a secular, liberal fellow himself, he knows that he needs to work with the Brotherhood if he wants to achieve real change. I sympathize with his plight -- on both sides he finds people whose own values are light-years from his. Here's what he says about working with the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow the Assads:

"We simply cannot ignore the Islamists. We are talking about change, about democracy, about elections at one point in time. So it's really good to sit down to realize with whom we can talk and how much they can moderate their language, and what sort of deals we can arrive at. Because either we do this or we have two other options: Either we talk to the Islamists and find moderates and work together for change at the risk of being betrayed. The other options are to stick to the status quo but then the status quo cannot hold a lot with the Assads."[emphasis mine]

Best of luck, Mr.Abdulhamid. I hope we don't look back on that paragraph years later and wonder how everyone could have been so naive.

Landslide Rudy

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Rudy Giuliani pulling 40% of voters in the Republican primary, giving him a 22 point lead over John McCain. This is very important, because Washingtonians need conversation topics on Friday and Saturday night, and polls have a proven track record of accuracy when conducted a year and a half before the general election.

Great Picture

From what I can tell -- by a superficial exploration of their website -- Loubnani W Bass benefits from all of the good qualities and suffers from all the faults of Lebanon's "non-alignment" movement. Nevertheless, their picture sums up the situation many Lebanese find themselves in perfectly, and explains the recent rise of groups such as these.

Lebanon's Free Press

I have no opinion on the actual outcome of the slander case, but you've got to admire this account of it. From Ya Libnan's website:

"The newspaper owned by the Hariri family (Al Mustaqbal) was fined for damaging the reputation of Lebanon's disgraced president, referring to him as 'His Excellency the Murderer,' following the murder of PM Rafik Al-Hariri in 2005."[emphasis mine]

Sure, Lahoud might've won the case. But the Lebanese press isn't going to stop saying what they think about him. Good for them.

Does Hizbullah Have Legs?

Dispatches from Hizbullah's continuing "victory" in Southern Lebanon:

'Hezbollah say they don't differentiate between Lebanese people,' said Sita Balhas, a mother of five in the village of Siddiqine.

'But when my son was wounded in the war, he went to one of Hezbollah's medical centre, they told him: your legs are not for Hezbollah, so we won't treat you.'

...

'The government is powerless, they don't have money. Hezbollah started the war, they should pay us compensation,' said Sita.

Hezbollah wields enormous power and control over the Shia community so it's unusual to hear criticism of Hezbollah among ordinary people, but disgruntled voices are starting to be heard occasionally.[emphasis mine]

The Christian villages in South Lebanon, of course, have long been hostile to Hizbullah. This article goes on to refer to the Christian village of Ain Ebel as a "ghost town" -- a description that has been seized on by Lebanese Forces partisans.

Hizbullah earns its loyalty by serving as the protector of the Shi'a, both financially and from the Israelis. If they cannot provide for the needs of their people in Southern Lebanon, they cannot maintain a tent camp in downtown Beirut. Now, if only the Lebanese state could flood the region with construction crews and bulldozers...

And Also On You

I like the theme of Zachary Karabell's book, Peace Be Upon You. The book is apparently about times of religious harmony. We spend so much time learning about clashes of religions -- crusades and jihads -- that it's nice to see a work that focuses on times when the different faiths got along. It could also provide useful hints at a blueprint for the future. Here's what Amazon says:

"Readers visit, for instance, ninth-century Baghdad, where a Muslim caliph invited Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist theologians to compare beliefs...and, still later, Karabell turns to mid-twentieth-century Beirut, where disparate religions hammered out a national pact for sharing governance. Karabell concedes that some regimes have pursued ecumenical harmony merely to secure economic and political advantage, but he insists that such harmony actually reflects peace-fostering doctrines central to all of the Abrahamic faiths."[emphasis mine]

Maybe Karabell has better examples, but National Pact-era Beirut is a troublesome poster city for religious harmony. The National Pact gave the Maronite Christians all of the important government positions, leaving the other confessional groups minor positions of influence. There is a difference between peace imposed by one group on a multi-religious landscape through overwhelming force, and peace caused by mutual tolerance between many faiths.

Detonators, Explosives, and Bombs...Oh My

Three caches of bomb-making material were found in Beirut on Thursday:

[The] first discovery was made by a scrap collector, identified only as 'Malek,' who found 19 sticks of TNT - a total of about 9 kilograms - in the capital's Achrafieh neighborhood. The explosives were inside in a wooden box placed in a dumpster on Hikmeh Avenue leading to Corniche al-Nahr, facing the Murr Television Station and the Mont Liban Radio building

...Half an hour later, some Sukleen employees found an aluminum box packed with 13 detonators about 200 meters away from the first discovery.

...Then, at 6:30 p.m., eight bombs were found on the road leading to the Kesrouan village of Ghbaleh."

Added to the bomb found inside a tire on Tuesday, we have the makings of a veritable trend. Two of the caches were found in the Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh. During the Cedar Revolution, a series of bombs went off in Christian neighborhoods around Beirut. They were an attempt to goad the Christians into reprisals against Muslims, and thereby derail the movement. The Christians didn't take the bait.

In the past ten days, Lebanon has experienced the bus bombings near the Christian village of Bifkaya, and now this. Time will tell whether the Christian population will have the same restraint that it did last time.

Druze For Jesus

I take Arabic classes outside of my university three days a week, for two hours each session. It's an opportunity for me to freely butcher Arabic pronunciation and ask stupid questions to my heart's content. It is a great experience.

We'll call my teacher R. She is 28, friendly, a talented teacher, and a lawyer in training (but I forgive her). She is also a Christian, and not shy about it. During breaks in the lesson, she'll evangelize to her heart's content -- speaking about her relationship with Christ, about how he died for our sins, and her favorite Biblical verses. I don't mind at all. All my friends in Lebanon and, for that matter, in the States are secular types. Even among the Jesuits at Georgetown, whose reputation was founded on their ability to win converts, the slightest missionary tint would have been considered declasse. So, R. is a type of person I don't often have the opportunity to meet.

We started talking about her conversion experience today. This came as a surprise to me, because I assumed that she came from one of the many Christian families in Lebanon. It turns out that she was born Druze (an idiosyncratic Muslim Shi'a offshoot), and converted to Christianity at 19. She told me that God spoke to her, that she broke down and cried, and converted right then. I wanted to ask about how her family took this news, but I was afraid of reopening old wounds.

Here was how she described her faith, and her allegiances: "I am Druze, who believes that Christ is the messiah." Even a change in religion does not break her Druze tribal loyalties. One wonders how imported Western abstractions like democracy or liberty can override tribal allegiance, when not even religious faith can do the trick. In darker moments, it makes me think that Lebanon is doomed to limp along with its fractious sectarian divisions forever. Still, like many doomed things, it is very pretty.

[Photo is of the Shouf, the historic Druze heartland. By: Fares Jammal.]

Lebanese Army Joins the Resistance

As I've discussed earlier, Hizbullah derives much of its support from its resistance of Israeli military power. This resistance legitimates their possession of arms, and their stranglehold over Southern Lebanon. If there was another force, say, that could fight the Israelis effectively, Hizbullah would lose much of its meaning for existence. That's why stories like this are interesting:

"An Israeli aircraft violated Lebanon's airspace Wednesday, drawing anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese military, the Lebanese Army Command said. The target of the anti-aircraft fire at 10:40 a.m. was an Israeli drone east of the Southern port city of Tyre."[emphasis mine]

Coupled with the Lebanese Army's recent attacks on Israeli soldiers they accused of crossing the border (they actually didn't), and you have the beginnings of a trend. The Army is trying to usurp Hizbullah's function as the resistance to the Israelis and, by doing so, weaken support for the Shi'a militia. I doubt whether the Lebanese Army could ever fight the Israelis successfully alone, but but even being perceived as "partners" with Hizbullah is a major coup in the propaganda battles.

Actually, this latest attack is rather brilliant. Israel is flying planes over Lebanese territory in violation of the terms of last summer's peace treaty, so Israel can't expect international support for reprisals. These flights are detested by the Lebanese people as a constant reminder of their vulnerability to Israeli assault. By attacking a plane, the Lebanese Army is highlighting the one area where its capabilities are more advanced than Hizbullah's -- the guerilla army doesn't have the ability to target air power. Finally, they shot at a drone, meaning that there was no chance they were going to kill any Israelis and accidentally provoke the enemy to the South.

I realize that this is all very cynical from a Western point of view. But live in the Middle East for a few months, and it becomes second nature...

Once Wasn't Enough?

Hey, if you're going to be involved in Middle East politics, you need a sense of humor. Al-Hayat, an Arabic London Daily, just posted a satirical article that poses as a Syrian intelligence report. The "report" calls for Rafiq Hariri to be assassinated again, "this time using two trucks [full of explosives]…"

It's actually sort of sweet, once you get past how dark it is. The implication is that the first assassination failed to kill Hariri's spirit, and that he lives on in the spirit of the Lebanese people. Here's your morning dose of dark humor:

"There is a rumor that he did not [really] die...but was only wounded, that he has only become more obstinate, and that he continues to pursue his dreams as he always did. He refuses to rest and to let others rest. This is a man whose death cannot be taken for granted, even if his body has been blown to pieces."

This is a perfect example of the morbid sense of Middle Eastern humor that has no exact parallel in the West. Every morning I walk by a car with a yellow sign on its back window that reads: "WARNING: Designated Driver Is Drunk Too!"

Let's just say that it's not exactly humor that would translate well in the States.

"Christianist" Power

Andrew Sullivan has been complaining about the power of evangelical Christians in the Republican Party for some time now. So it's a surprise -- as this article points out -- that he hasn't celebrated the current crop of Republican presidential candidates. The top tier of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain doesn't contain a legitimate Christian fundamentalist, socially conservative candidate. Romney is creeping in that direction, but the Christian Right is certainly not his base. As for McCain, his attack on Christian conservatives in 2004 has alienated some of them permanently.

If this is the way the primary field plays out, a lot of people are going to have to reassess the power of evangelicals in the Republican party. Still, I find it strange that a group Bush & Co. courted so heavily would be a non-factor in the 2008 primary. My guess is that something shifts when the campaign gets in full swing. An social conservative like Brownback could rise to the top tier, or another candidate enters the mix. Jeb Bush, call your office...

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The darker areas are happy, the lighter areas are sad. According to this most-likely subjective report (though it is harder to disagree with it when it appears in map form), Denmark is the happiest place on Earth. The tiny nation of Burundi is the most miserable. The United States is the 23rd happiest. Lebanon appears to be...orange.

Stumbling Upon Some TNT

Ghazi Ayoub, a man who wanders Beirut looking for scrap metal to sell, is walking around near midnight on Monday. He comes across a tire on a pedestrian overpass near Beirut Arab University, where student riots broke out a few weeks ago. He knows that tires are valuable, so he rolls it to Jihad Kaak, an auto mechanic. Mr. Kaak says that he will buy the rim of the tire.

When Mr. Kaak goes about the task of separating rim from tire, he finds something he didn't expect: 1.2 kilos of TNT. After that, everything happens in the order you would expect: panic, the arrival of soldiers, the defusal of the bomb, a new fear of stray tires for everyone involved.

Just another of those half-funny, half-sad stories that make up their own cottage industry in Lebanon.

"Because We Didn't Learn Our Lesson the First Time"

"Because We Didn't Learn Our Lesson the First Time" could turn out to be the slogan of Lebanon's history, 1975 to the present. If a second civil war breaks out, I hope somebody records its story using that subtitle.

Anyway, this sentiment has relevance today because the Daily Star is reporting that Lebanon's opposition is mulling civil disobedience. Here are the key points:

"Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil confirmed media reports that 'civil disobedience is currently one of the options under consideration.' A civil-disobedience campaign would hit all public institutions, he said, as civil servants who support the opposition would remain at home and refrain from paying taxes and utility bills. The ports and airport could also be affected.

...

Meanwhile, the Arab League's efforts to mediate the political crisis in Beirut appeared to hit a stumbling block. After an optimistic week of seemingly impending breakthroughs, Egyptian Ambassador Hussein Darrar hinted on Monday that there had been a deterioration in the negotiations."[Emphasis mine]

For those with short memories, here are the highlights of the last attempt at "civil disobedience" in Lebanon: lines of burning tires, angry mobs throwing stones at soldiers and each other, dozens wounded and supporters dead on both sides. So let's call Mr. Khalil's statement what it is -- a naked threat to release chaos and violence upon Lebanon.

Blood and Nationalism

Here's what pops up on Iraqi TV, during halftime of the soccer match:

"The wealthy Arab man, sporting a foreign accent, has just given an Iraqi teenager some cash and a bomb when police burst in and arrest him. 'You come here from abroad and want to make this young man kill his Iraqi brothers?' an officer asks."

Hey, if I lived in Iraq, I would be paranoid of foreign Arabs too. I could see myself yelling at a bus driver for letting on a man speaking Egyptian dialect, like what occurred in this article. Tolerance and inclusion be damned; I don't feel like being the next victim of a car bomb. It's not paranoia if they're out to get you.

This is another reminder of the link between violence and nationalist sentiment. The Peace of Westphalia, which established the principle of sovereignty, was only concluded after the Thirty Years' War. The competing factions didn't want to batter each other forever, so they agreed upon a simple rule: a state has complete control over its subjects within its own borders. It decides its own internal policies, including whether it is a Catholic or a Protestant country.

Actually, there are many similarities between the Thirty Years' War and the current conflict in Iraq (though hopefully not the length). Both had a strong religious element -- the Sunni/Shi'a split today, and the Catholic/Protestant split in the 17th century. Also, both serve as a stage for various external powers to fight out their rivalries. Today, the United States and its allies fight or fought Saddam Hussein, Iran, and Syria. In the Thirty Years' War, the Habsburgs fought France. There's a too-clever-by-half magazine article in their somewhere.

Sultan Richard the Third

I would have loved to see this version of Richard III, placed in an Arab context. It debuted last week in Stratford-upon-Avon, with an all-Arab cast and some lines adapted to modern-day life in the Gulf. Happily, it doesn't seem the play shies away from social commentary. This is the narrator speaking: "[T]he Emir Gloucester commented on the improved quality of dates in the Royal Palace, saying such a sign boded well for the future of the state."

Richard III is an interesting play to use as an introduction to Shakespeare for the Arab world. It's not one of Shakespeare's more famous works and, due to its length, is rarely performed in full. But it does have a nasty (though historically inaccurate) king. It is fertile ground for a critique of the autocracies which currently reign in the Gulf States. The plot revolves around Richard's machinations to ascend to the throne through deviousness and violence, heedless of the popular will. The director of the play, Sulayman al-Bassam, received funding from the Kuwaiti government to put on the production -- delightfully biting the hand that feeds him.

Stupid Characters

Apologies for not providing more articles and commentary this morning; the system was down when I woke up, thwarting my plan to get up early and update it before Arabic class. Because there are yet more Arabic classes on the horizon in a few hours, I'm just going to provide new links to the left and this post now. Thoughtful commentary will come later tonight.

I'm one episode behind the Western world in 24. But I'm afraid to say that the show is beginning to rely on the old crutch of creating drama by having characters do patently irrational things. Here's what happens near the end of Episode 9: the wife of Jack's brother is taking Jack to a house that Jack thinks could help find the suitcase nukes. In the car, she gets a call from Jack's father. He says that he will kill her son, unless he takes Jack to a different house. She agrees.

Really? This is the best way out of this dilemma? If you're in the car with unstoppable killing-machine Jack Bauer, you should tell him what's going on, not lead him into a trap. It's just illogical. If she's watched even one episode of 24, she knows that the bad guy isn't just going to release her son if she does what he says. And then, after Jack arrives at the house and it (of course) explodes, she starts screaming in surprise. What did you expect, lady? You led Jack into a trap, don't act like you never saw any of this coming. The episode ended with her running away from armed men trying to kill her, so at least she's probably not going to profit from this stupidity anyway.

Some people. Anyway, Arabic class. Behave yourselves until tonight.

Harvard Represent

I'm sorry, I don't have any deep comment or aside to include along with this. I think it just speaks for itself. Apparently, gang members and "urban youth" (I hate that term) are buying Ivy League clothing apparel:

"What does the 'H' stand for? 'Hot,' he said. 'Hustler. Hood.' When informed that he was wearing a cap for Harvard University, he looked more than a little disappointed, leaned on the coat rack and then shrugged. 'That's something new to me.' But he reasoned, 'It's just fashion.'

He was not wearing the matching Harvard jacket. 'I'm not too much with the red jacket,' said Mr. Mincey, who is a security guard at a local warehouse. 'That's the Bloods--I'm not down with that.' In his girlfriend's neighborhood, he explained, he often sees reputed Bloods members wandering around in the Harvard jackets."

Don't go to Cambridge, man. The Bloods carrying those backpacks and hanging around those big, brick buildings will mess you up. (Hat tip: The American Scene)

But Where Is the "Marry Me" Emoticon?

A website in Saudi Arabia matches observant (I guess that's the polite term) Islamic women with potential suitors. The catch? This isn't for a night on the town -- this is for better or worse, for sickness and in health...

"A new website based in Saudi Arabia specializing in Al-Misyar marriage (a marriage without the couple living together in the same house, where the husband is not financially responsible for his wife) has received 8000 requests from inside and outside the Kingdom over a three month period according to the sites administrator Sheikh Radwan al-Hamadi."

So, here's what happens. The man surfs a list of available brides, or the brides' guardians (of course) look through a list of men. There is a complete list of vital facts provided to both parties: employment, social status, education level and ethnic affiliation. Then, if a match is made, a religiously-lawful meeting place is set up to discuss specifics.

I don't know, I'm afraid that it could take some of the romance out of the whole affair. But I guess as long as the wedding eventually takes place in Vegas, with Elvis leading the ceremony, it's okay.

Obama Messiah Watch

I'm cribbing this feature from Slate's Timothy Noah, who has come up with a number of good examples. Basically, the question at hand is if Barack Obama (D-IL) is the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Because it's a possibility. To wit, Joe Klein:

"At his very first Iowa town meeting, he showed the courage to tell his Democratic audience things it didn't want to hear. Asked if he would cut the Pentagon budget, he said, "Actually, you'll probably see an initial bump in military spending in an Obama Administration" in order to add troops and replace the equipment lost in Iraq. Then he told a teachers' union member that he supported higher pay for teachers but also--the union's anathema--greater accountability. The crowd was silent as he said these things. But there are different sorts of silence, and in this case, they were hanging on his every word.

Would Mr. Klein have the ability to recognize this "different kind of silence" if it had been, say, Hilary Clinton speaking?

More Notes From February 14th

Here is a longer segment from Walid Jumblatt's address to the crowds at Hariri's memorial, courtesy of the indispensable MEMRI. He's talking about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:

"We have come to Freedom Square to tell you, oh tyrant of Damascus, you ape unknown to nature, you snake from which even the snakes have fled, you whale vomited by the ocean, you wild desert beast, you creature that is only half-man, you Israeli product at the expense of the corpses of the South Lebanese, you liar and arch-killer in Iraq, you criminal blood-shedder in Syria and Lebanon -- we have come to say that the words of the great poet Nizar Qabani apply to you. He said: 'Every twenty years comes an armed man to slaughter unity in its cradle and to kill the dreams.'"

Even for someone who is on Jumblatt's side, this is a bridge too far. Yes, Assad has done awful things to Lebanon, and to his own people. Yes, the world would be a better place if he wasn't in power. And Lebanese leaders should say so. But calling someone a "whale vomited by the ocean," while admittedly sort of amusing, stoops to a fairly ridiculous level. Nobody is going to be convinced by this sort of rant; it's only going to rally the type of people March 14 doesn't need to rally, and it's going to alienate everyone else.

Case in point: Rampurple runs a smart, interesting blog on Lebanon. It's statements like Jumblatt's that have made him, and many young people, turn away from active participation in politics.

Stagnation in Gaza

There's an informative article in the New York Times today about the conditions in Gaza, a year and a half after Israel's withdrawal. So, what has been the progress in developing the land for the native Palestinians? The abandoned Israeli settlements inherited by the Palestinians "[look] almost exactly as they were the day the Israelis left." Meanwhile, many Gaza Palestinians are still homeless.

The Times article manages to suggest the majority of blame belongs to the West. It was Israel that prevented the export of goods, by shutting down the main road into Egypt for weeks at a time (because of terrorism concerns).
It was Israel that restricted jobs for Palestinians in Israel, cutting off a vital source of income. And it was Europe and America that cut off financial funding to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas came to power.

Okay, that is all true. But they are reasons which pale in signifigance in the face of such issues as corruption and inefficiency within the Palestinian bureaucracy, and the embarassing in-fighting between Fatah and Hamas. This is the Palestinians' territory now, and they can't blame any outside forces for failures inside of it. It was the Palestinians who insisted that Israel bulldoze the 1,600 homes of their Gaza settlers. Now many Palestinians are homeless. It was Palestinians who burned synagogues after Israel's withdrawal. Rebuilding efforts haven't even proceeded to the point of removing the rubble left from the destruction of most of the settler homes.

They set fire to their bed. Now they'll have to sleep somewhere else.(Photo: Reuters)

Syria and Lebanon

Three great articles on the Syrian regime have been published this week, all concluding that Bashar al-Assad's heavy-handed "diplomacy" (calling bus bombings diplomacy is a stretch, but that is their intent) is making an international tribunal more, not less, likely.

Tony Badran records Bashar's intransgience, noting "all those Europeans who go to Damascus to ask it to change its ways, end up returning disappointed and agreeing with the US and French position. There are no more "deals" possible over Lebanon of the kind that Assad envisions, where the country would again become his exclusive patrimony." Michael Young believes that Syria's decision to pick a fight with the UN could lead to a complete international takeover of the tribunal. And Lee Smith tracks the linked fates of the Assads and the Gemayels.

I was especially taken with the (rather lopsided) competition between the two families. Hafez al-Assad killed Bashir Gemayel in 1982, Bashar killed Pierre Gemayel in 2007, and the recent bus bombings in North Lebanon took place near the Gemayel's home village. Both are representatives of Middle Eastern minorities -- the Gemayels are Christian, the Assads are Alawites. In Lebanon, the Gemayels have learned to live with an admittedly tenuous political power-sharing framework. In Syria, the Assads maintain their power through brute force -- a thuggish brutality designed to subdue those inside their country and those outside of it.

Nas-rally

In response to the pro-government forces' memorial-cum-rally on the anniversary of Hariri's assassination, Nasrallah held a rally of his own in Beirut's southern suburbs, to commemorate the "martyrdom" of Abbas al-Mousawi. Allowing myself a brief aside -- the pathological use of the term "martyr," on both sides of the political fence, sums up everything that is sick and wrong with the politics of the Middle East. Anyway, Mousawi was Nasrallah's predecessor as leader of Hizbullah. Israel killed him in 1992, using helicopters to fire missiles at his motorcade in South Lebanon.

So, it's been a week of martyr competitions in Lebanon. It would be great if we could solve this entire problem with a Martyr-Off, where each side brought forth their best four or five martyrs for comparison...but again, I digress.

If Nasrallah wants to have any leverage in his attack on the government, he needs the support of the Lebanese people. However, the length of this conflict, and the fact that Hizbullah instigated a war with Israel in the summer, has done a great deal to undermine his support. But he still has a trump card, and it's the same trump card that every tin-pot Arab dictator plays: hatred of Israel. As long as Hizbullah is an effective resistance to Israel, he will have a certain amount of support within Lebanon. That is why, at his rally, Nasrallah proclaimed himself furious at a recent seizure of Hizbullah's weapons by the Lebanese army. "We will not forgive anyone who confiscates a bullet," were his exact words.

In order to fight Israel, Hizbullah needs to operate its mini-state on the northern border with the Zionist entity. According to Abu Kais, Nasrallah bragged about establishing relationships with other states when Hizbullah had problems with the soldiers in the United Nations interim force patrolling South Lebanon. Nasrallah said, "so far the states have been responsive … because sometimes some of the UNIFIL soldiers have been recruited by Israel and the concerned country does not bear responsibility for the action of this soldier or that officer, and when we turn their attention to the matter, it gets resolved."

Just let us go about our business, Nasrallah is saying. Don't trust the Lebanese army, and certainly don't trust UNIFIL. We'll protect you from Israel. And that authority provides the force to drive the protest camp in downtown Beirut.

Turning Point?

David Broder, purveyor of Washington conventional wisdom, thinks Bush is poised for a resurgence in popularity. He credits Bush's success at minimizing the damage from the House's non-binding resolution opposing the surge, and his de-escalation of rhetoric regarding Iran.

Eh. Both of those things are no doubt true. But, at the end of the day, Bush still has to answer for a disastrous civil war in Iraq. Unless Iraq improves, there's a clear (and low) ceiling on the level of his popularity.

Nabokov's "Spring in Fialta"

A lot of people consider "Spring in Fialta" the best of Nabokov's short stories; I'd be hard pressed to disagree. He is working in a difficult structure, where large portions of the narration are in the past. In between digressions to the past, barely anything happens in the present. It could be a recipe for tedium, and it is a great credit to Nabokov's skill that he keeps the reader interested.

Victor runs into Nina by chance in Fialta, a gray, dream-like scene caught between "moist air and warm rain." Both Russian emigres, both married, they have run into each other by chance throughout many cities in Europe, and have had intermittent flings when they came across each other.
Some critics have commented that Nina is a stand-in for Nabokov's native Russia -- something he was enamored with, but, due to the Soviet takeover, could never possess. Re-reading the story, that sounds plausible -- but it wasn't the theme that first struck me.

Victor portrays Nadine as a sort of society woman. She is married to a famous writer and has various muse-like qualities, sleeps (to his apathy) with his circle of admirers, and flits glamorously around Europe. She possesses "a wonderful sunburst of kindness, a cheerful, compassionate attitude with all possible cooperation, as if woman's love were springwater...which at the least notice she ever so willingly gave anyone to drink." And yet -- she is close to nobody. What is glamorous to outsiders is superficiality to those who (should) know her.

At the climax of the story, Victor "grew apprehensive because something lovely, delicate, and unrepeatable was being wasted: something which I abused by snapping off poor bright bits in gross haste while neglecting the modest but true core..." He professes his love to her and she, in return, acts embarassed and horrified.

Victor leaves Nina and her husband, Ferdinand (a write who Victor despises), by their car. The timeline, forever shifting backwards, moves forward a few days at the conclusion:

I stood...with a freshly bought newspaper, which told me that the yellow car I had seen under the plane trees had suffered a crash beyond Fialta...a crash from which Ferdinand and his friend, those invulnerable rogues, those salamanders of fate, those basilisks of good fortune, had escaped with local and temporary injury to their scales, while Nina, in spite of her long-standing, faithful imitation of them, had turned out to be mortal."

There's a sort of grim irony at work here: by dying while the other, evil men lived, Nina proved that she was different. Still, I prefer another interpretation. Nina, for Victor, was always something not quite human -- an ephemeral beauty that flickered across his life, always going somewhere better, always with the glamor of life at the tips of her fingers. In the end, she was proven mortal. She could not commit to loving anything too deeply; she died as she lived, in perpetual transit from one place to another. At the beginning, we had been conditioned to think of Nina as a marvelous (literally, a marvel) person. Nabokov slowly shades her personality to something darker, completing the transformation with the last lines.

At least, that's the story I enjoy. Maybe it isn't the story Nabokov wrote. What can I say -- it's the one I choose to read.

Azar Nafisi agrees

The current "debate" over whether to go to war with Iran basically consists of all sides agreeing, in strangely urgent language, that it would be disastrous. Finally, something to bring the world together! Next week, let's hold an international conference on whether the sky is blue (making sure that we are discussing a Platonically cloudless day, and that the blue in no way resembles the national color of the Zionist entity).

Still, if someone needs to reiterate the dangers of invading Iran, it should be Azar Nafisi. He's the author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran," and certainly no friend of the Iranian regime. Here's what he has to say:

"Under such conditions, who would benefit from a military attack on Iran? Not the workers, students, minorities, women or the dissenters who have been trying to find nonviolent and democratic ways of resisting and changing the present system.

Such an attack would provide an excuse for the most reactionary and violent elements within the ruling elite to stifle any voice of dissent not just from within the civil society, but from the divided and factional ruling elite. It would help rally factions within that elite behind Ahmadinejad, and it would provide Iran a good excuse to attempt to further isolate the United States within the international community."

Well said. Our best hope is the Iranian people, who deserve a better government than this bunch.

Barn Burners

Samir Geagea and Walid Jumblatt gave the most aggressive speeches at last Wednesday's rally. No reason to back down now; you don't hold anything back in this game. Here are some key lines:

Geagea

Regarding Hizbullah: "[H]enceforth, we will not accept any weapons outside the Lebanese army's frame of control...The Lebanese army is the resistance, the Lebanese government is the resistance, the Lebanese people is the resistance."

Regarding President Lahoud: "History has settled its account with any tyrant …at the end (of your term) you will go away to history's garbage dump."

Jumblatt

Regarding Hizbullah: "from now on there will be no weapons except what is controlled by the Lebanese army."

Regarding Syrian President Assad: "a snake .. a beast .. an Israeli product .. a liar .. a criminal."

Regarding what will happen to Assad: "This year will witness the creation of the international tribunal, justice will be served and the punishment will be a death sentence."

Today is "Crazy News from China" Day

Two stories from the People's Republic! This brings the number of stories that this blog has commented on, from that country, up to...two.

Gao Yaojie is an 80-year old AIDS doctor who has devoted her career to exposing the plight of AIDS victims in China. Her picture recently appeared in the Henan Daily Newspaper, along with "[t]hree high-ranking Henan Province officials, beaming and clapping as if presenting a lottery check." This is surprising because, you see, it is not normally how countries treat citizens under house arrest. It turns out that China has imprisoned Gao in her house, in order to prevent her from receiving an award in the United States. Apparently, they are afraid of "international embarassment." Though, given their wonderful treatment of her, heaven knows what bad things she could think to say.

In other crazy news out of China, "A Chinese business executive was sentenced to death for swindling $385 million from investors in a fake ant-breeding scheme, a court official said Thursday." Apparently, ants are used in traditional Chinese medical remedies. This exec sold ant-breeding kits for $1,300 and -- actually, the article doesn't make clear what he did wrong. Is he being punished because the cures didn't work? Anyway, whatever it was, it was really bad. He gets the death penalty.

Thus concludes our brief voyage into the news world of the People's Republic of China.

And Now For Something...Completely Different

John Amaechi is one of the first professional athletes to come out as gay. Check out these excerpts from his new book, Man In the Middle. Amaechi was a center for the Utah Jazz (of all places to play...), and he writes about the open homophobia in the sports world, and what he did (and didn't do) to keep his secret in the NBA.

The excerpts from his book range from angry to thoughtful to straight-out funny. Here's my favorite passage:

"The NBA locker room was the most flamboyant place I'd ever been. Guys flaunted their perfect bodies. They bragged about sexual exploits. They primped in front of the mirror, applying cologne and hair gel by the bucketful. They tried on each other's $10,000 suits, admired each other's rings and necklaces. It was an intense camaraderie that felt completely natural to them. Surveying the room, I couldn't help chuckling to myself: And I'm the gay one."

Amaechi contends that his playing time was cut, and that he was eventually traded for an inferior player, because Utah coach Jerry Sloan had discovered his secret. It wouldn't shock me. The world of the NBA has to be one of the most explicitly homophobic places left in America. Tim Hardaway came up with this gem, just yesterday: "You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known...I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

The Other Side

I don't agree with everything in this post, by a Syrian Arab -- I'm not sure I agree with anything in it, actually. Still, Westerners very rarely get to read what the other side thinks, so I'm posting it for your consideration.

The writer advocates, "rethinking inter Arab/Islamic relationships along more liberal lines and Arab/Western relations along strictly realist ones." That's a particularly succinct formulation for adopting Western ideas while rejecting Western countries, and something one sees a great deal of in the Arab world. Anyway, read and learn.

Geagea and Aoun

Good article in Slate on the tensions between the two major Christian factions in Lebanon. I think the piece gets it right. Of the leaders of the major Lebanese sects, Aoun and Geagea seem to be the weakest of the bunch. Aoun has gone and allied himself with Hizbullah for reasons that are clear to nobody but himself, and Geagea is seen as a thug who could start the skirmishes that lead to civil war. It's a tough choice for Christians in Lebanon these days. They both cut their teeth during the civil war, and carry that mindset into the present day.

Money quote:

"[T]he Lebanese Forces often remind opponents of their past as a battle-hardened militia and of the working-class mountain toughs at the core of the party's membership. Aounists, meanwhile, invoke the army--which is filled with pro-Aoun Christians and Shiites who, if it came down to it, would mostly side with Hezbollah-as their own force. 'They should remember that the army is still Gen. Aoun's army,' Chebel Kassab, a young man camped downtown, warned. On the morning of last month's opposition strikes, the current army commander called in sick.

Real stand-up guys.

More Pictures

"Hizbullah on your right, Hariri straight ahead..."

Follower of Walid Jumblatt, climbing up a crane to wave the Progressive Socialist Party's (cool-looking) flag.

What should be three of Lebanon's national symbols: the cedar flag, a mosque, and a crane.

Trifles

You know it was a good day for Lebanon when CNN is running a live feed of Maria Sharapova's speech at the UN, and its headlines include "Ancient coin shows Cleopatra was no beauty," and (my personal favorite), "Fake cop caught hookers, took cash, police say."

Flags, Flags, Flags

So far, the protests have been problem-free. Martyr's Square is packed with more people than I have ever seen in one place; there were plenty of times when I literally could not move because of the crowd. Much time was spent diverting stray flags from my eyes. The majority of flags are the red and white Lebanese flags, but there are also plenty of the white Future Party flags, as well as some of Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party. At 12:55, the time of the assassination, downtown Beirut fell silent and the muezzin gave the call to prayer.

Security is tight. Soldiers patted people down before they were allowed to enter downtown; it took me a while to explain what purpose my iPod served. An extra layer of security separated the crowd from the anti-government protesters. Red-hatted men -- perhaps the security detail of some specific party? -- also helped to manage the crowd and were, by and large, quite friendly.

The mood is celebratory, not angry. Adults and children chant Hariri and Sinioura's name, and clap along to the patriotic songs blared through the speakers. They wave their flags and greet each other with three kisses on the cheek. It has been a good day.