US House wants pro-Syrian officials out of Lebanon

May 24 , 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for free elections in Lebanon and the departure of Syrian intelligence agents, as Damascus’ soldiers have already left.

“The elections scheduled to begin on May 29 mark a very important moment, but it is only the beginning of a journey toward full sovereignty and free democratic governance,” Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said.

The vote came on the heels of an announcement by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that a UN mission to Lebanon had verified the full withdrawal of Syrian troops.

The withdrawal complies with UN Security Council Resolution 1559, adopted in September, which demands the disarmament and dismantlement of all militias, as well as the Lebanese government’s full exercise of sovereignty over the entire national territory.

Lebanon’s opposition remain divided over election alliances

By Majdoline Hatoum , May 24, 2005

BEIRUT: With less than a week to polling day, Lebanon’s political opposition remains hopelessly divided over whether it will join forces to fight this month’s crucial elections.

Despite a late night meeting between Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and representatives of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Future Movement head Saad Hariri, agreement between the country’s opposition politicians remained as far away as ever.

FPM spokesman Tony Nasrallah told The Daily Star that Aoun gave the delegation a list of demands he expects to be answered before a news conference he will be holding today at 10 a.m.

Nasrallah said: “We expect an answer to the list in the few upcoming hours. And in any case, Aoun will hold his press conference and announce the FPM’s electoral lists and alliances.”

The FPM refused to say what Aoun’s demands are, but it is understood that the main problem standing in the way of an agreement between Aoun and Jumblatt is the Druze leader’s insistence on limiting Aoun’s nomination of candidates in any unified electoral list.

UN verifies Syrian pullout from Lebanon May 24, 2005 All Syrian troops and intelligence officials have pulled out from Lebanon, a UN team has verified. “We have verified all the withdrawal, including the border area,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced. The UN security council adopted a resolution on September 2 calling on Syria to […]

Commentary

MSM Fails Again: Factually incorrect Propaganda Printed in the Washington Post

Source : Lebanese Political Journal

If you want to become uninformed about Lebanon, read Annia Ciezadlo’s piece “Lebanon’s Election: Free but Not Fair” in Sunday’s Washington Post. And where is that main stream media (MSM) “safeguard” that makes it so much better than blogs?

I was originally going to post a response, but the factual errors occur in every paragraph. Enumerating them is the best way to manifest the failures.

Here are factual transgressions:

First:
“This inequality [between sects] dates back to 1943, when the French handed Lebanon over to the country’s French-speaking Maronite Christian elite and founded what is called the confessional system, with parliamentary and executive offices parceled out among the major religious sects.”

This “background” sentence is so filled with errors I will break it apart in pieces.

The French didn’t create the confessional system. In fact, they inherited it. Why would a fiercely Republican government set up such an odd system? They didn’t do it in their colonies in Martinique, Algeria, or Senegal? Why was this system created in Lebanon?

Because they did not create it. In fact, if you want to blame anyone for confessionalism, blame the Ottoman’s, which forced the Maronites and Druze into agreement during the mutasarifiyya. The French went with what was the precedent on the ground because they didn’t have a better system to put in place when they took over in 1920.

Second flaw in that sentence: the French handed Lebanon over? Uhhh, which French were those? The Vichy French held on to Lebanon with all their might. Remember, 1943 was a period during which France wasn’t even an operative country. Were they in any position to hands things in any direct?

The Lebanese won their independence with British aid. Let us not forget good General Spears who came roaring into this country on an anti-Vichy, anti-French colonist campaign. The British general was as much a partisan for a free Lebanon as anyone else, and he had to fight for it.

Why, then, were three of our national leaders thrown into prison by the French, with the fourth escaping only because he was in the Kit Kat Club when the goons came for him?
The French threw our first Maronite President Bechara Khoury into jail. They didn’t hand him a thing.

Third flaw: those “executive parcels” were a creation of our founding fathers Bechara Khoury and Riad al-Solh when they forged the National Pact. Let’s take a look at the French period. Maronite leader Emile Edde fulfilled every position possible, even occupying the office of Speaker of Parliament. Obviously, the French were not the ones who assigned the Speakership to a Shia.

Fourth flaw: “French-speaking Maronite elite.” Hmmm… Riad al-Solh probably spoke French and, as a Sunni, was definitely not Maronite. The French merely empowered families that had already occupied positions of power in Lebanon. Some, like Edde, moved to grand positions through currying favor. Edde was much closer to the French than Khoury. Wait, when did Emile Edde become President? Oh, that’s right. He never did.

World Economic Forum Examines Transformations in Arab World

Opening speaker says “people power” could unleash economic boom

“I think the Middle East is going through a major transformation,” he said. “Many factors are contributing to this transformation — the increased oil revenues, the reforms, whether political or economic, that are happening here and there, the liberation of Iraq from a regime that was so harsh on its people. And I think this part of the world that has been in history on the frontier of science and education in the world, now hopefully will seize the moment and regain its importance if the leaders will take the opportunity,” Dabdoub said.

South Lebanon: the boom that never came

Five years after Israeli ouster, south Lebanon still awaits recovery.

By Jihad Siqlaoui – May 23 , 2005

Lebanese residents near the border with Israel had high hopes for an economic recovery when Israeli forces unilaterally withdrew five years ago, but the boom never came.

The border region has remained an economic wasteland, marred by sporadic violence.

The Shiite militia Hezbollah has maintained a heavy armed presence since the last Israeli soldier withdrew on May 24, 2000 from an 850-square-kilometer (330-square-mile) border zone in accordance with UN Resolution 425.

For Hezbollah, the battle is not over.

Hariri slaying hurt Lebanon’s economy By United Press International , May 23, 2005 Related Articles Central Bank: Lebanon debt rises $1 billion The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February had a negative impacton the national economy and banking system, a report says. The report by the private Audi Bank said Monday […]

Lebanese women seek their place in parliament

Lebanese women who won the right to vote in 1953 are calling for more seats in male-dominated parliament.

“In countries like ours, women enter politics in mourning clothes”. Christian opposition MP Nayla Moawad, who made the comment, is one of a few women running for a seat in Lebanon’s male-dominated parliament.

She was propelled onto the tribal political scene by the 1989 murder of her husband, president Rene Moawad.

Most female candidates for the four-stage polls that open May 29 are, like Moawad, linked to male political figures.

Bahia Hariri, who will be running for the fourth time in south Lebanon, is the sister of Rafiq Hariri, the five-time former reformist prime minister murdered last February 14.

Lebanese army kills man as rival Christians clash May 23 , 2005 BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese soldiers inadvertently shot dead one man as they intervened to break up a fight between supporters of rival groups in a Christian village northeast of Beirut on Sunday night, a security source said on Monday. He said troops fired […]

Lebanon’s Election: Free but Not Fair

May 22, 2005

Every week, my husband and I take a rickety old taxi to Hezbollah country. The emerald city of downtown Beirut, with its glittering luxury towers, drops away behind us; ruined buildings, their shell-shocked hulks festooned with laundry, loom ahead like ghost ships.

We soon leave Beirut proper and reach the dahiya — the dense and sprawling Shiite crescent, half suburb, half slum, that cradles the city’s southern borders. In the dahiya, home to my in-laws and a large swath of Beirut’s population, the recent anti-Syrian protests that became known as the Cedar Revolution seem like a fairy tale. “As an area, as dahiya, we’re not concerned about what’s happening in downtown,” one college student told me in March while demonstrations raged in Martyrs’ Square. “We regard what’s happening as a joke.”

Around the world, however, the candy-cane banners and multilingual college kids of the uprising caught the imagination of millions. Holding parliamentary elections on time, free of Syrian influence, became democracy’s new rallying cry. President Bush cautioned against delaying the poll, scheduled to run on four consecutive Sundays beginning May 29.