Persiflage & Paroxysm

If ever there was a country in dire need of a free Press Lebanon is that country. The extent to which corruption has become part of the culture and day to day lives of the Lebanese is simply shameful. But the Press, whose job it is to serve as society’s floodlights, shedding light on impropriety and corruption, lacks the requisite freedom to expose the corrupt. It is hobbled by a Press Law that is an archaic throw-back to Ottoman repression of public freedoms and which uses fear of prosecution and imprisonment as a means to silence the bravest among us. The Press and Media Law is tantamount to a media censorship law, whereby someone from outside the profession decides what the rules are and who is guilty of breaking them at any one time. It is a stick wielded by the state to keep journalists in line and to be used at its convenience of course to target political opponents. It is a dangerous road that we as a nation travel today, one shrouded in the fog of lies, half truths, rumor and i...

Scenario 1: Suppose a coup topples a moderate Arab regime. The coup leader decides, for the purpose of mobilizing his people's support, to start a new Arab Israeli war. The mood in the Arab world would no doubt support such an adventurer. Would Israel strike first with Nuclear weapons even before Arab armies make a move towards its border? With some of the characters in the present Israeli Government I wouldn't put it past them. Netanyahu et al respect Arab lives as much as the white Apartheid government of South Africa respected its black population. So the question here is whose nuclear weapons should we really be afraid of, should we be concerned of a 'Shiite bomb', the world did not come to an end at the acquisition of a 'Sunni Bomb' by Pakistan. So why are so many among us propagating this fear of a nuclear Iran. If it were up to me I would like to see a nuclear free Middle East, which includes the US taking away Israel's nuclear toys. But that will nev...

The following analysis is not intended as an endorsement of terrorism in any way, it is merely an open minded discourse, thinking out loud, an evaluation of the progression of terrorist tactics in the Middle East over the last 40 years. The conclusions drawn point to a relationship between the rising levels of injustice inflicted upon a people and the escalating violent reactions to these injustices. “…Our blows are directed at the weak parts in the enemy's structure, to throw him into confusion… “The operations of the Front demonstrate that the safety and life of any imprisoned member of the Revolution is no less valuable than the safety or life of any Westerner and that it will not permit Arab lands or Arabs to be considered as fair game for abuse… “Has it been said that these operations expose the lives of innocent people to danger? In today's world, no one is innocent, no one is neutral. A man is either with the oppressor or the oppressed. He who takes no interest in pol...

It's very easy to vent one's anger and call for war, very difficult to make cool calculated decisions and exploit the flotilla massacre politically in order to force Israel to submit to the will of the international community. First on the diplomatic agenda should be to increase the pressure on that rogue state to end the siege of Gaza. Second on the agenda should be to end the apartheid regime in place since 1948 and force Israel to stop ignoring its non-Jewish population, treating half of them as second class undesirables and the other half as enemy combatants confined in a huge open air prison. Turkey is now a valuable ally but if Turkey, Iran and the Arab states do not move to coordinate their actions, all that has been gained in international sympathy and all the political capital will be lost as anger abates with the passage of time. I suggest a summit between the leaders of Turkey, Syria, Iran and any other Arab state prepared to be associated with this alliance, Iraq? J...