What if the Syrians had still been here?
The tendency among many Lebanese today is to deride the Independence Intifada of 2005. This…
Author Michael Young
The Rai rumor tells us little
For years a lubricious rumor had circulated about Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai. A Lebanese author…
Speechless in Bashar Assad’s Syria
To capture the essence of the Syrian regime’s behavior today, a very useful place to…
Christian minorities forced by fear into the dictators’ fold
The recent violence in Egypt between Copts and the Egyptian army, with its sectarian overtones,…
Bashar’s blood brothers
Among the more dismal displays in recent weeks has been that of governments openly expressing…
Maronites pray to a dispiriting trinity
This week the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa, citing sources at the Maronite patriarchate in Bkirki, reported…
Jumblatt’s Sunni disposition
To write that Walid Jumblatt is shifting political direction is a conspicuous waste of perfectly…
Lebanon’s troublesome political priest
If reverse had multiple gears, Beshara Rai would be shifting into fourth about now. Since…
Patriarch Rai, you’re wrong
Perhaps I’m alone, but in recent months almost no significant remark from Maronite Patriarch Bechara…
Kamal Salibi, crossroads to the man
In 2009, at the death of David Dodge, a former president of the American University…
Hezbollah faces its trial with errors
For a party that repeats how unconcerned it is with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,…
The maestro of envy
Among the more dismal spectacles in an already dismal political landscape is that of Michel…
Obama’s great escape on Syria
The Obama administration has embraced evasion and self-delusion in dealing with the ongoing repression in…
Najib Mikati, our own dead man walking
Last Saturday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, did more to discredit Prime Minister Najib…
For Arab despots, the skies are limited
Imagine, for a thrilling moment, that you are an Arab autocrat. Your regime has just…
Lebanon, fasten your seatbelt
The visit to Lebanon of Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near…
An Obama road map to change in Syria
Today, President Barack Obama, in what is being described by administration officials as “a major…
The Christians and the lions
Strangely, there has been uneasiness among some Lebanese Christians at the prospect that the Syrian…
Osama is dead. Good, but so what?
Who truly regrets the assassination of Osama bin Laden? There are those of us who…
Lebanon should prepare for a different Syria
On Wednesday, Syria got a reprieve at the United Nations Security Council, when Russia, China…
Decision time for the U.S. on Assad rule
The Obama administration’s policy toward Syria has been narrowly portrayed as vacillating between heart and…
Will the Syrians feel they were fooled?
Among the more idiosyncratic innovations of dictatorships is the mass demonstration in favor of the…
Shield Lebanon from the Arab upheavals
Two developments in the past 24 hours, one inside Lebanon, the other in neighboring Syria,…
For Beshara Rai, the headaches begin
Bishop Beshara Rai, who was elected Maronite patriarch on Tuesday to succeed Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir,…
Statements won’t halt Gadhafi’s crimes
Consider for one moment the savagery in Libya this week, when Moammar Gadhafi unleashed his…
Can Lebanon kill its own tribunal?
Reading between the lines of NOW Lebanon’s interview this week with François Roux, the head…
Why Arabs have airbrushed Lebanon out
One thing has been intriguing me since the beginning of the popular revolts in Tunisia…
To participate or not to participate?
Despite the talk of a “coup” circulating in recent days in March 14’s ranks, Saad…
The end of the affair
While there is still some doubt as to what will happen next Monday, when President…
Is Hezbollah’s eye mainly on Syria?
Two questions are essential in approaching the events of the past week in Lebanon. The…
A migraine moment for the opposition?
Did the opposition fall into a trap by bringing down the government of Prime Minister…
Amid stalemate, let negotiations begin!
Michel Aoun has announced the end of the Syrian-Saudi initiative, with no results. “[W]e’ve reached…
Being rotten to the state of Denmark
The decision of President Barack Obama to make a series of recess appointments that, among…
Ahead, a Syrian-Saudi obstacle course
The Syrian-Saudi initiative is like the abominable snowman. Some people claim to have seen it;…
The canard of regime change in Syria
Recently, the Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, offered up an interpretation that he has frequently repeated…
Who is really the big boss in Lebanon?
Little attention was paid last week to an Al-Hayat interview with the Iranian ambassador to…
An arresting development
Last week an amusing rumor circulated in Beirut. It went like this: The former head…
Apocalypse now? Maybe not
Hezbollah has been spreading word that it may soon implement an apocalyptic scenario to prevent…
Politics and Hizbullah’s grim language
The rhetoric of Hizbullah representatives lately has been so extreme, so contrary to the conventions…
What price for Bashar Assad’s backing?
Walid Jumblatt has been apocalyptic in predicting what lies ahead for Lebanon. The Druze leader…
Bashir, or the nearness of the precipice
Once a year, on September 14, members of the Gemayel family and supporters gather in…
It’s Security Council time for Bellemare
We can say of Daniel Bellemare, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, that…
Syria’s allies take their allotted places
If there were doubts that the rivalry between Syria and Hizbullah has reached new levels…
Was Burj Abi Haidar a battle by proxy?
You had to agree with the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar when it observed in its Wednesday…
Hassan Nasrallah’s guide to memory loss
Marvel at the contempt Hizbullah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, must feel for us all, that…
Playing three-ball billiards in Beirut
Lebanon is caught up in a game of political billiards these days, each side playing…
Has Hassan Nasrallah been too hasty?
If there were doubts about whether Hizbullah participated in the assassination of the former prime…
Outside the box, or out of their minds?
A perennial shortcoming in America’s interactions with the Middle East is that they tend to…
Hizbullah’s troublesome Turkish embrace
Hizbullah has been terribly excitable in recent weeks. It has threatened, condemned, demanded, and warned,…
Did you say McChrystal or MacArthur?
By the time you read this article, President Barack Obama should have decided whether to…