I don’t plan to follow slavishly current Lebanese politics on this blog, especially since the outcomes are often endless reformulations of “no victor, no vanquished” before another round of political escalation or outbreak of fighting occurs. However, I have been doing a bit of reading on Akkar of late, especially as it has gained interest [...]
Archive for May, 2008
Shouf Fighting and Druze Solidarity
Posted in Lebanese Politics, Lebanese society/culture, tagged Druze, Druze solidarity, PSP on May 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There is a lot of conflicting reporting being generated from the fighting that took place over the past several days in Choueifat (a mixed area in Beirut) and the Shouf mountains. According to this jumbled and poorly sourced LA Times article, Hezbollah fighters have already captured strategic Druze areas in Niha and Aley, although it [...]
Siege of West Beirut
Posted in Lebanese Politics, tagged sectarian conflict, Siege of West Beirut on May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Ahmad Fatfat, a March 14th minister, was being interviewed on al-Arabiya and paraphrased the famous line describing the PLO in Lebanon during the Civil War:حزب الله يعتبر ان طريق تل أبيب يمر من بيروت : “Hezbollah thinks the road to Tel Aviv passes through Beirut”. According to LBC, there’s currently SSNP militia around Clemencau (forgive [...]
The Political Geography of Lebanon (aka Jbeil needs an airport)
Posted in Lebanese Politics, tagged Kata'ib, Lebanese northern airport, Samir Khalaf on May 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the final violent spasms of the Lebanese crisis of 1958, the Christian Kata’ib party, outraged over the “rebellious” actions of the pan-Arab Lebanese oppositon and the kidnapping of a Kata’ib newspaper editor, decided to add a new trick to their political playbook. As Samir Khalaf notes in Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon, that [...]
The Sectarian Politics of Lebanese Raves
Posted in Lebanese society/culture, tagged Add new tag, Druze, Druze star, Lebanese nightlife, Lebanese sectarianism on May 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One thing in Lebanon that continues to interest me is the way in which sectarian identity pops up in the most unlikely of places. I went to the Ferry Corsten rave at BIEL (Beirut Exhibition and Leisure Center) last Friday, and was unsurprised to see quite a few folks sporting tattoos, including a number of [...]
