Category: Lebanon
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The miracle of Lebanon
The miracle of Lebanon is that it did not de-generate into the mess of the 1970s and 1980s. The Lebanese security forces have managed a crisis through extraordinary diplomacy even though it has been starved of funding by a political class that has been driven by infighting. Parliament has managed to elect a new government,…
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Syria….twelve years on
Its not easy assessing the situation in Syria, but the facts are very easy to manage if you are cynical. The idea that Aleppo, Hama and possibly Homs have fallen is a significant factor in the analysis of the war. But the question is what has happened to the Syrian army that it capitulated so…
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With the end of Biden comes another war….
With the end of Biden comes the realisation that he has not really got a handle on the process’ that he tried to put in place for peace in the Middle East. The idea of an all powerful US in the Middle East is taking precedence to the avenues of discussion that took place before…
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Voices in the Middle East
There is an argument that if you shout loud enough you will be heard. But in Israel there is also an argument that if you don’t give a damn, those voices will not be heard. The press in Israel is very slanted and the voices that are heard are those that shout loudly for the extermination…
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The problems bankers face in Lebanon and Libya
Bankers are not the most popular people among nations, but the bankers in Lebanon and Libya are that little more hated than elsewhere in the world. In Lebanon there have been housewives and pensioners holding up banks to get their money, the reason is that the dollar accounts they held no longer exist in the…
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Middle East in conflict
In an article by editor in chief of Haaretz, Aluf Benn, tells the story of Roi Rotberg, a man patrolling the fields of kibbutz Nahal. He had been taken by Palestinians and was horribly tortured, his eyes were poked out and the body was found on the Gaza side of the border. He told this…
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Repatriation of Syrians from Lebanon
According to Human Rights Watch, between April and May there have been 2000 Syrian refugees forcibly returned to Syria from Lebanon. They were undocumented, but that hides the real reason that Syrian’s are being forcibly returned. Since 2013, donors have disbursed $13 billion for the 1.5 million refugees who have entered Lebanon to escape the…
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Part two Lebanon politics
Politics in Lebanon is normally a dull affair where the same names and parties dominate arguments that morph into a singular contention of – what’s in it for me -. But since the uprising of October 2019, where hundreds and thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to demand political change, there has not been…
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Is Lebanon close to having an economy again?
Lebanon is in a mess, but is it close to getting out of this mess? Lebanon’s economy decelerated by 37 percent between 2018 and 2021, real gross domestic production (GDP) has fallen by 2.6 percent in 2022. But the most pressing question for the Lebanese is whether the economy is starting to build an element…
Current Affairs 