Month: July 2006

Poor Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "Liberated" Iraq’s chief government official came to Washington hoping to shore up the precarious position of his regime as it teeters on the brink of civil war, and all he got was this: "Mr. Maliki’s refusal to condemn Hezbollah has created an awkward situation for the White House. ‘His statements … Continue reading “Lebanon: Winners and Losers”

Mocked just months ago as a fool and a lightweight compared to his legendarily shrewd father, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears increasingly to have become the "go-to guy" in resolving the two-week-old war between Hezbollah and Israel. While neoconservatives and other hardliners in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush ruled out any thought … Continue reading “Damascus Now Seen As Pivotal in Mideast Crisis”

BEIRUT – Among hundreds of thousands of refugees scattered across city parks, schools, and abandoned buildings in Beirut, new and chilling words have been doing the rounds. A senior Israeli air force official announced on Israeli army radio that "Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy … Continue reading “Lebanese Refugees Have Only Their Anger”

Ambulances appear to be have become a target of the Israeli military in its quest to oust Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Red Crescent Society has reported five “security incidents” since the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah earlier this month sparked a large-scale Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon. At least 10 ambulances … Continue reading “Israeli Offensive Targeting Relief Efforts?”

The United States has been reduced to the role of passive bystander as a new stage of sectarian civil war has begun in Iraq, marked by military units with heavy weaponry carrying out mass killings. Last week’s bloody massacre in Mahmoudiya illustrates both the new level of sectarian violence and the U.S.’ role as passive … Continue reading “US Now a Bystander in Iraq’s Sectarian War”

Even as the war in southern Lebanon heats up and a cease-fire looks increasingly distant, thoughts turn to what will happen in the aftermath. Since the 1960s, Lebanon’s many religious groups have had strained relations, but a unified Lebanon could be one of the few positive results of the current violence. For most of the … Continue reading “Israeli Onslaught May Spark Aounist Resurgence”

This week I had the pleasure to appear on American radio, on the Laura Ingraham show, pitted against David Horowitz, who most recently made his name under the banner of Campus Watch, leading McCarthyite witch-hunts against American professors who have the impertinence to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Arabs have minds and feelings like the … Continue reading “Five Myths That Sanction Israel’s War Crimes”

Living out in southern Utah, in the red-rock country, I don’t hear the news much, nor do I much care that I’m missing it. No radio, no television. Limited access to the Web via a contentedly glacial dial-up line. Lately something about Israel and Hezbollah and the bombing of Lebanon filters in, mostly from friends … Continue reading “The Isolationist Song in Paradise”

The United States is using authoritarian Arab leaders, who fear that Iran could export its revolutionary political model to their disgruntled populations and are concerned about Washington’s reprisal against them à la Saddam Hussein in Iraq, as a buffer between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, Washington’s protégé in the Middle East, analysts here say. "Saudi … Continue reading “US Turns to Arab Dictators to Contain Hezbollah”

BEIRUT – About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show. "This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut’s largest, told IPS Monday. Not only are most of the … Continue reading “Bombings Hit Lebanese Children Hardest”