July 4, 2008 3:43

Time Out For Lebanon's Government

Yet another sign that Beirut is on its way back: the re-launch today of Time Out Beirut, a local spin-off of the Time Out global listing and events magazines. Time Out Beirut took a little time out during the 2006 war with Israel, which broke out just a few issues after the publication's original launch. Then one thing after another -- jihadi uprisings, assassinations, mini-civil wars, and other stuff that makes party planning difficult -- kept it shut until now.

The relaunch caught the start of the summer season, when besides tourists, Lebanon holds its music festivals at various stunning locations including a Roman temple complex in the Bekaa valley, a crusader fortress by the sea, and an Ottoman palace in the mountains. But the fun hasn't quite started in earnest. For one thing, there has yet to be the usual massive influx of wealthy Gulf tourists. The Gulfies -- unlike most Europeans and Americans for whom Beirut is still a byword for urban warfare -- are usually pretty good at reading the Lebanese scene. They disappear when things get nasty, but return soon after the dust settles.

What's holding some of the Gulfies back now is the fact that the feuding Lebanese political parties have still not formed a new government. That should have been done soon after the election by parliament of former army commander Michael Sulieman as president in late May, as called for in the Doha agreement that was supposed to have settled the sporadically violent Lebanese political crisis.

But yet again, Lebanese politicians are proving just how irresponsible they are and have failed to come to an agreement on the distribution of cabinet seats. In Doha the two sides agreed that the Hizballah-led opposition should have more seats in the Cabinet, but now they can't decide who gets what ministry. It seems that much of the trouble stems from Christian opposition leader Michael Aoun, who's own own presidential ambitions give him an interest in seeing the Sulieman presidency fail. But it also appears that the United States hasn't learned its lesson, and is still interfering in Lebanese politics, trying to keep the security related ministries -- Defense and Interior -- out of the hand of the Hizballah led-opposition.

But the chances of these disagreements spilling into the streets again soon seems slim. For one thing, Lebanon's fate is now tied as much to regional and global events -- the growing power of Iran, the war in Iraq, etc -- that all seem dependent on the American presidential election that won't occur until November. For another, there'd be a public backlash against any group that ruined the country's badly needed summer tourist season. And at least for now, Lebanese have figured out how to carry on in the absence of a government. Even when the country has one it barely works.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut

July 3, 2008 8:35

Bulldozer Monster

What’s the difference between a madman and a terrorist? I ask that after reporting yesterday’s rampage when an Arab ran amok with a bulldozer on a busy Jerusalem, killing three people and wounding 45 others.

By all accounts, the killer Hosam Dawyyat didn’t belong to a Palestinian terrorist group, wasn’t ideologically motivated (quite the opposite; he was busted for drugs and also reportedly served time on a rape charge, police say). He was having lunch and joking around with his co-workers on a construction site, and then something snapped. He climbed into a 20-ton bulldozer and charged into the street, smashing everything in his path. He didn’t stop to inquire if there were only Jews on the two buses that he smashed and flipped over, although there were undoubtedly Arabs on board, too.

We’ll probably never know what made him snap. Was his barbaric act triggered by the rage and humiliation that many Arabs feel in this fragmented holy land? Was it something deeply personal, a depth charge that finally bumped into something in his psyche and blew up? Who knows?

If this had happened in a different country, in the U.S., perhaps, we wouldn’t say he was a terrorist. We’d say he was crazy, and we’d add him to the long line of madmen who go on killing sprees in schools, post offices and churches.

But in Israel, because Dawyyat was an Arab, his bloody insanity was branded an act of terrorism, and politicians began talking about exacting punishment against Arabs living in East Jerusalem, bulldozing down some of their houses and exiling them to Gaza. Another option: walling off the Arab neighborhoods completely. Of course this won’t happen. It was said in anger and outrage. And after all, Israel is a democracy, and there are plenty of clear minds out there that can distinguish between a single, terrible act of madness and calculated terrorism. Today, Jerusalemites were back on Jaffa Road , streaming up to the open-air market to buy food for the Sabbath. So much sorrow over the years has given Jerusalemites a tremendous resilience.

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem

July 1, 2008 11:10

Staying Hungry

As I teach my students, one of the most important skills young journalists need to develop is the ability to find free food. So just to stay in practice, last week I went to a food fair in Beirut, hoping to find out such culinary secrets as the best way to make kibbeh dumplings, and how to cook with yogurt... and get some samples.

But though the convention center was decked out like an Arab version of Iron Chief -- lots of stainless steel and grape leaves -- I arrived well before the start of any of the food competitions, except for water mellon carving. An admirable skill no doubt, but surely not one indigenous to the Levant?

For obvious reasons, I was even more disappointed to miss the drinks competition. Lebanese bartenders are the best in the region, for at least two reasons: Lebanese like booze and they like to show off. Think of Tom Cruise in "Cocktail"-type bottle spinning tricks performed by a man who probably has a working understanding of explosives in a country short on personal injury lawyers. There is usually so much burning liquid at these things you wonder why they don't pass out safety goggles.

But on my way out I did catch one interesting stall. An olive oil producer showed me the difference between refined olive oil -- the light clear stuff we get in the States and is used often in salad dressings -- and the murky unrefined stuff that stays in the region but which is both better tasting an healthier. (He says). Has any one heard this before?

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

|

June 27, 2008 9:45

Amman: Jet Set Watering-Hole?

Posted by Andrew Lee Butters | Comments (14) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

Jordan's a great place, home to many a geological splendor (the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum) and archeological wonder (Petra, Jerash). But is it me or does this recent article in the New York Times Real Estate section go a little far in promoting Amman as an oasis of stability for sophisticated expatriates?

A few jarring passages (NY Times text in italics):

1) “It’s a very livable city,” said Robert Pingeon, a New Yorker who moved to Amman in 2006 with his wife, Emily Lodge. ..."It’s also a great place to get to other places — Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv — they’re all only a short distance away.”

This is what people say when they live somewhere boring. Delaware: It's halfway between New York and Washington!

Also, it's perhaps not so wise for an American to talk publicly about going both to Tel Aviv and Damascus. Hope Mr. Pingeon doesn't have any Israeli stamps on his passport next time he goes to Syria.

2) “If someone asked me about moving to Amman, I’d say don’t hesitate.... It’s a place that gives you a beautiful blend of tradition and more liberal cosmopolitanism.” [According to Adnan Habboo, an Iraqi American who moved to Amman.]

Actually, the blend between tradition and modernity is not always so smooth in Amman. Try eating food in public during Ramadan. And though I can't vouch for their experience, single female foreign friends tell me they get harassed all the time in Jordan, much more so than in Lebanon or even Syria.

3) Both of them [Haboo and his wife] are staunch supporters of monarchy, the Jordanian form of government. “It gives the country an extra degree of political stability,” Mr. Habboo said.

Ah yes, the firm hand of authoritarianism. Does wonders for maintaining home prices.

4) In addition, Amman’s reputation as a safe haven is attracting many Palestinian, and now Iraqi, refugees.

A tidal wave of refugees? The word is out. Go buy that second home before Amman goes the way of the Hamptons.

5) With Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, Israel to the west and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan is in the eye of the Middle Eastern storm. Despite its proximity to conflict, Amman, the capital, is a very peaceful place where people come to do business, leaving their disputes at the border.

Yes, Jordan is one of the calmest countries in the Middle East. And yes, outsiders tend to have an exaggerated notion of the risks of living in the Middle East. But Jordan isn't merely surrounded by the conflicts of the Middle East, it is inextricably linked to them. Which is why there are perhaps as many Iraqi and Palestinian refugees in Jordan as their are original Jordanians.

Though those conflicts have temporarily stabilized -- with the Hamas truce and Israeli-Palestinain peace talks on the on hand, and the Iraq surge on the other -- Jordan is on a knife's edge. If Iraq falls apart when the surge ends, and if peace talks fail for good, those disasters won't stop at the border.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

|

June 27, 2008 7:37

Palestinian Fulbrights Stranded in Gaza

Posted by Tim McGirk | Comments (97) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

These lucky Palestinian scholars made it across.Three others didn't./Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Tall and clear-eyed, Zohair Abu Shaban, has an air of linear correctness about him. There's no mistaking him for anything other than an engineer. He also looks like he'd fit into any American campus. And that's what he thought, too. Because of his fine grades, he was one of seven male and female students from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza to be awarded a Fulbright grant –-the premier American scholarship-- to study in the U.S..

But when he tried to leave Gaza earlier this month, Abu Shaban claims he was taken into an Israeli interrogation cell at the Erez checkpoint and told that he must work as an informer in Gaza, dishing dirt on his family members, his neighbors and his university colleagues. " The Israeli told me that If I didn't agree, I had to go back to Gaza and give up my dreams of studying in the U.S. forever." He added, "In other words, he tried to blackmail me."

Abu Shaban refused, and he was sent back to Gaza. His case and those of two other top Gaza students --Omar Dawoud and Fida Abed-- who were also refused exit from Gaza, despite the fact that they were given security clearance by the U.S. Homeland Security agency, has outraged academics and human rights activist. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is personally lobbying with the Israelis to secure their release from Gaza.

The seven scholars were initially told by U.S. diplomats that the Israelis banned their passage out of Gaza. But after the New York Times wrote about it, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice then personally intervened, and the Israelis agreed to let four of them out.

So why were Abu Shaban, Dawoud and Abed denied passage, and the others allowed out? Those are details that Israeli security officials so far have refused to share with American diplomats, and certainly not with the three Palestinian students.

When I met with the trio in Gaza last week at a seaside cafe, they told me they could only hazard a guess. "All three of us went to the Islamic University, and the other four didn't," says Abed. Several professors close to Hamas teach at the Islamic university but, as Dawoud says, there are 23,000 students on its campus. "It's the only university in Gaza where we could study engineering. None of us are connected to Hamas, or politics."

"It's collective punishment to brand all students there as Hamas people. We care about learning and getting good grades," protested Abed. :"Not politics."

The State Department is still negotiating with the Israelis over the student’s plight. For their sakes, I hope that Ms. Rice has better luck with the three Fulbright scholars than she's had with the removal of illegal Israeli outposts inside Palestinian territories.

At first I was hesitant to write about Abu Shaban and the others. I wasn’t sure how the Israeli security apparatus would react. All it takes is some easily offended bureaucrat to take this as a personal slight and put the stamp of “National Security” on the students’ dossiers. If that happens, all of Ms Rice’s good intentions are for naught.

“It would be wonderful if we get out of Gaza,” says Abu Shaban. “But we’re not the only ones. There are still 700 students in Gaza who have places waiting for them in universities outside. And none of them can get out.” With no jobs inside Gaza, and no way to escape, it’s not surprising that a few of these frustrated students may want to join the boys with the guns. Is that really what Israel wants?

By Tim McGirk/Gaza