NDI: Report on Lebanon’s 2009 Election
March 18th, 2010 by Josh
The National Democratic Institute recently released its “Final Report on the Lebanese Parliamentary Election” [PDF], which finds that although the 2009 contest was “fundamentally peaceful and well-administered,” a combination of political deals and a unique electoral system “meant that the outcome was predetermined in all but a few of the most contested regions.” To improve Lebanon’s electoral processes and strengthen its vulnerable democratic institutions, NDI offers a set of sixteen general recommendations and expresses its hope that regional actors “give space so that continued electoral reform and democratic development can move forward and Lebanon can freely determine its own future within the framework of autonomous democratic institutions.”
If interested, an Arabic version of the report is available as well.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Elections, Lebanon, Publications | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Lebanon: Is Real Reform Possible?”
March 10th, 2010 by Josh
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in partnership with the Safadi Foundation USA, hosted an event to explore the prospects for meaningful reform in Lebanon. Will the Lebanese government be able to strengthen the institutional framework that is required to expand economic opportunity and break down the clientelist structure of the Lebanese state? To answer this question, Mohammad Safadi – Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade and a Member of Parliament – discussed the current situation on the ground and outlined specific steps to move the reform process forward.
For POMED’s notes in PDF, click here. Otherwise, continue reading below.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Reform, Sectarianism, Syria | Comment »
POMED Notes: “The Role of New Media in Promoting Reform in the Middle East: The Case of Lebanon”
March 5th, 2010 by Josh
The Project on Middle East Democracy and the Safadi Foundation USA hosted an event to discuss the implications of “connection technologies” for U.S. foreign policy. The year 2009 witnessed an explosion of Internet-based activism in the political cultures of the Middle East. The Use of information and communication technology (ICT) has been a transformative tool in strengthening civil society and expanding the outreach of independent voices. What types of U.S. assistance are needed to empower young reformers committed to non-sectarian politics? What is the role of ICT in promoting inter-faith dialogue and peace building? To answer things questions, Mona Yacoubian, Director of the Lebanon Working Group at USIP, moderated a discussion featuring Jared Cohen, a member of Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State. Elias Muhanna, the other expected panelist and publisher of the widely-read blog www.qifanabki.com, was unable to attend due to the recent birth of his daughter.
For full notes in PDF, click here. Otherwise, continue reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Foreign Aid, Hamas, Hezbollah, Lebanon, NGOs, Reform, Sectarianism, Technology, US foreign policy | 1 Comment »
Lebanon: Parliament Rejects Amendment to Lower Voting Age
February 22nd, 2010 by Chanan
Lebanon’s parliament has rejected today a hotly-debated constitutional amendment to lower the country’s voting age from 21 to 18, a proposition reported to have provoked Christian-Muslim tension and ignited concerns about the stability of the country’s tenuous power-sharing political system.
Anticipating the results, an editorial in today’s Daily Star chided the Christian members of Parliament for indulging an attitude prevalent among legislators across the religious spectrum that places “interests of their sect ahead of the interests of democracy and the country’s population as a whole.”
The controversial bill has predominantly rankled the Maronite Christian community, whose political leverage has diminished steadily over the years with their relative decline in birth rates and higher levels of emigration. Though no census has been issued in Lebanon since 1932, the Maronite community now represents an estimated 30 percent of the country’s population. According to analysis in the AFP, lowering the voting age would add more than 50,000 Christians and 175,000 Muslims to the electorate. To contend with the shifting demographics, Christian Maronite MPs have advocated including the votes of expatriates throughout the world.
“Christians fear the numbers,” says Paul Salem, director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, in an interview with the AFP. “Mainly it is a fear that lowering the voting age might be the first step in rethinking the entire political structure.”
A two-thirds quorum is necessary to amend the constitution. In today’s vote, a mere 34 of the legislature’s 128 members voted for the measure, while 66 abstained and one voted against. The remaining 27 MPs refrained from attending the session.
Posted in Lebanon, Sectarianism | Comment »
Pew Poll: Mixed, Decreasing Support for Hamas and Hezbollah
February 10th, 2010 by Maria
A newly released Pew Poll has some interesting new data on opinions from 25 Middle Eastern countries.
Hamas: Numbers show positive support for Hamas in Jordan (56 percent) and Egypt (52 percent) but interestingly enough, 52 percent of Palestinians rated the group negatively over 44 percent who rated them positively. Even more interesting is that only 37 percent of Gazans favored Hamas as opposed to 47 percent in the West Bank. Turkish respondents only gave Hamas 5 percent of its support.
Hezbollah: 63 percent of Palestinians and 51 percent of Jordanians rated Hezbollah positively - but the group did not poll as high in Egypt (43 percent) and actually rated the lowest in Lebanon (34 percent). However, in Lebanon, not surprisingly Hezbollah’s support was specific to religious divides. Nearly all of Lebanon’s Shia Muslims (97 percent) were in favor of the group, compared to only 18 percent of Lebanese Christians and 2 percent of Lebanese Sunni Muslims. Like Hamas, Hezbollah received very little support among Turks (3 percent).
Noah Pollack concludes at Commentary, “The good news is that Muslims in the Middle East tend not to like the Islamists in their own countries. The bad news is that they tend to like the Islamists in other countries.” Although it is worth noting that Hamas and Hezbollah are very different from most “Islamist” groups in the region, which are unarmed.
This polling data was released last week, though the surveys were conducted between May and June of 2009. Click here to access a full PDF version of the report, which also includes polling numbers on views of Muslim leaders, the Sunni-Shia conflict and Lebanon’s growing divide.
Posted in Egypt, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Public Opinion, Turkey | Comment »
Lebanon: Corruption by the Grand Mufti?
February 2nd, 2010 by Jessica
The Daily Star reports that Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, head of the Dar al-Fatwa council, has been urged to respond to allegations of corruption by Former Prime Minister Salim Hoss. Media sources report that Hoss’ allegations were made in Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority. Hoss’ condemnation of Qabbani, followed fall media campaigns questioning Dar al-Fatwa’s financial integrity and transparency and accusing the Grand Mufti of embezzling thousands of dollars from the aforementioned council in 2009. The Daily Star reports that Hoss’ letter asks for a resolution to the allegations against the Grand Mufti, though he remains skeptical of Qabbani’s innocence, “Keeping quiet about this issue for so long proves that the accusations are true.” Hoss openly expresses his fear that a failure to resolve the issue of Qabbani’s integrity will lead to sectarian violence, “I am afraid that a decision to remain in your post, which you are no longer worthy of, would be cause for sectarian strife within the ranks of your confession.”
Posted in Lebanon, Public Opinion, Reform | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Assessing ‘A New Way Forward’: One Year of the Obama Administration in the Middle East”
January 21st, 2010 by Josh
The Project on Middle East Democracy hosted an event to analyze President Obama’s first year in office and present ideas for a more substantive engagement in democracy promotion moving forward. In his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama declared, “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” This vision of a “new way forward” became a theme of the Obama administration’s interactions with the Arab and Muslim world during its first year. President Obama further articulated this vision in his major speech in Cairo, in which he identified seven major challenges that the U.S. and the Muslim world must confront together: violent extremism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, nuclear nonproliferation, democracy, women’s rights, religious freedom, and economic development. Now, on the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration, we gather to assess the Obama administration’s first year and to examine further opportunities for the administration to implement its vision of a new beginning with the Arab and Muslim world.
POMED’s Executive Director Andrew Albertson provided opening remarks and introduced the keynote speaker, Senator Robert Casey, Jr (D-PA). Daniel Brumberg of the U.S. Institute of Peace then moderated a panel of six speakers, each of whom participated in one of POMED’s three regional conferences in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan: Mohammad Azraq, 2010 Leaders for Democracy Fellow in Jordan; Karim Bayoud, Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections; Cole Bockenfeld, International Foundation for Electoral Systems; David Linfield, Fulbright Fellow in Jordan; Bassem Samir, Egyptian Democratic Academy; and Jessica O’Higgins, International Student Exchange Programs.
Albertson moderated the second panel, which consisted of: Adel Abdellatif, Arab States Bureau, UN Development Programme; Michele Dunne, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Steven Kull, Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA) provided closing remarks.
For POMED’s notes in PDF, please click here. Otherwise, continue reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Egypt, Elections, Foreign Aid, Human Rights, Islamist movements, Jordan, Kurds, Lebanon, Legislation, Political Parties, Public Opinion, Publications, Reform, sanctions | 1 Comment »
POMED Notes: “Syria’s Democratic Past: Lessons for the Future”
January 8th, 2010 by Josh
The National Endowment for Democracy hosted a presentation by Dr. Radwan Ziadeh entitled “Syria’s Democratic Past: Lessons for the Future.” Dr. Ziadeh is the founding director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies. He was most recently a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and a 2008–2009 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights. Dr. Steven Heydemann, vice president of the grant and fellowships program and special adviser to the Muslim World Initiative at the U.S. Institute of Peace, followed Ziadeh’s presentation with commentary and analysis. Karen Farrell, Senior Program Officer for NED’s Middle East and North Africa Program, moderated the event.
For POMED’s notes in PDF, please click here. Otherwise, keep reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Freedom, Human Rights, Lebanon, Middle Eastern Media, Protests, Reform, Syria | 2 Comments »
Constitutional Reform: Process and Momentum in the Arab World
January 7th, 2010 by Josh
A revealing report by the The Arab Reform Initiative highlights the previous two decades of constitutional reform in the Arab world, and examines both the underlying catalyst for “democratic shifts” and the future direction of these reforms within five countries: Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Algeria, and Mauritania.
Though the report, written by Amina El Messaoudi, recognizes the unique internal circumstance of each country’s process toward reformation, it uncovers several thematic similarities across the Arab community. More specifically, it points to constitutional reforms in five general areas: 1) State support of human rights law, 2) Gender equality and women’s representation, 3) Reinforcement of constitutional law, 4) Multi-party systems, and 5) Financial regulation.
However, the impetus for democratic progress often came from different sources. Messaoudi writes that the ruling power initiated reforms in places like Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia, while opposition parties jump-started the process in Morocco. On a functional level, civil society and media helped to spur reformation in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and Mauritania, “whereas in [Algeria and Bahrain] national treaties served as the entry point for amendments.”
Parliamentary restructuring in favor of bicameral legislatures played a key role by slowly shifting power away from the executive, Messaoudi reports, however three roadblocks prevented widespread progress on that front: 1) The second legislative body is often significantly less democratic with many members appointed directly by the country’s executive, 2) most Arab constitutions impart similar powers and responsibilities to both parliamentary chambers, which “impedes a dynamic relationship from forming between them,” and 3) heads of state retain the sole authority to dissolve the parliament.
While acknowledging that these efforts “have not profoundly altered the political and constitutional arrangements in these countries,” the report attributes the “change in the relationship between the powers, and an increased role for political parties, as well as civil society” to the movement for constitutional reform throughout much of the region, and believes that civil society has been “empowered to undertake an effective role in future constitutional amendments.”
Posted in Algeria, Bahrain, Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Political Parties, Reform, Tunisia | 1 Comment »
Christians: Embattled in the Middle East
December 23rd, 2009 by Zack
Nina Shea at National Review Online reports that the Vatican is planning a special synod of Roman Catholic bishops next October to discuss the problem of Christian flight from the region and to promote greater ecumenical unity in the Middle East. She argues that many Christian communities in the region are forced into social isolation and that the fleeing of Christians signals the disappearance of religious pluralism and the rise of a wholly Islamicized Middle East for the first time in history. Lastly, she calls on readers to become more informed about the situation and to aid the work of three Christian leaders in particular: Habib Malik, a Lebanese scholar and lay Roman Catholic, Bishop Thomas of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, and Canon Andrew White, an Anglican priest in Iraq.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports on the numerous threats against Iraqi Christians warning to not celebrate Christmas. According to the article, “Christians said they were as fearful as they have been since 2006, when the outbreak of sectarian warfare forced many to leave their neighborhoods for months at a time.”
Posted in Egypt, Human Rights, Iraq, Lebanon, Public Opinion, Sectarianism | Comment »
Lebanon: Contesting Hezbollah’s Arms
December 23rd, 2009 by Zack
The Daily Star reports that the Phalange party is filing suit with the Constitutional Court contesting the legitimacy of article six of the Cabinet policy statement that upheld the right to Resistance. Hezbollah MP Nawaf Moussawi rejects the suit and claims that the party’s right to maintain an arsenal “is part of the national charter; thus we do not need approval from this side or another.”
At the same time, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is calling for a “psychological war” against Israel designed to counter recent Israeli maneuvers aimed at convincing the region of the Israeli army’s invincibility. In response, The Daily Star editorial staff contends that while Nasrallah is well-intentioned, he seeks to draw the entire country into Hezbollah’s camp. Instead, the paper pushes for a national diplomatic-defense initiative to build trust in the nation.
Posted in Freedom, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Mideast Peace Plan, Military, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
Syria-Lebanon: The Return of the Strong Horse
December 22nd, 2009 by Zack
The meeting between Saad Hariri and Bashar Asaad (see out post) is being viewed by many as a turning point in Lebanon-Syria ties. AFP reports on several reactions to the visit. Paul Salem, head of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, contends “through his visit, [Hariri] has announced the end of the confrontation.” Ghassan al-Azzi, political science professor at the Lebanese University, said Hariri’s visit to Damascus marked a radical change in the foundations on which he had built his political alliances.
Meanwhile, Babylon and Beyond reports that while many Lebanese politicians have publicly praised the visit, it “comes as a disappointment for many supporters who remember the heady days of the so-called ‘Cedar Revolution’ following Rafik Hariri’s assassination, when tiny Lebanon appeared to have beaten back Goliath Syria.”
Michael Totten argues that Hariri has been backed into a political corner by Hezbollah and by a lack of international support. As such, the meeting indicates that Syria has “re-emerged as the strong-horse in Lebanon.” Totten takes exception with the American and French moves to “engage” Syria, which ultimately threatens to empower Hezbollah and collapse the anti-Syrian government in Lebanon.
Laura Rozen also writes that rumors of Adam Ereli being named envoy to Damascus are unfounded and that the name speculation for a “Syria envoy is all a bit premature.” James Denselow, however, argues that the absense of a U.S. ambassador to Syria remains an insult to the country and that President Obama must correct this in order to “better assess whether there is any hope of Syria opening up” and engage in the slow process of pushing for change.
UPDATE: David Schenker argues that “Hariri’s trip to Damascus represents the return of Syrian influence to Lebanon, and perhaps, the end of the Cedar Revolution.”
Posted in Hezbollah, Human Rights, Islam and Democracy, Lebanon, Public Opinion, Syria, US foreign policy | Comment »
Lebanon and Syria: Hariri Meets With Assad
December 21st, 2009 by Jason
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Syria this weekend in an attempt, in his words, to “open new horizons between the two countries.” In turn, President Assad insisted he is “very attached to sincere relations based on common understanding.” In response, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah observed the trip has helped make the “atmosphere comfortable” between the two countries. Hariri returned to Beirut Sunday night ahead of Monday’s first meeting of the new cabinet.
Many Lebanese politicians expressed their approval of the historic trip, except for Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Jumblatt who refused to comment. The New York Times focused on how “the trip epitomized a national story with anguished, almost operatic dimensions: a young leader forced to shake hands with the man who he believes killed his father.”
Meanwhile, Nasrallah also dismissed anyone who questions Hezbollah’s arsenal as “mercenaries” during a speech in the preparation for the Day of Ashura.
Finally, Joshua Landis reports that Ambassador Joseph Adam Ereli may be the next U.S. representative in Damascus, but admits that there are many other possibilities as well.
Posted in Diplomacy, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Political Parties, Syria, US foreign policy | 1 Comment »
POMED Notes: “Saudi Arabia: The New Dynamics”
December 20th, 2009 by Jason
The Middle East Institute hosted a lecture by Thomas Lippman entitled “Saudi Arabia: The New Dynamics.” Lippman, who has been traveling to Saudi Arabia for over thirty years, recently returned from a month-long trip to the desert kingdom. While Lippman admitted there have been some “really bad books” written about Saudi Arabian history since September 11th, he is currently writing a new book that will focus on the country’s future.
For POMED’s notes in PDF, please click here. Otherwise, keep reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Elections, Islam and Democracy, Lebanon, Oil, Reform, Saudi Arabia, US foreign policy, Women | Comment »
Lebanon: Sleiman Returns from U.S. Trip
December 17th, 2009 by Jason
President Michel Sleiman has returned to Beirut after a week of meetings with U.S. officials in Washington. Among other topics, Sleiman urged the U.S. to help Lebanon enhance its ability to defend itself with advanced weaponry and emphasized the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. While President Obama promised to help empower the Lebanese Army, he also urged Sleiman to take a stronger role in stemming weapons smuggling and enforcing U.N. Security Resolution 1701.
According to Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman, Hezbollah is “a strong institution, but at the same time a militia that is violating international resolutions and subjecting the Lebanese people to dangers.” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has also accused Hezbollah’s arsenal of undermining Lebanese sovereignty.
AFP reports that a Lebanese woman has for the first time opened a bank account in the name of her underage children after the country’s bank association changed its discriminatory regulations.
Posted in Diplomacy, Freedom, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Military, Reform, Saudi Arabia, US foreign policy, United Nations, Women | Comment »
Lebanon: Justice Development
December 16th, 2009 by Zack
Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar met with his French counterpart to discuss a bilateral judicial cooperation agreement that Najjar hopes will be signed soon. The Lebanese judiciary has requested the immediate release of an Iraqi refugee who was deemed to have been held in prison arbitrarily for more than six months. The court that made the decision reportedly based its decision on an international agreement signed by Lebanon stipulating that foreigners cannot be deported if they face danger in their home country.
The Daily Star reports that Palestinian Fatah representatives in Lebanon affirmed that refugee camps will not become independent from the Lebanese state and that reports of sleeper cells are overblown, despite claims by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) leader Ahmad Jibril’s that the group will not surrender its weapons to the Lebanese government. Jibril also urged Lebanon to adopt laws “similar to the one in Syria” dealing with the political situation, as well as the living and social conditions, of Palestinian refugees.
Finally, Michael Allen relays an article by Rafid Fadhil Ali that argues Hezbollah has downplayed its “radical Shiite rhetoric” but, at the same time, “the group’s regional and international strategy have changed little.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Hezbollah, Judiciary, Lebanon, Reform | Comment »
Lebanon: Sleiman Meets with Obama
December 15th, 2009 by Jason
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman met with President Obama yesterday. Obama affirmed “we want to do everything we can to encourage a strong, independent and democratic Lebanon” while also expressing concerns over weapon smuggling. In addition, the two presidents discussed U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Both Israel and Lebanon blame the other side for failing to implement the resolution’s measures. Sleiman also met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Biden.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hariri visited Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, discussing the need for enhanced bilateral ties. At the same time, The Daily Star reports that Lebanese politicians “flocked” to Syria to offer their condolences following the death of President Assad’s brother, Majd.
Finally, The Daily Star also summarizes the findings on Lebanon by a recent report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies report’s (see our post here). The report focuses on this year’s political stalemate, Lebanon’s freedom of assembly, and Lebanon’s ratification of the Optional Protocol of the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Israel, Lebanon, Mideast Peace Plan, Military, Saudi Arabia, Syria, US foreign policy, United Nations | 1 Comment »
Report: Human Rights on the Decline Part II
December 12th, 2009 by Jason
As we reported earlier, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) has released a comprehensive and thorough report, called “Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform,” on the state of human rights throughout the Arab world. The full report in Arabic spans 254 pages and chronicles in detail the backsliding on human rights in the region while also identifying a few points of optimism. In addition to the full report, CIHRS has released a translation of the report’s introduction written by their general director, Bahey eldin Hassan, as well as a 21-page summary of the report in English.
According to Hassan’s introduction, while there have been important strides to “ease repressive measures” in the Middle East under the Forum of the Future regional initiative, in no country were there “real constitutional, legislative, or institutional gains that could upset the balance of power between authoritarian regimes and the forces of reform.” Hassan blames this failure on the narrow focus on electoral reform at the expense of human rights, the contradictory actions of the G-8 countries, attempts by the Arab League to co-opt reform with their own homegrown initiatives, and the European and American fear of Islamist electoral victories. Finally, Hassan contends “the last spark in the initiatives was quashed once and for all with the arrival of a new US administration” apparently unwilling to support democracy rhetorically.
Now, Hassan warns that the minor gains made over the past five years are under a “counterattack by Arab governments. Among other examples of backtracking, the Arab league disabled the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which only had 10 of 22 signatory countries to begin with. As with the CIHRS report last year, Hassan concludes that “lack of political will on the part of most regimes in the Arab region was the key to understanding and explaining chronic human rights problems in the region.”
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Posted in Algeria, Arab League, Bahrain, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, EU, Egypt, Elections, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Gulf, Hamas, Hezbollah, Human Rights, Iraq, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Israel, Jordan, Journalism, Judiciary, Kurds, Lebanon, Legislation, Military, Morocco, Multilateralism, Muslim Brotherhood, NGOs, Palestine, Political Islam, Political Parties, Protests, Public Opinion, Publications, Reform, Saudi Arabia, Sectarianism, Syria, Tunisia, US foreign policy, United Nations, Western Sahara, Women, Yemen | 1 Comment »
Lebanon: Government Approved
December 11th, 2009 by Zack
Al-Arabiyya reports that Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s national unity government won a resounding 122 out of 128 vote of confidence from the Lebanese parliament, which came despite discontent voiced from Christian MPs over Hezbollah’s arms. The vote has paved the way for Hariri to meet with Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Michael Young has a piece questioning if the Maronite movement can reinvent itself. He argues the Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has been a “beacon on matters of legitimacy,” but his recent comments that Hezbollah should disarm and his adherence to Lebanon’s confessional system may cause the Maronites to suffer. Young believes that the Christian community is too hung up on holding the presidency and that, instead, Sfeir should embrace Walid Jumblatt’s rotation idea and renegotiate the structure of the Senate now while the Christians are still in a position of strength.
The Daily Star reports on a study, organized by the Masar Association in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, that shows Islamic movements in Lebanon share many goals with civil society organizations, including “tackling corruption, fighting the misspending of funds and advocating a fair election law.” The report is a response to the social tension Masar’s youth development program faced from Islamists. Highlighting Islamic movements’ demographic strengths, the group calls for development agencies and Islamists to build greater cooperation.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Freedom, Hezbollah, Islamist movements, Lebanon, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
Lebanon: Hezbollah’s Role
December 9th, 2009 by Zack
In the Christian Science Monitor, Mohamad Bazzi writes that despite the formation of a new U.S.-backed coalition government, “Hezbollah remains the dominant military and political force. It holds the key to both domestic and external stability in Lebanon.” The greatest concern is that Hezbollah could drag all of Lebanon into a war with Israel over isolated border incidents that threaten to spiral out of control. Bazzi argues that the U.S. must maintain its support for Saad Hariri’s government, leverage its influence with Syria to limit Hezbollah’s activities, and press Israel not to overreact to future incidents along the border.
Responding to similar assessments (see our post) and ahead of a national dialogue session to form a national defense strategy, Maronite Patriarch Sfeir has stated that Lebanon does not have two armies, urging Hezbollah to transfer its weapons to the Lebanese Army.
The Daily Star has an editorial decrying both Lebanon’s lack of a state infrastructure and the recent cabinet statement that puts forth no real ideas about to build one. The people and the government are asking “where is the state?” while the government spins its wheels on political matters such the Taif agreement. The editorial calls for a coherent and feasible plan of action and argues that “it’s not enough to spend most of the time asking, ‘where is the state?’, especially when it’s your job to shape it and run it.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Legislation, Mideast Peace Plan, Military, Political Parties, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
