UN verifies Syrian pullout from Lebanon May 24, 2005 All Syrian troops and intelligence officials have pulled out from Lebanon, a UN …

Commentary

MSM Fails Again: Factually incorrect Propaganda Printed in the Washington Post

Source : Lebanese Political Journal

If you want to become uninformed about Lebanon, read Annia Ciezadlo's piece "Lebanon's Election: Free but Not Fair" in Sunday's Washington Post. And where is that main stream media (MSM) "safeguard" that makes it so much better than blogs?

I was originally going to post a response, but the factual errors occur in every paragraph. Enumerating them is the best way to manifest the failures.

Here are factual transgressions:

First:
"This inequality [between sects] dates back to 1943, when the French handed Lebanon over to the country's French-speaking Maronite Christian elite and founded what is called the confessional system, with parliamentary and executive offices parceled out among the major religious sects."

This "background" sentence is so filled with errors I will break it apart in pieces.

The French didn't create the confessional system. In fact, they inherited it. Why would a fiercely Republican government set up such an odd system? They didn't do it in their colonies in Martinique, Algeria, or Senegal? Why was this system created in Lebanon?

Because they did not create it. In fact, if you want to blame anyone for confessionalism, blame the Ottoman's, which forced the Maronites and Druze into agreement during the mutasarifiyya. The French went with what was the precedent on the ground because they didn't have a better system to put in place when they took over in 1920.

Second flaw in that sentence: the French handed Lebanon over? Uhhh, which French were those? The Vichy French held on to Lebanon with all their might. Remember, 1943 was a period during which France wasn't even an operative country. Were they in any position to hands things in any direct?

The Lebanese won their independence with British aid. Let us not forget good General Spears who came roaring into this country on an anti-Vichy, anti-French colonist campaign. The British general was as much a partisan for a free Lebanon as anyone else, and he had to fight for it.

Why, then, were three of our national leaders thrown into prison by the French, with the fourth escaping only because he was in the Kit Kat Club when the goons came for him?
The French threw our first Maronite President Bechara Khoury into jail. They didn't hand him a thing.

Third flaw: those "executive parcels" were a creation of our founding fathers Bechara Khoury and Riad al-Solh when they forged the National Pact. Let's take a look at the French period. Maronite leader Emile Edde fulfilled every position possible, even occupying the office of Speaker of Parliament. Obviously, the French were not the ones who assigned the Speakership to a Shia.

Fourth flaw: "French-speaking Maronite elite." Hmmm... Riad al-Solh probably spoke French and, as a Sunni, was definitely not Maronite. The French merely empowered families that had already occupied positions of power in Lebanon. Some, like Edde, moved to grand positions through currying favor. Edde was much closer to the French than Khoury. Wait, when did Emile Edde become President? Oh, that's right. He never did.

World Economic Forum Examines Transformations in Arab World

Opening speaker says "people power" could unleash economic boom

"I think the Middle East is going through a major transformation," he said. "Many factors are contributing to this transformation -- the increased oil revenues, the reforms, whether political or economic, that are happening here and there, the liberation of Iraq from a regime that was so harsh on its people. And I think this part of the world that has been in history on the frontier of science and education in the world, now hopefully will seize the moment and regain its importance if the leaders will take the opportunity," Dabdoub said.

South Lebanon: the boom that never came

Five years after Israeli ouster, south Lebanon still awaits recovery.

By Jihad Siqlaoui - May 23 , 2005

Lebanese residents near the border with Israel had high hopes for an economic recovery when Israeli forces unilaterally withdrew five years ago, but the boom never came.

The border region has remained an economic wasteland, marred by sporadic violence.

The Shiite militia Hezbollah has maintained a heavy armed presence since the last Israeli soldier withdrew on May 24, 2000 from an 850-square-kilometer (330-square-mile) border zone in accordance with UN Resolution 425.

For Hezbollah, the battle is not over.