by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Lebanon has long stood out as the black sheep of the Middle
East, mainly because it absorbed rather than shunned Western cultural
values, at a time when the Middle East was being colonised by Britain
and France in the early part of the 20th century.

Beirut, its capital, was known in its golden age as “the Paris of the Middle East”. Both
Muslims and Christian Lebanese attended English and French schools and
universities. These institutions helped transform the small country’s
abilities to act as a window for both East and West.

But why exactly has Lebanon’s identity developed so drastically different from that of its Arab neighbours? First, Lebanon’s unique geographical position has placed it at the crossroads of civilisations.

Secondly, its people’s openness to outsiders.

Throughout
its history, Beirut has been destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times
from the period of the Phoenicians 3,000 years ago, followed by the
Romans and, more recently, to Arab conquerors who first came to these
shores around 1400AD.

By Ryan Suto – Business Insider

Like other longstanding American relationships in the Middle
East, the ties between Washington and Riyadh have nothing to do
with human rights or democracy. The alliance rests mostly on two
key factors: natural resources and regional stability.

First, in addition to being the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques, the House of Saud is the custodian of a singular holy
resource: oil. Saudi Arabia’s role as the largest
exporter of the crucial fossil fuel, as well as its cultural
and political influence over other six other Arab OPEC members, makes
friendship with the kingdom a valuable, and seemingly
indispensable, asset for a fuel-thirsty superpower.

Second, in the Cold-War era, maintaining a balance of power
between Western allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and
Soviet allies such as Iran and Syria, was central to US policy in
the region. Making overt advances in non-aligned countries like
Egypt or through intermediary forces, such as supporting Saddam
Hussein against Iran, was our preferred method of balancing
Soviet influence in the region.

In this context, retaining Saudi Arabia as a proxy for Western
influence in the Arab world was an easy policy decision. Without
American patronage, the Saudis might have turned to Russia.
Further, although Saudi Arabia has no formal relations with
Israel, unlike Egypt after the Camp David Accords, the Saudis
have never used state force against Israel, making the kingdom
more palatable to Washington.

worldbank.org

The Syrian crisis and refugee influx into Lebanon are putting an
unprecedented amount of social and economic pressure on Lebanon’s public
education system. Out of a population of 1.5 million Syrian refugees,
almost 500,000 are children of school age (3–18 years). The protracted
nature of the Syrian crisis and the immense demand for schooling have
strained the quality of public education, too.

In response, Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education
(MEHE), launched the Reaching all Children with Education (RACE)
initiative in 2013 to improve access to formal education for Syrian
refugees and underprivileged Lebanese—both objectives that have the
strong support of the international community.

As a longstanding partner of the Government of Lebanon (GoL), the World
Bank has been expanding its support to the education sector. Prior to
the onset of the Syrian crisis, it supported the US$40 million Second Education Development Project. In 2015, the World Bank approved a US$32 million Emergency Education System Stabilization Project; and now the Bank will also approve the US$224 million Support to Reaching All Children with Education 2 program (S2R2).
This support includes an exceptional US$100 million of concessional financing from the International Development Association (IDA)
to address the education sector’s immediate needs and create the
foundations for longer-term recovery. IDA funds are normally only made
available to the world’s poorest countries.

By Joseph Eid

Beirut — “Good morning!
I’m an AFP photographer. Would it be alright to use your roof to take
pictures of the garbage mountain in front of your building?”

“Welcome, welcome my dear, come in. Would
you like some coffee? I can give you a full interview if you want. Will
your pictures show how bad the smell is?”

Since Lebanon’s trash crisis began last
July, I have asked this question dozens — perhaps hundreds — of times.
I am greeted with the same enthusiasm each time, with residents eagerly
ushering me onto their rooftops or near their windows to snap pictures
of the piles of rubbish lining Lebanon’s roads.

After several rounds of government deals
on the issue, we thought the waste crisis had been brought under
control. But over the past month, piles of garbage have once again
invaded our streets and neighbourhoods, from Lebanon’s rocky mountains
to the capital’s busy streets.

by Daily star lebanon BEIRUT: National Liberal Party head Dory Chamoun Wednesday called for presidential candidate Michel Aoun to release his medical records to prove he is physically and mentally fit to run the country. “If someone wanted to sell his land and he was over 80, he is required to provide a medical record […]

By reuters – By Angus McDowall

From a sandbagged
army post near the border with Syria, Lebanese soldiers gaze through
tripod-mounted binoculars into hills where jihadist militants are
entrenched, a forgotten front in Syria’s civil war that has led to
bombings inside Lebanon.

There
is frequent fighting between the army and around 1,000-1,200 militants
dug into the hills around Arsal in a large pocket of territory
straddling the border, Lebanese General Youssef al-Dik said. Around 30
soldiers have been killed.

The
Sunni militants are members of Islamic State and the former Nusra
Front, groups fighting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. They regard
the mountains along the Lebanese border as a strategic base and also
consider Lebanon to be under the thumb of Assad’s ally, Shi’ite
Hezbollah.

“The
clashes are ongoing day and night. We target any gathering, activity or
anything we sense day or night with all kinds of weapons,” he told
Reuters during a visit last week.