6 Comments:

• Saad said the first phrase...

  By  Anonymous, at 10:37 AM  

• anon,
  
  here is the quote from assafir:
  
  ونفى علمه بانزعاج سعودي من مواقفه، وقال: هناك بعض الافكار السورية، حاول السوريون تمريرها عبر السعوديين. ونحن على اتفاق مع سعد الحريري. وكل ما يأتي من السعودية هو خير للبنان، فالمملكة حريصة على الاستقرار والسيادة واستقلال لبنان
  
  and here is a quote from annahar
  
  ں ما مدى صحة الحديث عن انزعاج سعودي من مواقفك وتاثيره على علاقتك المميزة بالنائب سعد الحريري؟
  
  - لم اسمع بانزعاج سعودي. كان هناك بعض الافكار السورية، حاول السوريون امرارها عبر السعوديين. نحن على اتفاق مع الشيخ سعد الحريري. وكل ما يأتي من المملكة العربية السعودية هو خير للبنان، فالمملكة حريصة على الاستقرار والسيادة واستقلال لبنان.
  
  
  both newspapers were quoting jumblatt.

  By  Lazarus, at 10:55 AM  

• In order to avoid anymisunderstanding, let me state categorically that I believe that the Saudi regime is corrupt, dictatorial, bigoted.....
  However, in this case I think that the original post misrepresents the intent of what Jumblatt said. Please note, Laz, that the Arabic version that you posted later on does not give Saudi a carte blanche, Jumblatt qualified his support by the stating that :"All what comes from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is good for Lebanon since the Kingdom is protective/harisah of Lebanese stability, sovereignty and independence." It should be clear that the intended meaning is that Sadi Arabia is a supporter of Lebanese independence, sovereingty and stability and thus it will not do us harm"
  
  BTW, The new Jumblatt of the past month or two is maybe the only politician that appears to be guided by what is good for the country. Even if a paradigm shift is to occur I would council keeping Jumblatt and getting rid of all the other clowns:-)

  By  Anonymous, at 1:02 PM  

• No One is impressed by Junblatt.
  
  people power is something that the lebanese constitution guarantees, in
  the sense that it stipulates that the people are the source of all
  powers (al sha3eb houwa masDar al soulouTat).
  
  last year on march 14 the opposition called on people power to turn the
  table on the syrian occupation, and this year on march 14 it is
  expected that people power will be asked again for help in toppling the
  figurehead of the syrian occupation.
  
  there is an important assumption that one can deduce here, which is
  that the leadership trusts the judgement of the lebanese people even in
  very critical situations. the civilized behavior of the demonstrators
  in both march 14 last year and february 14 this year seems to indicate
  that this trust is well placed.
  
  a question that comes up then is, if the leadership trusts the people
  with such a monumental and truely dangerous task as overthrowing a
  president (and not just any president, but one who has proven to be
  spiteful and cruel on 7 august 2001 as an example), then why doesn't
  this leadership trust the people with a simple parliamentary election
  as that of baabda-aley?
  
  why all this talk about the imperative for a consensus agreement
  (tawefo')? the very concept of avoiding an election is
  anti-democratic, for whatever reason it may be.
  
  all the leaders on every side keep telling their constituency that this
  tawefo' is to avoid the polarization from an electoral battle
  especially at this "sensitive" juncture (tajneeb al balad tashannouj
  ma3raka intikhabiya fi haza-l zarf al daqeeq...). so, it's ok for the
  different parties to have rising tensions over selfish reasons, over
  political choices, even over the country's future and our most basic
  foundational principles, but it's too dangerous for the people to have
  some rivalry in choosing their own representatives?
  
  who is buying this joke anymore?
  
  the concept of tawefo' which is being pushed by the clergy and being
  embraced by the political "leader-sheep" in lebanon should be condemned
  and denounced by the lebanese people, if the people are the source of
  all powers then who the hell is anybody to deny them their most basic
  voting rights, who has given the clergy the right to appoint for us a
  parliamentary representative through consensus behind closed doors? is
  it god?
  
  is god the source of all powers in lebanon, or is it the people?
  
  it is clear that this people power-outage is deliberate and not due to
  inclement weather from the current political storms. this whole
  production of tawefo' in all its insulting facets, from refusing to
  reveal the names of the candidates being discussed by the "powers that
  be", in other words refusing to reveal to the people the name of their
  *own* potential *representative* [!], to the talk now about waiting for
  "white smoke" to come out in rabieh-city on sunday at ...drums... high
  noon, this entire production amounts to nothing more than an insulting
  charade of the cheapest off-off-off-off-broadway kind.
  
  it is insulting to the people who are being robbed at high noon of
  their most basic right. it is insulting to the very concept of
  democracy. and, of course, it is insulting to the vatican and the real
  pope (for reasons too obvious to even go into).
  
  if this collection of self-important leaders are so good at tawefo'
  over the elections, then why don't they agree on everything else and
  stop calling on us for demonstrations? could it be because they all
  amount to nothing more than middle-men for the clergy and all their
  holy roofs over everyone's heads?
  
  I personally have come to believe so, and I believe that berri's call
  for national dialogue is not "beb awwal" as he claimed, it is second
  rate at best if the clergy themselves will not be sitting at the table.
  but if there's no way to cut the middle-man in this case, then at
  least please spare us your ridiculous pomp and ceremony, be it the
  pompous mystery behind the negotiations, or the stupid white smoke
  ceremonies, no one is impressed.

  By  Anonymous, at 8:03 AM  

• I couldn't disagree more with the first phrase.

  By  La La, at 2:52 PM  

• clap clap, bravooo.
  
  an election, the most fundamental exercise of democracy, scrapped in
  favor of a soap opera on lbc with all the bells and whistles to
  entertain the masses, all the way up to a moving phone call with may
  chidiac from bkerki. the people have not spoken, for their own good.
  
  this reminds me of a seinfeld episode about the "dating loophole" where
  a guy figures out a way to go out with women without having to ask them
  for a date. here they rob the people of their right to vote, w bi
  rabb7ouwon jmeeleh that they saved them from a confict.
  
  a conflict was indeed avoided, but not because of any bogus claims
  about tawefo', they can't even tell us what they agreed on aside from
  the person of pierre daccache, who was originally nominated by aoun
  anyway, making him anything but a neutral replacement for edmond naim.
  a conflict was avoided only because the march 14 coalition withdrew
  from the battle before it began, with aoun and hizballah the clear
  winners by default. it remains to be seen whether this is a sneak
  preview of the next epic battle for the presidency, or a strategic
  maneuver by the march 14 coalition to lose one battle in order to win
  the war.
  
  but the syrian axis certainly scored a victory in baabda-aley today,
  and they have already switched to the defense of baabda-palace, with
  naim qasem and nabil qaouq of hizballah firing the first salvos in
  defense of lahoud on sunday morning. this is the first proof that
  there is no consensus and no agreement on anything, that all the
  sugar-coated words and the kodak moments are nothing but false
  reassurances, and that the only smoke that came out is the smoke being
  blown in the face of the lebanese public.
  
  what is certain at this point is that there is a great battle looming
  on the horizon, and that syria and iran will throw all their weight
  behind lahoud, with dire consequences in store for the rest of us who
  are supposed to be happy about all the consensus and agreements and
  memos of understanding. what is also certain is that the holy spirit
  has descended on the political scene, in what seems to be a direct
  takeover by the religious authorities from their inept subordinates.
  it seems the shepherd is finally taking over for the leader-sheep, as
  evidenced by sheikh qabalan's call for a "spiritual summit" in bkerki
  on saturday, and after a similar meeting with sanioura a week ago. so
  it's only appropriate to say god help us.
  
  with so much at stake being decided for us without any input from the
  people and with total disregard for the democratic process, I hope we
  will at least be spared further cheap productions in rabieh and 'arz
  and moukhtara, if we can't ever separate church and state at least
  let's separate politics from mexican soaps. not just for our own sake,
  but it'd be a shame for talent like george 3adwan's to be wasted in
  politics, instead of putting us to sleep with his sweet poetry full of
  loving words but devoid of any political substance, he could do wonders
  as the head of any soap-opera family torn by the usual romantic
  ups-and-downs, he could jump right in without the need for any makeup
  even.
  
  unless of course the strategic maneuver that the march 14 coalition has
  in mind is for 3adwan to bore lahoud to death with his monotonous voice
  and drag him out of the palace without bloodshed. that's something I
  could watch.

  By  Anonymous, at 8:13 AM  

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