Getting touchy: Remember when Mitt Romney touched Rick Perry’s shoulder during a GOP debate a while back, and everybody freaked out? Yeah, that was nothing. During a televised debate about Syria yesterday, two Lebanese politicians became enraged and started throwing things at each other. After one guy chucks what looks like a glass of water across the table, the other guy stands up, grabs his chair, and almost hits his foe with it before the host intervenes. The topic of debate was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a very polarizing figure in Lebanon. American debates can get heated, but we’d be awfully shocked to see Newt Gingrich chuck his podium at Jon Huntsman while discussing Chinese economic policy. source
After the Hezbollah-backed Najib Mikati won appointment as Prime Minister, all hell broke loose in the country, leading to fiery scenes like this one.
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Guess this means the dissolution of Lebanon’s government wasn’t the worst dissolution of the week. During this protest, security forces violently beat protesters. Yikes.
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11ministers in the Lebanese cabinet resigned today (uh oh) source
» Why did they resign? The members, supporters of Hezbollah, resigned in protest of a UN-backed tribunal looking into the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. It’s likely that the tribunal will point the finger at members of Hezbollah, which is what led to the instability today and even made it an inevitability. The result? The government dissolves. Yikes.
Lebanon is rapidly becoming a new satellite of Iran. It’s a tragedy for Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu • Suggesting that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Lebanon had the effect of radicalizing the country. What makes him say something like that? Well, here’s a sample of what Ahmadinejad said: “The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear … The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin.” Ohhhh. Yeah. We see how Benny boy could deduct that from the Iranian leader’s visit. source
“Yes yes, I know, you all love me for helping train Hezbollah. But you know what’d be really freaking great? If you loved me more! Bwahahahahaha I’m so awesome!”
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The Lebanese cleric was said to be one of Hezbollah’s early leaders, but he denied it. His full name: Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussain Fadlallah.
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It was headed from Beirut. The plane, an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane, reportedly crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff. 50 of the plane’s passengers were reportedly Lebanese nationals. We’ll keep an eye on this story for you guys. source
The U.S. administration under President George W. Bush equated the concepts of terrorism and resistance to deny the right of resistance for the people.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah • Describing his stance on America in a lengthy speech yesterday where he read a manifesto for the organization that seeks to “liberate Jerusalem,” among other things. It’s very critical of America, and George W. Bush, in particular. The Lebanese political party is considered by much of the world to be a terrorist organization. source
