Amin Gemayel: victory for sovereign Lebanon possible without violence

In an interview that appears in today's Le Figaro, Amin Gemayel, former president of Lebanon and father of Pierre Gemayel, who was assassinated on and buried today, was asked if he fears a new civil war in that unhappy country:No.  The 'ingredients' for a civil war don't...

Obsequies for Pierre Gemayel in Beirut

The funeral rites for Pierre Amin Gemayel were performed this morning at the Cathedral of St George in Beirut, with his Beatitude Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, celebrating the requiem Mass.  The...

Violent, yes; civil war-scale violence, no

The number of civilians killed in Iraq in October was 3,709: "that translates to a rate of 171 per 100,000", according to Powerline's John Hinderaker.  A consensus seems to have developed that Iraq is a disaster because of out-of-control sectarian violence. That...

A proposal for military action against Tehran

Arthur Herman, an historian (The Idea of Decline in Western History, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, inter alii) and academic, in this month's Commentary proposes an outline of what the United States can do to force Iran to give up its 'regional hegemon' game,...

First of three assassinations?

Across the Bay wonders if today's assassination of Pierre Gemayel is the first of three required to "deprive the majority [of premier Fouad Saniora's cabinet--MP] of the ability to convene the required two thirds quorum to the ratify the international tribunal" i.e. the...

Anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel assassinated

Pierre Gemayel, scion of the leading Maronite political family in Lebanon and minister and one of the principal opponents of Hizballah, was assassinated Tuesday afternoon. Lebanon's Industry Minister, Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in Beirut on Tuesday by unknown gunmen. The...

Crisis in Lebanon?

Hizballah and its allies in Lebanon are preparing to make their coup d'etat, evidently.  A chronicle of the last several days in that unhappy country is here, at MEMRI.

Kuwait appears concerned...

Am returned online and browsing; this article at Ummah News is interesting, although I have no reason to have any great faith in the accuracy of Israel National News, the source (and Ummah News seems... rather credulous, sometimes? not very selective): nor any reason to think...

Minister Bardakoglu could, prudently, give it a rest

As CNA reports, Ali Bardakoglu, the Turkish minister for religious affairs has commented yet again on the Roman Pontiff, with whom he will meet later in the month:"Peace is destroyed in a second but it takes a lot of time, a long process, to build it," Ali Bardakoglu told the...

"Despair is not a method"

Three cheers for General John Abizaid; EU Referendum notices his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, and his riposte to Senator Clinton's ("hope is not a strategy") sermon:"I would also say that despair is not a method. And when I come to Washington, I feel...

A decision for Iraq

Dr Amir Taheri, cutting through all the partisan nonsense suffocating Washington and the media in these last six or seven days, at Asharq Alawsat:... What all this means is that the struggle in Iraq is part of the broader war against global terrorism. It is also clear that a...

The wicked Nobel Prize

Excerpts from an Al-Jazeera TV interview from 31 October, via MEMRI (where you can view the video itself), with Samir 'Ubeid, "an Iraqi researcher living in Europe":Samir 'Ubeid: "I don’t call it the Nobel Prize - I call it the hubal [idol] prize."  Interviewer:...

Poor Lebanon

Michael Totten has no doubts about what Tehran wants: If you have any doubt that Iran and Syria are bound and determined to seize Lebanon and yank it into their axis, take a look at what Ayatollah Khamenei has to say about it. ...The news report he cites is from the Lebanese...

Mr Khatami on civilisation

Dr Anne Bayefsky on former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, one of the principals of the recently concluded meeting of the U.N.'s Alliance of Civilisations:What do the members of the "high level group" who drafted the report, such as former Iranian President Khatami, have...