Latest in Lebanon
Lebanon's new cabinet is in need of popular support, so it is taking on endemic corruption in the country. But in practice, this government’s anti-corruption slogans will be designed to mask an ugly witch hunt.
For the past month, the country of Lebanon has witnessed the emergence of an unprecedented political movement driven forward by widespread popular protests.
The United States should be a stable partner and prepared to work with the more effective, responsible govenrment that may be on the other side of these protests.
Editor’s Note: Even as the Syrian war winds down, the millions of refugees it spawned show little sign of returning. Experts have long feared that these refugees will spread instability and, in poorer countries like Jordan, foster economic resentment. MIT’s Elizabeth Parker-Magyar finds that in Jordan such resentment is limited at best. The refugees remain welcome, and any economic resentment is directed at the government.
Daniel Byman
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Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah spar regularly, and Hezbollah’s intervention in the Syrian civil war expanded their conflict’s front line. In the years since the war began in 2011, Israel has attacked Hezbollah weapons depots and forces in Syria, and Hezbollah boasts that it shot down an Israeli F-16 jet. A senior U.S.
Editor’s note: This week, Lawfare is running a series of essays on federalist governance in the Middle East. This essay is the third in the series. Read the introductory essay here, the second essay here, and the third essay here.
Editor's Note: Last week, Tamara Cofman Wittes co-chaired an international election observation mission in Lebanon for the National Democratic Institute (she serves on NDI’s board, but the views laid out below are her own, not NDI’s).
As U.S. Opens Embassy in Jerusalem, Israeli Forces Kill 60 Demonstrators in Gaza
Tomorrow’s parliamentary election in Lebanon is the next inflection point in the Iranian-Saudi contest to dominate the Middle East.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
With much of the Middle East either in violent conflict or undemocratic, one Arab country is holding genuine elections this week: Lebanon.
Barring some last-minute black swan event like the outbreak of war—always possible in that part of the world—elections should indeed be held this Sunday, May 6.