Daybreak: Hezbollah Plays With Fire

Taufiq Rahim: It's Deja Vu in Lebanon All Over Again
As my Emirates flight from Dubai touched down Thursday evening in Beirut, I had the feeling of returning to a land where deja vu is a fact of daily life. The same names persisting for two decades or three or even more. Gemayal. Hariri. Nasrallah. Jumblatt. Aoun. Geagea. Berri. Recycled speeches and words. One about resistance another about Sovereignty. Each accusing the other of cow-towing to foreign powers. As I made my way into the city centre, the Taxi Driver -- from Ba'albek -- managed to ...

Hezbollah's Gambit in Lebanon (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – The Lebanese government has collapsed after Hezbollah and its allies resigned their seats in the cabinet, leaving it without a governing majority. Hezbollah had threatened to resign over an ongoing United Nations investigation that is expected to blame the group for the 2005 bombing that killed then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His son Saad Hariri, the current Prime Minister, refuses to condemn the investigation as Hezbollah demands. Here's what Lebanon-watchers are sayi...

Sarah Palin 1 liberal democrats 0
Sarah Palin got dragged by the mainstream press in the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy. She was accused of somehow being responsible for Giffords’ shooting as well as the other Victims harmed in the incident. She was thousands of miles away.  She never personally targeted Giffords. She basically had absolutely nothing to do with this incident. Despite these facts, she was used  as a scapegoat and blamed so unfairly that it was obvious to a majority of  Americans. Only 28% of Adul...

Lebanons caretaker PM seeks support
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Lebanon’s pro-Western Prime Minister on Friday consulted with regional power Turkey as part of efforts to rally international support after the Shiite Militant group Hezbollah brought down the Lebanese government. Saad Hariri, having met with President Barack Obama in Washington and stopped in France en route to Turkey, was expected to discuss steps to solve the government crisis with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutog...

Lebanese government collapse: a history of missed opportunities | Nicholas Noe
Peace averted? … Lebanon's President Sadd Hariri and President Obama at the Oval Office this week. Photograph: Rex Features With the collapse of Lebanon's national unity government this week, a media frenzy quickly arose asking whether this country would once again descend into Civil War or at least some kind of newsworthy civil conflict. Unfortunately, despite the worrying prospect of yet another political deadlock made worse by forthcoming indictments from the Special Tribunal for Le...

Hezbollah's Latest Hostage: Lebanon's 4 Million People
Lethal Mingling: Hezbollah's hold on Lebanon makes resistance seem futile. (Salah Malkawi/Getty Images) You have to give it to Hezbollah. The former Lebanese Shiite Terrorist Organization turned political party, which still maintains Lebanon's Most Powerful Militia, knows how to take thuggishness to a whole different level. The faction doesn't have to send its Suicide Bombers on missions to make its point anymore. That's so 90s. And let's be clear: Aside from civilian hostages it took in the 19...

Reading the Developments in Lebanon
Berlin — Lebanon’s de facto government, the Iranian proxy Hezbollah, dissolved Beirut’s coalition administration on Wednesday while Lebanon’s Western-leaning Prime Minister, Sa’ad Hariri, was visiting with President Obama in Washington. Hezbollah’s timing was orchestrated to send two messages to the West. First, Hezbollah head Sheik Hassan Nasrallah seeks to torpedo the U.N. investigation into the Assassination of Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri’s fath...

"...There is no permanent fix to the Lebanese crisis..."
"... So what we have is the Lebanese political actors lacking any Sovereignty — in other words, whatever their dispute is, it has to be resolved by a negotiation settled by the regional and international players. In the case of Iran, it is backing the Most Powerful element in the country, i.e. Hezbollah, which not only is a political movement and has a wide social presence, it also possesses a Military wing — which, by the way is far more powerful than the Lebanese Armed Forces. Tha...

Hariri returns home to face political fate
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister returned to Beirut Friday to face lawmakers who one analyst said might be ready for a fight after the government collapsed. Saad Hariri, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, left Istanbul to return Friday following a whirlwind tour that took him to Washington and Paris amid Controversy surrounding a tribunal probing the 2005 Assassination of his father. Hariri was in Washington meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama when Hezbo...

U.S. envoy Syria to report for duty
A career diplomat and former Iraq point man, Ford was named in a December Recess Appointment as the U.S. Envoy to Damascus. U.S. President Barack Obama made six appointments to ambassador positions, with Ford's new post among the orders. The White House noted that all six appointments have been waiting for U.S. Senate action for at least five months. Obama nominated Ford in February to serve as the next U.S. Envoy to Damascus. P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said during ...

Shot US judge laid to rest, lawmaker improving
Marty Kool kneels across the street from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton church whe... The US Federal Judge who was among six people killed in Tucson was laid to rest Friday, as doctors said the lawmaker targeted in the shootings continues to make progress. Judge John Roll's Funeral came a day after that of the rampage's youngest Victim, nine-year-old girl, Christina-Taylor Green, hailed by President Barack Obama as an inspiration to heal America's poisonous politics. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords ...

Police seize photos of Loughner with gun -- dressed in red G-string...
TUCSON — Law Enforcement officials said Friday they have multiple photos of Jared L. Loughner posing with a Glock 9mm gun next to his naked buttocks and dressed in a bright red g-string. Courtesy U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office Mark Kelly, husband of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, held her hand in the Hospital Sunday. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in 2010. The photos were turned over to the police by Walgreens, where Mr. Loughner had taken them to be developed. In some of t...

Obama Fails to Win Over Partisans
Yahoo! Buzz For all the accolades President Barack Obama has won for his call to end the blame game and restore civility, there is one audience he has failed to win over: the ones pointing the fingers. Partisans on the left and the right continued Friday to say it is right to call the other side to account. They said Mr. Obama’s Speech in Tucson Wednesday night amounted to a ducking of tough choices, not a heroic embrace of ambiguity. Guy Saperstein , a prominent Democratic Donor in the San...

Lebanons prime minister returns home 2 days after Hezbollah-led coalition toppled government
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Prime Minister returns home 2 days after Hezbollah-led coalition toppled government....

Hezbollah: No civil war after resignations
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the Resignations of 11 of the Militant movement's ministers in Lebanon's Cabinet wouldn't lead to Civil War. "There will never be a war between the Sunnis and Shiites. We will calculate our steps." Nasrallah said. Nasrallah met with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to discuss the political landscape after the resignations, Ynetnews.com reported. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said talks on forming a new government will begin nex...

Robert Fisk: Lebanon in limbo: a nation haunted by the murder of Rafiq Hariri
Soldiers, soldiers everywhere. In the valleys, on the mountains, in the streets of Beirut. I have never seen so many soldiers. Are they going to "liberate" Jerusalem? Or are they going to destroy all the Arab dictatorships? They are supposed to stop the country of Lebanon from sliding into a Civil War, I suppose. Hezbollah, we are told, has destroyed the government – which is true up to a point. For on Monday, so we are told, The Hague tribunal of the United Nations will tell us that me...

Lebanon's Hariri loses government
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has asked Prime Minister Saad Hariri to assume a caretaker role after Hezbollah and its allies dismantled his government. Lebanon's political parties are scrambling to form a new governing coalition after Resignations Wednesday of 11 ministers from Hezbollah and its allies brought down the Hariri-led administration, the BBC reported. The Resignations were announced while Hariri was in Washington meeting with President Obama. Th...

Hariri returns to Beirut after government collapse
Beirut—Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister returned home Friday, two days after a Hezbollah-led coalition toppled his Western-backed government. Saad Hariri has been trying to rally international support in the U.S., France and Turkey since ministers allied to the Shiite Militant group resigned Wednesday, bringing down his government. Hariri was meeting with President Barack Obama on Wednesday when his government fell. The crisis was the climax of long-simmering tensions over the U.N. trib...

Hariri can only bank on the Opposition's missteps!
"... This time, however, the opposition enters the fight in a much stronger position, and the March 14 camp in a weaker one. For March 8, a deal would have made most sense and landed most benefits if it came before the indictments were issued. That won't happen so it has little to lose and no longer has to worry about time. The defection of Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt from March 14 has also strengthened it. Unsurprisingly, opposition voices have alrea...

Lebanon set for political gridlock
BEIRUT: With Hezbollah's toppling of the Lebanese government, the Militant Shiite Muslim movement entered what may prove to be one of the most dangerous chapters in a 30-year history that has made it reviled in the West and popular in the Arab World. At the moment seemingly of its greatest power, the path facing it could unveil its most glaring weaknesses. Hezbollah and its allies acted on threats to bring down the national unity government in a dispute over a United Nations-backed tribunal that...

Lebanese general seeks access to case file
LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands - A U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 Assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was holding a public hearing Friday to discuss a former Lebanese security chief's demand to see the evidence that led to him being jailed as a suspect for nearly four years. The hearing at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon plays out against a backdrop of political turmoil in Beirut after Shiite Militant group Hezbollah brought down the government of Hariri's pro-We...

Grenades Thrown at Hezbollah-allied Office
Two hand grenades thrown Thursday night at the office of Michel Aoun - a Hezbollah-allied politician - damaged property but did not injure anyone, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The attack took place in Beit Habab, about 16 miles outside Beirut, at the headquarters of the Free Party Movement, a Christian party led by Aoun. Lebanese security forces investigating the incident have yet to determine if it was related to the government's collapse on Wednesday. According to eyewitnesses, ...

Saudi Arabia: "There was never a Saudi-Syrian initiative!"
"... Here it is important to note what an American official told our newspaper last Saturday, when he said: "we have all read with interest what has been said about the Saudi - Syrian initiative, and I find it interesting that the discussions over this initiative are usually found IN Media sponsored by Syria, which means there is a (Syrian - Hezbollah) trend in the stories being published [about this].” This is true, for we cannot find ...

Most Arabs believe Nasrallah's starting point: '"Israel is behind many of the events that intensify conflict & sectarianism in t
"... Politically, Hezbollah managed to assert itself in both the previous ruling coalition and the current March 14 coalition by exercising its Military superiority in the confrontations of 2008. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah continues to be among the most popular in the Arab World—with his opponents looking weaker by the day through the continuous revelations coming out of Wikileaks. Expected new releases about the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict are likely to play into Hezbollah’s ...

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah: There won't be a civil war in Lebanon
Hezbollah leader blames Lebanese PM Saad Hariri for current Political Crisis, Channel 10 reports citing Al-Jazeera....