Shia Walk
French Plan for Lebanon Collapses
by Robert Fisk

The Shia, the largest community in Lebanon, are no longer represented in the Lebanese government. It could be just part of Lebanon's bloody-minded politics--or it could be a most dangerous moment in the history of this tragic country. At the weekend, the Hizbollah and the Amal movement walked out of the Lebanese body politic, splitting apart the gentle, utterly false, brilliantly conceived (by the French, of course) confessional system that binds this tortured nation together. There will be demonstrations by Hizbollah to demand a government of "national unity", which means that Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, winner of the so-called "divine victory" against Israel this summer, insists on another pro-Syrian administration in Lebanon.

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Civil War II?
by Pat Lang

Yes. I know a lot of you hate MEMRI, but you should read this carefully. This corresponds closely to what I am hearing from Leanon and the parties to this conflict.

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Who Killed Pierre Gemayel?
by Pat Lang

Lebanon's Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated near Beirut on Tuesday, security sources said. They said gunmen opened fire as his convoy drove through the Christian Sin el-Fil neighbourhood. Gemayel was rushed to hospital where he later died of his wounds. Lebanon is in the throes of a political storm pitting the anti-Syrian ruling majority against the pro-Damascus opposition. The political tension threatens to spill into street confrontations.

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I'm almost done with Robert Fisk's Pity the Nation. It's about the clusterfuck that is Lebanon. A clusterfuck largely because of the west and Israel. Pierre's father and grandfather figure prominently. They were fascists.