The Syrian government has just confirmed the deaths of hundreds of detainees. Why?
Syria’s Bureaucracy of Death and the Fate of the Disappeared
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Lebanon
If Ralph Nader Had Been Elected President, the Iraq War Would Have Been a War Unfought
Resentment towards Ralph Nader blinds us to what a good president he would have made.
Applying the Lebanese Template to Syria
Syria’s devastating civil war is unfortunately nothing new in the Levant. A similar civil war, in fact—marked by sectarianism, the involvement of foreign states, and the loss of tens of thousands of lives—ravaged Syria’s smaller neighbor Lebanon for over 15 years....
On the Fence about Syria? Read This!
Some progressives remain conflicted about how the United States should respond to Syria's increasingly violent civil war. This internal division has only deepened as the Obama administration considers launching a military strike on Bashar al-Assad for an alleged...
Postcard from Lebanon
Conversation on the streets of Beirut since the bombing in October has a familiar vocabulary, one reminiscent of 2005 when Rafic Hariri was assassinated.
Harirism Exposed
Saad Hariri—the Saudi-born son of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri—has been on something of a speaking tour lately. The billionaire former prime minister has repeatedly tried to make the case that Lebanon’s incumbent government (read Hezbollah) has put the country in harm’s way because of its stance on the conflict in neighboring Syria. But Hariri may be stoking the sectarian fires himself.
Hezbollah Hedges Its Bets on Assad
The Party of God will not disappear even if the Assad regime does. Nonetheless, if the Ba’athist order in Syria falls, Hezbollah will be compelled to operate in a more challenging environment, both domestically and regionally.
The Refugee Child Photographers
Lebanese photojournalist Ramzi Haidar was in Iraq covering the refugee crisis in 2003. Passing the time between assignments, Haidar talked and played with children who were curious about his equipment. Seeing what they saw and how they saw it, he became intrigued by the potential of child photographers to document the devastating circumstances in which they found themselves. Unlike adults who may have become jaded and cynical to a seemingly hopeless situation they did nothing to create, children are innately positive and open-minded.
How Lebanon Got So Complicated
In many ways, Lebanon resembled Ireland, where religion was used to drive a wedge between landless Catholics and privileged Protestants.
The Lebanon Border: “Uniquely” Dangerous
After Hezbollah fought it to a standstill in the 2006 war, the Israeli Defense Forces have been training for a rematch.