The US should take note that there is more to the Lebanese political mosaic than Hizbollah

By Adib Farha - the National.ae

Israel conducted wide-scale military exercises earlier this month, its largest for two decades, simulating an attack by Hizbollah. Nikki Haley, the US permanent representative to the UN, recently wrote that “just as Hizbollah is stepping up its efforts, the United States, and now the United Nations, are stepping up our efforts against them”. This comes against the backdrop of tireless lobbying by certain groups in Washington to make Lebanon and Hizbollah synonymous with one another and to hold Lebanon and its people responsible for Hizbollah’s unilateral decisions and for its military adventures. Should the US administration fall for this misrepresentation and support Israeli aggression that targets Lebanon, it would be making a serious mistake that would only serve to endanger the lives of countless innocent people and destroy Lebanon’s political and physical infrastructure. Since an Israeli aggression could not be carried out without support or at least acquiescence from the US, the anger and condemnation that such aggression would generate in the region would be channeled towards it. This would deal a serious blow to American national interests in the region and fuel extremism both in the Middle East and beyond.  

Lebanon is a mosaic of 18 religious sects and a plethora of political parties that compete for public service. These interested groups hold varying, often divergent, political views and aspirations. Their diversity is managed through a delicately-balanced consensual democracy that respects each group’s beliefs and its political outlooks. Except for a period of domestic instability during the previous century, the Lebanese people have lived in harmony for centuries. As such, Lebanon has traditionally represented a prototype of peaceful coexistence and of democratic institutions that Arab intellectuals and political activists considered a role model.  Hizbollah is one of many Lebanese political parties, albeit it is the only political entity that operates an armed militia and conducts military activities inside and outside Lebanon without the approval of either the government or of most Lebanese people. Domestic political efforts to reach a solution in which Hizbollah would disarm or merge its military wing into the Lebanese armed forces have been unsuccessful so far. 

Hizbollah has also become a major player in neighbouring Syria, where it fights under Iranian supervision to uphold the regime of Bashar Al Assad. Most Lebanese want Hizbollah disarmed, but disarming it by force is not an option.  Indeed, a political resolution is the only way to rectify the odd situation that Hizbollah represents without disturbing the harmony of the Lebanese mosaic.  To that end, national dialogue to settle the thorny issue of having an armed militia operating inside and outside Lebanon’s sovereign territories despite a national accord to the contrary continues unabated. In the meanwhile, Hizbollah’s military presence near Lebanon’s border with Israel is subject to United Nations Security Council Resolution UNSCR 1701, and it is consequently monitored by the Lebanese army and by UN peacekeeping forces. Said border has been generally quiet for over 10 years. 

While it would it be a fool’s errand for the Lebanese government to try to disarm Hizbollah by force, any such attempt by a foreign entity would trigger fissures that could evolve into major regional fault lines and destabilise the region.  Most members of Lebanon’s parliament and its cabinet reject the existence of any armed militias on Lebanese soil and call for disarming it; and they disapprove of Hizbollah’s military involvement in Syria’s civil war.  They have instead called for neutrality and for non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, and they are determined to resolve the controversy over Hizbollah’s activities domestically, peacefully, and on their own. They continue to call for the strictest adherence to UNSCR 1701, and they persist in working diligently and earnestly to make sure that the Lebanese army and Lebanon’s internal security forces are the only armed forces in the country.     America needs more friends in the Arab world, not more animus among large swaths of people in that region. Making Lebanon synonymous with Hizbollah and holding it responsible for the militia’s unilateral actions would lead to the latter. Adib Farha was an adviser to former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora while he was Lebanon's finance minister. He is a businessman and political analyst

Finding a life partner is hard enough. For those of the Druze faith, their future depends on it

Druze star

This article represents author opinion

By Gulfnews - Beirut: Reem Kaedbey was never very religious. She’s not even sure there is a God. But when it came to marriage, she never had any doubt she would choose within her family’s sect, a tiny offshoot of Shiites known as the Druze faith. “It’s a requirement for my parents,” said 28-year-old Kaedbey, who lives near Beirut and works for the United Nations. “I didn’t want to get into problems.” Finding a life partner is hard enough for anybody. Members of the Druze faith face an added pressure: keeping the religion alive. The faith is thought to have about 1.5 million members, with most living in Lebanon, where they make up 5 per cent of the population, and Syria, where they make up 3 per cent. But an exodus of people fleeing wars in those countries has fuelled a small but growing diaspora. There are about 30,000 in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California.

While the internet has made it easier for Druze to connect with each other _ Kaedbey met her husband on social media _ growing contact with the outside world has increased the chances that members will marry outside the faith. That is a path to extinction, because the religion does not accept converts and in its more conservative strands rejects children of mixed marriages. “In the modern day, there’s a lot more tolerance and acceptance, but for the ones who truly follow the faith, once a person marries a non-Druze, they took the decision of leaving the faith,” said Daniel Halabi, a 22-year-old shaikh, or religious leader, who lives in Chicago. “The religious laws are clear.” And so the future of the Druze faith may depend not only on pairing up its youth _ a community effort _ but also on whether the religion itself can make accommodations to the modern world. As religions go, the Druze faith is not especially old, having been formed roughly 1,000 years ago. It accepted the prophets of Islam and Christianity and incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and Gnosticism. Unlike other forms of Islam, it embraced reincarnation, allowed women to become religious leaders, banned men from having multiple wives and did not mandate prayer at set times or places.

Its most important early promoter was Al Hakim Bi Amrillah, the sixth leader of the Fatimid Caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa and the Middle East and had its capital in Cairo. After his mysterious disappearance, his followers in Egypt were exterminated. But they survived in other areas of the Middle East, including in present-day Lebanon and Syria. In 1044, after a brief period of proselytisation, the faith was closed to converts. Early Druze communities were insular and isolated and left historians with few records. The religious texts have never been widely disseminated, leaving it to the shaikhs to educate adherents on the finer points of the faith.

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Why Wine Insiders Are Obsessed with Lebanon’s Château Musar

by Courtney Schiessl - In an industry beset by trends, Château Musar, an 87-year-old Lebanese wine producer, has garnered a cult following. It’s the only Middle Eastern wine offered by Thomas Keller’s legendary French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California, and it displays prominently at New York City’s Rouge Tomate. Manhattan’s Terroir Tribeca has a dedicated section titled, “All Hail the Almighty Château Musar.” When winemaker Serge Hochar died unexpectedly in December 2014, he was mourned in almost every major wine publication. How did Château Musar become the sole Middle Eastern producer to earn a spot on the international stage of wine icons?

The Beirut-based Château Musar, founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, initially burst onto the international scene in 1979, when it dazzled attendees of the Bristol Wine Fair under the helm of Gaston’s son, Serge. A British favorite thereafter, it didn’t gain acclaim in the U.S. until around 2000, when sommeliers and wine lovers alike began clamoring for the non-interventionist, natural bottles of red, white, and rosé Château Musar. While the key to Château Musar’s success is by no means singular, a simple reality set it up for success: It was available and actively marketed outside of Lebanon.

“The family’s foresight to sell the wines internationally and Serge’s very eloquent championing of them certainly has a lot to do with [the winery’s popularity],” says Christy Frank, wine buyer of Copake Wine Works in Copake, New York. For Musar’s first 40 years, the wine was largely consumed in its home country, but the 1972 onset of civil war almost eliminated that market. Serge, who continued to produce wine throughout the 20-year war, made a strong push for Château Musar in international markets.

But something caused wine professionals to fall head over heels for what was inside the Musar bottles and, counterintuitively, it was exactly what could have caused sommeliers to turn their heads in disgust: the unique, funky, savory, volatile, complex character of the wine.

“When you stuck your schnozz in a glass of Musar, there was no other wine on the planet Earth that tasted like it,” notes Paul Grieco, proprietor of Terroir Tribeca and Terroir on the Porch in New York. These were no ordinary wines. They were unusual and animalistic, dominated by non-fruit and earth, and until recent years, the “flawed” compounds of volatile acidity and brettanomyces. While many would call them pleasurable, few would call them approachable.

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Lebanon aspires to boost economy via China-Arab States Expo

by Salah Takieddine BEIRUT,  (Xinhua) -- Lebanese businessmen who have participated in the China-Arab States Expo in the northwestern Chinese city of Yinchuan expressed hopes that this event could produce positive results for the Lebanese economy. "The participation in the expo was very important for us and hope that we would have an important cooperation with the Chinese," Lebanese former Finance Minister Raya al-Hassan told Xinhua, revealing that two agreements related to the Special Economic Zone for Tripoli have been signed with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Yinchuan Technology Zone. Al-Hassan, who is also the head of Tripoli Special Economic Zone Authority, hailed the expo as an opportunity for Lebanon to exhibit its manufactures and know the needs of the Chinese market. "We are interested in attracting the Chinese investments to Tripoli. Chinese companies are visiting Tripoli and show their interest in reactivating the Silk Road and it is a matter of great importance for both countries and has a definite positive effect on Lebanon," she said.

According to the Lebanese business official, Lebanon's exports to China total about 6 million U.S. dollars while the country imports 2 billion dollars' worth of products from China. "After our participation, we discovered that we can include in our exports that China needs, such as olive oil and wine," she explained. A number of Lebanese commercial and industrial companies participated in the expo and had a distinctive presence. Amir Hassoun, head of the development and marketing department in the Khan al Saboun factory of Badr Hassoun in Tripoli, said China has facilitated "investments for the Lebanese businessmen and industrialists." "We exhibited our products in the expo and found an interesting acceptance," Hassoun said. "We exhibited about 1,400 kinds of soap products." During the expo, Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Raed Khouri, who is also the head of the country's delegation to the expo, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government to promote economic cooperation between the two countries under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. According to the MoU, the two countries agreed to work together to achieve common development, and enhance both political and economic ties. The four-day event was inaugurated on Sept. 6, with the participation of 43 ministers and high-ranking officials from Arab countries and 117 representatives from commerce chambers in China and Arab countries.