Army helicopters warn Lebanese to stay home

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by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanese army helicopters this week began dropping leaflets over city neighborhoods warning residents to observe the lockdown, which includes a 5 p.m. evening curfew. “Remain quarantined at home, COVID-19 is no joke,” the flyers read. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the lockdown will last until the end of the month. “We have reached a critical period regarding the spread of the virus and are left with no alternative,” he said. Lebanon has recorded up to 1,000 daily infections since Saturday. More than 106,440 cases have been reported since the outbreak began in February, while the death toll now stands at 827. “More time is needed to study the results of the lockdown. We will reevaluate the lockdown decision on Friday in order to allow more sectors to resume their activities,” Mohammed Fahmy, interior minister in the caretaker government, said. The rate of compliance with the ministry’s health directives stood at 85 percent, he added.

Fahmy urged private companies and businesses to develop work schedules that will allow employees to return to their homes without risking fines. Security patrols have issued more than 10,000 penalties for violation of lockdown rules since the outbreak began. Breaches included opening shops not included in the exemptions, failure to wear a face mask, and ignoring the night curfew and odd/even number plate rules. Concerning the rate of COVID-19 in jails, Fahmy said that “three weeks ago, more than 500 prisoners were infected, but today there are only 69 cases, one of whom has had to be hospitalized.” Security forces also issued a warning following the discovery of large numbers of fake press passes produced by drivers during the curfew. Many of the forgeries claimed to be linked to bogus electronic news sites. A security source told Arab News that “the holders of these passes were not media, which are excluded from the lockdown.” Security forces have detained a person believed to have issued dozens of fake press passes in exchange for money. “The arrested person has previously obtained passes for dozens of electronic news sites over the years,” Joseph Al-Qusaifi, the Lebanese Press Syndicate chief, said.

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‘Let women cook’: Lebanese mock minister over sexist comment

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by AFP -- BEIRUT: Lebanese have poked fun at outgoing interior minister Mohamed Fahmi after he suggested the solution to a ban on deliveries during a coronavirus lockdown was for women to start cooking. Lebanon started a two-week partial lockdown on Saturday to try to stem the spread of the Covid-19 virus as cases topped 100,000 and intensive care hospital departments became overwhelmed. When a journalist asked Fahmi what Lebanese should do on Sunday when a day-long curfew suspended popular food deliveries from restaurants and supermarkets, he quipped: “Let women cook a little.” Appalled women reacted by lambasting the minister’s sexist comment on social media, and vowing they were #Not_cooking_on_Sunday. “#Sexism results in deep rooted repression & discrimination against us women, national ‘leaders’ disgracefully support inequalities,” associate professor Carmen Geha responded on Twitter. “I will cook happily the day they pick up and recycle garbage,” she added, referring to oft-criticized public services.

Award-winning journalist Dalal Mawad slammed what she called a “sample of the level of discourse and awareness among this country’s politicians.” Lebanese men joined in posting images of themselves dicing up vegetables or shaking pans on the stove, as they took on the #Fahmi_challenge — to be a man and cook. “I apologize, honorable minister, that today I cooked for my sons,” one user, a divorced man raising his sons on his own, wrote beside a picture of him serving a meal on Facebook. “I apologize because their mother is a doctor like me and the head of a department in France, and I and my children are very proud of her.” Lebanon is also reeling from a devastating blast at Beirut’s port in August that killed more than 200 people, and a raging economic crisis that sparked mass protests last autumn against entrenched politicians viewed as incompetent and out of touch. “Gender equality Mr.Fahmi, have you ever heard about it? Or too busy ruining our country with your bunch of friends?,” wrote another Lebanese man on Facebook in English. Another one made a video to the tune of the “Mission: Impossible” soundtrack, encouraging others to follow suit, and finishing with the revelation: “Men... also do the washing up.

Lebanese general was in Syria over missing American reporter

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BEIRUT (AP) — A top Lebanese security official said Saturday that he visited Syria for two days to speak with officials there about American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in the war-torn country since 2012. Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim did not give further details in an interview with the local Al-Jadeed television channel, but his comments came two weeks after his return from Washington where he is believed to have discussed Tice’s case with U.S. officials. “After my visit to Washington, I went to Syria for two days and discussions over this matter are continuing and will continue,” Ibrahim said, referring to Tice’s disappearance. Tice, of Houston, Texas, disappeared at a checkpoint in the contested western Damascus suburb of Daraya on Aug. 14, 2012. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He has not been heard from since.

Tice is a former U.S. Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets, and disappeared shortly after his 31st birthday. Ibrahim’s comments came as the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Saturday that the U.S. Congress could impose sanctions on him, under a new bill being considered. Ibrahim in recent years has helped to facilitate the release of a U.S. citizen held in Syria, and a Lebanese-American who was held in Iran. The U.S. has imposed sanctions in recent months on Lebanese politicians including allies of the militant Hezbollah group. Washington has listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 1997 and sees the group as a proxy for its archenemy Iran in the region. Ibrahim said that U.S. sanctions wouldn't stop him from working on Tice's case. “I have promised Austin Tice’s mother whom I met in Washington and speak with her by telephone on a daily basis that neither sanctions nor anything else will affect work over the case of her son," he added.

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Independents win Lebanese university elections

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by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Student elections in Lebanese universities have always been an indicator of political parties’ ability to attract the new generation to their ranks. But the triumph of independents in recent elections at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Lebanese American University, St. Joseph University and Notre Dame University — Louaize suggests that something has changed. “There’s a major shift in students’ mindset and in the issues they find pressing. They harbor anger toward the system that governs their country,” Dr. Talal Nizameddin, the AUB’s dean of student affairs, told Arab News. Students have described the results of these elections as historic. Political parties “have lost students’ confidence in them,” Dr. Ziad Abdel Samad, social affairs expert and former secretary-general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, told Arab News.

The parties “are unable to reach” students, he said, “either due to the absence of on-campus life in universities because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or due to the changing mindset of the youth, who are monitoring the role of parties in power, their corruption, and the economic and social crises they led the country to.” He added: “The biggest question remains: Is this shift among university students an indication of a shift in the mindset of all the Lebanese? Meaning, will the independents or partisans win if parliamentary elections are held?” Mohammed Mansour, the Progressive Socialist Party’s youth commissioner, told Arab News: “The revolution and protests have weakened all parties in Lebanon without exception. But the revolution hasn’t presented a clear, consistent program that guarantees a transition toward real change.”

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Lebanese hospitals struggle with tide of COVID-19 patients

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by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews -- BEIRUT: As Lebanon entered into complete lockdown for two weeks from Saturday its hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of new COVID-19 patients, which is now around 2000 every day. One 91-year-old, Zuhair Salem Al-Husseini, spent 10 days on a trolley in the section designated for COVID-19 patients at Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital in Beirut because all the beds there were occupied, his daughter Heba told Arab News. Al- Husseini spent two days in the emergency department, to complete his treatment at home because there were no isolation rooms. But his children took him back to the hospital as his condition deteriorated and he was treated with remdesivir.

He said that he did not know where he caught the infection because he rarely leaves home. “About 20 days ago, I felt I needed to vomit and I had a very high temperature. From that moment, my journey with fighting the coronavirus began.” His daughter Heba said that after her father was discharged from hospital he did not receive any special treatment to follow at home. Al-Husseini said: “I have never been to a doctor all my life, and I do not suffer from any disease. I am a smoker and I used to smoke two or three cigarettes with a cup of coffee before I caught the disease. When I learned about my infection, I was not afraid. I accepted it calmly and said I want to survive and encouraged myself.” His 80-year-old wife did not contract the virus even though she accompanied the patient during his illness. There are more than 44,000 COVID-19 patients in Lebanon, 307 of whom are in critical condition, according to Ministry of Health statistics. The total number of cases since last February has exceeded 100,000 cases.

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What the history of Lebanese-Israeli Negotiations can tell us about the future

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by JAMES R. STOCKER -- warontherocks.com -- On Oct. 14, Lebanese and Israeli officials began talks over their common maritime border, which has drawn attention in recent years after the discovery of significant amounts of oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean. The two countries have long disagreed over questions such as what country owns the Shebaa farms, whether Hizballah should be allowed to maintain arms, and if Israeli military aircraft should be allowed to fly over Lebanese air space. After Israel signed a maritime agreement laying out the boundaries of its exclusive economic zone with Cyprus in 2010, Lebanon protested the arrangement and declared its own boundary, creating an area of disputed territory of around 860 square kilometers. It took the two countries 10 years to come to the table, but in September American mediators finally brokered a so-called “framework agreement” governing how the negotiations would proceed.

Given that Israel has recently opened diplomatic relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and seems likely to do so with Sudan, some are asking whether these talks mean that Lebanon might be next. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that the negotiations “might be a first sign for peace,” while cautioning that “there will be no peace with Lebanon as long as Hizballah is in control of it.” Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a Hizballah ally, has declared that peace may be possible under the right circumstances, including the resolution of all outstanding disputes between the two countries, presumably including the sea border. Aoun’s daughter has stated even more clearly that resolving outstanding disputes would make peace possible.

Officials from all sides have been attempting to manage expectations that these negotiations will resolve all of the issues between the two countries. Indeed, at the talks, the two sides have been sitting in the same room, but the Lebanese side refused to address the Israelis directly, insisting that all communications be delivered by U.S. or U.N. mediators. In such an atmosphere, what exactly can the various parties hope to achieve? A look at the history of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon suggests some lessons. For both governments, the prospect of reaching pragmatic, mutually beneficial agreements has often seemed enticing, but mistrust and skepticism about the willingness and ability of the other to deliver on promises mean that these agreements frequently fall apart. However, negotiations have proved likely to succeed, and agreement most likely to endure, when they have narrowly focused on technical issues, included third parties as monitors, and enjoyed support both from a majority of the Lebanese population and from other regional powers.

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