MER Article Siege Notes Rasha Salti moved back to Beirut from New York on July 11, 2006, the day before Hizballah’s cross-border raid and Israel’s month-long war on Lebanon. We publish here excerpts from several entries in a diary she kept during the war. Her “Siege Notes” can be read in full at www.electroniclebanon.net [ Rasha Salti • 16 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2006) First drafts of history make strange bedfellows. Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hizballah, claimed a “strategic, historic victory” when UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ushered in a very belated “cessation of hostilities” in Lebanon and Israel on August 14. Indeed, grumbled the Israeli right and its backers in Washington, The Editors • 5 min read
Current Analysis Humanitarian Crisis in Lebanon is Huge After passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the ensuing "cessation of hostilities," hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese are venturing across bombed roads and bridges returning to their destroyed homes and villages in the south. Although Israel’s aerial bombardment h Samia Mehrez • 2 min read
Current Analysis Deflating Middle East Extremism President Bush and many other supporters of the current Israeli assault on Lebanon and its reoccupation of the Gaza Strip justify these military actions on the grounds that Hamas and Hezbollah do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Negotiating with “terrorists” is impossible, they claim, because Joel Beinin • 4 min read
Current Analysis How UN Pressure on Hizballah Impedes Lebanese Reform When the last Syrian soldier left Lebanese territory in April 2005, jubilant crowds gathered in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to celebrate the coming of a new era. In Washington and Paris, the mood was also festive, as officials praised what they called Lebanon’s “Cedar Revolution” as the first in Reinoud Leenders • 17 min read
