Current Analysis Letting Gaza Burn The captivity of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit is over two weeks old, with no sign of a breakthrough, and a second front with Hizbullah now threatens to divert world attention from the conflagration in Gaza. Following Israel’s grievously disproportionate military rejoinder to Shalit’s capture, over Chris Toensing • 3 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
MER Article "Model Employees" Twenty-two year old Leela made a promise to her family in Sri Lanka: she would earn enough money working abroad as a maid or a nanny to build a new house back home. Living thousands of miles from her husband and young son would be difficult, but Leela thought she would be able to send them money whi Monica Smith • 8 min read
MER Article 'Ajamis in Lebanon It is Muharram, the month of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, and the female-run husseiniyya in West Beirut is packed with women dressed in black. As the sounds of Lebanese and Iraqi Arabic dialects, as well as Persian, fill the hallways of this Shi‘i community center, the female religious performer ( Roschanack Shaery • 7 min read
MER Article Hizballah After the Syrian Withdrawal Since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 in September 2004, Hizballah has been in the international spotlight. In addition to demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the resolution calls for the “disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” p Joseph Alagha • 15 min read
Current Analysis The Mehlis Report and Lebanon’s Trouble Next Door The UN-authorized investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, now well into a second phase of heightened brinkmanship between Damascus and Washington, also has Lebanon holding its collective breath. Marlin Dick • 12 min read
MER Article A Landscape of Uncertainty The events following the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri and Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon have not discernibly changed the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon. While a surprising government edict has made it easier for Palestinians to get clerical and manual jobs, calls for disarming them and pe Laleh Khalili • 14 min read
MER Article Of Specters and Disciplined Commodities “Lebanon was built with Syrian muscles,” declared an elderly Lebanese in the early 1990s. He was referring to the hundreds of thousands of semi- and unskilled Syrians who have worked in Lebanon on a temporary basis in construction, agriculture, manufacturing and services since the mid-twentieth cent John Chalcraft • 15 min read
MER Article Beirut Diary: April 2005 PREFACE Like most places in the world that, time and time again, have been fit into the journalist's script or forced into the novelist's frame, Lebanon has been tirelessly taxed with metaphors and allegories. Simultaneously, it has been presented as the terrain for metaphorical and allegorical con Rasha Salti • 14 min read
MER Article Syria and Lebanon: A Brotherhood Transformed Unlike its incremental intervention in Lebanon throughout early 1976, Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon in late April 2005 was swift, unplanned and humiliating. On both occasions, Lebanese, regional and international factors overlapped to shape Syrian behavior. But whereas the 1976 intervention consol Bassel Salloukh • 20 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2005) Mere months ago, devotees of President George W. Bush's Iraq adventure were positively giddy. Not only were they convinced that Iraq was on the fast track to peace, prosperity and perpetual friendliness with Washington, they believed that countries across the Greater Middle East were following close behind. Neo-conservative The Editors • 6 min read
Current Analysis Elections Pose Lebanon's Old Questions Anew Watching a wave of peaceful protests compel the Lebanese government to resign on February 28, 2005, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli hailed the victory of a “Cedar Revolution” in line with, among others, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and “the Purple Revolution in Baghdad.” Ereli went on to claim that Sateh Nourredine, Laurie King-Irani • 11 min read
