Another good Michael Totten interview;
Eli is the CEO of the advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi in the Levant. He worked on Iraq’s first post-Saddam get-out-and-vote campaign, then applied his advertising and design skills to Lebanon’s movement to oust the Syrian occupation. His work was seen all over the country back then, and it’s still all over the country today.
He also runs a professional political consulting firm called Quantum. I went to see him in his futuristic post-modern office on the top floor of a glass tower in East Beirut. I felt like I had been whooshed into the 23rd century when I walked in there. The lighting, the windows, the walls…the whole place appeared straight out of a science-fiction movie. His employees looked like they had been genetically engineered to human perfection. I should have taken some pictures.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said. “How can I help you?”
“Lebanon is a disaster right now,” I said, although it certainly didn’t look that way from his spiffy uber-modern tower looking out toward the mountains and the Mediterranean. “And it looks even worse than it is in the media. I wanted to check in with you again and interview somebody sane, show the other side of the story. Lebanon looks like a terrorist state again to Americans. And also to the Israelis.”
He put his face in his hands then blew out his cheeks. “This,” he said ominously and nodded. “This is the most important thing.”
[…]
When political theories fail in the Middle East they fail hard. People who believed in them have a tendency to support a total opposite point of view later. That’s why the Shia will be okay after Hezbollah is defeated.”
“Hezbollah will always have some support, though,” I said.
“Yes,” Eli said. “Among irrelevant people. The fact that we have some of these silly leftists who support Hezbollah just shows we are a normal country. We are like everyone else. Those people are everywhere. Did you see the protestors in London who said We are all Hezbollah now? Give me a break.”
What he says makes sense- there are still people in this country who vote Gliberal.
This is a good article.
In my opinion and through the haze of MSM hype, there is a big world-wide thing happening and it’s being driven by the US. The US leadership has matured to a point where they think they know how to drive democracy and are driving a big picture plan to do so.
Israel is a middle east regional power – and nothing more. They care about there country and rightly so.
Israel bombed a bunch of bridges and airports all over Lebanon which wasn’t a pretty thing to do. The message though was that if Lebanon and it’s government wants to be sovereign then they better act like they are sovereign and don’t let a bunch of Hezbolah bullies control the south of Lebanon (below the Litani River). Israel was probably reigned in big time by the US.
Then the US did something which I consider brilliant. They worked on a peace plan through the UN (yes the jerky UN – which means the US still has some faith in it and sees that it adds value to the world) to bring the Lebanese Army below the Litani for the first time AND get unanimous support for a UN peace keeping force (including France – for God’s sake).
Hezbolah may have weapons all over the place BUT they lost control of their supposed territory.
The Lebanese government is standing tough against Hezbollah and developing confidence in themselves.
This article kind of indicates to me that the future of Lebanon can be bright if the Lebanese can stand tough – with US support.
Very good article.
I share his disdain for the Western “realists”.
Not sure about his solution to Hezbollah. I still reckon they will only go down when they lose support of the Syrian and Iranian regimes. One way or another:^)
The closing words of this story…http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21196208-2,00.html
‘The Australian National Imams Council is the only official body that has the right and the authority to nominate and elect the position of Grand Mufti of Australia in a free and fair election without any internal or external interventions, the council says on its website’
Ah, the strength of freedom of speech. I’d like to see those stifling same-sex marriage debate to marry ‘rights’ of homosexuals with actively spoken misogyny, in the context of religious freedom. Then again, I don’t think the ‘rights’ crowd gives a rats a$$ about anyone else in the world – but themselves.