US envoy arrives as Scrooge

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL23Ak01.html


Surely we should all have known better. It was just too good to last. It seemed to some Americans in Lebanon that nearly all the Lebanese and their political leaders were ready to try to more or less work together for the good of the country. Many even seemed to be getting excited about Christmas. Several of the diverse sects' zaims (leaders) were seen on TV enjoying attending public lightings of Christmas trees, praising the new unity government and humming their favorite holiday tunes during family visits to places like crowded Beirut and city malls.

New Prime Minister Saad Hariri admitted that he relished presiding over the ceremony for the lighting of the "national" Christmas tree in downtown Beirut this week and was inspired by fond memories of his student days at Georgetown University, when he liked to walk over behind the White House and watch the US president pull the switch and see the huge tree light up to a chorus of "ohs" and "ahs" from kids and their relatives.

The ceremony here was almost the same, and it seemed to this outsider that the Lebanese have way more relatives than Americans do or at least they get together more often. Given all the electricity problems Lebanon's population has to endure, with daily power black outs ranging from three hours per day in the more posh Hamra district to more than 12 hours of daily cuts in some areas like the Palestinian refugee camps and sometimes no power at all for days up north in Tripoli, Akkar and over east in the Bekaa Valley, some gathered at the huge tree waiting for Hariri to pull the switch, joked that it would be a real miracle if all those trails of tangled wires actually worked.

Just as one Saudi student was overheard explaining to his English girlfriend that even in Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, it is OK to wish Western visitors "Merry Christmas", the giant tree lit up brilliantly as Hariri pulled the switch and he and the crowd beamed with childlike delight.

-snip-

Things seemed to be going quite well for Lebanon this Christmas season. However, no sooner had the tree lighting crowd dispersed than the atmosphere literally changed and the following days brought sustained heavy rains and flooding with many Lebanese stuck in homes and cars with heavy thunder and lightning. Some are blaming the foul weather on global warming.

Others ascribe it to the return of Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, who last month announced from Washington that US officials are staying away from Lebanon lest they be blamed for trying to interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs by choosing its new government.

It did appear that the scowling Feltman appeared to ride in on the dark clouds, via the airwaves, to frighten little children with his patented threats of old. As though he had never been absent from Lebanon, Feltman tried his best to stir up the now quiet Lebanese political pot. First, he announced on al-Jazeera TV on December 16 that "Hezbollah endangers the Lebanese people and does not comply with international resolutions and exerts its power in areas where the government has no control".

-long snip detailing all Feltman/US has to say and think (old, worn out crap)-
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sigh