realclearworld Newsletters: Mideast Memo
Before years of civil war and foreign occupation left it a sectarian shambles, Beirut, the cosmopolitan capital of Lebanon, was widely regarded as the "Paris of the Middle East." Fittingly so, considering the country's colonial ties to France following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Even with much of the city worn and ravaged by war, the French influence in Beirut can still be seen in everything from its architecture down to its cuisine.
The two cities sadly share a connection once again this week, as both continue to pick up the pieces from deadly terrorist attacks carried out last week by the Islamic State group. But while the world grieves for the City of Light, many Lebanese feel as though the attention has been rather disproportionate. The New York Times' Anne Barnard reports:
"Monuments around the world lit up in the colors of the French flag; presidential speeches touted the need to defend ‘shared values;' Facebook offered users a one-click option to overlay their profile pictures with the French tricolor, a service not offered for the Lebanese flag. On Friday the social media giant even activated Safety Check, a feature usually reserved for natural disasters that lets people alert loved ones that they are unhurt; they had not activated it the day before for Beirut.
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"The implication, numerous Lebanese commentators complained, was that Arab lives mattered less. Either that, or that their country -- relatively calm despite the war next door -- was perceived as a place where carnage is the norm, an undifferentiated corner of a basket-case region."
This lingering reputation -- a relic, perhaps, from years of war and negative media coverage -- isn't entirely without merit, but it's one that continues to tar Beirut in spite of everything it has persevered in recent decades. "[W]hile Beirut was once synonymous with violence, when it went through a grinding civil war a generation ago, this was the deadliest suicide bombing to hit the city since that conflict ended in 1990," writes Barnard. "Lebanon has weathered waves of political assassinations, street skirmishes and wars; Israeli airstrikes leveled whole apartment blocks in 2006. But it had been a year of relative calm."
It's only logical, in some sense, that Paris would draw more attention than Beirut. It is one of the world's top tourist destinations, and its symbolism -- the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral -- simply resonates stronger among observers, especially those in the West. Quartz's Bobby Ghosh:
"I care about Beirut, not only because I'm a journalist who covers the Middle East, but also because I have friends there. However, I care more about Paris than about Beirut, because I've been to Paris, and love it. The 2004 Madrid bombings affected me more than last week's attacks on Paris, because I've visited the Spanish capital many more times, and love it more. The 2005 London attacks affected me still more because I lived in that city for two years. And more than all these, I care about terrorist attacks in Baghdad -- even though they are very frequent -- because I lived in Iraq five years, and have many, many friends there.
"This doesn't make me a hypocrite. It makes me human."
Still, the Lebanese city is no less worthy of attention. Stifled by ethnic and religious factionalism, Lebanon's stunted coalition government finds itself unable to deliver basic services to its citizens, and the country has been without a president for a year and a half.
What ails Lebanon, moreover, is symptomatic of the many ills that plague neighboring Syria, where nearly five years of war have left the country shattered. Though it is an active participant in that nearby war, the militant Shiite organization Hezbollah -- which is also one of Lebanon's most powerful political parties -- seemed to believe that it was immune from such turmoil and bloodshed in the safe confines of its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Last week's twin suicide bombings in predominantly Shia Bourj al-Barajneh should dispel the Iranian client of any such notion, argues Lebanese analyst Hanin Ghaddar:
"At the surface, ISIS told Hezbollah that its involvement in Syria has a high price in Lebanon. But on a deeper level, ISIS told everyone involved in discussing the peace process in Vienna that war is the only option, and that the international community cannot give Iran and Hezbollah any guarantees in Syria, Lebanon, or the region as a whole."
What happens in Lebanon moving forward will likely be viewed as a natural outgrowth of the war raging next door. This, as author and journalist Michael J. Totten wrote in a prescient 2013 essay, should come as a surprise to no one:
"When Lebanese self-identify as Christian, Sunni, Shiite, or Druze, they aren't telling you what they believe; they're telling you which community they belong to. Religious sects in the Eastern Mediterranean function as ethnicities, just as they do in Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia. Each sect has its own history, its own culture, its own aspirations and fears, and its own constellation of allies and enemies. Beirutis can't drop all that baggage just by choosing to be secular. During times of armed conflict, you can be killed for what's printed next to RELIGION on your identity card. At those times, you can find safety only within the confines of your sect.
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"Lebanese Sunnis and Lebanese Shiites are therefore killing each other right now in Syria. It may be only a matter of time before they stop bothering to cross the border and start killing each other at home."
Did the Media Ignore the Beirut Bombings, or Did Readers? -- Vox
Can Beirut Be Paris Again? -- City Journal
Religiously Divided Landfills in Lebanon? -- Al-Monitor
How Safe Is Beirut Airport? -- NOW Lebanon
Around the Region
A Kurdish-Shia standoff. We shift our attention to a different sectarian battlefield located in the northern Iraqi town of Jalawla, where Kurdish and Shiite fighters -- having already liberated the town from ISIS -- are now squaring off against each other. Kevin Knodell of War Is Boring explains:
"A new batch of Iraqi Shia militiamen have taken positions near the Kurdish controlled town of Jalawla in Northern Iraq. The Kurdish fighters inside the town are not excited about that.
"‘We hope nothing will happen, but if they fire at peshmerga we will respond," Gen. Mahmud Sangawi told Kurdish outlet Rudaw on Nov. 14. ‘We will never let them take over Jalawla. Jalawla is a Kurdish town. We took control of it with our blood. No other forces should be seen inside Jalawla.'
"Jalawla was the site of a bloody, protracted battle after Islamic State militants seized Mosul in June 2014. After months of fighting, Kurdish peshmerga troops retook the town last November.
"The town lay in ruins and littered with booby traps, and disagreements between Kurdish forces and Shia militia forces led to a tense standoff. Now a year after the Jalawla's liberation, that uncertainty still hangs over the town."
Will Rouhani reach out? Iranian analyst Ali Omidi wonders if President Hassan Rouhani, along with his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will defy Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and negotiate with the United States on Syria:
"Given the multilateral nature of the talks on Syria that have been held in Austria, the Iranian delegation -- led by Zarif -- is able to negotiate with its American counterpart in the context of this multilateral setting, and there is nothing that Iranian conservatives can do about it.
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"Second, considering that Russia, the principal ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is actively participating in the talks in Austria, Iran believes that it will become isolated and singled out if it fails to engage in dialogue with the main parties to the conflict -- including the United States. Experience has also shown Iran that it will not be able to steer the crisis alone. In addition, Iranian officials have realized that inaction on their behalf may cause developments in Syria to move in an unfavorable direction."
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