Israeli officials worry that the arms sale agreement between Lebanon and the United States, made during Lebanese President Michel Suleiman’s visit to Washington this week, might strengthen Hezbollah. Under the bargain, the US will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) with 12 Raven unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft in the coming months.
Israel is concerned that the Lebanese national unity government has allowed Hezbollah to keep its weapons. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hizbullah was becoming the “real Lebanese army” as the dominant force in Lebanon. This should be aligned with Netanyahu’s past warnings that the Lebanese government is responsible for any rocket attack directed against Israel from Lebanon.
Since June, Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri has not been able to form a national unity government due to Hezbollah’s reservations. However, on Saturday, politicians from both camps confirmed that the Government is to be announced in the next two days.
Okab Sakr, who is close to Hariri, said, “The government is as good as formed. It’s all about the final touches now and its formation will be completed this weekend.” A Hezbollah statement confirmed, “Participants at the talks have agreed to forge ahead with the formation of the national unity government in accordance with the regulations that were agreed upon during the negotiations that had been conducted.”
It is expected that the Cabinet will consist of 15 ministers from Hariri’s coalition and 10 from the opposition, including two Hezbollah ministers and five ministers approved by President Michel Suleiman.
On Friday, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, Noaf Salaam, warned that Israel is planing to attack Lebanon. He condemned Israel’s artillery fire on the village of Houla on Tuesday and said that the Israeli response delayed and prevented Lebanese forces from investigating rocket attacks in the area.
The Katyusha fire launched from the Upper Galilee region of Lebanon was the first rocket attack since September and the ninth one since the end of the 2006 Lebanon War. A day later, Lebanese troops found and dismantled four rockets near the border.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman stated on Thursday that Israel had deliberately planned and organized the Katyusha attack “to keep the tension high”.
Israel’s gesture is a belated compromise in the wake of an unfruitful round of talks with United States on the possibility of a two-state solution. The tactical offers a “concession” which, in fact, has no political cost but a possible economic advantage by providing a relatively integrated market (including for Israeli goods) in the West Bank.
Hariri Withdraws as Proposed Lebanon PM: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Sa’ad Hariri’s plans did not work. At the risk of breaking ties with Israel, he was behind his decision to form a government including Hezbollah. However, Hariri has withdrawn from his nomination after Hezbollah’s rejection of Hariri’s proposed 30-member cabinet list. After meeting President Michel Suleiman, Hariri said: “I declare to all Lebanese, that today, I apologized to his excellency the president about [not being able to] form the government, hoping that this decision will be in Lebanon’s interest.”
Now, Suleiman is consulting with lawmakers to name a new Prime Minister to form the government.
Stalemate over Lebanon Government: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri (pictured) submitted the list for a new national unity government to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman on Monday. Hariri’s “March 14″ alliance gets 15 of 30 seats in the new cabinet and the opposition “March 8″ alliance 10 seats. The other five seats will be chosen by the president.
Hezbollah and its allies refused to support the list since several ministries and appointees that it demanded had been rejected by Hariri. Haaretz quotes one senior Hezbollah official: “We will not deal with this proposal because we know nothing about it. As far as we are concerned, it does not exist and we will have nothing to do with it.”
President Suleiman is not expected to approve any Cabinet proposal that does not have opposition support.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Government has decided to intervene. An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the issue in the past, and that his position then still stands: “If Hezbollah joins the Lebanese government, then the Lebanese government is accepting responsibility for Hezbollah’s actions, including its actions against Israel.”
Israel’s Settlements Expand for Sake of “Human Rights”: On Monday, right-wing lawmakers, including Supreme Court Judge Eliyakim Rubinstein, celebrated the establishment of a new neighborhood in the E-1 corridor connecting Jerusalem to settlement suburbs in the West Bank. National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau and Information Minister Yuli Edelstein were also present.
Following Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s decision to approve construction of 455 new homes, this was a “victory” demonstration for some Likud Party members. Landau told the crowd:
This land is ours and ours alone… It is the Arabs who are occupiers… A settlement freeze is a violation of human rights. What can we tell the families? Don’t have any more kids, don’t build another house, you can’t have a playground here. This construction must not stop under any circumstances.
This piece started as an update on our main analysis of the results of Lebanon’s elections, but with the US and British media’s misreading, simplifications, and exaggerations spreading like kudzu, a separate entry is needed.
For Michael Slackman of The New York Times, it’s not just a question of Washington shaping the Lebanese outcome: “Political analysts…attribute it in part to President Obama’s campaign of outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.” You can slap the Obama model on top of any election to get the right result: “Lebanon’s election could be a harbinger of Friday’s presidential race in Iran, where a hard-line anti-American president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, may be losing ground to his main moderate challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi.”
Simon Tisdall, normally a shrewd observer of international affairs, trots out the same simplicities in The Guardian of London: “It’s possible that watching Iranians will be encouraged in their turn to go out and vote for reformist, west-friendly candidates in Friday’s presidential election. Lebanon may be just the beginning of the ‘Obama effect’.”
Juan Cole has posted a more thoughtful assessment, even as he opens with the reductionist and sensationalist declaration, “President Obama’s hopes for progress on the Arab-Israeli peace process would have been sunk if Hezbollah had won the Lebanese elections.” And Howard Schneider of The Washington Post, although premature in his anointing of Saad Hariri as Lebanon’s next and primary leader (setting aside not only President Suleiman but also presuming that Hariri will be chosen as PM), sets out “the choice…between a showdown with his supporters, a showdown with Hezbollah or — the more likely outcome — a continued stalemate over the very issues voters hoped they were addressing in Sunday’s balloting”.
What stands out internationally is that the Lebanese still believe in parliamentary democracy and President Obama, so soon after his Cairo lecture, will recognise that this tiny country still believes in free speech and free elections. Another victory for Lebanon, in other words, beneath the swords of its neighbours.
Israeli officials worry that the arms sale agreement between Lebanon and the United States, made during Lebanese President Michel Suleiman’s visit to Washington this week, might strengthen Hezbollah. Under the bargain, the US will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) with 12 Raven unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft in the coming months.
Since June, Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri has not been able to form a national unity government due to Hezbollah’s reservations. However, on Saturday, 
On Friday, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, Noaf Salaam, warned that Israel is planing to attack Lebanon. He condemned Israel’s artillery fire on the village of Houla on Tuesday and said that the Israeli response delayed and prevented Lebanese forces from investigating rocket attacks in the area.
Hariri Back as Lebanon Prime Minister-Designate: 
Hariri Withdraws as Proposed Lebanon PM: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Sa’ad Hariri’s plans did not work. At the risk of breaking ties with Israel, he was behind his decision to form a government including Hezbollah. However, 
Stalemate over Lebanon Government: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri (pictured) submitted the list for a new national unity government to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman on Monday. Hariri’s “March 14″ alliance gets 15 of 30 seats in the new cabinet and the opposition “March 8″ alliance 10 seats. The other five seats will be chosen by the president.
This piece started as an update on our main analysis of the results of Lebanon’s elections, but with the US and British media’s misreading, simplifications, and exaggerations spreading like kudzu, a separate entry is needed.
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