Lebanon to Israel: Hands Off Our Falafel Balls
By Daniel Treiman
From DPA via Ha’aretz’s Web site:
The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association Fadi Abboud, said he is preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for allegedly “taking the identity of some Lebanese foods” and thus violating a food copyright.
“In a way the Jewish state is trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies like falafel, tabouleh and hummus” Abboud said.
According to Abboud, the Lebanese are losing “tens of millions of dollars annually” because Israel is selling and marketing traditional Lebanese dishes.
“The Israelis are marketing our main food dishes as if they were Israeli dishes,” he charged.
Though it might be tempting, one should not dismiss Abboud’s threats as mere bluster. He’s serious, and he’s citing legal precedent — the “feta cheese precedent.” (I kid you not.)
And while we’re on the topic of lawsuits, I wonder what ever happened with that Egyptian fellow who was threatening to sue the Jewish people for making off with Egypt’s gold during the Exodus. I, for one, have yet to be served with papers.
May 13, 2008, 11:54pm
Lebanese Druze Fight Hezbollah With Sarcasm
By Daniel Treiman
Hezbollah maintains that it needs to hold on to its weapons to defend Lebanon from Israel. Never mind that Israel pulled out of Southern Lebanon eight years go.
Now, of course, the Shiite militia is turning its guns against its fellow Lebanese. After heavy fighting earlier this week in Druze-dominated mountain areas outside of Beirut, some locals responded to Hezbollah’s attacks with a bit of sarcasm.
“I guess they got lost on their way to Tel Aviv but we will forgive them,” a local official, Sheikh Abdallah al-Khishn, told Agence France Presse.
“Do you see Jews here?” asked 28-year-old Nivine Naeem, whose home was hit by rocket. “Is Hassan Nasrallah trying to free the Shebaa Farms from here?”
“How can we ever again believe their weapons are meant for our protection?”
May 12, 2008, 6:18pm
The Army in Hezbollah’s Pocket?
By Daniel Treiman
Ha’aretz’s Yoav Stern writes:
Hezbollah’s rapid and savvy raids of recent days brought to light the true balance of power in Lebanon, and, at the same time, the close connection between the Lebanon Army and Hezbollah.
Witness accounts of Hezbollah’s actions in Lebanon in the course of the incidents demonstrate not only that the Lebanon Army is refraining from trying to bar Hezbollah from operating throughout the country, but is in fact carrying out orders from the organization and granting it media cover.
Read the full article.
May 8, 2008, 1:06pm
Lebanon’s ‘Cell Phone Civil War’?
By Daniel Treiman
Things are getting ugly in Lebanon. The months-long standoff between Lebanon’s pro-Western government and Hezbollah and its allies has escalated into violence. The trigger? Cell phones.
Time magazine reports:
The country has been politically paralyzed for 16 months, unable to elect a new president because of a deadlock between government and opposition forces in which neither side has the strength to prevail over the other. Then came the telephone crisis: Last weekend, Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon’s Druze minority and an arch enemy of Hizballah, accused the militant Shi’ite party of maintaining its own private telephone network, and of using security cameras to monitor Beirut airport with the possible aim of staging attacks or kidnappings. On Tuesday, the government followed up with an edict declaring Hizballah’s telephone network “illegal and unconstitutional”. It also launched an investigation into the alleged monitoring of the airport, and dismissed airport security chief General Wafiq Shuqeir, on suspicion of opposition sympathies.
Hizballah was having none of it, angrily declaring that the telephone network is part of its military wing — which it justifies as necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel — and warning anyone seeking to dismantle it would be treated as an “Israeli spy”. Within days, the two sides were shooting at one another.
Read the full article.
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