Hazem Saghieh

Every now and then, we find, despite everything that has happened and continues to happen, someone getting up to deride Lebanon’s “sectarian system” and hold it responsible for the condition of the devastated country. The “sectarian system” is not something one can defend, nor can it be absolved…

Why were the forces of the “Axis of Resistance” defeated in the war triggered by the October 7, 2023, operation? Why have the regimes of the Arab Levant, along with their societies, been dragged, as a result of this defeat, into a second defeat that could prove even more bitter and cruel? Why has…

Iraq’s designation of Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) as terrorist organizations, whose assets must therefore be confiscated, was a warm-up for ending the era of Iranophilic militias. Swiftly walking this step back, under the flimsy pretext that the designation had been made …

Most of all in the Gaza Strip, but also in Lebanon and Syria, the options have been narrowed down to two, both of which could be named after the two men behind them, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. It is either the American “applying pressure” or the Israeli “being pressured,” per the…

“New Gaza” and “Green Rafah” are the two catchwords of a rubric coming at us with promises of a prosperous future for Gaza. They join the other catchwords for rubrics that mirror real-estate projects and profitable ventures, after the French Riviera was proposed as the model to emulate. One…

One cannot fail to notice the perpetual re-emergence of a sharp contrast between two spectacles. On the one hand, we have the scenes from festivities organized by parties that are labeled ideological or secular, in commemoration of an anniversary or in honor of a founder or leader. On the other…

A few days ago, French President Emmanuel Macron said that today’s conflicts are being waged in outer space and that wars of the future will begin there. After going over the threats posed by Russia, he announced that France will allocate billions of euros for military spending in outer space. …

The administration of the Beirut theater “Masrah Al-Madina” has announced that it will hold a gathering under the title “Reviving Hamra Street: Memory and Life.” The fact is that there is a need and demand for such an effort, especially since Hamra Street is unlike any other street in Beirut, nor…

Every now and then, a public figure gets up to reconsider his previous positions on the Lebanese Civil War that erupted in 1975 and did not end until 1989. In saying that his generation had burdened Lebanon with more than it could bear, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam became the newest member of this…

Many hyperbolic and false claims, in both directions, have been made about the New York mayoral race and Zohran Mamdani’s victory. Contrary to the campaign that smacks of McCarthyism launched by his opponents, he is not a communist nor a jihadist, nor is he a threat to Americans. And contrary to…