Hazem Saghieh

The Potential Chuck Schumer Juncture

The matter will not be of interest to those who see politics as the "art of the impossible." As for those who see it as the "art of the possible" and believe that a lot of compromise and half-solutions are inherent to it, they cannot but be struck by the remarks of Democratic Senate Majority Leader…

The Resounding Foundational Tragedy Shrouded in Neglect

Tragedy has hit one country of the Arab Levant after another, and yet a foundational tragedy has been deliberately neglected, despite the fact that many of the others were either linked to it or caused by it. The prominent position that Arab nationalists and socialists have occupied in Arab…

On the Margins of Yasser Abed Rabbo’s Story

Reading the extensive interview (published in three episodes by this newspaper) that my colleague Ghassan Charbel conducted with Yasser Abed Rabbo, the former Secretary-General of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), is the sort of exercise that could make a…

How to Turn Elections into Non-Elections  

The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) may have been the first to defend the notion of legitimate opposition, albeit somewhat reservedly. He argued that the opposition should have a limited negative role in overseeing the government's work, but he warned against taking discord and splits…

The War on Gaza: From Descriptive to Prescriptive?

The matters addressed here are not novel, but they have resurfaced with unprecedented clarity since the war on Gaza broke out. That is because the milieu of Arab intellectuals seems, once again and more than ever, highly inclined to describe and extremely reluctant to prescribe. Here,…

Beyond the Breakdown of the ‘Mar Mikhael Understanding’

We do not need to be too patriotic, or well-intentioned, to realize that all the Lebanese have something to gain whenever two sectarian communities come closer to each other. However, that is not what happened when Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) signed the Mar Mikhael Understanding…

South Lebanon and the Two Abrahamic Moments

Some believers who share Immanuel Kant’s manner of faith - that is, believing in religion within the confines of reason - argue that the Abrahamic experience is composed of two moments: in the first, Abraham is commanded to slaughter his son (Isaac in the Torah, and Ismael in the Quran), and offer…

Netanyahu: The Antithesis of Ben-Gurion

In 1956, the stance of the US turned Israel’s military victory into a political defeat. Indeed, at the insistence of President Eisenhower and his administration, the countries that had launched the "Tripartite Aggression" against Egypt (Britain, France, and Israel) were made to suffer a humiliating…

45 Years Since the Tragedy 

As supporters of the Iranian state celebrate the 45th anniversary of its revolution’s victory, there is no harm in revisiting the elements that combine to form the multi-layered theory of Khomeinism. The headline above avoids labeling this theory "Iranian," because being fair and accurate means…

How Did I Get into Lebanon, and How Did It Come Out of Me?

I did not come from a Lebanese background. My family supported neither the Kataeb, nor Chamoun. A relative of mine uprooted a cedar tree to protest what he saw as the bigotry of Lebanism. Our north star did not point to Beirut or Mount Lebanon, but Tripoli and, behind it, Homs in Syria. We did not…