.@zogby_research conducted a nationwide poll of Lebanese. Results revealed the extent of their hardships, their attitudes toward their institutions, & what they want.
1. Almost all Lebanese have been impacted by the economic collapse. They say they’re are worse off & hurting…
2. More than 1/3 go w/out food sometimes & 1 in 5 of the poorest Lebanese “very often go w/out meals.”
3. Two-thirds of all Lebanese say they don’t have enough income to make ends meet. All these hardships combined have led 2/3’s of Lebanese to say that they’d emigrate if they had the chance.
4. Lebanese retain confidence in some of their institutions, esp the LAF, the religious leadership, & judiciary. They also give high marks to their civil society & the 10/17th street revolts. Lower grades for Hizbollah & little confidence in parliament & traditional parties
5. On the matter of Hizbollah: majorities in every religious community group want that group’s “weapons & forces” placed under the control of the state. They appear to be tired of Hizbollah acting as a “state w/in the state” & using threats to maintain the “old regime”
6. But here’s the promising news: 3 in 5 have confidence that the upcoming elections will bring change & more than two-thirds will support the new alternative reform parties while only 1 in 5 will vote for the sectarian elites in the traditional parties.
7. What do the Lebanese people want? They want an end to the sectarian system of governance that breeds the corruption that is killing the country. And their number one priority concern is, of course, far & away, ending corruption.
8. And this is important: there is almost total agreement on the importance of a “full investigation of & accountability for the explosion in the Port of Beirut” that killed hundreds & left 300,000 homeless.” Hizbollah is blocking the investigation & the people aren’t buying it.
9. For years we’ve saying that “Lebanon at the breaking point.” Given the hope that many Lebanese have that 2022 elections can bring desperately need change, if the elections are cancelled, aren’t free & fair, or are fixed bringing back the old guard, Lebanon will be broken.
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Israel occupies everything from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. They’re committing genocide in Gaza, seizing land & terrorizing West Bank Palestinians, & subjecting its Arab citizens to discrimination. So when we say “from the river to the sea…” we mean stop this oppression 1/5
For Congress to condemn the expression saying it’s antisemitic, is racist & insulting to Israel’s victims. It says Palestinians have no rights & should not speak out. It’s like telling the black community in the Jim Crow south that it’s anti-white to sing “We shall be free” 2/5
Some deliberately misinterpreted the expression saying it means genocide & makes them uncomfortable. It never meant that. But you know what makes Arabs uncomfortable? Genocide, apartheid, occupation, & LIKUD’s platform claiming Israeli sovereignty from the river to the sea. 3/5
1. I’ve heard too many comments from Israeli leaders saying all Palestinians are legitimate targets because they support Hamas or that they voted for them & therefore are guilty. This is bigotry & sheer nonsense. Let’s look at the facts:
2. In our last poll in Gaza (2021) only 11% identified as Hamas supporters - as opposed to 32% who said they were w/ Fatah. Back in 2006, the Fatah margin over Hamas in Gaza was 34% to 29%.
If that’s the case, then how did Hamas win the 2006 legislative elections:
3. Firstly, the Hamas margin of victory was only 44% to 41%. They took control of the legislature because of the way seats were apportioned & divisions in the Fatah ranks. Next, while “pundits” say Hamas won because of the PA’s corruption, polling tells a different story…
An Israeli minister called #Farha antisemitic. That’s a lie. It’s a disgrace. It’s also racist. 1. Not only Palestinian oral history establishes that atrocities occurred, Israeli historians & researchers also report massacres Israelis committed against Palestinian civilians
2. Saying that the provable horrors of the ethnic cleansing that defined the Nakba is antisemitism degrades the term by using it as a cudgel to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, past & present. Antisemitism is real & abusing it in this way cheapens its real meaning
2. Saying that the provable horrors of the ethnic cleansing that defined the Nakba is antisemitism degrades the term by using it as a cudgel to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, past & present. Antisemitism is real & abusing it in this way cheapens its real meaning
Observations about the “Two State Solution”: 1. There are nearly 700,000 settlers in the West Bank & East Jerusalem connected by bypass roads & infrastructure that, by design, cut the territory into pieces making a contiguous state impossible. So what are we even talking about…
2. It’s unfortunate but true that those who still hang on to a “two state solution” do so because of an implicit racism - i.e. “too many Arabs & it won’t be a Jewish State anymore,” or “Arabs are the demographic time bomb that will overrun the Jewish population…”
3. If we’d been serious about wanting two states, we needed to take firm action to stop Israeli settlement expansion & forced demolition of Palestinian homes. We didn’t do anything & so we enabled the current situation in which it’s now impossible to create a Palestinian state…
1. It’s apartheid when when Israel has two systems of law - one for Arabs & one for Jews; when they’ve expelled 750,000 from their homes & refuse to let them go back to their properties; when they’ve demolished 500 Palestinian villages, seized their land & businesses;…
2…when they have laws that provide that the Arab land they’ve seized & turned over to Jews can never be sold to Arabs; when they continue to seize Palestinian land to build Jewish-only housing & infrastructure, while Palestinians struggle to get permits to build;…
3…when any Jew can immigrate & become a citizen while descendants of those who were expelled cannot; when Israel has multiple laws & policies in place to control what they call the “demographic problem” - that is limiting or controlling the growth of the non-Jewish population…
1. It’s Nakba Day commemorating Israel’s forced expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes to make Israel, in the words of David Ben Gurion, “larger & more Jewish.” Israel then refused to comply w/ a UN Resolution guaranteeing refugees the right to return.
2. To ensure that Palestinian refugees couldn’t return: Israel gave their homes & businesses to incoming Jews & also demolished 400+ Palestinian villages - classic “ethnic cleansing.” And shot to kill any Palestinians crossing the border to return to their homes & properties.
3. Israel also constructed an “alternate reality,”fabricating a story that the Palestinians left because they were ordered to by Arab radio broadcasts to clear the way for Arab armies to invade. No such broadcasts have ever been found. What we do know from Israel’s own archives…