DAILY NEWS
Patriarch Al-Rai Calls On Lebanese Army to Confront Hezbollah
In a speech during Sunday Mass, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai called on the Lebanese army to “confront Hezbollah for the sake of Lebanon.” Following Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel, the Patriarch called for the LAF to take control of southern Lebanon and prevent further missiles from being launched. He added that this was not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but for Lebanon’s. [VOA]
UN Says Lebanon’s Migrant Workers Are In Urgent Need
The UN warned today that over half of Lebanon’s migrant workers are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Many have lost their jobs and cannot access medical care. They want to leave, but don’t have the means to do so. Last week the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 78 percent of the Lebanon’s population live in poverty and extreme poverty has reached 36 percent. [The Daily Star]
Berri Schedules Parliamentary Session Over Port Blast Charges
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri scheduled a parliamentary session for this Thursday to discuss the Port blast investigation and charges against three MPs. [Naharnet] Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah claimed that the blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar is playing politics and that this is a “politicized investigation.” [Al Arabiya]
Food Poisoning Cases Increase at Alarming Rate
Amid increased power cuts in Lebanon, cases of food poisoning have been rising, especially during hot summer month over the last few years. This year in particular, The 961 says cases have increased at an alarming rate and people have had to make trips to the emergency room in critical conditions. [The 961] LBCI has released a report over the weekend titled, “What to do to avoid food poisoning.” [LBCI]
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Foreign Policy
Lebanon Is in Terminal Brain Drain
Anchal Vohroa
Vohra writes, “Experts say the current spurt in brain drain will have a lasting impact on a country grappling with myriad crises. The flight of human capital will exacerbate the collapse of an economy already in a tailspin and impede its recovery…As the war ended in 1990, many Lebanese found hope and returned but then fled again during the 2006 war with Israel. As a result, the diaspora today is nearly three times the size of Lebanon’s population of 5 million. For the last decade and a half, however, migration patterns had been relatively stable—until two years ago, when protesters exposed the house of cards on which Lebanon’s central bank built the country’s economy, and it all came tumbling down…To leave or not to leave—that is the question Lebanon’s professionals are asking as most find it challenging to live off their diminishing salaries. The biggest concern for the rest of the world, meanwhile, should be that the most vulnerable sections of Lebanese society will end up resorting to hiring smugglers for boat rides to Greece.”
Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies
Khayrallah Survey 2021
The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies recently published the results of a survey meant to gauge the public opinons of nearly 1.3 million Americans of Lebanese descent. The survey found that “the majority of the Lebanese American community falls well within the center to center-left range of the political spectrum on issues such as abortion, women’s rights, LGBTQA+, climate change, race, and police violence.” It also found that a “majority evinced centrist political views, and rejected sectarian and ideological divisions, that–in the respondents’ estimation–have led to the environmental, financial, political and economic crises bedeviling Lebanon.”
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the American Task Force on Lebanon, a non-profit, nonpartisan leadership organization of Lebanese-Americans.