The Lebanese Bloggers Last Week:  looking outside and building bridges · Global Voices
Mustapha

Although last week witnessed the seventh Lebanese “National Dialogue” session, Lebanese Bloggers didn’t seem to care. Apparently, many of them are resigned to the sessions being just talk shops. Raja wrote in The Lebanese Bloggers:
I can't even fathom the number of times our “leaders” have decided to leave things the way they were because they could not find it in them to arrive at a consensus regarding how to move forward.
This is why most of the Lebanese bloggers’ entries last week dealt with regional matters, like the Iranian Nuclear stalemate, the Dahab Bombings in Egypt, and, the Israeli blogosphere.
But before that, why do Lebanese politics  have to always be depressing? Rampurple asked.  So she set out to make a list of the “bright side” of Lebanese politics and laboriously squeezed out one. ( for example: “We all had something to discuss during social gatherings” and  “All Arab nationals turned into experts of Lebanese politics”).
Now away from Lebanon; the Iranian Nuclear Standoff has gotten a fair amount of commentary from the Lebanese Bloggosphere. This is mainly because of Lebanon’s Hezbollah connection with Iran.
The Lebanese Political Journal denounced  The Daily Star, Lebanon’s main English newspaper, for setting up a moral equivalence between the US and Iran. The Star had opined: “there is absolutely no hard evidence that Iran is guilty of violating its international obligations”, to which Lebanon.Profile responded:
There doesn't need to be core evidence of Iran developing a nuclear weapons program (although there is minor “evidence” coming from the IAEA) when all of the major leaders in Iran continuously claim they have a “right” to nuclear weapons. If they have a “right” to possess bombs to destroy the world, the world has the “right” to the Iranian regime building those weapons.
Mustapha in The Beirut Spring (your author) wrote about the Sunni-Shiaa conflict in the region.
Abu-Kais in From Beirut To the Beltway, brought up Iraqi’s Ayatollah Sistani’s calls to disarm the militias, since weapons should belong to the Government. Abu-Kais noted that this is exactly what the Lebanese have always asked from Hezbollah to do.
Lebanon.Profile sought to build bridges with the Israeli Bloggosphere. Of the different Israeli blogs he investigated, he speaks fondly of Israeli bloggers like Lisa Goldman (who is also Global Voices’ Israel Author) and advices the Lebanese to be more aware of “them” (the Israelis):
Not knowing about “them” is the worst crime we can commit. It invalidates them as humans, as if they don't even matter. They are Stalin's faceless enemy, the rabid dog, the evil blood suckers whom it is righteous to kill. Our papers definitely need to start covering more than major political events in Israel. We should remember their tragedies. ‘They” already have a massive internal debate going on about the Palestinians, the war in Lebanon, and the wall.
Finally, In the same objection to the “Us” versus “them” mentality, The Perpetual Refugee speaks of how the reactions of his Egyptian and Israeli colleagues to the Dahab bombings are racially or politically motivated, with complete disregard to the humanitarian aspect of the matter: 23 people have died:
Mothers, fathers, brothers, religious, secular, children. People on vacation. People making a living… Not Germans. Not Americans. Not Egyptians. People.