Rajji from south: Destruction extent increases resolve to liberate land, monopolize arms
Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji on Friday made an inspection visit to south Lebanon aboard a UNIFIL helicopter, in which he assessed the destruction of border villages at the hands of Israel and inspected the Blue Line and the five points occupied by the Israelis.
Rajji also visited UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on the occasion of the U.N.’s 80th establishment anniversary, lauding the U.N. force’s role in maintaining peace and stability in south Lebanon.
Commenting on “the huge destruction caused by Israeli attacks,” Rajji said what he saw “increases our resolve to liberate the Lebanese land and support the Lebanese Army in its efforts to extend state authority, implement Resolution 1701 and the government’s decision to monopolize arms in the state’s hand and regain the decisions of war and peace.”
24 October 2025, 15:56
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racist confusion ↴
Letter to the editor: Gaining civil rights for Shias should be top priority
Posted February 5, 2015
Noam Chomsky says that Shias are the majority of Lebanon’s population, such that, if free elections were held and if Shias threw all their support to Hezbollah, it could form the government entirely on its own. Yet Article 24 of the Lebanese Constitution reserves half of parliamentary seats for Christians, who number, by my own guess, around a quarter of the population.
Here, in a nutshell, you have the Shia sense of grievance that makes Hezbollah so dynamic a force in politics, and yet also the solution to two problems.
Hezbollah militancy and Lebanese political instability would both be ameliorated if Hezbollah put its main effort into gaining civil rights and political representation for Lebanon’s Shias – and the U.S. could be on the right side of history by aiding that cause.
So go ahead and tell me why not, please.
Christopher C. Rushlau
24 October 2025, 18:01
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The one interesting political moment in the March on the Pentagon, when was that, two years ago, was when we got into Alexandria near the end point and five or eight teenagers turned around and blocked our way, from out of our own crowd. A counter-demonstration. One of them read a statement saying that the anti-war movement was way too white.
Christopher C. Rushlau
25 Grant St., Apt. 7
P.O. Box 15368
Portland ME USA 04112-5368
207/773-8342
