Now I know what was missing in honouring of Israel by the International book fair in Paris

When I heard about the death of Mahmoud Darwish a couple of days ago, I checked out his biography on the net, and that’s where I discovered that he was born in Israel, and he was politically active in Israel until he was deprived of his nationality by the Israeli government when he was studying abroad. 

This is a fact that was neither highlighted by the Arab nor the Israeli press. I wonder if the poet had really written about this dual identity that he has, as an Israeli-Palestinian.

Consensus vs Convergence (why fuss about the ministerial declaration?)

The Ministerial declaration has undoubtedly been the most discussed issue in the Lebanese media since June. The press and television have been covering its every step and politicians have been relentlessly bickering over its wording. In the coming days, I’m sure to find people following the endless parliamentary debates surrounding it on their tellies in many shops and cubicles. 

“But those people are quarreling and locking horns over words”, I say to myself. Do these words really matter? What differences would it make if the sentence mentioning the resistance (a substitute word for Hezbollah) is worded differently? 

Two people I’ve asked replied that the ministerial declaration mattered because it asserted fundamental principles. But how do these principles translate politically? Who decides if they translate politically? Are politicians accountable for them?