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Source: http://www.bicom.org.uk/cgi-local/briefs/daily_briefing.pl?id=819&t=1
Lebanon's Lesson for Arab Leaders
(Financial Times-UK/BICOM) Dennis Ross - Some say Iraq's elections inspired the Lebanese, who saw that Iraqis would not give in to fear. But it is not just the "Iraq effect": it is Palestinian elections and the paradox, as Arab commentators have observed, that only where there is external occupation are Arab peoples gaining a voice in shaping their future. Does it take occupation, they ask, to empower Arab individuals? Certainly the more George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac keep up the drumbeat of their support, and the more they insist on the Security Council fulfilling its call in resolution 1559, the more the Lebanese are likely to believe they can succeed.