Monday, April 25, 2005

He is back! He is Back. Hassan Fattah is Back Covering Lebanon...from Dubai for the New York Times, having previously covered it from..Jordan. Next week, he will continue to cover Lebanon from...China. Now, Fattah may not know Lebanon well, but please give him credit for trying. He at least regularly consults with right-wing sectarian personalities, and here he interviewed--as usual--Jubran Tuwayni--one of the most fanatical right-wing sectarian Christian journalists--who unlike his father--cannot even write Arabic. He also interviewed a former communist extremist, turned right-wing, pro-Saudi writer, Waddah Shararah.
PS: do not embarrass Hassan Fattah. Don't tell his editors that he cannot even get the year of the beginning of the civil war right. Here he tells readers that the civil war broke out in 1976, when everybody knows that it broke out in 1975. Be patient. He is not good with dates. In fact, Fattah has always been under the impression that WWII happened before WWI. But he is willing to try harder. Did he not prove himself when he apprenticed at the feet of Marty Peretz of the New Republic? Does he not hold the dubious honor of being the first token Arab to write for the rabid anti-Arab New Republic? Give him a break and get a beverage, NOW.