Beirut: "The Whole Arab World is Watching"

Charles Paul Freund | March 1, 2005

Hisham Melhem, Washington bureau chief for Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, calls the fall of the Karami puppet government in Beirut "a monumental event." The Lebanese, he says, "brought down a feeble government without firing a shot."

"The whole Arab world is watching on Arab satellite stations," he adds, "which are covering live the events unfolding in Beirut; and it's having tremendous effect on the Arab people, the Lebanese developments coming after the Palestinian elections and the Iraqi elections. There is a sense of growing empowerment. And this may be the beginning of a real change."

Update: Today's NYT takes a look at the problems ahead in Beirut, rounding up observations from such leading leading Lebanese analysts as reason's own Michael Young.

More: Reuters has done a wire on the challenges facing Lebanon's "people power" movement; it quotes Michael Young at length.