prepared to invest <\/a>in an economic zone in south Lebanon to provide jobs to former Hezbollah fighters. But for many Lebanese, Barrack\u2019s comments took center stage.<\/p>\nReporters took to social media to excoriate Barrack for acting like a \u201c19th-century colonial commissioner,\u201d as one enraged journalist, Hala Jaber, put it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt exposes a hollow, patronizing mentality that sees the Lebanese not as partners but as \u2018rabble\u2019 who must be disciplined,\u201d wrote Diana Moukalled, a Lebanese journalist who is a founding partner in local media outlet Daraj, adding that whoever wants to help Lebanon should first respect the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cInsults are not a negotiating tool,\u201d Moukalled wrote. \u201cWe are not props for a diplomatic spectacle, and anyone who demands that Lebanon become a strong state must endure the questions of its press, regardless of their opinion of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later Tuesday, the office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun issued an oblique statement expressing \u201cregret for the statements inadvertently made from its platform by one of its guests today,\u201d while reaffirming its \u201cfull appreciation for all journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union of journalists in Lebanon condemned Barrack\u2019s remarks as reflecting \u201can ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe demand that Mr. Barrack issue an official and public apology for his actions toward the journalists, and we demand that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut take a position regarding these unacceptable actions with the media,\u201d the statement said. It called for a boycott of news conferences involving Barrack until he apologized.<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be the first time 78-year-old Barrack has exhibited a less-than-rosy view of the region \u2014 in a July interview with the New York Times, he said the administration had \u201clittle patience for the region\u2019s resistance to helping itself\u201d \u2014 but the furor now comes at a delicate time for U.S. diplomacy in the region. Washington is pushing the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, with the hope that Israel and Lebanon would normalize relations.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah, which the U.S. designates a terrorist group, fought Israel after Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, in a war that escalated into a full-blown Israeli invasion of Lebanon late last year. After a ceasefire in November, Israel withdrew from most of southern Lebanon, save for five points on the Lebanese side of the border. Meanwhile, Israel has continued near-daily attacks, which the Israeli military says are needed to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its arsenal.<\/p>\n
This month, the Lebanese cabinet tasked the army with making plans to disarm Hezbollah. The group denounced the cabinet\u2019s decision, saying it won\u2019t give up arms while Israel still occupies land and has not fully implemented November\u2019s ceasefire agreement. Critics accuse the Lebanese government of being submissive to Washington \u2014 with Barrack\u2019s tirade adding to their arguments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly condemn the logic of American arrogance and its condescension towards our media professionals,\u201d said Ibrahim Musawi, a Hezbollah-affiliated lawmaker who heads Parliament\u2019s media and communications committee.<\/p>\n
But he also reserved some anger for the Lebanese government, saying that this was another series in its \u201csquandering of national sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrack has yet to comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lebanon\u2019s often-fractious press corps was united in anger this week over comments by Tom Barrack, the U.S. special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[132038,49936,1234,836,837,38380,838,17952,40325,132040,5029,7475,132042,132039,132041,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-378799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-barrack","9":"tag-behavior","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-hezbollah","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-journalist","14":"tag-lebanon","15":"tag-medium","16":"tag-news-conference","17":"tag-oblique-statement","18":"tag-plan","19":"tag-region","20":"tag-terrorist-group","21":"tag-u-s-ambassador","22":"tag-u-s-envoy","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115103218011882910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}