Going the Distance: Two Lebanese Female Athletes Reach the Olympics!

In some exciting sports news, two Lebanese female athletes qualify for the Olympics- one for table tennis, the other taekwondo; Jordan's Lifetime diplomatic passport fiasco! ; U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is hardly a situation changer in the region; In the context of Palestine, there is no divorcing politics and economics.

Lebanon will be getting its game on at the 2012 Olympics!

Plus 961 [2]

Two Lebanese female athletes qualify for the olympics

"Two Lebanese female athletes made the cut to the Olympic games in London this summer. The first is Andrea Paoli, a taekwondo player, who will be the first Lebanese ever to participate in the senior category of martial arts at the Olympics. And the second is Tvine Moumjohglian who will be representing Lebanon in table tennis for the first time in 16 years. All the luck to both of them!"

The Black Iris [3]

Jordan’s Diplomatic Passports Brouhaha

With the flames of the Arab Spring burning ever so near, it almost seems rude that the Jordanian parliament is granting itself so many special privileges. Yet, this Jordanian blogger attests that, although the situation isn't nearly as bad in Jordan as it is elsewhere, it is disrespectful to Jordan's loyal denizens that parliament could be so unabashedly self-serving.

Abu Aardvark's Blog [4]

The irrelevance of America's withdrawal from Iraq

Foreign Policy's Marc Lynch discusses America's much decided departure from Iraq, stating that it didn't make much of a difference either way. "While the vast majority of Iraqis and Americans supported the departure of America's military presence, some supporters of a long-term U.S. military presence warned of disaster. Some, like Senator John McCain and the Romney campaign, continue to fume that we no longer occupy Iraq and complain that Obama has lost what Bush gained. But in fact, the American departure has hardly mattered at all -- and that's a good thing."

Muftah [5]

In Palestine, Economics is Politics

With the Israeli occupation of Palestine, things took the form of a domino effect. And the same could be said be of the Palestinian and Israeli economies, whose negative correlation could be directly linked to the political situation at hand. This blogger discusses how the Palestinian economy is suffering at the hands of the Israeli economy's success.