All good clichés have a ring of truth and the current favorite that charts Lebanon’s sudden decline from Ibiza to Gaza is grimly accurate. We have been under Israeli blockade, unable either import or export or even travel abroad. We are helpless and cannot help but be resigned to the fact that Lebanon has been absorbed within Israel’s disciplinary compass. Some victory! It is a feeling reinforced in Stockholm at the end of last month, when Lebanese officials queued alongside the Palestinians in their pursuit of donor nation funding. We, who reveled in being the playboys of the region, have become the latest Arab hobos to arrive at the international soup kitchen. Even the food metaphor contains a cruel truth as we learn that the world has sent us lentils. Imagine lentils! Sent to a nation known across the globe for its culinary prowess, where even with lentils, we can
