Friday, May 27, 2005

Mafia Nature of Politics in Lebanon: It occurred to me today how many of the Lebanese political bosses in present-day Lebanon have had a member of their family assassinated over the years: this is a partial list of the main ones:
Duri Sham`un (his brother Dani was assassinated)
Walid Jumblat (his father Kamal was assassinated)
Sa`d Id-Din Al-Hariri (his father was assassinated)
Sulayman Franjiyyah (his father was assassinated)
Saulange Gemayyel (her husband was assassinated)
Amin Gemayyel (his brother was assassinated)
Pierre Gemayyel (his uncle was assassinated)
`Umar Karami (his brother was assassinated)
Nayla Mu`awwad (her husband was assassinated)
Samir Franjiyyah (his cousin was assassinated)
Usamah Sa`d (his brother survived an assassination attempt)
Bahiyyah Al-Hariri (her brother was assassinated)

I will not list those who survived assassination attempts. The list is too long. Among them: Walid Jumblat, Amin Gemayyel, Salim Huss, Michel Murr, Marwan Hamadah, Michel `Awn, Nabih Birri, Rashid As-Sulh, among many others.