Sympathies

With the families of eight Beirutis who were gunned down by a coworker at an office in the UNESCO neighborhood, two miles south of here.

The good news is that those eight families will not likely be joined by others in retaliation; it seems to have been an "American-style" outburst as opposed to political or sectarian violence. It does, however, underscore the danger - political and otherwise - that the rampant poverty and high prices here pose to long-term peace. From the little I know, it seems that Lebanon went through a 15-year civil war without resolving a thing: the society is still divided by sect, the government has the same outdated consociation, there is still a wide and growing gap between rich and poor, and there is still instability along the Israeli border. The only real difference now the collective exhaustion from years of war and the Syrian occupation. Not gre

Instant Replay's sympathies are also with Hebrew University, where seven students were killed and eighty-five wounded in a Hamas suicide bombing. I spent many an hour on Hebrew U's computers for free when I lived in that neighborhood in 1999, and it edges AUB as the most beautiful campus that I've ever seen. Allah yarhumuhum.