Settlers are taking over East Jerusalem! What to do you say about this?

@SW-User [quote]When was it ever considered the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East? And, if it's a quote "from the history," who said that?

Your entire post is more than puzzling to me. Not sure if it was even worth responding to, tbh.[/quote]

Yet, you responded to it. Please read properly. I quoted one disaster. Didn't say 'Las Vegas of Middle-East' was a quote.

People from west used to say so about Beirut then. 🙂

@SW-User [quote]When was it ever considered the "Las Vegas" of the Middle East? And, if it's a quote "from the history," who said that?
[/quote]

He's confused. At one point, before 1975, Lebanon was the place rich Arabs went to party, and was a huge destination for Europeans who can vacation there. A secular government, absolute freedom of the press, western minded society, a huge casino where sometime a show would debut in Beirut, before it moves on to Vegas, educated people, close family ties to the US, France and South America (more than 50% of the Christian population fled during the Ottoman occupation to these destinations), first rate hospitals, superb night life, etc.

This, however, masked a fucked up reality, where the Catholic elite monopolized everything: the Presidency, Armed force command, Intelligence services, and when you add the other Christian denominations, central bank command, and 50% of the Parliament, even though they made up 1/3 of the population of Lebanon. Everyone else got their table scraps.


Throw Palestinians in. The 1948 Palestinian refugees were put in camps that provided manual labor for restaurants, construction, labor, etc. However Christian Palestinian refugees did not suffer this fate, they were all naturalized and integrated into Lebanese society. Meanwhile it was ILLEGAL for camps Palestinians to get an education, or hold a white collar job. In addition, Arabs used them to fight proxy wars against Israel, secretly. In return Israel bombed the camps, and people living in these camps had no idea why. All in all, they had nothing to live for, so they were easy recruits for Lebanon's "left" as it tried to create a more equitable system, but it turns out the left also committed mega atrocities.

A friend of mine, in Seattle, who somehow managed to escape the camps, with his brother and sister, and all got their undergrad degrees and PhDs in various engineering disciplines, working for Boeing, could not go back to his family and get a job better than a dishwasher or day laborer. These restrictions remained in place in Lebanon until after 2010.

Not all that shine is gold and Lebanon was in fact all shine, but no gold.

@Northwest I remember hearing it was once called the Paris of the Middle East. I just think the OP is so off the rails here with his brain droppings that he's probably trolling.

@SW-User Yeah I’ve heard the Paris or the Monte Carlo of the Middle East. Point is it was western influenced with a free press and media, a democracy and absolute banking secrecy. Problem is that it was mostly the Christians who benefited.

In any case, yes I agree with your observation of the OP.