![The Caracalla Dance Theatre performs a new theatrical production of "The village" (Al-Dayaa) during a dress rehearsal during the Baalbeck International Festival in Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, July 14, 2009. The Baalbeck International Festival is an annual entertainment festival that takes place in July and August in the Roman Ruins of the Baalbek Temples. REUTERS/Ahmed Shalha (LEBANON SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT) - RTR25NWB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Baalbek%20Festival.jpg/Baalbek%20Festival.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=ceMBktrd)
Elie Hajj writes on politics for An-Nahar (Lebanon). He previously wrote for Al-Anbaa (Kuwait) and the online paper Elaph.
![The Caracalla Dance Theatre performs a new theatrical production of "The village" (Al-Dayaa) during a dress rehearsal during the Baalbeck International Festival in Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley, July 14, 2009. The Baalbeck International Festival is an annual entertainment festival that takes place in July and August in the Roman Ruins of the Baalbek Temples. REUTERS/Ahmed Shalha (LEBANON SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT) - RTR25NWB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/Baalbek%20Festival.jpg/Baalbek%20Festival.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=ceMBktrd)
![An Indonesian soldier from the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stands near a U.N. armoured vehicle as a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen behind him in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh July 24, 2013. Europe's decision to blacklist Hezbollah's "military wing" was triggered by the Lebanese movement's growing role in Syria, but the partial ban may have little practical impact due to fears of destabilising Lebanon and the wider Middle East. REUTE](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/07/RTX11X5X.jpg/RTX11X5X.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=2v_ns3AX)
Elie Hajj
![Lebanese army soldiers march during a military parade to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Lebanon's independence day in downtown Beirut November 22,2008. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON) - RTXAUII](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/07/1-RTXAUII.jpg/1-RTXAUII.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=WLvVoNHB)
Elie Hajj
![Sunni Muslim Salafist leader Ahmad al-Assir (2nd L) and other Sheikhs take part in a sit-in in Sidon, southern Lebanon, against the killing on Sunday of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a Sunni Muslim cleric, and Muhammed Hussein Miraib, both members of the Lebanon-based March 14 political alliance, May 21, 2012. Lebanese soldiers shot dead two members of an alliance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said, in the latest incident to raise fears Syria's turmoil](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/06/AssirMarch14.jpg/AssirMarch14.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=gkXwuXUL)
Elie Hajj
![Lebanese Army soldiers patrol town of Arsal after being deployed to tighten security after two men died in clashes near a Lebanese army checkpoint June 6, 2013. Two men died in clashes near a Lebanese army checkpoint on Thursday, a security source said, in a possible spillover from the recent fighting in the nearby Syrian border town of Qusair. REUTERS/Ahmad Shalha (LEBANON - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS) - RTX10DYD](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/06/Arsal.jpg/Arsal.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=RrM4rLaj)
Elie Hajj
![A view of a makeshift hospital which was used by the Free Syrian Army fighters in Qusair June 6, 2013, a day after the Syrian army took control of the town from rebel fighters. Syrian troops and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters pushed toward villages near Qusair on Thursday, a day after driving rebels from the border town shattered in weeks of combat. Insurgents seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were putting up a fierce fight around the villages of Debaa and Buwayda as their opponents attacke](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/06/RTX10DZX-001.jpg/RTX10DZX-001.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=1KW-x28n)
Elie Hajj
![Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (R) gestures at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut April 5, 2013. Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, its allies and pro-Western rivals on Friday backed Sunni politician Tammam Salam to be Lebanon's new prime minister, handing him an overwhelming parliamentary endorsement to form a government. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXY9TC](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/1-RTXY9TC.jpg/1-RTXY9TC.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=TKd0G4hi)
Elie Hajj
![Lebanese flags placed by anti-government protesters are seen on barbed wire securing the area in front of the government palace in downtown Beirut October 25, 2012. The party capital of the Arab world, Beirut is a freewheeling city where Gulf Arabs, expatriates and Lebanese emigres fly in to enjoy its luxury hotels. But under the veneer of modernity lie sectarian demons coiled to strike. The car-bomb assassination last Friday of intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan - an attack almost universally blamed on Sy](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/RTR39KRY.jpg/RTR39KRY.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=Da31Ocox)
Elie Hajj
![TO GO WITH STORY BY SARA HUSSEIN
Palestinian children play the qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern instrument, at the only music school in the Gaza Strip, at the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent, on December 11, 2011. A room in Gaza's only music school fills with the sound of the qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern instrument, transporting listeners far from the impoverished territory.
AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/135825212.jpg/135825212.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=t80WgI5q)
Elie Hajj
![A woman carries a photo of a dead former Hezbollah fighter during a rally marking Hezbollah's Martyrs Day in Beirut's suburbs November 12, 2012. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3ABKX](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTR3ABKX.jpg/1-RTR3ABKX.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=1OkZEfFp)
Elie Hajj
![A Lebanese man looks at a caricature in the newspaper al-Balad showing anti-Syrian majority leader Saad Hariri and opposition leader Michel Aoun hugging and congratulating each other for the "election of a Lebanese president", in Beirut on April 01, 2008. Lebanese newspapers today offered their readers a brief moment of wishful thinking by announcing in an April Fools message that the country's protracted political crisis was over and that a president had been elected.
AFP PHOTO/RAMZI HAIDAR (Photo credit](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/80456439.jpg/80456439.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=fqqkIopU)
Elie Hajj
![Lebanese former minister Tammam Salam attends a meeting for pro-Western March 14 political coalition in Beirut April 4, 2013. Lebanese politician Tamam Salam, a former minister from a prominent Sunni Muslim dynasty, emerged as a potential new prime minister on Thursday after he was endorsed by the country's pro-Western March 14 political coalition. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS HEADSHOT) - RTXY8ER](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTXY8ER.jpg/RTXY8ER.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=5nXA07Ip)
Elie Hajj