For people in many parts of the world, the question of Palestine remains one of the few conduits through which political dissent can be channeled. From North Africa to Malaysia, Palestine functions as a useful but risky symbol of American double standards for autocratic leaders eager to find attractive but distant outlets for the frustration of their oppressed subjects. While everyone has tried to co-opt the Palestinian issue, from Saddam Hussein and the late King Hassan of Morocco to Osama bin Laden and, most recently, the de facto Saudi leader, Prince Abdullah, no country has been more deeply affected by the Palestinian saga than Lebanon. While Palestinians, as the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish put it, "saw in Lebanon only our own image in the polished stone," many Lebanese found a clearer picture of the inequities of their own society reflected in the shards of the refugee... More >>>