Deek Duke apparently had a better one for Jounieh opening.

Remember that one with Deek Duke opening in Jounieh? (here). Ali Agha had his very interesting take on it here. Well, here's another ad, with the copy being witty and the visual always childish. "kif el jaw bil 09?" as I explained prior 09 is the Kesserwan area where Jounieh is. Also jaw is both "ambiance" and "air", with the visual mention of the cable cars (teleferique) taking you from Jounieh to the statue of the Virgin Mary (the Harissa monastry), the double meaning is quite lovely. Pity they had to ruin everything with those silly chicken illustrations.

Zouk el Karar gets funky

So the municipal and mayoral elections in Lebanon are under way, this Sunday is the turn of Mount Lebanon and yes, all kinds of political parties are meddling left and right in this. Zouk el Karar which is actually a list in Zouk Mekayel just issued a funky one "smile you are in Zouk Mekayel" which becomes "Smile you are from Zouk Mekayel" so yes, why not? In terms of funkiness however little can beat the "kellna Jounieh" ad issued in 2010 when everyone and anyone opposed their list so they went with "everyone is against us, Virgin Mary is on our side" (technically, the statue is on the Daroun-Harissa disctrict not Jounieh, and even if the bottom of the cable cable is technically in Jounieh, its top remains somewhere else). But hey wit an cheekiness know no geography... (Side note, that list won!)

 
 

OLX references Samira Toufic...

 

Well, OLX just went Samira Toufic! Here mega hit "hay sayyartak ya 7bayyeb" (this is your car babe) found its way on an OLX ad with the catchy line "min Beirut la Jounieh, ya 3youni" (from Beirut to Jounieh, my sweetie) - and the ad goes "you can buy and sell clothes from us". Interestingly, the background references the cable cars (which technically are in Harissa not jounieh!) but instead of the small cars there is a computer and a phone screen). Anyhow been a while since I saw some pop culture inserted in an ad, and Samira Toufic no less (not sure if the younger generation though is aware of her mega hit). 

On that road to Jerusalem that goes through Jounieh

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Is there a way to simplify a complicated chequered issue? No there is not.
I personally know the man who used to go to Yasser Arafat and take cash from him in Samsonite bags to fund a local well-known newspaper.
Now that the deal of the century has been announced, to sympathize with the Palestinians is a problem. Not to sympathize with them is another.
How so?
Well, to begin with they made no qualms about wanting Lebanon as an alternative country, and the reason the whole black September happened in Jordan which lead the PLO to be evacuated from there was to stop them from getting Jordan as a supposed alterative country (and here I am divulging two info I got from incredibly well placed person in Jordan: Yasser Arafat was evacuated by wearing a woman's dress and plans for a printed currency and re-allocation of houses in Jordan to Palestinians were already set).
Which brings us back to the expression: "The road to Jerusalem goes through Jounieh" as uttered by Arafat. To begin with, with Jounieh being a northern suburb of Beirut, this is a geographical impossibility - since Jerusalem is to the South. But this implied that they wanted Lebanon - all of it - in lieu of Palestine.
Now here's the flip of the equation: Palestinians have been put in camps in Lebanon ever since the nakba of 1948. Have you visited such a camp? I have. I am - by all means and standards a very thin individual. Yet even I had to walk through certain passages sideways to minmize my body size so small these passages have been. There are areas there which never ever saw the sun and are incredibly humid and damp. Palestinians are not allowed by law to perform many many jobs in Lebanon - the rationale being that they would "settle" if they do. Remember they are here on temporary basis supposedly - all this without remembering that due to shady Lebanese politics, only Christian Palestinians were given Lebanese idendities and were nationalized in a bid to increase the Christian fragment of the population.
As I said there is no way to minimize a very complex issue. And anyone who can tell you where things are going or that there is a gigantic conspiracy theory is in my book, a liar. If history has taught us anything, it's that we have no clue where things are going.
Syrian refugees, may I remind you, are also supposed to be here on temporary basis, just like the Palestinians. All while Lebanese are drowning in their own financial/economic/political problems.
I am not trying to simplify a complex issue, but again - sympathizing with the Palestinians is a problem, not sympathing is another.