Barack’s controversial exit: Beirut turns a deaf ear, Hezbollah doesn’t miss a beat

The press room of the Baabda Palace was bursting at the seams. U.S. senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lindsay Graham had just stepped away from the podium after their meeting with President Joseph Aoun and, between journalists, “we are arguing loudly over Israel’s response to the initiative of the U.S.” as said by reporters who were present on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Suddenly, his entrance unnoticed amid the commotion, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack took the stage and thundered: “Let me tell you something. If this turns chaotic and bestial, we will leave,” urging reporters to remain “civilized,” since that, he insisted, is precisely “the problem of the region.” Described by the journalists’ syndicate as “a treatment that runs counter to the rules of decency and diplomacy,” the episode ignited social media. “Tom Barrack arrives in Beirut like a 19th-century...