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APA officials described the change as a space-saving measure that also improved agreement among reviewers. In internal tests, staff who read the old criteria argued over semantics. Staff who were handed the picture did not. The image will appear only with the caption, "Lebanon."
The Association’s brief explanation, issued in the tone of a shipping update, noted that Lebanon has become the textbook case of a polity that cannot choose a self. It cannot decide whether it is an Iranian vassal or an independent Arab state. It cannot decide whether it wants a settlement with Israel and the ordinary prosperity that would follow, or whether it prefers to keep absorbing strikes and instability by hosting and encouraging irredentist Palestinian groups and claims. It cannot decide whether it still wants the old tourist-board title, the Paris of the Middle East, or whether that title is now to be treated as an anti-Muslim affront — this in a country whose constitution, still theoretically in force, sets aside the presidency, substantial parliamentary weight, and other offices for Christians and the Druze.
Lebanese officials do not appear among the manual’s consultants. A government that recently renewed confidence in itself while one bloc walked out of the chamber did not immediately comment. Neither did the "political party" that maintains a separate arsenal and a separate foreign policy and has, on paper, been told to disarm. Talks with Israel exist, do not exist on the announced day, and exist again as a framework. The government has agreed to a framework obligating it to disarm Hezbollah, which it has steadfastly upheld by refusing to disarm Hezbollah.
The Association said it considered adding a short paragraph about banks that froze deposits, a currency that functions as legal tender and also not, and a capital that is both open for dinner and one good afternoon from another evacuation. Editors cut the text, saying it repeated the picture.
A minority of reviewers wanted two photographs, one labeled “before the ceasefire” and one “after.” The request was denied on the ground that no one could agree which print was which.
