british lebanese journalist and author in jerusalem we cross all makes arun he is a writer for commentary magazine and in cairo we have mona evades she is a professor at the american university in cairo ok folks crosstalk rules in effect but first let's have a show report on the tribunals findings to date. days ago a united nations tribunal delivered its long awaited indictment of four hezbollah officials in lebanon accused of assassinating the country's former prime minister rafik hariri and a roadside bomb six years ago the indictments now risk reigniting sectarian violence in a country already rattled by decades of bloodshed. political establishment now faces a tricky challenge it needs to find a compromise that both honors its international obligations and prevents a dangerous political split with the shiite hezbollah movement currently enjoying great political clout and lebannon this we are today in front of a new reality that request a wise approach putting the supreme interest of the country civil peace our national unity and knowing the truth above a concern. ever since it was opened in tw

so joining me on our political panel is the author of the novel and advisor, and editor for commentary magazinechen: kelly, because $278,000 per job, some taxpayers would raise their hand and say, i want my money back. >> absolutely. myself included. i've often said the reason we can't get a balanced budget is because people can't do math. the same is true for journalism. and i'm speaking for myself because i went back and looked at my numbers and the weekly standard took the lower numbers as opposed to the higher one. so that threw off this analysis a little bit. i think that could be part of the problem that's going on and the white house seems to agree. >> i think you can never treat these this science because we don't know what happened. the goal wasn't actually how much it cost to preserve each job. it's to keep the demand up in the economy. the bottom line for me would be that we needed some packages of stimulus. we had a number of them. none were perfect by any means. you end up wrapping up political policies that you want and call them stimulus and stick them in there. but in the end, w

commentary. let's talk about the french reaction. we talk to christopher dickey, the paris bureau chief for "newsweek" magazine.ench press reacting to the sudden turn in the case against dominique strauss-kahn? >> well, it is almost as cataclysmic as when he was arrested. everybody has turned upside down. the french election campaign already under way for next year's presidency, presidential election has been turned topsy-turvy. already 49% of the french are saying they want strauss-kahn to re-enter politics. there's the basic idea that he's completely innocent, that this is all over, that the woman was lying, it was all somehow a setup. which actually isn't the case. so i think there may somebody more turns in this plot in the near future. >> on that point, chris dickey, you have the "new york post" yesterday and today running big headlines saying this accuser, the maid at the hotel in manhattan is actually a part-time hooker. i hesitate to say, i don't know whether that's true. the only news the u.s. provides is a source close to the investigation. i wonder if you think the media is going a little too aggress