Meet Elias Ghanem is the director of the Middle East and North Africa division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Saudi papers provide both sides:  "I need to know what’s going on around my region, so I tend to read the Arabic newspapers. Asharq al-Awsat and Al Hayat deal with the whole region — Arab countries and the Middle East. They provide good analysis. I don’t mean that all the time it’s objective, but at least it’s got the two sides".
It pays off--literally--to work with refugees:  "I never smoked in my life, but in my position in the Middle East when I meet with the leadership and get them together, most of them, they smoke cigars, so I felt I needed to participate. And I got fully engaged in it. Of course, I don’t smoke at work. But in the evening when I’m traveling, I do. Personally, I smoke Romeo y Julieta. When I go out, I smoke Cohiba...the first thing I did was get a boat — a Wellcraft Martinique 2600. It’s docked in Jounieh Bay. There are now restaurants in the Mediterranean that you can access by boat. I enjoy sea cruising when I have the time.
How he first heard of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon:  "Recently, one of the Arabic newspapers made some reference to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel. I found a lot on YouTube.""