Gaza

U.S. devoted to tyranny

"The U.S. has long been devoted to tyranny in the region precisely to ensure that the widespread views of the public — which overwhelmingly view the U.S. and Israel as the greatest threats to peace — remain suppressed by U.S.-loyal tyrants."

Nabeel Rajab: western media don't care make him the hero that he is

"World-renowned Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab has been arrested and jailed over Twitter remarks allegeding the kingdom's soldiers are fighting with the Islamic State (also known as Isis)."

I hate to say this but...

Wouldn't you say that people like me who were not enamored with the Syrian "rebel groups" from the start and who had warned about the potential for the rise of another monster there were right? thanks.

German Islamists had received encouragement and even help if they showed a desire to leave the country

""This followed an investigative report on German public television revealing that some German Islamists had received encouragement and even help if they showed a desire to leave the country." "If somebody had become radicalized and wanted to leave the country, then we tried to either let him depart, or even sought to accelerate their departure using legal means," Schierghofer said." "The practice of encouraging jihadists to depart the country, would be tantamount to the export of terrorism," Mihalic said."" (thanks Amir)

The headline of this article in the WP is "New Afghan Leader, Putting Focus on Graft, Revives Bank Fraud Inquiry"

The irony of the picture and the story is, of course, that the man to the left is none other than Abdul-Rashid Dustum.  How funny is that?

Yet again, justification of car bombs against school children in the New York Times

Anne Barnard: "The bombs struck near an elementary school in Akrama, a district that is home to many government supporters and has been targeted before by jihadist groups like the Nusra Front."  Were the little children ALSO government supporters, Ms. Barnard?

The sad deterioration of the Economist magazine

Now this once respected magazine is reduced to reporting silly unfounded rumors:  "Rumours are rife that Mr Assad’s air force has bombed civilian areas close to military targets struck by America, creating confusion over who should be blamed."  Let us say that you want to print rumors that you feel are beneficial to your cause.  Can you not at least print logical rumors.  I mean, the US planes and satellites are swarming over and the Syrian planes can just come close and not be noticed by US planes? How dumb is that?

Hizbullah and social services: Melani Cammett in the WP

Melani Cammett is a serious scholar and a diligent researcher. I knew her from her graduate school days at UC, Berkeley. Her work on Lebanon is refreshingly original.   I do agree with her thesis here but disagree on two counts:
1) She says: "Mounting dissatisfaction with Hezbollah in Lebanon, including from in-group members, as a result of its ongoing and intensified participation in the Syrian conflict may be weakening its dominant position within the Shiite community."  There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for this. The only evidence is in fact claims in media (Hariri and Saudi, like Now Hariri website) that are not backed up by evidence. I have been looking at public opinion surveys of sects in Lebanon, and there isn't one iota of evidence for this.  I mean, it is also logical: what are the Shi`ites' alternative: the sectarian blatantly anti-Shi`ite agenda of the Saudi camp in Lebanon leaves the Shi`ites with no alternative.  Furthermore, the notion that the Shi`ites are upset over Hizbullah's intervention in Syria (no matter what I or others think of it) is not true at all.  I would argue that the mass base of Hizbullah AND Amal is in favor of even heavier intervention in Syria and in Lebanon against Syrian rebel groups.
2) I disagree that the party pursued a policy of representation in government after 2005.  The decision was rather grudging and remains half-hearted. In the sectarian appointments to posts in governments, the party still defers to Amal and allows it to grab most of the appointments.  And in cabinets, the party has not fought for the big service ministries, unlike Amal. 

JSIL versus ISIL

Arabs on social media are now referring to the Zionist usurping entity as JSIL, Jewish State in the Levant.  Would that be ruled anti-Semitic by Abraham Foxman, I wonder?

I wonder why: is he not the representative of the "only democracy in the Middle East"? Or is he targeted for his democratic credentials?

"Secret Service teams have insisted on the closure for years because Netanyahu is considered one of the most sought-after international targets."

The lie of Western foreign policies

There is a gigantic lie on which all Western foreign policies in the Middle East rest: it is the lie that you can preach about democracy, human rights, and progress while being aligned to one of the worst dictatorship in the entire region, certainly one of the most backward regimes in the last two centuries. The Saudi regime is now putting signs around the kingdom that say: "Your psychological stability rests in your loyalty to homeland".  Those sons of Saud are quite Orwellian.

 

(thanks to a brave Saudi woman who sent me this picture).

An Israeli crook exposed on US TV

This is from the 1970s: an Israeli crook exposed on US national TV. (Warning: Too delicious).

Qatar versus UAE in Western media

(Disclosure: Foreign Policy's PeaceGame program, presented in conjunction with the U.S. Institute of Peace, is underwritten in part by a grant from the UAE Embassy. All FP editorial content, however, is entirely independent.)"   Entirely and fully independent, I am sure. This article on Qatar should be read as part of the propaganda campaign between Qatar and UAE raging in Western media with the full participation of writers, journalists, and researchers.  In the conflict between UAE and Qatar, I, of course, side with the defunct Marxist republic of South Yemen.

It is cute when Zionists boycott but it is crude and racist when Arabs boycott

"One month after the end of Operation Protective Edge, a telephone survey by Geocartagraphia found that 24% of Israeli Jewish consumers are boycotting Arab businesses down from 29% who boycotted businesses during the Gaza operation. This compares with 47% who said they planned to boycott Arab businesses during the fighting. " (thanks Lidia)

`Abdul-Amir Al-A`sam: have you heard of him?

You have never heard of this Iraqi scholar.  This link is from a few years ago.  He is one of the greatest scholars of classical Islamic philosophy and thought, on the level of Mohsin Mahdi. He was the expert on Ibn Riwandi (the famous free thinker atheist in the golden age of Islamic civilization), and graduated in 1972 from Cambridge University.  He left Iraq after the American invasion and came to the US but could not find a job here.  He did not have the right politics otherwise, Harvard would have offered him a chair in his name.  American academia is more political than the US Congress.

beheadings and bombings

""How is it that even members of peace groups have now come to support US bombing? One lady framed the issue like this: "I request that we discuss and examine why the videotaped beheading of a human being is understood to be more egregious than the explosion (almost totally invisible to the public) of a human being by a missile or bomb fired from a drone." ""

Let Mohamed Yehia, of BBC Arabic, explain the culture to you

From Mouin:  "Grammarians would describe the use of "boot", in the phrase "boots on the ground", as a case of synecdoche - a figure of speech where the part represents the whole.
In English the expression is, by now, a bog-standard cliche (the military equivalent of "bums on seats"), but it can sound even worse in translation. "It's not used in Arabic because we have a problem with boots. Footwear in general in Islamic culture has this negative connotation," says Mohamed Yehia, of BBC Arabic. "Boots are something humiliating or unclean.""

Obama: let civlians die in Syria and Iraq

"The White House has acknowledged for the first time that strict standards President Obama imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes will not apply to U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq. "

A Zionist professor calls racism "pluralism and flexibility"-Israeli style

"Intent aside, Hassan Jabareen, director of Adalah, a legal advocacy center for Arab minority rights, said the episode revealed a deeper issue of invisibility for Israel’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens and more than 300,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.

Arabs have served in Israel’s Parliament since its opening in 1949, but only one has been a government minister. A 2011 Adalah report found that 6 percent of the state’s Civil Service jobs and 1.2 percent of tenure-track positions in universities were filled by Arabs.

“On TV, if we open Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 10, in prime time, we don’t see Arabs as producers, as anchors — we don’t see them, they do not exist,” Mr. Jabareen complained. Each channel has an analyst of Arab affairs, but they are Jews, he added, “sending a message that in fact the Arabs are foreigners, this is why we need a mediator between us and them.”

Oz Almog, a sociologist at the University of Haifa, said the list of baby names showed not racism but “our pluralism and flexibility,”"

The Honeymoon continues: House of Saud and House of Zion

"Tzipi Livni: Israel shares same “values” as “moderate” Saudi Arabia".

Mr. Modi sat in front of an empty plate and had warm water for dinner

"Mr. Modi was in the middle of a nine-day fast to observe the Hindu festival of Navratri, but insisted his hosts go ahead and eat. Mr. Modi sat in front of an empty plate and had warm water for dinner while Mr. Obama and the two leaders’ entourages ate avocados and goat cheese, crisped halibut and basmati rice, a pumpkin crème brûlée and a California chardonnay."

Can you imagine the international uproar and US media outrage if those thugs were not pro-US?

Pro-US thugs are always presented as pro-democracy protesters, no matter what: "A lawmaker from the party of the ousted Ukrainian president was attacked Tuesday by a crowd in the Black Sea port of Odessa during campaigning for a parliamentary election set for Oct. 26. The lawmaker, Nestor I. Shufrich, a deputy in the Party of Regions and a defender of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, was left bleeding from blows to the face."

House of Saud's war on History: turning Mecca and Medina into Vegas

"The initial phase of Mecca’s destruction began in the mid-1970s, and I was there to witness it. Innumerable ancient buildings, including the Bilal mosque, dating from the time of the Prophet Muhammad, were bulldozed. The old Ottoman houses, with their elegant mashrabiyas — latticework windows — and elaborately carved doors, were replaced with hideous modern ones. Within a few years, Mecca was transformed into a “modern” city with large multilane roads, spaghetti junctions, gaudy hotels and shopping malls.

The few remaining buildings and sites of religious and cultural significance were erased more recently. The Makkah Royal Clock Tower, completed in 2012, was built on the graves of an estimated 400 sites of cultural and historical significance, including the city’s few remaining millennium-old buildings. Bulldozers arrived in the middle of the night, displacing families that had lived there for centuries. The complex stands on top of Ajyad Fortress, built around 1780, to protect Mecca from bandits and invaders. The house of Khadijah, the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad, has been turned into a block of toilets. The Makkah Hilton is built over the house of Abu Bakr, the closest companion of the prophet and the first caliph."

Netanyahu's theatre

I am rather pleased.  I really am.  I am 54-years old and I remember a time when I was a child and a boy when Israeli propaganda was rather smarter than Arab propaganda. You don't think that it makes me happy to live to an age when I can see that Israeli propaganda is now dumber than Syrian Ba`thist propaganda or Saudi propaganda? Of course, it pleases me a great deal. In this year's show at the UN, Netanyahu accused Hamas of seeking world domination.  The group that can barely control Gaza is seeking world domination. 

Does Abigail Hauslohner read what she writes after writing it? Look at this sentence

"Jews are mostly associated with Israel, a country that Arabs are taught to hate."  Does Ms. Hauslohner know anything about the Arab world? Has she bothered to read what Arabs write on social media where there is far less government intervention?  Does she really believe that Arabs hate Israel because they are taught that? Let me offer ms. Hauslohner an elementary lesson on Arab political culture: no, Arabs don't hate Israel because they are taught by their governments.  In fact, I will surprise her: Arabs are now taught to not hate Israel by their governments most of which are now aligned with the US.  Arabs learn to hate Israel on their own without government orders simply by watching the routine of Israeli war crimes and occupation and by reading about the history of Palestinian problem.  I mean, just imagine the stupidity of the premise: that I for example fiercely oppose and detest Israel because the Lebanese government taught me to hate Israel.  Like I follow the orders of the Lebanese government on any matter.  Ms. Hausleohner: I sincerely encourage you to study the Middle East and to really read scholarly books beyond the glossy brochures of Israeli embassies.  Good luck.

This is a true friend of Syria and its people: the USA

"The State Department is reviewing more than 4,000 applications from Syrian refugees seeking permanent homes in the United States next year or beyond, up from dozens considered for resettlement this year and last, officials said."

Here he goes again: David Ignatious seasonal find: a Syrian who really really really can unite all Syrian rebels

"Over the past two years, I’ve interviewed various people who tried to become leaders, such as: Abdul-Jabbar Akaidi, Salim Idriss and Jamal Maarouf. They all talked about unifying the opposition but none succeeded."  So it is funny.  After conceding that he has been wrong all along, he then proceeds to promote yet another hope for all Syrian rebel groups:  "He’s a lean man, tight as a coiled spring, with a thin beard and eyes hardened by three years of war that killed two of his brothers".  David Ignatius: the House of Saud can't be prouder of you.

Walid Jumblat not invited to the Clooney-Alamuddin wedding

Despite public begging, Jumblat was not invited to the wedding. But the father of the bride, Ramzi Alamuddin, has decided to hold a symbolic consolation dinner for Jumblat in London.

How awful. Imagine. A TV station that does not represent all the facts

"But, he added, al-Aqsa doesn’t reflect all the facts — just those that make Hamas look good."  That is terrible. Why can't it learn from US TV stations which all reflect ALL THE FACTS.   Does the foreign editor not notice how stupid those sentences sound?

On 27 June, the US Department of Justice finally dropped all charges against Dr. Sami Al-Arian

"Ashcroft’s iron conviction was no surprise: a recent study, conducted by the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms and Project Salam found that nearly 95 percent of individuals on a Department of Justice list of “terrorism and terrorism-related convictions” between 2001 and 2010 were preemptive prosecutions.

This means the defendants were pursued because of their beliefs, ideology, or religious affiliation. In a frenzy-fraught landscape, a fundamental US legal principle was flipped on its head: “Guilty, until proven innocent.” A week later, USF fired Al-Arian."

WINEP's concern for women's rights

"WINEP's concern for women's rights is, you might say, strategically limited. For example, the wanton Israeli slaughter of women in the Gaza Strip is not a form of female oppression that is generally recognised by the organisation." (thanks Amir)

Torture of Syrian at Guantanamo

"Abu Wa'el Dhiab is a 43-year-old Syrian who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. He has been on hunger strike for 18 months, and has asked a federal court to intervene to stop what he describes as brutal force-feedings conducted by the military at Guantanamo. The World Medical Association holds that force-feeding "is a degrading treatment, inhumane and may amount to torture." "

When I want deep anlysis of international affairs beyond the silly cliches of Thomas Friedman, I always turn to Katie Couric. What about you?

"At 0:57 in this video:
"Think of them as the A-Team of terror..." (thanks David)

The Media Line?

Israeli propaganda can only get dumber these days.  "The Media Line, a Middle East-oriented news site, reported Monday. " I don't know what "the Media Line" is, but it seems to be credible: "TML’s mission is to provide credible, unbiased content, background and context to local media outlets throughout the Middle East and around the world, including the United States, Canada, Europe and Australasia."  It is not only credible but UNBIASED.  With Marvin Kalb in charge, how can you expect anything but non-bias?

What counts as a news story in Lebanon

My silly comment about the Alamuddin family has been turned into a news story in Lebanon.

The George Clooney picture

I wrote this apology in Arabic on Facebook and I reproduce it here:
"النسبة إلى الصورة مع جورج كلوني أدناه, أودّ أن أتقدّم بإعتذار علني من زينة سلمان تقيّ الدين ومن ميّ علم الدين سلمان (الظاهرتيْن في الصورة). طبعاً, كان تعليقي من باب النكتة, وقد تكون عائلة كلوني أكثر سماجة من أثقل ثقلاء لبنان. وصلني ردّ من قريب لهما ولفت نظري. وأودّ ان أقول ان والدي كان قريباً جداً جداً من عائلة تقي الدين بصورة خاصّة, وكان سمير بهيج تقي الدين من أعزّ أصدقائه على الإطلاق. كما أن والديّ كانا أيضاً فريبيْن من عائلة سلمان. كما بتّم وبتّن تعرفون وتعرفن, أنا ثقيل الدمّ---أحياناً."
(Regarding the picture below of George Clooney, I wish to express a public apology to Zeina Salman Taqiyy Ad-Din and Mayy `Alamuddin Salman (who appear in the picture).  Of course, my comment was lighthearted and in jest, and the Clooney family could be more obnoxious than the most obnoxious Lebanese.  I have received a note from a relative of the two women, and he alerted me.  I also want to say that my late father was very very close to the Taqiyy Ad-Din family in particular, and Samir Bahij Taqiyy Ad-Din was one of his closest friends.  And my parents were also close to the Salman family.  As you all know by now, I can be obnoxious myself---sometimes.)

IS attack on Kurdish town

From Ali, the Angry Arab's chief correspondent in Turkey:  "Turkish PM Davutoğlu has confessed the real reason behind the IS attack on Syria's Kurdish town of Kobane/Ayn al-Arab. According to Davutoğlu, Islamic State targets Kobane since PKK linked PYD refused to put an end to its relations with Syrian regime.

Since the PYD became a reality in northern Syria, Turkey firstly wanted to eradicate its presence, with the help of Syrian armed groups. Two years ago, IS, Al Nusra Front, Ahrar ash-Sham and Tawhid Brigade were joined their force to kick Kurdish militas from the Ras al-Ayn town of Hasakah and as well as Afrin.

Very before this campaign, many armed groups held a meeting in Turkish town of Gaziantep. During this meeting, representatives of the armed groups expressed their ambitions to eradicate Kurdish self-controlled regions in Northern Syria.

When this campaign failed and PYD linked YPG forces, repelled all attacks on Ras al-Ayn, this time Ankara made contact with PYD leader Saleh Muslim and invited him to Ankara. It isn't secret that Turkey forced Muslim to broke the relations with regime to take Ankara's full support. But Muslim repeated the rhetoric about their fight was also against regime but refused the Ankara's offer and turned back.

So Davutoğlu confessed that the simple fact, the recent IS attacks on Ayn al-Arab is to forcing Kurds to leave their neutral positions with Assad. Davutoğlu also said that they don't want to see neither Assad forces nor IS forces on their border and repeated Turkish aims on buffer zone. He said, what makes IS to flourish is the regimes fighter jets, while expressing his support for US led coalition strikes on IS. On the other hand, President Erdoğan today says “War against Syrian regime is our priority”

Thousands of IS militants with sophisticated weapons have been attacking Ayn al-Arab since the mid of September and captured at least 200 villages so far. Yesterday, it was said IS forces were 2 kilometers close to the centre of the town and were prepearing a city war... Kurdish politicians as well as local people have been blaming Turkey with supporting IS forces. Today, Turkish IMC TV aired the video showing IS militants freely passing Turkish border into Syria to capture a strategic hill located east of the city. But Turkish officials denied this claim, said the militants didn't pass into Turkish territory...

Perhaps that's why US led coalition strike IS near the besieged town but obviously didn't hit them hard yet. "

Nathan Thrall reviews ‘My Promised Land’ by Ari Shavit · LRB 9 October 2014

"In short, he justifies inaction, but cloaks it in empathy." (thanks Michael)

Lebanese in-laws of George Clooney will in no time push away the "groom of Lebanon"

I predicted on Facebook that the Lebanese friends and family of Amal Alamuddin will make sure to drive away George Clooney by their constant annoyances and obnoxiousness. The process has just begun.  (Clooney does not look amused at all).

Ahmadiyyah

CAIR and other Washington-DC tools can't stop making press events and making dramatic declarations leaving the audience with the impression that 1) there is such a thing as authoritative binding clerical leadership in Islam, notwithstanding the constant demands from US members of Congress for EEEmaaaams to make Faaaatwwwweeeas to condemn ISIS or Al-Qa`idah or Hizbuulluuuuuhaiii.  2) that anyone take seriously in the Muslim world CAIR and other tools of Gulf regimes in the capital of the US.  3) that Saudi regime and the other Gulf potentates can't speak in the name of Muslims.  The recent schtick is the declaration by some clerics that Ahmadiyyah is a Muslim sect.  Now I know that this is done at the behest of Washington, DC but there is a little problem there: Islam insists that Muhammad is the seal of all prophets but how will they get over the fact that Ahmadiyyah believes in a prophet after Muhammad? I know that there is the explanation of major and minor prophets and other trickery but it won't be easy and Saudi regime won't solve it.  The regime that can't accept Shi`ites as Muslims will have a hard time selling this one.

Unfair to Ibn Taymiyyah?

Historian Mahmoud Haddad argues that people are being unfair to Ibn Taymiyyah. Really Mahmoud?

Jon Stewart and conventional wisdom

Alternative media in the US, assuming that the Daily Show is one, are not alternative when it comes to the Middle East.  Why on earth would Jon Steward host the insignificant Hadi Bahrah when he is being lambasted by his own organization and his days are truly numbered.

Al-Akhbar: the only Arabic newspaper that combats anti-Semitism in the Arab world

There is a special supplement in Al-Akhbar about Arab Jews. It is quite courageous as no other Arabic newspaper dares to write with such vehemence against anti-Semitism.  I have a few comments here and there: they should have mentioned the covert Israeli operations that Israel undertook in the Arab world (through bombs and flyers) to scare Jews away from the Arab world toward Israel.

Hadi Bahrah

This week, to bestow legitimacy on the US war on Syria, the US media suddenly discovered the coalition "leader", Hadi Al-Bahrah, and highlighted his calls for US bombing of his country.  But none of the US media mentioned the revolt against him and the call by his own Military Council to oust him.