The French delegation at the UN yesterday posted a picture of Israeli destruction of Gaza and said it was from Aleppo: they later deleted their tweet

Nobel Prize in literature

It would really be a shame of Israeli war criminal, Shimon Peres, does not win a posthumous Nobel Prize in literature for his famous poem, "The Omelette", which goes: You can make an omelette out of eggs, but you can't make potatoes out of eggs".  So true.  

You can say anything and attribute anything to any foe of the US and Israel: rules of US media

Abdo of the Hariri Atlantic Council: said: "“Nasrallah has made very clear over the last two years that Hezbollah now functions as a Shia militia,” Abdo said."  He never ever said this and never uttered such words.  Now if she is interpreting his actions, that is her right. Just as I read almost daily in the US media by ALL US correspondents in the Middle East that Bashshar Al-Asad said that he is there "to protect minorities".  And t he funny part is that if you correct the record and state that the Syrian potentate never said such things, you are immediately accused of being a Shabbih.  Thus are the rules of Syrian "revolution" propaganda in the West: just as if you criticize Israel you are accused of anti-Semitism.  

The Syrian poet, Adonis, finally won. He won. He really won.

Adonis, after many years of waiting and hoping, finally won the prize of Prince Pierre of Monaco. I am not making it up.

In the US, Obama is considered a socialist

"it is important to remember that capitalism has been the greatest driver of prosperity and opportunity the world has ever known."

Anne Barnard on Syria: the propaganda narrative continues

Now this video by the pro-Iranian regime Harakat An-Nujaba' is pretty grotesquely sectarian and it is led by a pro-Iranian regime kooky cleric. But it made me wonder: since Anne does not know Arabic, how does she find those videos in Arabic? Also, it is indubitable that there are far more blatantly exterminationsist sectarian videos put out daily by Syrian rebels, but how come Anne Barnard does not cover them, and does not provide one example in this article, or in this passage: "“Aleppo is Shiite, and she wants her people,” goes a song overlaid onto a video posted online"??  And notice that Barnard does not mention that Al-Qa`idah is a leading force among the rebels in Aleppo: "and against a mix of rebel groups, some of them backed by the Obama administration.".  And notice the mild language (and not video links) she uses for the sectarianism of the rebels: "Some Sunni insurgents use slurs against the Shiites who lead their archenemy — Iran — and against the Alawites, the sect Mr. Assad belongs to."  And notice that Ms. Barnard, just like most other Western correspondents, they never mention the religion of Alawites without identifying it as the "sect to which Assad belongs".  Imagine if one is to always mention Christianity as "the religion to which Adolph Hitler belonged", or to refer to Wahhabiyya as the "sect to which House of Saudi belong", or to Judaism as "the religion to which Benjamin Netanyahu belongs".  Lastly, notice that she is at pains to mention the foreign troops fighting on the regime side, without mentioning that there are foreigners also fighting on the rebel side.  But these are details, and why detract from the dominant narrative of the Western government propaganda?  

Yemen: not a civil war

And they call it a civil war.

Nicholas Kristof

For Syrians, Kristof wants them to use arms and get more arms, for Palestinians, Kristof has this advice: "If Palestinians instead turned more to huge Gandhi-style nonviolence resistance campaigns, the resulting videos would reverberate around the world and Palestine would achieve statehood and freedom."

Al-Arabiyya TV (owned by Muhammad bin Salman)

Two of the "most read" items deal with Kim Kardashian.

A Saudi regime propagandist thought of something new to explain the murder of Yemeni children

"A large number of foot soldiers, many of them in their late teens and none of them with much military training, are thrown at the Saudi front in a sustained massive suicide mission with the twisted promise of heaven. The enormous loss of life on the Yemeni side caused by these frontal attacks with no air cover has led even some Saudi soldiers to shoot the attackers in the legs so they can capture them alive and save as many as possible."

U.S. is the most aggressive & consistent enabler of Israeli apartheid regime

"So Israel — in the words of its most loyal benefactor — is moving inexorably “towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation” that is anti-democratic: i.e., the equivalent of apartheid. And the leading protector and enabler of this apartheid regime is the U.S. — just as was true of the apartheid regime of the 1980s in South Africa." "Worst of all is that U.S. political orthodoxy has not only funded, fueled, and protected this apartheid state, but has attempted to render illegitimate all forms of resistance to it. Just as it did with the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela, the U.S. denounces as “terrorism” all groups and individuals that use force against Israel’s occupying armies."

Yemen: Britain's Unseen War

"Krishnan Guru-Murthy reveals the catastrophic effect of a Saudi-led coalition's bombing campaign in Yemen - which uses British-supplied weapons - with millions of people consequently facing starvation"

Pink Floyd reunites to stand with the Palestinians

" "Pink Floyd reunites to stand with the Women of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla," Waters wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. "David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters stand united in support of the Women of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, and deplore their illegal arrest and detention in international waters by the Israeli Defense Force," he added." (thanks Amir)

Humanitarianism

I lived to the day when calling for US military intervention is considered the epitome of humanitarianism.  

What those Arab regimes AND Iranian regime have in common

Syrian and Iranian and Saudi and Qatari and UAE regimes have this in common: they sentence to jail and/or lashes and/or torture people for a song or tweet or a poem or a short story or youtube.

Nobel Prize for peace

The credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize is equal to the credibility of the Israeli Hariri court, or to the investigation unit at Fox News, or to the credibility of the Nobel Prize in literature, or to the credibility of Prince Clause Award, or to the credibility of UN investigations of Israeli or Saudi war crimes, or to US military investigations of "collateral damage".  There were two sides in the Colombian "peace process" but only the side which is close to the US government received the prize. Just as after Oslo, the Nobel Committee of White Men wanted to only award Rabin of Israel but not Arafat. But Western government wanted to push Arafat for more concessions, and thus the awarded was given (Peres won the Prize for Literature for his poem: "you can't make potatoes out of tomatoes, but you can make tomatoes out of eggs") to three people.  One Nobel committee member, as you may remember, resigned and accused the Palestinian people of terrorism.   Personally, I was expecting the head of US Central Command to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Not visible to the correspondents of the New York Times and the Washington Post

This says: "The woman is wholly a pudendum".  This was hung by the moral police of Jaysh Al-Fath in Idlib.  I know, I know: the Voltaire Army of Syria does not approve of this.

28 of poetry's most powerful lines ever written

And the number one most powerful line of poetry ever written is by none other than Israeli war criminal, Shimon Peres, in his poem, Potato: "You can't make potatoes out of eggs, but you can make eggs out of potatoes", or words to that effect.  

Mahmoud Abbas is preparing "a crushing battle against Israeli occupation": read all about it

Stunned by the pan-Arab public humiliation and denouncement of Mahmoud Abbas after his attendance at the funeral of notorious war criminal, Shimon Peres, the corrupt Fath leadership calls on Palestinian to rally behind Abbas because he is preparing "a crushing battle against the Israeli occupation".  I am not making this up.

Smear tactics targeting Palestine activists get personal

"Palestine solidarity activists in Indiana are being subjected to a new kind of online harassment.  Beginning in March, about two dozen websites emerged targeting at least three organizers for Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and one professor who acts as an adviser for the groups at two universities in the state.  The websites contain fabricated allegations of sexual harassment, “immoral” behavior and terrorist leanings. They appear to be part of a well-coordinated attempt to smear the reputations of individuals who speak out for Palestinian rights. Some of those targeted are planning legal action against the creators of the websites. Unlike past attempts to smear the characters of Palestine activists, the websites do not exclusively focus on their target’s activism. For example, one chastises a Muslim female student for supposedly improper behavior. Another accuses the male professor of sexual harassment. The websites present no evidence to support their claims. Analyzed together it is clear the websites are being managed by the same person or group of people.  There is also evidence that the same people who created these websites attacking Palestine activists may be planning to create more websites posing as pro-Palestinian."

R.K. Ramazani died

Ruhi (as he was widely known, partly because he didn't want to use the same first name of Ayatullah Khumayni) Ramazani of the University of Virginia has died.  He is one the last surviving old-timers of Middle East studies.  His books were the early classics about the Middle East in American political science.  I got to know Ruhi rather well in 1999-91 when I spent a year at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and I got to visit the campus of the University of Virginia at least once a week (partly for the library).  He invited me to events on campus and welcomed me into his beautiful home in Charlottesville.  Political and methodological differences aside, he was one of the nicest people in the field.  I was very impressed with his great support and mentoring of students.  He was always accessible and encouraged and pushed people into graduate degrees in Middle East studies.  When I was a young man just starting in the field, he was always kind and supportive to me.  I offer my sincere condolences to his wife and family.  

For the history books: what the New York Times called war criminal, Shimon Peres

"Israel’s Philosopher-Politician".  His most profound philsophical-poetic aphorism is the famous: you can make an omelette from eggs but you can't make eggs from an omelette. The saying as you know is being taught at philosophy departments around the world.

Wow. Look at the tough and fierce language Ken Roth reserves for the Israeli government

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

10/5/16, 5:59 PM Obama suggests Netanyahu is breaching commitment not to expand illegal settlements as condition for huge new US aid. bit.ly/2dy25zUpic.twitter.com/GVDei5mEby

If this Israeli fighter jets (which has just bombed Gaza) was North Korean, it would have been mocked all over Western media

How US bombing (which killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq) are mere mistakes: ask the New York Times

"The NYTimes classification of actions by the US military:

“The trouble began when an errant American airstrike killed some 60 Syrian government soldiers. Then, Russia resumed its disingenuous grandstanding and the Syrian government, with Russia’s support, went back to indiscriminately bombing rebel-held areas of Aleppo. On Monday, less than a month after the agreement went into effect, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States would break off talks with Russia on trying to revive it.”"  (thanks Peter)

Gary Johnson has said many stupid things in his campaign but this is not one of them

"Mr. Johnson pointed to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians killed by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, as well as civilian deaths caused by the American-backed coalition, and said Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state, bore at least partial responsibility."   The US is certainly an accomplice in the Syrian war.  

Syria's 'Army of Islam' Says It Wants No War With Israel

"We have no intention to make war against anyone except for the Syrian regime," he said. "If we compare all the killing in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Syrian regime has committed many more crimes than the whole conflict. Our aim now is to get rid of the Syrian regime," he said.   Alloush went further. He said President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah, the Iran-supported Lebanese militia backing the Syrian government, have exploited the issue of Palestinians to support their war. "The regime and Hezbollah use the Israel conflict to recruit supporters and build armies and all of these armies are used to kill us, to starve us," he said. This is significant for a few reasons. To start, Alloush is saying something out in the open that many Sunni Arab governments are saying in private. Israel has enhanced its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states during Barack Obama's presidency, as America's traditional allies fear the U.S. is seeking a new partnership with their archrival, Iran....To be sure, Alloush's organization is not comprised of Jeffersonian democrats. "Jaish al-Islam is one of the more frustrating rebel groups to anatomize in Syria. In every sense but one they are unpalatable to the West," Michael Weiss, co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," told me. "They have trafficked in murderous sectarian rhetoric and paraded allegedly pro-regime prisoners in cages, purportedly as 'human shields' to forestall airstrikes." The group has also been accused, although they deny it, of kidnapping the human rights activist Razan Zeitouneh. Charles Lister, a senior scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told me he estimates there are between 12,000 and 15,000 fighters in Jaish al-Islam. Alloush said he has 20,000 fighters. Lister said that since Alloush's brother Zahran was killed, their official rhetoric against Syrian minorities has toned down considerably."

If only Kenneth Roth would direct this advice to himself and to Human Rights Watch: he is in no position to sermonize

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

10/5/16, 12:23 PM Test for new UN secretary-general will be ability to defend rights under attack even when opponents are major powers bit.ly/2dy6tPnpic.twitter.com/vbNUEpZVa7

The American-made catastrophe in Yemen

"Since the start of 2015, the Saudi-US intervention in Yemen has resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, alongside another three million who have been displaced from their homes, and another 21 million in urgent need of humanitarian aid. It’s also interesting to note that, at the same time senior US officials call for the enforcement of a no-fly zone in Syria in order to protect civilians, the US-Saudi coalition is also carrying out air strikes in Yemen that are killing civilians." "Where the Bush Doctrine urged preemption and direct military involvement, the Obama Doctrine favours the outsourcing of war to regional allies,"

If Muslims don't become FBI informants, they are placed on the no-fly list

"The systematic targeting of travelers for the FBI’s intelligence purposes helps explain widespread reports of Muslim travelers, both immigrants and U.S. citizens, experiencing invasive questioning and searches at airports and border crossings. The FBI has also reportedly threatened individuals with deportation or delayed their visa applications indefinitely as agents try to convince them to cooperate. Others have alleged they were placed on the no-fly list after they refused to talk to the FBI." (thanks Amir)

Jewish man indicted after criticizing Israel, U.S. at Kansas library

"R. Crosby Kemper III, executive director of the city's library system, said "we're going to be living in a different kind of country" if people can be arrested for asking questions at a library." "Issues arose after Ross finished speaking and took a question from Jeremy Rothe-Kushel concerning whether Jewish Americans like Rothe-Kushel should be concerned about actions by the U.S. and Israel that amount to "state-sponsored terrorism."

On White Helmets

Look.  This I believe: the workers of White Helmets and the workers of Syrian Red Crescent should not be accused of political intrigues or machinations regardless what the leadership may or maybe engaged in.  But remember that Syrian "revolutionaries" and their supporters have accused the worker of Syrian Red Crescent of being shabbihah for the regime.  Just as I reject that, I reject to imply that workers of White Helmets are part of a conspiracy.  I think that Max's article should have added a qualifier in that regard.  

Maybe this will explain why Gulf regimes are furious with Yemen?

"Yemen rebels form rival government, with more women than ever before"

Bassam Haddad

Whenever I talk to Bassam Haddad about Syria, I learn from him.  He has unique insights and knowledge of the Syrian story and its background.  I am glad that he is working on a book toward that end.

The Campaign against Max Blumenthal and Electronic Intifada comrades

It has been insane.  Ever since Max Blumenthal wrote this article, the propaganda outlets of Syrian exile opposition and rebels (largely through Qatari regime media and others) launched a vicious campaign against Max Blumenthal, Ali Abunimah, Rania Khalek, Asa Winstanley, and Ben Norton among others.  I am not sure how Electronic Intifada was entered into the mix.  Ironically, when Max Blumenthal left Al-Akhbar English over disagreements over Syria, the same pro-Syrian "revolution" crowds hailed him as the most heroic and bravest journalist since John Reed.  And as soon as the same Max wrote this article, he is now being  accused--by the same people who had hailed him before--of love for Bashshar and being a Shabbih, and even suggested that he was paid by Russian government for his writings.  I have had disagreements with Max in the past, but this vicious and sinister campaign is a hallmark of the tactics and methods of the anti-democratic "democratic" Syrian "rebel" media and its amen corners in the US.  Ali Abunimah and Electronic Intifada have been consistently and bravely covering Israeli crimes and murders and occupation for years, and yet the Syrian "revolution" supporters decided to go all out against one of the few outlets here in the US which dares to expose Israeli crimes.  But this shows that supporters of the Syrian "revolution" clearly wants one point of view only.  Just one point of view. Anyone who disagrees with them is inevitably accused of being a supporter of Bashshar.  I or anyone else who can state daily or regularly that he/she wants Bashshar's regime overthrown, will also be accused of love for Bashshar if this person does not support the Syrian "revolution".

PS Is it really a coincidence that the campaign is being directed against some of the bravest voices against Israel in the US? Is it really?

If Arab professors in the US were to form "black lists" of pro-Israel professors who they don't approve of, they would be fired or prosecuted--I am certain

"New Batch of ‘Terror-Sympathizing’ Professors Added to Campus Watchdog’s Dossier of Radical College Faculty"

Being a Marxist or Anarchist Professor in the US

I was talking to a Marxist colleague here on campus. We said that if were teaching in the US back in the 1940s or 1950s, we would have been harassed and persecuted and probably jailed, but that ironically you are safe to be a Marxist in the US these days when the enemy are Islamists.  I told him: if I have the same views I have, and I write exactly what I write on my blog but if I were a religious Muslim, things would have been different for me, and that I would have been persecuted.  Bottom line: it is safe to be a Marxist in the US (now), and it was safe to be a conservative Muslim in the US (back in the 1950s when the Muslim Brothers were tools of US foreign policy against communists).

U.S. cops tried to run over a mentally ill man before shooting him 14 times

"The video shows 51-year-old Joseph Mann, a homeless man who suffered from mental illness, repeatedly crossing the street to avoid the police vehicle. Meanwhile, cops appear to be attempting to use their car as a weapon against him." "They later fired 18 bullets, hitting Mann 14 times."

Yes, why can't Russia resort to the civil and polite and restrained rhetoric of US politicians, why?

Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum)

10/4/16, 3:20 PM I hate to keep repeating myself, but this is aggressive Russian language of a kind we haven't see since maybe the 1960s.twitter.com/BV/status/7833…

Western pundits and fake experts now post military instructions and suggestions to US military

Charles ListerVerified account‏@Charles_Lister

Worth noting that #Russia has *nothing* that could concretely prevent US military action in #Syria. S-400 & SA-23 = entirely suppressible.

This is how the US will punish Russia: it will allow its Syrian rebels to work closely with Jihadi terrorists

"the United States said it would work to separate U.S.-backed opposition groups from terrorist forces with which they have become increasingly intertwined."  But it will now abandon such "work".  

This is the most touching humanitarian moment for the US government: it is feeling awkward about Yemen

"“When we see civilian casualties, it puts us in an extremely awkward position, because Saudi Arabia is a close ally,” another U.S. official said."  Talk about a soft heart.

Here, it is official: Western human rights and aid groups justify and rationalize Saudi murder of civilians in Yemen

"One reason for high civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure, aid and rights groups say, is the fact that the fighting is concentrated in dense urban areas where it is more difficult to distinguish between targets."  If those justifications were provided about Syrian and Russian bombing in Syria, those who peddle the justifications would be accused of sympathy with war crimes and dictatorship, and accused of war crimes.

Those fake Western humanitarians don't seem to be bothered by famine in Yemen

"Yemen famine feared as starving children fight for lives in hospital"

The Jordanian royal UN human rights buffoon

I will take him seriously when he warns US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia about their air strikes:
"U.N.'s rights boss warns Russia over Syria air strikes".  This Jordanian royal official is the Israeli idea of human rights epitomized.