John Bolton speaks for all Arabs--so argues a Saudi propagandist

Chief Saudi regime propagandist, `Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashid, maintains that John Bolton is not extreme at all but that he in fact speaks for all Arabs.  I am not kidding you. You can find the English translation of the article in some Saudi regime propaganda bulletin board.

Muhammad bin Salman and the spread of fanatical religious ideologies

He is only partly lying below. Saudi Arabia was indeed asked by the US to help in the combat of communism and socialism worldwide and they did the job but they had their own agenda as well. They wanted to combat Nasserism and leftism in the Arab world for their own reasons.
"“Mohammed said that investments in mosques and madrassas overseas were rooted in the Cold War, when allies asked Saudi Arabia to use its resources to prevent inroads in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union.”"

ًWhere is the outrage over this ugly act of anti-Semitism?

"Israeli teen arrested after urinating on steps of Auschwitz memorial: report". (thanks Michele)

Who prepared the menu for the Saudi-American dinner in DC??

مَن الذي أعدّ قائمة طعام عشاء الصداقة الأميركيّة-السعوديّة في واشنطن؟ هذه إهانة للمطبخ العربي. قرديس (جمبري) مع بابا غنّوج؟ لحم بقر مع ثوم وطحينة؟ إيه ده؟ لماذا لم يضيفوا إلى القائمة تموراً مع لحم خنزير إمعاناً في الاحتفال بالصداقة؟

The menu of the Saudi-American friendship dinner in DC is an insult to Middle East cuisine. Shrimp with Baba Ghannuj? Filet of Beef with Tahini and Garlic? Why not mix dates with bacon while you are at it?

Human Rights Watch office in Beirut

At the personal level, I met and liked the director of HRW office in Beirut.  But politically, I have been claiming for years that this organization office in Beirut is an unofficial member of the March 14 media and propaganda spectrum.  I visited his Facebook page today, and this struck me:
1) they held a joint press conference with the Minister of the Lebanese Forces militia party.  Can you imagine HRW daring to hold a joint press conference with a Hizbullah minister, or even with an Amal minister? And even about trash matters?  No way on earth. They would never ever dare.
2) He retweets the musings of a political candidate who was part of the Hariri propaganda apparatus and is known for her staunch support for the Saudi regime.  She is the candidate who before leaving Hariri TV to run for election, was handpicked by the Saudi regime to visit Saudi Arabia and to falsely claim that Hariri was not held against his will in Riyadh.  Can you imagine he retweeting the musings of a reporter for Al-Manar TV, for example?
3) He posts articles by columnists in Saudi regime media.  Can you imagine him posting articles by columnists of Iranian regime media?
4) He takes sides on the debate on normalization with the Israeli occupation enemy and rejects normalization and publicly called on people to not boycott Spielberg and said that Spielberg's donation to Israel as a reward for its war on Lebanon is no big deal and should be considered a mere act of charity. Can you imagine him ever daring to justify a donation to Syrian regime relief organizations? Would he dare say that?
5) He in fact engages and attacks Al-Akhbar.  I dont have a problem with that at all and I see things at Al-Akhbar I don't like (and there are people at Al-Akhbar who can't stand me and don't like what I write) but how come he never ever engages and attacks the pro-Saudi regime media in Lebanon? For your information all the media in Lebanon EXCEPT ONE NEWSPAPER are subservient to the Saudi regime.  At one point he is arguing with Al-Akhbar, and because his Arabic is so embarrassingly weak, he misunderstands the Arabic saying: آخر الدواء الكيّ
and he assumes that this saying is meant literally.  That was hilarious to read actually.

A US official with facial hair? No way.

John Bolton is the first US official with facial hair hired for a high post in government in many years. In fact, one of the strongest objections that Trump had about him was his mustache. Read more on this matter from an academic perspective.

George Nader

He was very close to the Syrian regime in the 1990s, especially the bribable `Abdul-Halim Khaddam.

So now calling someone a "son of dog" (which Arabs use against one another) is anti-Semitic

Every day, Zionists introduce new meanings to the term anti-Semitic, thereby really undermining the effort to combat real anti-Semitism.

I came across this by Brecht

“The great political criminals must certainly be exposed, and preferably through ridicule. Because above all, they are not great political criminals, but the perpetrators of great political crimes, which is something utterly different.”

Notice in US media, it never mentions Syrian rebels as culprits when...Syrian rebels bomb

Look at this story, it identifies Syrian regime and Russian when they bomb, but does not mention that Syrian rebels did the bombing of Damascus. It leaves the impression that the identify of bombers of Damascus are unknown.

Hasan Nasrallah speaking on foreign female domestic workers

Yesterday, Hasan Nasrallah became the first head of an Arab political party to publicly champion the rights of female domestic workers and people of special needs. In response, I am sure Human Rights Watch will say: but he is sending missiles to the Huthis. It is high time that the issue of female domestic workers becomes a national priority for all Arabs. Their mistreatment is a regional disgrace.

On banning my blog in Germany

Jörg from Berlin wrote me this: 
" In January the German parlament passed a declaration that every attempt to boykott Israel would be considered antisemitic etc. Activists are facing a lot of problems, for instant it is difficult to find rooms for meetings and congresses etc.".

A Princeton Middle East Expert explains why Muhammad bin Salman is a great man

""Haykel described Mohammed as an “optimist by temperament,”a pious man who drinks Coke Zero and has the retail political skills of Bill Clinton.“He shakes hands, he remembers names, he doesn’t talk down to people.”"

Yemeni so-called President

Western media have not reported that Mansour Hadi has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

Women were not invited

Crown Prince in the Oval Office

Never has a visitor to the Oval Office been insulted in this manner. Trump covered the Saudi Crown Prince with boards to show arms sales and to underline the true nature of the relationship between the two countries. And the Crown Prince laughs.

The crook and the despot

The man to the left bribed the man to the right, while the man to the right helped overthrow the man to the left. Both deserve what befell them.

Sinan Antoon on the anniversary of the Iraq invasion

"I was one of about 500 Iraqis in the diaspora — of various ethnic and political backgrounds, many of whom were dissidents and victims of Saddam’s regime — who signed a petition: “No to war on Iraq. No to dictatorship.” While condemning Saddam’s reign of terror, we were against a “war that would cause more death and suffering” for innocent Iraqis and one that threatened to push the entire region into violent chaos. Our voices were not welcomed in mainstream media in the United States, which preferred the pro-war Iraqi-American who promised cheering crowds that would welcome invaders with “sweets and flowers.” There were none."

So Trump is reassuring the American public that out of $110 billion arms sales pledged by Saudi Arabia, a fraction was actually signed

To my readers in Germany: a reader there got this message when he logged in to my blog from a cafe

This passes as investigative journalism in the US

Muhammad bin Salman

By the way, in the 60 minutes interview, the Arabic of MbS was not translated literally. It was edited from Arabic and improved in English sentences. I suspect that MbS propaganda office arranged for how own translation.

Emily Nasrallah's obituary in AP and New York Times

Many of the local Lebanese correspondents of Western media tend to be Western-educated individuals who are not generally deeply rooted in Arabic culture.  For that the AP obituary and this New York Times obituary really missed the point about her.  New York Times writer identified her as an "activist".  She was not really an activist.  What ever soft liberal feminism was gleaned from her novels.  

In its obituary of Lebanese novelist, Emily Nasrallah, New York Times published her picture with Ghassan Kanafani without identifying him

It published this picture but it didn't identify the others.  They are from left: Emily Nasrallah, Jamil Jabr, Halim Barakat, Ghassan Kanafani, and Yusuf Habshi Al-Ashqar.  It was too much for the paper to identify Kanafani.

MbS

US Media rule: when an Arabic speaking, pro-US despot is interviewed on US TV, the interpreter is somebody who has a soft voice and an American accent. But if the Arabic speaking despot is not an ally of the US, the interpreter has a very rough voice and a thick Arabic accent.

#MbS 

15th anniversary of U.S. war on Iraq

“From the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the poisoning of Vietnam with Agent Orange, to the military contamination of Iraq, to the millions of cluster bombs fired at Lebanon in 2006 by the US-sponsored state of Israel - many of which failed to explode on impact and thus still pose a deadly hazard to children and other civilians - it seems there are plenty of ways to indefinitely prolong unnecessary human suffering.” (thanks Amir)

A UN Panel explains why rape and sexual violence by Syrian rebels are not as bad as by the Syrian regime

"Rape and sexual violence by armed opposition groups was not systematic, the panel said".  OK.

Africa's White Farmers

Of all the people of Africa, there is no question that Western governments and media are obsessed with the White Farmers in the continents.  They only seem to care about them.

Who is afraid of the dark?

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

And yet the New York Times is reviewing yet another film on the Israeli terrorist attack in Entebbe

"Within a year, no fewer than three movies about the raid were released, two of them on American television networks."

The long article about Stephen Hawking

Notice in this very long article they never mention a thing about his stance against Israeli occupation but they manage to mention that he met the cheerleaders of Dallas Cowboys.

Age of Arab despots

Western media are obsessed with what they call "former Muslims".

Of course, there are people who leave their Islam or who ignore the obligatory rituals just as there are people who leave their Jewish or Christian religion.  But Western media, like this stupid article in the Economist (there are too many stupid articles in the Economist as of late), makes it as if this is peculiar or exclusive to Islam. And look at this passage: "While the penalties for apostasy can be high in the West, they are much more severe in the Muslim world... An atheist who recently appeared on Egyptian television to debate a former deputy sheikh from Al-Azhar University was dismissed by the host and told that he needed to see a psychiatrist." I don't know about you, but being kicked out of a TV talk show hardly counts as a "severe" punishment.  

Thomas Friedman at the Saudi regime lobby

Thomas Friedman tells this Saudi lobby audience that he alone can define what true Islam is and that Muhammad bin Salman embodies it.

Dirty news from the Israeli occupation state: if this was from an Arab/Muslim country, it would have been front page in the US

"ISRAELI SOCCER STAR APPEARS IN DISTURBING SEX VIDEO: Player and three others seen humiliating naked woman in a video that is spreading on social media." (thanks Michele)

50th anniversary of My Lai massacre

“As the Americans approached the village, some of the men murdered people working in the rice fields or walking along the roads. Once the soldiers entered the village, the killing became systematic. They exercised every imaginable form of barbarism. GIs threw hand grenades into homes and underground shelters. They herded large groups of people together and forced them to lie on roads or in drainage ditches, where they were executed en masse with automatic rifles. Other civilians were shot individually. Some Vietnamese were killed only after being clubbed, tortured, stabbed, and raped. Some GIs mutilated their victims after killing them. It was not a spontaneous spasm of violence. The Americans took their time. The massacre was almost leisurely, methodically carried out over a four-hour period. In the midst of the carnage, soldiers took breaks to eat and smoke.”

Appy, C. 2015. American Reckoning. New York: Penguin Books. Page 146.

Wold Bank and IMF and the Beirut Reconstruction Plan

This is an excellent and succinct critique of the role of the World Bank and IMF and the Hariri plan of Beirut reconstruction:

Hourani, Najib, “From National Utopia to Elite Enclave: The Selling of the Beirut Souqs” in Gary McDonogh and Marina Peterson, eds.. Global Downtowns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

The Epoch of Lebanese Military Rule

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Gaby Lahoud and the Epoch of Lebanese Military Rule".

Rachel Corrie: 15 years later

“Join the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice on Friday, March 16th for our annual community potluck to honor Rachel Corrie and celebrate fifteen years of Palestinian solidarity and community organizing!” (thanks Amir)

This is the most normal and casual endorsement of war crimes that I have ever seen: Elliott Abrams on Israeli-Lebanese war. Can you imagine if an Arab were to write this about Israel and its civilians?

This is the most cruel and callous endorsement of Israeli war crimes that I have seen. He basically is saying that US need to devise methods to pull out Americans from Lebanon in the case of war with Israel because Israel is planning an all-out war against Lebanon's civilians and its infra structure. Read the last book by the man on Realism and Democracy: he devotes the book to the subject of democracy in US foreign policy only to admit that in fact the administration he served never bothered ever with democracy and that the Bush administration only mentioned and in passing one issue with Saudi Arabia: the Western Christians in the Kingdom and their right to worship. That was it.  

What is Muhammad bin Salman up to?

There is so much Western and Israeli investment in Muhammad bin Salman that if he falls a lot in Western policies and wars will fall with him--at least in part. Of course, nobody is more opportunistic than Western governments and Israel: just as US abandoned so swiftly Muhammad bin Nayif, its loyal servant for many decades, they will abandon quickly this MbS if he falls.  The story about him placing his own mother under house arrest is big.  It shows that a man is willing to violate not only the standard conventional thinking and policies and orientations of the Saudi regime, but even the common traditions and social norms of society in Arabia.  The fact that he can't trust his own mother because he fears that she may advance the fortunes of her other sons, tells you that he is most insecure.  He has dealt with his insecurity in two ways: 1) by relying on US and Western support no matter what he does as long as he serves Israeli interests and Western economic interests; 2) by being ruthless inside the kingdom and against his own royal family.  The story just now that the members of the "Saud Al-Kabir" within the royal family indicates that there is at least a sign of deep dissatisfaction.  And as Mujtahid observed: this branch is known for ruthlessness.  The National Guard was built and cultivated by King Abdullah and later his son. I can't see that all of them would swiftly switch allegiance.  I can't see how MbS could sustain his method of rule.  It is based too much on external support, fear and little by way of domestic support.  The promise of theatre and sleazy "art" from Lebanon is not enough to make people forget the oppression they suffer under and the bad economic situation of the Kingdom.  The grand promises of MbS will follow the dictates of the law of diminishing returns.  Every season he will fail to deliver and then he will decree bonuses to employees or new subsidies.  How long will that last.  He could have easily established a much more secure rule if he is not too paranoid and if he was a bit more deferential to the norms of the family.  Not a pretty picture coming out--for him and for those banking on him.

There is a new Syrian rebel group: Guardians of Religion and it is loyal to Al-Qai`dah

Add another name to the long list of Syrian rebel groups: there is a group called Hurras Ad-Din (Guardians of Religion) which split off from Hay'at Tahrir Ash-Sham. The new group insists on allegiance to Al-Qa`idah.  Wait a few days and Liz Sly, the worst foreign correspondent who ever worked in the Middle East, will declare the new group to be feminist and democratic. 

I am not making this up: AUB president honors...AUB president

This is really a first. He must have gotten the idea from Saudi monarchs.

UN "reports" on casualties in Syria

I see the lousy Western correspondents in Beirut throwing in their reports estimates of casualties in Syria and attributing them to "UN".  But correct me if I am wrong: did the UN not early on in the Syrian war announce officially that it won't be providing estimates of casualties in Syria because of the difficulty of counting?  The UN abandoned the effort and yet there are reports attributing estimates to the "UN".  Which is another way of providing legitimacy and credibility to the estimates provided daily by Rami Abdul-Rahman from his home in the UK: don't laugh. On a clear day, you really can see Syria from UK, all stereotypes about foggy UK notwithstanding.  

This is exactly what Human Rights Watch mean by "human rights": a celebration of Western capitalism and its invasions

 @MinkysHighjinks

No, it’s not an IPO for @HRW! We are ringing the opening bell @NASDAQ today for our 40th anniversary+to celebrate #HumanRights worldwide! At Human Rights Watch we know business prospers where human rights & the rule of law are protected. Join us! https://www.hrw.org/#RewriteTomorrow …