Inspector Hassan Fattah

Move over Inspector Clouseau: Hassan Fattah is investigating: "Shooting victim a man with enemies". No way. This is stunning. Usually, shooting victims have no enemies whatsoever. Usually, shooting victims have only friends.

Obama and Saudi King

Flash. Al-Arabiyya TV is reporting (proudly) that Obama will hold a meeting with Saudi King tomorrow. I expect them to hold hands.

Propaganda brochures

A colleague, Lara, sent me this (I cite with her permission): "A friend of mine who signed onto the U.S. call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel is listed on that website received a package today from the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. It included a letter suggesting to her that her support of the boycott was misguided and could easily be corrected through proper information and that Israel is a democracy that celebrates its diversity in every possible way. It also included a number of glossy Israeli government propaganda brochures and pamphlets, and a book called "The Israelis" by Donna Rosenthal ...that includes chapters with titles like "Dating and Mating Israeli Style" "Oy! Gay?" and "Hookers and Hash in the Holy Land," alongside chapters like "The Bedouin: Tribes, Tents and Satellite Dishes" and "Out of Africa: Ethiopian Israelis in the Promised Land." In all, the package seemed to be cast towards a stereotyped view of a "liberal academic" (as opposed to their propaganda for born-again Christians) who is assumed to know extremely little about the Middle East and who is assumed to be stupid enough to believe this shit."

Debate tomorrow

I have answered this question before, but I shall answer it again. Yes, the hosts at the University of San Francisco informed me that they will videotape the debate. I will supply more information later.

Electoral costs

"The United States will commit $40 million to underwrite the cost of holding elections in Afghanistan this summer, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday, as she began selling the Obama administration’s new Afghanistan policy to friends and foes." A State Department insider give me the breakdown of the budget: $1 million for ballot boxes, and $39 million for electoral bribes.

Bad guy turned good guy turned bad guy, again

This is quite a story that is getting little attention. "The Sunni neighborhood, a hotbed of insurgent activity before the Awakening movement started, remained under a total curfew and military blockade on Monday, three days after American and Iraqi forces arrested Adil al-Mashhadani, the neighborhood’s powerful Awakening leader, on criminal and terrorism charges. It is the first time an Awakening Council — many made up of former Sunni insurgents who switched sides for pay — has been forcibly disbanded in the capital."

Taliban puppet

"... Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August. In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent. "It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century," fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. "It is totally against women's rights. This law makes women more vulnerable." [...]

Dubai..miracle

"But sometimes, the bad news has to be admitted from on high. The UAE's Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri last week admitted that the economy of the world's fifth largest oil exporter is expected to shrink in 2009. He refused to give an indication as to the extent of the contraction, saying simply that the UAE would escape recession. The International Monetary Fund had previously said it expected the UAE economy to grow by only 3% this year after expanding by 7.4% in 2007 and an estimated 6.9% in 2008." (thanks Saeed)

He will not forgive, nor forget

"From his hospital room in the Marjayoun Public Hospital, 10-year-old Mohammad Jamal Abdel- Aal says he will not forgive nor forget Israel for ripping off his limbs. Abdel-Aal's left leg and right hand got amputated on Sunday after a cluster bomb, left over from the summer 2006 war with Israel, exploded while he was playing in one of the fields near his home in the southern town of Hilta. "I am not able to play anymore," Abdel-Aal told The Daily Star on Sunday." (thanks Mirella)

An Arab woman (who won't be profiled in the Western press)

"Yet she says it was easy to make what could have been a tough decision. Umm Jaber "adopted" about 40 men of several Arab nationalities without hesitation. The story began in the 1980s, after four of her sons were jailed by the Israeli army - charged with jeopardised Israel's "security.""
PS For the "original" version of the story, see here.

Zionist hoodlums

"Assi Dayan, one of Israel's most successful TV and big-screen actors and directors, and the star of the hit Israeli television drama Betipul(In Therapy), was indicted on Monday in Tel Aviv's Magistrate's Court for physically assaulting his 33-year-old girlfriend and threatening her life." (thanks May)

UAE: symbol of sovereignty

"The Federal Government has moved to permanently base Australia's various Middle Eastern regional military assets in the United Arab Emirates. In return, Australia has about 30 personnel in the UAE training its fast-growing special forces troopers. Behind the details of the arrangement are the two countries' larger needs. Australia has decided to stop pretending. Instead of pretending that we are occasional visitors to the Middle East, only rushing in when the US decides to go to war there and rushing out again when it finishes, Australia is now acknowledging that it has permanent interests in the area." (thanks Michael)

Scientific Studies of women by UN

"The United Nations Development Fund for Women says there is anecdotal evidence that domestic violence - verbal, physical, sexual and psychological - has increased noticeably since Israel's recent bloody operation in Gaza and in general since Hamas took over sole control of the strip almost two years ago." I see. Let me also add that the UN Development Fund for Women also says that there is anecdotal (not scientific or empirical) "evidence"--by the way, please don't put the word "anecdotal" together with "evidence"--that Palestinian women enjoy more rights when Dahlan gangs receive more arms and money from Western and Arab governments. I also receive anecdotal evidence that the UN Development Fund for Women and other UN organizations will provide you with any conclusions or studies that would justify wars and occupation. (thanks Suad)

checkpoints

"Two Palestinian students claimed that they were severely beaten on Saturday by Border Guard officers manning a checkpoint situated between the West Bank city of Jericho and Jerusalem."

This is Zionism

"The Israeli army on Monday closed an investigation into alleged killings of civilians during its offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying soldiers' testimonies were based on hearsay, "purposely exaggerated" and not supported by facts." (thanks Jad)

Ayoob Khara

"Ayoob Kara won't present these dilemmas to the Jewish public. Even if he is appointed to a post in the Netanyahu government, he must remain right-wing and "loyal," to the liking of Avigdor Lieberman. Kara, a hawk and reserves officer who declares his complete loyalty to the state and Likud, does not view himself as a Palestinian like most Arab citizens in Israel. Yet despite these differences, he promises that he will faithfully represent the entire Arab public." (thanks Asa)

Saudi money in DC

"They allege that from 2000 through 2006, Darui stole $430,000 from the mosque's "special account," which was funded by the Saudi government to pay mosque expenses. Prosecutors said the theft was devastating: The center had to slash jobs and stop some philanthropic activity because Khouj thought the mosque simply couldn't meet its bills. "This is a case about fraud, it's about theft, it's about a man who took money that did not belong to him," prosecutor Tejpal Chawla told jurors during Darui's trial." (thanks Nabeel)

Heterosexual paradise

"It's no secret that LGBT life in Iraq these days is as dangerous as it gets - quite possibly the most dangerous in the world." Of course, heterosexuals in Iraq live in bliss and enjoy the freedoms and safety that were brought to them by Bush. In fact, heterosexuals in the Middle East look with envy at the life of heterosexuals in Iraq.

Daily

"A group of extremist settlers attacked on Tuesday a number of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank city of Hebron causing excessive damage and terrifying the residents, especially the children."

Corruption-stan

"Critics assert that senior leaders of both parties hide their ownership of large companies by funneling tens of millions of dollars through mid-level party members or reliable entrepreneurs. "The big problem is Talabani's family and Barzani's family," said Kamal Rahim, the editor of Hawlati, the region's largest independent newspaper. "Both families have small groups that they trust. They are running everything for them and dealing for them. Some of the businessmen, they are not even members of the parties.""

Return of the Ba`th

"In a Green Zone restaurant NEWSWEEK recently overheard a U.S. diplomat asking Iraqi officials to help set up a meeting with one of the most extreme elements of Saddam's old regime. The diplomat suggested Amman or another "neutral" city. A U.S. Embassy official, asking not to be named because of the issue's sensitivity, had no knowledge of this conversation but added, "It's for the Iraqis to decide how far and how fast they want to go. We want to try to help any way we can." (thanks Laleh)

Remembered

Palestine. (thanks Hussein)

When members of Congress disagree with Ariel Sharon

"Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, spoke of his strong friendship for Israel and respect for many of its former leaders, adding, that he “had a couple of disagreements with Ariel Sharon. I know there were many reasons why they gave Gaza to the Palestinians, but I felt it should not have been done … It is imperative we guarantee the superiority of Israeli arms… As for Gaza, if they run out of soldiers, give me a gun and I’ll get over there. You don’t have to ever worry about Dan Burton.”" (thanks Olivia)

Hitchens on Beirut: to Hariri family with Love

Read the first line and the last line of his article in Vantiy Fair and you realize that the man who has not had one insight in foreign policy (unless you count his monkeyish cheerleading for Bush and Cheney as foreign policy insight) in years, is not worth reading. His first sentence is: "As Arab thoroughfares go, Hamra Street in the center of Beirut is probably the most chic of them all." Hamra has ceased to be the most chic of streets (even by Beirut standards) since 1975. Verdun street in Beirut is now considered far more chic. And he then concludes his article with a citation from Sa`d Hariri. Enough said. The article basically is a comparison of Sunnis and Shi`ites and he clearly selects Sunnis and only because he has a class stereotypical assumptions about both communities. I wonder if he was introduced to the `Akkar and Dinniyyah supporters of March 14 for example, or to Mufti Juzu. And notice that you would not know that the classical Lebanese fascists (the Phalanges) are nowwhere to be seen in the article. And notice that he fails to tell the readers that March 14 is sponsored and controlled by Saudi royal family and yet he dares to suggest that the left is part of March 14. And how about a "journalist" who accepts an invitation from March 14 to praise March 14, and comes back and praises March 14 without mentioning thathe went to Lebanon to praise March 14. Don't get me wrong: I relish the low to which Hitchens has descended, and hopes that he continues in this path. (thanks Christopher)

Qadhdhafi's remarks in English: my translation

"I say to my brother [King] `Abdullah: six years and you have been fleeing, afraid of confrontation. And I want to reassure you that you should not be afraid, and I tell you after six years that it has been proven that it is you who have lies behind you and the grave ahead of you, and it is you who was created by the British and protected by America. And in respect to the nation I consider the personal problem between you and me to be over, and I am willing to visit you or you visit me. I am an internationalist leader and the dean of Arab rulers and and King of African Kings, and the Imam of Muslims, and my international stature does not permit me to descend to any other level. Thanks."

Ajami and Netanyahu

Arabist restored the video.

Qadhdhafi's remarks

Arab media are covering up Qadhdhafi's insults to the Saudi King. The pro-US dictator (i.e., Qadhdhafi) ended his remarks by listing his glorious titles. The Libyan news agency printed the remarks: "أخ حمد أهنئك بتوليك رئاسة القمة. وبهذه المناسبة أقول لأخي "عبد الله" ست سنوات وأنت هارب وخائف من المواجهة ، وأريد أن أطمئنك بأن لا تخاف ، وأقول لك بعد ست سنوات ثبت أنك أنت الذي الكذب وراءك والقبر أمامك ، وأنت هو الذي صنعتك بريطانيا وحاميتك أمريكا.واحتراما للأمة أعتبر المشكل الشخصي الذي بيني وبينك قد انتهى ،وأنا مستعد لزيارتك وأنك أنت تزورني. أنا قائد أممي وعميد الحكام العرب وملك ملوك إفريقيا وإمام المسلمين..مكانتي العالمية لا تسمح لي بأن أنزل لأي مستوى آخر. وشكرا.)."

Qadhdhafi

So Qadhdhafi in his talk at the Arab summit included both insult and offer of reconciliation to the Saudi King. Six years later, he responded to the insult of the Saudi king had made to him and told him that it was him who "was made by Britain" and that he is "protected by the US." And then followed that with an offer to visit him and asserted that there are no personal differences between them. But AlJazeera and all Arab media are covering up the fact that Qadhdhafi did include an insult in his remarks.

Boycott works

"21% of Israeli exporters have been directly affected by the boycott movement since the beginning of 2009. So reports today (29 March) The Marker, a Hebrew-language economic newspaper. This number is based on a poll of 90 Israeli exporters in fields such as high tech, metals, construction materials, chemistry, textile and foods. The poll was conducted in January-February 2009 by the Israeli Union of Industrialists."

Another Lebanese genius

"Wataniya Restaurants dished up a Wataniya Pasta weighing an enormous 4,300 kilograms at Golf Club Doha on Saturday to set a new Guinness World Record for the 'Biggest Pasta in History'." Do you notice that people in the Arab world think of the Guiness World Record as if it is some scientific or glorious achievement? (thanks FT)

Prince Sultan

"More independent information about the prince's condition has been suppressed, however. Last year, the long-serving Reuters bureau chief in Riyadh, Andrew Hammond, was told to leave the kingdom after reporting that Prince Sultan had cancer." (thanks George)

Major Zionist Leagues

"When former Vice President Dick Cheney learned that Obama had been putting pressure on the Israelis, he angrily disparaged him as "pro-Palestinian" and described him as someone who would "never make it in the major leagues.""

Isabel Kershner

Look how the Kershner (typical of her propaganda writings from Israel)--and I will ignore the token Arab whose name appears only to lend indigenous credibility--totally misrepresents the issue and make it sound as if it is about Holocaust denial. The issue, Ms. Kershner, is the boycott of Israel and not this particular concert. Get it? And Jenin was not the site of a "battle" but of a massacre. I just don't understand why kershner and Bronner don't tender their resignation and work full time for the propaganda department of the Israeli terrorist army. I mean, really.

This is Zionism

"The Hashmira Israeli Railways project sent on Sunday letters to some 100 Arab workers informing them that their contracts with the company would be terminated because they did not serve in the Israeli military." (thanks Olivia)

Mamdani on Darfur

"In Uganda, long one of Washington’s closest African friends, Mr. Mamdani traces the history of ethnically targeted “civilian massacres and other atrocities” against the brutal insurgency known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. In 1996, under President Yoweri Museveni, a second phase of that war began “with a new policy designed to intern practically the entire rural population of the three Acholi districts in northern Uganda,” Mr. Mamdani writes. “It took a government-directed campaign of murder, intimidation, bombing and burning of whole villages to drive the rural population into I.D.P. (internally displaced persons) camps.” In 2005 Olara Otunnu, a former Ugandan ambassador to the United Nations, denounced the government’s tactics, saying, “An entire society is being systematically destroyed — physically, culturally, socially and economically — in full view of the international community.” But as elsewhere in Africa, Mr. Mamdani says, the International Criminal Court has brought a case against only the enemy of Washington’s friend, the Lord’s Resistance Army, remaining mute about large-scale atrocities that may have been committed by the Ugandan government. In this pattern the author sees the hand of politics more than any real attachment to justice. Many argue that what makes Darfur different from other African crises is race, with the conflict there pitting Arabs against people often called “black Africans,” but here again Mr. Mamdani takes on conventional wisdom. “At no point,” he states flatly, “has this been a war between ‘Africans’ and ‘Arabs.’ ” Much foreign commentary about Sudan speaks of its Arabs as settlers, with the inference that they are somehow less African than people assumed to be of pure black stock. If whites in Kenya and Zimbabwe, not to mention South Africa, vociferously maintain their African-ness, what then to make of the Arab presence in Sudan, whose slow penetration and widespread intermarriage, Mr. Mamdani writes, “commenced in the early decades of Islam” and “reached a climax” from the 8th to the 15th century, “when the Arab tribes overran much of the country”? More interestingly, the author maintains that much of what we see today as a racial divide in Sudan has its roots in colonial history, when Britain “broke up native society into different ethnicities, and ‘tribalized’ each ethnicity by bringing it under the absolute authority of one or more British-sanctioned ‘native authorities,’ ” balancing “the whole by playing one off against the others.” Mr. Mamdani calls this British tactic of administratively reinforcing distinctions among colonial subjects “re-identify and rule” and says that it was copied by European powers across the continent, with deadly consequences — as in Rwanda, where Belgium’s intervention hardened distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi.""

Fame

"Indeed, the only consistent predictor was fame — and it was an inverse relationship. The more famous experts did worse than unknown ones. That had to do with a fault in the media. Talent bookers for television shows and reporters tended to call up experts who provided strong, coherent points of view, who saw things in blacks and whites. People who shouted — like, yes, Jim Cramer!"

Palestinian garb

"Israeli police dressed in Palestinian garb who have gone under cover to catch violent Jewish settlers got a taste of what Palestinians routinely confront as Jewish settlers attacked undercover officers thinking they were Arabs, Israeli press reported. Six Jewish settlers who mistook under cover Israeli cops for Palestinians attacked them Thursday, throwing stones and damaging a police under cover vehicle, Haaretz reported Saturday after a court ruling on the incident came out Friday. The settlers also tried to run the disguised police over near an illegal Jewish outpost in the West Bank." (thanks Farah)

Boycott

Lebanese academic boycott of Israel. Oh, yeah.

AUC

"Al-Masry Al-Youm has obtained an official US document issued by the White House on the 2007 budget. For the first time, the document reveals that the American University in Cairo (AUC) won a LE 3.4 million contract to provide the US Pentagon with information about Egypt." (thanks Phar)

Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah

I have explained this many times. Can somebody tell Fouad Ajami and the Wall Street Journal that they are woefully ignorant of Lebanon and its affairs and that Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah has no ties whatsoever with Hizbullah, and he was detested by Party leaders and members for much of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, until 2006 when Israeli Orientalists advised their government that Fadlallah was "spritual guide" of Hizbullah and his house and institutions were all bombed, and that united him with Hizbullah since although he holds no official or unofficial position within the party.

My debate at University of San Francisco

For those who asked: 1) no, my debate does not deviate from my strict believe in the boycott of the usurping entity. I am invited by the University of San Francisco and not by anybody else. And I will begin my talk by paying tribute to the boycott. 2) the University of San Francisco informs me that the debate will be videotaped and I am told that there are other private groups that may be taping it too. 3) my voice is better but not fully back.

Ajami interrogates Netanyahu...in 1978

Comrade Fahd informs me that the video that I placed yesterday was promptly removed from Youtube. Is Ajami ashamed from his anti-Zionist past? He should not worry: he has more than made up for his past "Arab sins."

Karzai meets Palin

Hamid Karzai meets Palin: and the man was impressed. Oh, and he feels "liberated." And also, what accent of English is he trying to fake? I was confused. (thanks Hicham)

Ajami interrogates Netanyahu...in 1978

Go to minute 4:45 and watch Ajami--before his conversion to Zionism. (thanks Joe)

When Satan Dances

"Rabbi Amar confirmed the report, saying that "wise men, headed by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, said that grave and serious things happen when women go up to deliver an oration in front of men during a funeral. "The wise men warn that this causes, God forbid, an epidemic among the people of Israel and that Satan dances in the cemetery while women attend funerals."

Letter to the Editor: NYT, 1948

"Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for
his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and
support to the movement he represents." (thanks Olivia)

Sensitivity

"The U.S. War Dogs Association is trying to persuade the Pentagon to create a medal for dogs. Another group is pushing for a military working dog memorial in the Washington area. And the Humane Society, which criticized the Pentagon during the Vietnam War, when many dogs were left behind or euthanized, has credited the military with working to find retirement homes for them." (thanks Sana)

Prince Nayif: why Zionists can trust him (although he is anti-Semitic)

You sometimes may think that I am overstating my case in my wrath against Saudi media but read the two columns by the editor of Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (the mouthpiece of Prince Salman) and the director of Al-Arabiyya TV (the station of King Fahd's brother-in-law). And notice that Campus Watch's guru, Martin Kramer, now carries and English-language translation of every column by the editor of Prince Salman's mouthpiece. Zionists have been silent about the long anti-Semitic record of Prince Nayif. Saudi-Zionist conspiracy? What Saudi-Zionist conspiracy?

Ethan Bronner's standards

"On Thursday, the military issued its first casualty count, saying 1,166 people were killed. Of those, it said 295 were noncombatants, 709 were what it called Hamas terror operatives and 162 were men whose affiliations remained unidentified." So according to Ethan Bronner killing 295 Palestinian civilians is not terrorism. Everybody who sent me this piece sent it under the subject line: Bronner outdoes himself here. Look at this: "“I’m not saying that nothing bad happened,” Bentzi Gruber, a colonel in the reserves and deputy commander of the armored division, said in an interview." So it is bad but NOT that bad. There will be a day when Ethan Bronner's reporting from Israel will be seen like the propaganda production of As-Sahab Foundation.

Zionism

"The movement to the right wing within Zionism cannot be reduced to Lieberman, and what is troubling about Zionism cannot be reduced to its right-wing side only." (thanks Nimer)

Lebanese genius

Another Lebanese genius who is making his country proud. Apparently, he invented a new way to deal with land mines. The procedure is simple: you apply Hummus on the land mine and it disables it. (thanks Raed)

what refroms

"Prince Nayef, believed to be 75, is perceived as one of the most conservative forces in the kingdom and an opponent of reforms that may reduce the clout of both the monarchy and the religious establishment in the kingdom, the world's leading oil exporter. He told reporters earlier this week that he does not see a need either for women to be members of a quasi-parliament or elections to its membership." (thanks Saeed)

Play

"The now-rote hysteria with which non-Israeli criticism of Israel is met--most recently dismayingly effective in quashing Chas Freeman as President Obama's nominee to chair the National Intelligence Council--has a considerable and ignoble record of stifling opinion and preventing unintimidated, meaningful discussion, in the cultural sphere as well as in the political. The power of art to open us to the subjectivities of others is especially threatening to those who insist on a single narrative. Hence efforts to shut down exhibitions of Palestinian art all over the country, most notoriously, perhaps, in 2006, when Brandeis University officials removed paintings by Palestinian teenagers from a campus library exhibit, "The Arts of Building Peace." Theater, arguably the most humanizing of art forms because it begins and ends with human presence, with an encounter between spectators and living actors, has often attracted the ire of people grimly determined to maintain the invisibility of others. It's been twenty years since liberal stalwart Joe Papp caved to pressure and canceled appearances at the Public Theater of a visiting Palestinian troupe, El Hakawati. In the decades since, American discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has only become more vituperative and polarized, as the New York Theatre Workshop learned three years ago when it announced, and then retreated from, plans to present My Name Is Rachel Corrie." (thanks Laleh)

You can't make this news up, even if you try

"The Jordanian royal family's dog was secretly rushed to Israel for treatment in the midst of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday. Relations between the royal palace in Amman and the Beit Dagan veterinary hospital have been good for many years now. The Israeli medical team's expertise has served Jordan a number of times, almost always under a heavy veil of secrecy, as per the royal court's request. During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Jordanians once again called on the Israeli veterinarians for help. King Abdullah and Queen Rania's beloved dog had fallen ill."" (thanks Sherene)

Saudi glorification of Al-Qa`idah

Do you notice that Saudi media glorify the Al-Qa`idah members and leaders once they pledge alliance to the King of Saudi Arabia?

Zionism and cartoons

I am so glad that we have the Oliphant cartoon to show the hypocrisy of Western commentators. So let me explain it to you: Western liberals and conservatives feel that Danish cartoons that insulted Muhammad and offended Muslims should be applauded and re-printed in newspapers around the world in the name of free speech, but the one Oliphant cartoon should not be re-printed or supported because it is offensive to the state of Israel and to the cheerleaders of its wars.

Love Story

I have been in bed resting trying to regain my voice--especially for the upcoming debate on Wednesday. And the TV is in my face and how much of Prince Nayif can you watch? Tributes after tributes to the man who oversaw repression, oppression, and torture in the Kingdom of Horrors. But I watched the 1970 movie, Love Story. I watched for nostalgic reasons. I watched it at age 10; my mother liked Ryan O'Neal, I remember, and she took us to all his movies. I remember how proud I felt when I saw the name of Ali MacGraw. I remember thinking: a famous and beautiful Hollowyood actress is named after `Ali bin Abi Talib and is a proud Mulism. But when you watch it now, it is so annoying. It is so classist and so snobbish and full of Harvard self-referential remarks and names. Only a vapid human like Al Gore would like such a movie, I thought. And why do they make fun of Mexican and Indian movies for their melodramatic genre? I mean, is there a more cheesy and melodramatic movie than that? And this association with Harvard and the Ivy League and intelligence is so annoying. I mean, Al Gore and George W. Bush went to Harvard and Martin Peretz has taught there. Enough said. And how original is the story: about a love story breaking the class barrier? And this was a hit? And the musical score is cute, but that's about it. And I hate in those movies how much they want to show us rich people brooding. OK, I know that my throat hurts and I am in a foul mood, but that movie won awards.

Arab summit

"As'ad AbuKhalil, a politics professor at California State University, said Riyadh had lost faith in Washington's resolve to defend its corner in regional disputes. "The Saudi government and the rest of the so-called 'Arab moderate camp' are fully aware that the United States is going to be too distracted with financial troubles and Iraq and Afghanistan to fight inter-Arab affairs.""

Why insulting the Iranian Spiritual Guide is bad for one's health (but necessary)

"Reporters Without Borders calls for an independent enquiry into the death of the young blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi (http://rooznegaar.blogfa.com) in detention on 18 March. Mirsayafi was hastily buried in Tehran’s Behesht Zahar cemetery on 19 March without an autopsy being carried out. In a bid to find out how he died, his family has brought a complaint against the officials in charge of Evin prison, where he was held. “The authorities took advantage of the family’s grief and distress to bury Mirsayafi without an autopsy,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We insist on a full explanation of the circumstances of this young blogger’s death in detention. We have been told that this is a case of homicide, in which case those responsible must be brought to trial and punished. We demand the creation of an independent commission of enquiry.” Reporters Without Borders has learned that, according to the forensic doctor, the Evin prison documents detailing the time of Mirsayafi’s transfer to Loghman Hakim hospital and the time of his death contain irregularities."

Kissing: not in the Saudi kingdom

Saudi government banned a new song by Rula Sa`d titled "basbastillu" (which can be translated as I kissed, kissed him). The Rotana company is now distributing the CD without the offending song which talks about kissing inside Saudi Arabia. The Muftititi of the House of Saud does not like kissing.

Prince Nayif: the Coddler of Terrorism

So the appointment was made: Prince Nayif is now second in line (the other second in line, Prince Sultan is for all practical purposes dead) and that is a victory for the Sudayri gang in the royal family. I am too sick to blog today but it is fair to say that the MOST hated and detested Prince in the House of Saud is now slated to become King of Saudi Arabia. A man with horrific views of Jews, Shi`ites, communists, and women will now lead "the refrom" in the kingdom. This is a loss to Prince Salman, who was acting already as the King when he Chas Freeman was meeting with him as the US ambassador there, as the latter once told me. But the Mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, dubbed Prince Nayif as "the conquerer of terrorism." Personally, I would have dubbed him as the "coddler of terrorism."

My debate

For those who asked, my debate is still on. I am now preserving my voice. Above is the flyer.

Sick II

I drove to the airport and while waiting for my flight, felt really sick and totally lost my voice. So I drove back home. I apologize to my hosts and invited guests in Houston. I hope to regain my voice by Wednesday for my debate with the Israeli Consult General in SF.

Son of the Za`im

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Son of the Za`im: Rattling Gasp of Shi`ite Feudalism"

Sick

...off to Houston, and returning Sunday. Sick.

NowHariri

NowHariri defends Starbucks. And I find it curious that they would think that anybody would consider them to be an authority on matters Arab-Israeli when they have posted anti-Palestinian propaganda, and hosted fanatical Zionists from the West. And Samah tells me that they misused his comments in the article.

Saudi boycott

"The boycott was launched on Tuesday by about 50 women who gathered in the Red Sea port of Jiddah at the Al-Bidaya Breast-feeding Resource and Women's Awareness Center, which is run by Modie Batterjee. The aim is to push for implementation of a law that has been on the books since 2006 which says only female staff can be employed in women's apparel stores." (thanks Marcy)

lies

Saatchi and Saatchi in Lebanon was caught in a...lie. (thanks Raed)

Defamation of "the judiciary"

"On Monday, a court in Casablanca sentenced Managing Editor Ali Anouzla and Publishing Director Jamal Boudouma of the independent daily Al-Jarida al-Oula to two-month suspended jail terms each and a fine of 200,000 dirhams (US$24,190) for "defamation" and "insulting the judiciary," according to local news reports. Anouzla said his lawyer will appeal the ruling as soon as he receives a copy of the decision." (thanks Mariwan)

Domestic Violence in Japan

"One in three married Japanese women have been physically or mentally abused by their husbands, according to a government survey on domestic violence released Tuesday. Of the victims over a third said they were injured or suffered mental harm, while more than 13 percent said they feared for their lives, the poll by the Cabinet Office found."

This is Zionism

"Hamdi al-Ta'mari was arrested for the first time from the family home in Bethlehem at 4:00am, on 25 July 2008. He was woken by the sound of Israeli soldiers banging on the front door. Hamdi's hands and feet were immediately tied and he was ordered to lie on the floor, as soldiers pointed their assault rifles and flashlights at him. While on the ground, a number of soldiers slapped, kicked and beat him with their assault rifles. His hands were tied so tightly that they began to swell. After 15 minutes, Hamdi was blindfolded and placed on the floor of a military vehicle. The military vehicle drove for around two hours during which time Hamdi was insulted, slapped and kicked by the soldiers sitting around him. One of the soldiers told Hamdi that they had killed his father because he was a terrorist and that they were going to kill all terrorists. At around 6:00am the vehicle arrived at Ofer Interrogation and Detention Centre, near Ramallah. Hamdi was taken to a small room where he was again assaulted by a number of soldiers."

Boycott

"Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):"

Leave--against your will

"In recent weeks, Jewish organizations have insisted that Yemen’s tiny Jewish population is in grave danger and that a secret evacuation is necessary to bring the people to safety. But a new report written by on-the-ground observers suggests that one of the primary barriers to the Jews’ departure is the resistance of the Jews themselves." Leave them alone. They don't want to leave. How many times do they have to turn you down before you desist?

"Misconduct"?

"When Israeli soldiers expelled Abir Hijeh, her five children and their neighbors from homes in a Gaza war zone, she said they warned her in broken Arabic: Go south or you might get shot. The group went the wrong way and came under fire from Israeli soldiers. Hijeh was wounded and her 2-year-old daughter was killed. Hijeh's account of a sniper firing on civilians, along with soldiers' graffiti and destruction seen by The Associated Press in homes they commandeered, lend support to allegations of Israeli army misconduct during the onslaught in Gaza." (thanks Olivia)

My friend, Prince Nayif

Palestinian-Lebanese columnist, Jihad Al-Khazen: "Prince Nayif is a friend who gives me hours of his time and is not stingy with information."

US liberals adore Israeli rightists

When it comes to Israel, even American liberals hail Israeli right-wing fanatics: "As part of his visit to Boston yesterday, Barkat also took part in a roundtable discussion with area business, academic, and media leaders, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Brigham and Women's Hospital president Gary Gottlieb, Thermo Fisher Scientific chairman Jim Manzi, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, and New Republic editor in chief Marty Peretz."

"Good Arabs"

It is official. According to this fanatic Zionist, the only "good" Arabs are spies and collaborators. (thanks Saleema)

All this happened

"And all this happened at the end of eight straight years that America devoted to frantically chasing the shadow of a terrorist threat to no avail, eight years spent stopping every citizen at every airport to search every purse, bag, crotch and briefcase for juice boxes and explosive tubes of toothpaste. Yet in the end, our government had no mechanism for searching the balance sheets of companies that held life-or-death power over our society and was unable to spot holes in the national economy the size of Libya (whose entire GDP last year was smaller than AIG's 2008 losses)." (thanks Maryam)

Getting away

"An estimated $90 billion (£62 billion) of Saudi money has gone to build mosques and madrassas, distribute religious literature and fund Islam across the world, with a portion of it, according to terrorism experts, directly or indirectly funding the violent expression of those beliefs. Jonathan Evans, the director-general of M15, told the Government last year that the Saudi Government’s multimillion-dollar donations to British universities had led to a “dangerous increase in the spread of extremism in leading university campuses”. Official slights like these are rare. Saudi Arabia, in the words of a former diplomat there, “gets away with things other countries could not” because of the West’s dependence on it – for oil, for arms contracts, for intelligence, for military bases and for being a firm friend in an often unfriendly neighbourhood."

Neither Hamas, nor Fath

"Thus, those who voted for Hamas, may not have done so because of any love for that (regressive and misogynistic) party, but because they were for resistance (and were not corrupt like the PA). Unfortunately, Hamas is in the same rightist political camp as the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. Even though it speaks of Resistance, it is not revolutionary. Hamas is the flip side of Fatah’s secular face; but socially and politically it is just as reactionary and regressive. While one is concerned with the Unknowns of the Afterlife and prescriptions from God, the other is concerned with the Here and Now, but only insofar as they are compliant with all the “agreements” that were signed with Israel and the “consensus.” In other words, so long as hegemony and the current lopsided distribution of power are served."

Kurdish feudal fiefdom

"Talabani created the PUK in 1975 as a leftist challenger to the "feudalist, tribalist, bourgeois, rightist and capitulationist" KDP of the Barzani family. Thousands on both sides are said to have died before the two parties signed a formal ceasefire in 1998 and carved up the region. They gave up their ideological differences long ago, and neither hides its desire for a piece of any action in sight—starting with the region's share of the national budget, which totaled about $6 billion last year. Kurdish officials say each of the two parties takes as much as $35 million per month off the top, although party leaders deny any knowledge of such sums."

Assassination in Lebanon

Another thing about the assassination in Lebanon of PLO's second-in-command, Kamal Midhat. There is some complicity by some elements within the Lebanese state (those loyal to Hariri Inc). There was a clear effort to "clean up" the scene and erase all traces of the crime right after the assassination. Even key evidence, like the car itself, were sold off as junk hours after the bombing.

Cartoon

"The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights group with more than 400,000 members in the United States, said the cartoon is meant to denigrate and demonize Israel." What kind of weird logic is this? And tell this ostensible human rights group (human rights my...shoes, and shoes are very offensive in Arab culture) that it is not anti-Semitic if you even demonize and denigrate Israel, just as it is not anti-Islamic to demonize and denigrate Saudi Arabia. Personally, I demonize both states and call on everybody to join me, the sound bites of Zionist hoodlums notwithstanding. And notice that the Israeli murder of some 900 Palestinian civilians in Gaza is less offensive than a cartoon--a cartoon, for potato's sake. And notice that the same people who called on Muslims to lighten up over a Danish cartoon will now express outrage over a cartoon that offends Israel and is not necessarily anti-Jewish as it is using the symbol of the flag of the usurper entity. Now, I will grant you this: if the cartoonist intended to use the star of david as a symbol of Judaism, then yes the cartoon can be seen as anti-Jewish.

Saudi-Syrian (faustian) bargain

Some mysterious Saudi-Syrian agreement has been reached over Lebanon. And any agreement between two lousy regimes can't be good. A well-placed source tells me that suddenly all Saudi and Iranian (and even some Syrian although the regime is not known for paying) money has suddenly stopped arriving into Lebanon to fund the warring factions in the election.

Neither Hamas, nor Fath

"The Hamas-run police force in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday it was investigating the death of a prisoner after a Palestinian human rights group said the inmate was tortured during interrogation. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) said one of its researchers had seen marks on the hands and legs of Jamil Assaf indicating he had been tortured in jail."

3200 clerics fired in Saudi Arabia

3200 clerics have been fired in Saudi Arabia since Sep. 11 because they upheld "wrong ideas." Of course, the House of Saud retained Bin Ladenite, kooky clerics.

OBAMA BOMBS

"NATO-led troops shot dead two Afghan farmers who were watering their land in east Afghanistan, a police chief said."

The secular left in Lebanon

Comrade Iskandar on the need for a secular left in Lebanon.

John Hope Franklin died

John Hope Franklin is dead. I don't have much time to write about him (and I have a bad cold or flu--I can never tell the difference). I never met Franklin but he really touched me deeply by his writings. I so strongly recommend his autobiography. I remember that I was reading it and hoping that it was longer. His book From Slavery to Freedom should be translated into Arabic. And look at this: "Yet even on so august an occasion, Dr. Franklin could not escape the legacy of discrimination. In a talk he gave in North Carolina 10 years later, he recalled that on the evening before he received the medal at the White House, a woman at a Washington club asked him to fetch her coat, mistaking him for an attendant, and that a man at his hotel had handed him car keys and told him to get his car."

Strike

""French employees of a US company have barricaded their boss in his office south of Paris as they demand better terms for workers facing redundancy."" (thanks Raed)

Zionist sexism

"About 100 religious soldiers left a Paratroop Brigade assembly earlier this month to avoid being present at the performance of a female singer, the army weekly Bamahane reported last week. Their departure stemmed from their belief that halakha, or Jewish religious law, prohibits them from hearing a woman sing. Their position has the support of the army rabbinate."

US media on Saudi King

"The question is how much he can accomplish before his death or dotage. Physically and mentally, Abdullah is still going strong, says Ford Fraker, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Riyadh. "The physical power of this man is remarkable," Fraker says. "When you shake hands with him it's like shaking hands with a tree trunk. He is rock solid. There isn't a tremor anywhere."" My question is this: has there ever been a US ambassador to Saudi Arabia who did not do business with the Saudi royal family "after" leaving office? (thanks Mohd)

B'Tselem

Asa sent me this (and I cite with his permission): "Tactically speaking, I'm generally more reluctant to criticise this group than HRW or something, but this recent press release really takes the biscuit (as we say over here): "The leadership of Hamas is obligated to release Shalit
immediately and unconditionally." Contrast that with their weak and equivocal language over Palestinians kidnapped by Israel and held without trial: "B'Tselem urges the Israeli government to immediately release all administrative detainees or bring them to trial for any criminal offenses they are suspected of having committed. B'Tselem also calls upon the government to direct the military commanders to amend the military orders applying to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pursuant to which administrative detention is made, so that it conforms to international legal standards." And they appear not to say anything at all about those Palestinians kidnapped by Israel who have been through their illegitimate occupation "legal" system."

tax exempt

"For many years, the United States has had a policy against spending aid money to fund Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which successive administrations have regarded as an obstacle to peace. Yet private organizations in the United States continue to raise tax-exempt contributions for the very activities that the government opposes."

Israel: your years are numbered

"The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel. `This rabbi comes to us and says the fight is between the children of light and the children of darkness,` a reserve sergeant said, recalling a training camp encounter. `His message was clear: `This is a war against an entire people, not against specific terrorists.` The whole thing was turned into something very religious and messianic.`" (thanks Olivia)

Total wars

"A government minister in Sudan is accusing the United States Air Force of killing dozens of people in that north African country this past January – but the semi-official American version of the story is very different. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has been told that Israeli aircraft carried out the attack. Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza. " (thanks FLC)

Israel brags: we only killed 295 civilians

"The tally says 295 civilians lost their lives -- about a third of the figure of 926 reported by Gaza's Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (www.pchrgaza.org), which published a full list of names earlier this month." (thanks Sarah)

Dahlan in the mosque in Ramallah

Dahlan is making a come back according to this article. And what better venue for the Dahlan comeback than a...mosque?

Sacked?

"Retaliating against what he deemed a gesture of public support for his political rivals, former Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sacked the PA's ambassador to Russia Afif Safia. Abbas was enraged over reports from Moscow that Safia had attended a rally in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip organized by Hamas." I could not find confirmation of this from other sources although I have known of the conflict between Safia and Dahlan gang in Washington, DC and in Ramallah since his days in Washington, DC. (thanks Aroub)

Assassination in Lebanon

There is still speculation about the assassination of PLO's Kamal Midhat in Lebanon. I spoke to a well-placed PLO source. The widow of Midhat is privately accusing Fath rivals of Mihdat (specifically, Sultan Abu Al`Aynayn and Khalid `Arif). Only last Saturday, Mihdat told a PLO source that "`Abbas Zaki sold me out." There is a lot of jockeying for power within the Fath in Lebanon in preparation for the upcoming Fath conference. Abbas Zaki needs the votes and he needs the support of Sultan Abu Al-`Aynayn: who through the years of generosity from `Arafat spread the goodies around. Mihdat, like Zaki, does not have the popular base that Abu Al-`Aynayn has. In the funeral, a group of 30 young men started to suddenly chant the names of Muhammad Dahlan. There are rumors that Dahlan snuck into Lebanon just hours before the assassination but I could not confirm that. The Dahlan security gang is very active in Lebanon, and their functionaries can be seen in the cafes of Beirut.

Dahlan o Dahlan: he is for resistance now

"For example, former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan recently accused Hamas of slandering Fatah by claiming the latter is demanding that Hamas recognize Israel. "This is a big lie," said Dahlan. "I am telling you for the thousandth time that we are not demanding that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist. We demand that Hamas not do it, as Fatah itself has never recognized Israel's right to exist. We admit the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist, but that does not obligate us [Fatah] as a resistance movement.""

This is Zionism

"Since the beginning of Operation “Cast Lead” at the end of 2008, there has been a sharp rise in reports of violence perpetrated by security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank. During this nearly three-month period, B'Tselem documented 24 cases in which police officers and soldiers beat Palestinians, using rifle butts, clubs and other means of injury. 16 of the cases were especially serious and their victims suffered heavier injuries."

US and...them

"What is illogical to us, based on our culture and belief system, is completely logical to them given theirs." (thanks Luay)

Orwell in the holy land

"George Orwell's 1945 satiric novel Animal Farm was performed with a distinctively Palestinian flavor in a debut production this week at the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp, taking aim at internal politics and the alliance between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In scene one of the play, Farmer Jones assassinates the animals' leader. In scene two, the animals - a few horses, a donkey, a crow, a chicken and some pigs - rally around a revolutionary sow named Snowball, who leads an uprising against their oppressive master. "Intifada!" the animals scream, using the Arabic word for uprising. Strobe lights flash and heavy metal music blares as they chase Jones from the farm." (thanks Marcy)

Lebanese electoral politics

Comrade Khalid explains Lebanese electoral politics

Numbers

"Statistics on dating violence and young women are shocking. According to the Family Violence and Prevention Fund, one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a date, and 8 percent of high-school-age girls say that they have been forced by a boyfriend to have sex against their will. Forty percent of girls aged 14 to 17 say they know someone their age who has been hit by a boyfriend. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, every year women in the U.S. experience 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes. According to the Bureau of Justice, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner in 2005--an average of three women every day." (thanks Dina)

Beheadings, shootings, stonings, electricutions, and injections

"In its annual report on the death penalty, Amnesty International on Tuesday chronicled beheadings in Saudi Arabia; hangings in Japan, Iraq, Singapore and Sudan; lethal injections in China; an electrocution in the United States; firing squads in Afghanistan, Belarus and Vietnam; and stonings in Iran...With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group."

Morrocco's Represion

Morocco has initiated a campaign of repression agaisnt Shi`ites, gays, feminists and what it calls "musha`wizin" (quacks): "Government sources say this is a counter-attack against press articles calling for greater tolerance of homosexuality. The government regards homosexuality as contrary to social values and Islam, and Islamists, in particular the Justice and Development Party, have condemned the campaign and called for firm action. Newspapers report that about 20 gays were recently arrested in the center of the country. A French feminist organization was earlier this year refused permission to open a branch in Morocco. Fouzia Assouli, a women's rights campaigner, said the new emphasis on moral values was linked to local polls due to take place in June and the government's determination not to give Islamists an issue around which to rally."

Saudi clerical kooks

"In a letter to new Information Minister Abdul Aziz al-Khoja that appeared on websites this week, the 35 Islamic clerics also condemned the increase of music and dancing on television, as well as images of women in popular newspapers and magazines that they labelled "obscene.""Hardline Saudi clerics have called on the government to ban women from appearing on television and to prohibit their images in print media, which they called a sign of growing "deviant thought."

All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks

"Reservists marked their last night stationed in the southern Hebron Hills by damaging confiscated Palestinian vehicles, their replacements told Haaretz on Monday. The reserve battalion in question was stationed at a small base near the Shekef settlement, and spent three weeks in the south Hebron Hills. They were responsible primarily for patrolling the green line. On their last night at the base, the reservists got drunk and vandalized some of the vehicles they had confiscated from Palestinian drivers, for transporting passengers who lacked permits to enter Israel, soldiers told Haaretz."" (thanks Olivia)

Editing for the royal family

"The editor-in-chief of The National, an English-language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, makes $430,000 per year, according to a spreadsheet of the paper's payroll leaked to WikiLeaks." (thanks L.)

Mini-Hariri does London

Mini-Hariri is visiting London. On top, he is seen with columnists and editors from Al-Hayat (the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan), below he is seen with Tariq Al-Humayyid (editor of the mouthpiece of Prince Salman). In the picture below, Hariri was impressed to be introduced to something called "the computer." He asked whether "the computer" can add and subtract numbers, and when told it can, he ordered himself five. (thanks F and Firas)

Elections or appointments?

Prince Nayif bin `Abdul-`Aziz (who has just been awarded a doctorate in political science by Lebanese prime minister, Fu'ad Sanyurah) said that appointments of members of the Shura Council is better than their election. More explained: ""Appointing the members always ensures that the best are selected," Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in comments carried by al-Jazirah daily. "If it was to happen through elections, the members would not have had been this competent." Asked if that could include women, he said: "I don't see the need for that.""

Angry Arab...in Al-Arabiyya?

"“You have more freedom to express support for Israeli war crimes than to speak about the Palestinian civilian victims in the war on Gaza,” As'ad Abu Khalil, professor of political science at California State University, told AlArabiya.net. "There is a general climate that is very sympathetic and solidly dogmatic in favor of Zionism then it is to Palestinians and its supporters," he said, adding that as people start pay attention to Israeli crimes Zionists are clamping down on any dissent by exerting "horrendous forms of pressure on school administrations." "Academic freedom is not equally distributed here in the U.S.," he said. "There is a tremendous illogical moral and ethical asymmetry on college campuses.""

Amir Taheri: at the door of Prince Salman

This is an interesting account of the editor of Ash-Shira` magazine, Hasan Sabra (a man who started out as chief of information for the pro-Libyan militia, Arab Socialist Union, during the civil war and then started his magazine as a pro-Libyan mouthpiece, before being tied to elements of Iranian intelligence, and then became a Hariri and Saudi propagandist, which is what he is today.) Here, he describes the origins of the leak that was the famous news item that led to the Iran-Contra scandal. But he also has a scene of Amir Taheri waiting (along with Sabra) at the door of Prince Salman.

Hassan Fattah Journalism

This is what passes as news headline in the National: "Yemeni president thanks UAE". Tomorrow, the National headline will be: Hassan Fattah thanks Royal Family of Abu Dhabi.

Political advertisements in Lebanon

Comrade Pierre on the silly political campaigns (on behalf of Hariri family) by Saatchi and Saatchi.

Don't walk, don't eat

"Palestinian laborers are forbidden to walk around the community of Har Adar in the Jerusalem corridor. They are allowed to work, but cannot simply roam the area. This is the local council's policy."

Houston

To those who asked, my talk in Houston this Friday is a closed event. I am speaking to a community group in a house.

Dubai: miracle of capitalism?

"The owners of these vehicles are mainly British expatriates, who have left in a hurry because they faced "crippling debts" as a result of Dubai's financial meltdown and their own profligate behaviour. Many of them, says Hollingsworth, have defaulted on loans; rather than risk arrest and jail, they drove at top speed to the airport where they jumped on the first flight to London. If you're looking for a microcosm of the world financial crisis, then Dubai is it. The Alice-in-Wonderland atmosphere of crazed spending was more extreme than anywhere else and now the tourism-and-expatriate-dependent little kingdom is heading precipitously towards bankruptcy. Last month it was bailed out with a $20bn package by its oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi, but, with $80bn worth of debts, it could still go bankrupt this year." (thanks Saeed)

Pleasing...House of Saud

"But the film was also furiously opposed by the clerical establishment. The senior cleric who, at that time, headed the Saudi religious police was not amused. Film is "evil," he charged, and must continue to be banned. Within days of his pronouncement, however, he changed his tune, judging that cinema was fine as long as it was used "in matters that please Allah"."

Zionism: by force

"Jewish tourists who spend more than 180 days in Israel, even without violating the terms of their tourist visas, are being increasingly harassed by border patrol officials, detained at the crossings and, in some cases, deported to their port of origin or forced to make aliya against their will, according to a Tel Aviv law firm." (thanks Emily)

Zionism=war crimes

"The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields and the targeting of medics and hospitals. A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target. The testimonies form the basis of three Guardian films which add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including more than 300 children."" (thanks Regan)

Loyalty to the State

""There are hostile elements who say that the State of Israel is a provocation. They say that any national matter is a provocation. But all we are doing is wave the Israeli flag. All we are demanding is loyalty to the State." Loyalty to the State? Wasn't that was Himmler demanded? (thanks Asa)

Electronic Ali

Electronic Ali is speaking in Berkeley tomorrow. Go see him although I have a department meeting here.

Zionism is racism, literally as Joe Biden would say

"of some 120 criminal investigations brought against security force members since the beginning of the intifada, there had only been one conviction – against the Arab-Israeli soldier who shot British peace activist Tom Hurndall dead in Gaza." (thanks Ahmed)

Occupier's laws

A student at Hebrew University sent me this flyer (in Hebrew and Arabic). I don't wish to identify her for her own protection. She wrote: "Attached with this email a picture (in Arabic(?) & Hebrew) for an order to close the Palestinian National Theatre (Al-Hakawati) in Jerusalem that was put on the theatre's door. This happens regularly in this place, and in others that take place in Jerusalem: few minutes before they start, soldiers come to evactuate people. The exhibition that is supposed to end tomorrow is not part of the events of Jerusalem the Capital of Arab Culture... At the same day of the opening of these events (which did not happen in Jerusalem, huh), soldiers broke in to a school while kids were celebrating Mother's Day." Do you notice how bad Israeli terrorist army's Arabic is? I argue that goofy Google's translation into Arabic are better than the Arabic of Israeli Orientalism.

Assassination in Beirut (i should have said in Lebanon, not Beirut)

Robert Worth (and the AUB professor he cites in the story) are over their head on this. Kamal Midhat was not like what people think. He was not part of the Fath hierarchy in the region and was opposed to Oslo and was punished by Fath for it. My sister, Mirvat, knew Kamal Midhat and said that he was a believer in armed struggle and was opposed to peace with the usurping entity. It is possible that the target of the assasination was `Abbas Zaki. My sister also tells me that Al-Akhbar's account of Midhat in today's issue is not accurate.

Obama Rules

"Former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator Martin Indyk is leading discussions between Israeli and Palestinian advisors and officials at a three-day, off-record Brookings event that got underway last night." (thanks Laleh)

Political Economy of Collaboration

"For instance, at a time when Palestinian GDP has stagnated or fallen -- GDP fell 8% in 2006, was 0% in 2007, and was “constrained” in 2008 -- for the past several years, “aid” received by the PA for the first quarter of 2008 exceeded their sizeable budget deficit ($317m). (p. 11) The “surplus” aid ($208m) was 66% of the deficit (!) and was then used to “repay substantial wage and private sector arrears as well as loans and advances from the banking sector.” (p.6) Thus, money originating outside of Palestinian society is distributed to favored sectors (bankers, and civil servants who execute the commands of the PA) of that society. Moreover, relative to the size of the (highly aid-reliant) economy, “aid” support is quite generous. Importantly, aid is mostly NOT productively spent, for example on investments in agriculture or on infrastructure. There, most projects have been and are on hold due to donor “security concerns” over the situation in Gaza. (p.36.) The report indicates that the only sector to receive an increase in support from donors is the “Governance Sector” which includes “security reform and transformation.” Table 6 shows that “governance” is overwhelmingly “security” which includes coordination between the various “forces” that constitute it. (There seems to be one for each fiefdom / officeholder.) Moreover, these same “forces” that help with “governance” seem to have a problem with accessibility (due to Israeli blockages and destruction of infrastructure after the Second Intifada) to areas B and C for law enforcement. Naturally there is no “governance” connection with Gaza, due to the “absence of a functional Palestinian Legislative Council.” Had it been present, the PA claims there would have been more progress on financial “accountability” and “transparency” reforms. (pp. 20-1, 23.) Given the nature of this “aid,” it is revealing that “accountability” in this case, refers not to the PA’s accountability to its own population that elected the Legislative Council, but instead, refers to the donors." (thanks Olivia)

Regarding the threat to Angry Arab

Saeed did some great investigative work. He found that the text of the threat that I received from the Prince Muqrin's little group in Lebanon was almost exactly the same as the text of a "threat" that the same group claimed that it had received. You compare:

إلى -أسعد أبو خليل- أو العميل الأمريكي الغاضب.

لقد فتحت عليك والله أبواب جهنم عندما هاجمت المقاومة الإسلامية العربية وسيدها الحسيني .

فاذا اعتقدت ان لحمنا مباح لتنهشه فانك خاطئ،

فلحمنا مر لا يستطيع اي كان ان ينهشه واذا حاولت مرة اخرى فاننا سنكسر اسنانك ونقلع عيونك ونقص يدك .

واننا ننصحك بأن توقف حملتك المدفوعة الأجر ضد المقاومة الإسلامية العربية وسيدها الحسيني،

والا فاننا لا نتحمل اي مسؤولية عما قد يحصل لك ولأفراد عائلتك،

وتأكد باننا لن نوفر وسيلة لكي نلقنك درسا لن تنساه.

وقد أعذر من انذر والله مع المؤمنين.

شباب الشيعة المقاومة"

بسمه تعالى

الى الحسيني. والحسين (ع) منه براء

لقد فتحت عليك والله أبواب جهنم عندما هاجمت المقاومة وانجازاتها في مقابلتك الأخيرة مع موقع ايلاف. فاذا اعتقدت ان لحمنا مباح لتنهشه فانك خاطئ، فلحمنا مر لا يستطيع اي كان ان ينهشه واذا حاول فاننا سنكسر اسنانه ونقلع عيونه.

اننا ننصحك بان تسير في الطريق الصحيح، طريق المقاومة الشريفة، وتوقف حملاتك المدفوعة الأجر ضد المقاومة وسيدها، والا فاننا لا نتحمل اي مسؤولية عما قد يحصل لك ولأفراد عائلتك، وتأكد باننا لن نوفر وسيلة لكي نلقنك درسا لن تنساه على غرار الطفيلي والحاج حسن وغيرهم الذين لجمنا افواههم التي ما فتئت توجه سمومها نحو المقاومة وسيدها. وقد أعذر من انذر والله مع المؤمنين شباب الشيعة المقاومة

Called an idiot

"On one campus, for example, I was condemned as an “idiot” because I said that a majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas in the January 2006 election because they were fed up with financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority." How to put it nicely to you. Well, let us just say that no, you were not called an idiot because of of what you said about the Palestinian vote, OK?

Dr. Prince Nayif Bin `Abdul-`Aziz

Just because Prince Nayif (the Saudi Minister of Interior) supervises the system of terror and repression which includes the production of fanatical terrorists over the years and the rituals of beheadings and stoning of lovers and the electrocution of genitals does not mean that he is not a "political scientist." Lebanese Prime Minister, Fu'ad Sanyurah, awarded a Doctorate in Political Science from the Lebanese University to the illiterate Saudi Minister of Interior. This is not the first doctorate to Prince Nayif: the Imam Muhammad bin Saud had awarded a doctorate in "Service to the Sunnah" to Prince Nayif. (SNA)

Prince Sultan's Health

Prince Nayif said that Prince Sultan will return from the US with his "full health." You know what that means, don't you? It means one thing and one thing only: get the shovels and start digging. The man is dead. Very dead.

Prince Nayif: on the Role of the Media

Prince Nayif bin `Abdul-`Aziz is attending the summit of the Arab Ministers of Interiors in Beirut. He called on the media to play its role in "correcting the wrong ideas." I kid you not. He actually said that.

Sick

...off to Houston, and returning Sunday. Sick.

Kudos to Riyad Qubaysi

I don't know New TV's Riyad Qubaysi (we spoke once on the phone) but I am a big fan of his. He is one of the best TV journalists in Lebanon. Today, he did a report on the Palestinian children in Lebanon: it made me cry.

Puppet versus Puppet

"The US and its European allies are ­preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned."

Once a jailer

""I realised the cause that made these men go to prison was also my cause," Zeidan said. "We are part of the Palestinian tragedy." After a year of locking up Arab prisoners, he quit the service, finished his law degree and became a defence attorney. Months later, Zeidan returned to the same prison to visit Kantar. The Lebanese fighter, also a Druse, asked Zeidan to represent him. "That was a historic meeting for me. One day I was Samir Kantar's jailer. The next, I was his lawyer," Zeidan said.""

Here we go

"A predawn raid by United States Special Forces that killed five people on Sunday has produced sharply conflicting accounts from the American military and local Afghan officials as to whether the dead were civilians or militants, resurrecting a sore point that has troubled the American-led war here. The United States military said in a statement that its forces killed five militants and detained four suspects in an operation against a “terrorist network” near the Afghan-Tajikistan border in the northern province of Kunduz. Local officials said that those killed were not militants and that the raided house belonged to the mayor of the town of Imam Sahib." Let me save you time: the US military will conduct a thorough investigation that will clear the perpetrators.

Saudi reforms

To improve the conditions of women in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi king today raised the salaries of his concubines.

This is Zionism

"Anti-Arab verbal and physical attacks inside Israel have spiked in the wake of elections held earlier this year in which right-wing parties made major gains, a human rights group said on Sunday. The Mossawa Centre for the Rights of Arab Citizens in Israel has documented 250 incidents of aggression against Arab Israelis since the start of the year, compared to 166 in all of 2008, the group said in a report. "The physical and verbal aggression has increased mainly in cities with mixed Arab-Jewish populations," the report said."

Zionism is racism, literally as Joe Biden would say

"A Hadera elementary school has been accused of racial discrimination, for its singling out of a number of students of Ethiopian origin, all born in Israel, for extra Hebrew lessons. In response to the accusation, the Education Ministry said the school used "poor judgment"." (thanks Olivia)

Hariri Republic

"Things were not going smoothly abroad, either. In early 2008, while waiting for a flight in Beirut, Hamdan was arrested and interrogated for four days by Lebanese authorities. Hamden said a lawyer the family later hired to examine the court file said his detention was at the request of "outside influences."" (thanks Souheil)

African migrant workers in Libya

"For the African migrants themselves, life in Libya is often a dead end. “They call us animals and slaves,” said Paul Oknonghou, 28, a Nigerian who lives with about a dozen other Nigerians in a house under construction that lacks glass in the window frames, running water, a bathroom or a kitchen. He said he and his friends considered themselves lucky that they did not have to sleep on the streets."

Mubarak obstains US support for his son as his successor

"Egyptian police seized a flock of 560 sheep set to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels, a security official said on Monday." (thanks Marcy)

The Colonial Exception

Comrade Raed reviews "Waltz with Bashir".

Saudi reforms

Prince Muqrin, the head of Saudi foreign intelligence, states that his female agents are more qualified than his male agents. Feminist worldwide cheered the news. (thanks Elie)

Terrorist Balloons: Ethan Bronner would call them Hamas strongholds

"Israeli authorities broke up a series of Palestinian cultural events in Jerusalem on Saturday, disrupting a children's march and bursting balloons at a schoolyard celebration in a crackdown that underscored the emotional battle over control of the disputed holy city." Look at the last sentence: I can always tell when a foreign editor of a US media unit inserted a sentence to a dispatch by a correspondent in order to soften the impact of Israeli crimes. "Underscored the emotional battle"? What the duck is that? Imagine if a US media inserted a sentence after a Palestinian act of violence and saying: the act only underscores the emotional battle over the holy land. (thanks David)

90%: nations in exile

A German publication reports that 90% of all of Iraq puppet ambassadors hold dual citizenship. (thanks Dina)

The Threat

My sister talked to the Lebanese Minister of Interior, Ziyad Barud, on the threat that I have received. He expresssed concern and will follow up the matter. (A polite version of the threat appears as a comment under my Saturday's article on Al-Akhbar website). Note to self: make sure you remember to make a critical reference to the same lousy thuggish gorup that is supported by Prince Muqrin bin `Abdul-`Aziz in your article this Saturday.

A threat to Angry Arab

I have received this email today:
"

إلى -أسعد أبو خليل- أو العميل الأمريكي الغاضب.

لقد فتحت عليك والله أبواب جهنم عندما هاجمت المقاومة الإسلامية العربية وسيدها الحسيني .

فاذا اعتقدت ان لحمنا مباح لتنهشه فانك خاطئ،

فلحمنا مر لا يستطيع اي كان ان ينهشه واذا حاولت مرة اخرى فاننا سنكسر اسنانك ونقلع عيونك ونقص يدك .

واننا ننصحك بأن توقف حملتك المدفوعة الأجر ضد المقاومة الإسلامية العربية وسيدها الحسيني،

والا فاننا لا نتحمل اي مسؤولية عما قد يحصل لك ولأفراد عائلتك،

وتأكد باننا لن نوفر وسيلة لكي نلقنك درسا لن تنساه.

وقد أعذر من انذر والله مع المؤمنين.

شباب الشيعة المقاومة"

I post this as I received it in my inbox. This is a group that is allegedly funded by Hariri family and Saudi intelligence and is CERTAINLY promoted by Saudi media. The message said: "To As`ad AbuKhalil or the Angry American Agent

You have by God opened on yourself the gates of hell when you attacked the Arab Islamic Resistance and its Sayyid Al-Husayni. And if you think that our flesh is available for you to bite, then you are mistaken. Our flesh is bitter and no one can bite it, and if you try one more time we shall break your teeth and gouge out your eyes and cut off your hand. And we advise you to end your salaried campaign on the Arab Islamic Resistance and its Sayyid Al-Husayni, otherwise we dont brear responsibility for what may befall you or to members of your family. And be certain that we shall not spare a method to teach you a lesson that you shall not forget. And who has warned has been excused and God is with the believers.

The Youth of Shi`ite Resistance."

Dirty little secret

"The “dirty little secret,” Obama told Leno on Thursday, is that “most of the stuff that got us into trouble was perfectly legal.” An even dirtier secret is that a prime mover in keeping that stuff legal was Summers, who helped torpedo the regulation of derivatives while in the Clinton administration. His mentor Robert Rubin, no less, wrote in his 2003 memoir that Summers underestimated how the risk of derivatives might multiply “under extraordinary circumstances.”"

Advising Biden on the Middle East

She learned Middle East studies as an assistant to Elliott Abrams. I kid you not.

Made in the USA: TALIBAN!

"The United States is prepared to discuss the establishment of a political party for the Taliban in Afghanistan, a U.S. diplomat says."

Labor Strikes in Egypt

"Going through the post titles in just two Egyptian blogs specialized in covering strikes happening in Egypt -- Egyptian Workers by Kareem El Behery and Tadamon Masr (or Egyptian Solidarity) -- we can outline a chronology of the strikes."

From Prince Nayif with Love

Prince Nayif bin `Abdul-`Aziz would like to thank Robert Worth of the New York Times for this tribute.

The new Dubai

A Western correspondent in the Middle East sent me this about Dubai (he/she doesn't want to be identified): "It's definitely quite a scene here. The UAE government is now saying that the country's economy could contract this year, but since Abu Dhabi is fully expected to still grow by some 4 percent that means Dubai is seriously dragging the place down. Rents are collapsing as we speak. People are holding back on taking out new rent contracts because properties are expected to be say 20,000 dirhams less per year within two months. The roads have noticeably less traffic on them and the shopping malls are less crowded. Most of the insane projects have been frozen, such as the second palm island and the islands in the shape of the world, and the 'Dubailand' project to build hotels as exact replicas of the main Pyramid at Giza and Eiffel Tower. All of this means that the place has actually become liveable. The prices are becoming reasonable and the traffic is bearable. Knocked down a few notches, it's a pleasant place for a while. But it's still full of construction carried out by people whose homes you never see and there are still plenty people coming here. And Sheikh Mo's book of poetry has now hit the shops."

Let me give you this tip

I can tell you this: if you read an article about the Israeli terrorist army and you encounter the word "anguish" you know that the article 1) is a propaganda piece on behalf of the Israeli terrorist army; 2) that the article may contain mild criticisms of the Israeli terrorist army but not for what it does to the Palestinian victims but for what it may do to the security of the usurping entity. As in: "expressing anguish over the growing religious nationalist elements of the military." (thanks Olivia)

Pragmatic fanatacism

"The recently elected Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, is heading to the US this week on a fund-raising tour that will bring him to New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco and Florida." Ethan Bronner of the New York Times refers to this fanatic right-winger as "pragmatic".

Zionist killing has not stopped

"Palestinian medical sources reported on Sunday morning that two children were killed after unexploded ordnance, dropped by the Israeli army during the Gaza war, exploded near them in Gaza City."

Prince Sultan

Prince Sultan's health continues to improve: funeral arrangements are under way.

Phalanges and Genius

Apparently, the Lebanese genius from yesterday who invented something that "may" cure something is the head of the Phalanges Party in Washington, DC. (thanks Hani)

Raising their voice against the Palestinians

El-Nashra (a website owned and run by the son of May Al-Murr--who was a fascistic, phoenician kook who went to Israel after the Kahan commission report to show solidarity with Ariel Sharon (kid you not)) raises its voice against the Palestinians in Lebanon. Somebody need to tell El-Nashra to stick to their Phoenician ramblings and that between the Palestinians and the Lebanese Army the Palestinians are always...right. (thanks Layal)

Zionism will wither away

"MOST FUNDAMENTALLY, we see a growing assault on both the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel." You bet. And it will only grow.

From the India of Nehru to this

"India next month will launch a new "remote-sensing" satellite built with Israeli "inputs," the Indian Space Research Organization said Saturday."

Drastic change?

"So Algeria is still a long way from true normality. Major-General Muhammad Mediene still runs the security service, as he did in 1990s, when even officials admit that more than 6,500 people were killed after last being seen in the hands of the security forces. Under five more years of Mr Bouteflika, do not expect drastic change."

American innocence abroad

I mean, I can't believe this Chinese provocation. If there is anything that can prove American innocence abroad it is this: "According to the Americans, their unarmed ship Impeccable, under naval supervision but with a civilian crew, was peacefully surveying the ocean floor in international waters about 120km (75 miles) south of China’s Hainan Island (see map). Five Chinese boats—naval and civilian—approached her on March 8th. Chinese sailors reportedly waved Chinese flags and told the Impeccable to leave. The Impeccable turned fire-hoses on one boat to stop her getting too close. Chinese sailors stripped to their underwear as their boat closed in. Two of the Chinese boats forced the Impeccable to do an emergency stop, before she eventually withdrew. The Chinese say the Impeccable was on a spy mission. Detecting submarines is indeed one of her roles, and Hainan is home to Chinese submarine bases. Moreover, says China’s foreign ministry, the vessel was in China’s exclusive economic zone. It accused the Impeccable of violating international and Chinese law. The Americans said it was the Chinese who had broken international law by not respecting the safety of a “lawful” ocean user."

Pure coincidence

"The Israeli government also sent a New Year’s message to the Iranian people on Friday, although administration officials and Israeli officials insisted that the gestures were not part of a coordinated plan. “I know we notified allies about our message last evening,” the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said, but he added that he did not know if Israel had also notified the United States ahead of time. Some experts said the fact that the American message was sent on the same day as Israel’s had the potential to dilute the effect of Mr. Obama’s message, by linking it to Israel, whose government has been much more hostile toward Iran."

Soiled with...Zionism

"In every room of the various departments - literature, film, culture for children and youth books, discs, pamphlets and documents were piled up, soiled with urine and excrement. There are two toilets on every floor, but the soldiers urinated and defecated everywhere else in the building, in several rooms of which they had lived for about a month. They did their business on the floors, in emptied flowerpots, even in drawers they had pulled out of desks. They defecated into plastic bags, and these were scattered in several places. Some of them had burst. Someone even managed to defecate into a photocopier. The soldiers urinated into empty mineral water bottles. These were scattered by the dozen in all the rooms of the building, in cardboard boxes, among the piles of rubbish and rubble, on desks, under desks, next to the furniture the solders had smashed, among the children's books that had been thrown down."" (thanks Electronic Ali)

Land of miracles

A "giant" radish was found in South Lebanon.

Ten years passed

The talented Layal Haddad reflects on her past (thanks As`ad--not me)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day (in the East and West) offers an opportunity for societies to vomit patronizing, condescending, and sexists views of women and their roles.

Livni's Friend and the (alleged) embezzler of Samed

"Ahmed Qurei, the leader of the Fatah faction's delegation to the Cairo inter-Palestinian reconciliation dialog, has demanded the formation of a PA government with a political program carrying a "crystal-clear recognition of Israel", Ziad Al-Nakhala, the deputy secretary general of the Islamic Jihad Movement, revealed."

The joke that is the Lebanese Army with the two planes

"Palestinian factions in Lebanon accused the army on Saturday of contaminating Iranian food aid destined for a refugee camp by using sniffer-dogs to search the shipment. "Camp residents refuse to eat what the police dogs have soiled," several Palestinian factions in northern Lebanon, including the Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a statement received by AFP."

Ahmad Chalabi Speaks

Read this account of Ahmad Chalabi. What is interesting is that he is revealing his very close relations with the Iranian regime and its intelligence service as snuck into Iran as the US invaded. With him in those meetings with Iranian military and intelligence officials was none other than the democracy advocate (and poseur par excellence, Kanan Makiya). But what really appalled me is the way this Chalabi guy invoked the name of Hanna Batatu and his great book. Batatu was my teacher and mentor and I know what he would think of the channigians of Chalabi and his cohorts. Also, note the role that King Husayn played in the affairs leading ot the invasion of Iraq. (thanks Dan)

Salim Huss is a decent man but...

"Dr Salim el-Hoss is 80 now but remains a staunch defender of human rights and democracy, an opponent of the death penalty and an outspoken supporter of Palestinians. He finds it difficult to climb the steps to airliners, he confessed to me on our way back from Qatar this week, but reads as voraciously as ever. When I recommended to him a long article on American torture, he read it right through to the end and then put the paper down with a slap on his knee. "Terrible, terrible," he muttered." In 2000, weeks before he resoundingly lost to Rafiq Hariri, I asked him whether he was going to respond to Rafiq Hariri's dirty sectarian campaigning, and he told me: I will not stoop to his level. Salim Huss is a decent man but his weak personality and lack of charisma has been a great gift for his opponents in the Hariri family.

Kershner does her best to malign the Western supporters

"Four villagers have been shot dead here since last summer. The youngest, Ahmed Musa, Mr. Musa’s nephew, was 10." (thanks Olivia)

They are shocked and outraged

"Ten U.S. Muslim organizations threatened this week to cease working with the FBI, citing "McCarthy-era tactics" by the agency, including efforts to covertly infiltrate California mosques." Does that mean that Ibraheem Hooper of CAIR will no more speak to the US media to praise the Bush administration? Because that would be a relief for me. (thanks Sellam)

American propaganda in Arab media

American propaganda is so crude when it permeates Arab media. Like lately, I have noticed that pro-Saudi Arab media have been consistently publishing (on the front page) pictures of US soldiers gently playing with Iraqi children. Look at this picture on the front page of the Iraqi newspaper Az-Zaman. And by the way, this is the newspaper founded by Saddam's chief propagandist, Sa`d Bazzaz who--along with Kuwait editor, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, were key in building Saddam's personality cult in Arab media in the 1970s and 1980s. (thanks Amer)

Is this American mentality?

"INHOFE: Well, this is a little worse than that, I think, because you’re dealing with the Middle Eastern mentality. And terrorists, you know, they don’t care about dying." (thanks FLC)

My Debate with the Israeli Consul General

Several people have asked me whether I will shake the hands of the Israeli Consul General in the debate at University of San Francisco. Those who know me, know the answer. For those who don't know me: of course NOT.

Another Lebanese genius

"Lebanese Among U.S. Researchers who Found New Drug that May Prevent Brain Damage". But why is that news? A Lebanese "invents" a cure for cancer once a week, according to the same right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrain (people), anti-Palesitnian (people) newspaper. (thanks Michel)

Israeli house-cleaning: on the looters

From Jean Said Makdisi’s (1990:190) memoir, Beirut Fragments:

“After the Israelis left [Beirut in 1982], we began to hear of the most extraordinary aspect of the occupation. Arrests, harassments, shootings, even the obligatory looting: These were what everyone expected, and indeed, they had occurred. But the thing that no one expected, and indeed, they had occurred. But the thing that no one expected was what we, on hearing about it for the first time, greeted with hesitant laughs. Gradually, we discovered that what had seemed like a single incident had become, in fact, a trademark and taken on far more serious dimensions.

“The Israeli soldiers, wherever they had been, had defecated in choice places. On books, furniture, clothes, and carpets; on bedroom floors; near toilet seats and in bathtubs; on school desks; and in shop windows, people found the rotting feces. Someone swore she knew of one house near the airport where the distraught housewife had discovered feces in her washing machine and dishwasher. One man, we heard, went to his office and saw on every single desk except his own the offensive, stinking pile. Triumphantly, he sat at his desk and gloated over his unhappy colleagues. Then he opened his drawer, and there, neatly lying among the files, was his bequest from the Israeli army.

“And so, after all the ruin and tragedy, after the destruction and pain, the dead and the dying, the lacerated bodies and blinded eyes, the burned and disfigured faces, the windows and orphans—after all this there was left only a great heap of excrement. The fires had died, snuffed out in a mound of dung. A ghastly joke, symbol of an overriding contempt, a cosmic stink had become the memorial to those months of agony.”" (thanks Robert)

Judith Miller from Beirut

It takes a week to really understand the country, and to explain to Western readers. "Saad Hariri told our group of US journalists and policy analysts invited by a foundation close to March 14th lunch that he was "reassured" by the fact that the American envoys had visited Beirut before and after their talks in Damascus." Of course, self-respecting journalists don't accept paid-for invitations to cover a country. Hell, even the lousy New York Times categorically refuses such offers. Miller adds: "No breasts or even hairdos are on display here. Dreary Iranian-style apartment buildings rise from the bombed-out craters alongside derelict buildings that Israel carpet-bombed into semi-oblivion in 2006." By the way, her description of the southern surburbs have the markings of somebody who did not visit but who "was told" how it was, or how it was supposed to be. In fact, last time I was there, my friend was commenting how Lebanese popular culture is too strong for Hizbullah to try to prevent it in the suburbs. But what I want to know is this: did Miller who single-handedly found Saddam's WMDs found any Lebanese WMDs in Beirut? (thanks Nir)
PS I am told that the best version of pirated DVDs of the show "the L word" can be found in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Angry Arab on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect

Back in 2001, only weeks after Sep. 11, I was invited to appear on the show that Bill Maher hosted on ABC called Politically Incorrect. It was during a time where I felt that views that were critical of the US were being obscured, maligned, marginalized, and disregarded. I of course accepted the inviation. I was speaking in Merced College the night before, and Maher sent me his limo driver to pick me up and drive me down to LA. They taped the show days in advance. I sat in the green room and then we were ready for the show. The show was supposed to deal with several segments dealing with different issues (including abortion and another topic that i don't remember). I did not know any of the other guests but I recognized Jean Sassoon because she wrote trashy books including one that was particularly trashy called Princess (which I am told was serialized in some tabloids). Sasoon approached me to tell me that she likes Arab men because they are "the best lovers" although she added that she did not want her American boyfriend (or husband) to hear her. I was in a very angry mood politically, and if you remember those days after Sep. 11 you would understand. So we started the show: Maher came before the show and briefly introduced himself and we were told that we have three different segments covering three different topics. And when the show started and then you can see the first segment. During the first commercial break, the producer came to whisper to Maher and then came to me and said that they have decided to cancel the other two topics and that I can proceed with my delivery and that it was good for the show, or words for that effect. Of course, talking about the Middle East is what I do, so I relished the opportunity. And then the show went on. During the break, the "comedic" actor to my right, kept asking me why am I in the US, if I was that critical of the US. And I kept telling him: you call yourself a liberal, and you pose that question to me? Would you ask that question if I were of German background? Because while he would say that, he would add that he was a liberal as if that would excuse or justify his bigotry. In the last commercial break, while the actor was asking me again, I finally said: I give up. I shall answer you. I stay in the US becaus of my deep love for Chicken McNuggets. And when the show restarts you hear Maher saying: Chicken McNuggets? So now you know that reference. During one commercial break, Maher said to me: I bet you are one of those who don't like Israel. I said: you bet right, I don't like Israel one bit. When the show ended, Maher approached me and said: look, I know that you don't like me, but I would like to have you on my show again. I said sure. But his show was cancelled shortly after (although he had me on his HBO show twice through satellite). Sassoon approached me after the show (despite our contentious encounter during the program) and asked to have her picture taken with me. I obliged although I squirmed when she put her hand on my shoulder. So if you see a picture of me with Sasoon that is the story. I never usually accept the tape or DVD that media firms give you after a show, but this time I accepted the tape because my students asked me. And then Maria (my 2nd ex-wife) asked for the tape and I thought that she still has it because I could never find it when people would ask me. Tonight, former student Peter, wrote me to and said that I gave him that tape and that he is going to put on Youtube, and he did. So here it is in full:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

Their Beloved, the state

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Their Beloved, the state: The (Guardians of the) Cedar Revolution Renews Itself (Again)."

House cleaning services of the Israeli terrorist army

""Wherever we were we tried to cause minimum damage," said the paratrooper, who also asked to remain nameless. "We left some of the homes cleaner than they were before we occupied them. We even cleaned a refrigerator that really stunk." Look at those occupiers. They clean your own refrigerators, and often they unclog toilets in Gaza. But let me tell you about this Israeli army of thieves, terrorists, and looters. In 1982, when Israeli invaded South Lebanon, I remember that people in the area near Tyre, would always tell others to never leave anything behind in a house when it is being subjected to Israeli searches because Israeli terrorist occupiers were notorious for stealing matches, cigarettes, food, and any item of little value. (thanks Ben)

Canadian standards

"Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made no apologies yesterday for ending the flow of funds to the Canadian Arab Federation, which he says has expressed support for terror groups. CAF president Khaled Mouammar believes Canada should regard Hamas and Hezbollah as "legitimate organizations," Kenney said."" I must say that the Canadian government has really changed in recent years. In the 1990s, I used to fly to Ottowa regularly performing consulting services with the Canadian government on matters relating to the Middle East. Back then, I was stunned with the open-mindedness and progressiveness of officials I dealt with. Things have changed. (thanks Hicham)

Labor Ghettos in Bahrain

"The Bahraini government is being urged to allocate land for the construction of labour cities across the country to provide workers with safe places to live, away from Bahrain’s residential areas."

Flash: Hariri Tribunal

I have not had a chance to update you about the Hariri tribunal. Here it is in summary: blah.

Israeli kidnappings

When Israel kidnaps Palestinians the New York Times refer to that as "arrests." I will now refer to Palestinian kidnappings of Israeli terrorist soldiers as "arrests."

Bronner would justify it because he is not a child

"An Israeli military court Salem sentenced 15-year-old Nidal Tahsin Darwish Al-Faqih to seven years in prison on Thursday. Nidal, from Nablus, was found guilty of being affiliated with Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Brigades."

GCC and their race-based salaries

"British expats working in GCC states earn more than double the salary of their Indian expat peers, according to the results of the Arabian Business Salary Survey 2009." "But it was the Americans who said they earned the most of the expat communities in the region, taking home an average salary of more than $19,000 a month."

Divine tourism

"Travel operators in the Middle East should focus on capturing the potential of the religious tourism sector, which is currently valued at $18bn per year, says Kevin Wright, President of the World Religious Travel Association. Currently, the majority of religious tourism is driven by the Middle East, but more travel alternatives need to be developed to capture the three billion people across the globe that have religious roots in the region." (thanks FT)

Dubai Miracle...Ban

"UAE telecom operator Du has banned access to online photo site Flickr, meaning that the website is no longer accessible anywhere in the UAE following its prior ban by Etisalat." (thanks Tareq)

Keep talking: we are listening and taking notes

"Another soldier, describing how a mother and her children were shot dead by a sniper after they turned the wrong way out of a house, says the "atmosphere" among troops was that the lives of Palestinians were "very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers"."" (thanks Carlos)

From war

Look at the chart. They have a category for "Iraqi civilian deaths from war" and "Afghan civilian deaths from war." So the civilians who are killed by US fighter jets or by US marines at checkpoints are listed as "civilian deaths from war."

Zionist T-shirts

"A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills." A "graduation" shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, "No matter how it begins, we'll put an end to it."" Remind me to design T-shirts when Palestine is finally liberated. I have a few ideas. (thanks Asa)

Kooky Zionism

"Rabbis in the Israeli army told battlefield troops in January's Gaza offensive that they were fighting a "religious war" against gentiles, according to one army commander's account published on Friday. "Their message was very clear: we are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this hold land," he said."

All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks

"The Associated Press reported on Thursday night that a Lebanese shepherd was killed by an Israeli cluster bomb dropped on Lebanon in the war between Israel and Hizbollah in 2006." (thanks Olivia)

Ethan Bronner: justifying the murder of Palestinian women

Here, Ethan Bronner, justifies the Israeli terrorist murder of Palestinian women: "Israeli experts noted that Palestinian women had served as suicide bombers in the past so that soldiers in Gaza did not always know when a woman was approaching whether she was a threat." Tomorrow, Bronner may write a follow up story to justify the murder of Palestinian children although he does some of that in this article when he argues that not all Palestinian children who were murdered were actually children. So according to Bronner, if a Palestianin civilian who is above the age of, say 12, is killed it is justifiable because he/she is not a child. But you know what is very ironic about Bronner's crude propaganda piece here? I mean, the Israeli terrorist soldiers are confession that they were ordered to kill women and children and they recount the murder of women and children and Bronner follows them with stories that they did not actually do what they are confession to doing. This is classic case of propagandizing for the enemey: extreme, even by Bronner's standards of services to Israeli military propaganda. (thanks Sarah)

Baby called war

"Nothing was easy that night. Kadhim heard the baby's first cry before dawn and held him in her arms. Then they heard the first explosions that heralded the arrival of the U.S. military. She named him Harb, Arabic for war. His full name, Harb Zaid, translates as Zaid's War." (thanks Saleema)

CUNY and Blogging

I am speaking on blogging on foreign affairs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York on Tuesday, April 21st (and for the person who made threats against me, the police in NYC has been notified of your threats). My hosts asked me to write a blogging entry on style and methods of blogging in response to blogging of this site which I have not seen before. I shall do that.

My Debate with the Israeli Consul General

For those who asked: 1) I don't know if the event is videotaped but will let you know; 2) No, it is not April's Fool Day.

100,000 suspects

"Thousands of Iraqis held without charge by the United States on suspicion of links to insurgents or militants are being freed by this summer because there is little or no evidence against them. Their release comes as the U.S. prepares to turn over its detention system to the fledgling Iraqi government by early 2010. In the six years since the war began, the military ultimately detained some 100,000 suspects, many of whom were picked up in U.S.-led raids during a raging, bloody insurgency that has since died down."

Joe Biden: to House of Saud with Love

I have been asserting that the American ties with the House of Saud extends to Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Read the text of the fawning letter that Sen. Joe Biden sent to Prince Sultan bin `Abdul-`Aziz (who is recovering well and dying).

Bloggers of the World Unite: Insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran

Bloggers of the world, unite. "The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for an immediate investigation into the March 18 death of an Iranian blogger imprisoned in Tehran's notorious Evin prison‎. Omidreza Mir Sayafi's lawyer, Muhammad Ali Dadkhan, told the UK's Times Online that prison officials told him that his client had committed suicide. Dadkhan‎ said that before his death, Sayafi ‎had expressed concerns about his health, "‎but the doctors there didn't take this seriously and said he was faking it." Sayafi, 28, whose writing appeared on the now-defunct cultural blog, Rooznegar, ‎was sentenced in November 2008 to ‎30 months in prison for insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 revolution. A second charge of insulting Islam was pending against him, according to local and international news reports. Sayafi began his prison term in February." Bloggers of the world should in solidarity with the victim blogger, orchestrate a campaign to insult the Iranian Supreme Leader in unison. It has become a professional duty. And let us face it: it is way too easy to insult that Ayatullah dude. (thanks Mariwan)

All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks

" The NCO also related a story about an old woman who was crossing a main route who was shot by the soldiers. "I don't know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don't know her story… I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out… It was cold-blooded murder." Another NCO told of an incident in which a family was killed. "We had taken over the house… and the family was released and told to go right. A mother and two children got confused and went left… The sniper on the roof wasn't told that this was okay and that he shouldn't shoot… you can say he just did what he was told… he was told not to let anyone approach the left flank and he shot at them."" More than ever: I am certain that this illegitiate state will not last. More than ever.

The owners of the land wait

A Palestinian child waits at Rafah crossing. (AFP)

The corrupt Lebanese political class:

Jamil As-Sayyid (no innocent guy as he was the chief of public security in Lebanon) explains how the electoral law was prepared in 2000. Payback time.

Looting in Israel

"The economy is expected to shrink 1.5% this year, according to the Bank of Israel, compared with growth rates of 4% or more in the previous five years. The global downturn is taking its toll; the bank forecasts an 11% decline in Israeli exports, which account for half the value of everything the country produces. But as the crisis moves from one workplace to another, Israelis are blaming other Israelis: the tycoons who gambled in overseas real estate and lost, bringing down Israel's financial markets; the bankers who tightened credit; the entrepreneurs who faltered under impossible debt burdens and started bouncing checks. The anarchy at the supermarket is one of three well-publicized cases of looting that erupted after beleaguered owners or managers defaulted on debts to suppliers, stopped paying workers and went into hiding. Victims intent on payback have taken matters into their own hands. Nearly 200 workers locked themselves inside the Chicken of the Valley processing plant in Ramat Yishai last week after the principal owner vanished, having failed to pay their February wages."

White Man Impressed: Booze flows freely in Beirut

"Political candidates vigorously debate the issues, including the possibility of normalizing ties with Israel. Beirut, a war zone not so long ago, once again feels like the Paris of the Middle East. Fashionably dressed young people party late into the night at bars and clubs where the booze flows freely. There are more burkas visible in London than in Beirut." Correct me if I am wrong--and I am never wrong--but didn't this writer fly to Beirut and stay at the expense of the Hariri family? Shouldn't the LA Times not mention that? Also, tell this writer who does not know Arabic and who can't follow debates on TV that it is not true: nobody in Lebanon is publicly calling for normalization with Israel. But as long as "booze flows freely", the White Man is impressed. (thanks Dina)

The Message of Ethan Bronner: Poor Israel

"On one hand, there is real concern. Global opinion surveys are being closely examined and the Foreign Ministry has been granted an extra $2 million to improve Israel’s image through cultural and information diplomacy." (thanks Sarah)

For those who are looking for a definition of Zionism

" Israeli soldiers have described wanton killings of Palestinian civilians and destruction of property during the deadly 22-day Gaza war, according to a journal published on Thursday. One soldier spoke of an Israeli sharpshooter killing a Palestinian mother and her two children who had left their home on a path the troops had declared off-limits, according to the journal of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military academy." (thanks Olivia)

No way. Really?

"The U.S. government knew that top Guatemalan officials it supported with arms and cash were behind the disappearance of thousands of people during a 36-year civil war, declassified documents obtained by a U.S. research institute show." (thanks Toufic)

The Sudanese dictator

I watched that clown yesterday: and he was feverishly clowning on the stage. Something is striking about this guy: aside from his repressive rule. He is so dumb and so buffoonish. Bashir is lousy caricature of a military dictator. He is like the stereotype of a dictator in Woody Allen's movie, Bananas (one of my all time favorite movies). The Sudanese people have produced most interesting writers and intellectuals and its political culture in the 1960s was the most vibrant and progressive in the Arab world, and now we have this one. But I also thought this as I watched him: who is more autocratic? Bashir or Mubarak or King `Abdullah (choose one)?

jealous

"Rail service, airports, utilities and the public sector were hit by work stoppages Thursday, the second major strike in two months, as French unions mobilized against government’s response to the global economic crisis." (thanks Rasha)

zeeee surge, zeeee surge

"“David Petraeus is the best general in the US Army, bar none. He also isn’t half as good as he thinks he is.”"

My debate with the Israeli Counsul General

Here is the information about the event as it is advertised:
Israel and Palestine: Peace or Perpetual Conflict?
Israel’s Consul General, Avika Tor, and CSU Professor of Politics, As’ad AbuKhalil, will speak on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the role of domestic and regional actors as well as the United States in the resolution of the conflict. Israel’s relations with its neighbors including Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and the future of Hamas will be explored, as well as the impact of developments in Iran on the conflict. Event is open to the entire USF Community. Sponsored by the Department of Politics, Department of International Studies, Middle East Studies and Peace and Justice Studies programs, as well as the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice.
Wednesday, April 1st, Xavier Chapel in Fromm Hall, 5:30 PM

learn about the enemy

"The Israeli government helped by providing a ready supply of both human and physical capital. Israel has the world’s highest ratio of PhDs per person, the highest ratio of engineers and scientists and some of the world’s best research universities, notably Technion. The country’s native talent was supplemented by the arrival of 400,000 well-educated Jewish refugees from the former Soviet empire. However, Israel’s main qualification for entrepreneurialism is its status as an embattled Jewish state in a sea of Arab hostility. The Israeli army not only works hard to keep the country at the cutting edge of technology, it also trains young Israelis (who are conscripted at 18) in the virtues of teamwork and improvisation. It is strikingly common for young Israelis to start businesses with friends that they met in the army." Now the Economist--the best magazine there is and I don't want anybody to argue with me on that one--forgot to add the factor of foreign aid flowing into Israel since its creation. I mean, if Somalia were to receive more than $100 billion from the US government since 1967, the country would have really prospered.

the poor

"Now, falling export earnings are exacerbating poor countries’ woes. In theory, the poorest should be cushioned from declining world trade. Even so, the latest data look dire. American imports from middle-income countries fell 3% in the year to November 2008. But imports from poor countries fell 6%; those from sub-Saharan Africa, 12%. The African Development Bank says African current accounts, in surplus by 3.8% of GDP in 2007, will be 6% in the red this year."

TV matters

"The soaps blossomed under Brazil’s military regime of 1964-85. The generals subsidised sales of television sets to build a sense of nationhood in a large and then largely illiterate country."

the real Obama

"There is nothing particularly “European” or “socialist” about Mr Obama’s stimulus package. Countries the world over are spending public money in a bid to boost demand and shore up the banks. Indeed, some of the most stubborn resistance to deficit financing has come from Europe, particularly from Germany and the EU finance ministers. Messrs Gingrich and Romney might note that the man who set this ball rolling was not Mr Obama but Mr Bush, the most un-European politician imaginable. What about Mr Obama’s plans to raise taxes and redirect social policy? There are plenty of plausible criticisms of these (such as the fact that his numbers do not add up), but the idea that they entail “full-scale Europeanisation”, as Mark Steyn, a columnist, argues, is one of the least persuasive. Mr Obama’s budget will return the top tax rates to 36% and 39.6%—back to where they were during Bill Clinton’s administration. Mr Clinton ended up presiding over the high-tech boom and a surge in the number of small businesses. Mr Obama has eschewed the single-payer model of health-care reform long advocated by the European-minded left; he wants to use public insurance to supplement the private system, not supplant it. Many of the strongest supporters of his health-care reforms are business people who are being crushed by the exorbitant cost of health care. For all Europe’s Obamamania Mr Obama is, in fact, one of the least European-minded of American presidents.""

Amos Oz: The Liberal Joke of Zionism

Here, Amos Oz (the original poseur after whom Elie Wiesel models himself although the writing talent of the latter is worse than the former) explains his support for the Israeli murder of more than 400 children in Gaza: "So, an Israeli response was understandable and acceptable, in my view." Remember that line every time somebody tells you that Amos Oz is a dove. (thanks Ellis)

Gauche my...potato

"Le Fatah n’est pas une force de gauche, bien entendu. La gauche palestinienne a toujours vu dans le Fatah une force de droite, depuis les débuts de la résistance palestinienne après la guerre de 1967. Le Fatah est bien intégré dans le concert des régimes arabes. Il est notamment proche des Saoudiens qui sont tout sauf de gauche, ainsi que du régime égyptien. L’Autorité palestinienne dirigée par le Fatah est reçue au Parlement européen et à Washington. Elle a maintenu ses rapports avec le gouvernement israélien, en dépit des crimes abominables que celui-ci a commis contre le peuple palestinien." (thanks Ibn)

Very impressive record of...crashing

"Air Force officials acknowledge that more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes — which are 27 feet long, powered by a high-performance snowmobile engine, and cost $4.5 million apiece — have crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Israeli propaganda in the Daily Star

The Daily Star reprints an Israeli tribute to Salam Fayyad. And don't you like it when Israeli propagandists tell Palestinians who their leaders should be?

But it won't go away

"Criticism of Israel dropped from Durban II draft resolution"

The poor

"Egypt is one of a half dozen countries identified by the World Health Organization as organ-trafficking hot spots. Under international pressure, other trouble spots like China, Pakistan and the Philippines have outlawed organ sales and barred foreigners from undergoing transplants to stop "transplant tourism." Egypt, however, has long ignored the problem, experts say. Transplant surgeons working to stop the global trade fear that foreign patients finding it harder to go to Asia could flood into Egypt in search of organs."

This is Zionism

"From the beginning the Israeli military and illegal settlers alike used force to make room for more colonies in the area. Abu al-Aez recalled his family's flight in 1974 from the valley to the center of Aqraba on the mountain after the occupying Israeli army launched a rocket that hit their home: "Thirty dunums of land were stolen from us and now the settlers plant grapes there." According to official reports, last week the Israeli army issued orders to demolish six homes, their adjoining barns, one elementary school, and a mosque in the valley of Aqraba. However, families there say they suspect that up to 20 houses will be destroyed. On 26 March they are scheduled to have a hearing in an Israeli colonial court in Beit El, a settlement close to al-Bireh, to challenge this decision."

Robert Fisk is wrong

Lieberman=Peres=Livni=Rabin=Ben Gurion=Begin=Sharon=the rest of the Zionist gang

Obama bombs, Obama bullets

"

The US military says a 12-year-old girl has been killed when American soldiers fired at a vehicle speeding toward them and Iraqi police near the northern city of Mosul."

Proof

"Representing the Arab Doctor's Union Haytham Khayat said Tuesday Egyptian and Jordanian doctors who have entered Gaza have compiled dozens of reports that prove that new weapons were used during the military invasion of Gaza December 2008-January 2009."

Bashir's terrorist gooons

"A failed asylum-seeker who returned to Darfur under a government repatriation scheme has been murdered by Sudanese security officers after they followed him home from the airport in Khartoum".

Nationalize

"Argentina will re-nationalize a military-aircraft factory that was acquired by U.S. defense titan Lockheed Martin in the 1990s, President Cristina Fernandez said Tuesday."

A chair for his (dead) Daddy

Here, mini-Hariri asserts that he will always keep an empty chair for his dead daddy, lest he comes back.

All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks

"Palestinian youngsters in the Gaza Strip have turned to scavenging through garbage in the Hamas-ruled enclave, where joblessness has soared." (thanks Olivia)

Outrage

Avshin Molavi's ignorance of Arab politics comes shining through. So he tried to make a career as a Middle East (roving) correspondent or a Middle East specialist. When that did not work, he found a new career: a propagandist for Gulf royal families. I usually don't link to Saudi sleaze website, elaph, but you have to read this article where he is feigning outrage because the Financial Times exlcuded the name of the Saudi King from its list of people who can save the world. Really funny. I expect him to write another article in which he feigns outrage because the Saudi King was not awarded the Nobel in Medicine. (thanks Dan)

Like it is a secret?

"But JOE 2008 also departed from the norm in U.S. Government documents by identifying Israel as a nuclear weapons state." (thanks Sam)

"worsening" prisoners' conditions: what does that mean?

"Israel may worsen Hamas prisoners' conditions." Without US unconditional support, this terrorist state would have been abolished by a resolution from the United Nation's Security Council. (thanks Sellam)

Bushama news

"For those already outraged at the AIG bonus scandal, here is a fact that should add more fuel to the fire: The Obama administration has paid the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater nearly $70 million to operate in Iraq and, according to The Washington Times, may keep the company on the payroll months past the official expiration of its Iraq contract in May." (thanks Marcy)

Miracle of Sheikh Mo

Only a few months ago we were reading about the miracle of Dubai. Now this: "Good times end in Dubai."

Paul Berman: Fake Leftism of Bigotry and Ignorance

"But this week Mr. Berman said in an e-mail message that “the Bush administration was foolish to bar Tariq Ramadan from entering the United States.”" Forget about the issue of Ramadan, I want to talk about this Paul Berman, a former leftist who served as one of the most fanatic bigots during the Bush years. And typical of a one of this caliber, notice that he now found the courage to speak against Bush's policies of excluding foreigners that they don't like, including communists and leftists. And now this former (fake) leftist is criticizing Bush. Why did you not write in the New Republic at the time, Mr. Berman. Berman is one of those fanatics who invaded Middle East expertise during the Bush years and only to supply the administration with hate and ignorance about Arabs and Muslims. This is a man with no knowledge or langualge skills who decided to offer opinions on Middle East and Islam. And he was never--in his vapid writings--was able to make up his mind: he sometimes would argue that Nazims infested Arab culture and caused all that terrorism, and other times he blamed Islam. Which is which, o person with no knowledge or insights on what you are talking about?

Dahlan o Dahlan

"Fatah officials said that Dahlan's return to the center stage is an indication of his desire to play a role in any post-Abbas administration. They said that Dahlan was recently appointed as a special adviser to Abbas. Dahlan confirmed that he was "providing advice and ideas" to Abbas, especially regarding to the reconciliation talks with Hamas that were launched in Cairo last week." (thanks Asa)

Hating Saudi...rulers

One of the ways in which propagandists of Arab regimes respond to critics of those regimes is by alleging that those critics "hate" the people of those countries. So they conflate attacks on the corrupt and oppressive rulers with attacks on the people who live and suffer under those rulers. They think they are being smart like that. This Saudi writer, Turki As-Sudayri, writing in Al-Riyadh, says that I attack Saudi Arabia because...Palestinians hate Saudis. Kid you not. (thanks Hani)

Obama surge: Obama war

" President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan. According to senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that have been forwarded to the White House in recent weeks have called for broadening the target area to include a major insurgent sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta."

Hoax

The poem about Gaza attributed to Mudhaffar An-Nawwab is not by Mudhaffar An-Nawwab.

Arab oil: if only it depletes

A columnist in Saudi royal newspaper, Al-Madinah, responds to my article on Arab oil. He said that I want some of that oil for myself, although I do collect olive oil. But my favorite part of his critique is this: he objects to my mocking of Arab rulers and says that there are American leaders, like Reagan and Bush, who have no political education either. Yeah, and I have been praising those leaders here? (thanks Amer)

Positive development?

"The Pentagon's annual report on sexual assault shows a sharp 8 percent increase in reports of sexual assault over last year's survey and an even sharper 17 percent increase in combat zones. Defense officials attribute the increase in part to greater awareness to report sexual assault and rules that make it easier to report sexual assaults." So Defense officials--if I understand the last sentence correctly--are saying that the sharp rise in sexual assaults as a positive development?

captured terrorist

Is it not time to award Isabel Kershner the Blender Award for Zionist services? "Hamas demands the release of hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, including many convicted of deadly terrorist attacks, in exchange for Corporal Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants and taken into Gaza in 2006." First, we need to never refer to Israeli terrorist killers by their names: Zionist media want us to always remember their names while Palestinian victims are always nameless and faceless. Secondly, look at that passage: how did that Israeli terrorist enter Gaza? What was he doing in Gaza? Was he there on a mission of peace?

Not in the Western Press: Jailed Saudi Activists and Their Defense Team Observe A Hunger Strike

"We are strong believers that the laws of the land forbid such flagrant human-right abuses, and if the Ministry of Interior has such convincing evidence and a strong legal case against the accused activists, then try these indicted men in a court of law with public proceedings. However, the Ministry has not dared to hold public trails, instead attorney Esam Basrawi and Dr. Abdulaziz Suliman Al-Khereiji (the two men who were arrested with the same aforementioned group of activists) were released from their solitary confinements for more than two years with no official indictments. This glaring evidence clearly indicates that arrested activists are innocent from any alleged charges and they neither violated any laws nor committed any wrong doings; in fact to the contrary, they insist in preserving the four principles that govern our society, namely: our faith, national unity, the royal family, and a peaceful civic society". (thanks Fowzan)

Obama bombs

"For the second time in as many months, angry Afghans have paraded through the streets of Kandahar the blood-splattered bodies of civilians allegedly killed by NATO forces. The latest protest, involving people from the village named China, happened Monday and was quickly shut down by the Afghan Uniformed Police. The villagers claimed that U.S. troops in Maywand, the western-most district of Kandahar, conducted a raid Saturday night in which five people were killed and two others went missing.""

Fake Left in Jordan

Jordanian government promotes a fake Left movement. (thanks Mirvat)

Blender for Zionist Services

"In the wake of the war in Gaza and Israel's recent election of a right-wing government, the duet is a melodious reminder that Israelis from all sides, "have no other option but to continue our dialogue towards peace," says Awad, a rising stage and television star born to an Arab-Israeli father and Bulgarian mother." Is this Awad not getting the blender for Zionist services? Notice that they always mention the half non-Arab parentage of Awad to underline her superior stock in comparison to full Arabs. (thanks Asa)

war on women

"At least 20 people have been injured and six women raped in clashes between the two largest political parties in Sierra Leone."

Pope and unsafe sex

The Pope, who knows a lot about sex, prefers sex without a condom. (thanks As`ad--not me)

A brave Tunisian dissident

"A prominent Tunisian opposition leader accused his government on Tuesday of pressuring Lebanon into denying him a visa for a lecture about democracy in the Arab world. Moncef Marzouki, who has called on Tunisians to engage in civil disobedience against their government, was due to give a lecture at the Orient Institute in Beirut, but the German-run organization was told by Lebanon's General Security, which vets visa applications, that Marzouki would not be allowed to enter the country."

Don't believe what you read (unless it is written here)

"American investigators believe Arad is involved in the Larry Franklin affair. Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst, was investigated by the FBI on suspicion he passed classified information on Iran to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. U.S. officials believe Franklin met with Arad during his frequent trips to Israel. " He will be allowed in and may be asked to address a joint session of Congress. (thanks Olivia)

Saudi policy of sleaze

According to brave Saudi scholar, Madawi Rashid, Saudi Arabia is deliberately promoting a policy of sleaze and pornography in its media to divert attention from politics.

Zionism and its crimes

"Israel deliberately flooded Lebanese farmlands with excess rainwater from an Israeli orchard, located off the southern town of Mais al-Jabal early Tuesday ruining crops and properties. The Lebanese Army and UNIFIL dispatched teams to look into the incident, which drew protests from the southern residents." (thanks Marc)

Lousy standards of Human Rights Watch

Such are the lousy standards of Human Rights Watch: "we urge you to address the pressing matter of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel." In the eyes of Human Rights Watch, there is a symmetry between victims and killers. If Human Rights Watch was around in WWII, it would have accused Warsaw Ghetto rebels with war crimes (and to balance that it would have added that Nazis also committed war crimes). But I can say this: this sentence cited above is guaranteed to not offend "pro-Israel donors" as the director of Human Rights Watch refers to them in inside communication (that was made available to me by insiders). (thanks Nadim)

Hizbullah and the Lebanese election

I can report this: many in the Lebanese opposition are grumbling about Hizbullah and its stance in the upcoming parliamentary election. There is a suspicion (among the allies of Hizbullah, or some of them) that a strong trend in Hizbullah calls for...losing the election. Apparently, some in Hizbullah don't want to win the election. (There is some evidence of that in the last speech by Hasan Nasrallah in which he said that it is not a big deal if the opposition loses the election). The logic is that Hizbullah feels that winning is too burdensome: that economically, the Hariri family has left a mess with a massive public debt, and politically, Lebanon may be forced into Arab-Israeli negotiations. Hizbullah does not want to be in a position to be pressured to "deliver" on both counts. Hizbullah argues, according to those allies who talked to me, that it would be better for it to stay in the opposition because they keep their weapons and they can block whatever they don't like. Hizbullah didn't interfer in the feud between Murr and `Awn and is giving Birri a room to negotiate with Jumblat, which upsets allies of Hizbullah in the opposition.

Walid Jumblat: from Bushism to Anti-Semitism

What is amazing about Walid Jumblat, who so easily impresses Western reporters who don't know a bit about the Middle East, is that he can by displaying his collection of the New York Review of Books dazzle the White Man. The White Man is always dazzled by a native who can read English and who can drink whisky. Any way, this close ally of Elliott Abrams for 8 years, is now speaking about socialism and about the need for nationalizations and is hailing the "decline" of international capitalism. Yesterday, he was talking about the Leftist symbolism of his father, Kamal Jumblat (who was assassinated by the Syrian regime because he was intent of defeating once and for all the very facist right-wing militias that are now aligned with Walid Jumblat and mini-Hariri). In an interview with Hariri TV, Walid Jumblat keeps reinventing himself after the end of the Bush administration. Here, he says that "it is impossible to reach a settlement with Zionist thought, and even with Jewish thought, probably." Of course, Walid Jumblat has a long history of making anti-Jewihs statement but MEMRI would not cover those because Zionist and their goons forgive anti-Semitism by allies of US and Israel in the Middle East, especially if they accept invitations from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Lebanese quackery: "Cure for Homosexuality"

This medical student at AUB wants to find a "cure for homosexuality". (Click to enlarge NOW). (thanks Nate)

it merited examination

"that they were staging a few nights of readings because the provocative content merited examination, but that their schedules did not permit weeks-long productions."

I don't like flags...but

I don't like flags, and I don't like nationalisms but..for Palestine and the Palestinians, anything and everything. (A boy play atop his house in Jabalya refugee camp which was destroyed by Israeli terrorists.) (AP)

Dahlan gangs

"In a ceremony at the Presidential Guard Training Center in Jericho, Palestinian and American leaders officially opened the facility on Sunday. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) David Johnson formally opened the center, which was built with 9.1 million US dollars of funding from the United States." (Graduates are seen above)

More torture

"Allegations of British collusion in torture have widened to Egypt, where a young British man says he suffered appalling mistreatment during a week of illegal detention while being interrogated on the basis of information that he says can only have come from the UK." (thanks Mouin)

New Poll

"Doha, Qatar, March 16, 2009: A majority of Arabs believe that Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt were wrong to boycott a summit on Gaza, hosted by Qatar last January and many say a new “Cold War” has broken out in the region, according to the latest opinion poll commissioned by the Doha Debates. Fifty-five percent of those questioned across the Arab world said the three countries should have attended the Doha meeting. In Qatar 87% called the decision "incorrect". Jordanians also joined in the criticism – with 59% of them opposing their own government's decision to stay away...More than half (59%) of those polled are still opposed to the
idea of recognizing Israel." (thanks Patrick--no link)

Gun Zionism

"“A 13 year old was taken but released two hours later after being driven around during that time by the army,” said an international volunteer. He was dumped from a military jeep miles from home but managed, at 13 years old, to hitchhike back to his family. He arrived at 10:00 am that morning, several hours after his nighttime arrest. A 15 year old boy was also arrested and taken to the Israeli military prison of Huwara, built on the lands of Nablus, also in the northern West Bank. On the same night, still Thursday, a 14 year old boy was arrested for the second time in his short life. The international volunteers at the IWPS house told PPN, “He was the first of the four boys to get arrested and was driven in a jeep around the village while the army was arresting the rest of the boys. He was taken that night to Ofar Prison [built on Ramallah lands].”"

Chastity Squad: they probably will get Congressional funding

"The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Elhanan Buzaglo to four years in prison on Sunday, after finding him guilty of aggravated assault, extortion, aiding an extortion and intimidation. He was also ordered to pay the complainant against him NIS 10,000 (about $2,400) in damages. Buzaglo, a known member of the Jerusalem haredi neighborhoods' "Chastity Squad," pled guilty as part of a plea bargain struck with the State Prosecutor's Office." He will be released in a few weeks. Oh, no. I take this back: I forgot that his victims was not Arab.

It is not news when only Palestinians are being shot at

"Three young Palestinians were injured by Israeli bullets after its army invaded the village of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, on Sunday."

Dead Syrian in Lebanon

Almost every week, the body of a Syrian worker is found somewhere in Lebanon. And neither the Lebanese government nor the Syrian government which never cares about the welfare of the Syrian people cares. Just yesterday, another body was found. And Human Rights Watch has other concerns: they are monitoring the red blood cells' count of Muhammad Mughrabi--a right-wing lawyer in Lebanon who was awarded some blender by Human Rights Watch a few years ago.

Hyper-intellectual

"Perhaps the chic-est of the warlords was Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, a hyper-intellectual, elegantly louche stoner of the time with long locks and a fab L.P. collection, or so one heard. He graduated from the AUB, as so many leftists did, and was resolutely anti-American." What does it say about the intellect of a person who finds Walid Jumblat to be "hyper-intellectual"? But is this not the same Hariri-Saudi-funded correspondent who called March 14 "March 15"? How lazy do you have to be to get the date (seen everywhere in Lebanon) wrong? (thanks Laure)

Reintroduce

"Israeli armed forces and border police used the cover of the war against Hamas in Gaza to reintroduce the firing of .22 rifle bullets - as well as the extensive use of a new model of tear-gas canister - against unarmed demonstrators in the Occupied West Bank protesting at the building of Israel's "separation wall"." (thanks Asa)

Negative

"Asked whether foreign countries are playing a positive or negative role in Iraq, Britain, the US and Iran get the most negative scores. Overall, 59% of those questioned think Britain's role is negative, 22% positive; 64% say the US is negative, 18% positive; 68% view Iran negatively, 12% positively. Also, 56% think the 2003 invasion was wrong (up 6%), while 42% say it was right (down 7%). Only 30% think coalition forces are doing a good job, 69% a bad job - more or less the same as a year ago." (thanks Ali)

Torture

"The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of Al Qaeda captives "constituted torture," according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document." (thanks Olivia)

400 children killed was not enough for them

"Two-thirds of Israelis believe that Operation Cast Lead against Hamas terrorists in Gaza finished too early, according to a Truman-PSR poll released Monday." Remember: our problem is with Israeli sate AND society.

Politically offensive ads

Thanks to Anne and Brenda, the matter is resolved. Whenever you see one, you just need to email me the url and I will block it. It takes 4 hours for the ad to be blocked after I ad the url to the list of blocked ads.

Alert

If there are any p