Don't you love it when Zionist hoodlums convince themselves that oil and gas potentates speak for the Arab people?

"I asked him if he thought the Arab states would actually back an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, if this terrible option should come to pass.
“Publicly, they would be against it,” he said. “Privately, they would love it.”
You’re sure they loathe Iran more than they loathe Israel?
“Look, Iran is a huge threat, historically speaking," he said. "The Persian empire was always against the Muslim Arab empire, especially against the Sunnis. The threat is from Persia, not from Israel." (thanks Marc)

So how much does a table cost at the Dahlan lobby?

"Despite ATFP claims to have never accepted donations from foreign governments, the group accepted $148,800 from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in 2011."  Let me guess: that was also to pay for a table at the Gala.  Hell, tables made of gold and diamond cost less than tables at the Dahlan annual galas in Washington, DC.  (thanks Nadia)

attack on `Alawites in Lebanon

Imagine if the victims of those regular attacks on `Alawites in Lebanon were directed against Jews: can you imagine the international uproar (and rightly so)?

a statement will be released soon

"Asked about the drone strikes, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the American-led coalition, did not have an immediate comment but said a statement would be released soon."

So how do you know that the Afghan people want the US occupation forces to stay?

"The recent assembly of Afghan tribal elders, a loya jirga, again demonstrated what we already knew — that the Afghan people want us to stay."  That the Loga jirga was picked by Karzai from among the puppets and tools of the occupation is not even a footnote.  Is it possible for Mr. O'Hanlon to open his mouth and not make a fool of himself, ever?  This is like a man raping a woman and then claiming that she wanted him.

How a political lie becomes a news story: this is a true story

A Kuwaiti tabloid newspaper, Al-Ra'y (which has a history of fabrications--and let me give readers a hint: whenever you read a story or an interview attributed to a Kuwaiti newspaper, safely assume it is a lie) carried a story that US officials conducted secret negotiations with Hizbullah officials (which is against US laws and even against the wishes of Hizbullah leader).  So the Jerusalem Post carried the story and attributed to a "Kuwaiti newspaper", not mentioning that it is leading voice in the yellow journalism of the region.  So the Daily Mail of London carried the story and attributed to Jerusalem Post.  Then Drudge Report AND Qatari and Saudi media reported the "story" and attributed to "British media" (Qatari-funded Al-Qauds Al-`Arabi went further and attributed to it "various sources").  You now learn how a lie becomes a news story, widely circulated. 

Partners in crime in Egypt

All those who cheered Sisi at one point or another are partners in crime in Egypt--the crime of the imposition of an increasingly grotesque dictatorship that increasingly wins the approval of Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel.  

J`accuse: pogroms against Alawites in Tripoli, Lebanon

It is high time that we yell J'accuse against all those fake liberals and the NGOs which uses the lofty ideals only to pass the agenda of the EU and the US in the Middle East region.  Most guilty in this regard is the Human Rights Watch office in Beirut (because it has an office there and which issues daily bulletin of crocodile tears about the Syrian people but only if the tears are in sync with the agenda of the US and the Fee Syrian Army--the branch which appears to the reader as if it takes its marching orders from the directives of the Hariri press office has become a virtual press office for the Fee Syrian Army).  Are you aware that for the last two years, crimes have been committed against innocent `Alawites in Tripoli and not a single article about that in the Western press and not a single statement by Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International?  The entire community has been demonized.  Are you aware that not a single article in the press dared to tell the story of the clashes between Jabal Muhsin and Bab Tubbanah? The `Alawite are a mere 5% of the population and they have been subjected to a merciless campaign of bombardment and shelling by the thugs of Salfis in Tripoli (who are run by the March 14 figure, Ashraf Rifi).  All shops belonging to `Alawites in Tripoli have been set on fire, and whole `Alawite families who reside in Tripoli have been evicted from their homes by the thugs of Saudi intelligence in the city.  Not a word about all that in the Western press or in the statements by Western NGOs and human rights organization. And in the last few weeks there has been a new sport introduced in Tripoli: they search for Alawites (and they even stop buses and vans to request evidence of sectarian affiliation) and then the `Alawites are set aside and their legs shot at.  This has happened repeatedly.  Just yesterday, four innocent `Alawites have been shot at.  This week, a car of an `Alawite man broke down in Tripoli, and the Salafit thugs ran after him to kill him on the spot, and when he fled for his life into Jabah Mohsin, they set his car on fire.

Americans and charity

"In 2011, the wealthiest Americans—those with earnings in the top 20 percent—contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid—those in the bottom 20 percent—donated 3.2 percent of their income. The relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns."

not fit for Western news consumption

From Rana: "Jacobin has reprinted an article by Electronic Intifada's Asa Winstanley that questions the dominant narrative of the Syrian Revolution. It was removed from Middle East Monitor's website after enough complaints. Here's the link to the original which now reads: "Due to the large number of complaints we've received which deemed this article to be offensive to the sacrifices of the Syrian people in their struggle for justice, it has been removed." "

The New York Times is outraged: Russia uses harball tactics and throws its economic muscles towards its neighbors

The US would NEVER EVER resorts to such methods, EVER.  "At stake here is not just the fate of a free-trade pact but whether the hardball tactics of Russia, willing to use every bit of economic muscle".

Syrian Observatory for Qatari interests justifies yet again a car bomb

"Reflecting the continued violence on the ground, a car bomb in a government-controlled area west of Damascus on Tuesday killed at least 15 people and wounded many others, Syrian state news media and an opposition monitoring group said. The monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said six of the dead were government soldiers."

House of Khalifah

"Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, emphasized the importance of the Navy's Middle East presence Wednesday, telling sailors at an all-hands call that Bahrain remains the best option for operating out of the region."

collective crime

"In recent years, the landscape has played host to expanding methods of denial such as Orwellian parliamentary efforts to criminalise mourning on Israel's Independence Day, a holiday that represents the destruction of over 530 Palestinian villages, the killing of approximately 10,000 Palestinians, and the expulsion from Palestine of some 750,000 more." (thanks Amir)

A revolution that never was

"As well as the inherent value of such a change in itself, a free Arab world is best placed to confront Israel's apartheid regime. The road to Jerusalem runs though Arab capitals, as the late Palestinian leader George Habash used to emphasize. The American imperial power and its clients and allies were caught off guard and seemed paralyzed. But, spurred on by the Israeli-Saudi tag-team that leads the counter-revolutionary forces of the region, the hegemon soon rallied its forces and wasted little time engaging in covert operations."

Fake revolution

Comrade Asa:  "Probably the most controversial thing I have ever written (controversy generated by Israel’s propagandists generally being  falsified). Alternative judgements rendered on Twitter: “Good,” “Brilliant,” “Spot-on” and (my favourite of the insults) “someone throwing up on their keyboard”:


But we can now say with confidence that none of these uprisings has constituted a revolution. Of course, the immense struggles and sacrifices that people have made may yet sow seeds for the future… To say Syria is now a disaster is a massive understatement. This is a sectarian civil war which could continue for a decade if the regime’s enemies, led by the brutal Saudi tyranny, continue to wage their proxy war on the country.

As usual, read the rest of this column over at MEMO.

UPDATE, 26/11: After pressure, MEMO has decided to to withdraw this article because they deemed it “offensive.” It has been deleted from their website and replaced with a note (although a copy was preserved on the Internet Archive).

I totally stand by the article, the full text of which is below. 28/11: Jacobin magazine has also now republished it on their site."

Robert Worth on Saudi Arabia

Look at this sentence: "For decades, Washington depended on Saudi Arabia — a country of 30 million people but the Middle East’s largest reserves of oil — to shore up stability in a region dominated by autocrats and hostile to another ally, Israel. The Saudis used their role as the dominant power in OPEC to help rein in Iraq and Iran..." The sentence implies that Saudi Arabia is NOT run by autocrats.

US-Saudi relations

Look at this article by Robert Worth: he cites three experts on Saudi Arabia, and not one of them is known as a critic of Saudi Arabia (and ambassador Murphy has been doing business with the Saudi government and Rafiq Hariri (his wife was employed as well) for long years.

The loya jirga also recommended this: but the US only wants one recommendation to be implemented

"The other recommendations, from various committees, ran the gamut from allowing Afghan observers to attend American military trials to banning Christian religious observances on American military bases".  And these are the appointees of puppet Karzai.

Elections in Nepal: look at the headline of the Times: "Election Results in Nepal Signal a Political Right Turn"

So the Times speaks of a political right turn. But let us look closely at the results:
The Nepali Congress won 105 of the 240 directly elected seats
The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) came in second with 91 seats
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the dominant Communist party, secured 26 seats in the direct election.  Political right turn?

Look at the arrogance of the White Man: they are implying that Libyans were more mad at attacks on American than for attacks on Libyans

"Other Benghazi residents, caught in the crossfire, grew increasingly resentful of the Islamist militias’ dominance of their city — especially after the attack on the American Mission."  Why especially? 

Israel and the status quo: this guy is the least cowardly among writers for the Times--not that I approve of what he writes always or often

"Israel is the status-quo Middle Eastern power par excellence because the status quo cements its nuclear-armed domination. Any change is suspect, including popular Arab uprisings against despotism."

assassins for hire by US and Israel

"They've been subject to several pieces suggesting they work as assassins for the United States and Israel."

How to undermine the credibility of Muslims

"The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as "exemplars" of how "personal vulnerabilities" can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target's credibility, reputation and authority." (thanks Amir)

The Tony Blair Doctrine

"But Mr Mbeki noted: “There is a retired chief of the British armed forces and (he) said that he had to withstand pressure from the then prime minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, who was saying to the chief of the British armed forces, ‘you must work out a military plan so we that can physically remove Robert Mugabe’.”
Mr Mbeki disclosed that South Africa, a neighbour of Zimbabwe, had been asked to help. “We had come under the same pressure and that we need to cooperate in some scheme - it was a regime change scheme - even to the point of using military force, and we said ‘no’,” said Mr Mbeki in the interview with al-Jazeera.
He explained that the idea was rejected on principle because Britain should not be in tbe business of deciding who leads African countries. " (thanks Nu`man)

"Iran in final stages of nuclear weapon" (Maariv, April 25, 1984)

(thanks Fadi)

Double Down by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

Just finished reading Double Down on the 2012 election.  I recommend this full account only to see the extent to which big money really run and manage the candidates of both parties. And it is a good read too.

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, again: the Lebanese Left

I have written about this foundation before and about its goal of bringing "understanding" between Arabs and the Zionist entity.  And I wrote that it sponsored the release of a book by Husayn Ya`qub, titled Yasar Lubnan (The Left of Lebanon).  I was thrilled at first thinking that finally there is a book about the Lebanese Left. I have finished reading it and I have a long critique of it next Saturday in Al-Akhbar: but I will just say that it is a right-wing reactionary account of the Lebanese Left written by one of the members of the Movement of Democratic Left (which is a small shop--now defunct--formed and funded by the Hairri family.  I now know why the normalizers of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation sponsored the publication of this book.  Even the Western Left--or particularly the Western left--is suspect.  You may see the name of a foundation using the name of Karl Marx and may be merely a front for Zionist likudniks.  

The US versus the world on Palestine

From Ali: "The UN has named 2014 as the ‘Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The resolution was adopted by the majority of member-states with 110 voting in favor, 7 opposed and 54 abstaining. Who are these 7 states?

- Israel, US, Australia, Canada, Palau, Marshal Islands and Micronesia...

You remember western media outlets have been repeating the same rhetoric: "China and Russia are isolated in international arena because of their stance in Syria" So I decide to check if western media outlets say the same for Israel and United States... But there is not a single about the isolation, as you guess. May be they think, Micronesia, Marshal Islands and Palau are the leading countries in international arena.

By the way,they also forget to mention "US is a long term ally of Israel". You know, they like to link the Russian stance with Tartous base..."

Can you imagine the world reaction if Palestinians were to shoot and kill at Israelis that they suspect of "being militants"?

"Israeli security forces shot and killed three people suspected of being militants in a West Bank raid".

Surprise? American Task Force on Dahlan Palestine is funded by racist Zionists.

"Despite its claims to be “committed to strengthening Palestinian-American relations” as “an independent voice for Palestine,” the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) has begun accepting funding from one of the most aggressive funders of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic initiatives in the United States. A recently released 2011 Internal Revenue Service Form 990 information return revealed that ATFP has accepted at least $10,000 from the Klarman Family Foundation.

The foundation’s principal, Seth Klarman, is one of the pro-Israel community’s most prolific financial angels and also one of its most ideologically hardline.

The donation from Klarman highlights the trajectory of an organization originally founded to advance the position of Palestinian statehood advocates in Washington, DC, but which has increasingly diverged from the Palestinian consensus. It also exposes an emerging strategy of pro-Israel donors like Klarman who are propping up an array of Muslim and Arab-American groups to drive a wedge into grassroots Palestine solidarity organizing.

Reached by phone, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish declared that he had never heard of Klarman or the Klarman Family Foundation.

Despite ATFP claims to have never accepted donations from foreign governments, the group accepted $148,800 from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in 2011. Ibish refused to discuss the issue of UAE funding on the record." (thanks Electronic Ali)

It is official: Bashshar Al-Asad is running for re-election

Bashsar Al-Asad's closest friend, Lebanese politician Sulayman Franjiyyah, has just revealed on LBC TV that Bashshar Al-Asad is running for re-election for office and that he will win.  (I wonder why he should bother to run if he has guaranteed victory?)

Notice how furious the New York Times is with Hamid Karzai (which it had promoted for years)

"Mr. Karzai seemed particularly angered by a night raid that killed twin brothers in Nangarhar Province last week and provoked protests by villagers. The Americans said it was a joint, Afghan-led raid that killed two armed insurgents after they opened fire, but they conceded that a coalition adviser was among those who killed the two men. Afghan officials said that it was a unilateral, American Special Forces raid; that the only Afghans present were American employees or mercenaries, not regular Afghan forces; and that the victims were innocent villagers.

“On the very day that the jirga was opened, the Americans raided a house in Bati Kot and killed our compatriots,” Mr. Karzai said on Sunday. (Actually the raid took place on Tuesday night, while the jirga convened on Thursday.) “Does this mean that even after we sign this agreement the Americans will keep on killing our people?”"

Look how Israeli academics and experts casually make military threats against other countries; can you imagine the uproar if an Arab academic were to make threats against the Israeli Zionist entity?

"“At a time when appeasing Iran seems to be in vogue, an Israeli strike could invigorate elements in the international arena who are unwilling to accept an Iran with a nuclear breakout capability,” he wrote. “In addition, many people around the world would be reminded that muscular reactions to evil regimes are often truly necessary.” "

Who cares? I bet they counted Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan among them (and maybe even Mali)

China rising

Prince Al-Walid reveals

From Khelil:  "Mr. Alwaleed notes that Saudi diplomacy also carries a fat checkbook in Jordan, Palestine and Yemen, which are in his words "under our hegemony."
"If you look at a map of the Arab world now, Saudi Arabia is very much the leader," says the prince. "America cannot afford to have the leader of the Arab world not be on the same wave length as the United States."

Syrian women in Za`tari refugee camp

From an eyewitness:  "In Zaatari where we were..., men rarely came to pick up the food parcels although they are heavy. My biggest surprise in Zaatari was how the women were empowered, doing everything while men are depressed sitting in the tents smoking and sipping tea. "

Nicholas Blanford's school of journalism: when a group divulges its secrets to its enemies

"Please let us know! Sounds a bit like the Hezbollah “sources” who say the worst things about the party… yet this lady is named…?
On November 24, the independent Al-Masry al-Yawm newspaper carried the following interview with newly-appointed Hamas spokeswoman Isra al-Modallal:
“…Q: “How do you perceive your experience as the first spokeswoman for Hamas ?" (thanks Nicholas) 

France's intentions

"France's defence minister has said that Paris would deploy about 1,000 soldiers to Central African Republic and proposed a UN Security Council resolution authorising international troops to use force to end mounting chaos. The mineral-rich but impoverished country of 4.6 million people has descended into chaos since Seleka rebels, many of them from neighbouring Chad and Sudan, ousted President Francois Bozize in March." (thanks Amir)

For the first time

"" "For the first time, the NYPD will have to produce key records about its Muslim surveillance program, and answer questions about its biased policies and practices."""

The first mention ever of the word Orientalist

According to A.J. Arberry (one of my favorite Orientalists, and as you know that there is a number of Orientalists that I favor and learn from, notwithstanding disagreements):  "The original connotation of the term orientalist was, in 1863, "a member of the Eastern or Greek Church": in 1691 Anthony Wood described Samuel Clark as "an eminent Orientalian," meaning that he knew some oriental languages.  Byron in his notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage speaks of "Mr. Thornoton's frequent hints of profound Orientalism". During the educational controversy in India which was settled by Macaulay's celebrated Minute of 1834, the Orientalists were those who advocated Indian learning and literature..."  From British Orientalists.

My response to the British ambassador in Lebanon

My latest blog post for Al-Akhbar English is my response to the letter by the British ambassador in Lebanon.

Iranian plots against American, Saudi, and Israeli interests

Whatever happened to that plot that Israel claimed: about an Iranian living in the West who was recruited by Quds Force to seek to bomb the American embassy in Israel (I guess because American embassies in Malaysia or Turkmenistan are more difficult targets)?  And whatever happened to the plot by the Texas car salesman who was recruited by the Quds Force to recruit a drug dealer to target the Saudi ambassador at a Chinese restaurant in Washington, DC?  Do you want to bet that both Saudi Arabia and Israel will this week or next discover and uncover nefarious plots by the Quds Force in those countries (one of which is occupied)?  I won't be surprised if Saudi and Israeli intelligence uncover a plot this week according to which Iranian intelligence sought to occupy the US.   Western media did not cover and did not mock a claim made by Netanyahu in the last few weeks according to which Iran was seeking to send missiles into the US territory.  

Western cruelty: Iran sanctions

Did you read the full text of the agreement with Iran? One of the "concessions" that Western governments made was in the permission to allow Iran to import parts for the civilian airliners.  There were plane crashes in Iran that have been attributed to the lack of spare parts.  This is the tenderness of Western values.