The Role of AUB according to its president, Peter Dorman

What message did you bring to those in the US capital?
The message is that we can be a source of information for [US] policymakers."

PS All those who write about Orientalism in the future will be citing this classic interview.  And Dorman, by the way, is a liberal Democrat.

Anti-Alawite war in Tripoli

There is a war on `Alawite presence in Tripoli.  The stupid US government issues statements of condemnation implying that `Alawites (a mere 5% of the Tripoli population) are the ones instigating the conflict (presumably at the behest of the Syrian regime) when in the last year, it was the pro-Qatari and pro-Saudi (or better yet, "pro-Western" according to the new terminology of the Western press) Salafites and fanatics in Bab At-Tibbanah (some of whom are also followers of Najib Miqati) who have been provoking `Alawites.  Yesterday, the fanatics of Bab At-Tabbanah led a campaign of burning and bombings against `Alawite-owned businesses in Tripoli.  One store owner whose store was fire bombed before his eyes, appeared on New TV to plead: I am Sunni and not `Alawite, he kept asserting, and he showed his ID card to the camera.

look how the balance articles out on Syria in the Western press

"Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, has been accused of fighting in Syria on behalf of the Assad government; some of the Sunni commanders here in Tripoli boast that several hundred of their own men have gone there to fight Mr. Assad’s forces."   So one side is being "accused"--we don't know by whom or we don't know on what evidence--of participating on the fighting in Syria although no evidence of its participation has been presented, while the other side "boast" of its participation and yet, there is no corrective to the story that Iranian, Iraqi, and Hizbullah fighters are storming into Syria to defend the regime as was stated early on in the Western press.  So the story of foreign fighters in Syria was true all along, but not on the regime side.  Ironic, no?

Khalid Mish`al: The Walid Jumblat of Palestine

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar:  "Khalid Mish`al: The Walid Jumblat of Palestine."

Doctors without Borders

Comrade Laure sent me this:
"Asad, your post a couple of days ago about Doctors Without Borders is not accurate. Out of all humanitarian agencies, this agency is more impartial than any I could think of beside ICRC and I truly respect them. My sister works for them. They did in fact set up medical operations in both Lebanon and Gaza. They were the first to reach Tebnin and Rmeish in 2006. In Gaza, they have a longer intervention. See this, this, and this. They have treated both fighters and civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. And I know they have good relations with Hezbollah. If you inquire about the salaries of staff with MSF and compare to the UN for example, you know what humanitarian means. These people get barely paid. This is a real test for humanitarian work if you ask me."

I stand corrected.  

This will be a regular feature: the adventures of Damien Cave of Rolling Stone in the Middle East

This guy has been in Lebanon for days and now is writing the history of the civil war:  "These two poor, adjacent neighborhoods have been defined by volleys of gunfire since at least the 1980s, when Syria occupied Lebanon and Sunnis resisted."  Well, the wars of Tripoli were not sectarian at first, and involved communists versus Islamists at various points. But the notion that Syria "occupied Lebanon and Sunnis resisted" is laughable. In fact, if Syria entered Lebanon in 1976 at the invitation of Lebanese fascist leaders, it entered Lebanon in 1987 at the invitation of Beirut Sunni leaders who wanted to rid themselves of Shi`ite and Druze militias.  As for Sunni resistance to Syrian domination, it can really be marked at 2005: "Sunnis" resisted Syrian "occupation" AFTER Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon.   For the record.

Supreme Guide

Did you see the remarks of the Iranian Supreme (not at all) Guide? He sounded like Republicans when he spoke about the private sector. 

Jordan

All that has been happening in Jordan and the government attempt to muzzle the press further, and the use of electoral law to design the outcome to the liking of the Hashemites and their Israeli masters, don't warrant any article in the Western press.  Amazing.

George Galloway

Some people in the pro-Palestinian community are so desperate for an articulate and defiant Western member, that they all welcomes George Galloway to the ranks.  I have warned for years that this man does not belong to the pro-Palestinian camp.  We don't need people like him.  His recent remarks about rape are not surprising to me. 

The Guardian scandal

"The Guardian is offering a bizarre new defense for its decision to hire Joshua Treviño, an extremist Islamophobic ideologue who openly, repeatedly and gleefully incited murder and celebrated the deaths of unarmed civilian Palestine solidarity activists.  Because Treviño’s brand of extremism, hatred and incitement is “ascendant,” an editor claimed, the Guardian is somehow obligated to give it a platform."  Electronic Ali ads in a message:  "It is more than a week, and the Guardian refuses to issue a correction to Joshua Trevino's lies -- which they published -- that he never "applauded, encouraged, or welcomed the death of fellow human beings." Why are the Guardian silent? Why won't they address his readers. Of course if Trevino or anyone else, had his history of hate speech against Jews, or practically anyone else except Arabs and Muslims, they could not dream of a job at the Guardian."

Syria update

From Akram, the Angry Arab's correspondent in Syria:
"In the past two weeks, I read a lot of reports, most of which are based on accounts of "activists", about flagrant abuses of the civilians rights that the Syrian regime is committing in the context of its conflict against the armed rebels in Aleppo Province. I'm usually reluctant to publish posts that are based on opposition reports. Such reports are, obviously, biased so one must read them carefully. Moreover, in most cases, they aren't supported by credible evidences or third-party sources, and are full of exaggerations and false additions (video footage, photo shots, ...). Actually, I had a bad experience with this issues, when I sent a post referring to photos of Azaz massacre before realizing that some of the most tragic ones belonged to other incidents.

But most of the reports about Aleppo, that I haven't mentioned before, are confirmed. In its latest report about the situation in Syria, Amnesty International documented some of the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime in Aleppo. The violations can be summarized as follows:

• Discriminated bombardment of "densely populated urban areas" using low precision weapons (artillery, mortars, tanks, unguided bombs and rockets launched by war planes). Human Rights Watch had, previously, documented this phenomenon in two reports on Azaz and on an Aleppo hospital.

• Air strikes against bakeries where people were gathering for bread.

• Extrajudicial executions committed by both regime and rebels against civilian and combatant detainees.

I can, now, guide people who read Arabic to some of the reports about atrocities committed against civilians (here, here, here and here)

But civilian victims in other parts of Syria aren't as "lucky" as their fellows of Aleppo. Journalists and human rights bodies aren't able to access Damascus, Dara'a and Deir-Ezzor, where fierce battles take place, accompanied by reports "that can't be verified by third-parties" about grave crimes perpetuated by the Syrian regime. For all those in Syria who are dying like animals without being buried in graves that hold their names and without their relatives have the right to mourn for them, I find myself obliged, with a fully clear conscience, to break, for only one time, the rule which I have committed my self to follow, by referring to some of yesterday and today "unverifiable" reports: Kfar-Sousseh, Nahr-Eishah, (Damascus), Moua'adamyieh, Darayia (Rural Damascus) and Al-Heraq (Dara'a)."

Akram is angry today

From Angry Arab's correspondent in Syria: 
"Faisal Al-Miqdad, is the Syrian foreign affair deputy minister. Does any one remember him? But the man, finally, woke up in order to say something important then, quickly, went back to bed (Arabic):

I believe Al-Ibrahimi will work to hold a national dialog ASAP because no one, in Syria, of those whose the west is betting on, will reveal winner. It's Syria, with its people, leader and government, and all those who deal, wisely, with this tough subject who are going to win.

Well Mr. Miqdad, since your leader is going to win, your "national dialog" is bullshit. Thus, my recommendation to your failing regime is to send this old man, Mr. Ibrahimi, home and continue your fighting to the end."

journalist

"The Post said Tice, a former officer in the US Marines, entered Syria from Turkey in May and, after initially traveling with rebel fighters, made his way to the capital Damascus this month to report on the fighting there."

This is classic: according to the US government, non-aligned means that you are aligned with the US

"While the notion of a major long-standing U.S. ally self-identifying as "non-aligned" is odious, it was perhaps more tolerable for Washington during the tenure of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak."

Is he going to blame Iraqis in his defense?

""Now, just weeks after retiring and returning stateside, he's facing charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident after a car crash.""

Do you know that sensational Zionist propaganda used to say that about Nasser and Shuqayri and Arafat and and and

"Yet Israel will not sit idly by in the face of the most virulent genocidal threats since Nazi Germany. The result then was 6 million murdered Jews. There are 6 million living in Israel today.""

Look at this trash media

The author works for the trash newspaper, An-Nahar (a racist, sectarian, and right-wing rag), wrote those words:  "" Lebanese people are expected today to raise the slogan: “Apologies Qatar,” apologies to Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Turkey and other brotherly states".  Nobody is expecting them to raise that slogan except you is eager for gulf and oil "approval". (thanks Sultan)

Israeli unit?

According to an Egyptian source, an Israeli unit was involved in Rafah.

Sami Makarem: II

I forgot to mention that the deceased AUB Arabic professor, Sami Makarem, is the son of Nasib Makarem, who is in my judgment the best Arab calligrapher of the 20th century.  So many of the official letterheads and even inscriptions of flags and logos of Arab states and monarchies were designed by Nasib.  The man's original style has influenced all Arab calligraphers who came after him.  He was on loan for many wealthy Arab rulers and his art work should be displayed in a museum.  His son, Sami, was talented himself and did nice combination of Arab calligraphy with Hallaj poetry. 

Food needs in Syria

I was wondering about the UN estimates of food needs in Syria, and asked a seasoned NGO person in the Middle East on why those needs compare to Lebanon's during the civil war. She wrote me this (I cite with her permission, of course):
"I don't think food needs are inflated in Syria. You cannot compare to Lebanon during the civil war because you have the sanctions there and borders almost closed for commerce though Syria is to some extent self sufficient. There are some similarities such as queuing in front of bakeries. Most commodities are still available but prices are higher. In areas of fighting there are shortages and there is a problem of cooking gas. The real problem is in the rural areas and those who depend on agriculture and livestock. Damages are huge for those people because many fields were not cultivated like wheat for example and hard to find labor and fuel for machinery according to this report. They are talking of 1.5 - 3 million in need of food, those are mainly the poor, the rural people, and the displaced; people who left their homes and live with other families or had to rent or now live in public shelters like schools. Without work and after more than a year and a half most spent all their savings if they had any. And you have heads of families who lost their jobs and who were daily workers, especially construction workers, those no one needs them now, as the era is one of destruction, etc. Its a conservative number actually. I think the needs could be more if you consider poverty levels, the population size and the scale of war. It's hard to survive for many I believe. "

Syrian regime air force

The lousy (and always defeated) Syrian regime air force has been in action non-stop.  This lousy air force never moved a kite when Israeli planes were destroying Lebanon in 2006.  In 1970, Salah Jadid wanted Syrian air force to move in defense of the Palestinian resistance in Jordan, but Hafidh Al-Asad refused to move any plane.  To be sure, Patrick Seale denied that story in his hagiography of Hafidh, but what do we expect from a Hafidh's account of his own role? 

“Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World”: One more thing

I was swimming yesterday and still thinking about this article.  Two points:
1) There is a basic problem of false causality in the article.  Let us say that the authors are right, that in "Muslim countries" (and they defined that so badly to include countries with a small Muslim population) when the two sides of the Islamists and the reformers (you see, according to our authors, there are only two sides in all Muslim countries because Muslims--you see--are incapable of producing more than two political trends and that is due to genetic deficiencies), are in deeper conflict, the population exhibits more anti-American attitudes.  Yet, they failed to make the logical leap from there to the contention that the elite in that country then engages in anti-American agitation.  How did they go from A to B?? We are not told.  And if the elite feels the need to engage in anti-American agitation, it surely means that that they care catering to public opinion, which can only mean that the public is making the elite anti-American, and NOT VICE VERSA.  But the logical abilities of our authors is lacking especially that they are under the impression (they state so in the article) that they have produced a theory of their own.

2) I am intrigued by another "theory" of them in the article.  They contend that Muslims who are far from Jerusalem feel less about the Palestinian issue (yes, the authors are unaware of the feelings on Palestine by non-Islamist Arabs--they really think that Christian Arabs and non-religious Arabs don't give a damn about Palestine.  So this example occurred to me: so according to them, if we put a Palestinian from Jerusalem on plane on its way to Glasgow, let us say, then the Palestinian will care less about Palestine as his/her plane moves away from Jerusalem??  I mean, how dumb could things get with this article?

PS It turns out that one of the authors (the professor at Stanford) has studied the Middle East at UCLA and did her dissertation--I am told--on Egyptian politics.  But how did she study Egyptian politics? By reading French newspaper in Cairo?

Syrian exile opposition claims

So if you read the daily tallies of the dead in Syria, which are produced by the Qatari-funded Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and are re-produced by all Western media without question--as they used to say in Islamic theological language centuries ago--you can only reach this conclusion: that Free Syrian Army gangs and Syrian regime gangs fight and shell and bomb but that only the gunfire of the Syrian regime kills people, while the bombs and bullets of the Free Syrian Army never manage to kill anyone at all.  Can someone solve this riddle?

The University of Chicago Press published a book by the person who vomited those words

"The women of the royal family in particular have sought to provide women in Jordan with public role models that project confidence and assertiveness. Princess Basma, sister of the late King Hussein, has been at the forefront of attempts to change legislation regarding “crimes of honor” (albeit unsuccessfully) and a women’s right to divorce. Internationally, the royal family has also worked to foster Jordan’s reputation as a liberal and forward–looking country. Queen Rania, for example, has appeared on Oprah and even has her own YouTube channel."  Can you imagine that this person who said those words published a book on Arab women by the University of Chicago. 

transliteration of Arabic

The best system of transliteration of Arabic, in my opinion, is the old system of the Library of Congress (used in Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq).  The worst system by far is the Lebanese passport authority.  It renders my sister's name, Mirvat as "Mirvett" and my father's name, Ihsan as "Ihsen".  Kid you not. 

In Western coverage of Syria, the activists are reporters and the Western reporters are activists

Look at this sentence in the report by Rolling Stone graduate, Damien Cave:  "activists reported finding 40 bodies in one suburb".  So the activists now report? And what were the activists doing on the scene? Are those activists active in FSA gangs or are they just roving activists who report for Mr. Damien Cove with is overwhelmed with the assignment?

WINEP, properly identified for once

""So, why have Israel’s leaders escalated their rhetoric in recent weeks to a fever pitch? Because they, and their allies – including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its spinoff, the Washington Institution for Near East Policy (WINEP), and other, likeminded groups and think tanks – believe that even an outlandish set of threats against Iran can accomplish important objectives for Netanyahu"". (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

Prince Hamad bin Jasim arrives

""But the Post reported that the sheikh's deal was called off by al-Thani himself because he felt the building's two elevators were not enough for his two wives, 15 kids and entourage of handlers and armed guards.""

Sami Makarem and the history of the Druzes

Sami Makarem, a professor of Arabic at AUB, died.  I was not a fan of his.  He has a book on the Druze faith but it is not useful.  The story is that a courage Druze, Abdullah Najjar, wrote a book (self-publisehd) in English in the 1960s about the Druzes.  Many in the community considered the book dangerous because it revealed secrets of the doctrine that were not supposed to come out.  A group of unknown men beat the hell of Najjar, and he spent time in the hospital.  Some leaders of the community met and decided to ask Makarem to write a different history of the Druze in which--for political reason--they are situated within the context of Islam. 

Those poor FSA gangs: they have no support except "wealthy Syrian businessmen in exile"

""A member of the BND [Bundesnachrichtendienst, German foreign intelligence agency] told the newspaper that the intelligence service was "proud of the important contribution [it] is making to the overthrow of the Assad regime."""

not confused

"Abukhalil was first alerted to Fallaci's Habash fabrication by me some years back. Unfortunately, however, in recalling the matter, he's confused her 1970 Life magazine profile of Habash, which appears to be an honest piece of reportage, with her later distortion of same in her book-length Islamophobic rant, The Force of Reason (2004)."  Oh, no, I am not confused.  Her profile in Life magazine was NOT an honest piece of reportage, and it was in that profile that she fabricated a quotation by Habash. 

The Rohingya is not one of them

"Ever since a 1982 law stripped them of citizenship rights, Rohingyas have been effectively stateless. Despite spotty media coverage from within Burma, rights groups and Rohingyas themselves have painted a dire portrait. Rohingyas must request permission to marry (it can take up to five years to receive approval), they must sign a commitment to not have more than two children, their livestock is considered state property, they are randomly asked to cough up money or face arrest, and some are forced into labour projects. The southeast Asian nation has 135 officially recognized ethnic groups. The Rohingya is not one of them."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

"Support for the opposition party that won the greatest number of votes in Zimbabwe’s last presidential election, turning it into an international symbol of the Zimbabwean people’s desire to end President Robert Mugabe’s decades of rule, has fallen considerably, according to a new survey published by Freedom House, an international research institution. The survey, which was conducted by researchers from South Africa and Zimbabwe, also found that support for Mr. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, had increased significantly".

Karzai is angry

"President Hamid Karzai held an urgent meeting Wednesday with his national security team and, in a statement issued afterward, blamed “foreign spy agencies” for infiltrating the Afghan security apparatus."  Karzai added that the foreign spy agencies have even brazenly put him on their payroll.  An outrage, really.  (thanks Dina)

British ambassador in Lebanon

"The British Ambassador to Lebanon called for calm following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Thursday in which he discussed recent national developments.  The statement concluded with Fletcher stressing the maintenance of order in Lebanon.  "Lebanon should base itself on the rule of law, not the law of the gun.”"  He made his statement after delivering the last shipment of arms and fighters to the gangs of the Free Syrian  Army.  (thanks Basim)

“Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World”: A Response

My latest blog post in Al-Akhbar English is a critical response to the article “Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World” which was published in the last issue of American Political Science Review (Vol. 106, No. 2, May 2012). 

Bashshar not Iran

Don't know if you heard but Bashshar won't make it to the non-alignment summit in Tehran.  He is too busy clinging desperately to power.  An Iranian official said that Bashshar won't be make it because of the "leadership crisis" in Syria. Kid you not.

Saudi-Qatari conflict

There is a silent and cold but intense war going on in the Arab world now: it is the Saudi-Qatari conflict.  When I asked the Emir of Qatar in 2010 sarcastically: so your conflict with the House of Saud is now resolved?  He laughed and said: not in tens of years, it won't, or words to that effect.  While the two royal families (both obedient servants of US interests in the region) united their ranks after Bahrain and to lead the Arab counter-revolution on behalf of US/Israel, the conflict has not subsided.  The conflict in Arab countries between Ikhwan and Salafites is merely a reflection of the Saudi-Qatari conflict. 

Saudi financing of Salafites in Tunisia

Even An-Nahda is now warning about Saudi funding of Salafites in Tunisia.

"BBC more dishonest than the NYT: an example from Syria"

Comrade Asa, a brave British journalist, sent me this:
"The BBC did a segment reporting on the NYT report and video that showed
FSA fighters forcing an alleged "shabiha" prisoner into acting as a
suicide bomber.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-coalesce-into-a-fighting-force.html

I'm reliably informed this went out on the main BBC TV news report at
10pm yesterday -- a well respected Amnesty International figure was on
live to condemn it.

The clip went up on the BBC site in the usual way, but as of today it
has been sneakily disappeared, with no explanation from their site: "404
- Page Not Found" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19342917

Attached is screenshot evidence the page existed on the BBC site.
Someone else uploaded the video to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76o-ilK2x8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

but that copy has already been removed too "due to a BBC copyright
claim". At the time of writing this email, the report is viewable here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZKrEtEaVnM

If this was really a copyright violation, wouldn't you think it was the
NYT's copyright being violated?"

PS If a title appears in quotations marks (as it does above) it means that I did not phrase the title but that the person who sent me the post or comment did.

Zionism is always racism

"Immigrant children should be separated from others in the school system, the Education Ministry believes, according to the State Prosecution’s appeal to the Supreme Court submitted earlier this week. The state appealed against the Be’er Sheva District Court, which had ordered Eilat two weeks ago to admit the children of African asylum-seekers to city schools."

"Syria's Freedom Fighters"

I see on the cover of World Policy Journal (summer 2012 issue) a story titled:  "Syria's Freedom Fighters".  You read it and it is a story about Syrian refugees in Turkey by somebody I never heard of (it says a writer, presumably American, based in Turkey).  It made me wonder: if Western reporters are really keen about refugees, how come the Palestinians have languished in refugee camps for decades without generating this emotional and effusive coverage in the Western press.  The article is hilarious in that it uses the propaganda language that is essential in writing about Syria these days.  The author says: "When Assad [why not three Ss while you are at it] falls, as he must..." (p. 67).  Can you imagine a Western correspondent ever writing such a sentence about say Israel or even Saudi Arabia?  As in: "when the Saudi king falls, as he must", or "when Israel collapses, as it must", etc.  But wait, while the author is emotional about the pet gangs of the FSA, she is also a fan of the Turkish government. She says this about repression of Kurds in Turkey: "Turkey has long struggled with its Kurdish population" (p. 60-61).  Her treatment of Turkey's role in the "Arab spring" is a good read over drinks or hashshish. Highly recommended. 

"Anamorphosis"

"Meridien, Connecticut
Wuterich, who lives in California, returned home to Meridien, Connecticut, for a golf tournament organized by local veterans for his benefit.
“The tournament was organized by veterans groups including the Polish Legion of American Veterans, the American Legion and Marine Corps League Silver City Detachment.
Bill Zelinsky, commander of the Polish Legion Sons Detachment, said combat veterans he’s spoken with don’t find fault with Wuterich’s actions in Haditha.
“Any of the veterans in this club that I spoke to said they would have handled the situation the same way Frank did,” Zelinsky said. “I have to believe he did the right thing.”
X.
Haditha, Al-Anbar Province, Iraq
The twenty four corpses are at home
in The Martyrs’ Graveyard
"Graffiti
on a wall in one of the deserted homes
of one of the families reads:
“Democracy assassinated the family that was here.”"*"

Arab-American prostrators at the White House

The Barry Obama administration allowed a group of Arab-Americans to enter their premises.  The proud token and obedient Arabs (they are proud for being token and for being obedient) were picked on obedience and on their political cowardice toward Zionism, or for their actual Zionism in the case of the Dahlan-Fayyad TaskForce on Palestine.  They were led by the historically opportunist James Zogby, who posed as leftist in the past before becoming a profitable propagandist for the House of Nahyan in UAE.  I am not sure what the purpose of the meeting was because the three organizations selected (the two mentioned and the right-wing Lebanese taskforce for subservience) don't have a problem with US policies while one of them would like US policies to be more pro-Israel than ever.  What is funny is that the three groups are seen by Arab-Americans as totally irrelevant, and for that they were rewarded by the meeting.  But what would those groups seek?  The Dahlan-Fayyad Taskforce on Palestine is to the right of Democratic Zionists in Washington, DC and its leaders celebrate Israel's "independence" day with representatives of Netanyahu?  The Zogby guy (who I had urged years ago in a telephone call to him to make a fool of himself all he wants but not in the name of Arab-Americans) was the one who told the press in 1993 that Martin Indyk represents the aspirations of the Arab people because he secured a job for Zogby's son.  The Lebanese Taskforce is a right-wing association of wealthy people who receive orders from a dumb son of a dumb Lebanese wealthy guy (`Isam Faris--who was a lackey of the Syrian regime for years when he entered politics while his son in the US was funding George W. Bush campaigns).  But the scene must be hilarious.  I bet the Arab visitors volunteered to shine the shoes of every Zionist in the room.  But hey: Joe Biden stopped by and greeted them, and euphoria was reported in the room.  Just one question to you all: do you think that there is one young Arab-American in the US who look at those folks as his/her representatives?   Those people speak for Arab-Americans as much as Todd Akin speaks for American women. 

Zionism is always racism

"Eilat parents: We don't want Sudanese in our schools".