"Jewish students at Brandeis protest Oren visit"

"But the days in which Jewish students on an American campus would have been thrilled to have the Israeli ambassador honored by their school are apparently long since gone. Brandeis’s student newspaper, The Justice (how’s that for irony?), deplored the choice, writing that “Mr. Oren is a divisive and inappropriate choice for keynote speaker at commencement, and we disapprove of the university’s decision to grant someone of his polarity on this campus that honor.”"

blame Lebanon for these diseases

The Lebanese disease of silliness and empty claims and dubious honors is spreading around the Arab world. (thanks Yassine)

Go take photos of the memorial at the center of town

"However, not all of Kfar Kassem's residents viewed the initiative favorably. Ahmad Issa said he did not like the idea of placing a tank at the entrance to the town, and mentioned the 1956 massacre of the town's residents. "Go take photos of the memorial at the center of town in honor of those who were murdered," he said." (thanks Sarah)

Aphorisms of Abraham Foxman

"“People are angry,” he said. “Americans do not want peace shoved down the throats of the Israelis.”" (thanks Robert)

Desperate for war

I mean, you read the Israeli press and they have blatant calls for war. And written rather casually. If a similar article appeared in an Iranian newspaper, the Security Council would have held an emergency session. (thanks Mahdi)

Veil obsession

"'As hijabi-wearing women, we understand the significance the hijab has on our identity, lifestyle and how we are perceived. What bewilders us, however, is why a piece of cloth has become the centre of a cultural war in societies with a small number of veiled Muslim women.'" (thanks Ryan)

Stop giving us money

"In the midst of two long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials are increasingly worried that the government's generosity is unsustainable and that it will leave them with less money to buy weapons and take care of equipment." (thanks Dina)

The Economist

The Economist is hiring a new correspondent based in Africa. The job requirements are, among others, the ability to use the word "reckon" in every other sentence.

twins

"As he tells the Gospel story, Mary did not have one son but twins—a gifted but pious and humble one called Jesus and his more calculating and sophisticated brother, Christ. Observing his modest sibling, Christ concludes that the story needs to evolve in certain ways if the wandering faith-healer’s work is to become the basis of a world religion. In the end Christ colludes with his brother’s death and helps, directly and indirectly, to construct a new narrative about his resurrection. When the disciples meet their risen master, it is really Christ they are encountering, not his twin, Jesus."

It took only 5000 people to overthrow a government. Do you hear that o Arab peoples?

"This was the second time that as few as 5,000 demonstrators succeeded in overthrowing an unwanted government in Kyrgyzstan..."

The loss of a sophisticated man

"He spoke no foreign languages and had travelled little. His worldview was fixed: America, good, Russia and Germany, bad. Fellow-victims of communist imperialism, such as Lithuania, Ukraine and Georgia, needed help against the ex-KGB regime in Russia. Poland should always support Israel."

It is not about religion, stupid

"“The imams, the Ottomans, the British, the Egyptians and the Soviet backers [of the erstwhile communist state that existed in the south until 1990] had all had to recognise that what Yemeni tribesmen cared about most was money and land, not peace or religion or any ideology.”"

Not fair: King PlayStation and mini-Hariri

"Even such leaders as the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, and Jordan’s foreign-educated King Abdullah struggle with its complicated grammar." Not a fair analogy. I detest King PlayStation but his Arabic has become quite passable, unlike that of the much intellectually inferior, mini-Hariri. It is clear that Jordanian King took lessons and took them seriously. He manages rather well. Mini-Hariri? I mean, he is only comparable to the Saudi king. His Arabic tutor, Lebanese scholar, Rudwan As-Sayyid, complained to me that he did not want to spend time learning it when he was assigned to help him read classical texts.

Your Yemeni ally

"Meanwhile he has concentrated ever more power and wealth in the hands of his own extended family and clan."

He is just following orders (II)

"Mr Abbas has had to beat a painful retreat. For the past six weeks he had insisted that all Jewish settlement-building in East Jerusalem should stop as a condition for the talks to resume. Now he has stopped saying that outright."

He is just following orders

"In the meantime, various Western governments have told Mr Abbas that he will continue to get their cash only if he continues to ostracise Hamas."

The Kitirmaya Festival

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "The Kitirmaya Festival: Illumination, Light, and "Lynching"

How nice

"The head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt said on Thursday he took his son Taymour with him to Riyadh to introduce him to King Abdullah given the historic friendship ties that link the Druze family with the Kingdom."

cliches, cliches

I wish they would stop with those cliches that Middle East people did not know that they can think for themselves until American opened school in the region and told them that they can think freely. What is that about? Many of the freest thinkers in the Middle East have never studies in Western schools. "“For a lot of the kids here, the idea that you are supposed to have your own ideas is a novelty,” said Lisa Anderson, the university provost who is on leave from Columbia University. “There was nothing in their previous education that would have exposed them to these standards.”" (thanks N.)

Supreme repression in Iran

"At least 35 journalists were behind bars in Iran as of May 1 with another 18 detainees free on short-term furloughs, according to CPJ’s monthly census of imprisoned Iranian journalists. The figures, unchanged from CPJ’s April census, reflect a government still intent on silencing free expression." (thanks Muhammad)

Your friend in Tunisia

"Under President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who has held office since 1987 and was just reelected in 2009 for a fifth term, even the most minor dissent is treated as a serious threat. Independent journalists, human rights organizations, union organizers -- anyone who raises concerns about the government's actions -- find their actions tracked and their outspokenness punished." (thanks Olivia)

This is Zionsim

"Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, seized power in Gaza in 2007, Israel has limited the amount of industrial fuel allowed into the coastal strip, forcing the territory's lone power station to slash output.But fuel deliveries dropped well below the permitted 2.2 million litres (quarts) a week, causing longer and more frequent power outages, after the European Commission suspended financing and transferred responsibility for buying the fuel to the Palestinian Authority in November." (thanks Sarah)

full identities not known

"The expanded authority, approved two years ago by the Bush administration and continued by President Obama, permits the agency to rely on what officials describe as "pattern of life" analysis, using evidence collected by surveillance cameras on the unmanned aircraft and from other sources about individuals and locations. The information then is used to target suspected militants, even when their full identities are not known, the officials said. Previously, the CIA was restricted in most cases to killing only individuals whose names were on an approved list." (thanks Dina)

Israel in Yemen

I can confirm to you readers that Israel did supply the pro-Saudi side in the Yemeni war in the 1960s with arms.

The one exception

""Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military. . . . There is one exception to the existing law: Americans are allowed to serve in the Israel Defense Forces without losing their citizenship." (thanks Khelil)

Dayr Yasin: don't forgive, don't forget

"Deir Yassin was a quiet village, that had a pact with us that had been approved by Yitzhak Navon, then Head of the Arab section of the Haganah Jerusalem Intelligence Service and later President of Israel. The people of Deir Yassin had kept to the pact. The Mukhtar’s son had even been killed fighting off an attempt to bring in foreign Arab troops. The Haganah had planned, when the British left, to take over Deir Yassin peacefully as we did in Abu Ghosh, and to build an airstrip between Deir Yassin and Givat Shaul. The place was of no strategic value. There was one field track that led into it from Givat Shaul and that was a dead end. I never heard about any shooting at our side coming from Deir Yassin or from foreign Arab soldiers in Deir Yassin in 1948, and there was none that I know of on the night before the attack. I know that Raanan, commander of the Irgun, later said it had strategic value and controlled roads and logistic axes and so on, but that is all nonsense. Deir Yassin did not maintain any observation or fire control over the main road to Jerusalem, or any other route to Motza or Qastel. They didn’t shoot at anything, certainly not at the road, because it was impossible to shoot at the road from Deir Yassin. Deir Yassin is high above sea level, but it, and Givat Shaul, are separated from the main road to Jerusalem by a big ridge where the Givat Shaul cemetery is located now, and you cannot see anything of strategic value from Deir Yassin. Everyone knows where the cemetery is, so it is ridiculous to claim they could fire on the road from Deir Yassin." (thanks Laleh)

Israel: they even kidnap goats

"Israeli moves to arrest Lebanese shepherds have now taken a new turn after army units crossed the Israeli pullout line in the south and "kidnapped" 185 goats in the area of al-Shahel on the outskirts of the town of Shebaa. A Lebanese army communiqué said Wednesday the Israeli soldiers took the goats to the occupied Palestinian territories." (thanks Matthew)

Clowns

""Ivan Prado, the most famous clown in Spain, did not expect to be put on a return flight back to Madrid soon after arriving at Ben-Gurion International Airport late last month, after spending six hours with officials from the Shin Bet security service and the Interior Ministry. The officials accused Prado of having ties to Palestinian terror organizations."" (thanks Tarek)

1946

"Twenty-four-year-old Zaki Hashem, for the last three years a legal advisor to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the League of Arab States, spoke up sharply yesterday in defense of Arab rights in Palestine. "The solution to the Jewish refugee problem," he said, "lies in eliminating the Fascist remnants which are driving the Jews out of Europe but not in a mass, immigration to Palestine.

"Packing a country with immigrants when a majority of that country are opposed to it is clearly contrary to the principles of democracy and self-determination. The Arab League is against such mass immigration because it is a political weapon against the Arab people of Palestine."" (thanks Nasir)

Puppet Iraqi justice

"After escaping her ordeal, Zeina found herself being prosecuted, rather than being comforted. As punishment, she's now serving two years in jail. A prison official confirmed her story. Iraqi women's rights activists are outraged. "She refused to accept that her body had been sold. So this is how they reward her?" said Dalal Rubaie with the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, "To put her in jail for two years? Where's the justice?"" (thanks Saja)

Wolfensohn: tool of occupation

"Former World Bank president and Middle East Quartet envoy James D. Wolfensohn is an investor in an Israeli company that is developing transport infrastructure for Jewish-only settlements built in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law, an investigation by The Electronic Intifada reveals." (thanks Electronic Ali)

anthem of Egyptian workers

Egyptians beat any other people in chants and slogans. No doubt about that. (thanks Hossam)

Cheney in Saudi Arabia

"The obvious answer would be: something financially advantageous. Cheney, who oversaw the Saudi staging of Gulf War I, has always maintained good relations with the kingdom and its elites—relations that certainly came in handy after the war, when his oil-services and all-around shady operation, Halliburton, won lots of US and Saudi contracts to help extract the kingdom's petroleum wealth—and buttress its national defenses." (thanks Olivia)

family connections

"Even though al-Mabhouh claims he was never involved in terror activity, Israel reiterated that there are "up-to-date suspicions regarding his own and his family's connections with terrorism."

They did it: they really did.

"Tunnellers in Gaza have already cut through a supposedly bombproof barrier built by Egypt to stop smuggling into the Palestinian territory, the BBC has learned." (thanks Farah)

The massacre of Dayr Yasin

Jerusalem Post calls the massacre of Dayr Yasin "The battle of Deir Yassin". (thanks Olivia)

Saban is welcomed in Qatar

"His greatest concern,” Bruck writes, “is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship.” When Bill Clinton was President and Ehud Barak was Israel’s Prime Minister, Bruck writes, “Saban, who was close to both men, occasionally provided a back channel for communications.” During the Camp David negotiations, Saban told Bruck, “I was involved, but only on the periphery. If Barak could not say some things to Clinton to his face, he would ask me to convey a message, and vice versa.” In early March, shortly before Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel, Saban was part of a group of fifteen prominent Jews invited to the White House. “Most were leaders of Jewish organizations or close Biden supporters—and then there was Saban,” Bruck writes. In the meeting, Saban told Biden that the Administration “may want to consider the fact that their relationship with their Israeli wife is more valuable than their newfound relationship with their Arab mistress.”" (thanks Rania)

British press hearts South African Nazis

Is this a tribute to South African Nazism? (thanks Asa)

dangerous watermelons

"Israel remained silent last month when the so-called “committee against distributing settlement goods” confiscated and destroyed 7.5 tons of watermelons grown in West Bank fields. Israel stays mum when the Arabs work to impose an economic embargo on settlement products, and when the PA imposes the same on Israeli mobile phone companies, which are not centered in the West Bank. It is indeed remarkable that the cellular boycott has been put in place exactly when the son of a high-ranking PA official is launching a company that will distribute the same services."" (thanks Sarah)

Tell that to An-Nahar so they can brag

""Dominique de Villepin évoque le rôle d'un intermédiaire, Ziad Takieddine, dont le nom est apparu lors de l'instruction. Selon lui, "Takieddine a toujours ses entrées à l'Elysée. A leur arrivée, ou plutôt leur retour au pouvoir, ils (les sarkozystes) ont voulu le remettre dans le système"."

Lebanese can be proud

""A Lebanese businessman and alleged middleman in a corruption scheme linked to the 1994 sale of French submarines to Pakistan is fighting back with several lawsuits, his lawyer said Wednesday."" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

Egyptian workers' struggle

Comrade Hossam on "Workers Struggle for a Higher Minimum Wage" in Egypt

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

"The International Solidarity for Human Rights Foundation (ISHR) issued a report on Monday revealing that Israeli soldiers killed in April eleven Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Six were killed in the West Bank and five in the Gaza Strip."

Israeli censorship

"The Israeli military obstructed an Al-Jazeera crew trying to cover a rally in the village of Bil’in west of Ramallah on Friday, according to news reports and interviews. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns these actions and calls on Israeli authorities to end the harassment of journalists in the West Bank." (thanks Mohamed)

Happy birthday "Father of Corruption"

Egyptians wish Mubarak a happy birthday--in their own way. (thanks Farah)