according to the New York Times: white supremacy equals anti-Zionism

Look at this sinister sentence:  "The white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists who have rallied behind his candidacy..." (thanks Bob)

Israeli university in New York City

A bid by Stanford University was rejected, but a bid by an Israeli university (and Cornell) was accepted by New York City.  A science teacher from Israel with a lab in his garage would have won against Stanford and Harvard and MIT combined.  Such are the standards in New York City.

executions in Iran

I was reading about the rate of executions by the lousy regime in Iran.  Most are executed for drug offenses.  Iran is now second after China in the number of executions per year.  I really wonder does anyone really consider that lousy regime an exemplary model?  

That Republican picture in Kfaranbel

Here is another take.  

Saudi awards

When Saudi media announce awards or events about awards, they usually are awards from House of Saud to House of Saud.  This is like when Al-Majallah magazine would select King Fahd as "man of the year"--year after year.  

No shame?

I thought today about the various tributes that Jihad Khazin wrote for Prince Sultan (father of the son who owns Al-Hayat, where Khazin is a columnist).  Among the many things told, Khazin reported how he sat at the edge of Sultan's hospital bed in Geneva once while listening to him.  Was he not embarrassed to tell that story? Do you lose all sense of shame and respectability once you are employed by Saudi princes?

Erdogan on Algeria

Redouane sent me this comment about Erdogan: "Remember that during the war for liberation, Turkey sided with France and strongly opposed Algerian independence. So perhaps Erdogan should explain that first, before feigning outrage for the way French treated Algerians. Ces hommages de la 25eme heure, on s'en passé volontiers! "

Turkey's war on Kurds and...journalists

""I too am afraid," Temelkuran admitted, eyeing the size of the crowd. "I'm freaking out." Having written repeatedly against what she sees as a crackdown on those who oppose AKP or Erdogan, she keeps a lawyer on stand-by should she be summoned." (thanks Ahmet)

Two critiques of Norman Finkelstein

Here are the two critiques. (thanks Khaled)

tools of occupation

"Israeli war minister Ehud Barak hailed the Palestinian authority security forces for its role in protecting Jewish settlers and preventing any attacks on them in the West Bank."

House of Saud's charm

Some Western reporters are easily impressed with silly gestures from House of Saud and not easily impressed with decency of (most) average Muslims.  Here is one example. (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

If this was a Muslim man, he would have been made infamous

"A Beit Shemesh resident who was seen spitting on a woman was arrested on Saturday, the police stated on Sunday. According to the report, the haredi youth admitted to the act and will be arraigned at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court later on Sunday."  If he were to appear before US Congress, I have no doubt that he would receive a standing ovation.

The new vietnam

"The U.S. and Vietnam launched a series of naval exchanges Friday in the latest sign of warming ties as both nations grapple with ways to contain a more-assertive China." (thanks Daniel)

memories of war in Lebanon

Comrade Maya on memories of war:  "But in South Lebanon, the war continues until today, with Israeli mines still killing and maiming people and separating people from their homes and their lands. In 1990, when the civil war ended, I remember being happy. It was later that I realized that as my life moved into what others told me was “normalcy” the war continued in South Lebanon until 2000. Peace had not come to the whole of Lebanon until the Israeli army withdrew from the occupation zone. And today, the 2006 war continues, as long as Israeli weapons of destruction lie in wait under the ground, concrete and grass. Sometimes they achieve their purpose and destroy. Most of the time they lie there, smirking in the sun as the world says that the war is over."

Inventing Hizbullah sources who speak "candidly" and inciminatingly to Western reporters

Even tu, Mitchell Prothero?  Look at this ridiculous reference in an article that does not add one word to the regular and standard March 14 propaganda (notice that Ashraf Rifi, the key intelligence and propaganda tool of the Hariri family is prominent in this article, visibly and invisibly).   "Hezbollah, for its part, denies involvement in anything sinister. One Hezbollah internal security official interviewed by FP admitted that his teams were hunting Syrian dissidents, but denied kidnapping peaceful demonstrators."  So this "internal security official"--and I don't know what "internal security official" is because Hizbullah does not have that categorization that Mr. Rifi (the source for Prothero's pice is) has in his "internal security forces--decided to talk to Prothero of all people.  Yes, yes, yes: just as I said on the scandal of Nicholas Blanford who first claimed that he sat with one of the accused in the Hariri assassination and who not only confided to Blanford but even produced his identity card for extra effect.  Of course, after Blanford was embarrassed (which was not his first time because he had claimed before that Hizbullah "fighters' talk openly to him about their secrets and smuggling of missiles although he has a reputation of being a Hariri family scribe), he claimed that he did not mean the man in question but signed his name with someone who did and who remained anonymous.  So Porthero is now resorting to the same scam.  I mean, if Hizbullah military men and propagandists want to confide, they have several Lebanese journalists who they can confide in. But Blanford, and now Prothero, want us to believe that they prefer to do it with Western journalists.  And this "revelation" that Prothero stumbled upon really has internal Lebanese political repercussions and yet he wants to believe that this source just admitted it to him.  Let me guess, Mr. Prothero: the name of your "Hizbullah's "internal security official"" is Ashraf Rifi.  Am I right?  (thanks As`ad--not me)

That Tele-Islamist demagogue: Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

The Qatari ruling dynasty ordered Qaradawi to move his Friday sermons to the newly opened Muhammad Ibn `Abdul--Wahab mosque.  It is a far more suitable a place for the oil/gas cleric to practice his sectarian fanaticism.  Qaradawi strictly adheres to the foreign policy formulation of his oil/gas benefactors.  He even suddenly found that the GCC decision to integrate politically to be Islamicly obligatory.  He also said that he supports the Turkish's government stance on Armenian genocide: what is he saying here exactly? Is he calling the Turkish government to kill more Armenians?  He is now officially denying the genocide of Armenians, and this should be added to the long list of grievances against this opportunist cleric. (thanks R.)

Arab intellectuals

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar:  "The Intellectual and Political Power".

Debate on Syria

From my own personal experience, I can report to you that tempers are really flaring today and yesterday about Syria: by opponents and supporters of the regime.  Both sides are very angry: at one another and at anybody who does not see their point of view.  But do I care? Of course, not.  It frees one to not have any political aspirations.  It frees one to know that you never ever will ask anyone for their vote.  

Weekly Standard's propaganda

"Overjoyed by the images of apparent pro-Bush nostalgia emanating from the Syrian resistance, the neocon Weekly Standard excitedly linked to Abrams' post and displayed the photo in a post entitled, "Missing Bush." I happen to have a friend with a real name -- Eman Morsi -- who has no connection to Syria, but who does possess a fluent command of the Arabic language. Morsi translated for me a number of signs from Kafranbel, the town in northern Syria which produced the banner in question, and several articles about the town. What Abrams and her well-connected friend were unable to ascertain, but what any person with advanced knowledge of Arabic could easily learn through a basic Google search, is that Kafranbel has become renowned throughout the region for its sarcastic protest signs and dark sense of humor. And the town's residents are no fans of Bush."

Syrian regime propaganda

One of the worst element in Syrian regime propaganda is a racist notion that basically rejects the legitimacy of all Arab uprisings and portray them as part of a Western conspiracy.  I mean, it is very convenient for the lousy Syrian regime to promote this view, but I have read and heard progressives in Lebanon promote this view. That requires an article in Arabic.

Saudi Arabia has a strict policy

"Evidently, Riyadh has avoided interfering in other countries' internal affairs, used its resources for the well being of its citizens, and constructively contributed to regional stability. In offering financial aid to other countries, Riyadh is, by and large, driven by humanitarian rather than political considerations.  Never had Riyadh exploited the poverty of other countries to find satellite states."  This is the trash of Arab media.  (thanks Sultan)

Condescension

There is a clear and unmistakable patronizing, condescending, racist, and fake tone to all the statements of sympathy expressed by writers and politicians of March 14 in Lebanon.  Something is very disturbing from those individuals who are professional racists and haters.  There are writers that I have known to be bigoted against the Syrian people who are now just suddenly in love with the Syrian people.  Only a fool would be fooled by them.  It is as fake as American sudden love for the Syrian people.

Thierry Meyssan and the Syrian regime

Syrian propaganda outlets have discovered Thierry Meyssan (a French journalist who has discredited himself completely with his wild and unfounded conspiracy theories that include the belief that no plane hit the Pentagon on Sep. 11 (Le Monde effectively discredited his thesis).  Syrian propaganda also relies no statements and analysis from Lebanese professors and writers that I have never heard of in my entire life.

Free Syrian Army

People have not noticed? Free Syrian Army used to claim responsibility for various bombings around Syria against government offices and buildings but it suddenly stopped claiming responsibility for bombings after its command met with Mr. Burhan Ghalyun.  It is possible that Gene Sharp objected too, since from I read in the New York Times he inspired the Arab uprisings.

car bombs travel

So car bombs started in Syria.  One thing is for sure: car bombs will travel beyond Syria.  

Look who is among the Arab monitors in Syria

Apparently, he is also among the Arab League monitors in Syria.

Racism of Israeli leftists

This guy is supposed to be an Israeli leftist:  "Years of rioting against Palestinians, uprooting of trees, vandalism, arson, destruction, dispossession, theft, rocks and axes didn't cause a ripple, but one rock to the head of a deputy brigade commander made all the difference."  Notice that his list left out the massacring of Palestinians.  Typical.

Bashshar and tribal elders

How I detest that scene: when Arab "republican" leaders cuddle tribal elders when they are in trouble.  As was known, Arab republican regimes came to power to undermine the old social order which gave (under colonialism) tremendous powers to the tribal elders.  At first, Iraqi and Syrian Ba`thists undermined the power of tribal elders, but when they feel threatened (Saddam started this after 1991) they pamper the tribal elders and seek their support.  Bashshar has been cultivating tribal elders for a while now.  He met with some of those reactionary elements yesterday.  How I detest those tribal elders in every Arab country: for me, they symbolize collaboration with colonialism, misogyny, archaic social values, and unprincipledness.  

The Arab League monitors

Of course, nothing that the Arab League does can or should be taken seriously.  And nothing that it does it does on its own without outside orders from DC.  But the mother of all jokes is that the head of the monitoring team is a military general who is a protege of the Sudanese dictator.   Yes, he should be the judge about human rights violations by the Syrian regime.  This is like sending a Bahraini security force to evaluate the plight of minorities in Saudi Arabia.

"celebrated womanizer"?

"In dissident circles and beyond, Mr. Havel was a celebrated womanizer."  Celebrated?  How?  Why?   If this was a foe of the US, the New York Times would have said: that he was a sleazy creep who made women feel uncomfortable.

Fair assessment

"U.S. Report Faults Two Sides in Deadly Pakistan Strike".  Yes, the US faulted the US for killing the Pakistani soldiers and then faulted the Pakistani soldiers for allowing themselves to be killed. That is a fair assessment. 

The US government and the Damascus car bombs

I read a hilarious dispatch from AFP about Washington's reactions to the Damascus car bombs.  The US government has said that the two car bombs should not in any way impede the work of the Arab monitors.  The US government almost said that we should treat the two car bombs as if they never happened.  The US government basically said that life should go on after two car bombs in the Syrian capital.  If someone said to the US to move on after experiencing terrorist bombings, the person would be relocated to Guantanamo on the spot.

I have always warned Arabs against trusting the Turkish government on Palestine

"Israel, Turkey reactivate air force ties". (thanks A)

Eagleton on Hitchens

"Like a querulous infant, he wants everything and he wants enormous helpings of it. His desire to belabor the social establishment is rivaled only by his gratification at belonging to it. This card-carrying atheist’s fantasy of paradise is to be fêted by the rich and powerful at the sleekest of Washington dinner parties for having machine-gunned a marauding gang of terrorists outside the U.S. embassy in Sana’a while remaining a Marxist. No club must be closed to this man-about-town. One is reminded of the aristocratic woman in Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies who has heard rumors of an Independent Labour Party and is furious that she has not been invited. Hitchens, in the tradition of Yogi Berra, thinks you can “follow” a fork in the road, a feat beyond even the most vacillating of politicians. He continues to imagine in postmodern fashion that all certainties are dogmatic, as he did in his recent autobiography, Hitch-22, while being as full of them as the rest of us.

In one sense of the word, Hitchens is not really an intellectual at all. He is uneasy with abstract ideas, scraped an Oxford bachelor’s degree by the skin of his teeth, and grows stridently simplistic whenever he strays into the realms of science, philosophy, or theology. He prefers concepts charged with the raw stuff of everyday life, or which flesh themselves out in literary fiction. Part sage, part showman, a jack-of-all-trades who can glide with aplomb from the state of the novel to the state of the economy, his true ancestor is the Victorian man of letters, equally perceptive about theories of evolution and Thackeray. So Hitchens is as well versed in the fiction of J. G. Ballard as he is in the politics of Pakistan. As with his Victorian predecessors, his engagement with literature is more versatile and less technical than that of the specialized literary critic. " (thanks Ahmet)

Salafites for Israel

Here is the full transcript of the Salafite Egyptian kook spokesperson with Israeli radio. (thanks Abbas)

Imitation ads by Lebanese companies

Shant sent me this:  "I came across this while browsing through pages .....

pages 24-26:   It shows ads by mainly Lebanese companies which are imitations. To be proud of the originality (not) really! 

Saudi Arabia: pro-Israel and anti-Semitic

"Despite promises to clean up violent and xenophobic content from textbooks, recent editions in Saudi Arabia continue teach school children barbaric practices, Fox News reported.  The news network, which was able to obtain translated copies of the recently-printed books from the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, DC, said that the books teaches ninth graders that the annihilation of Jews is imperative."  Of course, the Zionist usurping entity of Israel never cares about anti-Semitism by countries that are pro-Israel.  (thanks David)


PS And the Institute of Gulf Affairs took their findings to Fox News why?  Because Fox is an authority on cultural and religious sensitivity? 

From Iraq back to Afghanistan

"Soldiers who just returned from Iraq are among several thousand being ordered to Afghanistan in six months as part of a mission designed to beef up Afghan forces ahead of a planned 2014 U.S. military withdrawal, officials said." (thanks Khaled)

Rules for repression and control

"Israel's Civil Administration issues 101 different types of permits to govern the movement of Palestinians, whether within the West Bank, between the West Bank and Israel or beyond the borders of the state, according to an agency document of which Haaretz obtained a copy."

Israel's dirty hands in Iran

"An Israeli company has been selling Iran Internet-monitoring equipment through a distributor in Denmark, Bloomberg news agency reported on Friday. The report cites Israeli and Danish business partners of an Iranian man named Hossein, to whom the equipment was sent."

Bloggers in the Gulf: from Jadaliyya

"Today the number of Twitter and Facebook users in the Gulf is estimated to be in themillions. Many are outspoken and critical of Gulf Arab regime policies, religious establishments, and the stagnation of social and political reform. There is no doubt that this space for online peaceful dissent would be even narrower and less tolerated than it is today had it not been for the courageous activism of the Arab and Gulf blogging pioneers. A majority of these social media pioneers have incorporated new mediums into their activism, but a few chose to stop blogging altogether. Some are no longer with us today, while others have gone into hiding in fear of being jailed. Bloggers such as emoodz, Redbelt, and Silly Bahraini Girlscaled back on covering local events out of fear of intimidation or possible reprisals following arrests of high profile bloggers. Where some bloggers adopted pseudonyms, others used their real names despite the many pressures and threats they faced. Although many of these bloggers never met in the real world, their lives were interconnected nonetheless." (thanks Bassam)

they can do what they want with their "workers

Lebanese minister, Niqula Fattush, argues that capitalists can do what they wish their "workers" and that the state has no role whatsoever.

Abdul-NATO

Mustafa Abdul-NATO admits that this NATO government has failed in controlling the NATO fanatical militias in the streets of Libya.

Islamic Rule in the Arab World

This fanatical Saudi cleric calls for the spread of Islamic rule throughout the region.  And like the stupid statements of Iranian president, he maintains that Arab uprisings are all about the desire to put Islam in power.  (thanks Mohammad)

My UK university tour (against Israeli apartheid): January 2012

Here is a tentative schedule for my UK university tour: January, 2012
Wednesday 18th - London

Thursday 19th - Birmingham

Friday 20th - Oxford

---------------------------

Monday 23rd - Glasgow

Tuesday 24th - Edinburgh

Wednesday 25th - Leeds

Thursday 26th - Nottingham

Friday 27th - Essex