Autocrats you like

"Indeed, the king brooks no criticism. Reporters Without Borders, an international media watchdog, says that in the past ten years Moroccan journalists have been sentenced to more than 25 years in prison and $2.9m in fines, hamstringing what was once the Arab world’s most vibrant media. Most of those punishments were related to somehow offending the monarchy. Most tellingly, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a mould-breaking independent magazine born in the more open final years of the previous king’s reign, is being sold after years of financially draining legal battles and, its owners say, an advertising boycott unofficially ordered by the palace. Many of its staff fear the new owner will be more timid. Le Journal’s founder, Aboubakr Jamai, who was driven into exile several years ago to escape libel fines and now lives in Spain, says the press has been “domesticated” by the king’s powerful counsellors, for the most part his schoolmates from the Royal College in Rabat, the capital. The political and economic elite has, he says, become tamer. It is not clear how much the average Moroccan, raised in a tradition of deference to the monarchy, cares about the lack of political liberalisation. Indeed, the Tel Quel poll suggests he remains in awe of the monarch. Nearly half of those polled reckoned Morocco was a democracy. Of the third who said it was authoritarian, quite a lot thought this a good thing. Many apparently think the king’s growing business clout is good for the country’s overall economy. Muhammad VI’s personal fortune is estimated at $2.5 billion and royal businesses may account for 6% of GNP."

How to "conquer" Masturbation

I was reading the issues of An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian (people), chauvinist Lebanese newspaper) during the 1958 civil war. I came across a medical advice column. This man wrote to them that he could not stop crying due to his practice of masturbation. The An-Nahar doctor offered this advice to cure him: "1. Join an athletic club, and practice some kinds of sports. 2. Integrate yourself in social life, and it is preferable that you mix in innocently with the other sex, and that is by joining one of the mixed club. 3. Avoid the vulgar books that stimulate instincts, and read beneficial books that expand your circle of knowledge. 4. Don't go to bed unless you really feel a desire to sleep. 5. Get out of bed as soon as you wake up." (An-Nahar, 24th May, 1958, p. 6). Damn, I wish I knew about this before Thomas Laqueur published his Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation.

Hamas: on the footsteps of Fath (in veils)

"“HAMAS is very close on recognition of Israel,” says Ahmed Yousef, the Islamist movement’s deputy foreign minister, speaking from the top floor of a high-rise building in Gaza City. “We show all sorts of ideological flexibility on this.”"

To the Editor of the Economist

The word reckon is being over-used in the magazine, in article after article. Do something about it.

Dahlan is back: but he never went away

"Mohammed Dahlan, the once-legendary chief of Fatah's forces in the enclave, watched his own defeat helplessly from exile. Then he felt the sting of blame for "losing Gaza," a debacle that split the Palestinians into hostile camps and crippled their drive for statehood. Stripped of his authority in the late Yasser Arafat's movement, he dropped from the limelight and plotted. But his target was not Hamas; it was the many detractors among his Fatah brethren who branded him a has-been. After 18 months of quiet but tireless politicking, Dahlan is back in play. His recent election to Fatah's Central Committee put him in an elite circle of advisors to Arafat's 74-year-old successor, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and positioned him as a contender to lead the movement someday." (thanks David)

% of Women Who Believe It’s OK for Husbands to Hit Them

"% of Women Who Believe It’s OK for Husbands to Hit Them". In the West, women may not say it is OK, but many stay, unfortunately. I say this before people rush to make distinctions between West and East on the matter. And remember that domestic violence rates in the US are almost equal to those in Syria, for example. (thanks Molly)

Hazing

"Some private security guards hired to protect the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan say their contractor has allowed widespread mistreatment, sexual activity and intimidation within their ranks, according to the watchdog group Project On Government Oversight (POGO)." (thanks Tarek)

All that you have done to our peoples, is registered in notebooks

"One of the released children informed PCHR that the children were “walking normally in the street where the attack took place and that they suddenly found themselves under Israeli gunfire. The boy said that when Israeli soldiers saw the wounded child falling onto the ground, they rushed to the scene and arrested his companions. The soldiers left the boy bleeding without offering him any medical aid.”" (thanks Asa)

it is official: Abu Mazen selected the "winners" of the Central Committee members

A Fath Dahlanist official, Nabil `Amru, admits what we know: that Abu Mazen selected the winners in the "election" to the Central Committee of Fath.

axe-wielding Zionism

"Axe-wielding ultra-Orthodox Jews went on a rampage in a Jerusalem neighbourhood, wounding a Palestinian taxi driver, destroying his vehicle and setting dumpsters on fire, police and witnesses said on Wednesday. The violence took place overnight in Mea Sharim, a bastion of ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredis. Police "pulled out from the neighbourhood following violent riots in recent days," said spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi." If he was a Palestinian, the UN Security Council would have met and condemned, and Obama would have issued a stern warning, and US Congress would have convened. (thanks Sarah)

Blatant racism is called a "mix-up" in Israel

"16 Ethiopian students still out of school due to mix-up"

This is Zionism

"Thousands of children in Occupied Jerusalem's Arab neighbourhoods were kept out of classrooms on the first day of school on Tuesday because of Israeli government neglect, activists and human rights groups said."

This is an election that the New York Times called a "success" on the first day

"Instead, aides to Mr. Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali — the leader of the Kandahar provincial council and the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan — detained the governor of Shorabak, Delaga Bariz, and shut down all of the district’s 45 polling sites on election day. The ballot boxes were taken to Shorabak’s district headquarters, where, Mr. Bariz and other tribal leaders said, local police officers stuffed them with thousands of ballots. At the end of the day, 23,900 ballots were shipped to Kabul, Mr. Bariz said, with every one marked for President Karzai. “Not a single person in Shorabak District cast a ballot — not a single person,” Mr. Bariz said in an interview here in the capital, where he and a group of tribal elders came to file a complaint. “Mr. Karzai’s people stuffed all the ballot boxes.”"

Zionism-is-racism

"Government officials had asked several private religious schools, which are publicly subsidized, to accept about 100 children of Ethiopian Jews – some of whom would be well behind their peers in language, religious studies, and other areas. The schools informed their parents, including Mr. Belay, that the children could not be integrated into regular classes until they caught up, but offered separate "preparatory" classes. "I bought my son a backpack. He's seen the school," said Belay at a demonstration Monday outside of the Petach Tikvah municipality building. "But they won't accept the boy.... It's because he's black.""

King PlayStation visits Qadhdhafi

"His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday took part in celebrations here marking the 40th anniversary of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's accession to power. His Majesty, who was received by Qadhafi at the airport, congratulated the Libyan leader on the occasion. Qadhafi held an iftar banquet in honour of King Abdullah and the visiting delegations." (thanks Reem)

Emirates

"First Class luxurious Emirates travel amenity bag." (thanks Paul)

circumcision

"But critics say a double standard prevails: though female genital cutting is also rooted in cultural traditions, it is prohibited by law in America and considered a human rights violation. These critics object to circumcising boys for the same reasons many find female circumcision loathsome: they believe parents have no right to permanently alter the genitalia of a baby who cannot consent, boy or girl, and that far from being a useless flap of skin, the foreskin, which is densely filled with nerve endings, serves a function, protecting and lubricating the head of the penis and maintaining its sensitivity, much like an eyelid does."

Tribute to Aubergine

"An unsalted aubergine owes its bitter taste to a tiny quantity of nicotine, but remove this minor piece of nastiness and an aubergine will behave impeccably, maybe mixing best of all with garlic, tomatoes and olive oil but also making surprisingly good jam with a silken texture and fullness of flavour. Often referred to as a fruit and usually cooked as a vegetable, it is officially a berry. Some varieties are indeed small and cute enough to qualify, but others are positively Rubenesque." I disagree about mixing eggplant with tomato. Sami Zubaida, who knows about food and about Middle East culinary traditions more than anybody I know and who gave me a great simplified recipe for the Egyptian popular dish, Kushari, taught me something about tomato in cooking: that it kills flavor. He noted to me that saffron, for example, is useless with tomatoes. (thanks Laila)

Hashim `Ali Muhsin

This is an unknown soldier. Hashim `Ali Muhsin (there is a one line about him in Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movement in Iraq) was a Stalinist Marxist-Leninist but he was also a distinguished Arab revolutionary. This is the 20-year anniversary of his death. He remains largely unknown except who knew him from the 60s during his work with the Union of Arab Workers and the Movement of Arab Nationalists. But people don't know (because he is not a braggart like George Hawi) that he was most instrumental in forming a Lebanese (leftist) national resistance movement against Israeli occupation back in 1978. Back then, he tried to invite George Hawi and Muhsin Ibrahim to join, but they did not. They later did in 1982. He coined the name. From 1970, he led the Lebanese sister party of the PFLP, the Arab Socialist Action Party-Lebanon (I wrote my MA thesis at AUB on this party, and Rashid Khalidi was my supervisor.) Muhsin later in the mid-1980s broke with the PFLP. He was a prolific (but not a very good) writer, and produced tons of organizational literature on Marxist Arab politics. He was a good polemicist, in the Leninist tradition, and his critique of the Lebanese Communist Party and the Organization of Communist Action was devastating and correct, in my opinion. I was in high school when I first saw him. He was neither charismatic nor appealing, but he was effective in his world. (thanks Rami)

Clerical squabbles in Lebanon

Comrade Fawwaz on the clerical squabbles in Lebanon.

Nir Rosen does not heart Karzai

"NIR ROSEN: All reports we’re getting from around the country show that, indeed, there was massive ballot stuffing, massive fraud. And yet, the international community immediately praised these elections, which—and Afghans, at this point, are very skeptical of the elections. The perception is that the elections were a failure, were fraudulent. I don’t think the elections would matter very much, one way or the other. Perhaps they’ll matter if the new government that takes over implements some changes, because, in a way, the Taliban aren’t winning, but the Afghan government is losing. The Afghan government is perceived as being corrupt, incompetent, and oppressive sometimes. They’re just nonexistent. Now, the Karzai ticket—and surely Karzai will win—the Karzai ticket included warlords and drug dealers, and Karzai is accused of massive corruption in this election, which, in a way, perhaps is the one positive sign about the government. At least the Karzai government is actually efficient enough to implement a massive vote rigging. So they’re not completely incompetent. But this only further de-legitimizes the government and the international effort in Afghanistan, leading to more support for the Taliban." (thanks Olivia)

It is a surge: it is a surge

"Violence in Iraq produced the highest death toll in 13 months as August was marred by a series of suicide bombings in northern Iraq and a high-profile attack on two government ministries in Baghdad that stoked concerns that security was deteriorating with the removal of most U.S. forces from Iraqi cities and the approach of national elections in January." (thanks Dina)

Fox News will now guide LBC-TV: `Amru Diab will sing for Bill O'Reilly

"News Corp. (NWS, NWSA) is in talks with Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to take a stake in Rotana Media, marking its first major investment in the Middle East, according to people familiar with the deal. The company, headed by Rupert Murdoch and publisher of this news wire, may buy a 20% interest in Rotana from Prince Alwaleed, who controls Saudi conglomerate Kingdom Holding Co., a person involved with the deal told Zawya Dow Jones."

Begging for money

"Everyone who donates a thousand dollars or more for this project will see their name on the Acknowledgements page of my book and will receive a signed and numbered copy when it is published." What an honor. What a distinction. Who in his/her right mind would pass on this great opportunity? In fact, I hear that people are holding parties around the world in order to donate to the book just so that they can see their names mentioned in the acknowledgements section of a book on the Middle East by somebody who has never studied the Middle East and who knows none of the languages of the Middle East and who has never been able to say anything original about the Middle East and who can't get to say anything outside of recycled cliches about the Middle East and who has never deviated from the neo-conservative line about the Middle East. Let me guess: thousands of people are now writing checks to this dude. Also, who would not want to be mentioned in a book that will surely put you to sleep by page 3. Judging by his website, the book will surpass Ambien in sales. (thanks Ibn Rushd)

Qadhdhafi: the inventor

Qadhdhafi designs a car--kid you not. What is special about the car? It kills women and children just like Qadhdhafi. (thanks Hisham)

Lebanese Madoff Update

The Lebanese press is being very closed-mouthed about the true nature of the Lebanese Shi`ite Madoff, Salah `Iz Ad-Din, who has political (and financial) connections with Hizbullah and Amal. But there are small investors who lost their life savings too. The estimate of the loss ranges between $500 million to $1.5 billion. My sources tell me it is upward of that figure and that political pressures are behind keeping the case secret. As-Safir and Al-Akhbar has provided some coverage but nothing extensive. No one is talking. I am not sure that the man is under arrest as some people have said.

Saudi assassination attempt

Comrade Madawi Rasheed analyzes the assassination attempt on Prince Muhammad Bin Nayif. (thanks Luai)

Col. Queen Youtube

Do you know that the Jordanian queen automatically holds a military rank in the Jordanian army? I kid you not. She has the rank of colonel. Oh, yeah.

House of Saud and Al-Qa`idah

The story of the assassination attempt on Muhammad Bin Nayif is still developing. Today, Saudi media released an audio tape of a phone conversation between the prince and the assassin. But the conversation reveals a degree of familiarity, nay intimacy, between the prince and the assassin. It was so bizarre especially when the prince told the Al-Qa`idah member that "you are our kids." Al-Arabiyya TV (the private station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) realized that while they are airing the tape they are also unwittingly revealing the relations between the prince and those Bin Ladenites, and the able Syrian broadcaster, Zeina Al-Yaziji, even asked a Saudi journalist to explain this intimacy of the phone conversation. He answered by wishing people a happy Ramadan.

A Lebanese Shi`ite Madoff?

There is a brewing scandal in Lebanon: a Lebanese Shi`ite Madoff? Apparently, he is linked to Amal and Hizbullah and may be behind the Hizbullah's quasi publishing house, Dar Al-Hadi.

I blog for Muhammad Dahlan

"He was clearly unhappy with the way some of his own government had not fully backed the plan. Fayyad thanked me again and invited me for a longer discussion at a time to be determined later...As one member of the Palestinian people, the phone call from Salam Fayyad provided for me that encouragement and proved that I was correct when I publicly supported him and his plan." And of course we know how the Palestinian people sit at the edge of their seats waiting for Daoud Kuttab to express his opinions. (thanks Raed)

Salam Fayyad versus Abu Mazen

A feud is intensifying between Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad. It is clear that Fayyad received American/Israeli nomination as the successor to Abu Mazen, which led several PA's officials, like Nabil `Amru and Yasir `Abid-Rabbu to defect to Fayyad. This is an article covering the repercussions.

Bringing democracy to Iraq

"At least 1,000 prisoners are on death row in Iraq, which now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, the human rights group Amnesty International says in a report being released Tuesday." (thanks Zainab)

The treasure hunt in Lebanon

I told you about the Lebanese Finance Minister's search for an Ottoman treasure. Well, nothing was found. The search was suspended for a while because the Sunni Muftititi insisted on a share of the treasure. This is Lebanon.

The Libyan dictator's PR campaign

"The consultants claim their PR campaign thus far has led to a wave of positive coverage about Libya in the Western media and had many positive knock-on benefits. ‘Soros regularly plays tennis with Anthony Giddens, and they are known to have discussed Libya a number of times,’ the report reveals. If that isn’t already an impressive enough achievement, the US firms provide more than just PR. The documents also include a letter addressed to Abdullah Sanussi, the head of Libyan internal intelligence convicted in absentia for the bombing of UTA Flight 772, and a ‘personal tutorial curriculum’ for Mu’tassim al-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s fourth son." (thanks Karim)

Lebanese president's speech making

The Lebanese president is making a speech as we speak. Please turn off all lights as we are trying to sleep.

Danish cartoons--not pastries

If I hear one person protesting Danish cartoons, I will consider putting him/her before a Mahdawi-style court for bothering me. "A letter from a Saudi Arabian lawyer demanding an apology for the reprinting of the Mohammed cartoons has been dismissed by Danish media as an attempt to ‘fan the flames’." (thanks Peter)

Lebanon's sectarian rules

A person who works at a European embassy in Beirut sent me this (she/he does not want to be identified): "- in the Serail during Ramadan, no water nor candies and arabic sweets (that are usually on the tables) are found, and people holding meetings are not allowed to have any at their offices.
- the lebanese ministry of foreign affairs asks for the foreign diplomats' confessions on the documents they have to submit in order to get their diplomatic cards. when 1 diplomat didn't mention her religion, the ministry sent her back the document in order to fill the blank confession row. the issue did not get solved until she called the ministry and made a big fuss about it that they accepted to issue her diplomatic card."

American contribution to Iraq

"Fifteen months ago a Sky News investigation revealed growing numbers of children being born with defects in Fallujah. Concerns were that the rise in deformities may have been linked to the use of chemical weapons by US forces. We recently returned to find out the current situation and what has happened to some of the children we featured. In May last year we told the story of a three-year-old girl called Fatima Ahmed who was born with two heads." (thanks Rani)

Book bans in the US

A map of book banning in the US. (thanks Jamal)

Why we need to uphold the three Nos of Khartum

"Anyone venturing far from Gaza's shore risks not only gunfire but also blackmail as Israeli warships trawl the besieged Palestinian territory's waters for informers. The Al-Mezan human rights group says it has documented the arrests at sea of hundreds of fishermen who faced pressure to work for Israeli authorities. Local fishermen gave similar accounts to AFP."

Zionist heroism: shooting kids

"An Israeli hospital says a Palestinian teenager shot in a clash with Israeli troops has died of his injuries. Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center says the youngster died of gunshot wounds. Palestinian police on Tuesday identified the dead boy as Mohammed Nayef, 14, and said he was shot while throwing stones at Israeli soldiers." (thanks Sarah)

The Libyan Dictator: friend of the West

This billboard in Libya says: "Wherever you went, happiness prevails, and life attains ornaments." Kid you not. (AFP)

Yemeni war

I wonder where the Yemeni Army is getting its weapons from. But no matter what, I am sure that this is a civil war where the US is not involved. I know that I have often argued that the US is involved in every single dirty war around the world, directly or through proxies, but at least this one is an exception. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Yemeni army is being supplied or aided by the US military. No way. (AFP) (thanks Amer)

Excuse me, Carlotta, but...

"Afghan election officials said Sunday that the serious fraud reports that they were considering had suddenly doubled — to 550 from 270, in a development likely to stoke public outrage and perhaps even delay the official results past September. By law, each of the more serious cases, out of more than 2,000 complaints of irregularities so far, must be investigated before the elections results can be certified. Western officials say they are increasingly ill at ease with the prospect of a national government in limbo even while American and NATO troops are pressed by the Taliban in a new phase of war that commanders concede is not going well. “It does indicate there were a lot of allegations that have to be taken seriously, and if fraud did take place, that it was systematic,” said Martine van Bijlert, an analyst with The Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent policy research organization. Concern was mounting among members of the international community, but there was uncertainty about how to deal with it, she said." Excuse me, Carlotta but were you not the one who declared the election a success on the first day?