shot 22 people in all, including 17 women and children

"The US soldier who murdered 16 villagers in Afghanistan, including seven children, in 2012 says he had lost compassion for Iraqis and Afghans over the course of his four combat deployments." "Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, shot 22 people in all, including 17 women and children, during pre-dawn raids on two villages in Kandahar Province in March 2012." (thanks Amir)

How the US treats its puppets

Watch the Iraqi prime minister of sectarianism and US occupation.

Qatari regime openly supports ISIS and Nusrah

This article in Al-Quds Al-Arabia (one of the most grotesque voices of sectarian agitation in the region) openly calls for support for Nusrah and ISIS.

Moroccan Regime TV unleashes witchhunts against gays

From "Ibn Rushd":  "[Moroccan] National TV outed these gays which led to the witchhunt in this video".  Can you imagine the international uproar if this were in Iran?

Nasser interviewed by New York Times in 1969

When you watch this interview with Nasser from 1969, you may reach those conclusions: 1) his English is much better than the English of Arab leaders who studied in the West. 2) It is amazing how self-assured he was and how he never engage in the clowning and buffoonery of Arafat or Sadat, or in the desperate attempt to please Westerners as you see in all interviews with Arab leaders (especially but not exclusively Bashshar Al-Asad and King Youtube of Jordan). 3) Disturbingly, you see in this interview how much Nasser accepted the idea of peace with Israel.  Now I see why Palestinian resistance groups were all opposed to him at the time of his death.  

Correction

I received several corrections from people inside the Lebanese Communist Party and from outside it: the fighters of the Lebanese Communist Party shown in the pictures (from yesterday) are in villages on the Lebanese-Syrian borders and not in Al-Qalamun.  I stand corrected.

American exceptionalism

"The US is the only industrialised country where employers are not required to provide paid vacation." (thanks Marc)

Sisi is officially losing his mind

He says that he is a doctor and that everyone in the world, including philosophers, are saying that.  He can offer diagnoses and cures to all problems.

Mark Zuckerberg is reading Ibn Khaldun? Not quite.

I have written before about the need for a new English translation of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah.  You can't read the devastating and most damning critique by A.L.Tibawi and accept the reliability of the translation by the Yale Orientalist, Franz Rosenthal.  I was reminded yet again with the news that Zuckerberg is reading Al-Muqaddimah.  Tibawi illustrated that Rosenthal failed to understand key terms and meanings in the Muqaddimah in his translation (see his book, Arabic and Islamic Themes).  So Zuckerberg is reading a mistranslation of the Muqaddimah.  Ibn Khaldun, of course, has long been favored by rightwingers in capitalist countries because he wrote that lower taxation increases incentives for productivity and prosperity.  Even Ronald Reagan cited Ibn Khaldun.

Mimicking Israeli's blockade of Gaza, Saudi-led naval blockade leaves 20m Yemenis facing humanitarian disaster

"Twenty million Yemenis, nearly 80% of the population, are in urgent need of food, water and medical aid, in a humanitarian disaster that aid agencies say has been dramatically worsened by a naval blockade imposed by an Arab coalition with US and British backing."

Israeli companies profit from killing the Palestinians

"Feldman’s film argues that the Palestinian territories are the “lab” where Israel uses its weaponry. Israeli companies profit from war because their products are “tested” on Palestinians, Feldman argued — particularly the residents of Gaza."

The long Saudi-Israeli honeymoon

"Since the beginning of 2014, representatives from Israel and Saudi Arabia have had five secret meetings to discuss a common foe, Iran. On Thursday, the two countries came out of the closet by revealing this covert diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington."

Retired Saudi general, Anwar Eshki

"Hirschfeld said that in this session, Al-Eshki elaborated on some ideas he had raised previously about stabilizing Gaza and turning Hamas into a strictly political movement."

For those who can read Arabic

This satirical image of the Sisi visit to Germany has been cracking me up for the last four days.  I can't look at it and not laugh out loud.  Did I not tell you that no people are more skilled in satirizing their rulers than the Egyptians?

Isarel is exempt

"Whereas other Middle Eastern states are sanctioned - even attacked and invaded - for possessing or pursuing WMDs (or simply being accused of pursuing them), Israel is exempt." (thanks Amir)

Mohamed Fahmy is shocked: he had no idea. He feels duped

Mohamed Fahmy, the former bureau chief of Aljazeera English in Cairo. Here, he is expressing his shock.  You see Fahmy, had no idea that the Qatari regime exercises such control over...Qatari media. You see, Fahmy, all along assumed that Qatar is a flourishing democracy and that Qatari media are allowed full independence and freedom.  Fahmy is heartbroken because he discovered otherwise.  When Fahmy served as bureau chief for Aljazeera, he thought that Qatari media are independent of the Qatari regime.  And notice that he here faults Aljazeera for violating repression rules of Sisi.  I am the last one to defend Aljazeera these days but come on. What is that scene in Casablanca about gambling?

Who do people in Saudi Arabia consider to be the enemy?

 
The New York Times yesterday (see the post from the blog) published a silly article about a silly unscientific survey conducted "quietly" by an Israeli think tank of people in Saudi Arabia in which a majority considered Iran and not Israel to be the enemy.  Now this is a more serious survey conducted by the Doha-based Arab Center.  In it, 40% of respondents consider Israel to be the enemy (or--to use the language of the survey--"the states that pose the most threats to the security of the Arab homeland"), while 20% considered Iran to be the enemy (while 11% considered the US to be the enemy).

Military-grade explosive

"The Interior Ministry identified the bomber in the most recent blast as 19-year-old Khalid Ayed Mohammed Wahabi Shammari. He disguised himself as a woman and blew himself up in the mosque parking lot after being prevented from getting inside." "The explosive used in that attack was RDX, a military-grade compound that was also deployed in the al-Qudeeh bombing." (thanks Amir) 

Lebanese communists are fighting alongside Hizbullah in Qalamun

 

Today, it was revealed for the first time that Lebanese Communist Party fighters (seen above) have been fighting with Hizbullah in Qalamun.  

The chair of Angela Merkel versus the chairs of Arab potentates

Steve Kerr versus David Platt: Israel in US sports

I don't follow American sports (or Arab sports for that matter), but Michele is an avid sports watcher. She was telling me about the US media celebration of the Israeli soldier, David Platt, although the man makes his loyalty to Israel very clear.  She also knows of my love and admiration for the late Malcolm Kerr and his widow, Ann.  US media have been celebrating David Platt's service in the Israeli terrorist army.  The New York Times cites this: "an American-Israeli who served in the Israeli Defense Forces and is on a first-name basis with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu".  The paper also makes the loss of Steve Kerr who lost his father when he was in college equal to the loss of Platt because the latter's parents divorced.  Anything to generate sympathy for an Israeli in this lousy paper.  

PS Steve Kerr was born in Beirut and speaks Arabic, by the way.  He also was heckled during his days at Arizona State when Zionist hoodlums would chant "PLO.PLO" when he played.  

This is a "quiet" Israeli survey of Saudi public

"An Israeli college has quietly conducted an opinion poll in Saudi Arabia, concluding that the Saudi public is far more concerned about the threats of Iran and the Islamic State group than Israel, and that the vast majority of Saudis support a decade-old peace offer to the Jewish state."  I am sure that the quiet survey adhered to high methodological standards and that the sample was randomly selected and the questions were not leading.  I 

You have to watch this: Sisi clowns engage in dialogue with Green Party of Germany

Saudi regime's strategic thinker, Anwar Eshki

"He got his PhD in law from prestigious Golden Gate University California, U.S.A."

Political satire

There is no people on earth more skilled in satirizing rulers than the people of Egypt. 

Ali Bin Husayn of Sweden, not Jordanian regime

This is NOT a paid political advertisement.  

Western correspondents in Beirut

Imagine if I am residing in the US, without knowing English, and writing about the US and its politics to readers in the Middle East.  Would you then think that i am qualified, notwithstanding my lack of White Man privilige and qualifications?

Rick Perry

It is official. God, or one of them, selected Rick Perry to represent him in the Republican presidential primaries.  

Anne Barnard and the recycled story about Syrian regime's complicity with ISIS

My favorite part of her article (which was prompted by tweets by US embassy in Damascus--kid you not) is this: "Neither American officials nor Syrian insurgents have provided proof of such direct coordination".  So she is saying: even if there is no proof, she will go ahead and write this story knowing that the paper will publish it. Imagine if this story (without proof) is about Israeli complicity with Nusrah Front (which in fact has proof).  She reiles in rumors that have been circulating for months but without evidence. But what she does not tell you is this: 1) that there is a far common view in the Arab world that the US is directly responsible for the creationg of ISIS.  2) that the Syrian regime in fact is military engaged against ISIS in more than one spot, from Tadmur to Qalamun.  3) that Syrian regime is often accused of not bombing ISIS, but when it does, it is accused of slaughtering Sunnis. You may see that kind of spin in Saudi and Qatari Arab media.  4) Nusrah Front (the real force for what the Western media calls "moderate Syrian armed groups) needs to promote this view in order to explain the rise of ISIS. 5) the remnants of what used to be called Free Syrian Army needs this story in order to explain their demise and their significance.  6) but there is ISIS in more  than one country: did the Syrian regime also conspire to create ISIS in Libya, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia? 7) this is classic dumb journalism. 8) it is certain that neither the US nor the Syrian regime created ISIS, and that Gulf regimes are probably the biggest factor in the creation of ISIS.  8) this is yet another expample of how Western correspondents take their marching orders from US embassies. 

The bodyguard of Jordanian King

Prince Ali Bin Husayn, whose only job has been to serve as his borther's bodyguard, said this: "I think that, again, every national association has the right to host the World Cup, wherever it is. But they have to respect human rights, and when you have somebody like Sepp Blatter, who has not exactly been very forceful on this issue, then there is a problem. I have worked very hard with other colleagues ... to try and bring this to the table. And we have to continue ... We have a responsibility to the whole world." You wouldn't know that this guy served for years as deputy to Blatter and that he represents the Jordanian regime and not Sweden, damn it.  

Nuclear bomb on Yemen?

The media of the Syrian-Iranian-Hizbullah axis has been circulating this stupid story.  But then again, this media have been circulating for months that Hillary Clinton claimed, nay admitted, in her last book that the US had created ISIS.

vacation

vacationing for a few days and it is Michele's birthday, damn it.

US Police killings

What is cool, about Zionism

This has been the biggest cultural shifts in the US culture about Zionism: in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was considered cool to be pro-Israel. Now, it is considered cool to oppose Israel. 

Someone is really worried about BDS: Adelson to host secret anti-BDS fundraiser, strategy summit

"Leading Jewish mega donors have summoned pro-Israel activists for a closed-door meeting in Las Vegas to establish, and fund, successful strategies for countering the wave of anti-Israel activity on college campuses.

The meeting, taking place this weekend, will be hosted by casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and was organized by several other top Jewish funders, including Hollywood entertainment mogul Haim Saban, Israeli-born real-estate developer Adam Milstein, and Canadian businesswoman Heather Reisman.

Organizers have sought to keep the gathering secret and have declined to respond to inquiries from the Forward, which confirmed the upcoming meeting with two separate informed sources."

What is hard for Western correspondents to concede in the Syrian case

"While it is difficult to gauge in quantitative or otherwise precise terms, observers should more carefully weigh the possibility that it is the Ba’athist regime’s support base within the Sunni majority, however narrow and limited it may be relative to the wider community, that has ensured its survival until now." (thanks Amal)

Sectarian militias? Who started them?

It was the US which first formed the sectarian tribal militias of Iraq.  It was the US which started this pattern.  Coincidence?

The idea and the state

As Mahmoud Darwish wrote: Oh, how big the idea, and how small the state.

the sisters were listed as terrorists anyway

"The report revealed testimony from soldiers, who were there when the sisters died, who said Israeli forces spotted them talking on mobile phones and, assuming they were scouts for Islamist group Hamas, opened fire. When it was realised they were civilians, the report alleged, the sisters were listed as terrorists anyway." These accounts, and a subsequent IBTimes UK investigation inside Gaza, has cast serious doubt on Israeli claims that it did not deliberately target civilians during the 50-day war in Gaza and raises questions of whether Israel breached its obligations under international law."

New Indian foreign policy

"Narendra Modi will be travelling to Israel, the first by an Indian Prime Minister to the Jewish country with which bilateral defence cooperation is on an upswing."

Saudi Arabia and Israel in a new strategic embrace

"Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said." "The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace," (thanks Amir)

Hizbullah without the Syrian regime

Julani in his promotional interview on Aljazeera predicted that Hizbullah will end once the Syrian regime falls.  He forgets that Hizbullah was born and grew while it was--for many years--at odds with the Syrian regime. Blood was spilled between the two sides.

What is the most delicious sandwich in the whole world?

Apparently, according to this Lebanese site, Joseph shop in Sinn Al-Fil in Lebanon won the award for the most delicious sandwich in the world in a festival in London.  Congratulations. Lebanon yet again proves that he is indeed superior in quackeries.

The BBC called this targeting by Saudi regime: media success

From Sam: "But this call may fall on deaf ears in some quarters. In March, a military spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition conducting air strikes in Yemen openly stated that media organisations associated with the Houthi rebels and former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh are legitimate targets."

I am not a dictator, damn it. I am a good dictator.

"Why are people calling me a dictator?" he asked me. "I am not like President Assad of Syria. I am listening and I am choosing reform." (thanks Basim)