Archive for April 5, 2006

Well, at least we now know how the office of the Palestinian prime minister (which does not exist on paper) was created: “So Mossad stepped into the vacuum and produced one: “regime change” for the Palestinian Authority. The spies drafted a plan under which Yasser Arafat would be marginalised and a Palestinian prime minister would [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

We may be incompetent, but we have laptops in front of us. Among Arab governments, I believe that the Lebanese government started it–you can always count on Lebanon for setting trends of superficiality, pretentiousness, appearances, and fakery. They place laptops before the ministers during cabinet meetings. Now, the Palestinian government has also adopted the showy [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

Syrian government doing what it does best: “Security forces have detained human rights workers and political leaders, and in some cases their family members as well. They have barred travel abroad for political conferences and shut down a human rights center financed by the European Union. And the government has delivered a stern message to [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“The secretive and illegal US programme of ‘rendition’”

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“Half of the world’s prison population of about nine million is held in the US, China or Russia. Prison rates in the US are the world’s highest, at 724 people per 100,000. In Russia the rate is 581. At 145 per 100,000, the imprisonment rate of England and Wales is at about the midpoint worldwide.” [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“A former Sinn Fein official recently exposed as a British spy was found dead Tuesday, shot in the head and his right arm nearly severed, an Irish Cabinet member said.” (Only when Palestinians kill collaborators the world expresses outrage.)

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“Why few young immigrants are protesting in Paris”

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

Mubarak’s Cronies: “In Nafie’s pocket: $600 million”

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“The number of teenage prostitutes in Israel increased last year and now exceeds 1,000, according to a report compiled by Elem: Youth in Distress.”

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“‘We’re not the Taliban. We love Jesus. We love Moses’” “And we’re not going to allow books with any pictures of Madonna in bed.”

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

The Last Refuge of Arab governments is…Islam. The Syrian Ba`th is now preparing for a conference of Islamic parties. I miss the strict secularism of Salah Jadid (but not much else about him). It can be argued that the government of Salah Jadid was the most secular government in contemporary Arab history. More secular than [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

No Hummus in Israel? “Last month former grand rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu told parents to amputate an arm or a leg from dolls to avoid the perils of idolatry. Teddy bears or other stuffed animals were sentenced to lose an ear or an eye. Another former chief rabbi in July urged Israelis to stop eating hummus [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

Hamas’ clarification. So finally, Mahmud Az-Zahhar provided a plausible explanation for the letter in which he indicated support for the two-state “solution.” He said it was all a “mistake.” OK, Zahhar. Now I understand.

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

With great fanfare, the book burners of Al-Azhar University today categorically denied that they have agreed to freedom of religious worship and proselytizing in Egypt.

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

Who is to blame for this? “Wife-beating is universal. Many young women, in despair at being married off to a man they fear or loathe, douse themselves with gasoline and light a match. The hospitals in Afghanistan are filled with such cases. When a woman brings shame on her family for any reason–the reasons can [...]

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

“Silence in class: University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal?” (thanks Brian)

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad

Paul Gauguin. The Seine in Paris between the Pont d’Lena and the Pont de Grenelle. 1875.

Posted on April 5, 2006 by As'ad