Archive for December, 2007

“Barack Obama backs Israel remaining a Jewish state”. He added that any extra Palestinian children that could tip the demographic balance would be simply tossed across the racist separation barrier. (thanks Ali)

Posted by As'ad at 10:04 PM 12/27/07

“Police opened an investigation Tuesday afternoon into claims that residents of the Palestinian village of Tal were attacked by masked Hebrew-speaking assailants, who the Palestinians believe were settlers.” (thanks Mazen)

Posted by As'ad at 10:02 PM 12/27/07

“”The IDF checkpoint which separates the village from the rest of the West Bank is not manned during the night and thus women who go into labor are unable to reach the local hospital.”” (thanks Yasmine)

Posted by As'ad at 10:01 PM 12/27/07

“…the McCains do not allow Bridget to be interviewed”. Why is this child the only one not allowed to be interviewed, one wonders?

Posted by As'ad at 4:18 PM 12/27/07

George W. Bush called Mousharraf to offer his condolences. Truth be told, he found him inconsolable.

Posted by As'ad at 4:15 PM 12/27/07

“Several American visitors have reported experiencing excessive drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, and nausea after drinking alcohol in public areas such as hotel bars and night clubs in several cities throughout the Netherlands. These effects may be the result of unknowingly ingesting drugs, such as flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), hydroxybutyrate (GHB), triazolam (Halcion), scopolamine, burundaga, ketamine and more recently [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:44 PM 12/27/07

In the dispute between AlJazeera (Arabic) and some in Algeria, I side with the Algerian critics. This all started when Aljazeera.net put a website poll on whether people supported or opposed Al-Qa`idah’s bombings in Algeria. What kind of question is that? To put the matter of massive and indiscriminate bombing as a [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:25 PM 12/27/07

“At least a dozen policy advisers to Mr. Giuliani’s campaign hail from or have active connections to Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a number that appears to outpace other right-leaning research centers such as the Manhattan Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.” (thanks Amer)

Posted by As'ad at 11:42 AM 12/27/07

Whoever kept pressing Bhutto to return home to Pakistan is at least partially responsible for her death.

Posted by As'ad at 9:07 AM 12/27/07

“The heart of their dispute, though, may not be over intellectual matters at all, but about something one of them said more than a quarter of a century ago about the other’s ex-girlfriend (of which more later).”

Posted by As'ad at 11:27 PM 12/26/07

On January 17th, 1888, the New York Times carried a “news” article titled “Arabs Not Wanted.” It quoted a Collector Magone, and said: “in speaking of this case yesterday, [he] referred to the undesirable character of such immigrants, even if possessed of the means of self-support. The Arabs as a class, he said, [...]

Posted by As'ad at 1:47 PM 12/26/07

On February 21nd, 1888, the New York Times carried a story with this headline: “Masters of Mendicants: Syrian Arabs Infesting the Cities. How they squeeze through castle garden-pen; Pictures of the most filthy of immigrants.” The reporter then noted the differences between the Swedish immigrants and Arabs: The Swedes, dressed [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:45 AM 12/26/07

The New York Times carried this item on August 8, 1885: “Among the hundreds of immigrants who arrived at the port yesterday were seven rough-looking Arabs from the mountains of Lebanon, Syria. They said that they had brought with them beads and relics from the Holy Land and were going to Cuba, but [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:36 AM 12/26/07

The Obituary of Kahlil Gibran (we call him Jubran Khalil Jubran in Arabic). I looked up last night the obituary of Kahlil Gibran in the New York Times from April 1931. The headline went like this: “Khalil Gibran dead; Noted Syrian poet.” The subtitle said: “Wrote in Arabic and English–Native of [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:04 AM 12/26/07

“Poll results show that 66% of Saudi women and 55% of Saudi men agree that women should be allowed to drive a car by themselves. In light of the ban on female driving, such relatively high levels of public support are remarkable. Recently, several Saudi women founded a group to raise awareness about this issue. [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:52 PM 12/25/07

The Heirs of Zarqawi: the Hariri family in Lebanon. The Hariri rag carries a small news item about a never-heard-of-before group, called Sunni Islamic League.

Posted by As'ad at 11:41 PM 12/25/07

Pretty ironic. Sari Nusseibah has spent a life-time trying to appease Zionism and earning the approval of the White Man. Now, he is being accused of anti-Semitism. (Of course, the moral authority of Campus Watch on matters of prejudice is akin to the medical authority of George W. Bush).

Posted by As'ad at 12:40 PM 12/25/07

My mother and sister keep telling that Fadi R`aydi (of New TV) is so funny. I can’t stand him. He is so annoying and painfully unfunny.

Posted by As'ad at 12:03 PM 12/25/07

The true Yasser `Arafat. Former Arafat’s interpretor (and a protege of the lousy Bassam Abu Sharif), Marwan Kanafani wrote his memoirs (somebody who is in the Middle East and is coming to US get me a copy, NOW). I saw him interviewed on it on NBN by Maria Ma`luf. She did a [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:41 AM 12/25/07

Colonial Grammarism. “Professor Sasson and his colleagues are quick to point out that they do not believe in disconnecting or isolating Arabic from Hebrew. “The idea is to give (the) Arabic (that’s spoken in Israel) some ’self-confidence.’”” Oh, yes. Palestinians in Israel need Professor Sasson to teach them grammar and to [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:35 AM 12/25/07

Senator: are you, or have you ever been, a Muslim? This discussion of whether Obama was ever a Muslim is not different from Nazi discussion of the Jewish heritage of certain individuals. It is the same.

Posted by As'ad at 11:30 AM 12/25/07

“Poverty, lack of information fatal for Chinese woman, baby”

Posted by As'ad at 10:32 AM 12/25/07

High-tech Lebanese Council of Ministers. When the civilized Lebanese Council of Ministers first introduced laptops to council meetings, all the ministers used to pretend that they were using them for the meeting, although a source told me that the laptops would only contain a Word document of the agenda of the meeting, no more. [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:19 PM 12/24/07

Who can blame them? “Jewish immigration to Israel at lowest in 20 years” (thanks Leila)

Posted by As'ad at 11:13 PM 12/24/07

My article in Al-Akhbar: “Before Unfogging the Vision: [What] they said about the Syrian Regime”

Posted by As'ad at 2:46 PM 12/24/07

Correction: I have received a few emails and comments that the picture of the girl working on her homework (from a few days ago) was incorrectly identified: she is Syrian and not Palestinian. This correction should not be used to detract from my long record of infallibility.

Posted by As'ad at 11:31 AM 12/24/07

“The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents.”

Posted by As'ad at 11:23 AM 12/24/07

The New York Times is up in arms: “Anarchists in the Aisles?”

Posted by As'ad at 11:18 AM 12/24/07

“The unluckiest baby in the world”

Posted by As'ad at 11:17 AM 12/24/07

“”Uzbekistan is like the Soviet Union, but the wrong way round. Everything bad about the Soviet Union we still have. But everything that was good – like its welfare and education system – has disappeared,” Nigara Khidovatova, leader of the opposition Free Farmers party, said. “Our economy is feudal. The situation for workers in [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:11 AM 12/24/07

Ode to Bush? “It served as the anthem, too, for the Rhodesian white supremacist regime of Ian Smith. One can imagine a fictional performance at which all sworn enemies — Hitler and Stalin, Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush — for a moment forget their adversities and participate in the same magic moment of [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:09 AM 12/24/07

“Israeli military prosecutors have decided not to take any legal action over Israel’s use of cluster bombs during last year’s war in Lebanon, the army said Monday, closing an investigation into a practice that has drawn heavy criticism from the U.N. and international human rights groups. The investigation determined [...]

Posted by As'ad at 10:59 AM 12/24/07

““My plane was full of Lebanese flying home, and when it landed we all shouted ‘Beirut’ and clapped,”” How annoying. How annoying. This is why things Lebanonese start to irritate me as soon as I enter the MEA counter at whatever airport in Europe. At least they don’t allow smoking anymore: [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:44 AM 12/24/07

On the “Final Victory of the Colonizer” by dear Amer.

Posted by As'ad at 3:27 PM 12/23/07

“Mrs. Clinton’s current team was less prescient. Though it includes one of the earlier military critics of Bush policy, Gen. Wesley Clark, he is balanced by Gen. Jack Keane, an author of the Bush “surge.” The Clinton campaign’s foreign policy and national security director is a former Madeleine Albright aide, Lee Feinstein, who in November [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:06 PM 12/23/07

“A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:13 AM 12/23/07

Conspiracy? What conspiracy? Look at the picture of the American soldier in Prince Khalid’s mouthpiece, Al-Hayat. (thanks Amer). This is now a pattern: of those flatter pictures of US soldiers in Iraq. It is a surge alright.

Posted by As'ad at 10:41 AM 12/23/07

Lebanese are obsessed with rankings: “At the bottom of the table come Addis Ababa and Beirut.” (thanks Jennifer)

Posted by As'ad at 11:53 PM 12/22/07

Bilal Al-Hasan offers a polite (he has to–writing in Prince Salman’s mouthpiece after all) but sound critique of the last speech by Abu Mazen (seen above).

Posted by As'ad at 8:15 PM 12/22/07

Al-Arabiya TV has been touting a “study” published in a British Tabloid that “proves” that men are funnier than women. Notice that among the colonized, any opinion from the White Man, including from quacks, is considered authoritative. For a sample of funny men, look at those hilarious bunch above.

Posted by As'ad at 5:48 PM 12/22/07

Conspiracy? What conspiracy? You have to look at the picture from Iraq on the front page of Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal.

Posted by As'ad at 5:46 PM 12/22/07

“At lunch, when I asked him who influences his thinking on foreign affairs, he mentioned Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, and Frank Gaffney, a neoconservative and the founder of a research group called the Center for Security Policy.”

Posted by As'ad at 2:09 PM 12/22/07

`Abdul-`Aziz Al-Hakim, the leader of the Badr Shi`ite sectarian militia (which manages to receive the support of US and Iran simultaneously–because it believes in the Wilayat Al-Faqih (the faqih is both, Khamenei and Bush together), expressed reservations about the Al-Anbar tribal council. He said that only sectarian Shi`ite gangs should be allowed to roam [...]

Posted by As'ad at 2:00 PM 12/22/07

Whenever Al-Arabiya TV invites one of those tribal “sawha” council dudes–and they invite them quite regularly–you are struck that they all, I mean ALL, look and sound like thugs and criminals. But then again: it could be a coincidence. And those same people were allies of Zarqawi before they switched after reading John [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:37 PM 12/22/07

Is it not indubitable that between the Taliban regime, the pro-US Karzai regime, and the pro-Soviet communist regime in Afghanistan the latter was by far the best (or least worst)–and the most favorable to women’s rights?

Posted by As'ad at 12:34 PM 12/22/07

This Palestinian girl is selling sesame to help support her family while doing her homework. (thanks Yun)

Posted by As'ad at 12:33 PM 12/22/07

“And what about that scene where Charlie takes a sexy Texas belly dancer to Cairo and she does a sultry dance for the Egyptian defense minister while Charlie and an Israeli arms dealer try to convince the Egyptian to sell them weapons for the Afghan rebels — that’s gotta be a Hollywood fabrication, right? [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:59 AM 12/22/07

“President Shimon Peres apologized Friday for the 1956 massacre in Kafr Qasem, in which Border Police officers killed 47 residents of the Israeli Arab village.” Apologize? Apologize? And how do you decide which Zionist massacre warrants an apology, and which does not? It is not an apology that the Palestinians are after. [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:51 AM 12/22/07

For those who are outside of the US, and who may not know the real New York Times. The New York Times yesterday put the story of the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears on its front page. But then again: what do you expect from a newspaper that has Thomas Friedman as its [...]

Posted by As'ad at 11:47 AM 12/22/07

To deal with domestic violence, Ayatullah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, rules that women can learn boxing and bear arms to deal with men.

Posted by As'ad at 11:45 AM 12/22/07

Zionism is also scroogism. “Israeli guards beat five demonstrators, including one dressed as Father Christmas, during a protest on Friday against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank, organisers said.” (thanks Badis)

Posted by As'ad at 10:08 AM 12/22/07

“Professor Joel Beinin, who teaches at both the American University of Cairo and Stanford University, specializes in the history of labor movements. He says most people, when measuring whether Egypt is democratizing or not, are looking at the wrong things. “There is nothing whatsoever in the formal political arena, or [...]

Posted by As'ad at 10:07 AM 12/22/07

““There was a shocking silence of the Jewish community on the issue of torture, and there is still a lacuna on this vital issue, to my eye,” said Felice Gaer, director of the AJCommittee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. “All Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, need to be more [...]

Posted by As'ad at 10:00 AM 12/22/07

“In September 2006, British novelist Martin Amis told the Times of London: “There’s a definite urge–don’t you have it?–to say, ‘the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.’ What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation–further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:59 AM 12/22/07

The dean of former Arab leftists, Hazim Saghiyyah, has a new idea. He says that anybody who opposes imperialism or Hamid Karzai is basically supporting the Taliban. I kid you not. He actually said that.

Posted by As'ad at 9:57 AM 12/22/07

“A lesbian high school student says she was asked by a teacher to cover up a lesbian-themed T-shirt or face suspension, and now a civil liberties group has taken up her cause.” (thanks John)

Posted by As'ad at 9:55 AM 12/22/07

I saw Ghassan bin Jiddu on New TV with Ghadah `Id. He is able to say “the martyr prime minister Rafiq Hariri” 20 times per minute, when asked any question about Hariri. At one point, he was explaining why people in the opposition should understand (the fananticism?) of the Hariri camp. The [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:52 AM 12/22/07

How many of you know that Israeli occupation troops have killed 24 Palestinians in three days?

Posted by As'ad at 1:34 AM 12/22/07

“The papers reveal how Blair put enormous pressure on Lord Goldsmith, his attorney-general, to force him to put an end to the embarrassing investigation into a huge Saudi arms deal.” (thanks Ali)

Posted by As'ad at 1:03 AM 12/22/07

A well-deserved damning critique of the founding declaration of the League of The Arab Rationalists. Personally, I wish to found a League of Arab Irrationalists. And what a lame, cliche-ridden statement.

Posted by As'ad at 1:00 AM 12/22/07