Archive for December 3, 2011
Sami Al-Jundi
One of the most enjoyable and insightful political books on Arab contemporary history, and on the horrors of the Ba`th party, is Sami Al-Jundi’s Al-Ba`th. It is hard to find but should be read widely. Al-Jundi is a great writer.
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Militia wars in Libya
Is Reuters the only one reporting on the crimes of NATO militias in Libya?
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Jibali on Israel
A mini state would now satisfy the Islamists after railing for years and decades in religious (and often anti-Jewish) terms about Palestine being waqf land: ”Erdogan : Etes-vous (Ennahda) pour la reconnaissance et la normalisation des relations d…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Mubarak’s grave?
It should be relocated to Saudi Arabia.
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Advice to Bahrain King
My sources tell me: ”The advice that the regime is receiving from its lobbyists is to hire as many Americans as possible and to make Americans their partners. This way, the Americans will now be the face of Bahrain’s security apparatus. This wi…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
The loot, the loot
“A quarrel is brewing among Iraqi officials over who gets to decide what to do with the sprawling complex of grandiose former palaces of Saddam Hussein that has served for years as Camp Victory, the headquarters of the U.S. military in Iraq.” (thanks L…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Aasaf Shawkat and Burhan Ghalyun
With the interview with Ghalyun in the WSJ, the distance between Ghalyun and Shawkat has narrowed.
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Cherif Bassioni
So I asked Norman Finkelstein about his former colleague at DePaul University, Cherif Bassioni (former adviser on Camp David for Anwar Sadat). Norman wrote to me this (I cite with his permission): ”I meant several time to write you about th…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
You may thank US liberators for this
“President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a jailed rape victim, but only after she agreed to marry the man she says raped her.” If this happened under the Taliban, it would be all over Western media and the Security Council would have held a special s…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Don’t worry: Rashid Ghannushi will protect Israeli interests
“Sources in Israel have expressed deep concern about the possibility of Tunisia adopting what is being called the “Opposition to Zionism and Boycott of Israel” law. According to the Hebrew language media, the political community in Tel Aviv is taking t…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Israel was born (by force) in 1948, but its cooking apparently started 600 years ago
“Ten Israeli restaurants, six hundred years in the kitchen” (thanks Michael)
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Saudi Wahhabi science
Repealing a ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia would result in ‘no more virgins’, the country’s religious council has warned. A ‘scientific’ report claims relaxing the ban would also see more Saudis – both men and women – turn to homo…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
They have to borrow terms from another culture and language to describe their own prejudice and misogyny
When the ‘Taliban women’ phenomenon finally reached Mea She’arim: ”"It is hard to ignore the sense that part of the impetus for the Badatz condemnation of the group known as “Taliban women” derived from the men’s feeling of intimidation by those …
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
HIV in Qatar
“On Wednesday, human rights watchdog Section 27 fingered Al Jazeera English and the State of Qatar for infringing on the human rights of people living with HIV. A South African journalist is reported to have been detained in a Doha prison, dismissed…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Hariri security forms
If you move to a neighborhood that happens to be in the vicinity of mini-Hariri in Beirut, you are forced to fill in those forms. (thanks neighbor of Hariri)
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Rashid Ghannushi does not want to condemn Zionism
Ghannushi is reassuring Zionists that he has no intention to condemn Zionism. (thanks Farah)
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Le Figaro on "the sexual revolution" in Lebanon (it should be more "sexual revulsion" of Lebanon)
You know it is not a revolution, when it is supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And you know it is not a sexual revolution when it is championed by Le Figaro. This is such an insult to the women of Lebanon and the Arab world at large. (tha…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
For those who supported the UN bid by PA
I address myself to those who took seriously the PA bid at the UN. I never took it seriously, and rejected all attempts to have me post invitations to readers to write to this embassy or that. I knew that no good can come out of a bid led b…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
Islamists flirt with Washington Zionists
The Islamists demagogue, Rashid Ghannushi, flirt with American Zionists. After sending his deputy to bow down before American Zionists in Washington, DC, Ghannushi decides to do the tour himself. He decided that the best platform would be t…
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad
The new leaders of Egypt
The headline says: ”In the event of a brother from the Ikhwan becoming president”And then over the women (from right to left) there is this: First lady of Egypt; Second Lady of Egypt; Third Lady of Egypt; And fourth Lady of Egypt.”
Posted on December 3, 2011 by As'ad