Archive for September 9, 2012
buy and sell
“”The man who controls the FSA’s operations around the border with Turkey then handed the designer $300 (£187) and a flash drive full of footage and photographs of the conflict. These included interviews with senior FSA commanders and images from …
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Viva BDS
“The Lebanese support act to US rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers has pulled out of their scheduled concert together The Chili Peppers are set to play in Beirut on Thursday night before heading to Tel Aviv for a concert on Monday night. But in what has b…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Adorno on Israel
A reader sent me a quotation by Adorno on Israel after the 1967. This brilliant man sounded like Abraham Foxman when he talked about Israel. I told the reader that Max Horkheimer was even worse: but remember that Horkheimer even turned agai…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks
“The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished 10 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C of the West Bank this week, including five residential structures, displacing 32 Palestinians, including 14 children, according to a weekly report issued by th…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Ms. Georgia Tech
“Ibn Rushd” sent me this: “Regarding Rifaat El Assad, there was a similar story last year in France. Claude Allègre, a French geologist and former minister, also a climate change denier, wrote a book in which he cited “the work of …
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Initiative for a cease-fire in Syria
Akram, the Angry Arab’s correspondent in Syria, sent me this:”A Syrian group on Facebook,” Proponents and opponents together for an instant ceasefire”, invited the Syrians to participate in a demonstration that it would take place in Damascus on 15t…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Support disqualification
“Oman’s team was disqualified from the World University Futsal Championship, held recently in Portugal with support from FIFA, after it failed to turn up for a match against Israel, a top official has confirmed.” (thanks Abbas)
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Arafat’s newphew: I got paid, again
“The nephew of late President Yasser Arafat said on Thursday it was not necessary to re-investigate the leader’s death as everyone knows who was behind it, Al Jazeera reported.”
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Censorship in Al-Hayat: Jihad Khazen speaks
Jihad Al-Khazen (a columnist and editor in various media of Saudi princes over the years) speaks candidly (unusually) about censorship in Saudi media:(Jihad Al-Khazen, editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat newspaper (at the time of writing the book), which is ru…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Protests in PA lands
John sent me this: “For what it’s worth (to confirm what Electronic Ali was saying), I’ve been in Ramallah all week around the protests, and most of the participants in them were said to be people from Fateh, and there were lots of security off…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Dawkins: the sometimes feminist
“As for his comment on Muslim women, Dawkins writes: “Muslim women suffer physically from misogyny, their lives are substantially damaged by religiously inspired misogyny. Not just words, real deeds, painful, physical deeds, physical provisions, legall…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Sexist Che?
“”But she says she would like to have been able to argue with him. “When I was six he sent me a letter. In it he said I should be good and help my mother with household chores. I was angry because my brother’s letter said ‘I will take you to the moo…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
It will be over in four months, three days, and five hours
“Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) military council, expects the embattled regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad regime will not last more than another four months and stressed the unity of the armed opposition inside Syria.”
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Rif`at Al-Asad’s PhD dissertation
Rif`at Al-Asad claimed that he had a PhD in political science from Moscow. I have a copy of the dissertation (published in a book in Arabic in Syria years ago–it is now a collector’s item). I have told the story before but it cracks me up …
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Foreign fighters in Iraq: bad. Foreign fighters in Syria: good.
“Jacques Beres, co-founder of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, returned from Syria on Friday evening after spending two weeks working clandestinely in a hospital in the besieged northern Syrian city. In an interview with Reuters in his…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
What is wrong with you, Joseph Massad?
“Joseph Massad, who teaches modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York argues that throwing out a dictator with the help of foreign allies is always a bad idea.” You are saying that Joseph is opposed to for…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
Ibn Khaldun’s Asabiyyah theory
It is high time that we retire the Ibn Khaldun’s `Asabiyyah theory about Arab society. It has over-extended its usefulness, centuries ago. This has been a key element in Orientalist theorization about the Arab world and it is time that it b…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
political prisoners
Being a political prisoner does not give one a life-time immunity from criticisms. There were people who were in Saddam jails and who were brutally tortured and later cheered the American occupation (like Husayn Sharistani who is selling Iraqi oi…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
The warring factions in Lebanon
Enough lies and deceptions. The two sides in Lebanon (March 8 and March 14 movements) are heavily involved in the war and bloodshed in Syria. They now bear responsibility for the killing.
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad
A fist fight in Misyaf in Syria
A reader from Homs told me a story. A group of of young Syrians from Homs visited Misyaf in Syria and met with other Syrians in the area. There was a discussion over my views and articles on Syria between young Marxists and others who are l…
Posted on September 9, 2012 by As'ad