Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

Is that a cop coaching the Demon Children from Hell? And I know the soldiers are there to make sure things don’t get out of hand, but considering they’re not doing anything to clear the Demon Children from Hell out of the area, their presence seems to serve only to intimidate the women of the [...]

So after a long silence, the Vatican spoke. It seems that in recent years it had been busy with book-condemnation and busy reading Harry Potter. It probably goes something like this:Happiness can be found [ahh.. happiness? meaning sins of the flesh], even in the darkest of times [darkness… they said darkness as in Prince of [...]

In a press release yesterday UNRWA announced that there is an impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza because of the closure of the Karni Crossing. Not only is there food shortages, but there is a one-week’s supply of fuel left and if this runs out, there will no longer be any possibility of medical help because medical [...]

There they go, mucking up the Middle East again. Haven’t they done enough in Iraq?The Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers are masters of the art. Take today’s clever, well-written example: “Mission Unaccomplished.” It sounds great. It’s a pleasure to read. The facts are all correct. And it makes many good points. Here’s how it begins:Most [...]

Forget road maps, peace accords and negotiations and UN resolutions. Here is one person’s amusing suggestions for solutions, and you even get to choose which one of those three final solutions you want .. [and YES it IS a joke.. but isn’t the beauty of a joke in how much it touches upon the truth?] [link]:Final Solution [...]

A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush’s record on the [Palestinian/Israeli] issue was ‘crap’. He added:“We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have [...]

If anyone’s reading in Lebanon, here’s what an unexploded cluster bomblet looks like:This photo was taken in southern Lebanon on August 15 by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center for southern Lebanon. More photos here. Bloggers, particularly those in Lebanon: Please post these photos. You can see how easy it would be to miss these [...]

Asks Issandr in an op-ed reflecting on the war in Lebanon’s effect on moderates in the Arab world:The Bush administration’s intuition that it must reach out to moderates in the Arab world is an obvious one, and hopefully will continue to be the policy of future U.S. administrations. But it is not enough to speak [...]

It looks like the war in Lebanon is really over, that this cease-fire will hold. Thank God. I’m still a bit nervous because the Israelis are pretty entrenched in some places in the South and people are flooding back to their villages. All it would take is one accident to touch things off again.Friends in [...]

The new draft text of the U.N. Security Council resolution strikes an uneasy compromise on many of the key sticking points, but I hope it’s one everyone can support in the interest of ending the fighting. The key addition is the call for “a full cessation of hostilities,” though the confusing proviso, “based upon, in [...]

A contact in Beirut sent scans of the flyers the Israelis are dropping on the city with following brief message:These were dropped on our street yesterday warning of the fun to come later on that night. More than 12 bombs dropped this morning at dawn. With the world now focused on Al Qaeda at the [...]

Hossam reports at Arabist.net that a Lebanon solidarity protest at Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque turned violent today. He’s also posted Nasser Nouri’s photographs of plainclothes officers (apparently State Security’s elite “Karate Squad”) clashing with protesters.Please, guys, please: Please stop beating State Security with your shib-shibs. It’s a counterproductive provocation. Assaulting a police officer is a [...]

American readers may have missed this in the wall-to-wall coverage of the thwarted terrorist attacks and the ensuing chaos at the airports, so I just wanted to take note of the fact that the war continues along the Lebanese-Israeli border. AP journalist Christopher Torchia thinks the IDF has occupied the Christian town of Marjayoun in [...]

Via e-mail from an Egyptian friend: Tel Aviv’s Haaretz recently collected posts from Lebanese bloggers and published them.The irony, ya Israel, is that Lebanon is perhaps the only country in the region that could have been a friendly state one of these days. A warm peace, not a cold one. I always heard from acquaintances [...]

Late with this because I had to get to the airport almost straight from the protest, but some quick notes on the Aug. 6 demonstration in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo, calling on the government to expel the Israel ambassador (photos).A few quick observations:1. The protest was small, less than a [...]

So asks The Forward in its Aug. 4 editorial, albeit obliquely and while wrapping itself in white and blue. This is an overtly Zionist paper with a Yiddish edition and roots in the turn-of-the-century New York immigrant Jewish socialist movement. So this editorial—written in response to misgivings about the war and the fatal shooting in [...]

I want one…Windows users with time on their hands, download the software and have fun. Bloggers, don’t feed the trolls.Technorati Tags: Israel, israel lobby

HRW’s press release follows (Arabic, Hebrew):Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on CiviliansSome Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than [...]

عن د. ليلى سويف

أدعو لأن يصبح مطلب أن تتوقف مصر عن بيع الغاز والبتروللاسرائيل مطلبا محوريا فى حملتنا للتضامن مع لبنانوفلسطين، وفى هذا الصدد يمكن لكل منا أن يرسل خطابا أوفاكس أو email إلى السيد وزير البترول نطالبه فيه بذلك

واقترح أن تتكون الرسالة من سطر واحد

"لنوقف الآن وفورا الصادرات المصرية من غاز وبترول إلى اسرائيل فلا يعقل أن نستمر فى إمداد قتلة الأطفال بحاجتهم من الطاقة"

أو أية صياغة يراها الراسل مناسبة

عن د. ليلى سويف

أدعو لأن يصبح مطلب أن تتوقف مصر عن بيع الغاز والبتروللاسرائيل مطلبا محوريا فى حملتنا للتضامن مع لبنانوفلسطين، وفى هذا الصدد يمكن لكل منا أن يرسل خطابا أوفاكس أو email إلى السيد وزير البترول نطالبه فيه بذلك

واقترح أن تتكون الرسالة من سطر واحد

"لنوقف الآن وفورا الصادرات المصرية من غاز وبترول إلى اسرائيل فلا يعقل أن نستمر فى إمداد قتلة الأطفال بحاجتهم من الطاقة"

أو أية صياغة يراها الراسل مناسبة

“Left: Lebanese Passport. Right: Foreign Passport.” From An-Nahar, Beirut’s foremost daily, July 30, 2006.It was nice to escape the looming presence of the war in Beirut for a week. Back in Cairo, though, it’s impossible. Busy with work, now, so just a few scattered, unshaped thoughts:It looks like the Israelis may have finally gone too [...]

“Left: Lebanese Passport. Right: Foreign Passport.” From An-Nahar, Beirut’s foremost daily, July 30, 2006.It was nice to escape the looming presence of the war in Beirut for a week. Back in Cairo, though, it’s impossible. Busy with work, now, so just a few scattered, unshaped thoughts:It looks like the Israelis may have finally gone too [...]

Exactly as he fucked up before with his new release (back then) video (clip) on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and his support to Hamas in Palestine. Today, he asks the ‘mujahedeen’ of the ‘ummah’ to go support their ‘brothers’ in Lebanon and Palestine. Last time he spoke, the Hamas government and the Egyptian MBs came out and denied any [...]

First, this summary of the “Deadliest Day Yet in the Assault on Lebanon” from the Washington Post. Notice the Israelis are now bombing Christian neighborhoods… because, you know, Lebanese Christians are huge Hizbullah supporters.Second, these AP photos, taken Monday, of Israeli girls writing messages on missiles destined for Lebanon:Their parents must be very proud.Third, those [...]

First, this summary of the “Deadliest Day Yet in the Assault on Lebanon” from the Washington Post. Notice the Israelis are now bombing Christian neighborhoods… because, you know, Lebanese Christians are huge Hizbullah supporters.Second, these AP photos, taken Monday, of Israeli girls writing messages on missiles destined for Lebanon:Their parents must be very proud.Third, those [...]

First, this summary of the “Deadliest Day Yet in the Assault on Lebanon” from the Washington Post. Notice the Israelis are now bombing Christian neighborhoods… because, you know, Lebanese Christians are huge Hizbullah supporters.Second, these AP photos, taken Monday, of Israeli girls writing messages on missiles destined for Lebanon:Their parents must be very proud.Third, those [...]

الأخين الحلوين بوش وبلير رفضوا وقف إطلاق النار. بوش عمل فيتو فى مجلس الأمن ضد وقف إطلاق النار الفورى, وكذلك بلير بالأمس رفض وقف إطلاق النار وسط هجوم برلمانه عليه وبخاصة المعارضة, هذا فى حين تستمر العمليات الإسرائيلية بلا رادع, ويستمر إيهود أولمرت فى قتل الأبرياء والمدنيين وهدم البوت وما إلى هذا الكلام الذى نراه [...]

الأخين الحلوين بوش وبلير رفضوا وقف إطلاق النار. بوش عمل فيتو فى مجلس الأمن ضد وقف إطلاق النار الفورى, وكذلك بلير بالأمس رفض وقف إطلاق النار وسط هجوم برلمانه عليه وبخاصة المعارضة, هذا فى حين تستمر العمليات الإسرائيلية بلا رادع, ويستمر إيهود أولمرت فى قتل الأبرياء والمدنيين وهدم البوت وما إلى هذا الكلام الذى نراه [...]

Sean McCormack, Spokesman for the US State Department, gave a briefing yesterday, July 19th on Conoleeza Rice’s impending visit to the Middle East. About her meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, a reporter asked how could McCormack say the talks between the two went well when King Abdullah still asked for a cease fire, contrary to the US [...]

Sean McCormack, Spokesman for the US State Department, gave a briefing yesterday, July 19th on Conoleeza Rice’s impending visit to the Middle East. About her meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, a reporter asked how could McCormack say the talks between the two went well when King Abdullah still asked for a cease fire, contrary to the US [...]