Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

Fisk’s latest bit has an interesting fifth paragraph—he claims that Hizbullah is encouraging erstwhile residents of the now flattened southern suburbs of Beirut to rent, not buy. Seems that someone’s thinking tactically here, and has decided that there’s no point in rebuilding quite yet.Lebanon and Iraq are beginning to look like a giant fire sale, [...]

I’ve just uploaded a brilliant recent Daily Show interview with their Middle East correspondent in Beirut to YouTube. Instead of their usual correspondents, they has a guy act as their Arab correspondent. And while Jon Stewart was expressing concern about the carnage, the correspondent kept reacting as if he loved the whole birth pangs of [...]

Eric Alterman on how neo-cons and Israel Firsters are attacking American Jewry for putting America’s interests before Israel’s: Things can become a little confusing when the same neocons who insist it is ipso facto anti-Semitic to ask what role Israel plays in their calculations instruct American Jews that they are paying too much attention to [...]

Darling of neo-cons Bernard Lewis, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pinpoints the precise date of the Iranian destruction of Israel and the end of times:In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time — Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, [...]

11 Egyptian students from Mansoura University on an exchange program to Montana have disappeared:(AP) WASHINGTON Eleven Egyptian students who arrived in the United States last month are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University. The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who [...]

Robert Fisk on how the draft resolution is essentially an Israeli one: You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close Lebanese friend read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: “Don’t these bastards learn anything from history?”

The Nation on AIPAC:On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution “condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel’s exercise of its right to self-defense.” After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging “all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure,” the House version passed [...]

Despite the rising anger at pro-US Arab regimes for their stance on Lebanon — here in Egypt one editorialist recently wrote of day-dreaming about the plane of Arab foreign ministers going to Beirut being shot down by Israel while the opposition press is savaging Mubarak for his stance — it’s clear that among the [...]

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss in an open letter to George W. Bush in the Daily Star:You repeatedly claim that Israel is acting in self-defense. How preposterous! Self-defense on other people’s occupied territory is tantamount to one thing: blatant aggression.You call Hizbullah a terrorist organization. We call it a legitimate resistance movement. There would [...]

The interesting thing about this AP story about US military training for the Lebanese army, written by hardcore pro-Israel hack Barry Schweid, is that it makes absolutely no mention of the Lebanese reaction to the proposal — whether in the Lebanese government or Lebanese army. It’s clear what the idea is, though:The administration is striving [...]

Absolutely nothing surprising about this:Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without [...]

No more freedom for fries, or so Congress has decreed. The congressmen who backed the original name-change are not commenting, but I wonder if the right-wing bloggers who backed the name change against cheese-eating surrender monkeys will not take up the cause. Could this be a sign of a return from Bizarro World for American [...]

Not a single conversation thesedays about US policy in the region, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and what have you–that does not end with the question, where are the Arab Americans, and why aren’t they as organized as the pro-Israel lobby. Issandr has blogged several postings about this subject before.Anyways, Zazou posted some critical comments on Darell [...]

Not a single conversation thesedays about US policy in the region, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and what have you–that does not end with the question, where are the Arab Americans, and why aren’t they as organized as the pro-Israel lobby. Issandr has blogged several postings about this subject before.Anyways, Zazou posted some critical comments on Darell [...]

I’m watching Al-Jazeera now. The channel has just announced that the US State Department said Israel agreed to suspend aerial operations for 48 hours, and will investigate what happened in Qana.UPDATE: Now Al-Jazeera is saying that “Israel’s temporary suspension of aerial bombardments does not cover missile launch batteries.”

I’m watching Al-Jazeera now. The channel has just announced that the US State Department said Israel agreed to suspend aerial operations for 48 hours, and will investigate what happened in Qana.

An opinion piece by William M. Arkin on the Washington Post blog…

Here is a rather amusing article by Ralp Peters, a former US Lt. Colonel and a raving pro-Zionist, calling for redrawing the boundaries in the Middle East.Here is another article by Ralphie in the NY Post, warning, as a “lifelong Israel supporter,” that the Israel might lose the current war if it doesn’t use more [...]

It seems the democratization domino effect Bush expected following the War on Iraq is working the other way around. The US is increasingly inspired by its Arab “allies.” Bush’s proposed detainee bill is a worrying development for anyone who cares about civil liberties. It sounds a bit like the Egyptian emergency law…Bush submits new terror [...]

It means “The Free One” — free to stack its guest roster with Republicans, members of the intellectual wing of the Israel lobby and under-represent the Arab world, Democrats and Arab-Americans. Read all about it at Abu Aardvark.

Depressing…

Arabist reader and friend Ryan O’Kane sent me the following piece he wrote:An Eye for a Thousand EyesThe Political Morality of Supporting IsraelIsrael’s carefully managed escalation game is sucking the world into political chaos. But its success depends on the world’s moral confusion and paralysis. If we are to act in time to end this [...]

Another clear example of why things need to change in Washington in the NYT article on Arab and Israeli lobbies’ efforts to gain influence in Congress:Although people in both diasporas are glued to their television screens, the parallel ends there. While the American Arab and Muslim groups say they are better organized than ever before, [...]

“I hate to say this but I will say it. I think what the Israelis are doing today for example in Lebanon is in effect, in effect — maybe not in intent — the killing of hostages. The killing of hostages.”“Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the [...]

I stole this animation from Wael’s blog… (Zazou, I know you’ll like this)Related links:Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt

SP sent me this..

I received this interesting article form my friend Ryan O’Kane, a postgraduate historian in London, who specializes in the strategic framework behind US foreign interventions. The article, followed by Ryan’s comment, exposes some facts that can in part explain the current Israeli war on Lebanon, with some more far-reaching contribution to Rice’s recently announced (Not-That)-New-Middle-East [...]

Americans, remember this come the fall elections:On July 20, the U.S. House of Representatives, by an overwhelming 410-8 margin, voted to unconditionally endorse Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Senate passed a similar resolution defending the Israeli attack earlier in the week by a voice vote, but included a clause that [...]

From the Guardian…

Here’s an AP story confirming the recent news reports about a new initiative whereby Egypt and Saudi Arabia would intervene to try to sway Syria away from its alliance with Iran and Hizbollah–in an very classic exchange for a promise from Washington not to give them any headaches about this annoying democracy thing.Though the [...]