Even when Israeli officials vomit lies, they get away with it in the New York Times

"noting that the main Druse leadership in Syria has so far stayed steadfastly out of the conflict."  In fact, the Druze leadership in Syria have been fiercely pro-regime and Walid Jumblat has been attacking them for that for months.  Check your facts, damn it.

Call to arms by George Sabra

I watched the speech, the call to arms by George Sabra yesterday. It really reminded me of Gen. Dhukov or Field Marshall Montgomery in WWII...as they appear in a spoof on Saturday Night Live.

Oh, poor Israel: it is being dragged into the conflict in Syria--against its will

Look at this headline:  "Israel Finding Itself Drawn Into Syria’s Turmoil".  Like Israel was dragged into the conflict in Syria and forced to bomb Syria repeatedly.  Poor Israel.  And then: "“I think we’re being very measured and very cautious in a very volatile situation,” one Israeli official said".  Look at this absurd sentence: what is revealing is that an Israeli official can make any self-serving claim in an Western newspaper and gets away with it.  Anything.  I mean, a frog in Israel can say: I am the best looking creature there is, and the quote would appear without snickers. 

The White Man Watches

From Angry Arab's correspondent in Kenya, Buush:  "
I am always curious when someone is watching. Big Brother is watching! Aargh!!
When Kerry tells “brave citizens” in Ethiopia like Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu, Wobshet Taye, Sertkalem Fasil, Bekele Gerba, Olbana Lelisa, Abubekar Ahmed, Ahmedin Jebel, Ahmed Mustafa and so many others “America is watching”, what does he mean? Does he mean America is watching them rot in Meles Zenawi Prison #1 in Kality and/or #2 in Zewai? Does he mean America is watching Ethiopia like birdwatchers watch birds? Or like amateur astronomers watching the starry night sky? Perhaps like daydreaming tourists at the beach watching the waves crash and the summer clouds slowly drifting inland?
Is “watching” a good or a bad thing? If we believe Albert Einstein, watching is no good. “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” (Silent watchers, watch out!) Like Nero Claudius Caesar who watched Rome burn from the hilltops singing and playing his lyre. Or, (I hate to say it but it would be hypocritical of me not to) like Susan Rice who watched Rwanda burn. Her only question was, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [Congressional] election?”
I like it when Human Rights Watch (HRW) watches because when they watch they witness. They saw the genocide and crimes against humanity in the Ogaden and Gambella and they have witnesses. They watched independent journalists jacked up in kangaroo court and railroaded to Meles Prison #1 or #2. (Sounds like the equivalent of a hotel chain? Well, they do put chain and ball on innocent people at the Meles Zenawi Hilton.)
I like watching watchdogs watch crooks, criminals and outlaws. I mean “watchdog journalists” like Eskinder, Reeyot, Serkalem, Woubshet and many others. These journalists used to watch power abusers and alert citizens of the crimes they were watching. Now the criminals are watching them in solitary at the Meles Zenawi Hilton.
I also like the way the watchdogs’ watchdog watch those who dog the watchdogs. I am referring to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The CPJ guys are like McGruff, the crime watchdog, always tracking to “take bites out of crimes” committed against journalists. Not long ago, they watched and sounded the alarm that Reeyot Alemu was heading to solitary confinement just because she complained about inhumane and inhuman treatment in Meles Zenawi Prison. Last week, the CPJ watched Woubshet Taye being hauled from the Meles Zenawi Prison #1 to Meles Zenawi Prison #2. (They think he will be forgotten by the world lost in the armpits of Meles Zenawi Prison #2.)
I pity those who just watch. Like the “foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear” or those who may “indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand.” I have no idea what the Obama Administration is watching, perceiving or seeing in Ethiopia? I would like to believe they are watching human rights abuses and abusers and the criminals against humanity. But how is it possible to watch with arms folded, ears plugged and wearing welding goggles? I wonder: Could they be watching the tragicomedy, “The Trials and Tribulations of the Apostles of Meles”? Perhaps they are watching kangaroo courts stomping all over justice and decency? I am certain they are not watching the political prisoners. Perhaps they are watching the horror movie, “Dystopia in Ethiopia”? Sure, it’s a scary movie but it really isn’t real. But if it is real, what’s the big deal? The same horror film has been playing all over Africa since before independence. Get over it!"

This is what I call irrefutable evidence

"Syrian opposition officials have also told the United States that Iranians have joined Hezbollah in the fighting in Qusayr, a development American officials said they could not independently verify but that they suggested was plausible."

Here is your Hizbullah expert: the on-line detective

"Based on these official Hezbollah and pro-Hezbollah sources, I counted a total of 20 Hezbollah members killed from the period starting on May 18 until mid-day on May 20. Due to the timing of the announcements, it stands to reason that a majority of these fighters died while engaged in the heavy fighting around Qusayr. " (thanks Peter)

The Ahmadinajad house of propaganda

It is fitting that the Iranian propaganda site would feature an article by an Israeli anti-Semite who is attacking dear comrade, Joseph Massad.  What do you expect from a regime whose president is a holocaust denier?

US-approved reforms in Saudi Arabia

"Saudi Arabia must halt a “disturbing” rise in death penalty usage that has resulted in at least 47 state killings in the country already this year, Amnesty International urged after six more people were executed today.  Five Yemeni men were beheaded and “crucified” this morning in the city of Jizan, while a Saudi Arabian man was executed in the south-western city of Abha.  “Saudi Arabia’s increased use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is deeply disturbing and the authorities must halt what is a horrifying trend,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director.  “The Kingdom must immediately establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing capital punishment.”   Pictures today emerged on social media appearing to show five decapitated bodies hanging from a horizontal pole with their heads wrapped in bags. "

For the US, this man represents the hope for Syria

He is known for his sophistication and eloquence and for his long years of service to the Asad regime: " “They are invaders. They are dogs acting like beasts,” he said in an interview, referring bitterly to the Hezbollah fighters. “I swear to god, Hassan Nasrallah will pay the price,” General Idris added, referring to the Hezbollah leader."

Demolition of Palestinain homes in Jerusalem

From Zuhdi: 

""This is a picture that I saw on facebook, it shows the aftermath of the demolition of a house, where people are thrown on the street within a very short notice. This happens a lot as Palestinians living in Jerusalem are always targeted with tactics and conspiracies that make it almost impossible to live within Jerusalem, and eventually decide to move to the West Bank side of the wall a mile away, enabling the Israeli government to take their residency IDs because they are not citizens of Israel, they are simply residents in the eyes of Israeli law.

When the IDs are taken away, these people would no longer be able to go to Jerusalem because they won't be able to pass through the checkpoint. Palestinians in Jerusalem villages directly on the border with the checkpoints and the wall own hundreds of acres, but they are not allowed to build on them. In very rare cases the government isn't able to ban building on a piece of land, so rare that the price of an acre is more than $4,000,000 compared to another land half a mile away on the other side of the wall that costs $50,000. To build on these lands in Jerusalem a building permit is required, the cost of the permit for the first three stories is $200,000 after the third the cost would be 100,000 for each floor. There is also a waiting period of two years before one actually obtains the permit.

The median salary for Palestinians living in Jerusalem by my estimation is almost NIS 69000 ($19000)"

a regime that kills its own people: the US III

""The United States has killed four of its own citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, the Barack Obama administration has formally acknowledged. 

Eric Holder, the US attorney general, said in a letter addressed to congressional leaders on Wednesday that three of those killed were not targets of the strikes involving drones in Yemen and elsewhere."" (thanks Luke)

Sunni or Shi`ite?

"Saleh Sabbagh was killed in the raging battles for Qusair in the Syrian province of Homs. The son of a Sunni father and a Shiite mother, Sabbagh had converted to Shiite Islam and joined Hezbollah years ago. His family, with the exception of his mother, insisted he be buried at a Sunni cemetery in Sidon. The attempt to bury him ... in the southern city was viewed as a provocative act by some and hundreds of angry supporters of controversial Sunni sheikh Ahmad Assir as well as a group of Salafists blocked the cemetery’s entrance with sandbags and burning tires. “His body should be thrown into the sea,” one protester said." (thanks Basim)

glory of Western civilization

"The government-funded commission, in a long-awaited report, found that "the British Colonial administration in Kenya was responsible for unspeakable and horrific gross violations of human rights", including "massacres, torture and sexual violence"."

Israel's calculations

"Israel's calculations are more complicated, given that it had a good working relationship with the Assad regime and is concerned about a failed state emerging next door. But on balance, a conflict that undermines Iran, further divides the Arab/Islamic world, and distracts people from the continued colonization of the West Bank is a net plus."

US arming allies of Al-Qa`idah

" "This is an important moment," Paul announced. "You will be funding, today, the allies of al Qaeda. It's an irony you cannot overcome." " (thanks Amir)

“of course we will allow Israel to use Jordanian air space for another attack on Syria”

"A senior Jordanian official has confirmed that the Hashemite Kingdom is allowing the Israelis to fly unmanned drones over its air space as part of the Israeli monitoring of the situation in Syria.
The official, who is close to King Abdullah, told the JC that the two countries are “working as one over Syria”. He also said that, if the need arose, “of course we will allow Israel to use Jordanian air space for another attack on Syria”." (thanks Asa)

Fee Syrian Army prepares to launch sectarian bombings in Lebanon against Shi`ite targets

An official spokesperson of the Fee Syrian Army unwittingly reveals sectarian bombing plots by the group in Lebanon against Shi`ite targets by claiming that they have obtained information that Hizbullah is planning to bomb itself to blame Sunni groups.

Dem nom de guerre? nom de guerre? what guerre, damn it?

"Der Autor, bekannt unter dem nom de guerre "Angry Arab" - durch das gleichnamige Blog -, wird seinem Namen gerecht, indem er seinen Zorn auf die von politischen Interessen und Beschränkungen verstellte Berichterstattung im Westen wie in arabischen Ländern äußert. Die westlichen Medien seien diesbezüglich wieder einmal ahnungslos und die, entweder vom saudi-arabischen oder vom katarischen Herrscherhaus dominierten, arabischen Medien würden den missliebigen Trend ignorieren."

clumsy reporting on Syria

Anne Barnard and other Western reporters writing on Syria clumsily write (based on what they are told by March 14 stringers and contacts in Lebanon) that Hizbullah is now announcing the death of its fighters in Syria.  The situation is more complex.  They do now announce that so and so (and the numbers have been far less than in the ridiculous claims by Syrian armed groups) died performing his (no women allowed in Hizbullah's sexist struggle) "Jihadi duties".  But yesterday, there was an interesting situation: a Sunni member of the Hizbullah fighting team in Qusayr died and he was to be buried in the Sunni new cemetery in Sidon but the Sunni Ikhwan and Salafite forces made a fuss and refused to bury him.  His family had to agree to bury him in a Shi`ite cemetery. 

Meet the secular, US-approved Fee Syrian Army

This from a UN source: "the rate of school attendance at Zaatari is dropping drastically because FSA in the camp is asking parents to send their kids to the mosque instead where they get religious teaching... what a future!

Rendition project

""They beat me and kicked me, roughing me up badly. Another person took pictures of me, and then one of them forcefully stuck his finger into my anus. I was in severe pain and began to faint.""

"Sexual assaults in South Korea by U.S. military"

"The report paints a grimmer picture of the climate surrounding sexual assaults in Korea than that portrayed by U.S. military officials." (thanks Amir)

a regime that bombs its people: the US II

From Jon:  Hey As'ad, Re: Harding bombing miners... The US attacked its own people from air more recently in at least two other cases,  i) Attica, 1971: the prison assault began with an Army helicopter
dropping gas into the courtyard... Wiki: The New York State Special Commission on Attica wrote, "With the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War." ii) In 1985, Philly police ended a siege on MOVE by bombing them with plastic explosives dropped from a helicopter, burning 11 people to death, including five children, along with the entire city block (65 homes). There are probably others that are just as instructive, too, eh?"

The Syrian-Qatari Observatory for Human Rights must have stumbed on Nicholas Blanford's secret Hizbullah's sources

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, cited unidentified "sources close to the militant group" for its Hezbollah death toll Monday." Is this statement not enough to discredit anything that comes out of this Center? I mean, really.  (thanks Basim)

Flash. Syrian regime ends state of war with Israel

Read all about it. The lousy Syrian regime declared an end to the state of war with Israel and said that by firing yesterday at an Israeli military vehicle in the Golan it fulfilled its promise back in 1974 to determine "the time and place of the battle with Israel" and considers the conditions of liberation to have been met.  The firing ends the state of war with Israel, as far as the Syrian regime is concerned.

`Abdul-Rahim Murad and Anne Barnard

It is funny if you think about it.  Ms. Anne Barnard sat I don't know how many times with Murad, the pro-Syrian regime Lebanese politician, but she cited him several times in recent weeks and she thought that he was a member of parliament.  What would happen to a Le Monde correspondent in Washington, DC if she/he interviewed some one in DC and mistakenly introduced him to readers as member of Congress? Think about it.

He changed his name from Bashshar

"Ms. Rifai said that among the refugees, she had encountered a 4-year-old boy named Bashar who said he was ashamed to have the same given name as Mr. Assad and had decided to call himself Mohammed instead."  Yes, because he would be beaten up in that camp and in that vicinity for that name, just as families who named their children Saddam in Iraq later had to changed the names of those sons especially that some of the parents switched sides and fought with the "liberators.

Which is more terrorist?

I was thinking about this this morning: which is more terrorist? The Fee Syrian Army or the Nusrah Front? I think a strong case can be made that the Fee Syrian Army is in fact more terrorist than the Nusrah front and has committed far more acts of terror than the Nusrah front? 

Media claims on Syria

"The fierce fighting in Qusayr pits mainly Alawite and Shiite fighters on the side of President Bashar al-Assad against rebels who are mostly Sunnis..." Not only Anne Barnard, who can't really be faulted given her lack of training in Middle East studies and reporting, but all the rest: notice that they still insist that only `Alawites are fighting in the Syrian regime army when most soldiers are in fact Sunnis.  The reality really bothers their narrative so they simply invent a new reality to fit their sectarian picture fed to them by the armed groups.

the miraculous claims of the Syrian armed opposition

It is quite amazing that Western media still manage to reproduce verbatim without any critical scrutiny the bizarre claims of the Syrian armed groups:  "The combat of the past three days, including nearly continuous artillery shelling from the army, has left scores of civilians dead, he said, estimating the toll at 64 civilians killed and more than 500 wounded..." Whenever they are engaged in combat, they produce claims of death and injury that seem to only affect civilians.  Miracuslously, the fighters never seem to suffer casualties by their claims.  If you follow the claims of the armed groups in Western media, you reach this conclusion: that bombs and bullets of the Syrian regime only kill and injure civilians, while bombs and bullets of the armed groups only kill and injure regime soldiers (and shabbihah--don't forget).  Who in his right mind would believe those claims--I mean, other than Anne Barnard?

"Why Is Russia Still Arming Syria?"

"Why Is Russia Still Arming Syria?"  Simple. For the same reason that US, Germany, UK, France, UAE, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain are arming the Syrian armed opposition movement.  I mean, you did not know that at the Times?

dumb response to Massad's article

Not pleased that this piece appears on Mondoweiss: "What is interesting about the article is that it – as is usual – identifies Jews as Ashkenazim only.  For all that Massad has relationships with Mizrahi Jews, his thinking remains monocausal and racist. Jews never lived in the Middle East and all discussion of Jewish identity and Zionism must be tied exclusively to Europe."  Comrade Joseph has written extensively on the distinction between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim, but he is talking about the leadership of Zionists who were and are still Ashkenazim. 

Zionists: they abuse humans and animals

"Israeli food giant admits to abusive slaughterhouse conditions"

House of Saud media: they feign sensitivity to anti-Semitism

Al-Arabiyya, the mouthpiece of King Fahd's brother-in-law dares to refer to Joseph Massad's anti-Zionist article as "anti-Jewish".  It is rather ironic that House of Saud media feel qualified to comment on whether something is anti-Jewish or not.  Has there ever been a media, since the Nazi era, that has vomited more vile anti-Semitism that House of Saud media?  This is a media that has specialized in producing hatred of Jews and others.  This is a media that still talks about Marxism as a Jewish conspiracy an that borrows heavily from Nazi propaganda on the subject.  They now want to comment on the matter? 

PS These are the most read articles in this sleazy House of Saud website:  "Amina Tyler, Tunisia’s ‘topless jihad’ activist, caught and under arrest".

The other side of American "liberation" in WWII: GIs just wanna have "fun"

"This isn’t the “greatest generation” as it has come to be depicted in popular histories. But in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American G.I. in World War II France,” the historian Mary Louise Roberts draws on French archives, American military records, wartime propaganda and other sources to advance a provocative argument: The liberation of France was “sold” to soldiers not as a battle for freedom but as an erotic adventure among oversexed Frenchwomen, stirring up a “tsunami of male lust” that a battered and mistrustful population often saw as a second assault on its sovereignty and dignity."

The US is outraged: why would a Russian polling organization be required to register as a foreign agent?

"In a letter, prosecutors said Levada could not continue to release its work without identifying itself as “a foreign agent,” as required under a new law...The prosecutor’s letter, dated Wednesday, details a series of grants the center received from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute Foundation, amounting to around $800,000 over a three-year period. Mr. Gudkov said foreign sources accounted for no more than 3 percent of the center’s funding."  Correct me if I am wrong, is it different in the US? If a US research group were to receive Russian funding in any amount, would it not be required to register as a foreign agent?

Aljazeera fabricates

"According to audience data produced for Q1 2013 by Ipsos and Sigma, two independent media research agencies, Al Jazeera's daily viewership across the MENA region was 34 percent higher than all the other pan-Arab channels combined." Can you tell us more about the audience data research by the two groups, please? thanks. (thanks Omar)

Rashid Ghannushi's daughter

You may want to follow on my personal (not Angry Arab) account on twitter the responses by Rashid Ghannushi's daughter, Yusra, to my latest Al-Akhbar English article on the era of Arab atheism.

The Kennedy children bother me much more than the Kardashian sisters.

Read above.

The Syrian regime that protected Israel for over 40 years is now calling me a Zionist

The lousy Syrian regime that has bee keenly protecting the Zionist entity since Hafidh Al-Asad became Minister of Defense in the 1960s dares to call me a Zionist.  This is like George W. Bush calling someone a war monger.

PS Here is the deal I have with the propaganda hoodlums of the Syrian regime: if you liberate the Golan heights from Israeli occupation--and I shall give you another forty years to complete the job--I will apologize to you.  Deal?

AJE apolgoizes--kind of--to Joseph Massad and reposts the article

Finally, AJE apologizes--kind of--and reposts the censored article by comrade Joseph Massad.  As for the notion that this article is similar to a previous article, I say: please go play in the garden, NOW.  If the decision was purely technical, why publish it and then remove it then?  Give me a potato, please.

US and Burma

"Either way, the administration remains deeply troubled by Myanmar’s repressive policies and actions." And who is the stance of being "deeply troubled" reflected? By receiving the Burmese dictator in the Oval House. Sare me.

Aljazeera America: important announcement

Hoping to fend off Zionist criticisms, Aljazeera America announced the name of its main chief anchor.  Congratulations. 

Heroism of the Egyptian Army

"Egyptian officials say troops and police mistakenly fired on a Bedouin funeral in the Sinai during a sweep searching for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants."

Atheism in Egypt: thank you, MB

Two articles on the spread of atheism in Egypt in the wake of the rule by MB. (thanks Sa`d)

Toursim: China and Israel

Tourism from China to Israel jumped 49 percent to nearly 20,000 visitor arrivals in the past two years, growing nearly twice as fast as the almost 20 percent growth for all of Asia, according to Tourism Ministry figures. The number of visitors from Europe increased by only 3 percent in the same period. “The tourism potential for Israel from China is far from realized and one of the goals of the ministry for 2013 is to break into the Chinese market,” former tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov said in March. " (thanks Mohammed)

Greenwald on AJE's censorship

Glenn writes about AJE's censorship of Joseph Massad's anti-Zionist article.  But one thing in the article bothered me, I have to say: the reference to the PhD dissertation of Mahmoud Abbas.  Abbas should not be mentioned in the same article on the topic because he is a notorious anti-Semite and his dissertation contained grotesque denial of the holocaust. 

Hazem Saghiyyah: in the service of oil princes

So yesterday, I casually mocked that Hazem Saghiyyah (a right-wing writer in the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan and in Hariri media) after receiving a journalism award from the ruler of Dubai--kid you not, I am not making this up--he wrote a column praising the Dubai model.  So he commented on my Facebook "like" page and called me a donkey.  It is not the first time that he has used bad language in talking about me.  Fortunately for my readers, my mother was very strict in our upbringing: that we don't engage anyone who uses bad language in debate.

Anti-Semitism versus anti-Islam

And the report noted an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East. In his remarks, Mr. Kerry announced the appointment of a new special envoy on the issue, Ira N. Forman, a former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council who also served as the director of Jewish outreach in President Obama’s re-election campaign....The report also chronicled a rise in anti-Muslim attitudes in Europe that have shaped government policies."  I hate to bother you but how come there is only a special envoy on the issue of anti-Semitism but not on anti-Islam?  How is that measured or decided?

propaganda on Syria

I am sick and tired of the lies and fabrications by both sides in the Syrian conflict. The lastest is one by Syrian regime propagandists in which they claim that the daughter of the Emir of Qatar is tweeting against her father. I mean, come on.

Its days are numbered

"The military onslaught this week against the strategic Syrian town of Qusair has dramatized a surprising combat resilience that has already put rebel forces on the defensive on other key fronts, including near the capital, Damascus.

The military's still-robust fighting ability — apparently bolstered in Qusair by the presence of combatants from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group — has confounded predictions from experts and foreign capitals that the Syrian government's days were numbered."

Germany and Syrian rebels

From Adam:  "I was interested when I first began to read this interview with the German Foreign Minister and found that he was against shipping weapons to the rebels. That was until he justified the past and current intervention and then why he doesn't want to send the rebels weapons: apparently he would be fine with arming them if "these weapons do not end up in the hands of extremists, terrorists and jihadists, for whom Damascus is merely a staging post on the road to Jerusalem?" That's where I stopped and went elsewhere, only to return so I could send this to you."

A regime that bombs its people: the US

"On August 30, President Harding placed all of West Virginia under martial law. On September 1, 2,500 federal troops arrived with more machine guns, percussion and gas bombs, and 14 airplanes commanded by World War I hero General Billy Mitchell. Bombs rained on miners' positions, though their accuracy was problematic; in the early days of flight, bombs were literally "dropped" from flimsy aircraft." -- Robert E. Weir. Workers In America: A Historical Encyclopedia. 2013. pages 67-68." (thanks Amir)

This is the democratic and secular gang that the US is supporting: Fee Syrian Army threatens that Shi'ites and Alawites to be "wiped off the map"

"Communities inhabited by Shiite Muslims and President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority will be “wiped off the map” if the strategic city of Al-Qusair in central Syria falls to government troops, rebel forces said.  “We don’t want this to happen, but it will be a reality imposed on everyone,” Colonel Abdel-Hamid Zakaria, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army in Turkey, told Al-Arabiya television yesterday. “It’s going to be an open, sectarian, bloody war to the end.”"  This threat is typical of the sectarian doublespeak of the Fee Syrian Army: they speak something sectarian and then they catch themselves so they quickly try to backtrack. (thanks Jamal)

This is how the story of Lebanese Salafite intervention in Syria is covered in the New York Times

There has not been one story in the Times about the open and vigorous intervention by Lebanese Salafite groups in the Syrian conflict.  The story is buried in passing in an article on Hizbullah's role:  " In the northern city of Tripoli, which supplies Sunni fighters to rebel ranks..." 

Anne Barnard does it again: she makes things up

"the group has framed as both a proxy fight with Israel and an intervention to defend Lebanese and Syrian Shiites..."  I will donate a blender to Anne Barnard if she can find one--not two, just one--source in which a Hizbullah leader states that its intervention in Syria is to defend Lebanese and Syrian Shi`ites.  She really literally make things up: or most likely, she basically reproduces whatever she hears from her Syrian armed groups sources and from March 14 in Lebanon, without even verifying.  She is so ill-equipped for the role as Beirut bureau chief for the Times, that she sat with Lebanese politician, `Abdul-Rahim Murad, and identified him as an MP, not knowing that he has not been in parliament since 2005. 

Ali and his relative

Look at Anne Barnard's pathetic methods of documentation:  "Ali, a Lebanese Shiite with ties to Hezbollah, said that a relative and other fighters, updating him by text message from the battlefield..."  What does "with ties" to Hizbullah mean? Like he has ties with Hizbullah logo on them? Or he has a rope that ties him to Hizbullah members?

Syria

This is not my battle: you have your trenches and I have mine.

AJE's censorship of Joseph Massad

To date, all Arab (read Saudi-funded and Qatri funded) media have ignored the AJE's censorship of comrade Joseph Massad under Zionist pressures.  Only Al-Akhbar and Al-Manar website wrote on the story.

The Golden Era of Arab Atheism

I hereby announce the possible beginning of the golden era of Arab atheism:  my latest blog post on Arab atheism for Al-Akhbar English.

My talk in Stuttgart

Here is a link to my talk in Stuttgart about BDS.

victory and defeat in Syria

Every military "victory" in Syria is a defeat by definition.  The Syrian conflict has no heroes, except for those who are not embroiled in it.

The Joseph Massad's anti-Zionist festival

Here is the speech that Joseph gave in Stuttgart.
Here is the article that cowardly AlJazeera removed from its website due to Zionist pressures.
Here is Portuguese translation.
Here is the Turkish translation.

House of Saud hangs five poor Yemenis and leaves their bodies hanging for public view

 
This is the source.  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

PS Marc sent me this:  "actually if you notice in this picture, they beheaded the yemenis, put
the heads in sacs, tied them to their corpses, then hung them for
public display."

Fee Syrian Army

I will henceforth refer to Free Syrian Army as Fee Syrian Army.  It has proven that it operates by a fee.

Christians in Qusayr

Correction.  There is a post below about the expulsion from Qusayr (months ago) of Christians by Free Syrian Army gangs.  But I need to clarify to be fair to the Fee Syrian Army gangs (yes, Fee not Free): they in fact offered safety to the Christians if they convert to Islam, and when they refused, they expelled them whole.  Viva La your revolution

House of Saudi charges

On June 13, 1970, the Saudi government charged the citizen `Adnan Al-`Awwami with 1) Nasserism; 2) Nationalism; 3) Ba`thism; 4) communism; 5) Muslim Brotherhood; 6) membership of an undefined Islamic organization. Kid you not.

Details are in Sayyid `Ali As-Sayyid Baqir Al-`Awwami, the Saudi National Movement 1953-1970 (Arabic), volume 2, p. 222.

 

"Reminder that Syrian rebels expelled Christians from Qusair"

Comrade Asa sent me this:  "There is a lot of media attention on this village at the moment, and
regime forces claims claim to have retaken it from rebels. But most of the media , sympathising with rebels, seems to conveniently happened to minorities under rebel control."

Human Rights as a political tool

"The U.S. government, then, has always used the ideology of human rights as a political tool, deployed when convenient and ignored otherwise. It allied itself with human rights violators during the Cold War; during the war on terror, it justified its own human rights violations by the necessity of protecting the security of the liberal democratic state."

Every day there is a story about an attempt by Zionist hoodlums to ban and censor and repress

"A group of Toronto city councillors will file a motion on 28 May to cut the grant to Toronto LGBT Pride unless the organisers agree to ban the participation of a pro-Palestinian activist group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). They also want to ban the use of the phrase 'Israeli apartheid'." "The co-chair of Queer Ontario, Nick Mulé, believes councillors Di Giorgio and Pasternak are more interested in censorship opinions than protecting rights. It's inaccurate to describe the dispute as one of "competing rights," he argues, because the right to religious freedom doesn't mean the right to suppress other people's viewpoints. "They are trying to shut down dialogue and infringe on freedom of expression," he says. "QuAIA is not a people-hating group. Their message is a critical analysis of political policy. If we don't have the freedom to critique policy, then we are really in trouble as a society." "Their demand for a ban is straightforward censorship. It's a direct attack on free speech and the right to protest - and, some people might say, borderline blackmail." (thanks Amir)

Racist studies

"The Heritage Foundation report on the costs of immigration reform co-authored by controversial scholar Jason Richwine has been widely debunked, and Richwine himself has resigned from Heritage in the wake of revelations about his history of arguing that blacks and Latinos are dumber than Jews and Irish people. But Richwine's study was even worse than previously thought, according to a new Scholars Strategy Network brief (PDF) by Richard Alba, a sociology professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York who studies immigration and assimilation."

The spoiled brats of Lebanon buying their assignments

Students can pay anything between $10 and $30 per page for papers in humanities, and around $300 to $400 for small graphic design projects. Senior-year projects and theses are the most expensive, costing up to $1,500 for a dissertation.  Nadia, an English Literature graduate student, who also refused to give her last name, works for a similar organization. Nadia makes around $2,000 a month and has more than 200 undergraduate and graduate colleagues from different backgrounds, catering to students from all majors."   (thanks Jad)

PS Of course, there is such a phenomenon in the US.  I knew a Lebanese student in Berkeley who made his living from taking exams on behalf of wealthy Saudi students.  Sometimes he would grow a beard or a mustache in order to look like the person in the school ID.  

The passing of Sayyid Fathi in Egypt

Comrade Chris Stone (who is recovering from his stab wound in Cairo) sent me this: "I was hoping you might mention on your blog the death of the human rights lawyer Sayyid Fathi. Both pre and post revolution in Egypt he worked tirelessly to represent the poor as well as those on the left: workers, revolution martyrs' families, etc.. He was also helping a friend of mine get royalties for Sheikh Imam's family for the songs used in the film about Ahmad Fouad Negm "al-Fagoumi." I went with that friend to his office several times recently and no matter how busy he was he always made time to sit down and talk about the case. He was even willing to use the offices of the Hilali Foundation for some events to honor the memory of al-Sheikh Imam." 

An Egyptian comrade who knew him well sent me this about him:  "He's a former communist member of the underground Hizb el-Shaab el-Ishtraki, which was led by Ahmad Nabil el-Hilaly and Youssef Darwish in the 1990s. They presented the "cleanest" politics Stalinism could provide. They were more respectable than the CP when it came to working class issues and political stands towards the regime. He drifted into the NGO politics like many former communists, and established a legal aid NGO (which receives international funding like the other NGOs), but he took up good causes in general. He was among the lawyers who defended the "Mahalla 49", the detainees who were rounded up, tortured and tried for their alleged role in the 6 April 2008 Uprising... "

Yassin Hajj Saleh: discourse of the Syrian "revolutionaries"

Yassin Hajj Saleh is promoted as the "thinker" or "theorizer" of the Syrian "revolution".  Here is a sample from his vulgar language.  If this is how the ostensible revolutionary "elite" writes, do you blame the masses?

loving Syrians

For those who feign love for the Syrian people, who come not a word about the execution of a Syrian citizen in Saudi Arabia for carrying some drugs on him? Or so they claimed?

Lies about Syria: the Israeli vehicle

Both sides lie about Syria although the Free Syrian Army wins a blender for the most lies over two years.  But the story in Al-Mayadin about the Israeli vehicle with Hebrew writing is just not convincing.  I mean, they could not paint over the Hebrew writing before supplying it to rebels?

The four commanders of Hizbullah

Saudi media is as funny about Hizbullah as Western media.  According to Saudi and Hariri media, Hizbullah only has four commanders/fighters and it uses them in all military missions: the same four people are named for murder of Hariri, murder of Hasan, the bombing in Bulgaria, and now leading the fight in Qusayr.  Hizbullah does not have other members.fighters it seems.

Hizbullah in Syria

One of my sources of amusement is reading US reporters commenting on Hizbullah.  It is clear from reading their reports that they exclusively talk to enemies of the party in Lebanon.  For example, they keep repeating the mantra in Saudi media that Hizbullah would face anger among its base for its military intervention in Syria.  The truth? The base has been urging the party to get more heavily involved in Syria for months now. 

PS I am sure that Nicholas Blanford will this week stumbles on a Hizbullah commander, Abu Potato, who will exclusively tell him that all party fighters and commanders now hate Nasrallah for the intervention in Syria.

Dubai achievement

 
Now the people of UAE can rest.

Meet the Israeli Center

"Indeed, there was little daylight between the two men’s positions. Mr. Lapid said he would not stop the so-called “natural expansion” of settlements in the West Bank, nor curtail the financial incentives offered Israelis to move there. He said the large swaths of land known as East Jerusalem that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and later annexed must stay Israeli because “we didn’t come here for nothing.”

“Jerusalem is not a place, Jerusalem is an idea,” he said. “Jerusalem is the capital of the Israeli state.”"

Has an American reporter ever sat down with an Israeli leader and not found him charming? Ever?

Over the years, I have read American reporters commenting on the ostensible charm of people like Itzhak Rabin and Netanyahu and even Sharon.  "Throughout the interview, Mr. Lapid was charming..."

The New York Times reports on an Israeli special investigaton: we are all wrong. Muhammad Durrah is still alive

"“It is hard to believe the special committee formed by Moshe Yaalon, today Israel’s Defence minister did not approach France 2 or (to the best of our knowledge Mr. Al Dura – despite his willingness to exhume the boy’s body. France 2 learned about the existence of the committee from the press- and this speaks for itself.”"

AJE and censorship of Joseph Massad

This is a big deal: that AJE would remove an already posted article by Joseph Massad due to pressures from Zionist hoodlums.  This really signifies the nature not only of Qatari media but also of Qatari foreign policy.  The Qatari ruling dynasty is now at the feet of Zionists.  The Emir of Qatar calculates that he can always win more Congressional sympathy by inching closer to Israeli boots.

Read Saudi media: Aljzeera newspaper

Let me just translate the headline of this article for you:  "King Abdullah: Depth in vision...Clarity in Stances and seeing what was...and what is...and what will be." Verbatim.

 

The quality of reporting on Syria

This is a Reuters headline:  "Thirty Hezbollah fighters killed in Syrian town: activists".  I only quibble because some "Syrian activists" have even reported some 1000 Hizbullah fighters killed. Why stop at the figure thirty here?

Arab equation

House of Saud plus House of Thani=Israel.

That lousy Syrian regime: neo-liberalism is reinforced, yet again

Mr. Dardari is back in Syria.