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Author Archives: iPouya
Review of Sohrab Ahmari’s “Arab Spring Dreams: Freedom and Justice from North Africa to Iran”
Preparing for my preliminary exams required a year of reading. After completing the exams on April 18, I pledged to continue tackling books at a steady pace. One book I recently read, Arab Spring Dreams: Freedom and Justice from North … Continue reading
Posted in Arab Spring, Books
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The Free Syrian Army is gaining ground
See the video here. I was and continue to be very sympathetic to the Syrian people’s uprising against the Ba’ath dictatorship in Syria. But I also agree with Professor Abu Khalil, the “Free Syrian Army,” which is bankrolled by the … Continue reading
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Egypt’s president orders return of parliament
See it here. If the US really supported democracy, it would come out in favor of Mursi’s call to reinstate the parliament - through words and deeds. The most important deed would be to threaten to cut off military aid. The truth is, however, … Continue reading
Posted in Egypt
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Egypt: SCAF Power Grab
To nobody’s surprise, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the military junta running Egypt in the post-Mubarak era, is seeking to curtail the power of the presidency in Egypt while simultaneously enhancing its own power by controlling its … Continue reading
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ASU Senate approves divestment against Israeli military — unanimously.
This is HUGE: At the last Senate hearing of the year, the undergraduate student government at Arizona State University unanimously passed a bill demanding that ASU divest from and blacklist companies that continue to provide the Israeli Defense Force with … Continue reading
Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal
A surprise of a gem from the New York Times: I’m a Palestinian who was born in the Israeli town of Lod, and thus I am an Israeli citizen. My wife is not; she is a Palestinian from Nablus in … Continue reading
Posted in Palestine
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On Israel’s system of segregated roads in the occupied Palestinian territories
You have to see this map of Israel’s apartheid via the roads in Occupied Palestine.
Posted in Palestine
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Israeli settler violence caught on tape
This video shows how the Israeli Occupation Forces acquiesce to settler violence against native Palestinians. There are more than 400,000 illegal Israeli settlers colonizing the West Bank. Many are hard-line ideological types who believe that every inch of remaining Palestine … Continue reading
Posted in Palestine, Settlements
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Arming all sides to the Syrian conflict
Here’s an important al-Jazeera video about various foreign powers arming various sides to the conflict in Syria. There is now no doubt that Gulf countries, the centers of counter-revolution, are now arming the opposition. The obvious question here is that … Continue reading
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Sectarianism is spreading through the region…
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the bitter Shi’ite-Sunni divide that we know today was not so widespread 50 years. Today, however, it’s getting worse and fast. Here’s an update from Egypt: “Egypt shuts down newly-opened Shiite … Continue reading
Posted in Egypt, Sectarianism
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Updates
I moved back to California a little while ago and have finished setting up. Let the blog-a-thon and tweet-a-thon commence!
Posted in 22 Khordad
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2,000 Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike and Zero News Coverage
Huffington Post: There are currently 2000 Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, though judging by the lack of coverage of the story in the mainstream media you’d never know it. Two of the prisoners involved are now in a … Continue reading
Posted in Palestine
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US Military Bases around Iran
And how many Iranian bases exist near the US? Zero. Yet, somehow someway, Americans feel threatened by Iran.
Posted in Iran, US-Iran Relations
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Israel general says Iran is “very rational” and atomic bomb unlikely
This is a very important update. The ultra right in both the US and Israel have long argued that Iran is a suicidal irrational state and that it does not abide by a basic cost-benefit rubric, thus, “allowing” it have … Continue reading
Posted in Iran, Iran's Nuclear Program
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The Next Step
I always distress about not being able to blog consistently. Over the last few months this has been especially true. As 3rd year PhD students, we are required to both teach and study for our preliminary exams (some schools refer … Continue reading
Posted in iPouya
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