Egyptian and Palestinian flags raised together… I can smell the change in the air. See the video here.
-
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Meta
Calls for 3rd Palestinian Intifada Inundate Facebook Censors
New America Media: Arab confidence in Facebook has suffered a significant setback after the site shut down “The Third Palestinian Intifada†page—which had amassed 350,000 supporters—evidently under strong pressure from Israel. After first rejecting requests to remove the page, Facebook did an about-face and deleted it when told that some postings incited violence against Israel, a charge the page’s developers deny.
As a result of the abrupt deletion, others throughout the Arab world have launched their own “Third Palestinian Intifada†pages, copied from the original and adding new content.
A simple search on Facebook using the words “Third Palestinian Intifada†in English or Arabic leads to an endless list of copycat pages all over the globe….What is clear, though, is that the founder of the first “Third Palestinian Intifada†launched the page to call for peaceful demonstrations around the world after Friday prayers on May 15, 2011.
Posted in Palestine, Social Networking
Tagged Palestine Intifada III
Comments Off on Calls for 3rd Palestinian Intifada Inundate Facebook Censors
Egypt: Subverting Democracy Part VI
al-Jazeera: Hundreds of soldiers and security troops backed by armoured vehicles stormed into the square at around 3am on Saturday, firing shots into the air, brandishing tasers and batons, and beating people, witnesses said.
Tens of thousands of protesters had flooded into the square on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations since former Mubarak stepped down on February 11.
The protesters called for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which nows runs the country, to honour their demands, which include prosecuting a number of former high-ranking regime officials and Mubarak himself.
The protesters had been joined by perhaps as many as 20 military officers, who had been under orders not to participate. Demonstrators stayed in the square past the military curfew, which which runs from 2am to 5am, saying they wanted to protect the officers who joined.
When security forces stormed the square, some of the protesting army officers managed to escape, while others were arrested, witnesses said.
The Wikileaks Cables on Israel
The recently revealed wikileaks’ cables are explosive – The Guardian: The cables report a private talk between the then US ambassador, William Monroe, and King Hamad of Bahrain in the king’s palace on 15 February 2005. Monroe reported back to Washington: “He [the king] revealed that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (ie with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas.”
On Hizbullah: “Hezbollah possesses over 20,000 rockets … Hezbollah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day. A Mossad official estimated that Hezbollah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day – 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hezbollah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months.”
On Hamas: Other cables detail regular secret talks between the US and Yuval Diskin, head of Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Beth, over the role of Hamas in Gaza. On 12 November 2009 the embassy reported the views of the general responsible for Gaza and southern Israel, Major General Yoav Galant, that Hamas needed to be “strong enough to enforce a ceasefire”.
Bahrain’s Rulers Tighten Their Grip on Battered Opposition
NYTimes: With Saudi troops now in the country to support King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Bahrain has taken on the likeness of a police state. There have been mass arrests, mass firings of government workers, reports of torture and, on Sunday, the forced resignation of the top editor of the nation’s one independent newspaper.
Emergency laws give the security forces the right to search houses at will without a warrant and dissolve any organization, including legal political parties, deemed a danger to the state. Even two members of the national soccer team were arrested this week, despite apologizing on television for attending antigovernment rallies last month.
In response, a once joyous but splintered opposition has been forced to come up with new strategies. The intensity of the repression is pushing some toward militancy, while others are holding back, at least for now.
Posted in Bahrain
Tagged Bahraini Revolt
Comments Off on Bahrain’s Rulers Tighten Their Grip on Battered Opposition
ElBaradei: We’ll fight back if Israel attacks Gaza
To those who are in denial about the shifts taking place in the Middle, take a look at the rhetoric of some moderate politicians. This is mere grandstanding but it should give you a clue about the strategic shifts taking place now in the Middle East. YNET News: Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who had previously announced his intetions to run for the presidency of Egypt, said Monday that “if Israel attacked Gaza we would declare war against the Zionist regime.”
He also stated that “Israel controls Palestinian soil” adding that that “there has been no tangible breakthrough in reconciliation process because of the imbalance of power in the region – a situation that creates a kind of one way peace.”In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper he said: “In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza – as the next president of Egypt – I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement.”
Army says no to ‘Khomeini rule’ in Egypt
AFP: Egypt will not be ruled by “another (Ayatollah) Khomeini,” the country’s military said on Monday, in reference to the cleric who led Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, the official MENA news agency reported.
“Egypt will not be governed by another Khomeini,” the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said after a three-hour meeting with newspaper editors-in-chief and MENA.
The military rulers made the comment amid concerns over the increased visibility of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned under the regime of president Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down on February 11 after a popular uprising.
Mubarak’s departure raised fears in the West of the creation of an Islamist regime in Egypt, where the Brotherhood is the strongest opposition force.
The Brotherhood says it is not in favour of a religious state.
“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will not allow extremist factions to control Egypt,” Deputy Defence Minister Mohammed Mokhtar al-Mella told the journalists on Monday.
The military also reiterated its commitment to transfer power to civilian rule after legislative and presidential elections, and to respect freedom of expression.
It “expressed the hope that the Egypt of tomorrow will be democratic and modern”, MENA reported.
Mubarak in February transferred his powers to the military, which has committed itself to handing the reins to civilian rule after a parliamentary election due in September.
A presidential election is due “one or two months” after that.
Iranian foreign minister invites Egyptian counterpart to Tehran
In case you’re wondering, this is a disaster for US-Israeli policy of isolating Iran and a major triumph for Iran. AlMasry AlYoum: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has invited his Egyptian counterpart, Nabil al-Arabi, to visit Tehran to improve relations between the two countries. News of the invitation was given in a statement from Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Menha Bakhoum on Monday.
Bakhoum also said that al-Arabi had met with the Iranian consul in Cairo, Mojtaba Amani, who handed him a message from Salehi. In the message, Salehi expressed his appreciation for al-Arabi’s recent statements on relations with Iran, and called for an examination of ways to develop relations through exchanging visits.
Al-Arabi said recently that Egypt has turned a new page in its relations with all the countries of the world, including Iran, and that the Egyptian and Iranian people deserve relations that reflect their history and civilization, provided they are based on mutual respect for national sovereignty and absolute non-interference in internal affairs.
Young Israelis: A Turn to the Right
New York Review of Books: “For the last two or three years, we’ve been seeing a very consistent trend of younger Israelis becoming increasingly right-wing,†Dahlia Scheindlin, a public opinion analyst who also contributes to +972, told me. Last year, Scheindlin carried out a survey on behalf of the Kulanana Shared Citizenship Initiative that showed eroding support for democratic values among Israeli youth, at least insofar as the rights of non-Jews go. One question in the survey asked whether there should be “Equal access to state resources, equal opportunities [for] all citizens.†Among Jewish respondents between the ages of 16-29, a mere 43 percent agreed.
Young Israelis also tend to take a hard line on the Palestinian conflict. Having watched their country grow increasingly isolated for prolonging an occupation now in its forty-fourth year, one might expect the younger generation to be pressing for a resolution. But while a small number of young activists have been taking part in regular Friday protests against the expansion of settlements in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and joining groups like Anarchists Against the Wall, which supports unarmed Palestinian resistance to the occupation, many of their peers oppose making concessions to end the conflict. In October, a poll conducted by New Wave Research asked, “If Palestinians and Israelis reach an agreement… and the Israeli government brings the agreement to a referendum, would you vote for or against?†Among voters over 55, 61 percent—nearly two out of three—said they would support a deal. Among those younger than 35, it was the opposite: only one in three (37 percent) would vote in favor of an agreement.
Breaking with the Past: Egypt’s Emerging Foreign Policy Part II
YNET News: Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi stated Sunday that his country would demand that Israel pay the price differences for the reduced gas it purchased during the Hosni Mubarak era.”We will honor everything we signed on and we’ll demand that they uphold it too,” he was quoted as saying in an interview to the Dream TV channel.
According to the minister, clause No. 8 in the Israel-Egypt peace agreement allows the parties to appoint a joint committee to discuss settling financial disputes, “and we will demand from Israel the price differences of the gas exported to Israel during the previous regime.”Al-Arabi noted that the Camp David Accords do not include a clause on selling gas and oil to Israel for a reduced price, and that those who interpreted it that way were “wrong” or “wanted to interpret it that way”.
Al-Arabi, who is considered hostile towards Israel, is the first official to raise the possibility that Egypt would demand that Israel pay for the gas retroactively. These comments contradict remarks made by the new oil minister, who said Egypt wanted to enter negotiations with Israel on the possibility of raising the gas prices from now on.
The Egyptian foreign minister added that former President Mubarak was a “strategic treasure” for Israel, implying that this would not be the situation from now on. He also said that Iran should not be considered an enemy state.
Posted in Egypt
Tagged Egyptian Revolution
Comments Off on Breaking with the Past: Egypt’s Emerging Foreign Policy Part II
Video: Bahrain’s Crackdown
See the testament to the Bahraini government’s notion of “reforms” here. When a government, any government, has to resort to such detestable brutality, it has lost all legitimacy to rule. They can rule with violence, but only for a short while. In the end, all such regimes are doomed without the requisite legitimacy.
Iran Dominates US Response to Arab Spring
New York Times: The mullahs in Tehran, noted Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, were watching Mr. Obama’s every move in the Arab world. They would interpret a failure to back up his declaration that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had “lost the legitimacy to lead†as a sign of weakness — and perhaps as a signal that Mr. Obama was equally unwilling to back up his vow never to allow Iran to gain the ability to build a nuclear weapon.
“It shouldn’t be overstated that this was the deciding factor, or even a principal factor†in the decision to intervene in Libya, Benjamin J. Rhodes, a senior aide who joined in the meeting, said last week. But, he added, the effect on Iran was always included in the discussion. In this case, he said, “the ability to apply this kind of force in the region this quickly — even as we deal with other military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan — combined with the nature of this broad coalition sends a very strong message to Iran about our capabilities, militarily and diplomatically.â€
That afternoon in the Situation Room vividly demonstrates a rarely stated fact about the administration’s responses to the uprisings sweeping the region: The Obama team holds no illusions about Colonel Qaddafi’s long-term importance. Libya is a sideshow. Containing Iran’s power remains their central goal in the Middle East. Every decision — from Libya to Yemen to Bahrain to Syria — is being examined under the prism of how it will affect what was, until mid-January, the dominating calculus in the Obama administration’s regional strategy: how to slow Iran’s nuclear progress, and speed the arrival of opportunities for a successful uprising there.
In fact, the Iran debate makes every such chess move in the region more complicated. At the end of this era of upheaval, which the White House considers as sweeping as the changes that transformed Europe after the Berlin Wall fell, success or failure may well be judged by the question of whether Iran realizes its ambitions to become the region’s most powerful force.
Posted in Iran, Libya
Tagged Iran, Libyan Revolt, US Foreign Policy
Comments Off on Iran Dominates US Response to Arab Spring
Egypt’s PM sacks heads of state television and radio
Some more cosmetic changes in Egypt – AlMasry AlYoum: Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Saturday decided to sack state television and radio officials who were accused of conducting smear campaigns against protesters and inciting murder during Egypt’s 25 January revolution that ended with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February.
Sharaf appointed Ibrahim Kamal al-Saeed as head of Egyptian TV’s newsroom in place of Abdel Latif al-Manawy, who was criticized sharply by the public for broadcasting programs and interviews that accused anti-Mubarak protesters of receiving funds from abroad and having relations with foreign intelligence agencies. In his programs, Al-Manawy neglected to report incidents of thugs assaulting anti-Mubarak protesters.
Sharaf also appointed Nihal Kamal as head of State TV and Ismail al-Shishtawy al-Iraqi as head of State Radio. Some media figures criticized Sharaf’s decisions and said that they do not represent real reform.
Since al-Manawy, Kamal, and al-Iraqi have served the former regime, some criticized the decisions for failing to bring new faces to state media. Also, some complain that they were not appointed for their abilities, but rather because the dissolved State Security Investigative Services had approved their appointments. Salah Saber, a producer at State TV, observes that similar criticisms were directed at the government following appointments of new state newspaper heads, who are accused of having had ties with the former regime.
Posted in Egypt
Tagged Egyptian Revolution
Comments Off on Egypt’s PM sacks heads of state television and radio
Facebook takes down page calling for a Palestinian uprising
Facebook has bowed to pro-Israeli pressure and has taken down the facebook page calling for a third intifada. Other gov’ts pressed facebook to take down pages that called for uprisings in other countries, but facebook refused. In the case of Israel, facebook puts its bias on display. In other words, according to facebook, you can call for uprisings in other countries in the region, but not Israel. And to make sure that pro-Israelis drive the message home, they’ve sued facebook for $1 billion for not taking down the page fast enough. Of course, the suit will go no where but it sends a clear message that if you don’t act according to pro-Israeli interests, you’ll be hassled and harassed. But here’s the thing, the uprisings in the Arab world happened on the streets not on facebook. Facebook and twitter were only a means to coordinate, to set the date and get the ball moving. Whether pro-Israelis like it or not, the date for the Third Palestinian Uprising has been set: May 15 (Israel’s independence day). The question now is whether Israelis can stamp it out the same way the dictatorship did, say in Bahrain, with its own protests. In other words, Israel has more in common with the Arab tyrannies than you think.
Posted in Palestine, Social Networking, The Conflict
Tagged Facebook, Palestine Intifada III
1 Comment
Quran Burning
I wanted to share this really good quote I recently read about the most recent absurdity in Florida and how that is affecting lives overseas: “The tragedy of the Koran burning and riots in Afghanistan is the way extremists from Florida to Kandahar feed each other.”