Middle East

A president who’s not an idiot

/ Eamon / 4 Comments

So this is what it feels like. It’s so beautiful that Obama has chosen Al-Arabiya as the venue for the first interview of his presidency (though it is sort of the Fox News of Arab media, in terms of its orientation). And it’s beautiful that he has chosen to use words and language to redefine the way America will deal with terrorism. This is important.

Now, we’ll all be waiting for some changes in policy. Because of course, the way Bush described things was the smallest problem of his “leadership”.

Muammar Qaddafi on “Isratine”

/ Eamon / 1 Comment

Travel the Arab world a bit, and you’ll find it’s hard for people to agree on much from one country to another. But whether it’s Palestinians in Dubai, Syrians, Lebanese or Chadians, there’s one point on which everyone seems to find common ground: Muammar Qaddafi, the de facto leader of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, is a freakin’ crackpot.

Crackpot, despot and buffoon he may be. But I have to say, his op-ed in The New York Times yesterday arguing for a one-state solution in Israel and Palestine was well put. With his track record, Qaddafi’s claim of interest in peace is preposterous, and it will be easy for detractors to void his argument based on the colonel’s utter lack of credibility. (In that sense, I think it’s interesting that the Times chose to print the one-state argument under Qaddafi’s byline. There are far more credible and respectable people saying the exact same thing. Makes it look like it’s only the opinion of a maniac.) Continue reading →

Inauguration exclusive: the audacity of hoping for a better U.S. policy toward Syria

/ Eamon / 1 Comment

LGD Note: I reported this piece back in October and wrote it in November for a class at Columbia, with the intention of publishing it on a foreign affairs-concerned website. At the time, the handful of advocates for a better U.S. policy toward Syria were sounding optimistic. Then came the U.S. attack on the village of Sukkariyyeh in eastern Syria, which brought relations between the two countries to an all-time low. It also complicated my story in a way that I couldn’t untangle during midterms. I offer the piece here with the caveat that all comments were obtained back in October before the attack, and long before the Gaza war. But I think there is some interesting food from thought here that is relevant despite all the things that happened since I reported it. What kind of change will Obama bring to our policy with this overly maligned country?

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By EKA
November 15, 2008

American voters aren’t the only ones celebrating the election of a new president this month. In Syria, which is still reeling from the October 26 attack by U.S. commandos on the village of Sukkariyyeh, people are hoping the new presidency will mean a different American approach to their country. Continue reading →

Jon Stewart keeps it real for Gaza

/ Eamon / 1 Comment

If Jon Stewart was a total partisan about anything, he wouldn’t be doing his job. So I expect him to be more cynical and keep a better critical distance from the bombardment of Gaza than I have been able to do. (But hey, I don’t think I’m doing such a bad job myself!)

Still, it was a huge relief to see him joking about the Israeli incursion in a way that made all the Israel apologists on TV look like dum-dums. (They tend to be much more annoying than Israel apologists in real life, because their position on the matter seems much more a political stunt than actual conviction.)

My favorite part of Monday’s show: New York mayor Michael Bloomberg asks, If a crazy neighbor was shouting through your door threatening to kill you, wouldn’t you want the NYPD to send all available resources, not just a single cop?

“That depends,” says Stewart, “if I was forcing that person to live in my hallway and pass through a checkpoint every time he needed to take a shit.”

LOL

Palestine: get on the bus

/ Eamon / 3 Comments

Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to look back at the year 1983 and recall being on the fence about Apartheid in South Africa?

“Gosh,” you thought, “I mean, I don’t think it’s ideal that blacks and whites are separated in that country. But S.A. does plenty of good things. And I can’t imagine those wild terrorists, the ANC, taking over.”

I hope I’m not really describing you here. My point is, with the power of hindsight, it’s hard to see how anyone would have shied from denouncing Apartheid, let alone openly supported it. Yet plenty of powerful people stood by while one of the most ruthless and distasteful political systems in modern history thrived for more than 40 years. Our own Reagan administration blocked sanctions against South Africa and believed the racist government could be nudged toward reform by helping Apartheid’s architects get richer. (His plan didn’t work.)

Nearly 20 years after Apartheid ended in South Africa, the world finds itself at a similar juncture with regard to the Palestinian people. With Israel’s blasting of Gaza, there’s no better time to make sure that, 20 years from now, you don’t find yourself in your own embarrassing hindsight moment. It’s time to get on the bus for the Palestinian people, especially if you’re an American. It’s time to demand that Palestinians receive the same rights that Israelis have. That they have the same opportunities to live long and prosperous lives. That they are not physically confined to walled, impoverished homelands (like the black “homelands” in South Africa) based on their ethnicity. Continue reading →

Why is Allah never translated?

/ Eamon / 5 Comments

Mr friend Matteen wrote the following letter to the AP. I posted it here with his permission. It raises a question that a lot of us with some kind of limited awareness of the Middle East ask ourselves when we read the newspaper: When Arabs are speaking, why is every word translated except for “God”, which is always left as “Allah”? By the same logic, Israelis should be quoted as saying “Adonai” or “Yahweh”, Spanish people as saying “Dios”, etc. It all has the effect of reading a Tintin comic about Arabs. Not to knock Tintin, but it’s not known as being the most ethnically sensitive children’s book ever made. I expect a little more from the AP.

But enough of my rambling. Here’s Matteen’s much better written letter: Continue reading →

Syria Closes American School and Cultural Center in Damascus

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In response to Sunday’s U.S. attack on Syrian soil (which, by the way, Baghdad has condemned), Damascus has closed the American primary school and the American cultural center, according to Al-Jazeera.

These are two of the remaining positive U.S. presences in Syria. It’s a shame, but a reaction like this was certainly expected. I guess those in Washington who made the decision to go in simply do not care.

I wonder how far back our relations with Syria have been set. I’ve poured a lot of energy into trying to change the perceptions of the Americans I know toward Syria. High profile activists have been working step-by-step for years, and have seen painstaking progress. I guess as long as W is in power it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Have our hopes for an evolution to peace been completely dashed?

I can’t wait for a new White House.

This Is How You Get Got

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So apparently pirates now have spokespeople, and it turns out they’re pretty damn articulate.

This Times article made me think of the Mos Def song “Got”. I.e., this is what happens when you sail an “estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry” down the coast of one of the most beleaguered, ungoverned countries in the world. It gets gaffled.

Was the arms deal really part of a secret shipment to southern Sudan? Hopefully, we’ll find out.