Nov

30

Links for 2007-11-30

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Opening Up To Michel Sleiman | The Beirut Spring, a Lebanese Blog

“Yes I am taking the course of calm because the Lebanese citizen is frightened of the possibility of confrontation and chaos, and if the opposition doesn’t consider this fear too, they’d be fools because they also have a public opinion”. - Walid J

U.S. deaths in Iraq remained low in November - International Herald Tribune

Saudis break up militant cells and arrest 208 - International Herald Tribune

“Qaeda sympathizers have targeted foreign residential compounds, government buildings and energy sector installations since May 2003.’ -ed. note- I happened to live in one of those residential compounds, shortly before it was attacked. The victims were not as foreign as AQ had wished they were.

Bloggers on the Middle East peace conference. - By Michael Weiss - Slate Magazine

On the Limits of Self-Improvement, Part I: vanityfair.com

Christopher Hitchens, the waxing of sensitive areas, and his quest for self-improvement.

Feature: U.S. works hearts, minds - METimes.com

“On the one hand, it must continue to fight insurgents where it finds them. On the other, it must win the trust and cooperation of a people who are still struggling to unlearn the lesson of survival during the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein…”

Lebanon could do worse - much worse - than a Suleiman presidency - The Daily Star

“Ideally, this newspaper would prefer someone other than a military man… Given the alternatives this time around, though, the prospect of a former general at Baabda is far more attractive because the country’s civilian political class has effectively ou

Nov

29

Annapolis.. And Beyond? Update

Filed Under Palestine, Terrorism, annapolis, Israel, Peace, Politics, U.S, Iran, News | Leave a Comment

I haven’t written anything about the much talked about conference this week in Annapolis, Maryland, probably because of the overwhelming amount of skepticism surrounding it.  Not that pessimistic attitudes are necessarily surprising in this case; these conferences usually don’t produce much.  Of course circumstances differ this time around. There were some pretty interesting storylines surrounding the attendance of several Arab states, and the speculation that perhaps a deal could be made vis-a-vis Syria, concerning their support for Hezbollah.

These conferences always produce speculation (sometimes interesting), I’d imagine primarily because people would like to see something concrete accomplished.  An article in the WSJ titled “After Annapolis” summed up some of the basic struggles the United States and its’ president will face on this issue.  It failed however, as its’ title may have suggested it would, to provide anything to really look forward to after this conference except for what leverage Bush may have in the future in regards to the Israel and the Palestinians.  A telling paragraph from the middle of that article follows:

Then again, if the Arab regimes were really keen to settle the conflict, they might be slightly more forthcoming than Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who attended on the condition that he wouldn’t shake hands with Israelis. And they might be more realistic than Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who has ruled out recognizing Israel as a Jewish state even though Israel was created explicitly as such by a U.N. resolution approved 60 years ago today. As historian Bernard Lewis pointed out in these pages Monday, how do these so-called moderates expect Israel to cede territory when they’ll cede nothing on the right of Israel simply to exist?

Another question to ponder: don’t these conferences, and their subsequent declarations to work towards peace, only serve to harden these Arab positions?  Additionally, as long as there are people taking ‘extreme’ positions in the Middle East, will any leader be able to publicly accept to correct any of the aforementioned criticisms?  These “so called moderates” and the positions they have to take in public are largely determined by what the extremes are saying, because right now the Arab world has no courageous leaders. 

The issue of Hamas, from what I have read on the conference, was dealt with in the usual rhetoric that achieves nothing.  Will re-establishing “dialogue” solve this problem?  That article is a harsh critique, but these words by Hamas’ Gaza chief sum up my point:

Earlier this month, Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a frequent visitor to Iran, became the most senior Hamas terror leader to state this when he told a massive rally: “Israel thinks Fatah in the West Bank is there to serve it, but we will take over the West Bank the way we took over Gaza.”

It was only five months ago al-Zahar’s Hamas forces humiliated Abbas when in less than seven days they took complete control of the Gaza Strip, seizing all American-backed Fatah security compounds in the territory and even taking possession of weapons that our tax dollars provided to Abbas. America’s Fatah paper tiger pathetically fell like a deck of cards.

Iran’s President has already declared the conference a “failure”, although one wonders whether he really would know why. 

Update: Israel’s Foreign Minister wondered aloud, in the presence of her Arab counterparts, as to why nobody would shake her hand.  The article mentions that she looked over at the Saudi FM, who had stated his refusal earlier to shake hands with the enemy.  I hope she really did “berate” them, as per the article’s title. 

Scroll down to the second half of that page, and you’ll find something potentially much juicier:

Did a high-profile meeting take place between Israel and Syria during the Annapolis peace conference this week?

Kuwaiti daily al-Jarida reports that the Palestinian track may not have been the only one being pursued by Israeli officials and claims Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad met in secret at an unnamed hotel in Washington.

No further details were provided regarding the clandestine meeting and no official source confirmed it had taken place.

Nov

29

4 Egyptian Police Personnel Sentenced

Filed Under torture\, activism, Human Rights, Egypt | Leave a Comment

Following an encouraging verdict earlier this month involving a case of police torture, 3 Egyptian police personnel were sentenced on Tuesday to 7 years  of prison each, with the fourth one handed a 3 year sentence.  It does suggest an encouraging trend, if you can call it that.  But essentially it’s a sign of judicial progress and a result of broader awareness being raised on the issue:

The four police personnel were sentenced by the criminal court in the northern Nile Delta town of Mansoura late on Tuesday after a hearing lasting more than 10 hours.

The men were convicted of beating a carpenter, Nasr Abdullah, to death in July by banging his head against the wall in order to extract information about the location of his brother, a suspect in a drugs case.

Mr Abdullah’s death provoked angry demonstrations by local people.

“This is the longest sentence heard of in the last 10 years,” Gasser Abdel-Razek of the US-based organisation Human Rights Watch told the Associated Press.

“This one is very interesting.”

But Mr Abdel-Razek warned that the sentence was most likely the result of an activist judge rather a change in the government’s stance on police brutality.

“This is the judiciary - it’s not the government. If the government wants to get tougher on this it should start by amending the legislation to conform to international law,” he added.

In another recent case in Mansoura, a judicial investigation cleared a policeman who had questioned a 13-year-old boy who died shortly after spending several days in custody on suspicion of stealing packets of tea.

Really? Packets of tea? Tea is subsidised in Egypt and dirt cheap, why would a 13 year-old boy be held on such silly charges?

Does anyone know where to find the original story behind this?

Nov

29

Links for 2007-11-29

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Mona al-Tahawy on Saudi Arabia, Treatment of Women at The Arabist

Why Iran and Hamas Want Annapolis to Fail - TIME ”The Annapolis conference was already a failure,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

Musharraf steps down as army leader - International Herald Tribune

A large shadow cast by an absent Iran - International Herald Tribune  “The Arabs have come here not because they love the Jews or even the Palestinians… They came because they need a strategic alliance with the United States against Iran.”

David Ignatius - How Annapolis Helps - WashingtonPost.com

Arabian tribes in the 21st century - METimes.com

Nov

22

Iran’s Syrian Nuke Program

Filed Under nuclear, Syria, Israel, Iran | Leave a Comment

A piece in the ME Times by Olivier Guitta suggests that Iran is behind a secret nuclear program in Syria.  While details surrounding the Israeli strike on a Syrian nuke site remain ambigious, Guitta suggests that Iran’s fingerprints are all over this issue.   He recalls the explosion at a military complex in Aleppo back in July:

Jane’s Defense Weekly reported, citing Syrian defense sources, as saying the explosion took place during a test to fit a “Scud C” missile with a mustard-gas warhead. It quoted the sources as saying the explosion occurred when fuel caught fire in the missile production laboratory.

But there might be another explanation. Kuwait’s Al Seyassah newspaper recently reported that a Shiite Lebanese religious cleric claimed the Iranians were allegedly supervising a chemical weapons manufacturing program and that tens of Iranian experts and engineers died as a result of that explosion. He also said Israelis attacked the base. He added that Western officials told him they received proof from Israel on the Syrian chemical weapons program. Even if Israel’s involvement is not proven, what remains sure is that it must be very happy that a chemical weapons facility in Syria has been partly destroyed.

Read the whole thing, particularly the last paragraph.  If Syria really was a “Plan B” for Iran, isn’t it about time for the head of the IAEA to stop praising Iran for making “progress” at the same time he’s admitting that his agency is “unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities.”  

Meanwhile, Iran’s new nuclear negotiator has threatened a “domino effect ” of anti-Americanism to follow any potential strike on his country’s facilities. 

Iran’s newly installed chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said today that a slide to war would lead to a backlash against the West across the region, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, where American leads an international military coalition.

“Playing with security of Iran is like dominos,” he said. “We believe the world powers are aware about Iran’s effective role in the global security. Our role in Afghanistan and Iraq is in direction with peace, stability and improving governments there.”

Note his usage of the word “effective”. 

Nov

16

“Know Your Enemy”

Filed Under links, Israel, Egypt | Leave a Comment

“In the past Egyptians would study Hebrew to “know your enemy.” Munir Mahmoud, 47, a well-known Hebrew teacher, says that after President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel the attitude toward studying Hebrew changed. High school graduates began thinking of a career associated with Hebrew, not only of military or security service.“