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I decided to visit the Tishreen War Panorama in the morning of the day we were to leave Damascus. Tishreen Al-‘Awal is the Levantine name for the month of October, so this was a monument to the war begun on the 6th of October, 1973, commonly called the Yom Kippur War in countries allied with Israel. As in Egypt, which fought the war alongside Syria against Israel, where there are numerous roads, places and institutions named “6th October” or “10th Ramadan” (the date in the Islamic calendar), or simply “October”, Syria has done the same with “Tishreen”. One of the state newspapers, for instance, is called “Tishreen”. Unlike with al-Naksa (variously translated as “the setback” or “the debacle”) of 1967, the October War is cast as a monumental victory for Egypt and Syria, not so much due to actual territorial gains made (somewhat slight for Syria and in the negative for Egypt), but by challenging Israel’s claim to military invincibility. The same could be said of South Lebanon in 2006. With all the death and destruction on the Lebanese side, it is hard to conceive of it as anything but an ideological victory for Hizbullah, rupturing Israel’s perceived absolute military superiority while highlighting the senseless brutality of “the usurping entity” (a phrase I put in quotes only for an English-speaking audience, as it is commonplace and self-evident in the Arabic-speaking world). It is in the same way that Syria chose to pick the “recovery” of the town of Quneitra from Israel as the centerpiece of its propaganda. Quneitra is a town in the Golan Heights that Israel had occupied during “the setback”, and from which it withdrew after the ceasefire of 1973, in the process evacuating some 37,000 Arabs and dismantling every bit and piece of infrastructure that could have been used by Syrians or profited from by the Israeli contractors to whom it was sold.
June 26, 2009
A war, in three dimensions—الحرب في ثلاثة أبعاد
April 3, 2009
Links for March 23rd through April 3rd
These are my links for March 23rd through April 3rd:
- ZNet – Cowardice Pays: Reflections on Academic Abdication and a Paul Krugman Lecture in Iowa City – Excellent piece criticizing the defeatist attitudes of even the most “lefty” of mainstream academic pundits and their professorial minions Annotated link
- NDP admits involvement in anti-Bahai’s sectarian arson at 3arabawy
- Op-Ed Columnist – Learning How to Think – NYTimes.com – I usually detest Kristof, but this was actually quite good. A scientific study skewering experts and pundits (like Kristof).
- Settlers Attack Israeli Police Disguised as Arabs – Kfar Sava Magistrates Court, a local court, criticized the police for putting officers’ lives in danger.
- Gays sentenced to death in Iraq, executions to begin next week – “According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week.”
- Arundhati Roy: This is not a war on terror. It is a racist war on all Tamils
- Officer, dog square off against Modesto mob of 60 – I’ve spent most of my life trying to undermine the logic of “law and order”, but as much as I hate cops, I’m no fan of armed thugs, no matter what uniform they wear. As the state begins to lose its grip on its traditional monopoly on the use of violence, I think it behooves us to consider what we will put in its place.
- not harmless he: Robbing the rich to give to the incredibly rich – “Madoff is just one in a thousand sketchy-ass rich dudes, who take people’s money. the big difference here is that he stole from other rich people.”
- French workers detain four Caterpillar executives – Europe, World – The Independent – “Locking up managers is becoming a common practice in France when mass lay offs are announced, with police apparently reluctant to intervene to avoid violence.”
- Daily News Egypt – Bloggers speak of time in detention
- Five held over suspected plot to disrupt G20 summit with explosives stunt | World news | guardian.co.uk – “It’s political, it relates to political organisations, it’s not extreme but it’s a different political view. It leads to motives and things like that.” Scottland Yard is clearly populated by morons.
- «المصرى اليوم» تكشف: الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة تعاقدت مع «البنتاجون» لتقديم معلومات سرية عن مصر – Arabic version of the Al-Masry Al-Youm article detailing yet another of the many public secrets that bureaucrats the Obama administration are making less secret these days: that the US military is funding defense-related research through its educational institutions abroad.
- London cops reach new heights of anti-terror poster stupidity – Boing Boing – Essentially, this redefines “suspicious” as anything outside of the direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people in any neighborhood.
- American University in Cairo Signed Contract with the Pentagon to Provide Confidential Information about Egypt-Almasry Alyoum – Evidence of what everyone already know
- We predict a riot: Meet the anarchists plotting to overthrow capitalism – Home News, UK – The Independent – For a sensationalist piece about anarchist direct-action activists, it could be worse.
- Teacher Dude’s Grill and BBQ: What on (Google) earth is Teacher Dude doing? – Teacher Dude blogs (on Google-owned Blogspot) about photographing the Google Maps Street View Car photographing him
- Daily News Egypt – Egyptian blogger released after 49 days without charge
- Jami Tarn: Smearing Tristan Anderson – Debra Saunders’ piece of tripe trashing Tristan Anderson has been circulating across the blogosphere and has apparently been reprinted in every small-town POS daily with an editorial board that has an axe to grind with direct-action activists (“tree-huggers” in idiot parlance). “Jami Tarn” delivers a good retort. Annotated link
- Ward Churchill v. “The Good Americans”: How Churchill’s Critics Made His Case « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY –
- Homesteaders in the Hood – I doubt that there will be much success in legislating squatter’s rights or homesteading laws, nor do I think there’s much use in using our energies to work towards this. The State and the market created this problem, so why should we wait for them to legitimate our means of coping with it?
- Anti-teenager “pink lights to show up acne” :: Dan Lockton – Why does Britain hate it’s youth so much?
- The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone – A long but very informative piece about the “global economic crisis.”
- Dissident Voice : Turkey’s Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers – Turkey agrees to allow Palestinian families access to Ottoman archives that show that Jesish land deeds were forged
- Rod Dreher: Food safety shouldn’t kill farmers markets | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Columnists: Rod Dreher – USDA is seeking to mandate electronic tracking of livestock through chip implants for producers of all sizes as a “food safety” measure. Unfortunately, the large agri-business firms who have created the food safety problems in the first place are the only ones who can afford to comply with the mandate, while small farmers will be pushed out of business.
- What Big Agra firm owns your favorite Nature-y brand?
- Parents of injured American peace activist demand justice from Israel | World news | guardian.co.uk – Aside from the obligatory reiteration of the IOF line at the end of the article and the lack of any mention of the violence going on in the immediate vicinity of the press conference (see previous bookmark), this is a decent article
- Israeli police violently prevent cultural festival in occupied East Jerusalem, several arested | International Solidarity Movement Palestine
- Israeli troops shut down press conference with injured American’s parents
- As projects grind to a halt, home sites turn to wasteland – Los Angeles Times – We’ve got this kind of theft and squatting in the desert community where I’m living, but it’s an active construction site. I don’t find the bonfires particularly scary, but the acrid smoke from the plastic they burn for fuel makes me ill.
February 27, 2009
February 7, 2009
Links for February 5th through February 7th
These are my links for February 5th through February 7th:
- Petition on Tuition: There’s a Party and We’re Not Invited – AUC's inauguration, coming months late, was indeed quite a scene, though I wouldn't have been welcome to see it for myself. I heard it was awful, predictably enough.
- A market of the living amidst the tombs of the dead: Inside Souq el-Gomma – I just visited the Souq el-Gomma last Friday and had a great time. I'm somewhat glad I didn't get a chance to write down my observations, as this article by one of my favorite local journalists encapsulates much of what I would have had to say, except maybe for the mention of the bald dude in a Liberace fur jacket openly trying to sell a high-powered rifle (scope included) around the toilet plumbing section.
- Rizk’s family file case against Banha police, faculty to demand AUC intervention | AUC Caravan –
- Egypt police detain Egyptian-German activist | World | Reuters – "Rizk, who blogs at Tabula Gaza (http://tabulagaza.blogspot.com) is "passionate" about Gaza and had recently completed most of the work on a short documentary about non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation"
- Defense and the National Interest » On War #290: Blowback Revisited – Not coming from my perspective, really, but an interesting analysis of what we might expect from returning vets who may have been learning lessons from all the wrong models (in my opinion) of life in a stateless society.
February 3, 2009
Links for February 1st through February 3rd
These are my links for February 1st through February 3rd:
- Gaza war summary – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews – A bit old, but short and biting and amusing: "Despite widespread praise, B. Michael unimpressed with military’s performance in Gaza"
- ei: Every family has a story, here are some of them – The asinine behavior of Israeli soldiers was so rampant, it's hard to imagine that it wasn't somewhat organized and strategic. And it's also hard to imagine what possible use such a strategy would be. Gazans have nowhere to go. Terrorist practices like this won't make the Palestinians leave because they can't. It certainly has no "educational" effect, despite what idiots like Thomas Friedman think. I can only imagine that Israel has no interest whatsoever in reaching any sort of peace with the Palestinians, ever.
- Los Angeles Times: The last stop for a young utopian – I've been reading a lot of sad stories lately, mostly out of Gaza. In many ways, this is much less tragic, but I'm not going to feel bad for mourning the death of "one of our own."
- IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Lebanon | LEBANON: Climate change and politics threaten water wars in Bekaa | Early Warning Environment Conflict | Feature –
- Norman Finkelstein: Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza – Norman Finkelstein explores Israel's twin goals in Gaza: to restore the understanding that Israel will kick your ass if you don't give it your lunch money and to stave off a Palestinian "Peace Offensive".
January 30, 2009
A conversation about this image—مناقشة عن هذه الصورة
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What follows is a conversation about the above image, which I’ve been using as my profile picture on Facebook. The other party agreed to have his/her words reproduced here without her/his name attached:
January 29, 2009
Links for January 29th
These are my links for January 29th:
- Ezbet Abed Rabbo area: Remnants of houses and soldiers’ presence – There’s no polite way to put it—these people are assholes
- The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: The Obama Era: Arab hopes or Illusions –
- ‘Draculas’ get their teeth back into lucrative Gaza tunnel operation – “It’s the Israelis who made us need the tunnels, and that’s the real tragedy, that they’ve created this situation where people can capitalize on disaster.”
- Daily News Egypt – RAILWAY WORKERS’ STRIKE PARALYSES MAJOR TRANSPORT ARTERY – It’s always good to see people breaking out of their craft-union ghettos to organize on the basis of industry (in this case, railroad switchmen working with train drivers)
- Pew: Almost half of Americans want to live somewhere else – USATODAY.com – I guess this isn’t entirely surprising, but interesting nonetheless. I’d love to see a similar survey around people’s jobs.
- Egyptians travel to US-Mexico border | Middle East | Jerusalem Post – A little something for you border activism folks
Links for January 28th
These are my links for January 28th:
- 60 Minutes – Is Peace Out Of Reach? – This is amazing. Those responsible for this broadcast had some serious chutzpah, and I mean that in a good way.
- ei: The shortcut to peace – A lesson in the history that has helped determine the form of Palestinian resistance, and a warning against taking any shortcut to peace that doesn’t address the fundamental cause of violence: occupation.
- Jewish Settlements expanded faster in 2008 – A report on the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, as if we needed any more evidence that Israel has no interest in peace with Palestine
- U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel –
- US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation – One of the more useful sites for the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement
- Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | The horrors of Israel’s peace – An examination of how Israel has inverted the traditional equation: in its case, diplomacy is war by other means.
January 26, 2009
Links for January 25th through January 26th
These are my links for January 25th through January 26th:
- ZNet – Gaza Q&A – An exhaustive Q&A on the recent massacre in Gaza, great for those looking for talking points to counter those of Zionists. It is quite long, yet brief, a testament to the shear volume of Zionist blather that must be addressed.
- ZNet – Gaza 2009 – Noam Chomsky – Another excellent survey of the on-going Israeli atrocities. Chomsky, as is his wont, is rather verbose, but who am I to talk.
- Because They are Dirty Arabs… – A biting commentary on the racism of the Israeli regime
- Informed Comment: Gaza 2008: Micro-Wars and Macro-Wars – An excellent summary by Juan Cole of the strategic considerations of the Israeli state and resistance movements to it.
- War Against Palestine Everyday – Jiser on Flickr – Some amazing photography from Gaza.