The Syrian regime that protected Israel for over 40 years is now calling me a Zionist

The lousy Syrian regime that has bee keenly protecting the Zionist entity since Hafidh Al-Asad became Minister of Defense in the 1960s dares to call me a Zionist.  This is like George W. Bush calling someone a war monger.

PS Here is the deal I have with the propaganda hoodlums of the Syrian regime: if you liberate the Golan heights from Israeli occupation--and I shall give you another forty years to complete the job--I will apologize to you.  Deal?

AJE apolgoizes--kind of--to Joseph Massad and reposts the article

Finally, AJE apologizes--kind of--and reposts the censored article by comrade Joseph Massad.  As for the notion that this article is similar to a previous article, I say: please go play in the garden, NOW.  If the decision was purely technical, why publish it and then remove it then?  Give me a potato, please.

US and Burma

"Either way, the administration remains deeply troubled by Myanmar’s repressive policies and actions." And who is the stance of being "deeply troubled" reflected? By receiving the Burmese dictator in the Oval House. Sare me.

Aljazeera America: important announcement

Hoping to fend off Zionist criticisms, Aljazeera America announced the name of its main chief anchor.  Congratulations. 

Heroism of the Egyptian Army

"Egyptian officials say troops and police mistakenly fired on a Bedouin funeral in the Sinai during a sweep searching for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants."

Atheism in Egypt: thank you, MB

Two articles on the spread of atheism in Egypt in the wake of the rule by MB. (thanks Sa`d)

Toursim: China and Israel

Tourism from China to Israel jumped 49 percent to nearly 20,000 visitor arrivals in the past two years, growing nearly twice as fast as the almost 20 percent growth for all of Asia, according to Tourism Ministry figures. The number of visitors from Europe increased by only 3 percent in the same period. “The tourism potential for Israel from China is far from realized and one of the goals of the ministry for 2013 is to break into the Chinese market,” former tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov said in March. " (thanks Mohammed)

Greenwald on AJE's censorship

Glenn writes about AJE's censorship of Joseph Massad's anti-Zionist article.  But one thing in the article bothered me, I have to say: the reference to the PhD dissertation of Mahmoud Abbas.  Abbas should not be mentioned in the same article on the topic because he is a notorious anti-Semite and his dissertation contained grotesque denial of the holocaust. 

Hazem Saghiyyah: in the service of oil princes

So yesterday, I casually mocked that Hazem Saghiyyah (a right-wing writer in the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan and in Hariri media) after receiving a journalism award from the ruler of Dubai--kid you not, I am not making this up--he wrote a column praising the Dubai model.  So he commented on my Facebook "like" page and called me a donkey.  It is not the first time that he has used bad language in talking about me.  Fortunately for my readers, my mother was very strict in our upbringing: that we don't engage anyone who uses bad language in debate.

Anti-Semitism versus anti-Islam

And the report noted an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East. In his remarks, Mr. Kerry announced the appointment of a new special envoy on the issue, Ira N. Forman, a former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council who also served as the director of Jewish outreach in President Obama’s re-election campaign....The report also chronicled a rise in anti-Muslim attitudes in Europe that have shaped government policies."  I hate to bother you but how come there is only a special envoy on the issue of anti-Semitism but not on anti-Islam?  How is that measured or decided?

propaganda on Syria

I am sick and tired of the lies and fabrications by both sides in the Syrian conflict. The lastest is one by Syrian regime propagandists in which they claim that the daughter of the Emir of Qatar is tweeting against her father. I mean, come on.

Its days are numbered

"The military onslaught this week against the strategic Syrian town of Qusair has dramatized a surprising combat resilience that has already put rebel forces on the defensive on other key fronts, including near the capital, Damascus.

The military's still-robust fighting ability — apparently bolstered in Qusair by the presence of combatants from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group — has confounded predictions from experts and foreign capitals that the Syrian government's days were numbered."

Germany and Syrian rebels

From Adam:  "I was interested when I first began to read this interview with the German Foreign Minister and found that he was against shipping weapons to the rebels. That was until he justified the past and current intervention and then why he doesn't want to send the rebels weapons: apparently he would be fine with arming them if "these weapons do not end up in the hands of extremists, terrorists and jihadists, for whom Damascus is merely a staging post on the road to Jerusalem?" That's where I stopped and went elsewhere, only to return so I could send this to you."

A regime that bombs its people: the US

"On August 30, President Harding placed all of West Virginia under martial law. On September 1, 2,500 federal troops arrived with more machine guns, percussion and gas bombs, and 14 airplanes commanded by World War I hero General Billy Mitchell. Bombs rained on miners' positions, though their accuracy was problematic; in the early days of flight, bombs were literally "dropped" from flimsy aircraft." -- Robert E. Weir. Workers In America: A Historical Encyclopedia. 2013. pages 67-68." (thanks Amir)

This is the democratic and secular gang that the US is supporting: Fee Syrian Army threatens that Shi'ites and Alawites to be "wiped off the map"

"Communities inhabited by Shiite Muslims and President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority will be “wiped off the map” if the strategic city of Al-Qusair in central Syria falls to government troops, rebel forces said.  “We don’t want this to happen, but it will be a reality imposed on everyone,” Colonel Abdel-Hamid Zakaria, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army in Turkey, told Al-Arabiya television yesterday. “It’s going to be an open, sectarian, bloody war to the end.”"  This threat is typical of the sectarian doublespeak of the Fee Syrian Army: they speak something sectarian and then they catch themselves so they quickly try to backtrack. (thanks Jamal)

This is how the story of Lebanese Salafite intervention in Syria is covered in the New York Times

There has not been one story in the Times about the open and vigorous intervention by Lebanese Salafite groups in the Syrian conflict.  The story is buried in passing in an article on Hizbullah's role:  " In the northern city of Tripoli, which supplies Sunni fighters to rebel ranks..." 

Anne Barnard does it again: she makes things up

"the group has framed as both a proxy fight with Israel and an intervention to defend Lebanese and Syrian Shiites..."  I will donate a blender to Anne Barnard if she can find one--not two, just one--source in which a Hizbullah leader states that its intervention in Syria is to defend Lebanese and Syrian Shi`ites.  She really literally make things up: or most likely, she basically reproduces whatever she hears from her Syrian armed groups sources and from March 14 in Lebanon, without even verifying.  She is so ill-equipped for the role as Beirut bureau chief for the Times, that she sat with Lebanese politician, `Abdul-Rahim Murad, and identified him as an MP, not knowing that he has not been in parliament since 2005. 

Ali and his relative

Look at Anne Barnard's pathetic methods of documentation:  "Ali, a Lebanese Shiite with ties to Hezbollah, said that a relative and other fighters, updating him by text message from the battlefield..."  What does "with ties" to Hizbullah mean? Like he has ties with Hizbullah logo on them? Or he has a rope that ties him to Hizbullah members?

Syria

This is not my battle: you have your trenches and I have mine.

AJE's censorship of Joseph Massad

To date, all Arab (read Saudi-funded and Qatri funded) media have ignored the AJE's censorship of comrade Joseph Massad under Zionist pressures.  Only Al-Akhbar and Al-Manar website wrote on the story.

The Golden Era of Arab Atheism

I hereby announce the possible beginning of the golden era of Arab atheism:  my latest blog post on Arab atheism for Al-Akhbar English.

My talk in Stuttgart

Here is a link to my talk in Stuttgart about BDS.

victory and defeat in Syria

Every military "victory" in Syria is a defeat by definition.  The Syrian conflict has no heroes, except for those who are not embroiled in it.

The Joseph Massad's anti-Zionist festival

Here is the speech that Joseph gave in Stuttgart.
Here is the article that cowardly AlJazeera removed from its website due to Zionist pressures.
Here is Portuguese translation.
Here is the Turkish translation.

House of Saud hangs five poor Yemenis and leaves their bodies hanging for public view

 
This is the source.  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

PS Marc sent me this:  "actually if you notice in this picture, they beheaded the yemenis, put
the heads in sacs, tied them to their corpses, then hung them for
public display."

Fee Syrian Army

I will henceforth refer to Free Syrian Army as Fee Syrian Army.  It has proven that it operates by a fee.

Christians in Qusayr

Correction.  There is a post below about the expulsion from Qusayr (months ago) of Christians by Free Syrian Army gangs.  But I need to clarify to be fair to the Fee Syrian Army gangs (yes, Fee not Free): they in fact offered safety to the Christians if they convert to Islam, and when they refused, they expelled them whole.  Viva La your revolution

House of Saudi charges

On June 13, 1970, the Saudi government charged the citizen `Adnan Al-`Awwami with 1) Nasserism; 2) Nationalism; 3) Ba`thism; 4) communism; 5) Muslim Brotherhood; 6) membership of an undefined Islamic organization. Kid you not.

Details are in Sayyid `Ali As-Sayyid Baqir Al-`Awwami, the Saudi National Movement 1953-1970 (Arabic), volume 2, p. 222.

 

"Reminder that Syrian rebels expelled Christians from Qusair"

Comrade Asa sent me this:  "There is a lot of media attention on this village at the moment, and
regime forces claims claim to have retaken it from rebels. But most of the media , sympathising with rebels, seems to conveniently happened to minorities under rebel control."

Human Rights as a political tool

"The U.S. government, then, has always used the ideology of human rights as a political tool, deployed when convenient and ignored otherwise. It allied itself with human rights violators during the Cold War; during the war on terror, it justified its own human rights violations by the necessity of protecting the security of the liberal democratic state."

Every day there is a story about an attempt by Zionist hoodlums to ban and censor and repress

"A group of Toronto city councillors will file a motion on 28 May to cut the grant to Toronto LGBT Pride unless the organisers agree to ban the participation of a pro-Palestinian activist group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). They also want to ban the use of the phrase 'Israeli apartheid'." "The co-chair of Queer Ontario, Nick Mulé, believes councillors Di Giorgio and Pasternak are more interested in censorship opinions than protecting rights. It's inaccurate to describe the dispute as one of "competing rights," he argues, because the right to religious freedom doesn't mean the right to suppress other people's viewpoints. "They are trying to shut down dialogue and infringe on freedom of expression," he says. "QuAIA is not a people-hating group. Their message is a critical analysis of political policy. If we don't have the freedom to critique policy, then we are really in trouble as a society." "Their demand for a ban is straightforward censorship. It's a direct attack on free speech and the right to protest - and, some people might say, borderline blackmail." (thanks Amir)

Racist studies

"The Heritage Foundation report on the costs of immigration reform co-authored by controversial scholar Jason Richwine has been widely debunked, and Richwine himself has resigned from Heritage in the wake of revelations about his history of arguing that blacks and Latinos are dumber than Jews and Irish people. But Richwine's study was even worse than previously thought, according to a new Scholars Strategy Network brief (PDF) by Richard Alba, a sociology professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York who studies immigration and assimilation."

The spoiled brats of Lebanon buying their assignments

Students can pay anything between $10 and $30 per page for papers in humanities, and around $300 to $400 for small graphic design projects. Senior-year projects and theses are the most expensive, costing up to $1,500 for a dissertation.  Nadia, an English Literature graduate student, who also refused to give her last name, works for a similar organization. Nadia makes around $2,000 a month and has more than 200 undergraduate and graduate colleagues from different backgrounds, catering to students from all majors."   (thanks Jad)

PS Of course, there is such a phenomenon in the US.  I knew a Lebanese student in Berkeley who made his living from taking exams on behalf of wealthy Saudi students.  Sometimes he would grow a beard or a mustache in order to look like the person in the school ID.  

The passing of Sayyid Fathi in Egypt

Comrade Chris Stone (who is recovering from his stab wound in Cairo) sent me this: "I was hoping you might mention on your blog the death of the human rights lawyer Sayyid Fathi. Both pre and post revolution in Egypt he worked tirelessly to represent the poor as well as those on the left: workers, revolution martyrs' families, etc.. He was also helping a friend of mine get royalties for Sheikh Imam's family for the songs used in the film about Ahmad Fouad Negm "al-Fagoumi." I went with that friend to his office several times recently and no matter how busy he was he always made time to sit down and talk about the case. He was even willing to use the offices of the Hilali Foundation for some events to honor the memory of al-Sheikh Imam." 

An Egyptian comrade who knew him well sent me this about him:  "He's a former communist member of the underground Hizb el-Shaab el-Ishtraki, which was led by Ahmad Nabil el-Hilaly and Youssef Darwish in the 1990s. They presented the "cleanest" politics Stalinism could provide. They were more respectable than the CP when it came to working class issues and political stands towards the regime. He drifted into the NGO politics like many former communists, and established a legal aid NGO (which receives international funding like the other NGOs), but he took up good causes in general. He was among the lawyers who defended the "Mahalla 49", the detainees who were rounded up, tortured and tried for their alleged role in the 6 April 2008 Uprising... "

Yassin Hajj Saleh: discourse of the Syrian "revolutionaries"

Yassin Hajj Saleh is promoted as the "thinker" or "theorizer" of the Syrian "revolution".  Here is a sample from his vulgar language.  If this is how the ostensible revolutionary "elite" writes, do you blame the masses?

loving Syrians

For those who feign love for the Syrian people, who come not a word about the execution of a Syrian citizen in Saudi Arabia for carrying some drugs on him? Or so they claimed?

Lies about Syria: the Israeli vehicle

Both sides lie about Syria although the Free Syrian Army wins a blender for the most lies over two years.  But the story in Al-Mayadin about the Israeli vehicle with Hebrew writing is just not convincing.  I mean, they could not paint over the Hebrew writing before supplying it to rebels?

The four commanders of Hizbullah

Saudi media is as funny about Hizbullah as Western media.  According to Saudi and Hariri media, Hizbullah only has four commanders/fighters and it uses them in all military missions: the same four people are named for murder of Hariri, murder of Hasan, the bombing in Bulgaria, and now leading the fight in Qusayr.  Hizbullah does not have other members.fighters it seems.

Hizbullah in Syria

One of my sources of amusement is reading US reporters commenting on Hizbullah.  It is clear from reading their reports that they exclusively talk to enemies of the party in Lebanon.  For example, they keep repeating the mantra in Saudi media that Hizbullah would face anger among its base for its military intervention in Syria.  The truth? The base has been urging the party to get more heavily involved in Syria for months now. 

PS I am sure that Nicholas Blanford will this week stumbles on a Hizbullah commander, Abu Potato, who will exclusively tell him that all party fighters and commanders now hate Nasrallah for the intervention in Syria.

Dubai achievement

 
Now the people of UAE can rest.

Meet the Israeli Center

"Indeed, there was little daylight between the two men’s positions. Mr. Lapid said he would not stop the so-called “natural expansion” of settlements in the West Bank, nor curtail the financial incentives offered Israelis to move there. He said the large swaths of land known as East Jerusalem that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and later annexed must stay Israeli because “we didn’t come here for nothing.”

“Jerusalem is not a place, Jerusalem is an idea,” he said. “Jerusalem is the capital of the Israeli state.”"

Has an American reporter ever sat down with an Israeli leader and not found him charming? Ever?

Over the years, I have read American reporters commenting on the ostensible charm of people like Itzhak Rabin and Netanyahu and even Sharon.  "Throughout the interview, Mr. Lapid was charming..."

The New York Times reports on an Israeli special investigaton: we are all wrong. Muhammad Durrah is still alive

"“It is hard to believe the special committee formed by Moshe Yaalon, today Israel’s Defence minister did not approach France 2 or (to the best of our knowledge Mr. Al Dura – despite his willingness to exhume the boy’s body. France 2 learned about the existence of the committee from the press- and this speaks for itself.”"

AJE and censorship of Joseph Massad

This is a big deal: that AJE would remove an already posted article by Joseph Massad due to pressures from Zionist hoodlums.  This really signifies the nature not only of Qatari media but also of Qatari foreign policy.  The Qatari ruling dynasty is now at the feet of Zionists.  The Emir of Qatar calculates that he can always win more Congressional sympathy by inching closer to Israeli boots.

Read Saudi media: Aljzeera newspaper

Let me just translate the headline of this article for you:  "King Abdullah: Depth in vision...Clarity in Stances and seeing what was...and what is...and what will be." Verbatim.

 

The quality of reporting on Syria

This is a Reuters headline:  "Thirty Hezbollah fighters killed in Syrian town: activists".  I only quibble because some "Syrian activists" have even reported some 1000 Hizbullah fighters killed. Why stop at the figure thirty here?

Arab equation

House of Saud plus House of Thani=Israel.

That lousy Syrian regime: neo-liberalism is reinforced, yet again

Mr. Dardari is back in Syria.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel defines the Jewish state

"“Israel is a Jewish state and Jews have superior rights,” says the chief rabbinate’s spokesman. “But the Karaites are not Jewish.”"  If this is the view of Karaites, you may imagine the view of Muslims and Christians.

An integlligence goon of Jordanian King speaks out...to Zionists

"During the protests, [Abdullah] would tell Jordanian intelligence operatives, with me only being one of them, to sneak into protests and chant anti-Israeli slogans, both to distract the attention of people from the king and to give the impression that if he falls, Israel will be next."

If this Afghan-American hearts US occupation chances are Americans will read his books

" But it’s very important to point out that the last 12 years have not been a waste."

All you need to know about Syria

Thomas Friedman managed to sneak into Syria for a few hours as guest of the FSA so he now knows about Syria more than asnyone. 

The obituary of Kenneth Waltz in the Times

" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said a month after Mr. Waltz’s article was published. “I think people who say this have set a new standard for human stupidity.”"

White Man: please come and save us, please

" Last week, the Afghan Women’s Network, along with a number of Kabul-based civil society organizations, began sending out alarmed e-mails to embassies and international organizations, as well as reporters, to rally opposition to the effort to revise the law."

Colonial feminists of Afghanistan

" some argued that quick action had to be taken before the exit of the United States, which, along with the European Union, has championed better lives and protections for Afghan women." So those "some" believe that only a foreign occupation can protect women.

Is there any crime by the Syrian armed groups that Anne Barnard does not absolve them from?

The 80-year old father of Syrian official, Faysal Mikdad, is kidnapped by armed groups and no one in the world but Ms. Barnard believes that he was NOT abducted by goons of the glorious "revolution".  She writes:  "A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army described the abduction as “unconvincing and strange,” given that the father did not share his son’s views...".  Let me guess: the 80-year old father of Mikdad switch to the side of the "revolution" quietly and silently only hours before his abduction, right?  Is this not the typical method of the armed groups to justify their abductions and murder time after time?  She then adds:  "The Mekdad clan numbers in the thousands in Dara’a, where the uprising began, and includes government supporters and opponents."  And it just happens that the 80-year old father of Mr. Mikdad decided to go against his son and to support the "revolution" and for that the regime decided that he should be kidnapped because hours earlier he switched sides?  How dumb do you think your reader are, Ms. Barnard?

The ridiculous propaganda of Anne Barnard on Syria

Here uncritical and ignorant (but sinister) reproduction of the propaganda of Syrian armed groups knows no bound.  No matter how absurd the claims, she dutifully reproduces them in the Times.  Look at this:  "Some died when government forces shelled the fields surrounding the neighborhood, Al Waer, starting on Friday, and others were stabbed to death, said the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition news network with contacts in Syria. The bodies were later set on fire by soldiers and pro-government militias, the activists said....Residents said they were able to identify 10 of the victims as members of two families, including four women and two 11-year-old children."  So regime forces shelled the families, and then stabbed them to death, before incinerating them.  Yet, the "resident" or "activists" were able to identify the bodies after their incineration.  Is critical faculty employed here at all at long last?

The prostitution ring in Cannes

"In a lengthy expose, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Elie Nahas, who was convicted of running a prostitution ring in Cannes in 2007, one that supplied women to Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Moatessem, among others.
While Nahas proclaims he was innocent, he told the magazine that prostitutes in Cannes can make “up to $40,000 a night. Arabs are the most generous people in the world… At Cannes, they carry money around in wads of 10,000 euros. They don’t even like to count it.” (thanks Michele)

PS Last time I posted about this guy, he wrote to me protesting his innocence.

in gratitude for killing Muslims back home

"It's just one element of the surprisingly rapid expansion of economic, political and even military ties between the United States and Burma in recent months after more than two decades of estrangement. The thaw will be on display again when Burma's president, Thein Sein, visits the White House on Monday — the kind of event that would have been unimaginable even a year ago. The former general, who took power in a transition to civilian government in 2011 and has ushered in a wave of political and economic reforms, is also scheduled to be the featured guest at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event."

"Israel has not commented"

"Iranian authorities executed two men on Sunday convicted of working for Israeli and U.S. spy agencies, Iran's Fars news agency reported. Mohammad Heidari, accused of passing security-related information and secrets to Israeli Mossad agents in exchange for money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, accused of gathering information for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, were hanged at dawn, it said." "The United States has denied any role in the killings. Israel has not commented." (thanks Amir)

Being Arab in the US

From Basim:  "Dearborn Arab International Festival 2013, in what would have been its 18th year, a gathering recently wrought with religious clashes, is on hiatus. Last year's event resulted in at least two civil lawsuits, both filed by Christian organizations that attended the event for missionary or evangelical purposes."

"The City of Dearborn had been looking to minimize tensions as much as possible by trying to move the festival into a gated area and charging an entrance fee. The Christian evangelist group, the Bible Believers, who protested at the festival last year and caused controversy after displaying a pigs head on a stick, had planned on returning to this year's festival once again."

merchants of death

"Israel is world's largest exporter of drones, study finds: In eight years Israel exported $4.6 billion worth of UAVs, to countries ranging from Britain to India and Uganda."

Israel and Chinese universities

From my Saudi student source in China:
"I had a long and very fruitful conversation with Prof. X that might be of interest to you regarding Zionist outreach efforts in China. (You can quote but please delete... they can really hurt him.)

He was quite forthcoming since, he admits, he was hoping for someone to come outside the Israeli-Zionist circles and ask him about what they are doing. He added that despite his affiliation with many Zionist groups here, he is pro-Palestinian. However, they still choose to co-opt his name for their projects (like in the 3500 project) and other groups like SIGNAL.

He added that the Zionists have been active in buying scholars since the salaries of scholars in China is quite low which also explains why there has been such a flowering of Israeli studies programs across China (10 had been opened in the last 2 years.) Most institutions and universities had resisted this initially, especially those staffed by an older generation of scholars (Beijing University for instance dosent have one - he resisted opening an Israeli studies program since he saw it for what it is but he suspects one will open as soon as he leaves ) but the new generation is cracking across the board.

A lot of the funding for these programs does not come from the Israeli government but from Zionist groups in the US such as AJC.  An indigenous organization called SIGNAL and headed by a Yale alumni business woman is also doing alot of work in China (they open more programs to get more funding from one David Backer organization in San Francisco.etc.) The rationale behind these program is to fight the so-called 'de-legitimization' campaign globally and influencing the elite in places like India and China.

There is another angle for Zionist advocacy which is occurring through the Christian channels in China. Apparently the Isaeli Tourism Ministry is inviting the leaders of the Christian communities (of the evangelical variety) to visit the Holy Land.  of them end up being very supportive of Israel afterwards.

I have a lot more, but for now, this is sufficient I hope.

I will continue my research and keep you informed."

Predictably

Whenever the Salafite scoundrels of Tripoli get angry, they indiscriminately shell the predominantly `Alawite, Jabal Muhsin and manage to slaughter a few children running in the streets.  This of course is of no concern to Western media or to the Hariri-run, Beirut-based office of Human Rights Watch.

Anne Barnard's methods of documentaion

Can you imagine the Times allowing one of its rerporters to use this language in reference to crimes by Israel?  " The activists’ accounts could not be independently confirmed, but videos posted on YouTube and Facebook groups controlled by rebels showed..."

Nusrah Front in Lebanon

Al-Mayadin TV is reporting that the Lebanese Army arrested a Nusrah Front cell who were preparing to plant a car bomb in Nabatiyyah.

Qatar and Israel

In 2010, I asked the Emir of Qatar whether it is true that he entered into negotiations with the Israeli hoodlum, Haim Saban, to sell Aljazeera (and hours prior to that meeting, the director-general of Aljazeera, Waddah Khanfar, had denied "the rumor" to me in his office).  He (in the presence of Khanfar) confirmed that it was true but that he was not serious but merely wanted to ease off the pressures of the Bush administration, and was planning to drag the negotiations for years.  The withdrawal of Joseph Massad's article from AJE today only proves this about Qatari foreign policy: that the Emir basically cater to Zionists in order to get close to the US government and to stay a step ahead of Saudi flirtations with House of Saud.  The prostration of Qatari rule before Zionists should be taken into consideration when examining the Qatari role in the Arab counter-revolution especially in Syria.

PS Now, it would not matter of Saban were to buy Aljazeera.  It is damaged good and lost its luster and role.

Correction: The New Syria

Revolutionary Justice in the new Syria. 

PS Is this video for real, or is this staged by Syrian regime propagandists? Can someone verify?

Here is a test: please help identify the secular and liberal armed groups of which Western media keep talking about

FLASH: Qatari rule trembles before Zionists. AJE pulls out an article by comrade Joseph Massad because Zionists protested

This is really true.  The management of Aljazeera English under orders from the Qatari government removes an article by comrade Joseph Massad because it bothered Zionists.  I am not making this up and this will only reveal the extent to which the Qatari dynasty is terrified of Zionists.  So basically, it is easier to criticize (albeit mildly) Qatari foreign policy on AJE than to criticize Zionists.

A statue of "Virgin" Mary jumbs from its place: read all about it from Lebanon

The Lebanese right-wing, sectarian Christian, racist (against Palestinians, Syrians and blacks), and kooky newspaper, An-Nahar has an exclusive: a statue of "Virgin Mary" jumps from its place to facilitate its installation.  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

If those were Muslims

" A throng of thousands led by priests in black robes surged through police cordons in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday and attacked a group of about 50 gay rights demonstrators."

Zionist hoodlums

Needless to say, Massad and his admirers who enthusiastically endorsed his recent column – among them Max Blumenthal of Mondoweiss, Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, and the “Angry Arab” Professor As’ad AbuKhalil  – would all insist, just as Massad claims in his Al Jazeera piece, that their staunch anti-Zionism means quasi by definition that they can’t be antisemitic..."  No, you got it wrong: it means that they all would insist that their staunch opposition to anti-Semitism means that they can't be anti-Semitic.  Got it?

Bahrain Update

From Angry Arab's Bahrain correspondent:  "A few updates updates concerning Bahrain. I know I don't write much or provide any analysis but its just so bad that there's not much to analyze anymore:

- The regime just raided the house of Shaikh Isa Qasem. Isa Qasem has never called for violence against the regime so this is a clear provocation. I do not like him (not a big fan of clerics and his stance on women rights was appalling) but I see an escalation and I fear the worst. Things have really been getting out of control lately. Meanwhile the so-called dialogue (yes there is one going on) has come to a standstill and the salafi party withdrew from the dialogue and the pro-government coalition. As far as I understand it, they are claiming that some members of the pro-government coalition are starting to sound like the opposition (which is laughable). I suspect that by arresting Isa Qasem, the regime hopes that there will be an escalation in protests which then would give them an excuse to respond harshly. The response would then anger the street even more forcing Alwefaq to withdraw from the dialogue - Alwefaq is already losing a lot of support and remaining in the dialogue after such an escalation might just be too much. That way the regime can blame the failure of the dialogue on the opposition's withdrawal. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince is saying that the government should hurry up with rebuilding the destroyed mosques, lol, as if that's all that matters. Of course he never says who exactly destroyed those mosques.

- You probably heard but 6 people were sentenced for insulting the King on Twitter.  

- Nabeel Rajab finally was able to talk to his wife today from prison after disappearing for the past few days. He disappeared right after he told his wife that he witnessed prison guards brutally torturing prisoners.

- The Bahraini parliament has been quite amusing to watch these days largely because of the random anti-government MPs that seemingly came from nowhere (they have nothing to do with the opposition and most anti-government bahrainis boycotted the elections). I have talked a lot about the MP Osama AlTamimi who you will remember recently burned the Israeli flag INSIDE the Parliament during the assault on Gaza. Here you see him lashing out at the Minister of Finance and saying that the King will be held accountable for what is happening to the Bahraini people http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg5A56eE2Z8&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=/watch?v%3DQg5A56eE2Z8%26feature%3Dyoutu.be. This may not be controversial out in the street, where people are calling for the downfall of the King, but he is saying this in an institution that was created by the regime to serve the regime. You have another MP here calling for the Prime Minister to submit his resignation http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=r3z2KAIbrcs&desktop_uri=/watch?v%3Dr3z2KAIbrcs%26feature%3Dyoutu.be Notice how uncomfortable everyone gets, hehe.

- Regarding the King's yearning for British colonialism, I wrote to you previously how we do not elebrate our independence from the British and the regime has prevented anyone from attempting to celebrate that day. Instead our national day is on December 16, the day of the coronation of the King's father. http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/12/bahrains-national-day.html

- Alaa AlShehabi is trying to get the british courts to review failure to examine the export of surveillance equipment to Bahrain that has been used to spy on activists (including her) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/12/uk-company-spyware-bahrain-claim

I signed this petition

"We, the undersigned, ask the World Health Organization and the Iraqi Ministry of Health to release this important report. Immediate release of this report will be the first step towards mobilizing global efforts to protect public health from further degradation in Iraq and in the entire region. "

Prince Mish`al bin `Abdul-`Aziz

This is a rare picture of Prince Mish`al bin `Abdul-`Aziz (recently embroiled in corruption case in UK) in which he is smiling.

Syrian opposition squabbles

Michel Kilu, the Syrian dissident, praises the Syrian opposition in Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (the mouthpiece of Prince Salman) and attacks it in As-Safir.  Here, Mundhir Khaddam (an opposition figure) attacks the opposition. (thanks Kamal)

when Harvard cares

"Palestinian refugees are not at your service" (thanks Electronic Ali)

EU and Israel

""A day after Israel's 22-day long assault on the Gaza Strip, the leaders of six European states, including the UK, France, and Italy, arrived in Israel for a gala dinner, voicing their support for Israel. The dinner was hosted by Israel's then-prime minister Ehud Olmert. The European leaders vowed, of all things, to stop the flow of arms to Hamas. Meanwhile, the Israeli strikes on Gaza would kill 926 civilians....

"...The EU is Israel's main trading partner with a total annual trade of approximately €30 billion (€29.7 billion in 2012). The volume of the trade is more than ten times that of the US foreign aid to Israel. ..."" (thanks Nu`man)

How many Nusrahs in Syria?

From Basim:  "More support for your argument. Now with "two Nusrahs" on the field, war crimes commissioned by any of the armed gangs (and the regime) can be excused:

The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader. Al Qaeda's Iraq-based wing, which nurtured Nusra in the early stages of the rebellion against Assad, has moved in and sidelined the organization, Nusra sources and other rebels say.

"Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al Qaeda's agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad," said a senior rebel commander in Syria who has close ties to the Nusra Front."

Zionist "friends" of the Syrian people

"On Syria: “Better that they busy themselves fighting each other than fighting us,” - Israeli intelligence officer". (thanks Sultan)

US and the Guatamealan war

"By the time peace accords were signed between the government and leftist guerillas in 1996, at least 200,000 people had died violently, more than 90 per cent at the hands of government agents; 100,000 women and girls had been raped and one million people displaced. Even after the peace accords, political assassinations continued." "Ríos Montt had the active support of President Reagan, whom he met in December 1982. Reagan saw Guatemala as a proxy battleground in the cold war. He said that Ríos Montt was 'totally dedicated to democracy' and had been given a 'bum rap' on human rights issues."

The Emir of Qatar: buying islands

""There is nothing celebrities desire more than spending their vacations without being observed -- and in the company of other celebrities. This is probably why Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, cast his anchor there. He must have liked what he saw, because he promptly decided to buy some of the islands in the area." "But it will undoubtedly be grand, given that the emir has three wives and 24 children." "The Qatari ruler apparently wants to invest about €200 million in his summer retreat.""

"Beaten, bullied, badgered: EU study finds widespread homophobia in Europe"

"In Europe, the acceptance of homosexuals, bisexuals and the transgendered is far from a foregone conclusion. Many still face discrimination, social isolation or outright assault. That's the conclusion reached by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in its largest study to date." (thanks Amir)

Flash. Score one for the Syrian "revolution"

The heroes of the Syrian "revolution" has courageously managed to kidnap the son of Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faysal Muqdad.  This is in a long line of heroic deeds of targeting children and relatives of officials in Syria.  I really don't remember the last time I encountered a dirtier revolution against a dirtier regime. 

The lies of Now Hariri: munching on the internal organs of a Hizbullah fighter--now

"The use of chemical weapons and Obama’s fudged “red line” has given way to gruesome footage of a schismatic Syrian rebel commander biting into the lung of a slain Hezbollah fighter and vowing revenge against Assadist soldiers."   When the news is not convenient, make up new news: that should be the motto of this propaganda site.  (thanks Ali)

Western norms and sexuality

Comrade Joseph Massad responds to critics.

An-Nakbah: the Israeli cover-up

"The Israeli censor’s observant eye had missed file number GL-18/17028 in the State Archives. Most files relating to the 1948 Palestinian exodus remain sealed in the Israeli archives, despite the fact that their period as classified files − according to Israeli law − expired long ago. Even files that were previously declassified are no longer available to researchers. In the past two decades, following the powerful reverberations triggered by the publication of books written by those dubbed the “New Historians,” the Israeli archives revoked access to much of the explosive material. Archived Israeli documents that reported the expulsion of Palestinians, massacres or rapes perpetrated by Israeli soldiers, along with other events considered embarrassing by the establishment, were reclassified as “top secret.” Researchers who sought to track down the files cited in books by Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim or Tom Segev often hit a dead end. Hence the surprise that file GL-18/17028, titled “The Flight in 1948” is still available today.

The documents in the file, which date from 1960 to 1964, describe the evolution of the Israeli version of the Palestinian Nakba ‏(“The Catastrophe”‏) of 1948. Under the leadership of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, top Middle East scholars in the Civil Service were assigned the task of providing evidence supporting Israel’s position − which was that, rather than being expelled in 1948, the Palestinians had fled of their own volition." (thanks Yusuf)

PS Make sure that you read till the end about the lies of Mosh Ma'oz, among others.

I smell a rotten financial scheme here

"A Los Angeles banker, the head of a Middle Eastern investment bank and retired General Wesley Clark plan to announce Monday the formation of an investment fund to help rebuild Syria.
The fund will be a collaboration between Avenue Ventures LLC of Los Angeles and Gulf Financial House, an investment bank in Bahrain. A press conference to provide more details has been scheduled for Monday in Beverly Hills.
Expected to attend are Robert Sweeney, a former executive with downtown L.A.’s Far East National Bank and now senior vice president at Avenue Ventures, and Esam Janahi, chairman of Gulf Investment House.
The fund will aim to provide reconstruction and investment capital in Syria once the regime of current President Bashar al-Assad falls. A release previewing Monday’s announcement claims a lack of such post-revolution investment in other nations, such as Egypt and Libya, has led to continued instability in those countries." (thanks Karim)

PS A source sent me this:  "Regarding what you posted about the investment fund for Syria, oh its definitely rotten. Gulf Finance House and Esam Janahi are known for their corruption. Read this reuters expose written three years ago"

Michel Kilu represents the "left" in the Syrian "revolution--kid you NOT

Michel Kilu explains his bone of contention with the Syrian armed  "revolution."  He says that the commanders are all low-class.  I am not making this up.  These are his exact words> He mocks the occupations of the poor.  If this is the left of the Syrian "revolution", just imagine the right.

يأتمر قادة المجالس العسكرية بإمرة اصحاب مهن حرة من معلمي دهان وتلييس وكومجية وخبازين ودكنجية وبائعي خضار وشوفيرية وشرطيين ومربي دجاج وعاطلين سابقين عن العمل وكومسيونجية"

I am Zionized?

Syrian regime propaganda outlet refers to me as "Zionized" because I attack the lousy Syrian regime.  Also, have you noticed that propagandists of the regime find it difficult to criticize without invoking Sirmayah (sandal or slipper)?

House of Saud and Israel

This columnist at the mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, calls on US to model its policies in Syria after Israel.

Western media promotion of--and fascination with--fake Arab feminists

A Lebanese feminist writer talks about the fake Lebanese feminist who is promoted by Western media, who can't tell Arabic pornography from Arabic literature. (thanks Laure)