However, the Qataris’ intervention in Syria, while boosting the revolt against Assad, has also created confusion. The Saudis support the handful of secular rebel factions and Salafi groups fighting the Syrian regime. The Qataris, by contrast, are less discriminating over who they support, and work through the Muslim Brotherhood, which is anathema to Riyadh. As a result the Qataris and Saudis last year created separate and competing military alliances, a rivalry that has undermined the rebellion against Assad – and may have led to weapons ending up in the hands of jihadi militants.

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]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2013/05/19/qatar-and-syria/feed/ 0 http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21578111-prospect-al-qaeda-getting-chemical-weapons-drawing-closer-other-red?frsc=dg%7Ca&fsrc=scn/tw_app_ipad http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21578111-prospect-al-qaeda-getting-chemical-weapons-drawing-closer-other-red?frsc=dg%7Ca&fsrc=scn/tw_app_ipad#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 02:35:45 +0000 The Editors http://israelpalestineblogs.com/?guid=1967295342d9b4123e16035a2345060e Mr Obama’s other red line—the passing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of jihadist terrorists—is, according to intelligence sources, in real and possibly imminent danger of being breached. According to these sources, the past few weeks has seen a flurry of nervous activity that could result in intervention of some kind but which is also giving new urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

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Mr Obama’s other red line—the passing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of jihadist terrorists—is, according to intelligence sources, in real and possibly imminent danger of being breached. According to these sources, the past few weeks has seen a flurry of nervous activity that could result in intervention of some kind but which is also giving new urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

 

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]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2013/05/19/syrias-chemical-weapons-the-other-red-line/feed/ 0 http://rebeleconomy.com/economy/podcast-egypts-hunt-for-stolen-assets/ http://rebeleconomy.com/economy/podcast-egypts-hunt-for-stolen-assets/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 02:27:46 +0000 The Editors http://israelpalestineblogs.com/?guid=36506939f36cb6619777117899ee8036 Ashraf Khalil cheated on us and took part in another podcast over at Farrah Halime's Rebel Economy blog. He joins The National's Bradley Hope to discuss the recovery of assets of the Mubaraks and their cronies, something they've both investigated. Check it out.

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]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2013/05/19/egypts-hunt-for-stolen-assets/feed/ 0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/world/middleeast/israel-casts-new-doubt-on-muhammad-al-dura-episode.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/world/middleeast/israel-casts-new-doubt-on-muhammad-al-dura-episode.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 02:06:05 +0000 The Editors http://israelpalestineblogs.com/?guid=4b62d51860a2f9e4b4d7f821a1c569b2 This NYT report by Isabel Kershner is titled "Israeli Report Casts New Doubts on Shooting in Gaza", but if it were another country one suspects it might be titled "Government report spins  boy's death as trial verdict looms". The Israeli government has made hasbara about the al-Dura shooting one of its signature image campaign, regularly seeding doubt about the version recorded and witnessed by France 2 cameramen which became an iconic image of the occupation of Palestine. It has had little difficulty in recruiting the help of online pro-Israel activists who launched this site (linked to by the NYT without identifying its ideological, propagandistic character — e.g. "Europeans, who repeatedly ran this footage, unwittingly waved the flag Jihad (sic) in front of their Muslim populations.") and mainstream media journalists like James Fallows of The Atlantic who ran a repulsive long piece in 2002 that tackled the al-Dura affair entirely from an Israeli perspective.

The new findings published on Sunday were the work of an Israeli government review committee, which said its task was to re-examine the event “in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel.” They come after years of debate over the veracity of the France 2 report, which was filmed by a Gaza correspondent, Talal Abu Rahma, and narrated by the station’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Charles Enderlin, who was not at the present at the scene.

The Israeli government review suggested, as other critics have, that the France 2 footage might have been staged. It noted anomalies like the apparent lack of blood in appropriate places at the scene, and said that raw footage from the seconds after the boy’s apparent death seem to show him raising his arm.

“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” the review said. “Based on the available evidence, it appears significantly more likely that Palestinian gunmen were the source of the shots which appear to have impacted in the vicinity” of the boy and his father.

Except there is not much debate about the "veracity" of the report anywhere else, and France 2 and the national union of journalists has stood behind Enderlin. This is not an investigation, this is a government propaganda operation timed ahead of a court verdict that may further damage Israel's image and an ongoing attempt at damage control by attempting to muddy the waters of a case that is iconic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine precisely because children are so often its victims.

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]]> This NYT report by Isabel Kershner is titled "Israeli Report Casts New Doubts on Shooting in Gaza", but if it were another country one suspects it might be titled "Government report spins  boy's death as trial verdict looms". The Israeli government has made hasbara about the al-Dura shooting one of its signature image campaign, regularly seeding doubt about the version recorded and witnessed by France 2 cameramen which became an iconic image of the occupation of Palestine. It has had little difficulty in recruiting the help of online pro-Israel activists who launched this site (linked to by the NYT without identifying its ideological, propagandistic character — e.g. "Europeans, who repeatedly ran this footage, unwittingly waved the flag Jihad (sic) in front of their Muslim populations.") and mainstream media journalists like James Fallows of The Atlantic who ran a repulsive long piece in 2002 that tackled the al-Dura affair entirely from an Israeli perspective.

The new findings published on Sunday were the work of an Israeli government review committee, which said its task was to re-examine the event “in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel.” They come after years of debate over the veracity of the France 2 report, which was filmed by a Gaza correspondent, Talal Abu Rahma, and narrated by the station’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Charles Enderlin, who was not at the present at the scene.

The Israeli government review suggested, as other critics have, that the France 2 footage might have been staged. It noted anomalies like the apparent lack of blood in appropriate places at the scene, and said that raw footage from the seconds after the boy’s apparent death seem to show him raising his arm.

“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” the review said. “Based on the available evidence, it appears significantly more likely that Palestinian gunmen were the source of the shots which appear to have impacted in the vicinity” of the boy and his father.

Except there is not much debate about the "veracity" of the report anywhere else, and France 2 and the national union of journalists has stood behind Enderlin. This is not an investigation, this is a government propaganda operation timed ahead of a court verdict that may further damage Israel's image and an ongoing attempt at damage control by attempting to muddy the waters of a case that is iconic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine precisely because children are so often its victims.

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]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2013/05/19/still-desecrating-the-memory-of-mohammed-al-dura/feed/ 0 http://www.marcgopin.com/2013/05/19/figuring-out-our-values-by-studying-our-war-criminals/ http://www.marcgopin.com/2013/05/19/figuring-out-our-values-by-studying-our-war-criminals/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 01:56:47 +0000 mgopin http://www.marcgopin.com/?p=4626

 

Jorge Rafael Videla, the military junta leader who oversaw a ruthless campaign of political killings and forced disappearances during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War against dissidents in the mid-1970s, died on Friday in the Marcos Paz Prison in Buenos Aires, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. He was 87.

At least 15,000 people were killed or “disappeared” during the junta’s campaign, according to government estimates. Human rights officials say the figure is closer to 30,000.

It is gratifying to read of the death in prison of a man who had almost 30,000 people murdered. It is even more gratifying to learn that he spent his last thirty years of life in jail. The successful execution of the rule of law, the nonviolent approach to justice, is the single greatest rebuke to those who cry out for weapons on both sides of this world’s political spectrum. …

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Jorge Rafael Videla, the military junta leader who oversaw a ruthless campaign of political killings and forced disappearances during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War against dissidents in the mid-1970s, died on Friday in the Marcos Paz Prison in Buenos Aires, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. He was 87.

At least 15,000 people were killed or “disappeared” during the junta’s campaign, according to government estimates. Human rights officials say the figure is closer to 30,000.

It is gratifying to read of the death in prison of a man who had almost 30,000 people murdered. It is even more gratifying to learn that he spent his last thirty years of life in jail. The successful execution of the rule of law, the nonviolent approach to justice, is the single greatest rebuke to those who cry out for weapons on both sides of this world’s political spectrum. Those who wanted to “teach Saddam a lesson” ended up destroying a country and making little progress toward justice, while killing, wounding and displacing millions. Those who fought valiant leftist revolutions for the sake of the people in the end got nowhere except civil war and the opportunity to become hapless pawns of superpower rivalry. The winners of history here are those patient Argentinians who built a civilian alternative to the regime after the embarrassment of the Falklands War. 

It is these words of the great General, however, that captured my attention. 

He declared in 1977: “One becomes a terrorist not only by killing with a weapon or setting a bomb but also by encouraging others through ideas that go against our Western and Christian civilization.” 

Well before Bush’s war on terrorism, we have this saint of a man giving us a clue of what happens when we invent a word, like terrorist, and make it into anyone who does not conform to the military’s interests. Then you declare them terrorists and enemies of Western and Christian civilization. It is almost enough to make one an enemy of Western and Christian civilization when war criminals come to its defense. But they are not the civilization, they are not the Enlightenment or Western values, they are just thugs that escaped justice. 

The problem is not Western civilization or Christian civilization. The problem everywhere, East and West, North and South, are war criminals who use states and whole civilizations for their own narcissistic purposes, and in defense of the selfish few who keep them in power. 

We can overcome these folks by the patient application of the rule of law across the planet that more and more is blind to color, religion, wealth etc. But we must also spend time studying the values of war criminals, their frame for values, and then doing the opposite. Their way of thinking is corrupted and corrupting, but sometimes a valuablet path to figure out the complexity of our problems is to study our worst leaders and then do the opposite of what they say. I know that is why Hitler’s every word and every strategy and theory was so important in my evolution of peacemaking strategies. 

Consistently, human rights applied to everyone usually embodies the opposite of whatever values are being spouted by the latest war criminals, but study of the worst of leaders is helpful sometimes in knowing how to move forward in our search for nonviolent civilization. Every civilization should seek out its wisest voices, but also pay heed to its clever war criminals, and then do the opposite of what they say.

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This is my latest video for Israel Social TV which combines reporting on two of my most recent scoops embargoed by Israeli media. In the first, I discuss the Israeli advanced Shoval drone hacked and hijacked by either Iran or Hezbollah, then destroyed by Israel when it lost control. This is an escalation in the Cold War between Israel and Iran in the region.

The second scoop is the secret military-intelligence mission Israel opened in the past year in UAE in an ongoing attempt to build a Gulf “moderate crescent” (Israel’s term, not mine) anti-Iran alliance under the tutelage of the U.S.

Please promote and share it through your social media accounts, especially among Israelis, who can’t read the full truth concerning these stories.

www.cuipcairo.org is a new website that acts as a central repository of information on events, initiatives, organizations and more that have to do with Cairo's built environment. Bookmark them, there's an events calendar function that has recently been added and is very handy for tracking what's going on about town. More info available in this PDF.

Before Edward Said revitalized the term “Orientalism” in his seminal 1978 book of the same title, the major use of the term was for a genre of Western art, centering on exotic depictions of an imagined or at least embellished beyond the real “Orient.” The Gérôme painting of “The Snake Charmer” of the paperback version perfectly captured the prejudicial element that Said rightly exposed in much of the literature and academic writing about the Middle East and Islam. Such a biased representation cannot be glossed as mere “art for art’s sake,” if indeed art is ever really only for “art’s sake.” I recently came across a painting by an Iraqi female artist that responds to another famous Orientalist painting by Gérôme; these are the two images juxtaposed above. There is nothing inaccurate in either painting. Selling female slaves was a lucrative trade throughout the Islamic era and current sexcapades by wealthy Arab sheikhs are well known.

The response painting, which I downloaded and failed to record from where, is a brilliant counter to Gérôme. Both highlight the exploitation of women as sex slaves, either in the older legal and literal sense or the modern illegal but still practiced nonsense. It is possible to look at either picture and focus on the naked body of a woman on display. This is the voyeur’s gaze, which is often the prime motive for creating as well as viewing such a work of art. But when placed side by side with the modern response painting, the very fact that the woman is still only an object for purchase overrides a one-directional voyeurism. This is not simply a scene of the imagination, but a reality that has outlived the 19th century Orientalist genre and indeed is hardly unique to a genre exposing the bodies of Oriental women. (more…)