The Arab world is exploding against its dictators but Vogue is seemingly oblivious. Here’s a nauseating profile of Syria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad. Somebody should tell the “journalist” that Syria is a brutal police state that tortures its own citizens. But not to worry, she lets her children play with Lego: Asma al-Assad is glamorous,…
Showing all posts tagged Hamas
What the West fears is true independence in the Arab world
The following article by Kate Ausburn appears in Green Left Weekly: Popular uprisings in the Arab world have challenged a political landscape dominated by undemocratic regimes and fronted by dictators, a panel of academics and journalists said at a Sydney University forum on February 15. Speakers discussed the regional and international ramifications of the uprisings…
Britain suddenly discovers that democracy is a jolly good idea?
Sure, British Prime Minister David Cameron is traveling the Middle East selling weapons of death and yet he’s also giving this curious speech about allegedly backing democracy. So I presume he’ll be calling for immediate engagement with Hamas and Hizbollah, then? Britain has been guilty of a prejudice bordering on racism for believing that Muslims…
A non-controversial proposal; Arabs have right to vote for whomever they want
Here’s to small blessings. A rather good editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that calls for a re-thinking of years of imperial attitudes in the Arab world and an opening to Islamists who get elected. Bravo: The patronising orientalism that the Arabs or even Muslims in general are somehow culturally conditioned to political slavery is…
What New Delhi can learn from Cairo
My following article is published by leading Indian magazine Tehelka: The Middle East is the region where global empires lavishly exercise their chequebook. Since the Second World War, America has bribed, cajoled and backed autocratic regimes in the name of stability. Israel, self-described as the only democracy in the area, has been insulated from the…
ABCTV News 24 on Egypt and Wikileaks
I was a guest on last night’s ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside Sue Cato and the Daily Telegraph’s Joe Hilderbrand (video here). One of the main areas of discussion was the Egyptian revolution and just how good it felt. I argued that it was vital for us in the West to understand that Egypt’s…
New Wikileaks cable; US pledged to help human rights in Egypt
Of course, funding a brutal dictator such as Mubarak to the tune of billions of dollars annually rather contradicts this easy pledge. An early 2010 cable: CLASSIFIED BY: Margaret Scobey, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B), (D) …¶1. Key Points: — (C) In meetings January 13-14, A/S Posner told activists and opposition politicians that the U.S. is seeking…
So that’s what being a good Western ally means
This is what bribing allies does for you; false promises that can’t be kept and undermining democracy (which is, of course, exactly what Israel wants): Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman promised Israel in 2005 that he would prevent Hamas from gaining control over Gaza, according to a US diplomatic cable released on Friday. According to…
How can a photo exhibition about Gaza be truly anti-Semitic?
A European photographer simply went to Gaza and documented the horrific effects of Israel’s massacre in late 2009/early 2010.