The significance of the recent chaos in Lebanon has been largely ignored in the West. The Western media frame revolves around demonising the “terrorist” group of Hizbollah and supporting the US-backed government. But what was it really about? First, As’ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University and Angry Arab blogger: …And basically,…
Showing all posts tagged Syria
Shifting sands in Lebanon
Syrian expert Joshua Landis comments on the latest news from Lebanon (and the apparent withdrawal of Hizbollah troops from the streets of Beirut): By pulling back from the city it so easily conquered and by turning over its strategic centers to the Lebanese army, Hizbullah has been gracious in victory. It has not pressed its…
How to talk to an Islamist
Alastair Crooke, The Guardian, March 24: Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, in a recent interview with a German magazine, embellished Rusi’s complaints of naivety and “flabby thinking”. Radical Islam won’t stop, he warned, and the “virus” would only become more virulent if the US were to withdraw from Iraq. The charge of naivety…
The futility of his death
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, February 17: It was like an especially wild orgy: First the great intoxication of the senses, then the bitter sobering up the next morning. Within a few hours, Israel went from celebrating the assassination of Imad Mughniyah to the fear of what would follow. The “great feat of intelligence,” the “perfect execution,”…
Random Zionist bombing
Leading investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals that last year’s Israeli bombing of Syria’s “nuclear” facilities was a classic case of false intelligence and hyped threats (and yet the mainstream media played along again): Joseph Cirincione, the director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank, told me, “Syria does…
Silencing the small man
Despite the incessant attacks by the Bush administration towards Syria and its leader Assad, the country remains a dictatorship that can get away with this: His name is Tarek Baiasi and he’s 23 years old. He lives in Banyas with his mother and two sisters. His father was detained during the 70s by the Syrian…
Treat us with respect
Syrian blogger Golaniya on his government’s censorship of the internet and its recent banning of Facebook: What bothers me is that we are not treated as peers with the government, as if we cannot rightly judge what’s good and what’s bad for us … it is not only about censoring thoughts and freedom of speech…
Blocking the friendship group
Syria bans Facebook. (Procrastinators in the West would never survive.)