The Happy Arab News Service

The Quote of the Year

2009-11-11T02:02:00.002+02:00

Last updated: November 11, 2009

July 30, 2009

There are many other instances where Prophet said something and in today's world it turns out to be scientifically correct. For example Quran says that Allah (swt) turned some Jews into monkeys and pigs. Some companion asked the Prophet that the monkeys and pigs that we see today, are they the descendants of those Jews-turned-pigs-and-monkeys? The Prophet pbuh said no and also explained that monkeys and pigs were present way before those Jews were turned into pigs and monkeys as a punishment. This turns out to be scientifically and historically correct.

Source: Prophet of Islam: A Camel Urine Drinker?

:D :D

ROFLMAO

:D :D

November 11, 2009

"It is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide," Erdogan [Turkish prime minister] told ruling party members.

Source: Haaretz

I am wondering if in Yerevan they heard about the latest Erdogan's pearl...

:D :D

Israel's PR War

2009-11-09T01:06:00.013+02:00

My response to David 2000 on BloggersBase...

david

You are trying again to think for other people. This is a mistake. You may think that this is what the West should think. I can think that the West should think something else. But the views prevalent in the West and in particular in Europe are very different and not favorable to us.

The last war in Gaza was a tremendous PR disaster. What's left of our PR was destroyed by Lieberman and the Bibi vs Obama settlements row. The perception in the West is that it's us who are intransigent and slapped Obama in the face and not the Palestinians. The perception in the West is that we got a coalition government packed with religious hardliners and right wingers. We got a foreign minister who is virtually a persona non grata just about everywhere. Even when it comes to the US, Bibi prefers to go there in person or send Barak but to keep Lieberman at home.

The majority of Westerners, in particular in Europe, are not interested to go into details about the settlements natural growth or to hear that some parts of the West Bank will be part of Israel anyway. What they got from Bibi's quarreling with Obama over the settlements is that we are bent on settling the West Bank. The only plausible in the eyes of the Western public explanation of why we are in the West Bank is that this was imposed on us by the Arab hostility. Now we have undermined this argument by our own hands by defying Obama on the settlements growth. Once again, you may think that the Western public should be more sensitive to the nuances of our situation, and I may even agree with you, but the Western public will never be ready to go that far to understand our predicament here. Never mind, and lets be honest about it, we have more than enough people in the current coalition who think that we are in the West Bank not as a kind of preventive measure like stopping suicide bombers but because we are indeed intending to settle it.

Meanwhile the Palestinians are about to make a brilliant move by abandoning support for the two state solution and insisting instead on a binational state. This is the ultimate PR killer. There is nothing the Western public except fundamentalist Christians would love more than this. If the Palestinians are smart enough to formulate their position correctly, they will say that there is already a binational state and it cannot be split into two. The only thing that's missing is to abolish this apartheid and grant everybody equal rights.

And if this happens, then it's just a matter of time before the international consensus will be like: You seem to love this West Bank so much that you can't even stop settling it. No problem. Just be sure to provide citizenship to all counterparties involved and you can keep this piece of wasteland to yourselves. At this point even Bibi's oratory skills may fail to stop sanctions from being put in place. And that's the situation. Deal with it!

As to Jordan, nobody is going to order the king to commit suicide in the West Bank. How do you imagine this happening? That the US tells him: Go get your Vietnam in the West Bank or we'll punish you with sanctions?

What's dead is DEAD

2009-11-08T00:10:00.019+02:00

The opposition in Iran was demonstrating again during the celebrations of the 1979 US embassy takeover with veteran hostage-takers often leading the protests. This fact can hardly surprise people who lived through the collapse of the former Soviet Union (such as the author of this blog) as opposition movements in Moscow and other big Russian cities were densely packed with people who while opposing the system would often remain loyal to communist ideals (It was different outside Russia where opposition was usually dominated by anti Russian nationalists).

In general, several misconceptions seem to be widespread among the Western public regarding the identity of the opposition. Even among the young generation many dissenters combine deep frustration and disillusionment with the current system, with a virulent hostility and mistrust towards the West. Another thing is that many in the opposition movement don't necessarily reject the idea of Islamic republic as such. Rather they tend to stress the democratic aspects of this concept.

When it comes to guessing what may happen in a not very probable case that the opposition gets the upper hand in the near future, it's important to keep in mind that what many in the opposition want is rather similar to "socialism with a human face" with which much of the anti Soviet opposition in Russia wanted to replace the Communist system. In the Soviet case this meant avoiding capitalism and preserving the so called social achievements of Communism such as free health care, education, equality and such stuff while injecting a massive doze of democracy and basic freedoms into the system. In the Iranian case the idea is about a more open and representative system that still somehow remains Islamic and does not become just another Western like parliamentarian democracy.

History, however, has its own ways of making itself and is a big fan of paradoxes and contradictions. Shortly after the failed anti Gorbachiov coup, amidst growing lawlessness and economic collapse, the Russian government had to remove price and other controls and leave the economy to disintegrate into a free market. With the best of its intentions, the Iranian opposition is very likely to end in the same way by collapsing the system which it only wants to restore to its original purpose by means of reforms.

One of the more curious findings that emerged from some polls carried out on the eave of the elections is that while majority of Iranians don't oppose the idea of having Supreme Leader in principle, they would like to have him directly elected and not nominated by the Guardian Council. This says a lot about what a huge part of this opposition should be about. There are several reasons, however, why the opposition is very likely to find its ambitions frustrated and surprisingly one of them may be the lack of cooperation on the part of the clergy. This one touches on another misconception widespread in the West, which is that Iran is a theocratic state. Iran may be a theocratic state, but through the 30 years of its existence it managed to imprison more Shia clerics than the secularly oriented Shah who preceded it. If anything, Iran is a theocratic state usurped by a fraction of the clergy and, as far as Ahmadinejad and his Revolutionary Guard comrades go, they are no great clerics at all. Even the Supreme Leader himself is claimed to be widely despised in Qom for his lack of impressive scholarly credentials.

Basically, the Islamic nature of the republic is supposed to be guaranteed through supervision and direct intervention by the clerics, led by the Supreme Leader under the concept known as Velayat e Faqih elaborated and applied by Khomeini. The only problem with this idea is that it seems to have become unpopular even among the leading Ayatollahs of the Shia world. Even the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Mohammad Fadlallah, does not endorse it and in Iraq it's squarely out of question. In Iran itself large chunks of clergy appear to have reverted to political quietism eschewing politics. Besides a bunch of hard liners, Iran's Grand Ayatollahs were either silent during the latest mess or openly disproved of the state's treatment of protesters. In fact, in some quarters of the high Shia clergy political apathy and indifference appear now giving place to intense hostility towards the regime.

In case the opposition wins, it may try to relegate the Supreme Leader to the background by stripping his office of much of its current authority and making him elected through popular elections. But on one hand, there is little sense in keeping the Supreme Leader in office if for all practical purposes he becomes like Israeli presidents and wields only ceremonial power. Let alone that the Guardian Council and the office of the Supreme Leader have been thoroughly discredited by the actions of Khamenei and its members. On the other hand, it's very likely that the only clerics interested in taking such an offer would be from the conservative hardcore still rallying behind Khamenei widely detested and hated among the opposition's rank and file.

The last scenario is actually a very likely one. The prestige and authority of Iran's regime was left in shambles after the elections debacle and it's a safe bet that they were lost to the Iraqi branch. In Iraq the Grand Ayatollahs, including the most prominent of them all al-Sistani, have made it known right from the beginning that they prefer spiritual guidance from outside instead of direct involvement the style of Velayat e Faqih. Iraq's next elections may be won by coalitions of secular parties and al-Sistani does not appear troubled by this prospect in any way. In case the Iranian regime disintegrates, prominent clerics untainted by support for the crackdown on the opposition are very likely to reveal themselves as followers of al-Sistani and his Iraqi branch and refuse even ceremonial posts. Some may happen uninterested even in projecting spiritual and moral guidance from outside so deep is the disillusionment with political Islam created by Khomeinism among the Shia clergy.

In short, the opposition does not seem to be in possession of means to preserve the Islamic nature of the Republic and its "Islamic republic with a human face" is very likely to end up as just another republic. Meanwhile the scandal surrounding the elections has been increasingly transformed into one about the crackdown on the opposition. The decision to throw the Baseej into the mess has triggered cascading series of abuse, torture and allegations of other atrocities with the whole thing snowballing out of the regime's control. Until now the regime was wavering and unable to deliver a crushing blow to silence the dissent which is understandable given that Iran in 2009 is very different from Iran in 1979. One of the things that seem to be gone is the ability to execute people en mass. But this wavering and indecisiveness have actually exacerbated the crisis and turned into a never ending scandal deeply embarrassing and demoralizing for the regime.

This last point is an important one since contrary to another popular misconception Iran is no al-Kaida turned a state, but a revolutionary regime rather like the same old Soviet Union. Its ultimate purpose and raison d'être is to provide inspiration to masses across the Muslim World and keep exporting its revolution. Contrary to what many Israelis seem to think, Ahmadinejad's bravado aside, this is no suicidal self destructive entity eager to find itself annihilated or badly crippled in an exchange of nuclear strikes with Israel or the USA. From its very beginning the Revolution's goal was to create a utopian society which Khomeini envisioned as a kind of hybrid between Russian Communism and his rather unorthodox interpretation of the Shia Islam. Creating this new revolutionary society and exporting it to all corners of the Muslim World is what the ideology of this regime is about. It's not about self annihilation. But these days scenes of hundreds of thousands strong demonstrations crushed through application of brutal force are unpopular even in the Muslim world. With Iran's standing even in the Shia world hitting the floor in the wake of the post election turmoil and now digging even deeper into the ground, this revolutionary project seems to have suffered an irreversible setback.

As a matter of last resort, the Revolutionary Guard may try to stage a coup and such a possibility was indeed speculated about, by Stratfor by example. In fact, one Stratfor analyst was interpreting the post election mess as a struggle between the Islamic Revolution's old guard such as Rafsanjani and others and the new and more radical generation led by Ahmadinejad and his Guard colleagues. While this is not entirely untrue, it's missing one of the most outstanding features of this revolution. Revolutions are said to devour their children, but this revolution is so young that it's apparently attempting to devour both its children and its fathers. The opposition is actually driven by a peculiar alliance of the revolution's old guard and the young generation united against Ahmadinejad and his middle generation. But regardless of who wins in the short and medium run, the Revolution and its Republic are probably dead already. Neither the hardliners can resuscitate this revolution, nor the reformists can reform this Islamic republic. What's dead is dead.

If Mohammad does not go to Vietnam...

2009-11-05T21:24:00.004+02:00

This is a kind of "If Mohammad does not go to Vietnam, then Vietnam will come to Mohammad". The Saudis came under attack by Zaidi rebels from across the border. The Saudis reportedly evacuated several border towns and moved army units and special forces into northern Yemen.

PS

This post is an update to The ticking bomb...

Blasted OPEN

2009-11-04T05:05:00.002+02:00

Some people claim the energy crisis is OVER. In fact, they say that not only it's over, the crisis is not going to happen for at least a few next decades. We are going to be awash in natural gas and natural gas powered electricity. So we are also going to be awash in electric cars and cars running on gas. And of course the first thing that emerges in my mind when I hear such exciting news is: So what's about the Arabs? (And the Persians too)

Relearning the Middle East - Nobody fears death. People fear torture

2009-10-30T19:07:00.003+02:00

NPR's (National Public Radio) Terry Gross in conversation with Greg Jaffe (Washington Post's Pentagon correspondent) about Obama's options in Afghanistan. At some point the interview delves into the background of leading US military officials involved and reveals a few interesting episodes from the process through which the US general John Abizaid was relearning the land of his ancestors.

GROSS: I was really interested in your descriptions of General Abizaid, who, you know, helped lead the war in Iraq in its first stage, but didn't seem to agree with the philosophy that the Army was using.

Abizaid's great-grandfather was Lebanese. Abizaid speaks fluent Arabic. He spent time in the Middle East before the war in Iraq, and it sounds like he was very skeptical of the Iraq War from the start, yet he helped lead it. He was the commander of all military forces in the region, the position that Petraeus later took over. So would you explain why he was skeptical of the invasion from the start?

Mr. JAFFE: Yeah, I mean, he does spend a lot of time in the Middle East. Now, he doesn't grow up speaking Arabic. He actually teaches himself Arabic or goes to the Defense Language Institute and then spends two years in Jordan at the University of Amman as a student. They he spends one year in Lebanon, in southern Lebanon in the mid-'80s, watching the Israelis fight a very tough insurgency with Shiite extremists, and particularly Hezbollah, which is just beginning to emerge at that period.

I think he has a sort of deep appreciation for the culture, religion and the huge role those play in the Middle East in terms of determining the fate of kind of countries and how wars unfold. So I think he was deeply skeptical. I mean, he likes to say you can't control the Middle East. If you try, it'll end up controlling you.

So I think he was deeply skeptical of these sort of grand ambitions to change places, particularly Iraq, where he also has this experience at the end of the Gulf War, an experience that's very different from the rest of the United States Army and leads him to take very different lessons from the Gulf War than most of the U.S. Army.

GROSS: So how did Abizaid's Gulf War experience shape his thinking on Iraq?

Mr. JAFFE: Well, you know, most of the Army's - for the Gulf War is the 100-hour tank battle, you know, which is this tank-on-tank fight in which the U.S. Army, you know, obliterates the Iraqi army. Abizaid has a different experience. He misses the tank battle. He's stuck in Italy, much to his chagrin and disappointment for that, but is sent in in the latter days of the war -essentially after the war - to northern Iraq on a mission to protect the Kurds.

It quickly turns to he's also protecting the Iraqi army and the Iraqi army soldiers from the Kurds, and Iraqi soldiers are running to his checkpoint. And he has this - tells this very interesting story. In the latter days of his mission there, he's walking with a Kurdish Peshmerga, a Kurdish militia fighter, and they - the Kurds have caught a couple of Iraqi soldiers who were stragglers, and they grabbed these Iraqis and they torture them and then kill them. And Abizaid, in his very typical, John Abizaid way, says hey, if you're going to kill them, anyway, why do you bother to torture them? And the Peshmerga, the militia, Kurdish militia fighter, says well, nobody fears death. People fear torture. And we have to kill them and torture them and leave them in the middle of the road as an example to the other Iraqi soldiers not to mess with us anymore.

And at that point, I think Abizaid, who already sensed this, realizes that the Iraq War might be over for the U.S. Army. It might be over for the United States of America, but it's still continuing for the Iraqi people and continues throughout the '90s, until we invade the country again in 2003.

Source: NPR

I am / was posting there . . .

2009-10-21T15:39:00.001+02:00

October 21, 2009

My company is sending me the next week to see some overseas customers. There'll be no or little posting for the next two weeks.

Nizo

Loyal to Fatah - To The Last Drop (Redesigning the Palestinian national anthem. The draft version of the new anthem follows below)

October 2, 2009

East Med Sea Peace

the farse cry of the farsi wolf.. (Iran's nuclear bomb)

September 15, 2009

East Med Sea Peace

outside the levant.. (it should better be called "inside the middle east..")

August 30, 2009

The Traveller Within

Seeking readers contribution: A term to replace "Islamophobia"? (defining Islamophobia)

Bring in Haifa Wehbe

2009-10-21T15:33:00.002+02:00

Last updated: October 21, 2009

August 4, 2009

A Saudi Doctor about plastic surgery taking over the kingdom, and actually the rest of the Arab world, by storm.

Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doctor who spent almost 14 years in the U.S., most of them at Harvard, said demand in Saudi Arabia is in line with increased global demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is a customers for procedures that enhance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.

Source: The New York Times

Well, I don't know about Saudi Arabia, but by the name of Allah I swear that if human development indexes were to reflect the amount of silicon Haifa Wehbe and her doubles have managed to pack into their chests, Lebanon would have been immediately propelled into the ranks of the first world.

August 12, 2009

Haifa Wehbe and the destruction of Islamic Renaissance in the Middle East

I was bored and so I went to Maysaloon to have a talk with Wassim. Enjoy

:D :D

October 21, 2009

The Haifa Effect
Haifa Wehbe's revolution continues sweeping the Arab world. No wonder the first to take a direct hit is one of the Gulf's most liberal and progressive states.

KUWAIT CITY – Kuwait's highest court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband's approval, the case's lawyer said Wednesday, in the latest stride for women's rights in this small oil-rich emirate.

Unlike with highly conservative neighbors like Saudi Arabia, women in Kuwait can vote, serve in parliament and drive — and now can obtain their own passports.

Source: AP

Now what's left is for the Supreme Court to grant women the right to walk, so that they can go to collect their travel passports and then fly their ass out of the kingdom.

Obama's pastors

2009-10-19T17:44:00.006+02:00

There is one thing that Barack Obama seems incapable of ever getting right. According to Times, Obama's new pastor, Carey Cash, is Islamophobe and intense supporter of the war in Iraq. In his book published in 2004, the pastor called Islam a violent faith that "from its very birth has used the edge of the sword as a means to convert or conquer those with different religious convictions". Another pearl from the book is the pastor's belief that a wall of angels protected US troops that stormed Baghdad in 2003 (Cash was a chaplain in one of the first units to reach the city). This is of course highly ironic given that Obama was elected in part riding the wave of popular discontent with the war in Iraq.

Obama's previous pastor, Jeremiah Wright, has deeply embarrassed the president by his his bizarre anti semitic allegations. At one point Wright alleged that Jews were preventing the two from meeting each other. Obama had to disavow Wright and since then went paranoiac about choosing a new pastor, so much so that he started switching churches to avoid getting accidentally associated with another nutty pastor. When he finally dared to praise Cash and express admiration for his powerful sermons, this was quickly revealed as a mistake of colossal proportions. Times says the pastor and his family have refused to be interviewed by the Washington Post on the grounds that they were instructed by the White House to keep their mouth shut and not to talk to the newspaper.

Obama certainly could do better. For example he could easily compensate for his lack of touch for pastors by asking one of his aides to at least browse through the book before telling reporters how excellent Mr Cash is. Now this episode, if given publicity, may sweep the Arab and global Muslim media and annihilate whatever successes on the PR front Barack Obama has achieved with his Cairo and other appearances. As Obama is about to soon embark on a search for a new pastor, based on the president's previous selections and his obvious talent for doing it, I would bet that Obama's next pastor will be promptly revealed as a white supremacist.

He is Alive!

2009-10-18T09:35:00.030+02:00

Last updated: October 18, 2009

At last! The Persians have blasted persistent rumours that Supreme Leader died by releasing pictures of him meeting Senegalese president. My feeling of tremendous relief did not last for long, however, as soon it became apparent that we've got more reasons to worry about. On a photo published by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) Khamenei still looks shit and struggling to hold his head up, but Abdullah Wade of Senegal looks simply as if he died half way through the meeting or something.

Source: ISNA
"The Senegalese President also expressed his satisfaction with Iran's impressive June 12 presidential election and its results," said ISNA, but it appears that on saying this Abdullah Wade has largely exhausted his energies and went zombie. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose youthful overconfident appearances usually mitigate the impression of doom and gloom emanating from Iran's clerical gerontocracy, looks subdued and cowering in his corner. I am wondering if this may have something to do with "Iran's impressive June 12 presidential election and its results".

The good old days of yore - Khamenei, Ahmalala and Belarus president Lukashenko

PS

Breaking News... A suicide bomber killed 20 people, including five senior Revolutionary Guard commanders in Sistan-Baluchistan Province of Iran. Scores of others are reported wounded. Among the dead a deputy commander of the Guard's ground force and the Guard's chief provincial commander.

As one who went through one suicide attack and had to visit a friend in a hospital after another one (not to mention that the line I used to go to work was bombed twice), I feel really proud about my contribution to development of this impressive military technology. (Come on, guys. You have to give it to me. No weaponry can mature until tested on live targets and somebody has to do it). Congratulations and my unconditional support go to Baloch nationalists and all other peace loving minorities of the Middle East.

2007, Sistan-Baluchistan. Iran executes a Baluchi insurgent
after a previous attack on the Revolutionary Guard

October 18, 2009

Iran's president Ahmadinejad promised a swift retaliation for the attack in Balochistan, lightening up the hearts of Baluchi insurgents and certain malicious outsiders. There are millions of Baluchis scattered around the region between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Jundallah, the flagship of Baluchi resistance, is rumored to have ties with Al-Kaida. What a fertile ground for a mega Sunni Shia confrontation!!!

However, there seems to be some nuances.

Iranian officials have been reluctant to open full-scale military operations in the southeastern border zone, fearing it could become a hotspot for sectarian violence with the potential to draw in al-Qaida and Sunni militants from nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Source: AP

A big disappointment it is.

Shattered dreams and broken hopes. Angry and dismayed, Baloch insurgents wasting time in their camp - no sign of the Persians coming

Trust me, guys. I can feel your pain. Inshallah, lets pray for better days to come.

What a concept!

2009-10-17T22:46:00.003+02:00

People sometimes post comments that in two lines nail it down better than any social scientists can do. This one, for example, was posted on The Reality Moment in the New York Times. This is basically what America and actually most other democracies are about.

Blacklight: Gee, responsible, pragmatic political leaders who put their careers on the line to tell you the things that you, the electorate, don't want to hear. And the electorate responds. What a concept!

Simply brilliant!

Obama should stay course on Iraq

2009-10-17T13:01:00.004+02:00

The Sunni insurgents in Iraq blew up a key bridge used by the US to withdraw its forces from the country.

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber blew up a dynamite-laden truck in western Iraq on Saturday, destroying a key bridge on a highway used by the departing U.S. military, while four Iraqi soldiers were killed in a separate attack near Fallujah, police said.

There were no casualties in the Saturday morning blast that destroyed the bridge, said a police officer in the city of Ramadi, about 70 miles (125 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The highway is used heavily by the U.S. military to transport equipment out of the country.

Source: Associated Press

The attack came in the wake of a surprising decision by the Nobel committee to award Barack Obama with the 2009 Nobel peace prize. Smart observers will find here signs of a broad international consensus that the decision to end the occupation was premature.

Mr. Obama, people of the world are looking to you to hold steadfast in Iraq. If you need more encouragement, just say it. What do you want us to do? Do you want us to give you another prize or do you want us to blow up another bridge?

Russia celebrating Independence

2009-10-14T09:44:00.010+02:00

Source: Telegraph
A mysterious cloud was spotted over Moscow as Muscovites are readying themselves for celebrations of Russia's independence day. I don't want to be a spoiler but I do feel like I have to remind to our readers how such shit usually ends...

And here we go...

2009-10-12T17:46:00.007+02:00

This post is an update to Flashdance. You will probably have to read the original post to understand what this one is about.

Iran's parliament gives green light to Ahmadinejad's fuel subsidies reform...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's parliament on Monday moved ahead with a bill to sharply slash energy and food subsidies, approving one article of a draft law that has the potential of stoking major unrest in a country struggling under international sanctions.

State radio said the article approved by lawmakers would gradually cut energy subsidies over five years, bringing the heavily discounted fuel prices more in line with international prices.

Officials say the cuts are needed to recoup some of the roughly $90 billion spent yearly by OPEC's second largest exporter on subsidies, and to target the funds more directly at helping poorer segments of the population as well as funding infrastructure projects.

Subsidies currently eat up about 30 percent of the government budget at a time when already high spending and the collapse of oil prices last year squeezed the country's economy.

"The plan would prevent an important part of excessive consumption (in Iranian society), as well as injustice in the redistribution of subsidies," state-run Press TV quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying in a live interview on Iranian television Sunday night.

Source: Associated Press

Among its possible consequences, the approved bill has direct bearing on the issue of punitive sanctions against Iran. It's unlikely that the US and its allies can take action to disrupt Iran's oil exports due to the adverse effect this would have on the global energy market and through this on their respective economies. Imposing some kind of embargo on gasoline imports into Iran sounds like a more plausible course of action to take. Under Ahmadinejad the Persians were investing like mad into their refining capacity and switching cars to natural gas. This effort should start paying off in the next few years, dramatically reducing the impact of possible sanctions against Iran. In fact, Iran may yet emerge as one of the leading, if not the leading, gasoline exporters of the world. The incoming reform may dramatically speed up this process if it succeeds to reign in domestic gasoline consumption. In short, while the President of presidents is brooding over his options in Iran, he may soon find that one about sanctions suddenly unavailable.

PS

This means nothing in terms of Israel's options. If it comes to trading ballistic missiles with Iran, the correct way for Israel to proceed in order to avoid creating a global energy crisis and becoming enemy of all mankind, is to target refineries and not oil fields and terminals.

To Win the Nobel

2009-10-10T13:35:00.000+02:00

Last updated: October 12, 2009

December 23, 2006

From a conversation with a Lebanese friend:

Nobody:

one person told me that when i call myself politically incorrect this is a very gentle description (it was Abubalboola actually NB)

Friend:

well I wouldn't recommend you for the nobel peace prize

Nobody:

no ??? because that was my dream for years - to win the nobel peace prize

Friend:

mine too
do you think I stand a chance ?

. . .

. . .

Yet a few days ago another Lebanese wrote me this:

No one ever won a nobel peace prize for not offending anyone. Besides, if Henry Kissinger, Menachem Begin and Yassir Arafat can win one, you'll be just fine.

. . .

. . .

So it's not over yet . . . I still hope to be one day awarded a Nobel for promoting peace, love and understanding between Jews and Arabs.

October 10, 2009

Go Obama! Goooooo!!!
My Nobel ambitions have been frustrated again and this time by a person with the Kenyan background or something. What can be more humiliating?! However, while we are still on this Nobel prize thing, I want to say that I fully support the committee's decision. Obama's achievements in peace making are not particularly impressive, but his intentions are good and, as the Buddhist philosophy is teaching us, from the purely Karmic perspective intentions count more than actual actions. Never mind a huge amount of work that lies ahead. More troops are needed for Afghanistan. More may be needed in Iraq in the near future if something goes wrong. And of course we have Iran's nuclear reactors waiting to be bombed. With so much peace making that needs to be done, Obama certainly needs some kind of encouragement. In short, however offensive personally I find the committee's persistent ignoring of my own peace making initiatives, I support the decision and am ready to wait patiently for my turn. However, all this is only on condition that mr. Obama will do his peace work properly.

Peace... Beace... Shalom...

Inshallah, one day it will be my turn to go to pick up my Nobel.

Matisyahu - One Day

October 12, 2009

Another Nobel gone...
The Nobel oration, I promised to Nizo in the comments section, seems poised to suffer yet another delay...

As bad as they are, nukes have been instrumental in reversing the long, seemingly inexorable trend in modernity toward deadlier and deadlier conflicts. If the Nobel Committee ever wants to honor the force that has done the most over the past 60 years to end industrial-scale war, its members will award a Peace Prize to the bomb.

Source: Time

So first I was elbowed down to the end of the line by Kenyans and now I will have to wait because they will be busy showering peace Nobels on nukes and chemical bombs. It just can't get more ridiculous than this. I want my Nobel back and I want it now!

Do you wanna revolution?

2009-10-10T13:20:00.011+02:00

This post is an update to Far larger than its leaders

According to the New York Times, Iran's Parliament started an investigation into the nation's telecom monopoly's takeover by a company affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard. This one follows a similar inquiry into a $2 billion worth deal by means of which another company affiliated with the Baseej militia has acquired in August what is reported as the largest lead and zinc mine in the Middle East. And on top of this, reports the New York Times, there are talks about transforming the Baseej into a full time force.

In the wake of the Green Revolution, some analysts have been speculating about a possible takeover of the state by some sort of a joint military clerical rule led by the Revolutionary Guard. Ahmadinejad has reportedly promoted dozens of former Guard commanders to high administrative posts and let firms affiliated with the Guard to take over key economic installations under the cover of what was supposed to be a privatization campaign. The Guard's acquisition spree that followed the collapse of the Green Revolution generally confirms this suspicion and can make fans of revolutions in general, and green revolutions in particular, somewhat disheartened at the reduced prospect of regime change by means of a popular uprising. However, while this seems to be a very reasonable and pragmatic assessment of the situation, it's not that clear that what the regime is currently trying to do makes sense in practical terms.

For starters, to let the Guard into the economy means to expose it even more to corruption and ineffectiveness that are the defining characteristics of Iran's social and economic system. Making the Guard the biggest employer may also set it on a collision course with the population given the chronic state of massive unemployment and floor level wages of Iran's economy. Clearly, the Guard is at its best as a professional fighting force acting as an outsider during political turmoils such as the last one. Transforming Iran into a police state and making the Guard part of this corrupt and messy system is a double edge sword that can destroy both the last bits of the Guard's reputation and the motivation of its rank and file members.

The thing is that Iran is a different society than it was 20 years ago and no amount of repressions can change this. Highly televised forced confessions by dozens of members of the so called opposition (the opposition seems to be packed with people who under Khomeini were the revolution's flesh and blood) could make a lot of sense a few decades ago when the regime was capable of eliminating people by thousands, but this is no smart thing to do under the present system that can't do away with accusations of torture and mistreatment even within its own media. Extracting forced confessions from so many people is no good if you then leave them around to share their horror stories with the media. Iran's standing, even in the Shia world, seems to have already taken a blow from which it can't recover and the mismanaged crackdown on the opposition is bound to wreck it even further as time goes by. In fact, it looks as if the regime is struggling to internalize the fact that neither itself, nor the country it's running, are any longer what they used to be. By its basic instinct, the regime is leaning to harsh and uncompromising methods, but it's lacking teeth to implement them thoroughly enough.

The idea of transforming the Baseej into a regular force may also prove to be self defeating in the long run. One can argue that if the Shah would have had some equivalent of the Baseej, the monarchy would have been still around today. The Baseej effectiveness stems in part from its being a kind of volunteers driven militia. During the Green Revolution regular police forces were frequently reported as vacillating or plainly sympathizing with the protesters. The Baseej moved in and their "irregularity" was revealed as a big advantage both in terms of their zeal and motivation, and the unrestrained violence they used against the protesters. The fact that many Baseej were highly motivated volunteers from inside the ordinary population should have had an added benefit of them having at times better information than professional security services. And this they have put to good use when mopping up protesters and during overnight raids on their homes. To transform the Guard into a state within a state, or to structure the Baseej as a regular force may deprive them of the very same qualities that make them so valuable for the regime.

Actually, the very fact that the Parliament is running inquiries into the Guard's latest acquisitions indicates that while the system is busy attempting to devour its disillusioned creators, it's plainly struggling to get hold of itself. So not everything is yet lost for the opposition. As a wise (crazy) man said: If you will it, it is no legend. Translated to Persian it roughly reads as: If you wanna revolution, you may eventually get one.

Burning money, cooking troubles

2009-10-02T18:48:00.002+02:00

This post is an update to Flashdance. If you have any comments, leave them there

This chart from the last Economist gives a very good perspective on the situation of energy subsidies in Iran.

Source: The Economist

As can be seen in the table, Iran is leading the way, and by a wide margin, when compared to other countries by the sheer volume of its energy subsidies. Iran is a big country of course. However, it's also obvious from the table that Iran is still at the top when the subsidies are recalculated per capita, only Saudi Arabia spends more. It spends $786 per person in energy subsidies every year. The subsidies not only account for the lion's share of the budget, but they are also responsible for the out of control domestic petroleum consumption that, according to some, may undermine the nation's position as a leading oil exporter at some point during the next decade.

The Lessons of the Holocaust

2009-10-01T09:09:00.002+02:00

The Jerusalem Post

Sep 30, 2009
By EVELYN GORDON

. . .

Perhaps Goldstone truly believes that since effective military action inevitably involves civilian casualties, it should be outlawed: that since multiple attempts to stop Palestinian rocket fire without war - two truces, pinpoint attacks, international pressure and blockade - failed, Israel should just have let Hamas continue firing thousands of rockets a year at its citizens. Yet few people would accept that solution were their own countrymen under fire.

Speaking in Jerusalem nine years ago, Goldstone attributed his views on war and war crimes to the Holocaust. But he clearly failed to learn the obvious lesson: What ended the Holocaust was overwhelming force. Had the Allies adopted his impossible standards, World War II would never have ended, and Hitler would have continued slaughtering Jews with impunity.

BUT GOLDSTONE also ignores one final lesson from Hitchcock: Despite far higher casualties, Europe's liberation aroused less antagonism among civilian victims than Afghanistan's has, in part because "the Normandy invasion lasted just one summer, and the people whose homes were destroyed knew that it was all over and they could start rebuilding," Bernstein quotes him saying. Afghanis have no such comfort.

. . .

Source: Goldstone's recipe for never-ending conflict

Don't Touch This!

2009-09-28T07:58:00.006+02:00

One Syrian blogger was wandering around the Syrian blogsphere dismayed by the low quality of content he encountered everywhere when he stumbled on something that completely shattered his heart and faith in the future of his country. And that was another Syrian blogger running "a campaign to combat masturbation". Shock and awed, our blogger exploded with a tornado of rhetoric questions.

Are there no other more pressing righteous causes? How about poverty, gender discrimination, honor killings, the absence of civil liberties and the absence of freedom of expression among a long list of societal ills? Don’t these deserve more immediate attention than a practice that is the realm of the personal and affects no one else?

Source: Don't Touch This!

Well. You see, buddy... Of course, these are important and pressing issues, BUT... The first things should come first!

Anyway, our blogger did not give up and started his own campaign mocking the original one under the title of "Don't Touch This!". With the Syrian blogsphere now being torn apart (Gaddafi would have said "asunder") by pro and contra masturbation campaigns, we cannot just stand idly watching this mess from aside. It's time for us, as good and responsible neighbors (which we are), to start taking sides. After some deliberation I decided to join the "Don't Touch This" camp. Mainly, because it's in English. So here we go....

Don't Touch This!

GOLAN

Oups! Sorry guys. I think I have just copy pasted something wrong from the sidebar of that blog. Another try...

Don't Touch This!

. . .

. . .

Yeah! This one is much better. So do you see this, guys? Well, you don't see it of course. However, I am sure you do know what I mean, right? Yes, I mean this. So don't you ever fucking touch this!

PS

I call on all peace loving bloggers of the Middle East to join our "Don't Touch This" campaign.

Britannia delenda est

2009-09-24T22:35:00.032+03:00

Last updated: September 26, 2009

August 26, 2009

The Hitler-Economist connection

I like his "That seems a bit harsh".

:D :D

September 8, 2009

Switzerland delenda est too...

Col Muammar Gaddafi's Libya proposed a UN motion calling for the abolition of Switzerland after a dispute over the arrest of one of the president's sons, it has emerged. The Alpine country should be folded into France, Germany and Italy, according to the bizarre proposal.

Source: Telegraph

Me thinks the King of kings doesn't really like Switzerland.

September 24, 2009

Man and beast was torn asunder...
Such was the effect of an incredible last performance by the King of kings in the UN General Assembly. It lasted for almost 100 minutes instead of 15 and exceeded all expectations. This is for example what the King of kings thinks about the Taliban and Vatican.

Gaddafi was also reported to have intimated that Israel was involved in JFK assassination and that swine flu has originated in secret labs of the CIA or something like this.

He called Obama "our son" referring to Obama's African roots and suggested that Obama should be ruler-for-life of the U.S. "How can we guarantee America after Obama?" he said. Well, the colonel got the point. We can't, unless the Yankees make him their permanent president.

At some point he called the Security Council the Terror Council and seemed to try to tear the United Nations Charter on the grounds that he did not recognize the authority of the document.

By the time "the leader of the revolution, the president of the African Union, the king of kings of Africa" (this is how he was introduced to the General Assembly) finished the speech, the place was largely empty. The Great Leader retired from the scene triumphantly waving his hand in the air.

Some Arab diplomats, who reportedly spent a major part of the speech rolling on the floor laughing, claimed in private conversations that the speech was Gaddafi's vintage point that blew away even those Arabs used to his regular performances at meetings of the Arab League.

Notwithstanding, this blog hails the King of kings and dedicates the following video to his honor.

September 25, 2009

Bring them all!

After struggling to turn Khadafy’s insane ramblings at the UN into English for 75 minutes, the Libyan dictator’s personal interpreter got lost in translation.

"I just can’t take it any more," Khadafy’s interpreter shouted into the live microphone – in Arabic.

At that point, the U.N.’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, took over and translated the final 20 minutes of the speech.

"His interpreter just collapsed – this is the first time I have seen this in 25 years," another U.N. Arabic interpreter told The Post.

Source: New York Post
(Many thanks to Bruno for the link)

Now if you have been wondering about the poor quality of translation in the video above, bear in mind that it was Gaddafi translated live by his hand picked interpreter. According to the Post, Gaddafi told the UN that regular UN interpreters don't understand a special dialect the Leader of the Revolution speaks and so he had to bring one from Libya. This created a certain confusion given that it's known that Gaddafi can speak standard Arabic. The misunderstanding was absolutely unnecessary, however, as the special dialect of Gaddafi has little to do with Arabic and its varieties but a lot with the way Gaddafi is draining sanity from those attempting to translate his verbal diarrheas. "He’s not exactly the most lucid speaker. It’s not just that what he’s saying is illogical, but the way he’s saying it is bizarre," one Arabic interpreter said.

Gaddafi's orations apparently also have a certain tendency to degenerate into incoherent ramblings presenting a particularly tough challenge for translation. "Sometimes he mumbles, sometimes he talks to himself," another interpreter said. Gaddafi's habbit to regress into unconscious states of mind and keep mumbling to himself during his speeches makes him similar to another prehistoric creature, though unlike Gaddafi that creature tended to do this while submerged in mud instead of while orating and it went extinct a while ago.

(Another explanation for Gaddafi's insistence on dragging his interpreter after him to all international forums is that, as Gaddafi is growing senile, he seems to be increasingly sinking into that conspiratorial paranoia mindset so typical of the Arabs and other Middle Easterners. He is probably mistrusting other interpreters, suspecting them of taking part in some global international conspiracy to prevent him from delivering his message to the world's masses)

Anyway, as Gaddafi was laying siege to the sanity of his audience, his own interpreter was toast half way through the speech and the U.N.’s Arabic section chief was provided with a day off the very next day after attempting to translate the last 20 minutes of Gaddafi's insanity. Some could not take it anymore even before. Such was the US president Barack Obama, who escaped the premises immediately after he finished with his own speech and before Gaddafi proceeded to tearing his interpreters and audiences asunder.

The circus definitely did not end with Gaddafi as the podium was later taken over by the likes of Chavez and Ahmadinejad. The last one has again bored the living daylights out of the audience with his peculiar Holocaust, or better anti-Holocaust, obsession. It's a shame Farouq Hosny has narrowly missed his chance to become the next head of UNESCO. He could be a valuable addition to the Middle Eastern section of a zoo they are running over there in New York. In conclusion, I would like to raise my voice to support many other sane people on this planet who argue for expanding the ranks and strengthening the authority of the UN and other international organizations. No multilateralism is complete unless every King of kings and other visionaries of the Middle East are on board. Go bring them all!

September 26, 2009

From my comment on another blog...

It’s plain obvious to any sane person that Gaddafi by now has largely lost his sanity. Gaddafi cannot be held responsible for what’s happening to him as he is out of his mind since years ago. Not that he is the only person in the world who on having reached old age experiences various cognitive problems, but in normal countries such people are usually taken care of by their families and social services. They are certainly not supposed to be a head of state.

That we are blessed with him lecturing in the General Assembly for hours is precisely because the Arab world from where he hails has not one single country that can be defined as even remotely normal and because we have this thing called the UN that provides them podium. Otherwise Gaddafi would have been promptly dispatched to some nursing facility or at least his insanity would have been confined to Libya and meetings of the Arab league. So it’s very apt that Gaddafi would come forward and call for the reform of the Security Council and such stuff because this is exactly what it’s about and Gaddafi represents well the theatre of absurd of this international multilateralism. The Arabs can at least be partially excused for this mess because until Gaddafi dies and his son takes over, they are stuck with him. But the Africans have simply elected him to head the AU this year out of their free will, when he appeared before them in his plain insanity. The global warming and sub-Saharran Africa’s "sub-replacement" IQ levels cannot make one more skeptical about the future of this continent than the fact that these clowns have elected Gaddafi to represent them.

Give more power and representation in international forums to all these Arab and African pseudo states and it will get even more hilarious. The West should get realistic about this family of nations and global community blah blah blah and start quietly sidelining the UN. Serious matters can be sorted out on Western internal forums. If necessary, BRIC nations can be invited. But the UN is a parody and to talk in serious about reforming it or its Security Council is beyond parody... Unless of course to reform means kicking out all these clowns starting from Gaddafi through Ahmadinejad to all other Kings of kings and leaders of revolutions.

Source: Mad dog at Turtle Bay

Razor-Sharp

2009-09-22T15:03:00.005+03:00

Chaim Gans on Gideon Levy's idea of a national referendum to determine the fate of the settlements and the occupation through challenging voters with a simple and straightforward question: "Do we continue the occupation, all of the occupation, yes or no? If yes, then yes, if no, then no." Levy thinks it's razor-sharp.

Levy's question is not razor-sharp because it ignores the dispute in this country over whether our standing in the territories is that of an occupier, and because it binds together in one category both the occupation and the settlements, instead of separating the two.

Continuing the occupation could be legitimate on security grounds; the question of whether those grounds justify its continuation is one that reasonable people could disagree about. Therefore, it would be truly legitimate to decide it by democratic means.

In contrast, nobody can think that settlements within the framework of occupation could be legitimate. A state is not entitled to colonize conquered lands, neither from the point of view of international law nor that of international morality. Therefore, a democratic majority cannot legalize such settlements, just as a democratic majority of a condominium's residents cannot legalize the beating up of one of the residents.

Source: Haaretz

I had a similar argument about this here...

Nobody said...
What we should do is to break this linkage between comprehensive agreement and settlements. The settlements should go regardless of what happens with this peace process. There is very little chance of anything good happening with it anyway.

Source: east med sea peace

Gays and Vultures

2009-09-21T19:49:00.019+03:00

The fiasco of the international pride parade in Jerusalem has precipitated a series of setbacks and debacles for the Israeli gay community that culminated in the recent shooting attack at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv. However, nothing reflects better the downfall of the gay community than the following story from Haaretz.

About ten years ago, the story goes, two young male vultures in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo have started an intense romantic relationship than won headlines in local and international media. In line with Israel's liberal atmosphere of the time, the couple was not only allowed to form a socially acceptable same sex relationship, but enjoyed various other rights up to foster care and adoption. The two vultures were provided by the Jerusalem Zoo with an artificial egg which they incubated in turns for 45 days. Later the couple was allowed to adopt a vulture chick.

A few years ago, however, the story took an unexpected twist which in some ways parallels similar developments in the society as a whole. As Yehuda was growing increasingly disillusioned with the shallow ethical relativism of the pseudo enlightened post modernist materialism, he eventually opted out of the relationship for the sake of setting up a conventional family based on traditional values with a female vulture called Beatrix. According to Haaretz, this change of heart was no less complete than it was swift and unexpected.

"Yehuda has been living with Beatrix for a few years now, and they are a fantastic couple," Erez said. "Yehuda is more committed. He often doesn't even let Beatrix incubate the eggs and insists on doing it on his own."

The heart broken Dasnik had to be moved to the zoological research garden at Tel Aviv University, where after a prolonged and painful deliberation, he decided to mend his sinful ways by setting a nest with a female vulture. In some ways Dasnik even surpassed his former mate by stubbornly refusing to take any part in incubation, insisting instead on a strictly traditional division of family responsibilities and household chores. The end result, however, was astonishingly similar in both cases.

"This is an insane coincidence," said Michal Erez, head of the birds section at the Jerusalem zoo, "but the spouses of both Yehuda and Dashik laid an egg on the same day, the eggs hatched on the same April day, and the two chicks were exactly the same weight. Their weight can vary between 120 and 200 grams, and I've never seen two hatchlings of the exact same weight."

Source: Haaretz

As for the gay community, the message of the story is more than crystal clear - when even vultures abandon you, you're toast.

Migration

2009-09-15T13:13:00.000+03:00

Last updated: September 15, 2009

August 31, 2009

Over the next few days this blog may become a mess as I want to migrate it to a new template. Nothing to worry about. This whole region is going to be a big mess and soon and my blog is just a part of the global trend. Meanwhile you can try to calm yourself down by reading the Economist's latest special report on Africa: The baby bonanza

September 15, 2009

nominally challenged said...

I have to say, I saw the title of this post and was hoping that you were going to write something about population migrations. Given your recent posts on demographics, I personally would be fascinated to read something about migration statistics and how that's already affecting and going to affect us all, since birth rates are only part of the entire story. So perhaps once you've finished your own personal migration, if you have a chance, and sufficient interest, I'd be very interested in hearing what you have to say ... :D

I don't know when I am going to finish my two posts about migration, but I noticed that the Economist is holding a live debate about international migration right now. You may want to see it: This house believes there is too much international migration.

What are you people doing up here all alone?

2009-09-05T19:06:00.009+03:00

Last updated: September 5, 2009

May 4, 2009

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AFP) – Africans must travel to the moon to investigate what developed nations have been doing in outer space, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday.

"The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here," Museveni said, addressing a meeting of the Uganda Law Society in Entebbe.

"We must also go there and say: 'What are you people doing up here?'."

Museveni urged the assembly of Uganda's top lawyers to support East African integration, arguing that one of the region's goals should be to develop a space programme.

"Uganda alone cannot go to the moon. We are too small. But East Africa united can. That is what East African integration is all about," he said. "Then we can say to the Americans: 'What are you doing here all alone?'."

Source: AFP (via Yahoo)

Frankly, I used to think that East African integration was all about to avoid collectively dying from hunger. Anyway, guys, if you are going to the moon, maybe you can give a free ride to a few good friends of ours. The Palestinians and the Persians are the first to come to my mind. They have never been to the moon too.

May 5, 2009

Due to a possible departure of president Museveni to the moon, this post was placed under "Shalom Haver" label, where mr Museveni will help the gorilla to strengten the African section of my farewell letters.

May 10, 2009

The race to the moon is heating up...

Thanks Bruno

June 24, 2009

For every nation in the world there should be an Ahmadinejad

By Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.

...

...

"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Source

Now Obama should start thinking Amalek...

September 5, 2009

Never Alone
The Economist has joined Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni by lending support to his radical plan of dramatic expansion of the East African Community (EAC). "Why should an East African federation stop with the club’s existing member countries?" was the venerable publication wondering in its latest edition.

And why should an East African federation stop with the club’s existing member countries? If defined by the area in which the lingua franca of the Swahili language is used, the range of lorries heading out of the Kenyan port of Mombasa, and the magnet of Nairobi as a hub, east Africa spreads into Ethiopia and includes a chunk of Somalia, a swathe of east Congo, a strip of northern Mozambique and all of southern Sudan, which could become an independent country in 2011, if its people vote in a promised referendum to secede.

Source: The Economist

Indeed. The federation definitely can and should expand beyond the country's existing members. The Economist appears to be unaware, however, of the president Museveni outer space ambitions which, if come true, will lead the East African Federation to eventually spread across the whole solar system and come to include Mars, Venus and Jupiter, never mind the Moon. The United States, which has a good chance by that time to get wiped off the Earth's map by North Korea, should certainly be relieved to know that it's not going to be left up there all alone.

The Zionist Left's red lines

2009-08-28T18:13:00.003+03:00

Rattling the Cage: The Zionist Left's red lines by Larry Derfner. Gives one a kind of insight into the thinking of the Left.