Assad Woes: ‘The Times, They Are a Changin’
MICHAEL TOTTEN: Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon’s so-called political weathervane, is on the move again. Bad weather on the horizon for Bashar al-Assad, then?
Where is the ‘Arab Lobby’ in the United States?
STEVE ROYSTON: There are many reasons why the ‘Arab Voice’ is so weak in the United States. But that doesn’t give leaders and opinion formers an excuse.
Dumb, and Dangerous: “Jordan Equals Palestine”
NASEEM TARAWNAH: 6,000 idiots from 69 countries around the world have signed a petition calling Jordan the alternative homeland for Palestinians?
After 17 Years Trying to Visit Gaza, I Am Home
RAMZY BAROUD: Today the border at the Rafah Crossing officially opens. It’s another significant milestone of the ‘Arab Spring’.
Masterful Obama Delivers Rebuke to Jewish Lobby
PHILIP WEISS, MONDOWEISS: A visibly angry Barack Obama, fresh from yet another humiliation at the hand of Benjamin Netanyahu, delivered a stinging rebuke to the Jewish lobby at the AIPAC conference.
Washington Ad Campaign Questions U.S. Israel Funding
MAI ABDUL RAHMAN: As of 2010, US taxpayers have granted $61.3 billion in military aid to Israel that has yet to produce any peace or end violence.
Qatar and Libya: A Match Not Made in Heaven
DAVID ROBERTS: The feelings felt by Muammar Gaddaffi and his regime in Libya towards Qatar are rather less than brotherly. Has Doha taken the threat seriously enough?
Bahrain: The Curious Case of the Iranian Flotilla
STEVE ROYSTON: So our nerves are rattled by reports of death squads, and soothed the next day by the news that in fact they ain’t going anyway, and that in any event there were no suicide bombers on the boat.
Opening of Rafah Crossing to Usher in New Dawn
MAI ABDUL RAHMAN: Allowing the Rafah will undoubtedly end the absolute and confounding isolation of the Gazans and the need of smuggling through the tunnels.
GCC: Muslim Brotherhood Fears Over Arab Spring
SULTAN AL QASSEMI: UAE national observers commented in private that many names on the UAE petition calling for an elected parliament were UAE members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Bin Laden: A Study in News Management
ANDREW MACKAY: Even the BBC’s Washington correspondent noted how adroitly the US administration had trod the line between triumphalism and glee at bin Laden’s death.
Qatar to Sell Gas to Israel ‘Below Cost Price’?
DAVID ROBERTS: Why does Qatar seemingly so often seek Israeli support, particularly when it, at the very least, causes friction within the GCC and with Qatar and Iran?
The (In)Significance of Bin Laden’s Death
TMND: Bin Laden’s death will have an important psychological affect on Americans (particularly given the popular and public response) and their overall view of the War on Terrorism.
Osama Wipe Out: What It Says About Us All…
ALEXANDER MCNABB: I’d scanned this a few weeks ago intending to do a post about the mildly egregious toilet papers produced by vendors to the US Military Albert’s Gifts and here we are, the Americans literally having wiped him out.
Deciphering Israel’s Political Double Speak
TIM HAUGHTON, MONDOWEISS: The ‘doublespeak’ of Israeli negotiations has been based for many years on three simple words.
Personal View: Anger Mounts as Syria Death Toll Mounts
KHALEDTRON: The regime tells us these are Salafists, terrorists, infiltrators, agents of the West who wish our country harm, who wish to compromise Syria by destabilizing it from within.
Saif ‘Admits’ Qaddafis are Brutal Foreign Occupiers – of Libya
JUAN COLE: This slick interview with the glib comparisons is typical of the way they think they can get away with anything, anything at all.
KSA, UK Immigration: Different Directions
STEVE ROYSTON: Add to the mix pressure on borders from poorer neighbouring countries, and you can predict immigration will be on the agenda for years.
“Disgraceful”: The Term for Goldstone’s Moral Collapse
RAMZY BAROUD: Eighteen months of relentless pressure by the Israeli authorities eventually bore fruit with the publication of Goldstone’s now notorious op-ed. Cheers can only be heard in Tel Aviv.
Kuwait and Iran Playing the ‘Expel-A-Diplomat’ Tit-for-Tat Game
DAVID ROBERTS: It’s not the best of times between Iran and several of its neighbours at the moment. The rhetoric is rising and several members of the Kuwaiti parliament are joining in with gusto.
