Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Assad massacre in Homs, Syria
Warning Sensitive Viewers: Al-Jazeera Arabic live broadcast form Bab Amr, Homs, Syria, where random shelling by the Assad army of civilian houses has killed a family of a few children while having dinner. Still Russia blocks significant measures inside Security Council and calls for "dialogue" between Assad and his victims.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Spring in Arab countries, winter in Europe
Democracy is taking backseat in several European countries
The New York Times
It’s time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression. True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment in both America and Europe remains disastrously high. Leaders and institutions are increasingly discredited. And democratic values are under siege.
On that last point, I am not being alarmist. On the political as on the economic front it’s important not to fall into the “not as bad as” trap. High unemployment isn’t O.K. just because it hasn’t hit 1933 levels; ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.
Let’s talk, in particular, about what’s happening in Europe — not because all is well with America, but because the gravity of European political developments isn’t widely understood.
First of all, the crisis of the euro is killing the European dream. The shared currency, which was supposed to bind nations together, has instead created an atmosphere of bitter acrimony.
Specifically, demands for ever-harsher austerity, with no offsetting effort to foster growth, have done double damage. They have failed as economic policy, worsening unemployment without restoring confidence; a Europe-wide recession now looks likely even if the immediate threat of financial crisis is contained. And they have created immense anger, with many Europeans furious at what is perceived, fairly or unfairly (or actually a bit of both), as a heavy-handed exercise of German power.
Nobody familiar with Europe’s history can look at this resurgence of hostility without feeling a shiver. Yet there may be worse things happening.
Right-wing populists are on the rise from Austria, where the Freedom Party (whose leader used to have neo-Nazi connections) runs neck-and-neck in the polls with established parties, to Finland, where the anti-immigrant True Finns party had a strong electoral showing last April. And these are rich countries whose economies have held up fairly well. Matters look even more ominous in the poorer nations of Central and Eastern Europe.
Last month the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development documented a sharp drop in public support for democracy in the “new E.U.” countries, the nations that joined the European Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not surprisingly, the loss of faith in democracy has been greatest in the countries that suffered the deepest economic slumps.
And in at least one nation, Hungary, democratic institutions are being undermined as we speak.
One of Hungary’s major parties, Jobbik, is a nightmare out of the 1930s: it’s anti-Roma (Gypsy), it’s anti-Semitic, and it even had a paramilitary arm. But the immediate threat comes from Fidesz, the governing center-right party.
Fidesz won an overwhelming Parliamentary majority last year, at least partly for economic reasons; Hungary isn’t on the euro, but it suffered severely because of large-scale borrowing in foreign currencies and also, to be frank, thanks to mismanagement and corruption on the part of the then-governing left-liberal parties. Now Fidesz, which rammed through a new Constitution last spring on a party-line vote, seems bent on establishing a permanent hold on power.
The details are complex. Kim Lane Scheppele, who is the director of Princeton’s Law and Public Affairs program — and has been following the Hungarian situation closely — tells me that Fidesz is relying on overlapping measures to suppress opposition. A proposed election law creates gerrymandered districts designed to make it almost impossible for other parties to form a government; judicial independence has been compromised, and the courts packed with party loyalists; state-run media have been converted into party organs, and there’s a crackdown on independent media; and a proposed constitutional addendum would effectively criminalize the leading leftist party.
Taken together, all this amounts to the re-establishment of authoritarian rule, under a paper-thin veneer of democracy, in the heart of Europe. And it’s a sample of what may happen much more widely if this depression continues.
It’s not clear what can be done about Hungary’s authoritarian slide. The U.S. State Department, to its credit, has been very much on the case, but this is essentially a European matter. The European Union missed the chance to head off the power grab at the start — in part because the new Constitution was rammed through while Hungary held the Union’s rotating presidency. It will be much harder to reverse the slide now. Yet Europe’s leaders had better try, or risk losing everything they stand for.
And they also need to rethink their failing economic policies. If they don’t, there will be more backsliding on democracy — and the breakup of the euro may be the least of their worries.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Abdul-Hussain: If there are terrorists in Syria, how come they never attack pro-Assad rallies?
Monzeur Sleiman, Tamer Mallat and Hussain Abdul-Hussain debating the Syrian Revolution on Crosstalk on Russia Today.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Is the U.S. on the wrong side of history in Bahrain?
President Barack Obama's administration has sided with Bahrain's ruling regime over its domestic protest movement more clearly than in any other country affected by the Arab Spring. But that position is unwise and unsustainable, according to one of Bahrain's leading human rights activists, who visited Washington last week.
Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, came to Washington to receive the Woodrow Wilson Center's 2011 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award for his work documenting human rights abuses conducted by the Bahraini ruling family's security forces since protesters took to the streets in the capital of Manama in February. He was not invited to the State Department for any meetings whatsoever. He did visit the National Security Council, and met with senior director for democracy Gayle Smith, but wasn't given time by any official who works directly on Bahrain.
Rajab sat down on Dec. 4 for an exclusive interview with The Cable. His main message was that the Obama administration's defense of the Bahraini government, including a new push to sell it more weapons, is sowing seeds of distrust and resentment of the United States among the Bahraini people. He urged the Obama administration to use its influence in Bahrain to press the regime for improvements on human rights.
Rajab said that the United States was repeating the mistakes of the past by siding with a minority regime that has brutalized its Shiite majority population. Here are some excerpts:
JR: What is your main message to the Washington foreign policy community?
NR: What I have realized is that there's a difference between the way the American government and the American people look at the Arab uprisings or the Arab revolution. I have received great support from American civil society, human rights groups, etc., in support of the Bahraini revolution. But that is totally different than the position of the United States government, which has disappointed many people in the Gulf region. And they have seen how the U.S. has acted differently and has different responses for different countries. There is full support for revolutions in countries where [the U.S. government] has a problem with their leadership, but when it comes to allied dictators in the Gulf countries, they have a much softer position and that was very upsetting to many people in Bahrain and the Gulf region. This will not serve your long strategic interest, to strengthen and continue your relations with dictators and repressive regimes.... You should have taken a lesson from Tunisia and Egypt, but now you are repeating the same thing by ignoring all those people struggling for democracy and human rights.... Those dictators will not be there forever. Relationships should be maintained with people, not families.
JR: The Obama administration says they are encouraging both sides to work together toward reform. Do you not see that as helpful?
NR: The U.S. is more influential in Bahrain than the United Nations. If they are serious about something, they could do it. They have lots of means to pressure the Bahraini government but so far they are soft. They act as if both sides are equal. You have people fighting for democracy and human rights and struggling for social justice. Then you have a repressive government with an army. You can't speak as if they can be treated in an equal manner. It's the government that is killing people. It's the government that is committing the crimes. The pressure should be put on the government. All of the statements by [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton and [President] Barack Obama have no impact on the ground because the government was not really being forced to listen to it.... This government has to be told that their relationship with the United States is not a green light to commit crimes, because that's how it is understood by the government. And no one in the United States has told them, no, it's not like that.
JR: What do you say to those who argue that revolution in Bahrain risks instability and the rise of anti-Americanism?
NR: This is the image of the United States in our country: that this superpower supports dictators and doesn't want democracy in our region, because they [are] told that democracy would not serve their interests. They were misled by governments in our region that democracy will bring extremists to power who will fight against U.S. interests. Democracy is not against anybody's interests. Democracy is about living together, sharing together, tolerance, working together, and that's what we are fighting for.
JR: What's the significance of the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which was released last week?
NR: It was not perfect, it was not an independent group, it was a group made by the government. But a big part of the report is good and talks about the abuses we have been talking about... It needs to be implemented and I don't see so far any positive reaction from the government. They appointed a commission to implement the report, a big part of which is made up of people who were part of the problem. Here is where the United States needs to speak, to tell them not to waste this opportunity to create real reform.
JR: What does the U.S. sale of $53 million worth of new weapons say to you and your fellow activists?
NR: This is the hypocrisy, this is the double standard. You can't ask Russia to stop selling arms to Syria at the same time you are selling arms to Bahrain while they are killing their own people. How do you convince the Bahraini people this is for their own benefit? What message are you trying to send to the Bahraini people when you try to sell arms? Even now, there are people in the State Department who want to push this sale. Rather than this, there should be more sanctions on the Bahraini government.
JR: The Bahraini foreign minister told us in an interview that the police, not the military, have been dealing with the protests. Is it true?
NR: The military has taken part in suppressing the protests. They have killed people, they have tortured people, they have arrested people, they have detained people. They have established checkpoints and humiliated people at checkpoints, raided houses, robbed houses, demolished mosques. They have taken part in every crime committed in the past months.
JR: You are not seeking total regime change, so what is the end state you want to see in Bahrain?
NR: When the people of Bahrain came out on Feb. 14, they didn't want to overthrow the government, they wanted to reform the government. They want elected government. We've had a corrupt prime minister for over 40 years. We want to separate the government from the royal family. We want a parliament that has power... We want to have an end to the corruption, we want human rights violations to stop, we want sectarian discrimination to be stopped. But the resistance of the government has created a movement to overthrow the government. And if they will continue to resist reforms, that movement to overthrow the government will increase.
JR: What has the government done to you to try to silence you?
NR: They have attacked my house on a weekly basis, you can see it on YouTube. They attacked me, 25 masked men kidnapped me from my home last March. They blindfolded me, handcuffed me, beat me, then took me back home. This has happened a few times. My house is targeted, my mother's house is targeted, all because of my work. But I am better off than the others, because I am free and not dead, because there are people who have been killed and who are behind bars now.
Assad terrorism reaches Beirut
Latitude / New York Times Blogs
BEIRUT — The crisis in Syria is crossing the border into Lebanon. Beirut has regularly witnessed bloody clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups since the Syrian Army withdrew from Lebanon in 2005. But with the Syrian revolution intensifying, pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon have dispatched their thugs, known as the “shabiha,’’ to keep an eye on Beirut’s main streets.
The Hamra neighborhood of West Beirut, with its narrow streets and busy nightlife, has long been a tourist destination, as well as a cosmopolitan hub for free expression, diversity and a good time. It is home to the American University of Beirut and international institutions, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace. It’s the reason Beirut was once called the “Paris of the East.”
In May 2008, when Hezbollah ordered its militias to invade Beirut in an attempt to force the formation of a national unity government, it sent the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (S.S.N.P.), a pro-Syrian-regime party that wants to annex Lebanon, to Hamra and many other parts of the Middle East. They were assigned to intimidate residents in Hamra. Today, Hamra is dominated by the Syrian Embassy, which is protected by Baath party members and shabiha from the S.S.N.P. The neighborhood is still a hub for wild nightlife, but the S.S.N.P. has made sure to wipe away political diversity and freedom of speech, especially any expression of criticism against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
As if marking their territory, the shabiha have recently planted their flags — black with a red star that many people believe resembles a swastika — as well as posters of Assad, all the way from the party’s headquarters on Makdissi Street to the Syrian Embassy, in the middle of Hamra, and up to the west end of the neighborhood’s main street. If you walk down that half-mile stretch you can spot groups of shabiha at most of the main corners.
Since the Syrian revolution kicked off nine months ago, their presence around the embassy has intensified. Residents say that a group of young thugs in civilian clothes march up and down Makdissi Street regularly. They attack anti-Assad activists, help organize pro-Assad rallies and harass women. One resident (who prefers to remain unnamed) says that they became “more aggressive and shameless” since October, when the Lebanese Internal Security Forces produced a report implicating the Syrian Embassy and its personnel in the kidnappings of Syrian opposition figures, including the former Syrian vice president and Baath party cofounder, Shibli al-Aysami.
The shabiha’s main task today is to target supporters of the Syrian revolution and disperse rallies held in solidarity with the Syrian people — much like the Syrian government does against protesters in Syria. They have repeatedly beaten up and injured protestors outside the Syrian Embassy and chased them around Hamra with the help of the embassy’s security forces. They also monitor the neighborhood partly through some kiosks that sell sandwiches. One business owner complained to me just last week that “they force shop and bar owners to hire their members in order to have spies everywhere.”
Early last month, an S.S.N.P. member called a friend of mine who lives in Hamra to complain about his anti-Assad posts on Facebook, which accused the Syrian president of crimes against humanity and supported the Syrian people in their revolution against the regime. My friend was asked to leave his apartment or else he would be kicked out by force. He complained to the authorities, but no one did anything. My friend moved out two weeks later.
With Beirutis not allowed to express solidarity with the Syrian protesters, Hamra, once a bastion of liberalism, feels unfree — and this, once again, makes all of Lebanon seem like a Syrian protectorate. Violence in Syria begets violence in Lebanon, and oppression there begets oppression here.
Hanin Ghaddar, a journalist and commentator based in Beirut, is the managing editor of NOW Lebanon.
BEIRUT — The crisis in Syria is crossing the border into Lebanon. Beirut has regularly witnessed bloody clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups since the Syrian Army withdrew from Lebanon in 2005. But with the Syrian revolution intensifying, pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon have dispatched their thugs, known as the “shabiha,’’ to keep an eye on Beirut’s main streets.
The Hamra neighborhood of West Beirut, with its narrow streets and busy nightlife, has long been a tourist destination, as well as a cosmopolitan hub for free expression, diversity and a good time. It is home to the American University of Beirut and international institutions, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace. It’s the reason Beirut was once called the “Paris of the East.”
In May 2008, when Hezbollah ordered its militias to invade Beirut in an attempt to force the formation of a national unity government, it sent the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (S.S.N.P.), a pro-Syrian-regime party that wants to annex Lebanon, to Hamra and many other parts of the Middle East. They were assigned to intimidate residents in Hamra. Today, Hamra is dominated by the Syrian Embassy, which is protected by Baath party members and shabiha from the S.S.N.P. The neighborhood is still a hub for wild nightlife, but the S.S.N.P. has made sure to wipe away political diversity and freedom of speech, especially any expression of criticism against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
As if marking their territory, the shabiha have recently planted their flags — black with a red star that many people believe resembles a swastika — as well as posters of Assad, all the way from the party’s headquarters on Makdissi Street to the Syrian Embassy, in the middle of Hamra, and up to the west end of the neighborhood’s main street. If you walk down that half-mile stretch you can spot groups of shabiha at most of the main corners.
Since the Syrian revolution kicked off nine months ago, their presence around the embassy has intensified. Residents say that a group of young thugs in civilian clothes march up and down Makdissi Street regularly. They attack anti-Assad activists, help organize pro-Assad rallies and harass women. One resident (who prefers to remain unnamed) says that they became “more aggressive and shameless” since October, when the Lebanese Internal Security Forces produced a report implicating the Syrian Embassy and its personnel in the kidnappings of Syrian opposition figures, including the former Syrian vice president and Baath party cofounder, Shibli al-Aysami.
The shabiha’s main task today is to target supporters of the Syrian revolution and disperse rallies held in solidarity with the Syrian people — much like the Syrian government does against protesters in Syria. They have repeatedly beaten up and injured protestors outside the Syrian Embassy and chased them around Hamra with the help of the embassy’s security forces. They also monitor the neighborhood partly through some kiosks that sell sandwiches. One business owner complained to me just last week that “they force shop and bar owners to hire their members in order to have spies everywhere.”
Early last month, an S.S.N.P. member called a friend of mine who lives in Hamra to complain about his anti-Assad posts on Facebook, which accused the Syrian president of crimes against humanity and supported the Syrian people in their revolution against the regime. My friend was asked to leave his apartment or else he would be kicked out by force. He complained to the authorities, but no one did anything. My friend moved out two weeks later.
With Beirutis not allowed to express solidarity with the Syrian protesters, Hamra, once a bastion of liberalism, feels unfree — and this, once again, makes all of Lebanon seem like a Syrian protectorate. Violence in Syria begets violence in Lebanon, and oppression there begets oppression here.
Hanin Ghaddar, a journalist and commentator based in Beirut, is the managing editor of NOW Lebanon.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Come Home to Israel
The New York Times
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — When Israeli actions seem arrogant or insulting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is capable of rapid action to repair the damage — provided those offended are American Jews.
That is the lesson of the brouhaha over a now-aborted Israeli advertising campaign intended to shame Israeli expatriates in the United States into returning home by suggesting that America is no place for real Jews and that Diaspora life leads to loss of Jewish identity. The Jewish Federations of North America called the ads “outrageous and insulting.”
Cheesy would be a better word. A typical video was a cloying play on how the Hebrew “Abba” can morph to “Daddy” for an Israeli kid overdosing on the U.S.A. The campaign, unsurprisingly, was hatched in a ministry headed by an ultranationalist from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party. Equally unsurprisingly, Netanyahu nixed it as soon as he heard of the outcry. “We are very attentive to the sensitivities of the American Jewish community,” explained his spokesman, Mark Regev.
That’s right: The one true existential threat to Israel is loss of U.S. support — which will never happen, but still.
I have several reactions to this little saga. The first is that I know several Israeli expatriates or would-be expatriates and their feelings are consistent. They are troubled by the illiberal drift of Israeli politics, the growth of a harsh nationalism, the increasing influence of the ultrareligious, the endlessness of the “situation,” and the tension inherent in a status quo that will one day threaten either Israel’s Jewishness or its democracy.
They have left or seek to leave because they don’t want all that and no longer believe there is going to be significant change. The ads play to Israeli patriotism, but it’s not patriotism that expatriates lack. It’s hope that their Israel can be salvaged and a two-state peace achieved.
My second reaction is that if Netanyahu could show a fraction of the nimbleness evident when American Jews are offended in instances where Turks are offended (by the killing of their citizens in international waters), or where President Barack Obama is offended (by ongoing settlement expansion in the West Bank against his express request), or where Egyptians are offended (by Israel’s dismissal of their democratic aspirations), then Israel would be in a better, less isolated place today.
That’s what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta means when he tells Israel to “reach out and mend fences” with Turkey and Egypt and engage in “strong diplomacy” rather than pursue policies that have “seen Israel’s isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow.” As Panetta said, Israel needs to “get to the damn table” with the Palestinians. That, of course, does not depend entirely on Israel but equally will not be achieved through Israeli high-handedness, a trademark of Netanyahu’s administration.
The old Middle East of Israel’s cozy military-to-military relationships with the likes of Turkey and Egypt is gone. A new Middle East where Israel must deal people-to-people is being born. For a democracy this should ultimately be encouraging: People, including Arabs, with control of their lives tend to be focused on improving those lives rather than seeking conflict. The rise of Islamic parties opposed to despotism and adjusting painfully to modernity is cause for caution, yes, but not for manipulative Israeli dismissiveness.
My third reaction is that it’s all very well for the Jewish Federations of North America to find the ads insulting, but I’d be pleased if they could reserve a little of their outrage for times when Israeli insensitivity or arrogance takes more violent form — as is frequently the case with Palestinians in the West Bank.
Jonathan Freedland, a Guardian columnist, visited Hebron recently and published a piece called “This Is Israel? Not the One I Love” in London’s Jewish Chronicle. He wrote of Hebron:
“A map shows purple roads where no Palestinian cars are permitted, yellow roads where no Palestinian shops are allowed to open and red roads where no Palestinians are even allowed to walk.”
He added, “I watched an old man, a bag of cement on his shoulder, ascend a steep bypass staircase because his feet were forbidden from going any farther along the road. Those unlucky enough to live on a red road have had their front doors sealed: They have to leave their own houses by a back door and climb out via a ladder. All this has made life so impossible that an estimated 42 percent of the families who once lived in this central part of town have now moved out.”
Israelis walk on streets full of vile anti-Arab graffiti and shuttered Arab stores daubed with Stars of David. “To see that cherished symbol used to spit in the eye of a population hounded out of their homes is chilling,” Freedland writes.
This is happening behind the wall-barrier-fence. It is the result of an untenable status quo involving the corrosive dominion of one people over another.
Here’s a suggestion for an ad campaign that might fly: A smiling Netanyahu shaking hands with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, beside the slogan: Come home to peace.
Forgive me for dreaming.
You can follow Roger Cohen on Twitter at twitter.com/nytimescohen.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — When Israeli actions seem arrogant or insulting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is capable of rapid action to repair the damage — provided those offended are American Jews.
That is the lesson of the brouhaha over a now-aborted Israeli advertising campaign intended to shame Israeli expatriates in the United States into returning home by suggesting that America is no place for real Jews and that Diaspora life leads to loss of Jewish identity. The Jewish Federations of North America called the ads “outrageous and insulting.”
Cheesy would be a better word. A typical video was a cloying play on how the Hebrew “Abba” can morph to “Daddy” for an Israeli kid overdosing on the U.S.A. The campaign, unsurprisingly, was hatched in a ministry headed by an ultranationalist from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party. Equally unsurprisingly, Netanyahu nixed it as soon as he heard of the outcry. “We are very attentive to the sensitivities of the American Jewish community,” explained his spokesman, Mark Regev.
That’s right: The one true existential threat to Israel is loss of U.S. support — which will never happen, but still.
I have several reactions to this little saga. The first is that I know several Israeli expatriates or would-be expatriates and their feelings are consistent. They are troubled by the illiberal drift of Israeli politics, the growth of a harsh nationalism, the increasing influence of the ultrareligious, the endlessness of the “situation,” and the tension inherent in a status quo that will one day threaten either Israel’s Jewishness or its democracy.
They have left or seek to leave because they don’t want all that and no longer believe there is going to be significant change. The ads play to Israeli patriotism, but it’s not patriotism that expatriates lack. It’s hope that their Israel can be salvaged and a two-state peace achieved.
My second reaction is that if Netanyahu could show a fraction of the nimbleness evident when American Jews are offended in instances where Turks are offended (by the killing of their citizens in international waters), or where President Barack Obama is offended (by ongoing settlement expansion in the West Bank against his express request), or where Egyptians are offended (by Israel’s dismissal of their democratic aspirations), then Israel would be in a better, less isolated place today.
That’s what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta means when he tells Israel to “reach out and mend fences” with Turkey and Egypt and engage in “strong diplomacy” rather than pursue policies that have “seen Israel’s isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow.” As Panetta said, Israel needs to “get to the damn table” with the Palestinians. That, of course, does not depend entirely on Israel but equally will not be achieved through Israeli high-handedness, a trademark of Netanyahu’s administration.
The old Middle East of Israel’s cozy military-to-military relationships with the likes of Turkey and Egypt is gone. A new Middle East where Israel must deal people-to-people is being born. For a democracy this should ultimately be encouraging: People, including Arabs, with control of their lives tend to be focused on improving those lives rather than seeking conflict. The rise of Islamic parties opposed to despotism and adjusting painfully to modernity is cause for caution, yes, but not for manipulative Israeli dismissiveness.
My third reaction is that it’s all very well for the Jewish Federations of North America to find the ads insulting, but I’d be pleased if they could reserve a little of their outrage for times when Israeli insensitivity or arrogance takes more violent form — as is frequently the case with Palestinians in the West Bank.
Jonathan Freedland, a Guardian columnist, visited Hebron recently and published a piece called “This Is Israel? Not the One I Love” in London’s Jewish Chronicle. He wrote of Hebron:
“A map shows purple roads where no Palestinian cars are permitted, yellow roads where no Palestinian shops are allowed to open and red roads where no Palestinians are even allowed to walk.”
He added, “I watched an old man, a bag of cement on his shoulder, ascend a steep bypass staircase because his feet were forbidden from going any farther along the road. Those unlucky enough to live on a red road have had their front doors sealed: They have to leave their own houses by a back door and climb out via a ladder. All this has made life so impossible that an estimated 42 percent of the families who once lived in this central part of town have now moved out.”
Israelis walk on streets full of vile anti-Arab graffiti and shuttered Arab stores daubed with Stars of David. “To see that cherished symbol used to spit in the eye of a population hounded out of their homes is chilling,” Freedland writes.
This is happening behind the wall-barrier-fence. It is the result of an untenable status quo involving the corrosive dominion of one people over another.
Here’s a suggestion for an ad campaign that might fly: A smiling Netanyahu shaking hands with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, beside the slogan: Come home to peace.
Forgive me for dreaming.
You can follow Roger Cohen on Twitter at twitter.com/nytimescohen.
Widening economic sanctions against Assad are beginning to bite
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| Syrians in line for butane gas |
COULD economic collapse bring down Bashar Assad’s regime even when mass protests have not? Pressure on the economy is mounting from every direction. On November 27th the 22-country Arab League took an unprecedented decision to impose economic sanctions on a fellow member. It voted to stop trading with the Syrian state in all but essential goods, to ban Arab investments in Syria, to freeze assets held by senior members of the regime abroad, and to end dealings with Syria’s central bank. Three days later Turkey, one of Syria’s biggest trading partners, said it would follow suit.
Meanwhile, American and European Union (EU) sanctions are starting to bite. A ban on oil imports, applied by America in August and the EU in September, is costing Syria $400m a month. The shrinking of foreign-currency reserves, estimated at some $18 billion when the crisis began in March, is making trade increasingly tricky. The Banque Saudi Fransi, a Saudi bank, has announced it is selling its 27% interest in one of Syria’s private banks. Foreign investment has halted. International credit cards no longer work. The Syrian pound has fallen on the black market to its lowest point yet. To prevent even more unrest, the government has brought back some subsidies on staples. Tourism, which accounted for over 10% of GDP in 2010, has virtually disappeared.
Officials sound less confident that Syria can weather the sanctions. In recent years, thanks to a tentative liberalisation policy, the country has come to depend more on the global economy than before. “If you’ve always been North Korea, you may be able to stay closed,” says a Damascus businessman. “But you can’t open up and shut the doors again.” Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Muallem, reacting angrily to the league’s decision, threatened to close transit routes between Arab states.
No one knows how long Syria can continue to pay its bills. In September the government sought to shore up foreign reserves by banning imports. Prices of various goods immediately rocketed. Ten days later, facing outrage among business people, the government did a volte face. In any case, not all of Syria’s neighbours will ban trade. Iraq, its second-largest trade partner after the EU, says it will not apply sanctions. Some of Lebanon’s banks are likely to act as a haven for Syrian money. The Assad regime and its business friends say they will look to other countries, such as China and Russia.
But that may not be easy. “Until two weeks ago we didn’t have any contacts with a bank in either country,” says a financier. Early in the uprising, the IMF predicted that Syria’s economy would shrink by 2% this year. But local analysts think sanctions may push that figure into double digits. Inflation is steadily rising. Insurance companies are loth to cover business.
Ordinary Syrians will suffer first as the cost of food soars and queues for fuel for heating and cars snake round buildings. But dissidents welcome the sanctions. The hardship they inflict is a lot less severe than the regime’s bullets and batons—and may in the long run be more powerful.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Egypt's 'Naked Blogger' Calls On Men To Wear Hijab
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| Aliaa Elmahdy (http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com) |
Kristin Deasy
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An Egyptian blogger who sparked controversy last week by posting a photo of herself naked online has also launched a campaign calling on men to don the Islamic headscarf.
However, the Facebook campaign, launched by Aliaa Elmahdy in support of women's rights, was shut down after it was hit by thousands of complaints last week. Elmahdy plans to relaunch it within days.
Elmahdy sent shockwaves through Egypt's highly traditional society when one of her friends shared a photo of her wearing nothing but a pair of shoes and stockings on Twitter with the hashtag#nudephotorevolutionary.
Elmahdy's boyfriend, Kareem Amer, says his girlfriend's reasons for originally posting the photo on her blog were not political. He said she wanted "to send a message" to conservative Egyptian society that a woman's body should not be associated with "shame."
Her reasons for launching the Facebook project, "Wearing Hijab in Solidarity with Women," which kicked off on November 1, are similar. She says she started the project because "many people deny that the hijab discriminates between women and men."
A statement posted on the group's Arabic-language Facebook page before the page was removed said that "Those who call on women to wear hijab should not attack men if they chose to wear the hijab" and calls on men to upload their photos.
Such a move is almost guaranteed to stigmatize them in Egyptian society, which remains highly traditional. Violations against women are also hugely underreported in the country -- a report by Egypt's National Council for Women from 2003 found as many as 98 percent of rape and sexual assault cases are not reported to authorities.
Echoes Of The Uprising
As demonstrations enter their sixth day in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the tone of the hijab campaign echoes that of the famous video blog posted by 26-year-old Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz in the days leading up to the overthrow of the country's long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.
"Anyone who consider themselves men, come with us," Mahfouz said in the video. "Whoever says women shouldn't take part in protests because they could get beaten, humiliated, harassed, show me your honor and come with us on January 25."
The video is now seen as a turning point for the Egyptian uprising, with Mahfouz awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for her role in the movement.
Even though protest activity is on the rise again in Egypt, it's unlikely that the male protesters hitting the streets will be sporting headscarves. The lone male Egyptian citizen to have responded to Elmahdy's initiative is Magdy Abdelraheem, but he doesn't live in Egypt.
"I like the idea that men should be supporting women in putting this thing on their heads," says the 27-year-old trader, whose home is in the United Arab Emirates but who frequently visits Egypt. "I posted my picture there, but I don't think many Middle Eastern men would dare to do such a thing, because they'll all be ashamed to act like women, or be like women."
Codified Gender Discrimination
Apparently, several hundred Iranian men had no such qualms. In 2009, Iranian men posted photos of themselves wearing hijab as part of the online "We are all Majid" campaign launched in support of leading student protester Majid Tavakoli, who was jailed in the mass protests that broke out after the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.
The "We are all Majid" initiative also served to raise awareness about women's rights in Iran, where discrimination is written into the country's legal code. For example, if a woman is killed, the "blood money," or compensation paid to her family, is 50 percent less than if the deceased is a man.
Many of the "We are all Majid" photos were featured on Egypt's "Wearing Hijab in Solidarity with Women" page before it was taken down, presumably in an effort to drum up support.
Iranian women's rights leader Mehrangiz Kar, speaking on the sidelines of an "Inside Iran" conference in Berlin on November 12, says she's not surprised to see such similar initiatives arise independently in two predominantly Muslim countries.
"This is a kind of struggle and a kind of showing their unhappiness," she says. "You know, there is a logic: if we have to wear veil and hijab, my brother should do that, and the others."
Restive Younger Women
Iran and Egypt do not share a common language and have a troubled political history. But they do share a large, restive young generation of women frustrated with the societal status quo.
It's just one example of a swath of new campaigns being launched in a region with shared problems and similar aspirations. Both the Iranian-led educational campaign "Can You Solve This?" and Egypt's "Let Me Think" project, for example, are new educational campaigns focused on strengthening civil society.
For her part, Elmahdy says she's not surprised by the failure of her own initiative, telling RFE/RL that Egyptian men are "afraid of things" and fear public "reaction."
Mohamed Abdelfattah disagrees. "I don't think that's how I would like to show my support for women," he says. "Both of us respect our differences, but that's not something I would do ... I think that it's a funny tactic, it's not serious stuff."
Abdelfattah, a journalist, helped expose the killing of Khaled Said, which became a rallying cry for the Egyptian opposition.
"You know, we can mobilize for women's rights in a more serious manner that can achieve real things on the ground," he says, "not just some superficial type of tactics that would make the already conservative population [of Egypt more] alienated ... to the idea of women's rights."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An Egyptian blogger who sparked controversy last week by posting a photo of herself naked online has also launched a campaign calling on men to don the Islamic headscarf.
However, the Facebook campaign, launched by Aliaa Elmahdy in support of women's rights, was shut down after it was hit by thousands of complaints last week. Elmahdy plans to relaunch it within days.
Elmahdy sent shockwaves through Egypt's highly traditional society when one of her friends shared a photo of her wearing nothing but a pair of shoes and stockings on Twitter with the hashtag#nudephotorevolutionary.
Elmahdy's boyfriend, Kareem Amer, says his girlfriend's reasons for originally posting the photo on her blog were not political. He said she wanted "to send a message" to conservative Egyptian society that a woman's body should not be associated with "shame."
Her reasons for launching the Facebook project, "Wearing Hijab in Solidarity with Women," which kicked off on November 1, are similar. She says she started the project because "many people deny that the hijab discriminates between women and men."
A statement posted on the group's Arabic-language Facebook page before the page was removed said that "Those who call on women to wear hijab should not attack men if they chose to wear the hijab" and calls on men to upload their photos.
Such a move is almost guaranteed to stigmatize them in Egyptian society, which remains highly traditional. Violations against women are also hugely underreported in the country -- a report by Egypt's National Council for Women from 2003 found as many as 98 percent of rape and sexual assault cases are not reported to authorities.
Echoes Of The Uprising
As demonstrations enter their sixth day in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the tone of the hijab campaign echoes that of the famous video blog posted by 26-year-old Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz in the days leading up to the overthrow of the country's long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.
"Anyone who consider themselves men, come with us," Mahfouz said in the video. "Whoever says women shouldn't take part in protests because they could get beaten, humiliated, harassed, show me your honor and come with us on January 25."
The video is now seen as a turning point for the Egyptian uprising, with Mahfouz awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for her role in the movement.
Even though protest activity is on the rise again in Egypt, it's unlikely that the male protesters hitting the streets will be sporting headscarves. The lone male Egyptian citizen to have responded to Elmahdy's initiative is Magdy Abdelraheem, but he doesn't live in Egypt.
"I like the idea that men should be supporting women in putting this thing on their heads," says the 27-year-old trader, whose home is in the United Arab Emirates but who frequently visits Egypt. "I posted my picture there, but I don't think many Middle Eastern men would dare to do such a thing, because they'll all be ashamed to act like women, or be like women."
Codified Gender Discrimination
Apparently, several hundred Iranian men had no such qualms. In 2009, Iranian men posted photos of themselves wearing hijab as part of the online "We are all Majid" campaign launched in support of leading student protester Majid Tavakoli, who was jailed in the mass protests that broke out after the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.
The "We are all Majid" initiative also served to raise awareness about women's rights in Iran, where discrimination is written into the country's legal code. For example, if a woman is killed, the "blood money," or compensation paid to her family, is 50 percent less than if the deceased is a man.
Many of the "We are all Majid" photos were featured on Egypt's "Wearing Hijab in Solidarity with Women" page before it was taken down, presumably in an effort to drum up support.
Iranian women's rights leader Mehrangiz Kar, speaking on the sidelines of an "Inside Iran" conference in Berlin on November 12, says she's not surprised to see such similar initiatives arise independently in two predominantly Muslim countries.
"This is a kind of struggle and a kind of showing their unhappiness," she says. "You know, there is a logic: if we have to wear veil and hijab, my brother should do that, and the others."
Restive Younger Women
Iran and Egypt do not share a common language and have a troubled political history. But they do share a large, restive young generation of women frustrated with the societal status quo.
It's just one example of a swath of new campaigns being launched in a region with shared problems and similar aspirations. Both the Iranian-led educational campaign "Can You Solve This?" and Egypt's "Let Me Think" project, for example, are new educational campaigns focused on strengthening civil society.
For her part, Elmahdy says she's not surprised by the failure of her own initiative, telling RFE/RL that Egyptian men are "afraid of things" and fear public "reaction."
Mohamed Abdelfattah disagrees. "I don't think that's how I would like to show my support for women," he says. "Both of us respect our differences, but that's not something I would do ... I think that it's a funny tactic, it's not serious stuff."
Abdelfattah, a journalist, helped expose the killing of Khaled Said, which became a rallying cry for the Egyptian opposition.
"You know, we can mobilize for women's rights in a more serious manner that can achieve real things on the ground," he says, "not just some superficial type of tactics that would make the already conservative population [of Egypt more] alienated ... to the idea of women's rights."
Tightening the noose on Syria
 |
| Syrian FM Walid Moallem said sanctions will not affect Syria |
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Tony Badran
NOW Lebanon
Following the Turkish government’s announcement that it was imposing sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the White House issued a statement praising Turkey’s “leadership.” Although allowing for nine months, and 4,000 dead Syrians, to pass before finally taking concrete punitive action does not exactly qualify as leadership, Ankara’s decision is still better late than never.
The Syrian regime has dismissed the impact of the economic measures taken against it, most recently by the Arab League, with Turkey’s participation. “Warnings and sanctions will not work with us,” Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem defiantly declared on Monday. Regime officials have openly stated that as long as Syria continues to have the support of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, it will continue to have enough breathing room to get by.
The Assad regime’s bluster, however, is misleading. The unrest in Syria has already brought tourism and the broader services sector, which forms 55 percent of the economy, to a halt, dealing it its biggest blow. Sanctions by the European Union targeting the energy sector, which accounts for around 40 percent of all of Syria’s exports and one third of governmental revenue, followed. The sanctions of the Arab League and Turkey will significantly weaken Damascus, even if Syrian trade continues with Iraq and Lebanon.
The significance of Turkish sanctions varies. Turkey’s trade relation with Syria was already lopsided in favor of Turkish exports, which had steadily risen since 2003 to reach around $1.6 billion last year. However, all this changed after the outbreak of the uprising, with trade decreasing dramatically. The drop in Turkish exports, then, will ironically tilt the balance of trade and save Damascus desperately needed hard currency, which would have otherwise gone to Ankara.
Unsurprisingly, Turkish merchants and businessmen in border towns and provinces feel that it is they who are getting the rougher deal. Similarly, the Turkish transport sector, which carried goods to Syria and, through it, to the Arab world, has also been hit hard, forcing Turkey to look for alternative routes, especially via Iraq. It is partially for these kinds of reasons that Ankara had long hesitated before finally adopting sanctions. By the time it did, the Syrian market had become effectively moribund anyway, Turkish investments were practically frozen, and Turkish banks had stopped issuing letters of credit.
However, the importance of Turkey's sanctions lies in cutting Assad’s ability to connect to the world’s financial network through a third party. Ankara is suspending all ties to the Central Bank of Syria, freezing any Syrian government assets in Turkey and suspending any credit deals as well as all new dealings with the Commercial Bank of Syria. With Arab countries also closing their doors in the face of Assad, he must rely on Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
But Iran is in a similar position, due to international sanctions. Disconnected from world financial networks, Tehran is desperate for hard currency and often offers countries like China barter deals for its oil.
For its part, Iraq, although awash with petro-dollars, lacks a sophisticated banking sector behind which Syria can hide. If Iraq plans to come to Syria's rescue with foreign currency, it will have to do so using suitcases. This might be good enough for Assad and his immediate circle, but it would not be able to keep the Syrian economy afloat.
As for Lebanon, its vibrant banking sector is already under international scrutiny for fear that Iran could use it to circumvent its sanctions. Syria too will find it hard to use the closely monitored Lebanese banks as a third party for its financial operations.
What remains for Syria are its exports to Iraq and Lebanon, which account for around 40 percent of Syria's $13 billion annual exports. While too little to keep the Syrian economy going, these exports are not exclusively Syrian manufacture and include transit trade. As Syrian transit trade drops to a minimum, the Syrians will be left with exporting food, textiles and other staple products as their only source of income.
A key element of the Arab League sanctions of the regime will be the compliance of the United Arab Emirates, where Assad and his entourage presumably keep their money, and where his family has reportedly recently purchased $60 million worth of property. The UAE have yet to freeze Syrian assets. They possibly are either holding out hope for a last-minute compromise, or they are giving the Assads time to move out their money to another, as of yet unknown destination.
The reluctance of Turkey and the UAE, to say nothing of Iraq and Jordan, puts in perspective the White House’s praise of these regional actors’ supposed leadership.
The Obama administration’s continued desire to look for others to lead on Syria will run against the vulnerabilities and hesitance of these states. The US will need to press these allies hard to ensure the noose is tight around Assad’s neck. There is no substitute to Washington’s leadership.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington Bureau Chief of Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai. Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets @AcrossTheBay.
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