Author: issandr

ADL thinks this cartoon is anti-Semitic

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Pat Oliphant cartoon gets ire of Abe Foxman:

The ADL’s director called the syndicated cartoon, published Wednesday and reprinted below, “hideously anti-Semitic.”

“Pat Oliphant’s outlandish and offensive use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously anti-Semitic,” Abraham Foxman said in a statement released Wednesday. “It employs Nazi imagery by portraying Israel as a jack-booted, goose-stepping headless apparition. The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart.”

Brilliant new plan for Hamas

Religious IDF troops walk out of event featuring woman singer – Haaretz – Israel News:

“About 100 religious soldiers left a Paratroop Brigade assembly earlier this month to avoid being present at the performance of a female singer, the army weekly Bamahane reported last week.

Their departure stemmed from their belief that halakha, or Jewish religious law, prohibits them from hearing a woman sing. Their position has the support of the army rabbinate. “

So if, in future battles, Hamas starts blaring some Umm Kulthoum, or Fairuz, or Dana International, some of the IDF soldiers might run away? (Of course, the most salafist-inclined Hamas members may also have to leave to prevent impure thoughts coming into their heads if they hear a female voice.)

Links for March 26th

Links from my del.icio.us account for March 26th:

  • A Matter of National Security – No time to blog about this, but there actually was a debate this year when the Egyptian parliament voted to waive approval of arms deals – giving the president the power to make them at his discretion, with no oversight.

  • Israel’s Netanyahu doesn’t expect U.S. policy pressure – washingtonpost.com – Bibi not worried: ""I think you are talking about something that I doubt existed for any length of time in the past and which I am convinced does not exist today," the hawkish Netanyahu told reporters in reply to a question about possible U.S. pressure."

  • Almasry Alyoum : Sufi Sheikhs Call For Foiling April 6 Strike And Describe Its Advocators As Dissenters – Sufis for dictatorship: "Mohamed el-Shahawi, Chairman of the five-party Committee managing the dissolved Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, said all Sufis in Egypt believed in obedience to the ruler (as stated by Islam) as long as he does not violate the Islamic Law." Note he feels compelled to say this as some kind of govt-backed reordering of Sufism is taking place.

  • Hamas accused of war crimes in Gaza | World news | guardian.co.uk – HRW says Hamas guilty of war crimes, but not of using civilian shields, unlike Israel: "It said Hamas deployed fighters in civilian homes during the conflict and fired rockets from bases close to civilian areas, both violations of international humanitarian law. Israel has claimed that Hamas frequently used Palestinians as human shields against Israeli attack, but Human Rights Watch said it could not find any such cases. It said its investigation had been limited because Israel had refused to grant its researchers access to Gaza."

  • Syria Comment » Archives » Khalid Michal Interview by Paul McGeough – Interview by author of "Kill Khalid" book.

Reuters confirms Sudan air strike

Reuters is now independently confirming the Sudan air strike story:

Aircraft destroyed suspected Sudan arms convoy – officials | Reuters:

“KHARTOUM, March 26 (Reuters) – Unidentified aircraft attacked a convoy of suspected arms smugglers as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January, killing almost everyone in the convoy, two senior Sudanese politicians said on Thursday.

The politicians, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters the strike took place in a remote area in east Sudan but did not say who carried it out.

Media reports in Egypt and the United States have suggested U.S. or Israeli aircraft may have carried out the strike. Sudan’s foreign minister Deng Alor told reporters in Cairo on Wednesday he had no information on any attack.

Any public confirmation of a foreign attack would have a major impact in Sudan, where relations with the West are already tense following the International Criminal Court’s decision this month to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of Darfur war crimes.

Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Shorouk quoted ‘knowledgeable Sudanese sources’ this week as saying aircraft from the United States were involved in the strike, which it said killed 39 people.

The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum on Thursday declined to comment. Sudan remains on a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but the State Department has said that Sudan is cooperating with efforts against militant groups.

U.S.-based CBS News, however, reported on its website on Wednesday that its security correspondent had been briefed that Israeli aircraft had carried out an attack in eastern Sudan, targeting an arms delivery to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

A senior Israeli defence official on Thursday described the report as nonsense.
“

Previously discussed here and here.

Update: Haaretz provides analysis, taking as assumption that it was an Israeli strike. Watch out for this issue being raised in a few hours at the State Dept. Daily Press Briefing – although I suspect we’ll hear more about this from off-the-record sources in the next few days.

Links March 21st to March 26th

Links from my del.icio.us account for March 21st through March 26th:

  • The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone – Matt Taibbi does his expletive-filled best on the financial crisis.

  • The former Mossad analyst Clinton couldn’t avoid | The Cable – Franklin affair spy is notetaker for Netanyahu. HRClinton tries to get him out of meeting, Bibi keeps him and kicks out his ambassador, who resigned. So why can't HRClinton just come out and say, as SecState I'd rather not talk in front of a person currently involved in an espionage scandal against the US?

  • What has Israel done for Jonathan Pollard lately? – Haaretz – Israel News – Israeli report laments that their spy has not been returned.

  • FT.com / Middle East – Riyadh confronts growing Shia anger – I am starting to look forward to the Dhahran uprising.

  • FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial – A Labour fig-leaf for Netanyahu – "When Ehud Barak defeated an ultra-nationalist coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s 1999 general election, there were whoops of joy, a collective sigh of relief and dancing in the streets. Ten years on, as Mr Barak tries to bolt his Labour party on to an even more rightwing coalition led by Mr Netanyahu, there is little more than a collective sneer. What happened in between was the slow-motion suicide of Labour, the party of Israel’s founding fathers, which now has so little influence on Israel’s future."

  • Palestinian children sing for Holocaust survivors – But when will more Holocaust survivors, and their descendants, stop Israel from exploiting their tragedy?

  • Who Is Really Closing Rafah Crossing? – Reportby Israeli human rights groups say that Egypt has a responsibility to open Rafah to alleviate Israel's blockade. [PDF]

  • Rain of Fire | Human Rights Watch – HRW's report on the use of white phosphorus during Israel's bombing of Gaza: "The unlawful use of white phosphorus was neither incidental nor accidental. It was repeated over time and in different locations, with the IDF "air-bursting" the munition in populated areas up to the last days of its military operation. Even if intended as an obscurant rather than as a weapon, the IDF's repeated firing of air-burst white phosphorus shells from 155mm artillery into densely populated areas was indiscriminate and indicates the commission of war crimes."

  • The mother of all media leaks – Wikileaks – Disgruntled employee leaks salaries of The National staff – I would not want to be in that newsroom when you find out the guy next to you who does the same job has a different salary than you.

  • Armando Iannucci on the making of In the Loop | Film | The Observer – Iannucci is the comic genius behind many of the best British comedy shows in recent years: "I went into meetings with financiers and distributors carrying nothing but a pitch in my head. "I want to make a comedy about what happens when the US president and the British PM are very keen on a course of military action in the Middle East that no one else thinks is a good idea. We watch everyone under them wonder what to do." That was it, basically."

  • Tunisian pilot who prayed as his plane went down jailed in Italy | World news | The Guardian – "A pilot accused of praying when he should have been taking emergency measures to avoid a crash in which 16 people died has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court." Reminiscent of the conspiracy theory about the EgyptAir flight that went down on the US Atlantic coast in the 1990s. Still this story is relating the normal response to an emergency, he may have panicked, but invoking God (in any religion) does not make it worse.

  • Zionism is the problem – Los Angeles Times – "Yet it is no longer possible to believe with an honest conscience that the deplorable conditions in which Palestinians live and die in Gaza and the West Bank come as the result of specific policies, leaders or parties on either side of the impasse. The problem is fundamental: Founding a modern state on a single ethnic or religious identity in a territory that is ethnically and religiously diverse leads inexorably either to politics of exclusion (think of the 139-square-mile prison camp that Gaza has become) or to wholesale ethnic cleansing. Put simply, the problem is Zionism."

  • Islam’s Soft Revolution – Photo Essays – TIME – There really is something offensive about the TIME mag photo gallery that is all impressed that a woman wearing the hijab is a political activist. It's 2009, TIME, where have you been?

  • Daily News Egypt – IN FOCUS: CAN OBAMA TALK TO THE BROTHERHOOD? – Khalil al-Anani: "I believe that the real motive for the non-existence of American dialogue with the Brotherhood is the American administration’s fear of upsetting the Egyptian regime, and the desire to maintain the historical alliance between the two sides on one hand, and the fear of upsetting Israel and maintaining its interests on the other."

  • Netanyahu, Labor Set Coalition in Israel – WSJ.com – Coalition could face challenge from Labor rebels that would bring it right down the middle of the Knesset.

  • FT.com / Middle East / Politics & Society – Dubai’s art fair defies gloomiest forecasts – Budding Dubai art world does well despite downturn.

  • Season of Migration to the North – NYRB Classics – Page for the forthcoming new edition of the al-Tayib Salih's classic novel, with a new intro by Laila Lalami.

CBS says Israel, not US, behind Sudan strike

More on that alleged air strike in Sudan targeting weapons shipments to Gaza:

– The Sudan Tribune said yesterday it was the US, but today that it’s Israel based on a report by the American TV network CBS.

– Haaretz carries the CBS story and says it’s part of the MOU on arms smuggling inked between the US and Israel at the end of Operation Cast Lead. The Haaretz article adds:

Meanwhile, in May, an international conference is scheduled to take place in Ottawa, the third of its kind since the end of Operation Cast Lead, which will discuss how to prevent arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.

In addition to host Canada, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the U.S. and Israel will also take part.

Immediately after the conference a “war game” is scheduled to take place in Washington, with the participation of security officials and diplomats from the countries involved. The “war game” will practice a scenario of foiling arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.

The most recent conference took place in London a week ago and the countries cooperating in blocking the arms smuggling from Iran formulated a joint plan of operations. The plan includes the signing of a series of bilateral agreements with countries situated along the path of the smugglers, as well as countries whose commercial fleets carry cargo from Iran elsewhere.

One interesting thing in the Sudan Tribune article is that it said something about the planes coming from Djibouti. That would put the French on the suspect list too!

At least it now appears that an air strike did happen (although casualty reports are around 40, not 300) – and confirms the reports from intelligence circles that the smuggling route for Hamas’ weapons is indeed from or through Sudan, through Egypt (a whole other story: how do they keep under the radar, especially in Sinai?), possibly originating from the horn of Africa.

al-Shorouk’s story on secret Sudan raids

The relatively new Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk has been making some news yesterday, reporting that the US air force had been engaged in a series of attacks against convoys of trucks carrying arms in Eastern Sudan. The destination of the trucks, apparently, was Gaza via Sinai. Needless to say this is a huge story, not only because it would appear to confirm allegations that Hamas is obtaining Iranian-purchased arms via Sudan (and probably originally Djibouti) and that they are being smuggled through Sinai and the Rafah tunnels. It followed up on the story today alleging that US Air Force raids had claimed 300 lives.

The reason we’ve never heard about any of this, apparently, is that the US is not advertising the operations, the al-Bashir regime in Khartoum has declared a media blackout, and Egypt is respecting the blackout but keeping a close eye since this involves major arms traffic (it’s an old route, once used by the French poet Rimbaud) going through its territory. Today al-Shorouk said that an Egyptian intelligence agent visited the area to verify the issue.

I’ve been talking about this with a few people who closely follow the news yesterday and we’re all rather skeptical at this point. Some of the Egyptian press (not necessarily al-Shorouk though, as far as I know) has a bad reputation for pulling things out of thin air or basing them on unreliable disinformation websites like Debka. This would be a huge, world scoop if it turns out to be true, involving so many of the region’s hottest issues: arms trade, illegal US operations, Hamas’ supply line, Iran, Sudan and its recently indicted president. The story also assumes that a convoy of trucks carrying weapons (presumably the Grad rockets Hamas is launching against Israel) are able to make their way through Egypt, which seems impossible without the cooperation of the government or serious wasta up high. (That being said, drugs use the same route, and small arms did come from Sudan during the Islamist insurrection of the 1980s and 1990s.)

So basically, either al-Shorouk got it wrong, or it has revealed the first secret military actions of the Obama administration to control the arms smuggling to Gaza issue – as the Bush administration had promised Israel in the MOU it signed in mid-January. I’m a skeptic, but I’ll be watching how this develops.

The curse of the voodoo SMS

Ya lahwy:

CAIRO (AFP) — The Egyptian government has sought to dispel rumours that a mobile phone text message “from unknown foreign quarters” is spreading around the country and killing those who receive it.

The extraordinary move by Egypt’s health and interior ministries follows press reports that an SMS containing a special combination of numbers killed a man in the town of Mallawi south of Cairo.

“He died vomiting blood,followed by stroke, shortly after he received a message from an unknownphone number,” the Egyptian Gazette reported on Wednesday.

“The number begins with the symbol (+) and ends with (111),” it said.

An “official security source” was quoted by the official MENA news agency as denying that those who receive the SMS “get splitting headaches followed by brain haemorrhage that leads to death.”

A statement from the health ministry quoted health officials in several regions as saying that they had “received no cases with such symptoms”

“These rumours contradict all scientific facts,” the statement said.

Egypt’s interior ministry has detained three workers at an oil company for allegedly starting the rumours “and they are now being interrogated,” MENA said.

via AFP: Egypt tries to hang up on killer SMS rumours.

Obama

Is is just me, or is it still surprising to see an American president that is articulate and can handle a press conference with grace and intelligence? Maybe I don’t watch TV news often enough, but I am still taken aback every time I see Obama by how well he wears his title. Unlike his predecessor, and in many respects better than Clinton.

I like this:

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama continues to face fallout from the outrage over bonuses paid to executives at AIG, which is 80% owned by the government and has received billions in federal bailout money. Asked why he did not go public with his outrage as soon as he learned of the retention bonuses at AIG, the president snapped, “I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”

The president hit on a new theme for his administration: Persistence. He said the election of a conservative government in Israel, with a prime minister skeptical of a Palestinian state made the prospects for peace “not easier than it was.”

But, he said, as with his domestic efforts, he will soldier on.

“That whole philosophy of persistence, by the way, is one that I’m going to be emphasizing again and again in the months and years to come, as long as I am in this office,” he concluded. “I’m a big believer in persistence.”

(That’s probably how he got Michelle to date him.)

And I say this as I disagree with some of the stuff he’s done (on the economy) and wish he would get his act together and set up a Middle East foreign policy team and plan already! It would be particularly interesting to get confirmation that Hosni Mubarak will be making his first trip stateside in five years in May, as much of the Egyptian press has assumed with the recent Gamal Mubarak and Omar Suleiman visits to DC. Will Obama make Mubarak persona non grata? Will he force issues on the agenda that will make Mubarak not want to come (his original problem with Bush). Will there be any new policy departure on the question of democracy promotion in Egypt, which in 2004-2005 was arguably the flagship for the policy in the Arab world?

Update: Muhammad Salah discusses this in al-Hayat.