October 2008 – Testbist

Shukair’s “My cousin Condoleeza”

"Ma cousine Condoleezza : Et autres nouvelles" (Mahmoud Shukair)

Click below for Le Monde’s review of Palestinian writer Mahmoud Shukair “My cousin Condoleeza and other stories”, originally released in Arabic and now available in French. And here’s a review of his previous collection of stories, Mordechai’s Mustache and His Wife’s Cats. Continue reading Shukair’s “My cousin Condoleeza”

Links October 29th to October 30th

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 29th through October 30th:

In Mauritania, a TV talk show with consequences | Menassat – Mauritanian politician and TV presenter arrested and charged after criticizing junta.

El Khabar | La Constitution Algérienne sera bel et bien révisée – Algeria's Bouteflika decides to "allow the people to enjoy their right to choose their president and to renew their trust in him" – i.e. change the constitution to allow him a third term. Remind you of anyone's reasons for not imposing term limits?

Forensic economists examine the effects of CIA-led coups on the stock market. – By Ray Fisman – Slate Magazine – Insider trading and coups – great reading.

allAfrica.com: Egypt: Ruling Party in Free Fall – The headline is rather misleading, but this piece has an overview of the recent scandals that have hit senior NDP members and of public skepticism about its upcoming conference.

Six Questions for Kent Moors on Saudi Economic Problems, American Foreign Policy and the Future of Oil—By Ken Silverstein (Harper’s Magazine) – "About 18 months ago, the Saudis started moving their dollar denominated investments out of U.S. sovereign bonds and into Collateralized Debt Obligations, Collateralized Mortgage Obligations, and Structured Investment Vehicles. They did that to increase their return on investment because of their budget squeeze, but they invested themselves right into the credit crunch. They own a lot of paper based on mortgages and other sorts of credit bridges, the values of which have plummeted."

Through the Glasses Darkly — In These Times – Slavoj Zizek references my favorite John Carpenter movie, "They Live," to examine the Republicans' strategy.

EGYPT: New book captures a nation’s angst – On hit book “Egypt Is Not My Mother, She's My Father's Wife”, latest in Zaat/Yacoubian/Taxi mold

Death and Taxes 2009: A Visual Guide to Where Your Federal Tax Dollars Go – WallStats – Amazing inforgraphic on how US military budget is spent

CNN and the Khalidi affair

This is an actual sentence from a CNN report on Sarah Palin attacking Barack Obama over his relationship with eminent Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi:

Khalidi has been a stern critic of United States foreign policy towards Israel and has accused the country of “occupying” Palestinian territories, but he has denied acting as a spokesman for the PLO.

How dare Khalidi suggest that Israel may be “occupying” (let’s use quote marks to underline the outrageousness of it all) Palestinian territories? As Philip Weiss says, this is the result of the disastrous effect of the Israel lobby and the skittishness with which US media approach the issue. But I’m sure Wolf Blitzer, former AIPAC lobbyist, will look into that.

Incidentally, the Khalidi business does make Obama look bad – it along with other decisions to distance himself from former friends makes him look like he’s opportunistic and ready to dump his friends at the drop of a hat.

On a related note: Joe the Zionist.

Unmarried blues

Just saw this Washington Post interview with the Egyptian spinster who has made a success out of her (lack of) marital status. I kept looking for the book عازة اتجوز (“I Wanna Get Married”) in bookstores in Cairo last summer, after friends mentioned it to me. It was always sold out. Hopefully I’ll find it at Christmas. In the meantime, I’m checking out the blog. The book sounds fun and certainly topical. It seems to be part of an interesting proliferation of quite provocative how-to books in Aameya.

Links October 28th to October 29th

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 28th through October 29th:

Washington Times – GOULDEN: Eddy and the Mideast – Story of arabist spy Bill Eddy.

Harvard Iranian Oral History Project Harvard University – Personal recordings from the 1920s to the 1980s from Iran.

Welcome to POMED’s Country Pages Project | Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) – POMED launches "country pages" covering Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Morocco.

The Israel Lobby Archive – Very interesting historical documents tracking the history of the Israel lobby in the United States, notably previously confidential material from the 1960s. Bookmark it!

U.S. Mulls Talks With Taliban in Bid to Quell Afghan Unrest – WSJ.com – Petraeus backs initiative to talk to "moderate" Taliban, driving a wedge with "irreconciliable" elements.

Egypt sheikh backs women’s right to beat husbands – Middle East Times – First all the wife-swapping, now this…

New book on Egypt, “Egypt between democracy and Islamism”

Another new book about Egypt in the twilight of the Mubarak era has come out:

"L’Egypte entre démocratie et islamisme : Le système Moubarak à l’heure de la succession" (Jean-Noël Ferrié)

I haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, but from the blurb it looks at how the “Mubarak system” works and its success in preventing a much-anticipated social explosion. For a look a Ferrié’s approach to Egypt, see this article [PDF], from November 2006.

Links for October 27th

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 27th:

The Al-Qaida We Don’t Know: The Limits of the Counterterrorism Approach – Nathan Field advocates a less polisci, more humanities approach to understanding Islamist terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

Alger censure, avant sa parution, un livre “infamant” de Mohamed Benchicou – Afrique – Le Monde.fr – Algeria bans Mohamed Benchicou's latest book, accuses him among other things of anti-Semitism (against Nicolas Sarkozy). Benchicou had previously written a vitriolic bio of Bouteflika. [French, subs]

Lebanon’s Hariri, Nasrallah hold rare meeting – Yahoo! News – Weather, sports discussed in between uneasy silences

“‘Exporting’, ‘Spreading’, or ‘Supporting’ Middle East Democracy” – POMED notes on Michele Dunne and James Traub's discussion of US democracy promotion, with special emphasis on Egypt and Pakistan [PDF]

Chaos theory – The National Newspaper – Fawaz Gerges reviews Olivier Roy's latest

AFP: Egypt police slammed over wife-swap scandal – EIPR courageously takes up "wife-swappers" privacy violation case

Links October 25th to October 27th

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 25th through October 27th:

Egypt fines broadcaster that aired Mubarak protest – Reuters.com – Cairo news fined $27,000 for broadcasting Mahalla protest

Saudi Arabia and al-Qaeda trials | The struggle against al-Qaeda | The Economist – Saudi shifts gear from co-option to trial in handling of its jihadists

Zionism at 60 | Jewish and democratic | The Economist – A staunchly Zionist book review – wrong, but smart.

Israel’s Mixed Cities on Edge After Riots – Forward.com” – Legal discrimination against Arabs in Israel likely to fuel more Jewish-Arab riots

Coroner’s inquest to study suspected spy’s death – BostonHerald.com – More on Ashraf Marwan

New documentary on Norman Finkelstein

Also check out the website.

Links October 22nd to October 25th

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 22nd through October 25th:

Christopher Ketcham: An Israeli Trojan Horse – More on Israel's cornering of high-tech surveillance market in US, relationship with NSA

Is Israel’s booming high-tech industry a branch of the Mossad? – Haaretz – The NSA – Israeli high tech connection

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | MB goes rural – Very interesting column by MB-watcher Hossam Tammam on the ruralization of the MB's leadership.

LobeLog.com » Blog Archive » Top Obama Adviser Signs on to Roadmap to War with Iran – More on Ross-Obama relationship, Ross' role in hawkish Iran plan

Dennis Ross on why he’s working for Obama and how he’d talk to Iran – Haaretz – Israel News – SecState, personal envoy to Iran positions considered for Ross under Obama

An End to Dubai’s Building Boom? | Newsweek.com – Dubai is heavily leveraged: "A recent Moody's report found that Dubai's leverage now exceeds its GDP, and is likely to continue to outpace growth for another five years."

Desperate Egyptians commit suicide after financial loss – "Last week, Ahmed Nasreddin Abdelaal, an electrical equipment salesman in his fifties and a small-time stock market investor, committed suicide after a huge loss on the exchange."

Middle East Analyst » Blog Archive » Has Nasrallah Been Poisoned? – Conspiracy theory…

Ultraconservative Islam on Rise in Mideast – On the growing popularity of contemporary salafism