Around the web

A collection of interesting stories and sites collected in the last week or so.

– Words Without Borders has a special issue on Palestine this month.

– NYT: For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is ‘God’s Foreign Policy’
How evangelicals and Elliott Abrams heart each other. The article also says that the right-wing Jerusalem Post recently started an edition for American Christians.

– WaPo: Support Builds for Libyan Dissident
The case of Fathi al-Jahmi, the Libyan dissident imprisoned for meeting with a US diplomat. Will the US push for his release or stay quiet because it fears losing oil business?

– Carnegie: Jordan and Its Islamic Movement: The Limits of Inclusion?
New report by Nathan Brown.

– LRB: The Least Accountable Regime in the Middle East
Survey of US spending in Iraq, misuse of funds, etc. based on US government info.

– Maps of War: The Middle East
Fantastic animated map of different empires control of the Middle East over time.

– NYRB: How Terrible Is It?
Max Rodenbeck looks at recent books and official documents on the war on terror, giving you a 12-point rundown of their major points so you don’t have to read them. Nice!

– CCC: The Virtual Ummah
Military think tank looks at Jihadis on the internet and TV, notably al-Jazeera.

– French political scientist Olivier Da Lage has a new book out: Géopolitique de l’Arabie Saoudite.

– Mother Jones: Rumsfeld’s Replacement: The Robert Gates File

– HRW: Building Towers, Cheating Workers
A report on the “Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in the United Arab Emirates,” is out,a s is a photo essay full of striking pictures. And an FT report on the same.

– WaPo: Michael Dirda on Irwin on Said. (More about that here.)

– Nation: A Civilizing Mission
Review of Eqbal Ahmad’s collected works.

– Guardian: Luxury timeshares on offer at Islam’s holiest pilgrimage site
The Bin Laden Group’s new luxury resort in Mecca, ZamZam Tower.

– Figaro: Le pétrole conforte le pouvoir soudanais
Tanguy Berthemet reports from Sudan on China’s growing power there and how oil money is sheltering the regime.

– Political Comics
Cartoon blog does cool caricatures of people in the news. Controversial, here’s the one of Sheikh Yassin (click to enlarge).