Links from my del.icio.us account for February 19th through February 20th:
- Hizbollah has won battles but has lost its social anchor – The National Newspaper – Michael Young's critique of Hizbullah's obstructionism to a Lebanese state project. (I'm not sure other movements are any less obstructionist, although Hizbullah is the one with the most weapons…)
- Think Progress » Santorum ignorantly refers to language of Qur’an as ‘Islamic.’ – Too funny.
- the human province – The continued moral and intellectual decline of Christopher Hitchens: "In order to illustrate how he knows so much more about Lebanon than anyone else in the room, when pressed, the only “true revolutionary” he could come up with was Walid Joumblatt. To this, the audience mostly just laughed out loud. I would have felt sorry for Hitchens if he hadn’t been such a pompous ass."
- ei: Film review: “Waltz with Bashir” – A negative review by Electronic Intifada says Palestinians are absent from the film.
- U.S. Senator Kerry to make rare visit to Gaza – Haaretz – Israel News – But will they meet anyone from Hamas?
- Gamal Mubarak: We’ll Back Zamalek, It Can’t Be Relegated To First Division – Another sign, along with his televised apologia for Egypt's position during the Gaza war last night, that Gamal is aiming for the statesman image: he wants to fix Zamalek Football Club's embarassing problems. This is what a head of state does in Egypt: intervene in the most minute problems. Look at [Hosni] Mubarak promising to amend the traffic law for truck drivers last night; is this really the role of a president?
- FT.com / Middle East – Egypt frees challenger to Mubarak – A sensibly cautious story on Nour's release.
RE Mubarak, Zamalek and trucks – it’s the state leader as your neighbourhood shop-keeper, isn’t it: he knows just where everything is, he will chat to you and sort things out, he will spend hours on working out problems – not necessarily important ones – while people queue patiently. But they don’t mind, because he’s the neighbourhood shop-keeper, with his personal touch.
I dunno – in my neighborhood the shop-keeper doesn’t have buddies who’ll shove a rolled up copy of Captain Marvel in your ass if complain about his store.