Testbist

I was a propaganda intern in Iraq – interview with former Lincoln Group Baghdad intern Willem Marx, who planted US Army articles in the Iraqi press.

Key US legislator says will block aid to Lebanon – Top Israel supporter Tom Lantos doesn’t want aid money to go to Lebanon, even though Israel itself says Lebanon should receive international aid to avoid collapse.

Accidental emigrant – Amira Hass on how a Jerusalem-born Palestinian man was permanently kept out of his country.

‘Missing Israeli pilot’ on film – Ron Arad, Israeli air force pilot who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, may be alive.

Australian Muslim teen is a slur on Islam – Miss Australia contestant being hounded by imams. I’m with Sandmonkey on this one.

ADL Calls Amnesty International Report “Bigoted, Biased, And Borderline Anti-Semitic” – If the Anti-Defemation League says it, it must be true. Oh, and Abraham Foxman says Israel, not Lebanon, is the victim.

The Situation in Iraq – Gilbert Achcar on Iraq and the need for US troop withdrawal.

No, the above picture is neither the deluded fantasy of a member of the al- Saud family, nor the paranoid hallucination of an AIPAC staffer. It’s a picture from a new ad campaign for the old strategy board game “Risk” devised by advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi.

I played Risk regularly in Cairo during Ramadan, when some of my Egyptian friends (Muslims and Christians) used to spending their evenings in bars must loiter at home instead (only foreigners are accepted in bars during the holy month.) So they’d make sure to stock up on booze before Ramadan begins and spend several nights a week playing all-night Risk games. (Productivity isn’t very high during Ramadan anyway, so why bother getting up early?)

It’s clear from playing Risk that the Middle East is the least desirable territory to conquer. It’s right there in the Middle and anyone who wants to expand needs to go through it at some point. Australia and South America may not get you many points, but at least they’re secure. Africa is a bit better, but still tricky. North America is probably the best place, with five points and only three places to access it. Europe is more difficult to keep hold off, as is Asia and its seven points. But the Middle East doesn’t even count as a continent and is constantly being overrun by European, African and Asian hordes — as well as the odd American passing through Africa on his way to Asia. It’s a place for war and conquest.

Plus ça change…

[via Boing Boing]

The article below, I think is different and worth reading. The author is Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian-American Nobel Prize winning chemist, often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in Egypt (I don’t think he could run as a dual national anyway, and he’s no politician.) Sure, the article is vague, but it draws rather clear outlines of what needs to be done and most importantly rejects the “gradual reform” offered by the current regimes out of hand. There’s been enough flawed processes in the region — two decades of a “reform process” that was an excuse for one elite to replace another, a “peace process” in Israel/Palestine that was empty of any real content and now a “democratization process” whose entire purpose is to prevent anyone from ever reaching the end of the process: democracy, warts and all.

(Highlights mine, thanks to reader B.I. for emailing this.)

Ahmed Zewail: We Arabs must wage a new form of jihad

We must not be distracted by old ideologies and conspiracy theories

Published: 24 August 2006

The cataclysmic wars in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq have uncovered the reality of Arab unity and plight, and the collective conscience of international society. It is abundantly clear that the Arab people must themselves build a new system for a new future. The current state, as judged by a low GDP, high level of illiteracy, and deteriorating performance in education and science, is neither in consonance with their hearts and minds nor does it provide for their political, economic, and educational aspirations.

Yet this is the same Arab world that produced leading civilisations, world-class universities, and renowned scholars and scientists. Clearly, something has gone seriously astray.

Continue reading “Jihad for modernity and enlightenment”