Embracing Brotherhood welcomes not democracy but war
November 29, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
As the AP reported on Sunday, the final results of the recent Moroccan elections confirm a victory, if not a majority, for Morocco’s Islamist party. These elections form a part of the series of reforms implemented by the Moroccan King in order to quell the country’s brief spell of Arab Spring-style protests.
Announcing final results Sunday, the ministry said the Justice and Development Party has taken 107 seats in the 395-seat legislature following the nationwide vote two days earlier.
The PJD – known by its French initials – is the latest Islamist party to win an election brought about by the Arab Spring. The right-of-center Istiqlal, a potential ally for the PJD, placed second with 60 seats.
Morocco may be the most recent country to have ostensibly voted an Islamist party into power, but it will not be the last…
An Exodus from Sinai
November 28, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
The Sinai is not only a haven for terrorists, but it also a centre of people and organ smuggling.
The depth of the lawlessness was recently captured in CNN documentary “Death in the Desert”, which reported on unimaginable violence experienced by Africans who cross the Sinai in the desperate attempt to make it to Israel.
Africans particularly from Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea fleeing their local hardships pay Bedouin tribes in the border area between Sudan and Egypt around $2,000 to be smuggled into Israel. But these smugglers often imprison and blackmail the helpless refugees or sell them to other Sinai Bedouin, who do the same, rather than fulfilling the deal. If the Africans cannot pay the ransom, and sometimes even if they do pay, they are enslaved, raped, tortured and killed.
Dershowitz: UN an important reason why there is no peace
November 28, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
World-renowned Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz gave an important speech at “The Perils of Global Intolerance: the United Nations and Durban III” conference that took place on 22 September 2011 – designed to coincide with and counter the UN Durban III conference which promoted an anti-Zionist agenda and focussed on Israel as the world’s sole nation mentioned as a source of “racism.” It has just been made publicly available.
In his speech Dershowitz condemned the UN for failing to live up to its own Charter, and began his speech with this statement:
“One important reason why there is no peace in the Middle East an be summarised in tragically in two letters – U.N. That building dedicated in theory to peace has facilitated terrorism, stood idly by genocide, given a platform to Holocaust deniers, and disincentivised the Palestinians from negotiating a reasonable two state solution.”
Gaddafi – the “Jewish” tyrant
November 25, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
In Libya people have long speculated about Gaddafi’s ancestry. While Gaddafi claimed to have been born in a tent in Sirte to the son of a poor Bedouin sheepherder and his wife, this story has been in doubt.
Now that Gaddafi has fallen, many feel that they are finally able to talk freely about Gaddafi. And what many of them are now saying is that he was a Jew.
In March, NBC‘s Richard Engel reported from Libya that one in five rebels was fighting Gaddafi because of the belief the Libyan dictator was Jewish.
More recently, Middle East analyst Andrew Engel reported from Libya in the New York Forward that throughout Libya he saw Graffiti depicting Gadaffi as a Jew and that many people he met were eager to tell him that Gaddafi was Jewish.
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Are new sanctions on Iran enough?
November 25, 2011
This Update features three pieces commenting on the international debate about a new round of sanctions on Iran – with the US, Britain and Canada announcing new measures on Monday, and Europe agreeing “in principle” to expand sanctions a couple of days later
First up is an editorial from the Washington Post, in which the paper argues that the new sanctions announced by the US Administration amount to “half-measures”. Instead, the paper argues, the sorts of tough sanctions proposed by French President Nicholas Sarkozy early this week should be adopted – including a freeze on the assets of Iran’s central bank, and a complete embargo on all petroleum purchases from Iran being adopted by a coalition of Western states.
Media Week – One-Sided History; Freedom Riders?; Newton’s Nonsense
November 25, 2011 | Jamie Hyams
As part of its “Lost Worlds’ series, SBS TV is showing a seven-part series from Britain’s Channel 4 titled “The Bible: a History”. The second instalment (13/11), “Abraham”, was presented by Rageh Omaar, a former BBC journalist now with al-Jazeera. He described Israel as “land the Palestinians have occupied for centuries and which the Jews believe belongs to them.” He seeks to cast the Jewish claim to Israel solely in religious terms, neglecting to mention that Jews have occupied the land continuously for thousands of years.
“Pinkwashing” pejorative wiping tolerance away
November 24, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Fast becoming a viral sensation, a new YouTube video (below) shows two Spanish men “photobombing” an al-Jazeera broadcast by engaging in a long, passionate kiss in frame as the reporter is talking.
The irony of the video is that while the two were supposedly making a point about marriage equality in Spain, they happened to do so on a state-owned network from a country in which homosexuality is punishable by lashings and imprisonment. Indeed, a report from the UN High Commission for Refugees has this to say on homosexuality in Qatar:
Homosexual behavior is illegal [in Qatar]. Islamic laws against homosexuality are applied. [In Qatari society], homosexuality is taboo. There is no visible social support for gay and lesbian rights.
On the topic of homosexuality in the Middle East, Sarah Shulman has written in the New York Times on the prominence of the gay community in Israel and Israeli officials speaking out against the intolerance shown to homosexuals in…
Iran fighting to control the message
November 23, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
New York Times journalist Rick Gladstone has reported on a rare act of defiance from Iran’s internal media, stemming from an all-too-familiar crackdown on the messages that media officials disseminate.
Iran’s main government-run newspaper was published Tuesday without a front-page headline, replaced by photographs of its headquarters during an assault the day earlier by forces working for the judiciary who briefly arrested its top official – the media adviser to the president – and more than 30 others.
The presentation of the front page appeared to be an act of protest by the newspaper over the unusual episode on Monday, which judiciary officials described as…
More UN DysfUNctionalism
November 22, 2011 | Allon Lee
In another example of UN dysfunctionality, Syria has been admitted as the Arab representative to UNESCO’s human rights committee, just a day after a UN report criticised the country’s massacre of 3,500 anti-government protesters.
The decision is even more bizarre in light of the Arab League suspension of Syria over the Assad regime’s human rights’ abuses.
Worsening Middle East instability
November 22, 2011
This Update provides analysis of the increasingly “Arab Spring” instability which seems to be developing across the Middle East – in Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
First up are Washington Institute experts David Schenker and Eric Trager on the background and implications to the re-ignition of significant violence between Egypt’s military SCAF goverment, and protestors gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square over the weekend – which has led to the death of upwards of 24 people and hundreds of injuries.
