Five questions about the Arab Spring asked by the Foreign Policy Association

Gingrich, channeling Joan Peters and dancing to the tune of his bankroller

"Abraham Hassel (ph) from Jacksonville, Florida. 
"How would a Republican administration help bring peace to Palestine and Israel when most candidates barely recognize the existence of Palestine or its people? As a Palestinian-American Republican, I'm here to tell you we do exist. 
BLITZER: All right. Let's ask Governor Romney, first of all. 
What would you say to Abraham? 

Publisher of Atlanta Jewish Times resigns January 24, 2012, eleven days after his editorial advocating Mossad assassinate Barack Obama

Andrew Adler suggested three options available to Israel: launch a pre-emptive war against Hamas and Hezbollah, attack Iran's nuclear facilities or "order a hit on the president in order to preserve Israel's existence."  (Adler's despicable column was discovered by Gawker.)

Of course, Adler has been condemned by the leaders of many prominent Jewish lobby and advocacy organizations.  He is also said to be under investigation by the Secret Service.  Nonetheless, this story has remained below the radar screen in much of the so-called mainstream media.  The NYTimes referred to the incident on January 24, 2012.

Adler offered a televised apology, which prompted one editorialist to note that it was a little sad to see a grown man cry.  Considering that Adler urged the assassination of the President of the United States, the only thing that we should be sad about is that Adler is still at-large.  He is lucky not to be a Muslim, wouldn't you say?

Advance Copy--NYT Magazine--"Will Israel Attack Iran?"

Also see:
Pollack: Sliding toward war?
Philip Weiss: Times give platform Iran war advocacy.

Foreign Policy Association's Five Questions

For the original essay.

Sara Roy: "it is worth putting Hamas to the test."

One factor that prompted Yitzhak Rabin to make a deal with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was the looming rise of Hamas in the early 1990s.  That was two decades ago, but Israeli leaders still become apoplectic at the notion of dealing with Hamas.  The prospect of a Palestinian unity government elicits a variety of threats from Israel, including cutting off water and electricity to Gaza, as Sara Roy notes in her incisive op-ed.  Of course, given the coming rise of Islamically-oriented governments in Tunisia and particularly in Egypt, ostracizing Hamas is no longer a relatively easy matter.  Given the Netanyahu government's territorial agenda, and its mockery of the idea of viable and independent Palestinian state, the isolation of Hamas is integral to its policy.  None the less, it is time for U.S. policymakers to re-examine their assumptions about Hamas, and Roy's essay provides some points to ponder.

Compare Roy's piece to the latest advice from Dennis Ross who believes that Israel and the PA should get back on the bike and keep pedaling.  His comment invites images of a stationary tandem exercise bike, not one that might actually cross a finish line.  Among other things, Ross argues that Israel should reduce its activities in area "A", which is to say those parts of the West Bank where the PA is supposed to exercise civil and security authority under the Oslo agreements.  (It is curious that Ross fails to note that President G.W. Bush, for whom he worked, demanded, in 2002, that Israel pull its forces back from area "A", only to be stiff-armed by Ariel Sharon).  Read the Ross piece for a sample of the sort of well-practiced advice that plays right into the hands of Israel's hardline government.  Just keep on pedaling....

Important reportage on Benyamin Netanyahu's divisive political game in the U.S.

The author is the journalist Max Blumenthal.

"The Bibi Connection"
Excerpt:

"Netanyahu’s shadow campaign is intended to be a factor in defeating Obama and electing a Republican in his place. He opposed Obama’s early demand to freeze settlements on the West Bank as a precondition for reviving the peace process, a process since the Oslo Accord that Netanyahu has attempted to stall or sabotage, despite his signing of the Wye Agreement under pressure from President Clinton. Since his adamant stand against the settlement freeze, Netanyahu has undermined every effort to engage the peace process. He appears dead set on consolidating Greater Israel, or what many Israelis call “Judea and Samaria,” and has signaled a strong desire to attack Iran."

Current History, January 2012

Is the Labor Market Global?  by Uri Dadush and William Shaw
Arab Revolts Upend Old Assumptions by Augustus Richard Norton
America’s Outmoded Security Strategy by David B. Kanin and Steven E. Meyer
The End of Easy Everything by Michael T. Klare
Destructive Creation and the New World Disorder by Paul Harris and Daniel Sarewitz
Why the World Is More Peaceful  by Steven Pinker

Exceptional photos from Cairo (warning! some are brutal)

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Egypt: Sentiments vs. Advice

“Some may argue that the events unfolding in the Middle East now are too unpredictable to warrant a wholesale shift in U.S. foreign policy, that transferring support from loyal satraps to an untested popular opposition may backfire if that opposition fails or is put down, that the U.S. needs reassurances of friendly allies (often at the expense of democracy). But America is not simply a bystander in all of this -- its actions and words will affect the outcome. They will signal to opposition and regimes alike how far each can expect to go in challenging -- or repressing -- the other. Opposition movements (and would-be opposition movements) secular or Islamist are not only waging a battle against authoritarian oppression -- but a battle against the ways in which the U.S. manifests its quest to secure its geo-strategic interest."

I know and respect the three authors (Amaney Jamal, Ellen Lust and Tarek Masoud) of this piece, but I do not fully share their prognostication.  No doubt, the Obama administration like its predecessors has been complacent about the stability of Egypt, as a number of scholars and analysts have warned.  Nonetheless, despite a few misstatements along the way, including by VP Biden and SecState Hillary Clinton, the Obama administration has handled the Egypt crisis sensibly, if not deftly.  When the demonstrations began on January 25th, it was not clear how much momentum the protests would sustain.  It is unreasonable to expect the U.S. to turn its policy on a dime, and the administration would have been derelict to do so.

Notable images from Cairo

See also.  Thanks to S.

Imbada, Cairo, portraits

Egypt's thirty year wait for a vice president ends, but then what?

“My analysis is, the government will leave them until they reach a level of exhaustion---Abdel Moneim Said, who heads the state publishing house al-Ahram.

Egypt is in a moment of enthusiasm when the people are propelled by adrenalin, coffee and anger.  Don’t stay up waiting for them to nod off to sleep in exhaustion.  The Mubarak regime has relentlessly worked to depoliticize society, but the people are now highly politicized, meaning that they share the view, many of them at least, that there is a political solution—Mubarak must go.

One impact of the Days of Anger gripping Egypt is that the plotting to put Husni Mubarak’s

Qasr al-Nil Bridge, Cairo, January 28, 2011

al-Jazeera (Arabic) reporting police have detained M. al-Baradei in Giza

Detained along with Baradei was Osama al-Ghazali Harb, head of the Democratic Front Party.  Harb was a regime insider, a member of the Shura Council (upper house of parliament), a member of the NDP Policy Committee and therefore a player in the intellectual circle around Mubarak.  He split with the regime in March 2006 and founded the new party, which has succeeded in attracting a variety of secularly-oriented figures, including some that had participated in the Kifaya Movement and the Hizb al-Ghad.  Harb has opposed the Gamal Mubarak succession.

Egypt's Yaum al-Ghadib: Speaking Truth to Power.

Thanks to J.
 Overview (in Turkish) of the reverberations of Tunisia's revolution in the Arab world.

Read Yasmine al-Rashidi's essay on NYReview of Books blog.  She cites the gutsy rap by Egyptian rapper Rami Donjiwan. The song is "against the government" song, for which the opening lines are:

Against the the government, against the Government.
Against the government, against the thugs and injustice.
Against the ruler and the government, and the long road of injustice.
Against the government and I have a 1,000 proofs.
...............

Closing with:
Against the government and the one who accepts humiliation.

Meanwhile, VP Joe Biden calls on Pres. Mubarak to respond to the legitimate demands for change, and adds that he does think of Mubarak as a dictator.  Let's be serious: The prospect that Mubarak will respond substantively to widespread demands for change is very unlikely.  

Compelling photographs by Timothy Kaldas from Tahrir during the January 25 demontrations

Thanks to JN