Mideast Media Sampler 04/22/2011

From an email from DG:

1) Free speech or right to riot?

A few months ago the Washington Post featured an editorial A wrongheaded prosecution of UC-Irvine student protesters arguing

Eleven students in all, many of them members of the school's Muslim Student Union, offered obnoxious - and as the evening wore on, infuriating - interruptions that thwarted Mr. Oren's ability to piece together more than a few sentences. This is not the first time the student union has been embroiled in controversy. A sponsor of the campus's annual Palestinian Awareness Week, the group has hosted speakers who have compared Israel to Nazi Germany and accused the country of carrying out a "holocaust" against Palestinians.  

Yet during Mr. Oren's speech, no threats were uttered, no violence ensued and each of the protesters appeared to exit the hall without resistance when campus security approached. 

Now Yair Rosenberg, the son of a friend, writing in the Harvard Crimson notes that there is more to the prosecutions than harassing obnoxious protesters (h/t Elder of Ziyon):

But what seemed like a typical story of an overheated campus culture clash took an unusual turn after emails among the MSU’s membership surfaced indicating that the Irvine disruptions were carefully coordinated by the group to prevent the ambassador from speaking—a premeditated plan that involved staggered disruptions by predetermined individuals with cue cards, all directed via text messages. In light of this evidence, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas convened an investigatory grand jury and then leveled charges against the so-called “Irvine 11,” bringing the campus controversy into the California courts. Arraigned this past Friday, the students each pled not guilty to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to disturb a meeting and disturbance of a meeting. 

Yair Rosenberg quotes from UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh who sees the prosecutions as reasonable but doesn't recommend much more than community service for the perpetrators.

2) Arab (dis)unity

Last month the New York Times reported Ready or Not, Iraq Ascends to Take Helm of Arab Bloc

And soon, Iraqi leaders, who are facing their own protest movement, plan to use their own troublesome democracy, still bloody and inchoate, as a showcase for Middle East countries. Iraq is taking on a larger diplomatic role in regional affairs as host of the group’s annual summit meeting — while assuming the rotating presidency of the league — in May.  

“If there’s a political message, it’s that Iraq is back to play a major and positive role in the Arab region,” said Labid Abawi, the deputy foreign minister who has led a committee to prepare Baghdad for the summit meeting.  

“We take pride in that Iraq has already exceeded all these other Arab countries in establishing a democratic regime,” he said. “Now, we can say yes, we are on the right track, and other Arab countries can follow suit in establishing a democratic regime.” 

Elder of Ziyon notes that this year's summit is being postponed, again:

A major Arab League summit that was to take place next month in Baghdad has been postponed, and no new date has been set although they are talking about September. 

The reason for the postponement is that the Arab League members are squabbling with each other. Iraq is against Saudi Arabian and UAE supporting Bahrain's government in the current Shi'ite uprising there, and Iraq is siding with Iran.

The upheavals in the Arab world are taking the focus off of "Palestine" as each government must actually think about survival. The always-ready excuse of blaming everything on Israel has outlived its usefulness for Arab despots. 

The upheavals in the Arab world are taking the focus off of "Palestine" as each government must actually think about survival. The always-ready excuse of blaming everything on Israel has outlived its usefulness for Arab despots.

Remember nine years ago? Remember that Thomas Friedman suggested to Crown Prince Abdullah that he offer Israel a "peace plan" at the Arab League summit that year? And how all the knowledgeable folks declared how important this vague formulation was and how it meant that if Israel was reasonable, the Arab world would make peace?

It was of course a PR move. The Arab world could make a show of how open they were by paying lip service to Palestinian freedom even while it suppressed the freedoms of its citizens. Now the same folks who championed the so called peace plan tell us that regimes who oppress their own are not stable. It seems that Palestinian self-determination wasn't just another ploy to keep Arab societies under control, but a form of an indulgence to expiate the sin of oppression.

Also from the Elder of Ziyon - the UN Human Rights Council tries to stay relevant.


3) France leads, again

Middle East Online reports (h/t Tweet from Jonathan Schanzer) Abbas in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine 

Abbas was due at the Elysee Palace later Thursday, having said he is seeking Sarkozy's advice on the Palestinian Authority's drive to convince the world to accept its statehood even ahead of an ever elusive peace deal. 

Thus far, most world powers have been reluctant to recognise Palestine before it becomes a viable entity within agreed borders, but now some are starting to think recognition could revive the stalled search for peace. 

"It's a question we must reflect upon and upon which we are reflecting. It will be asked in September or October," France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters at a diplomatic lunch on Tuesday. 

Juppe said France was working with its European Union partners to try to get Israelis and Palestinians "back around the negotiating table" and that this could lead to statehood recognition later this year.

Apparently, as in the case of Libya, the United States is letting others lead.

The struggle over Palestinian statehood is being played out in Israel according to the New York Times Tel Aviv Protests Show Divide Over Palestinian State

Dozens of prominent Israeli artists and intellectuals declared their support for a Palestinian state on the streets of Tel Aviv on Thursday and quickly found themselves confronted by rightist opponents calling them “traitors” and, according to one report, “Jewish Nazis.”  

While angry confrontations between protesters on opposite sides of Israel’s gaping ideological divide are not unknown here, this one came at a delicate time, with international pressure growing on Israel to find a way back to peace talks with the Palestinians. It also occurred in a symbolic place, in front of the building where David Ben-Gurion declared Israeli independence in the spring of 1948.  

The group of leftist intellectuals and artists signed the declaration endorsing a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders and asserting that an end to Israel’s occupation “will liberate the two peoples and open the way to a lasting peace.” Among the signers are about 20 winners of the Israel Prize, the country’s most prestigious award. 

I find it interesting how easily Isabel Kershner finds it to mention the insults from the right wing protesters, but is very slow to give too much credence to the documented ongoing incitement of the Palestinians against Israel. Of course those who signed the declaration are "intellectuals and artists" and many won Israel's "most prestigious award." No word is said about their naivete.

Towards the end of the article I found this interesting:

In a television debate, Yariv Ben-Eliezer, grandson of Mr. Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and an academic specializing in communications, accused the signers of the declaration in Tel Aviv of staging a “media gimmick” and of cheapening Israel’s own Declaration of Independence. 

4) Cousins find each other

The AP reports on two cousins finding each other due to Yad Vashem's online database.

Ever since she became an orphaned 12-year-old in Russia, Liora Tamir thought she was alone in the world — having lost every single member of her family either in the Nazi Holocaust or Soviet prison camps. 

That changed because of a recent search of a database of names of Holocaust victims. She discovered that her murdered grandparents were commemorated there by an uncle she never knew, who had moved to Israel. 

On Thursday, she was united with his son — her cousin — at an emotional ceremony at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

5) What Islamists? I don't see any.

One of the annoying aspects of the reporting on the unrest in the Middle East has been the underlying assumption (expressed both in reporting and in most of the opinion pieces) that the revolutions in the Arab world will bring about more freedom. Signs of the Muslim Brotherhood's strength are downplayed and the Brotherhood itself is portrayed as moderate and uninterested in asserting itself. But then, every once in a while there's a reminder such as Egyptian Islamists call for release of blind sheik imprisoned in US for plotting NY attacks

The protests, led by a recently freed conspirators who was involved in the assassination of Anwar Sadat, are calling for the release of Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheikh" who was convicted of terror related charges.

And Salafists are protesting the appointment of a Copt to position of governor

Islamists in southern Egypt are continuing their protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian as governor, and have vowed not to stop until he was removed from office, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.  

The ultraconservative Salafis began their protest on Friday in Qena against the new governor, Emad Shehata Michael, who, they fear will not properly implement Islamic law. Protestors also accuse Mr. Michael, who worked as assistant to Giza security during the revolution, of being a member of the old regime that killed protesters, claiming many came from Qena, according to a report in Al Ahram Online.  

Attempts by the newly appointed interior minister, Mansour El-Eissawy, who hails from the same region, did not halt the protests by the Salafis who sat on train tracks, took over government buildings and blocked main roads in the southern city of Qena. 

Reuters de-emphasizes the role of religion in the protests.

Protesters in a southern Egyptian city insisted on Thursday their new Christian governor resign, stepping up a week-long challenge to his appointment by the country's military rulers. The army generals ruling Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster appointed Emad Mikhail, a Copt and a senior former officer in Egypt's vilified police force, as governor of Qena province earlier this month. 

But he has so far not taken up his post because thousands of demonstrators have contested the decision, resorting to the same people-power that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule in February.

But France is (again) leading the way in seeing no problem with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has announced that France is ready to talk to all Muslim Brotherhood groups. There are two particular problems here. First, using logic to analyze the foreign minister's position goes like this: 

• France's government says that the country will talk with all groups that have renounced violence. 
• France's government says that the country will talk with all Muslim Brotherhood groups. 
• Therefore, France's government says that all Muslim Brotherhood groups have renounced violence. 

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