Mideast Media Sampler 09/16/2011

From DG:

1) Millions of polls; one result


Arab Media: New Player in the Quest for Peace September 27, 1998 Shibley Telhami

Egypt accuses Israel of retreating from its commitment, embodied in the Oslo accords, to make peace with the Palestinians, as the lack of progress has soured the average Egyptian's view of the Israelis. Israel, meanwhile, detects a revival of pan-Arabism in the Egyptian foreign ministry. This view misses a bigger factor at play in Arab politics today. The rise of a new, market-oriented Arab media has bolstered Arab identity in Egypt and elsewhere and has ensured that the Palestinian issue remain the lens through which most Arabs, including Egyptians, see Israel and the United States.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/15/2011

From DG:

1) Other than that the story was accurate


At the end of Beyond embassy attack, Israel senses wider siege the New York Times reported:

But as the months of Arab Spring have turned autumnal, Israel has increasingly become a target of public outrage. Some here say Israel is again being made a scapegoat, this time for unfulfilled revolutionary promises. 
But there is another interpretation, and it is the predominant one abroad — Muslims, Arabs and indeed many around the globe believe Israel is unjustly occupying Palestinian territories, and they are furious at Israel for it. And although some Israelis pointed fingers at Islamicization as the cause of the violence, Egyptians noted Saturday that Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, distanced themselves from Friday’s protests and did not attend, while legions of secular-minded soccer fans were at the forefront of the embassy attacks. 

The tone here is disturbing.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/14/2011

From DG:

1) Letter challenge from the New York Times


Seymour Reich has written a letter to the New York Times, it begins:

As a longtime supporter of Israel and of Middle East peace efforts, I fear that Israel has never been so isolated, as your Sept. 11 front-page article “Beyond Cairo, Israel Sensing a Wider Siege” illustrates: “its Cairo embassy ransacked, its ambassador to Turkey expelled and the Palestinians seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations.” 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained nothing — except placating his right-wing coalition — by rebuffing President Obama’s proposal in May for negotiating Israeli-Palestinian borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, although some reports indicated that he may have later softened his stand. 
Mr. Netanyahu must step back from the brink. He should cast aside his far-right coalition members, form a government with moderate parties and add a freeze on settlement construction to an offer to negotiate without preconditions. This would demonstrate seriousness. 

Mideast Media Sampler 09/13/2011

From DG:

1) R. Cohen wrote an op-ed and there's no need to cringe


That's because Israel's Hostile Neighborhood is by Richard, not Roger, Cohen and it appears in the Washington Post, not the New York Times. It starts:

Back in 1953, an Egyptian army officer was asked by the magazine Al-Musawwar what he would write to Hitler if he were still alive. “My Dear Hitler,” he began gushingly, “I admire you from the bottom of my heart.” He proceeded to extol the German dictator for, among other things, creating dissension between “the old man Churchill and his allies, the sons of Satan.” If the mass murder of Jews bothered the officer in the least, he did not mention it. 

The central point is: 

Mideast Media Sampler 09/12/2011

From DG:

1) Israel hatred legitimate; peace not


Ethan Bronner writes in Beyond Cairo, Israel Sensing a Wider Siege (via memeorandum):

The overriding assessment of the government of Mr. Netanyahu is that such steps will only make matters worse because what is shaking the region is not about Israel, even if Israel is increasingly its target, and Israel can do almost nothing to affect it. 
“Egypt is not going toward democracy but toward Islamicization,” said Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo who reflected the government’s view. “It is the same in Turkey and in Gaza. It is just like what happened in Iran in 1979.” 
A senior official said Israel had few options other than to pursue what he called a “porcupine policy” to defend itself against aggression. Another official, asked about Turkey, said, “There is little that we can do.” 

But Bronner writes further:

Mideast Media Sampler 09/11/2011

From DG:

1) Mark Landler nominates himself to become chief Palestinian negotiator


It is very satisfying when someone succeeds at a position that allows him to go onto higher pursuits that exploit his talents. Anti-Israel blogger, Robert Mackey is leaving the New York Times The Lede blog to further his activism at the Guardian. Given his demonstrated bias and mendacity regarding Israel, he is well qualified to succeed in his new position. Maybe in time he'll get promoted to Al Jazeera.


If someone else at the New York Times is angling for a new job, I'd guess it was Mark Landler,who just wrote a masterful whitewash of Mahmoud Abbas's refusal to make peace with Israel, Obama and Abbas: From Speed Dial to Not Talking.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/09/2011

From DG:

1) If only we had invited Bin Laden to a campfire to roast marshmallows and sing "Kumbaya."


A professor of philosophy (I think his discipline would more correctly be called "sophistry"), Simon Critchley writes in the Opinionator column of the New York Times, The Cycle of Revenge:

I’ve never understood the proverbial wisdom that revenge is a dish best served cold. Some seem to like it hot. Better is the Chinese proverb, attributed to Confucius, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Osama bin Laden’s grave was watery, but the other still appears empty. Is it intended for us?


Revenge is the desire to repay an injury or a wrong by inflicting harm, often the violent sort. If you hit me, I will hit you back. Furthermore, by the logic of revenge, I am right to hit you back. The initial wrong justifies the act of revenge. But does that wrong really make it right for me to hit back? Once we act out of revenge, don’t we become mired in a cycle of violence and counterviolence with no apparent end? Such is arguably our current predicament. 

Mideast Media Sampler 09/08/201

From DG:

1) Goldstone vs. Palmer


Gerald Steinberg and Gidon Shaviv explain why the Palmer report on the Mavi Marmara incident came out with results that were generally fair to Israel, whereas the Goldstone report was hopelessly compromise.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/07/2011

From DG:

1) Drezner on Goldberg


Yesterday, Jeffrey Goldberg got everyone's attention by reporting that former Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates considers Israel to be an "ungrateful ally." Ron Kampeas of the JTA linked to a followup piece in Foreign Policy by Dan Drezner "explaining" (rather tendentiously) what Netanyahu's thinking is.

I have no inside information about the Netanyahu regime's internal thinking, but I'd wager that it sounds something like this: 
1)  All else equal, we prefer an administration that's ideologically sympatico with us -- which, in the current moment, means neocon-friendly Republicans;  
2)  The likelihood that Obama will be re-elected in 2012 is diminishing by the day;
3)  Through our strategy of bitching to the media about Obama, we have succeeded in getting every viable GOP contender for president to complain that Obama is "throwing Israel under the bus."
4)  No U.S. administration, regardless of party, wants Iran to wipe Israel off the map.   

5)  Given (1), (2), (3) and (4), why on earth should we do anything differently? 

I reject the premise.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/06/2011

From DG:

1) The Peter Principle in Palestine


Last week Khaled Abu Toameh wrote Failed Leaders Do Not Deserve to Become "Presidents" in which he lambastes Mahmoud Abbas for pursuing the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) at the UN later this month. (There's a similarly themed article at Comment is Free by Mehdi Hasan. h/t Lynn)

The 76-year-old Abbas, however, is evidently not concerned about the consequences of his UN gamble.

Mideast Media Sampler 09/02/2011

Blogged through my Android

From DG:

1) Darth Friedman

Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?
Darth Vader : They must never again leave this city.
Lando : [outraged] That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
Darth Vader : Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
Lando : [after a pause; nervous tone] No.
Darth Vader : Good. You know it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
Lando : [to himself] This deal is getting worse all the time! 

Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship. 
Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision! 
Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further

Dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back

A few months ago, in End of Mideast Wholesale, Thomas Friedman wrote:

Mideast Media Sampler 08/25/2011

From DG:

1) The end of a chapter of history?

Jim Hoagland in What we've learned in Libya:

Gaddafi’s downfall brings us closer to closing a dark chapter in Arab history — an era when dictators spent their vast oil revenue to finance international terrorism against the West as well as to suppress their own people. OPEC’s oil price revolution in 1973 started that era, which began to end with the overthrow of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003.


Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is next in history’s sights. The ruling minority Alawite clan has used protection money muscled out of the Saudis and other Gulf Arab oil producers — and lavish payoffs from Iran’s regime — to give cash and arms to the killers of U.S. Marines, a former Lebanese prime minister and many others. 

The truth is that we don't know if this chapter is over. Will the new leaders be any better than the old ones?  Though not Arab, Iran's rulers still seem well entrenched; Saudi Arabia's too.

I thought this description, though, was ironic.

Mideast Media Sampler 08/24/2001

From DG:

1) Moammar Scaramanga?

From Babylon and Beyond:  

Footage is still emerging online of rebels seizing control of Moammar Kadafi's Tripoli compound on Tuesday, including some odd images of fighters with looted gold-plated guns.

Mideast Media Sampler 08/23/2011

From DG:

1) Celebrating Qaddafi's defeat


The New York Times, which has had a history of shilling for the Qaddafi regime (that doesn't include this fawning profile of Aisha el-Qaddafi, Moammar's daughter, from April) is now celebrating Qaddafi's final hours.

For more than 40 years, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has dominated and terrorized Libya — his image plastered on what seemed like every wall and his goons posted on every corner. Late Monday, with rebel fighters in substantial control of Tripoli, he was nowhere to be found, and his regime seemed to be collapsing. 

Mideast Media Sampler 08/18/2011

From DG:

1) Not sorry, Turkey

Isabel Kershner reports Israel Says It Won’t Apologize to Turkey for Deadly Flotilla Raid 

Turkey has demanded an official apology, compensation to victims’ relatives and a lifting of the blockade on Gaza as conditions for normalizing its heavily strained relations with Israel, formerly an important ally. 
...
A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject, said the American request for such an apology was reiterated on Tuesday in a phone call between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

The Israeli official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Turks kept adding conditions for a reconciliation, raising uncertainty in Mr. Netanyahu’s government over whether they were sincere and whether they would consider the case closed even if a deal were reached. 

Mideast Media Sampler 08/17/2011

From DG:

1) "What me worry" and crying "Wolf"

The New York Times reports Syrian Enclave of Palestinians Nearly Deserted After Assault. Two aspects of this article are worth noting. At the beginning, Secretary of State Clinton is quoted: 

On Tuesday in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was more effective to forge international consensus against Mr. Assad — as well as intensify economic pressure through sanctions — than for the United States alone to lead the way. 

Mideast Media Sampler 08/16/2011

From DG:

1) Executed on August 15

I follow a website Executed Today. Yesterday was the anniversary of the executions of Soraya M  in 1986 and of Atefah Rajabi Shaalaleh in 2004. Both were executed in Iran. The former, about whom a movie was made, was accused of adultery by a husband who had grown bored with her and the latter was a 16 year old accused of "crimes against chastity." Both cases are notable not because of the tyranny of the central government but of the power that devolved to petty (though malevolent) local tyrants who were remove inconvenient people with official sanction.

Mideast Media Sampler 08/15/2011

From DG:

1) Funding Hamas again

Hamas stopped insisting on auditing aid organizations and the United States has restored funding to Gaza based organizations.

The United States has restored funding to aid groups in the Gaza Strip, after the ruling Islamist group Hamas retracted its demand to scrutinize confidential documents about the groups' work.

Mideast Media Sampler 08/08/2011

From DG:

1) Isolated

The New York Times has an editorial Palestinians and the U.N.

If the Palestinians want full U.N. membership, they have to win the backing of the Security Council. The United States will undoubtedly veto any resolution, and that will further isolate both Israel and Washington. The Palestinians may instead ask the General Assembly to recognize them as a state or give them observer status as a state. Either would undoubtedly pass. But it would be in name only. After the initial exhilaration, Palestinians would be even more alienated, while extremists would try to exploit that disaffection.

Mideast Media Sampler 08/07/2011

From DG:

1) Kristof's off

As with other regular columnists for the New York Times, Roger Cohen and Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof is anti-Israel.

He wote a column last week, Seeking Balance on the Middle East (also here). A number of fine bloggers have refuted this article.

His central contention, citing J-Street's Jeremy Ben Ami was: 

That's because those Jews who vote and donate based on Israel are disproportionately conservative (the same is true of Christians who are most passionate about Israel issues). Mr. Ben-Ami argues that "the loudest 8 percent" have hijacked Jewish groups to press for policies that represent neither the Jewish mainstream nor the best interests of Israel.

Some see this influence of Jewish organizations on foreign policy as unique and sinister, but Congress often surrenders to loudmouths who have particular foreign policy grievances and claim to have large groups behind them. Look at the way extremists in the Cuban-American community have insisted upon sanctions on Cuba that have helped sustain Fidel Castro's rule.

But this ignores the recent history. As reader Lynn pointed out to me, in this article Asaf Romirowsky and Efraim Karsh refute Kristof: