Dive into the archives.
- Long Live the Tunnels!
Gaza has managed to replenish its fuel supply by using smuggling tunnels from Egypt, and residents of the Strip rejoiced as benzene prices hit a low of just NIS 1.5 (around 40 cents) per liter, after having previously paid up to NIS 7 (around $1.9). (full article…)
- And If This Happened to Gilad Shalit?
Yousef Abu Zuhri, a Hamas member and brother of the movement’s spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, died in an Egyptian jail. Hamas is outraged, claiming he was tortured to death. (full article…)
- The Wisdom of Mubarak
When the government killed the pigs in Egypt in an attempt to combat swine flu, it was warned that Cairo would be overwhelmed with trash. Now, it is. (full article…)
- Egyptian Hypocrisy
Egypt on Tuesday condemned the Hamas move to ban Fatah members from traveling to a key party convention in the West Bank, saying the decision was “unacceptable.” (more…)
- This is “Change”
Imagine the positive reaction Obama would have received throughout the Arab and Islamic world if, instead of simply expressing eloquent but vague words in support of freedom and democracy, he had said something like this: “Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their [...]
- Obama’s Speech
Bahaieddin Hasan, head of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, described the address as “superficial” and devoid of details. “There didn’t appear to be any concern for either democratic reform or human rights,” he was quoted as saying in the Friday edition of independent daily Al-Dustour. “This came as a major disappointment.” (more…)
- On Obama’s Cairo Speech
Of course, I didn’t expect much, but I found Obama’s brief remarks yesterday about the Palestinians extremely disingenuous and misleading. After pontificating to the audience in Cairo on the Holocaust (as if he were addressing a crowd of affirmed anti-Semites), Obama said the following about Palestine: “[I]t is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – [...]
- Obama’s Semantics
Labeling America’s “other” as a nebulous and all-encompassing “Islam” (even while professing rapprochement and respect) is a way to avoid acknowledging what does in fact unite and mobilize people across many Muslim-majority countries: overwhelming popular opposition to increasingly intrusive and violent American military, political and economic interventions in many of those countries. This opposition — [...]
- Obama Can Keep His Silly Speech
US President Barack Obama met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Thursday as he continued his trip to the Middle East. Amnesty International has documented a series of human rights violations in Egypt. It is particularly concerned about the extension of the state of emergency and the planned new anti-terrorism law, which seeks [...]
- This is “Change”
President Obama should not have decided to come to Egypt. The visit is a clear endorsement of President Hosni Mubarak, the ailing 81-year-old dictator who has ruled with martial law, secret police and torture chambers. No words that Mr. Obama will say can change this perception that Americans are supporting a dictator with their more [...]
- This is “Change”
Obama said he was “very much looking forward” to that part of his trip, but that he wanted to meet with Mubarak first because he is someone “who obviously has decades of experience” on a range of issues. (more…) Yeah, a whole range of issues: torture, censorship, eradication of political opponents, etc.
- This is “Change”
But on human rights, I fear he will disappoint: I asked him straight whether Hosni Mubarak (the Egyptian leader for 28 years!) was an autocrat. Mr Obama told me he was a force for stability and good. (more…)
- Joke of the Day
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we always raise democracy and human rights. It is a core pillar of American foreign policy. And I think that there is a great awareness on the part of the Egyptian Government that with young people like this and with enhanced communications, it is in Egypt’s interest to move more toward democracy [...]
- Mark Lynch on Obama’s Upcoming Speech
So what’s wrong with Cairo? Let me count the ways… The main problem, of course, is Mubarak’s repressive regime. It’s difficult to stomach rewarding a regime which has been systematically rolling back its limited democratic opening of a few years ago. The choice of Cairo is already being interpreted by many Arabs and Egyptians as [...]
- Joke of the Day
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke of the Bush administration’s goal to promote freedom in the Middle East at the American University in Cairo in June 2005. “For 60 years, the United States pursued stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East — and we achieved neither,” Rice said. “Now, we are [...]
- This is “Change”
Mr. Mubarak and his fellow Arab autocrats are widely despised across the region — and the United States is blamed for unconditionally propping them up. In fact, Mr. Bush won credit from many Egyptians for pressing for democratic change; he was criticized because he failed to follow through. Now, Arabs around the region are learning [...]
- Custodians of Israeli Oppression
Three months after the end of the war, much of the aid has either rotted or been irreparably damaged as a result of both rain and sunshine, and Egypt’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing. “To be honest, most of this aid will never make it to Gaza,” a local government official told IPS on [...]
- Laila El-Haddad, Stuck At Rafah
We have been stuck in Cairo airport for nearly a day now. We are neither being allowed entry or exit by Egyptian authorities, who insist that as long as Rafah Crossing is closed, they are under strict orders not to allow Palestinians in. (more…)
- No Celebrations For Mubarak
“Celebration for what?” he said people would wonder. “Killing Palestinians? For Lieberman and Netanyahu?” (more…)
- Condoleezza Rice Redux
Earlier this month, newspapers here in Cairo carried front-page photographs of Clinton being kissed by Israeli President Shimon Peres during her visit to Jerusalem. Arabs saw in that a clear message. Ditto what she said – and did not say – about Gaza, Israeli settlements, Hamas, and human rights in Egypt. Many Arabs fear it’s [...]
- Long Live Gaza’s Tunnels
“Everything’s okay,” he gasps and lies down on the ground, breathing heavily. “A lot of sand has got in, it’ll take us a while to shovel it all out. But I managed to get across to the other side. Our friends in Egypt send their regards.” (more…)
- Action, Not Words for Palestinians
His itinerary does not include a stop in Gaza because of the ongoing conflict. “I really wanted to visit Gaza at this time to share their sufferings,” he told reporters in Egypt, but said it was impossible because of the current circumstances. (more…)
- This is Zionism
But each time a Palestinian ambulance does make it across the no man’s land between Gaza and Egypt, the hospital erupts into activity. “Which body part haven’t I seen missing?” says one paramedic when asked what type of shrapnel injuries he had witnessed in victims being transported to al-Arish. According to hospital records, one in [...]
- Egyptian Pawns
“That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won’t let us; this is crazy,” he added. (more…)
- Echoes of Hizbollah
The disproportionate and heavy-handed Israeli attacks on Gaza have been a bonanza for Hamas. The movement has renewed its standing in the Arab world, secured international favour further afield and succeeded in scuttling indirect Israeli-Syrian talks and direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It has also greatly embarrassed Israel’s strongest Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan. (more…)
- She Came Up With This All By Herself?
The one exception to the view that our values and interests were inextricably linked had really been the Middle East, where I think we had really focused more on stability at the expense of values. We didn’t talk much about democracy in the Middle East. (more…) Let’s put aside Condi’s view that the Middle East [...]
- Donald Macintyre: Joy is in Short Supply for Eid
Ironic text messages of goodwill for the great festival of Eid Al Adha – easily as central to the Muslim calendar as Christmas is in the West – became the vogue in Gaza this week. “Despite there being no salaries, the money we don’t have to give to our children, the high price of Egyptian [...]
- Paul Craig Roberts: If Only US Law Applied to the US Government
The U.S. government does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but no other government can match the hypocrisy of the U.S. government. It is now well documented and known all over the world that the U.S. government tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and that the U.S. government has had people kidnaped and “renditioned,” [...]
- Ali Gharib: Regional Players Key to Salvaging Peace Process
One of the biggest foreign policy challenges facing the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will be reinvigorating what looks like a completely stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Repeated failures in the struggle for peace make clear that a change in direction is needed. And many observers think that taking advantage of the Arab Peace Initiative [...]
- Amira Hass: Hajj in Exchange for Power
The Hamas government is preventing thousands of Muslims from leaving the Gaza Strip to go on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca – a religious duty – on the Id al-Adha (feast of the sacrifice) holiday. What a sensational headline, what a fascinating paradox. What Israel has never dared to do – certainly not to this [...]
- Blocking the Witnesses to History
This week, we have seen once again how Israel employs the “unlimited use of limited force” to provoke a response from Gaza and to thereby undermine the fragile tahdiya—the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in place since last June. Last Tuesday, while the world’s attention was focused on the United States’ presidential election, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip… [...]
- PCHR: Israel Violates Gaza Truce
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of six Palestinians carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip yesterday evening and this morning. The victims were all killed by air strikes. This escalation is the first of its kind since the Tahdi’a (the Egyptian-brokered [...]
