KABOBfest

Street Signs Pt. 5

2008-07-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

Shawkat `Uthman Al-`Aidi. Leader of the greater Syrian revolution in the Damascus and Ghouta (woods/forest outside Damascus?) and the last of the martyrs in this area. born in 1890. Organized the battle that liberated a part of Damascus in 1926.

Haytham al-Sham`a. Colonel in the Internal Security Forces, born in Damascus in 1938, martyred on 15 march, 1981 (someone please comment on 1981).

The most moral army in the world

2008-07-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

The Israeli ‘Defense’ Forces, despite committing massacres and atrocities against Palestinians and Lebanese since 1947 and maintaining an illegal occupation over the West Bank and Gaza Strip for over 40 years, are the most moral army in the region.

After one of its soldiers was captured on video shooting a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man 1.5 meters away, Zionuts rushed to deflect criticism of Israel’s primarily instrument of apartheid and colonization by insisting that the soldier in question was just a rotten apple.

Ehud Barak said the case was "grave and wrong" and that the military would exact the full extent of the law…The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also issued a statement calling the incident "grave" and in "direct contradiction" of its values.

In televised remarks to Labour Party MPs on Monday, Mr Barak promised that those involved would be held to account.

"[The] incident was a grave and wrong one and is not indicative of the IDF's norms. The military will exact the full extent of the law in this case," he said.

"Warriors do not behave like this."

So naturally, keeping up with its exemplary moral code, the Israeli army released the soldier from custody and sent him back to his unit.

Then arrested the father of the girl who filmed the incident.

Street Signs Pt. 4

2008-07-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

Al-Ma’moun al-Bitar. Captain and martyr in the Syrian Arab Army, born in Damascus in 1912, martyred during the battles of the Arab Liberation Army in Palestine, 1948.

Maysaloun. In memory of the battle of Maysaloun on 24 july, 1948, a battle of martyrs in defense of Damascus against the French forces. The hero Yousef al-`Azme, minister of war, was martyred during it. (someone please add more about this)

Street Signs Pt. 3

2008-07-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

Rabi’a al-Shamiya. A pious worshiper, the wife of Ahmad bin abi al-Hawari. buried in a mosque carrying her name. died 135 A.H. (does anyone know if she is the same as Rabi’a al-`Adawiyya?)

Shukri al-`Assali. Among the martyrs of 6 March, 1917. Born in 1868, amongst the advocates for the Arab Renaissance, executed by the Turks in Damascus. (someone please tell what happened that day)

Snoop Cancels Show in Israel

2008-07-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

After receiving pressure from both sides, rap legend Snoop Dogg canceled his September show in Israel. He cited contractual differences, according to YNet News.

The concert was initially scheduled to take place in Ramat Gan. The city was built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Salama (Arabic: سلمة), whose 7,807 Palestinian residents were ethnically cleansed on April 25th, 1948 by Zionist militias -- three weeks before the State of Israel came into existence and the surrounding Arab armies attacked. The residents of this village were among the more than 700,000 Palestinians ethnically cleaned from their homeland in 1948.

The concert was however moved later to Rishon Lezion, a city that began as a Zionist settlement in 1882.

The campaign asking Snoop to not perform in Israel is part of a larger movement calling for a boycott. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and small Israeli groups were the first to write letters to Snoop.

American activists soon followed. One Palestinian solidarity activist wrote in a letter to Snoop:

Because of its support, many artists respecting the boycott of Apartheid South Africa also boycotted Israel at the time, including Bob Marley. Today, many prominent South Africans are asking artists to boycott Apartheid Israel.

Hip-hop is growing among disenfranchised and dispossessed Palestinian youth who have been inspired by your lyrics and the lyrics of other African-American rappers against racism and injustice. These Palestinian artists, be they MCs, DJs, breakers or graffiti artists, live under constant threat of death and arrest at the hands of the Israeli army and many, particularly in the West Bank and Gaza find it nearly impossible to attend shows or tour because they are confined to their neighborhoods and cities by checkpoints and walls. It is doubtful that many Palestinians, for example, would be able to attend your show in Ramat Gan because of Israel’s racism. Only the few Palestinians with Israeli citizenship will attend. Most Palestinians live under occupation and have no citizenship rights at all – they will be banned from attending your show.

Such pressure campaigns are necessary since the world's powers seem to have no antidote for Israel's brutal occupation -- the United States actively supports it. That is why an organic movement is needed. And too many around the world are fed up with Israeli immunity and the cycle of violence its policies generate.

Letter to Snoop: Drop Israel Show!

2008-07-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

This letter was sent to Snoop's camp by a Washington, DC-based Palestine solidarity activist

Palestinians are fighting for equal rights and justice. – Peter Tosh “Equal Rights”

Israelis got tanks and Palestinians got rocks. – Talib Kweli “Gun Music”

And I slang rocks - but Palestinian style. – Boots from The Coup “The Shipment.

None of y'all niggaz can talk about peace when Palestinian youth throwin rocks at police. –Kardinal Offishial “Careful (Remix)”

But for now I'm a soldier abidin' my time / Writin' my rhyme behind enemy lines / Palestine, Kosovo, Kashmir / No different than the avenues right here. – Mos Def “War”

Dear Snoop,

Many of your fans here in the U.S., in Palestine and around the world are concerned to hear of your upcoming performance in Israel. As fans who have been students of yours for more than a decade, we hope we can return the favor and tell you why we have issues with the place where you are scheduled to perform on September 18th.

Ramat Gan, where you are scheduled to perform, is built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Salama (Arabic: سلمة), whose 7,807 Palestinian residents were ethnically cleansed on April 25th, 1948 by Zionist militias, almost one month before the State of Israel came into existence. The residents of this village were among the more than 700,000 Palestinians ethnically cleaned from their homeland in 1948.

After its establishment, Israel has continued to take Palestinian land and today control all of historic Palestine, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where more than 3 million Palestinians have virtually no legal rights at all. Those Palestinians who have remained in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are separated from Jewish communities. In the west Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel is building 400 miles of walls, gates and fences that encircle Palestinian communities, dividing them from their farmland, neighboring Palestinian villages, and the outside world – making Palestine the largest open air prison in the world.

Many people have compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa, including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Israel and South Africa have had a long history dating back the friendship between Afrikaner leader Jan Smuts and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann. In 1953, white South African president Daniel Malan, was the first head of state to visit Israel. In both 1948 and 1967, hundreds of white South African volunteers went to Israel to fight with the Israeli army and white South Africans provided arms and tens of millions of dollars in economic support.

In the mid-70s and through the 1980s, Israel supplied the South African military with hundreds of millions in military equipment. Israel also helped Apartheid South Africa to produce their Cheetah fighter jet and to eventually acquire nuclear weapons in 1985. In addition to violating the international arms boycott of Apartheid South Africa, Israel also used its duty free trading status with the United States and European Common Market to provide and essential way for the Apartheid regime to gain export routes for its products, sustaining the Apartheid South African economy while the world was boycotting it.

Because of its support, many artists respecting the boycott of Apartheid South Africa also boycotted Israel at the time, including Bob Marley. Today, many prominent South Africans are asking artists to boycott Apartheid Israel.

Hip-hop is growing among disenfranchised and dispossessed Palestinian youth who have been inspired by your lyrics and the lyrics of other African-American rappers against racism and injustice. These Palestinian artists, be they MCs, DJs, breakers or graffiti artists, live under constant threat of death and arrest at the hands of the Israeli army and many, particularly in the West Bank and Gaza find it nearly impossible to attend shows or tour because they are confined to their neighborhoods and cities by checkpoints and walls. It is doubtful that many Palestinians, for example, would be able to attend your show in Ramat Gan because of Israel’s racism. Only the few Palestinians with Israeli citizenship will attend. Most Palestinians live under occupation and have no citizenship rights at all – they will be banned from attending your show.

Palestinian civil society has almost unanimously called upon the international community to boycott Israel until it complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights. As your fans who are Palestinian or who are not but support justice and human rights, we urge you to cancel your show.

Obama for President of Israel?

2008-07-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ok... I just saw this on "Countdown with Kieth Olbermann" but he repeated it!

OBAMA: Well, let me -- let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain government -- administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.

Now my question is... Was he saying (staying true to his middle name... haha.. c'mon Chaim, take a joke!) that Israel is simply alone in it's quest to usurp, supress, deny, destroy, systematically oppress, and generally miserable-ize (Kabobfest.com. All rights reserved [unless you are Palestinian]) all things Palestinian?

OR... Was Obama insinuating what I always thought? That the U.S. and Israel are essentially interchangeable names (at least in as much as policy is concerned)? Was he giving AIPAC the green light (finally) to replace the U.S. Congress? Maybe he meant, simply, that since he was speaking in an Arab country it would be a good idea to fully disclose which country he was truly representing... As if we don't know yet. Or perhaps it was just a simple mistake...

Allow me to elaborate:

You know it's pretty hard being an American, KNOWING that Israel is your best friend... Knowing that the Arabs hate you for your freedom, your material possessions and your dog. Those Arabs HATE your potatoes, your corn. I know that I live in the greatest country in the world (kinda like Israel), where G-d "himself" gave "us" the right to usurp, suppress, deny, destroy, systematically oppress, and generally miserable-ize (again, kinda like Israel) all things... huh??? hmmmm?!?

My peoples... Sadly, I think Obama knew exactly what he was saying...

Again, Sadly.

The Wall has yet to fall

2008-07-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

In its continuous attempts to convince us that the Apartheid Wall is being built on Palestinian land purely for security purposes and not as part of a massive land grab, the Zionut entity has so far refused to tear down the Wall in the areas deemed by its own Supreme Court to cause ‘disproportionate harm’ to the Palestinians whose land and freedom it steals.

Despite some of these rulings being more than three years old, the Wall remains in place in Azzun, Nebi Alias, Bil’in and around the illegal settlement of Alfe Menashe.

The Israeli Supreme Court still finds it perfectly reasonable to build the wall as far deep in the West Bank as around Nablus, annexing 11.9% of the West Bank, including all of East Jerusalem, 92 Palestinian towns and villages, 498,000 Palestinians and 66 illegal Israeli settlements.

You’d think they could be a bit more accurate at defining their border.

Obama Campaign Green About Colors

2008-07-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

An internal memo on sartorial guidelines for the Obama campaign staff during his tour of the Middle East discouraged the wearing of green clothing. Why? Obama staffers fear sporting the color of Islam could be read as support for Hamas.

Most of the comments in the Politico article on this ranged from puzzled to exasperated. The best comment was by the Republican hack who joked they are probably banning croissant consumption because of its crescent shape.

The nervous staffers are probably just avoiding a Rachel Ray moment. We all know the Islamophobe blogosphere is quite capable of zaniness when it comes to interpreting what people wear.

His campaign, for being so careful about colors, has unfortunately let him wear other controversial colors in the past: Confederate grey, Mussolini brown, Nazi Red, and Hurricane Katrina flood waters blue.

Media Bulldoze Bulldozer Attack Story, Ignore Gaza's Water Catastrophe

2008-07-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

The New York Times and world press covered today’s bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, the second in a month. The frame was typical: enraged Palestinian used construction equipment to attack Israeli civilians. The extra spice in the article is that it occurred “near” where Obama will be staying soon. Wow, what a news hook!

Of course, he is staying at King David hotel, which apparently has no other historical significance other than the fact that Bush stayed there. For those who don’t know, it was the site of the first major bombing – note: terrorism – by “non-state actors” in Israel-Palestine. The bombers were Zionists, however, which makes mention of it outside the bounds of their reportage.

The attacker injured two dozen before he was shot dead by either a policeman or an armed civilian. The Times article finishes off with a dab of historical context. The driver:

was a resident of Sur Baher, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and then annexed.

As a footnote to the story, we are not to know whether this is relevant or not. Is the Israeli occupation and active colonization even relevant?

Pundits were alarmed by the last bulldozer attack, saying Palestinians were finding new ways to try to destroy Israel – yet Palestinians are in the stone age compared to Israel’s advanced killing technology. The bulldozer is now the Palestinian Merkava.

The difference, Israel lovers will point out, is that Palestinians target civilians. As the recent B’tselem video shows (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7516477.stm), that is a myth. The most recent footage is of an Israeli soldier shooting a detainee in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet. It was captured by 14-year-old girl who filmed the incident from the window of her home in the town of Nilin, which has been the scene of protests against Israel's West Bank apartheid wall.

MSM are ignoring phenomena of much more far-reaching public health consequences. The Christian Science Monitor ran a report that makes the horrific attack today look quaint. Though less dramatic than an attack, Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza has created “a severe shortage of potable water” that puts “the population at risk for a range of illnesses.” Gaza’s seawater “registered levels of bacteria two to five times greater than the amount deemed safe.”

The environmental degradation in Gaza is the direct historical outcome of Israel’s establishment – which forces Palestinians into cramped refugee camps there – and subsequent occupation and now embargo.

Israel denied “the raw metals, plastics, and spare parts needed to maintain Gaza’s sewage and plumbing infrastructure and waste-water treatment centers.” Israel was afraid they would be used to manufacture rockets – as if such materials cannot be transported officially, regulated and certified. This is clearly part of their collective punishment logic. These policies prevented the development of three additional treatment centers, which were funded by international donors.
The logic of collective punishment must be condemned.

Without global action against it, Palestinians will continue to fight it in their own ways. While the people of Nilin rise up, nonviolent protesters stand against the occupying forces, other choose to fight violence with violence. The only way to end this dynamic is by bringing Israel’s ethno-religious supremacy and belligerent occupation to an end.

Spitfire-side Chats: And the one millionth "suspected terrorist" wins...

2008-07-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

The ACLU recently reported that the US government's terrorist watch list has now reached a whopping 1 million names. After learning this information, one KABOBer asked:

"So what does the 1 millionth win?"

And here are suggestions to the US government on how to reward the one millionth "suspected terrorist":

1. Norelco beard trimmer
2. Apple pie
3. A Lynard Skynard's Greatest Hits CD

Hanaan:
1. A limited-edition Armani orange jumpsuit for when they inevitably get sent to Guantanamo.
2. A Photo shoot with Barack Obama for the cover of "The New Yorker" magazine.

Maytha:
1. Avatar dark-tinted sunglasses (preferably Ray Ban's)
2. A haute couture hijab
3. FBI pens and notebooks (extra supply leftover from AAI and ADC banquet gift-bags).
4. A Larry King phone-in question opportunity.
5. Waterproof protective covering for his/her Qur'an.
6. A reality series on E! with potential for Lohan and/or Kardashian cross-over episodes.
7. A cameo on "Sleeper Cell."

Diana:
A "once-in-a-lifetime" offer to be a blogger on KABOBfest.

tarik:
A $100 GAS CAR (for driving the prices so high)!!!

Unfair Trade

2008-07-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

There is some talk of a big-time prisoner exchange between Israel and the Palestinians – one that could include Marwan Barghouthi, plus 300 others, including Hamas officials, in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas arrested Shalit in June 2006 in a cross-border raid (If Israel can make cross-border arrests so can Palestinians).

I am deeply uncomfortable with such trades. Why is one teeny bopper Ashkenazi soldier worth 300 Palestinians, including a national leader like Barghouthi? The logic of disproportionate trades reminds me of the calculus of Israel’s revenge ratio: for every Israeli killed by Palestinians, Israel kills ten Palestinians.

Not to sound like an arm-chair militant or something, because I abhor violence against everyone – even belligerent occupiers. And I see all human life as sacred.

Also, I hate to be in the position to sound like I oppose a trade where families could get back 300 loved ones, fathers, sons, brothers and mothers, daughters and sisters.

So I propose a trade similar to what we see in the NBA: The Palestinians will get what they are asking for, and give the Israelis Shalit, plus 300 future prisoners – like ‘get out of jail free’ cards. The problem is then one Palestinian form of leverage against the occupiers will be severely handicapped.

So 300 Palestinian “I.O.U’s” is not really a serious idea, but my point is that it always seems as if Palestinian lives are discounted. Life is cheap when you’re occupied.
--
By the way, See "HotHouse," a fascinating Israeli-made documentary on the politics within Israeli prisons.

Street Signs Pt. 2

2008-07-21T02:42:00.000-07:00

Ibn Sina Blvd:

Ibn Sina, al-Husayn bin `abd-Allah, the doctor-philosopher, the scholar of logic, language, poetry and nature/botany(?), born 370 A.H. The most famous of his books is "Law in Medicine". Died 428 A.H.
PS: There is most appropriately a signboard for a "specialist medical clinic" above the sign.

Badreddin el-Hassani: the biggest modernizer (tarboush tip: al-Fannaan) of the Levant, born in Damascus in 1851, was devoted to worship and teaching, helped the Greater Syrian revolutionaries with wise plans. Died in 1935.

Trivia through Damascene Street Signs

2008-07-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

So amongst the (probably very few) cool things the Syrian regime, or at least the Damascene municipality has done is to put smart-looking shiny blue captions under street signs named after historical figures, poets, or places that explain who or what they were and what their significance is. I have decided to photograph as many of these as I can and post each one on Kabob with a translation of the caption (for those who cannot read god's language). What I'd really love is for commenters to add or correct me on the information provided about the person/place/event to see what the authorities here consider "fit to print", so I will translate the captions exactly as they're written even if my own information may be different. The first sign is the one above about...

...al-Mutanabbi, Ahmad ibn il-Husayn, a pride of arab poets, born in 303 A.H./915 A.D., grew up in the Levant, gained his fame at the court of Saif al-Daula al-Hamadani and was killed in 354 A.H./965 A.D

Shar`ia Ishbiliya (Seville St.) near my current apartment:

Seville, an Andalusian city conquered by the Arab Muslims in 712 A.H. whose fame became widespread during the reign of the Bani `Imad dynasty, and was famous for its fruit and olive trees.

Criminals

2008-07-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

Surely the investigation will yield a legitimate reason for this incident, the poor soldiers must have felt threatened, the kids may have made a dangerous gestures, made a threatening statement, or had an erection that was mistaken for a machine gun. Even Al-Jazeera English is making a cold-blooded shooting story primarily from the perspective of the Israeli Army, you used to have to go to FOX News for that quality reporting.

Regulating Women's Bodies

2008-07-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

Faiza Silmi, a 32 year-old Moroccan woman married to a French national, was denied French citizenship this week on the grounds that the burqa she wears is incompatible with french values, specifically equality of the sexes.

Denied not because she can't speak French, or doesn't correctly understand the french code of secularism, but rather, due to the way she expresses her religious beliefs using her own body. What baffles me most, reading about this episode in Le Monde the reputable French daily, is the amount of journalistic negligence that seems to be permissible for Arab-interest stories when compared with the average fare. That day's editorial only briefly suggested that French Muslims might find fault with the state judging their religious practice as a barometer of citizenship. The rest of the page described all the myriad ways in which this voiceless woman was indeed thoroughly oppressed, in submission to her husband and male relatives, and worst of all, so dominated that she could not even realize the fact of her submission. The classic false consciousness narrative that has existed as long as the white man's burden. "How can one disagree with such a critique?", read the last sentence.

Part of the problem with this woman being "voiceless" was the newspaper's own fault: neither the editorial nor the accompanying news article contained a single quote attributed to her. For that, we had to wait for the New York Times article, where Faiza finally spoke in her own name. She repeated ad nauseam that the burqa was her own choice, and not in any way her husband's. The female NYT journalist, who saw Faiza unveiled, took pains to suggest that the woman was not, to her understanding, oppressed, being instead of very sunny disposition, and in clear possession of her rational faculties. She even said, somewhat bizarrely, that Faiza had a happy, "moon-shaped" face. Her motivation for wearing the burqa, Faiza stressed, was modesty, to prevent men from leering at her.

To add insult to injury, the Le Monde article quotes only one "expert", the very opinionated Olivier Roy, who seems present in the article only to concur that yes, this woman is clearly oppressed.
Of course, detail and nuance fade in importance when compared to the unspoken requirement of french citizenship, or rather, an outmoded French feminism: be girly, be sexy, show your skin, be like us, or leave. A civilizational test that has little to do with equality or justice and everything to do with cultural, and dare I say it, sexual anxiety.

The other story here is Fadela Amara, the Maghrebian female minister and Secrétaire d'état in charge of Politique de la Ville, or Urban Politics. She is one of the leaders of the group Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Sluts nor Submissives) which lobbies for women's rights in the underprivileged suburbs. The front page of their website carries a banner expressing "extreme relief" that Faiza was denied citizenship. Formerly, this group was instrumental on the public relations front in getting the veil ban passed. The French media and unfortunately also the New York Times have over-promoted her as a Muslim voice at the expense of all others, when in fact she declares herself a militant secularist. Not that there's any contradiction there-- many French citizens call themselves secular Muslims-- but she is hardly an authority on Muslim affairs. Yet every single article about this case mentions that Fadela Amara, a practicing Muslim, approved of the citizenship denial, so there. This is like quoting Khalilzad for the opinion of ordinary Iraqis. Such is the lax journalism allowed when the subject is Muslim, about whom anything can be believed.

I don't have an opinion on the burqa because it's simply not my issue to judge, but I understand why it makes people uncomfortable, or is an obstacle in municipal affairs like photo IDs or security checks. This episode, however, goes beyond these petty technicalities and dangerously enters the terrain of regulating women's bodies, in a way that feminists should be more alarmed about. I say this as someone with a foundation in queer politics, and an anti-sexist.

Happy 90th, habibi!

2008-07-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

Joel Pollak Takes on Arabic Textbook and Loses

2008-07-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Other interesting reactions to Joel Pollak's zany oped in the Washington Post are surfacing. Many refute his characterization of a standard Arabic textbook, Al-Kitaab, as propagandistic. Far from being based on facts, his piece exposed the currency of anti-Arab bias. Even esteemed outlets like the Post drop the evidentiary standards for gobbly-gook such as Pollak's.

Pollak, a research assistant for prolific torture advocate Alan Dershowitz, was recently called a "precocious neo-con" by Phillip Weiss. The journalist dismissed Pollak's analysis as "condescending" out-dated Orientalism.

The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias hit back at Pollak with a sharp, satirical riff applauding his courage to "speak truth to weakness and stand up for the view that as narrow a range of opinions as possible should be expressed in America." [The comments section of his blog are quite illuminating as well -- one commenter used the book at the US Military's Defense Language Institute.]

These comments mirror our own QuiQui's introduction to his piece. She warned you "might get a kick out of this alarmist, and I must say ridiculous, dangerous, and outrageous article." That is, his arguments would be laughable if they were not so potentially destructive -- only because absurdist vilification has been the name of the game in the Bush administration. We laughed at Bush and his silly mumblings...

Pollak's analysis -- like Bush's imagined WMDs claims -- falls apart at the seams. One commenter on Yglesias's blogs argued:

Pollak is basically trying to cow Middle East studies departments by calling for more governmental oversight. This threat is based on a total disregard for facts:

1. Al-Kitaab's 3 maps either DO show Israel or come from the WWI period -- before Israel even existed.

2. The passage on Nasser that Pollak refused to recite because it was "propaganda" translates as follows (p. 338):

"Gamal Abdel Nasser was born in Egypt in 1918 and spent his childhood in Alexandria where his father worked in the post office. When his mother died, his father sent him to his uncle in Cairo. After his graduation from high school, he joined the Egyptian army and became an officer. He and a group of young officers called the 'Free Officers' ejected King Faruq from Egypt on 23 July 1952 and thus Egypt became a republic. In 1954 Abdel Nasser became the first president of Egypt, and remained president until his death in 1970. Afterwards, Anwar al-Sadat assumed the presidency of Egypt. Nasser's most noted achievements included the nationalization of the Suez Canal, the United Arabic Republic, and the High Dam in Aswan."

Not sure how that's supposed to turn loyal Americans into west-hated fanatics.

Out of Pollak's smoke-and-mirrors show, one thing is clear: Pollak is more than an innocent student hoping to learn Arabic. The Washington Post failed to pick up on his agenda.

He is a rabidly pro-Israel activist who plants suspicion of all things Muslim and Arab in every shadow. For instance, on his blog, he actually suggests that Harvard Law School is promoting Jihad. Why? It sponsored an Islamic finance forum. Like one of Pavlov's dogs, Pollak waters at the mouth with images of terrorism when he hears the word "Islamic." In the paranoid style of an Islamophobe, Islamic activities necessarily imply terrorism connections:

Shari'a-compliant funds must apparently donate money to charity to compensate for investments in non-shari'a-compliant enterprises. These charitable funds (zakat) have on several occasions been linked to terror funding networks.

Maybe Pollak should be spending more time studying the Al-Kitaab textbook and less time dreaming up Islamist conspiracies. "Zakat," despite his junior attempt at translation, does not refer to the "charitable funds" of Pollak's concerns. Zakat means "almsgiving" and is one of the pillars of Islam. It refers to donations, not the organized charity groups Pollak is thinking. A simple Wikipedia search could have helped.

There is something more ludicrous about his argument. American politicians have on occasion ripped off the public. So let's have a panel on corruption in every conference on American politics. Or how would Pollak react to the argument that the many occasions of Israeli espionage in the United States means there should be a panel on Israeli spying during forums about US-Israel relations (though Israeli espionage in the US is a vastly under-discussed topic).

That the Washington Post gave voice to such a amateurish attempt at hatemongering, supported by deceptive distortion of a book too many are familiar with (and therefore was so easily refutable), is disappointing.

Dope Arabs: Remembering Michael Ellis DeBakey (September 7, 1908 – July 11, 2008)

2008-07-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Born to Lebanese Maronite parents, this second generation Arab American, nee Michel Dabaghi, is perhaps best known for his innovative contributions to the medical community, like bypass surgery and the introduction of around 70 medical devices and instruments.

Dying this past Friday at age 99, DeBakey outlived two of his sons. A colleague at Baylor, Dr. William T. Butler, called the near-centenarian, "maestro of cardiovascular surgery" in regards to his visionary actions and ideas in the medical field.

At age 23, while still in medical school, he invented the roller pump (back in 1932 folks!).

AND, he was primarily responsible for the success of a beloved American dramedy series: MASH
His revolutionary medical tactics during his service in WWII resulted in the development of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, MASH, which he was awarded a Legion of Merit in 1945 for developing.

In the decades that followed, he was appointed president of Baylor College (1969), presented the Medal of Freedom with Distinction (1969), inducted into the Healthcare Hall of Fame (1996), received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UN in 1999, in 2000 he was both cited as a Living Legend by U.S. Library of Congress and named honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

And the honors even continued on to this year. Last April DeBakey received the Congressional Gold Medal from George W. Bush. As my father pointed out, there was no mention of his ethnic background, but as soon as the acclaimed heart surgeon hit the stage, the first words of his mouth were "Being born to Lebanese parents..."

This man's list of accomplishments is too long for any sort of obituary to do justice-the man not only lived close to a century, but he cultivated every minute of it by giving back. From treatment of "penniless peasants from the Third World to famous figures," (the likes of JFK, King Hussein, Nixon, Boris Yeltsin, etc) for DeBakey, the heart of the matter meant treating the heart, regardless of bank account size of the person attached to that heart.

Getting Blitzed in Cairo

2008-07-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post reported on the recent ban on alcohol sales at the Cairo Grand Hyatt. After it was sold to a Saudi businessman, he ordered the alcohol be poured out. This is sending its alcohol revenues, and the many tourists seeking a drink, to the Hard Rock Cafe next door -- which is owned by a bin Laden.

This story illuminates the gulf (pun intended) between the strictures of public religiosity and the private lives for many in the Arab world. Gulf tourists, especially, used Cairo as a destination for haram vacations. The article's highlights though are in a few gems:

-When asked about how two Saudi businessmen, the owners of Hard Rock and the Hyatt, could differ so much on alcohol policy, the (Armenian-Arab) manager of Hard Rock cited the Arab proverb: "Even the five fingers on your hand aren't the same, are they?" Brilliant saying.

-A columnist, and likely drunkard, who opposed the ban, wrote that the Hyatt's owner "deprived foreign guests from finding the alcoholic beverage which they wanted, and forced it upon the Muslim fish of the Nile" (after being dumped through the hotel drains).

-I laughed at the image of Egyptian waiters trying to woo female clientèle with cheesy Al Qaeda humor: "Waiters at the Cairo Hard Rock like to try to impress female customers by telling them a bearded man at some table or the other is the owner, bin Laden."

If you haven't heard about the first death since the truce took hold, it's because he's Palestinian

2008-07-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is a few days late, but the first fatality since the Gaza-Israeli truce took hold occurred on the 10th of July. Shockingly, he was a Palestinian, killed by Israeli soldiers near the border area.

Salim Jumaa Hamidi, 18, was shot by Israeli soldiers near the Kissufim crossing on Thursday, July 10, 2008. He was unarmed, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. The soldiers say they warned him to turn back before shooting him in the stomach and shoulder. The wounds would not have been fatal had he received medical assistance. He was shot at around 4:00 am, but the Israeli military did not provide him with any medical assistance. Understandable, since they’re trained to go into Gaza only to kill, and we wouldn’t want them to get confused and not know what to do, the poor souls.

What they could have done, however, was notify the Palestinian medical services that there was a man with serious injuries in need of urgent assistance. Instead, even after checking that Salim was unarmed, the soldiers let him bleed alone. 3 hours after they shot him, at 7:30, they finally notified the medical services.

Salim had already bled to death.

The Surge (in bombs)

2008-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

The dips at the end of the chart are because 2008 is only half way over. As you can see, the levels are more than half last year's level. As Bush administration spin declares increasing success in Iraq, the Air Force is dropping more bombs. Afghanistan, where they claimed success long ago, is only progressively getting worse -- an observation not even the administration denies. Officials speak of moving brigades from Iraq to Afghanistan. Each extra bomb dropped is one more act of desperation. Civilians die automatically -- collateral damage -- yet are never "targetted". Let the bombs symbolize President Bush's destructive legacy.

Obama Campaign Outraged By KABOBfest, Attacks Cover As Tasteless, Offensive

2008-07-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AFP) — Barack Obama's campaign decried Monday a satirical cartoon on the cover of KABOBfest showing the Democratic presidential hopeful wearing Islamic turban, a suicide-bomb vest, sporting a Bin-Laden beard, swastika, and Lucifer’s horns.

The influential blog defended its cover, titled "Say no to Obama,” as a critique of politics of fear and unfounded allegations during the campaign that have attempted to paint Obama, who is Christian, as a closet radical Muslim.

"KABOBfest may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree," he said in a statement.

The campaign of Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, took his side; "We completely agree with the Obama campaign that it is tasteless and offensive," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

The Obama campaign has fended off attempts to question his patriotism and religion, creating a website, http://www.fightthesmears.com/, to debunk false rumors against the candidate propagated online.

The illustration, drawn by KABOBcartoonist Chaim Sugerman, shows the presidential candidate standing in front of an inferno backdrop carrying daggers, one of which is inscribed with an image of Prophet Mohammed, and wearing an explosives vest. In the image, Obama shows distinct resemblance to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden

"Our cover 'Say No to Obama' combines a number of fantastical images about Obama and shows them for the obvious distortions they are," said KABOBfest's Sugerman.

"The explosives vest, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump dagger, the image of hell in the background -- all of them echo one attack or another," he said.

"Satire is part of what we do," he continued, "and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover."

We Gonna Rock Down to Electric Avenue

2008-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

At least twice a week I pass by the glitzy Tesla Motors dealership, which kind of looks like the inside of a Virgin America airplane cabin (is recessed colored lighting in a dark room the new way of showing something is "hip"?). While Tesla can't seem to get enough adulation in the press for its all-electric car, it is unlikely I will be driving one anytime soon as the current model costs something like $500,000 (although there are long range plans to move downmarket). Of course, if gas cost $50 a gallon like it does in Gaza electric cars start to look a lot more attractive. Now personally I would be too scared to go around modding cars anywhere UAV drones and Apache helicopters are circling overhead, but Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan, two Palestinian engineers have developed a conversion kit to make cars electric.

The car can go a respectable 60mph with 15hp (which are measured differently for electric vs. internal combustion engines), with no reporting on the range between charges, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for electric cars being sold in other markets. Perhaps most amazingly, they engineers claim they will be able to do the conversion for a mere $1,700 a figure some experts find "baffling". Unsurprisingly, Anan and Khazendar have a huge backlog of people wanting the conversion done and are limited primarily by how difficult it is to get necessary components through the blockade. Oooooh, I bet the Saudis are gonna be pissed if this catches on!

For the record, if gas gets that high I am going to buy a Venture One. It is the craziest car you have ever seen. For a video check out the review on BBC's Top Gear, which is incidentally the best car show EVAR. I am surprised how many American gear heads don't know about it. I do hear rumors about the development of a US version, which would probably suck. I mean, we yanks do droll sardonic humor really well (see how bad that was!?!?).

Mall Hunting

2008-07-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

In its endless campaign against Palestinian terror, the Israeli occupation authorities have decided to close down a mall in Nablus. They claim the mall is a front for Hamas. Odd, considering Hamas usually frowns upon things like the expression of adolescent desire and/or dudes chasing hot chicks around -- staples of mall culture.

Anyway, the Israeli claim is as baseless as that fourth missile in the Iranian launch picture (seriously Revolutionary Guard, do you expect us to believe that it appeared out of thin air?). The mall is a shareholding company with many partners, and the Israeli authorities know that. Nevertheless, the owners of the 70 stores inside the mall have been told to move their businesses out by August 15th, or they would be considered working directly for Hamas. Even if that work is say, operating a lingerie store.

The occupation forces have closed down several institutions across the West Bank in recent weeks, particularly in Nablus. Among the terrorist facilities that the brave men and women of the Zionut army managed to close down are a girls school and a medical center. They also shut down an orphanage in Hebron last week, leaving hundreds of orphans homeless. Cruel, but also farcical, as the Israelis can’t decide why they’re actually shutting the orphanage down.

I can think of one mall that should be closed down though. One of the biggest in Israel, the Kanyon Malha mall is built on the land of the village of Malha, whose Palestinian inhabitants were expelled by Zionist terror groups in 1948.