The real problem with the Arab world is a humiliation deficit. So says Nick Denton, publisher of Wonkette, Gizmodo and other hipster blogs:
The US needs to destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime because he’s a bad man, sure, because he may conceivably be connected with Al-Qaeda, because he’s developing weapons of mass destruction, because a friendly Iraq [...]

Haven’t read it fully yet, but this long LRB essay on the pro-Israel lobby in the US is worth taking a look at. Here’s how it starts:
For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of [...]

Two good stories on the Arab press came out recently: this IRIN one looks at the regional situation, whereas this one looks at the situation in Egypt specifically. It quotes one analyst as saying the estimated debt of state papers amounts to $1.4 billion. Incidentally, when I was in Morocco I read that the Arab [...]

Haaretz has a great profile/interview with Al Afif Al Akhdar, a noted Tunisian liberal intellectual living in France. This is the type of people that should be getting more attention — and proof that it’s not Wafa Sultan vs. all other Arabs out there. Here’s a link to a Google search of his name that [...]

Salon.com has published what I think are the most complete set of documents on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, including all available pictures (this includes some new ones since the last release).

A rare sensible editorial from the NYT on the Israeli raid on a Palestinian prison in Jericho, even if I don’t agree that Britain and the United States are “most to blame” for the fiasco with their military observers. I’d reserve that for, er, Israel.

The March issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin is out. I have an article in it about the future of liberals in Egypt. Here’s the full table of contents:
Algeria: Debate on Constitutional Reform
Robert P. Parks
Bahrain: A Year of Decision
Toby Jones
Broader Middle East Initiative: Arab Governments Strike Back
Bahey Eldin Hassan
Egypt: What Future for Liberals?
Issandr El Amrani
North [...]

This Fustat post made me laugh.