Classy guys these Israelis:

Israeli leaders are warning of an imminent conflagration in Gaza after Palestinian militants aimed rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon.
The deputy defence minister said the stepped-up rocket fire would trigger what he called a “bigger holocaust” in the Hamas-controlled coastal strip.
Israeli air strikes have killed about 30 Palestinians, including six children [...]

MEMRI has this fantastic Iranian Ministry of Intelligence public information video on the American-Zionist conspiracy to pervert Iranian youth and what YOU (i.e. concerned Iranian patriotic citizen) can do about it. Watch it all now.

From Nir Rosen’s The Myth of the Surge in Rolling Stone, on the co-optation of former insurgents that had caused a decline in violence over the past year in Iraq :

But loyalty that can be purchased is by its very nature fickle. Only months ago, members of the Awakening were planting IEDs and ambushing U.S. [...]

Ahmed Senoussi, the Moroccan comedian better known as Bziz, appeared on al-Jazeera’s “bila hudud” talk show yesterday to talk about the Arab information minister’s recent decree introducing a “code of ethics” for Arab satellite stations. The result is hilarious — just wait through the first eight minutes or so as the host sets up the [...]

Links for February 20th through February 21st:

The tea war – Kenya's troubles will mean more expensive cup of Arousa
Egypt?s Parties Committee Seizes Ayman Nour?s Asset – When will the hounding of Ayman Nour cease?
Egypt bans Western papers over prophet cartoons – WSJ, Observer, Die Welt and Allgemeine Zeitung banned
Egypt Govt Summons Danish Ambassador Over Caricatures [...]

14 jours après l’arrestation de Fouad Mourtada, plusieurs sites de blogs marocains, réputés par leur grande influence au Maroc, sont en grève aujourd’hui, Mardi 19 février 2008, en solidarité avec Fouad et sa famille.

Links for February 17th through February 19th:

Jazeera slams TV crackdown – FT on new satellite TV restrictions
TelQuel : Avoir 20 ans à la campagne – Life for young people in the (extremely poor) Moroccan countryside
Moscou accuse Paris de saborder le contrat des Mig – Algeria-Russia fracas over Mig contract; France suspected of meddling
Pharaonic Pump [...]

Hossam has updates on the latest blue collar workers’ strike in Mahalla al-Kubra, the heart of Egypt’s textile industry, where some 10,000 have taken to the street to demand a new national minimum wage:

Only one day before the convening of the National Council for Wages (the govt entity in charge of setting the minimum wage, [...]

As part of a new series on youth and religion, the New York Times ran an article today on young people in Egypt. The article, by Michael Slackman, basically argues that economic and social frustration and the inability to get married at a young age has driven many to become more pious:

The despair [...]

Prince Bandar: with friends like these…

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.
Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7″ and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they [...]

The arrest and brutal treatment of Fouad Mourtada, the young man who create a fake Facebook profile of Morocco’s Prince Moulay Rachid, is a sad testimony to the fact that things have not changed as much as the regime would like you to believe in Morocco. Here is the statement his supporters have put out:

Official [...]

Kudos to Jazeera for condemning the recently announced “ethical charter” for Arab satellite stations:

Al Jazeera calls Charter issued by the Arab League’s Minister’s of Information a risk to the freedom of expression in the Arab world
DOHA, Qatar, February 15, 2008: Al Jazeera considers the adoption of the charter “Principles for Regulating Satellite TV in [...]

Links for February 13th through February 15th:

ei: How Barack Obama learned to love Israel – Ali Abunimah on how Obama wooed AIPAC
Egypt: Arab Charter for Satellite TV a Major Setback to Press Freedom in Region, Says Article 19 – On recently issued Arab Ministers of Information regulations for satellite TV
"Six Questions for Darius Rejali, Author [...]

al-Jazeera English ran some rare incisive coverage of Coptic issues in Egypt a few days ago, good questions from the interviewer (notably on the census and church-building) with interesting interventions by Michael Mounir, the prominent US-based Coptic activist. Also discussion of church-issues etc.

That was part 2, you can find part 1 here.

The Winter 2008 issue of Bidoun, the Middle Eastern arts and culture magazine, has been out for a few weeks now. For some weird reason I can never access it directly from Egypt, it only works through a proxy like proxyfellow.com or hidemyass.com, but it’s worth the trouble to check out the striking cover (below) [...]

Links for February 9th through February 11th:

Saudi royal Prince Bandar Bin Sultan's assets frozen – BAE lawsuit slowl moving along
Egypt deserves support to resolve Gaza crisis – Egyptian consul writes op-ed in SF Chronicle
U.S. pushes Israel to accept proposed Egypt border deal
– " The U.S. wants Israel to show some flexibility on Egypt's demand [...]

The Pharaos have won the African Nations Cup for a record sixth time.
Congratulations! But is anyone competent enough to explain why the team always screws up when it comes to qualifying for the world cup?

Does anyone know how to get hold of this?

[Thanks, M]

The appointment, pending congressional approval (which appears to be forthcoming soon), of Margaret Scobey as the next US Ambassador to Egypt has continued to get the local press’ interest, with her testimony to Congress’ Foreign Affairs Committee — notably her mention of the Ayman Nour case and the human rights situation in Egypt — earning [...]

Paul Rogers on the Iraq Project:
In an echo of the Baghdad embassy, Balad has grown to become the largest US air-base anywhere in the world: a fifteen-square-mile mini-city with its own bus routes, fast-food outlets, two supermarkets and accommodation for 40,000 military personnel and contractors. The base – from which up to 550 air [...]

Automatically posted links for February 6th through February 7th:

Moroccan Held for Alleged Royal ID Theft – Moulay Rachid’s identity stolen on Facebook
Nominee Backs Human Rights in Egypt – Margaret Scobey, future US Ambassador to Cairo, promises to fight for rights, Nour but discount aid pressure
US admiral confirms secret camp at Gitmo – On secret facility [...]

Charming:

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt said on Thursday it would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from the Gaza Strip, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally. “Anyone who breaches the border will have their legs broken,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was quoted as saying by the [...]

Last week, during discussion with a fairly senior Egyptian journalist, I was told that the Egyptian Ministry of Information had just finished a preparing a new “code of ethics” in order to puts limits on what satellite TV stations could broadcast, especially when the topic was political in nature. This idea has come about as [...]

Can you help me tell these gentlemen apart? One of them is Shimon Peres, the other is Skeletor, Evil Lord of Destruction.

Automatically posted links for February 4th through February 5th:

The Experiment in Gaza — In These Times – Argues blockade is about breaking the Pals’ backs
Bernard Kouchner – Profiled in the NYT, a bit silly at times but interesting
The Strangulation of Gaza – The Nation on how Israel decided to put, in Dov Weiglass word’s, Gaza [...]

Words Without Borders is running a series of excerpts from graphic novels from around the world this month, including two from Egypt and Lebanon. The fantastic Mazen Kerbaj, whose use of collage first surfaced during the Lebanon war of 2006, has an account of growing up during the Lebanese civil war:

For Egypt, I also like [...]

Next time you hear some one in the US say that voting for anti-war candidate (or a just war critic like Obama) is a disservice to the troops, consider this:

In the 4th quarter of 2007, individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services the No. 13, No. 18 [...]

Suicide bomber kills one in Dimona – Haaretz
And did he cross from Egypt?

Automatically posted links for January 29th through February 3rd:

Qatar reports new damage to Gulf undersea cables – Fourth time in a week – I think there’s a conspiracy afoot
Libya Sovereign Wealth Fund to Shun U.S., Ghanem Says – Qadhafi puts his country’s money elsewhere
Ezzedine Choukri: “?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?” – Rafah [...]

The family of the Arabist’s better half lives in South Africa. I recently received a scan of a travel article that recently appeared in the Pretoria Sunday Times about a golfer’s adventure at the Taba Marriott involving an Israeli, an irate anti-Zionist, golf clubs used as weapons, useless hotel staff and rather over-zealous state security [...]