Links November 1-3 2011

Fresh links, get them while they're hot.

• The "Maspero Crime": Accounts Against the Counter-Revolution’s Power, Media, and Religion
  A long essay on Maspero.
• Mafia State « LRB blog
  On Syria.
• Reporters again turn State Dep’t briefing into moshpit, scorning US ‘impotence’ in the conflict
  Over UNESCO and settlements.
• Enthusiastic passengers settle in for the ride on Gaza-bound aid ship | Al-Masry Al-Youm
  Lina Atallah reports from the Tahrir.
• North African migration: The next European crisis: boat people | The Economist
• For the first time in the history of Al Ahram !!
  MB places an ad.
• Exclusive: Interview with Hosni Mubarak's Lawyer - by Mohamed Fadel Fahmy | Foreign Policy
  Worth reading.
• Egypt’s Jon Stewart Sees Few Laughs Amid Pre-Election Clampdown - Businessweek
• Egypt Electionnaire
  Which Egyptian political party do you agree with? Flawed by fun.
• Jerome Slater: On the US and Israel: Not as Bad as South Africa? Richard Goldstone’s Defense of Israel
• An Arab Citizen - مواطن عربي: Highlights Of Egypt's "Constitutional Principles Document"
• House of Translation
  AUC's new translation center to be launched.
• Gaza-Bound Humanitarian Flotilla Reaches International Waters | Center for Constitutional Rights
• Meet Syria's Opposition - By Randa Slim | The Middle East Channel
• The Effects of Egypt's Election Law - By Mazen Hassan | The Middle East Channel
• Romney flunks foreign policy ... again
  Romney would make US policy subservient to Israel.
• Language becomes a political weapon in Israel
  Efforts to downgrade status of Arabic.
• Netanyahu trying to persuade cabinet to support attack on Iran - Haaretz
  Unfortunately an important read.
• Israel to expedite settlement construction in response to Palestinian UNESCO membership
  also cuts tax payments just before Eid.
• Analysis: Libya's NTC struggles to stay the good guys | Reuters
• Blog: "We shall be victorious" | Al-Masry Al-Youm
  Long blog post about Alaa Abdel Fattah by Lina Attalah #freealaa
• In the Jaws of the Mullahs by Haleh Esfandiari | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
  Review of a new comic about 2009 Iran protests.
• Adam Shatz reviews ‘Claude Levi-Strauss’ by Patrick Wilcken · LRB 3 November 2011
  Interesting aside here on L-S' position on Palestine: pro.
• Pankaj Mishra reviews ‘Civilisation’ by Niall Ferguson · LRB 3 November 2011
  Rather scary Ferguson: "America should now follow Britain’s example, Ferguson argued, neglecting to ask why it needed to make the modern world if Britain had already done such a great job. He agreed with the neocon Max Boot that the United States should re-create across Asia the ‘enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets’. ‘The work needs to begin, and swiftly,’ he wrote, ‘to encourage American students at the country’s leading universities to think more seriously about careers overseas.’"
• America's new Middle East 'mini-Nato' | Simon Tisdall
  Baghdad Pact Redux?
• The Saudi succession: Time, surely, for a much younger one | The Economist
• The Arab world: Crescent moon, waning West | The Economist
  On the decline of Western influence in the Arab world being a good thing.
• Egypt: Activist Detained for Inciting Violence | Pulitzer Center
  #freealaa
• Gunfire and fear fill Tripoli’s security vacuum - FT.com
• La corruption au Maroc: état des lieux « Ibn Kafka's obiter dicta
• The Arab Spring: started by the young, controlled by the old - The National
  On Tunisia, and rather over-the-top negative.
• Libya struggles to create army out of militias - The Washington Post
  Predictable mess.
• Anis Mansour : une disparition passée inaperçue.
  Obit.
• The Man Who Knew Too Much - By David Rieff | Foreign Policy
  Qadhafi.
• The Limits of Anti-Islamism in Tunisia - By Melani Cammett | The Middle East Channel
• Will the Arab Spring lead to a revolution in education?
• UNESCO gives Palestinians full membership | World | Reuters
• ABDEL-FATAH HAS LONG HISTORY OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY, SAYS AMOEBA | Inanities
  Sarah Carr needs to start an Egyptian Private Eye.
• حيطان Walls
  Good Syrian blog.
• Qadhafi: Not Funny?
• The Gaddafi I Knew – News Watch
  "This fantasy quality was pronounced during Gaddafi’s conversation with Barber, Giddens, and Frost, and in his relations with his staff. The Leader insisted that representative democracy was slavery, and all but swore that angels, unicorns, and Nobel prize-winners were queuing up for visas to live in his Libyan utopia. No one walked out on this nonsense. After all, he was very rich."
• U.S. Plans Post-Iraq Troop Increase in Persian Gulf - NYT
  Oh joy.
• Western Companies See Libya as Ripe at Last for Business - NYT
  The new Libyan gold rush.
• Norman Stone on Turkish History | FiveBooks | The Browser
• The New Libya: Exclusive Video on Challenges Facing a Nation Emerging from Gaddafi's 42-Year Rule