Links 18-30 July 2012

The blog will be on holiday mode for the next month or so — due to the arrival a week ago of our son, who is keeping is busy and rapt with wonder, and that we are actually on a break. Here are the links of the last two weeks, with a big gap in the last week in particular.

• Civilians at Hurghada Airport fill-in for security officers on strike - Ahram Online
  This country is nuts.
• Tunisia: Hardline Islam Threatens Democracy Gains | TIME.com
  On Salafis.
• The Prince and the Revolution -WINEP
  Good stuff on Bandar.
• In My Mother's Arms - Witness - Al Jazeera English
  Documentary on orphans in Iraq.
• Unexceptional: Algeria’s Apparent Contradictions at Fifty - Sada
  Algiers' main square closed under false pretenses...
• Tunisian economy makes tentative recovery
  Tunisia could get US FTA.
• Muslim Brotherhood's rise in Egypt could push Hamas to lay down its arms - Haaretz
  Nonsense in which Haaretz takes its news from Rose al-Youssef.
• Kidnapped paramedic: “It was general intelligence who abducted me” - Daily News Egypt
• A simplistic sectarian lens magnifies extremist agenda - The National
  Hokayem.
• U.S. presented Netanyahu with contingency plan for Iran strike | Haaretz
  An open conspiracy.
• Burma's monks call for Muslim community to be shunned - Asia - World - The Independent
• The blatancy of apartheid | Mondoweiss
  Phil Weiss writes from Jerusalem on the blatancy of Israeli apartheid
• Former U.S. officials say CIA considers Israel to be Mideast's biggest spy threat - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
• Preparing for Assad's Exit | Marc Lynch
  Good points made here.
• Salafi nominee for religious endowments minister denies Shater behind nomination | Egypt Independent
• My 50 Minutes with Manaf
  Bassad Haddad reminds us who Manaf Tlass is.
• Les gauches arabes déchirées par la crise en #Syrie 
• The identity of Al-Azhar and its doctrine - Opinion - Ahram Online
  Ibrahim El-Houdaiby
• Abul-Naga: I won't serve in PM Qandil's government - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online
  Fayza Abul-Naga: I won't serve in PM Qandil's government
• Still unclear how new constitution will address army | Egypt Independent
• Islamist alliance for upcoming parliamentary elections collapses | Egypt Independent
  Salafist alliance for upcoming parliamentary elections dissolved 
• THE DAILY STAR :: Syria embodies the end of colonialism
  Rami Khouri.
• Free citizen journalists in Sudan | Sudan Watch
  On detention of #simsimt
• Blast rocks Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan | Reuters
  Gas shipments had resumed!
• Yo Mama So Zionist | YouTube
• Morsy answers questions of citizens in daily radio program | Egypt Independent
• Time for Hezbollah to Quit Lebanese Government | Al Akhbar English
  By the paper's editor.
• Pipelines bypassing Hormuz open - FT.com
• Daily chart: A map of sloth | The Economist
  Saudi Arabia leads.
• Court postpones judge change decision in Constituent Assembly case | Egypt Independent
• Les biens des militaires égyptiens cartographiés | Reflets
• Wednesday's papers: The Brothers and Hillary | Egypt Independent
• Egypt’s top intelligence body makes bid for public support as it faces Brotherhood president - The Washington Post