Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"As it prepares to transfer authority to elected civilian leaders, the Egyptian military is still the most potent political force in the country. The struggle to assert civilian supremacy will take years and is by no means assured"
"The presidential elections are very far from being fair because the Military Council has set the rules in order to obtain the result that it wants. It is a decisive battle between the revolution and the Mubarak regime"
"Ironically, it seems that the Egyptians, having staged the first popular revolution in their history, are being asked not to choose the future but to choose between various versions of an imagined glorious past"
The man who would rule Egypt, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, started political life as self-confessed extremist. Challenged Sadat, ended up in prison with Zawahiri and others. Later rose in Muslim Brotherhood. Then broke with it
"The euphoric toppling of Hosni Mubarak last year has given way to a vexed, often violent and needlessly prolonged transition. Yet in its awkward, bumbling way, the most populous and influential Arab country is moving forward"
Fascinating report. "Today, with Gadhafi dead and a provisional government of former rebels in charge, we can begin to uncover the secret, high tech spying machine that helped the dictator and his regime cling to power"
"Israeli policy is almost entirely mortgaged to the settler enterprise, to the appropriation of more and more Palestinian land." With such disenfranchisement, "every passing day makes a South African trajectory more likely"
Revolt against Assad is also being fought through satire and cultural resistance. River running through Damascus was dyed red. Sound systems get hidden in ministries and municipal buildings to play revolutionary songs
Recent coalition deal strengthens Netanyahu considerably. The opposition (less hawkish than the PM on Iran, Palestinian issue) has been neutralised, not empowered. Stage is set for confrontation with Obama, not compromise
American citizen of Palestinian descent flies to Israel, aiming to visit sister in West Bank. On landing in Tel Aviv she faces immigration. Despite best preparations, it doesn't go well. Soon she's sent to the "Arab room"
Reflections on Iraq war. "We eliminated the very officials and institutions we should have been building on, and left thousands of the most highly skilled people in the country jobless and angry—prime recruits for insurgency"
What is Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu up to? First, he calls early elections. Then, out of the blue, he creates a unity government instead, bringing the Kadima party to his side. Tactics have changed; his strategy remains the same
Delegates at the first Zionist congress in 1897. Image from Wikimedia Commons
Simon Jenkins, on bombing Libya
"The iron law of plunging into someone else's civil war is choose the side most likely to win and make sure it does"
