Friday, 17 June 2011, 5:30 PM, in front of the Saudi Embassy in Beirut Women Driving in KSA If you’re not in Lebanon, organize similar events in your country. For more information, go to . Cf. “Saudi Women: ‘I Will Drive Myself Starting June 17′” (Jadaliyya, 12 May 2011). | Print
Geography Archives: Middle East
Interview with Jean Bricmont: NATO Powers’ Push for Syria Intervention Proves “There’s No Limit to How Crazy They Can Be”
Jean Bricmont: There’s no limit to how crazy they can be. They haven’t finished the war with Libya, which was supposed to last days, not weeks, not months. Now it’s been months, they say another three months. So they haven’t even finished Libya yet, and they are maybe going to go to another war […]
America’s On-Again, Off-Again Love Affair with Iran’s Nuclear Program
An advertisement for America’s nuclear industry from the 1970s Seymour Hersh, the acclaimed journalist who, in 1970, won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and has subsequently broken many other important stories dealing with America’s foreign and national security policies (e.g., prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib), has published his most […]
Louisiana Civil Rights Activist Sentenced to Fifteen Years in Prison
On June 1, a week past her 31st birthday, civil rights activist Catrina Wallace was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. This was a first arrest for Wallace, a single mother who became politically active when her brother was arrested in the case that later became known as the “Jena Six.” Wallace was part of […]
Syrian Opposition’s “Day of the Clans”
Today, with the declaration of “Day of the Clans,” it becomes obligatory for one to distance oneself from the dominant reactionary forces within the Syrian opposition. It is clear that the same reactionary forces that have been at the heart of the Iraqi opposition under occupation are there in the Syrian opposition. What about […]
Russia Opposes Any UN Resolution on Syria
RIA Novosti Russia is against any UN resolution on Syria as the situation in the country is not threatening to global security, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday. Britain and France submitted a new draft resolution on Syria on Wednesday. The UN Security Council will vote on the document in the next […]
Statement of Solidarity with the Queer Palestinian Call for Action “IGLYO Out of Israel”
Statement by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Society Palestinian queer activists from Al Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, Aswat — Palestinian Gay Women, and PQBDS (Palestinian Queers for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) have issued a joint statement on June 1st 2011 calling on organizations, groups and […]
Turkey’s Not-So-Subtle Shift on Syria
An old story from Istanbul in the Ottoman era mentions a Turkish imam who killed a Christian and confessed the crime, whereupon he was advised by the judge to talk things over with the mufti who told him privately that a good Muslim never admitted felony against infidels and he should simply recant his confession. […]
U.S. Boat to Gaza Is a Quarter Jewish — “Not Too Shabby!”
According to the New York Times, a quarter of the passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza are Jewish. What does it mean that the U.S. Boat to Gaza is a quarter Jewish? According to the noted American Jewish commentator Adam Sandler, a quarter Jewish is “not too shabby!” Maybe the U.S. Boat to Gaza […]
Politics and Natural Resources in Eastern Saudi Arabia
Toby Craig Jones. Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. 312 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-04985-7. Toby Craig Jones opens his book, Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia, with a description of a scheme to transport Arctic icebergs to Saudi Arabia in […]
Russia’s U-Turn
Russia went to the Group of Eight (G-8) summit meeting at Deauville as an inveterate critic of the “unilateralist” Western intervention in Libya, but came away from the seaside French resort as a mediator between the West and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The United States scored a big diplomatic victory in getting Moscow to work […]
Muslim Brotherhood and US Representatives at Syrian Opposition Conference in Antalya, Turkey
So Syrian opposition groups met in Antalya. I closely followed that conference and read about their deliberations and received reports about it. There are Syrian leftists who argue with me constantly that I should not reduce the Syrian opposition to lousy Khaddam or lousy Ma’mun Humsi (a tool of Hariri Inc.) or lousy war […]
25,000 People March in Tel Aviv in Support of Palestinian State Based on 1967 Borders
About 25,000 people took part in a march in central Tel Aviv on Saturday evening supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. The march ended with a rally at the Tel Aviv Museum. MKs Dov Khenin (Hadash), Daniel Ben-Simon (Labor), Nino Abesadze (Kadima), and Zahava Galon (Meretz); the Mayor of […]
June 5: From Naksa (Setback) to Nasr (Victory)
This poster was produced to commemorate the “setback” (naksa): the 1967 war that Israel waged and that resulted in the loss of the Sinai, the Golan, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank. While a dark moment in history, it nonetheless planted the seeds that will lead to eventual victory (nasr) and a restoration of Palestine […]
Obama on the Middle East
“As for US AID, we’re ready. A lot of US AID. The important thing: Don’t depend on yourself, and keep depending on us. Otherwise you won’t listen to us. Then, we’ll be angry. As for the topic of Palestine, we want to find a solution. We’ll recognize your country on the 67 borders.” “Mr. President, […]
Crossing Egyptian Military’s Red Line: Speaking Up against Military Tribunals
A few months ago, just walking too close to the Military Prosecution Complex in Cairo’s district of Nasr City could have landed you in jail. But on May 31, the area surrounding the complex was the stage for a demonstration in solidarity with OnTV’s presenter Reem Maged, socialist activist and blogger Hossam El Hamalawy, […]
The Reactionary Bloc in Egypt
Just as in past periods of rising struggle, the democratic social and anti-imperialist movement in Egypt is up against a powerful reactionary bloc. This bloc can perhaps be identified in terms of its social composition (its component classes, of course) but it is just as important to define it in terms of its means of […]
Which Is the Tyrant?
Which is the tyrant? say you. Well, ’tis he That has the vine-leaf strewn among his hair And will deliver countries to the care Of courtesans — but I am vague, you see. Abu al-‘Ala’ al-Ma’arri (973-1057), born in Ma’arra in what is today Syria, was a poet and philosopher. This poem is from The […]
Syrian Kurdish Parties Boycott Syrian Opposition Conference in Antalya, Turkey
Syrian opposition groups will be meeting for three days in Antalya, Turkey in a conference organised by the Egypt-based National Organisation of Human Rights (NOHR). The conference, set to begin on Tuesday, 31 May, is to ‘support the revolt in Syria and claims of the Syrian people,’ said Ammar Qurabi, NOHR president. The conference […]
Message to Communists of the World
Painful events have been continuing in Syria for nearly two months, since the emergence of a protest movement raising legitimate local and general demands among people in the governorate of Daraa. This movement threw light on the presence of major problems in the political life in Syria: the continuation of the state of emergency, the […]
