Dreams Into Lightning 2

Analysis: Hezbollah, Syria, and the Arab Spring

Jonathan Spyer at GLORIA Center:

It is not difficult to understand the contradictory position adopted by Hizballah vis-à-vis the Arab upheavals, once the movement’s priorities and key loyalties are understood. At the outset, this article noted four aspects of Hizballah’s identity: It is an Iran-aligned force, a representative of the Lebanese Shi’a, a regional Shi’i Arab force, and a representative of a self-proclaimed “resistance” trend in the wider Arab and Muslim worlds. The movement’s response to the Arab upheavals, however, indicates the order of importance of these aspects. The alignment with Iran, and the movement’s dominant position in Lebanon predictably, over-rode any other considerations.

When a dilemma emerged, Hizballah did not hesitate to adopt a position in obvious contradiction to its earlier claims to support the rights and demands of the peoples of the region, in order to line up alongside its patron–Iran–and fellow client–the Asad regime. ...

Full article at the link.

Berlinski on Turkey

A fed-up Claire Berlinski is tired of playing Cassandra for free.

Hey, what you're reading in the American news about this region, as far as I can see, is hogwash. And I don't know what the Israelis are thinking; they seem to be working themselves into a lather because Erdogan delivered some tub-thumping speech in Cairo (toward which the Muslim Brotherhood was distinctly cool: Welcome to the real world, Tayyip. Didn't do much good for Obama, either, and remember how I warned you: Turks aren't Arabs?) And Israelis, chill! That's just Tayyip. He flies in, makes a lot of noise, the ladies faint; he flies out, nothing changes. I promise. Just ask the Somalians. Or the Syrians. Or the Turks, for that matter.

The most astonishing thing of all is that everyone in the West--and Israel!--suddenly seems happy to accept two incompatible propositions simultaneously: 1) Erdogan defanged the military and 2) Turkey is a threat to Israel. No recognition that to the extent the former is true, the latter must be less true, so maybe it would be worth asking--which, exactly, is more true? ...

Go read the rest.

Arab Nazis

From the BBC's Sarah Ehrlich:
Farhud memories: Baghdad's 1941 slaughter of the Jews

On 1 June 1941, a Nazi-inspired pogrom erupted in Baghdad, bringing to an end more than two millennia of peaceful existence for the city's Jewish minority. Some Jewish children witnessed the bloodshed, and retain vivid memories 70 years later.

Heskel Haddad, an 11-year-old boy was finishing a festive meal and preparing to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot, oblivious to the angry mob that was about to take over the city.

Thousands of armed Iraqi Muslims were on the rampage, with swords, knives and guns.

The two days of violence that followed have become known as the Farhud (Arabic for "violent dispossession"). About 800 Jews were killed, spelling the end for a Jewish community that dated from the time of Babylon. Only 180 bodies were identified, but the Israeli-based Babylonian Heritage Museum says about another 600 unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave.

Go to the original for the full, horrific details - but also for the stories of brave Arab individuals who did what they could to protect the innocent from the mob.

The BBC piece does not address the long history of anti-Jewish violence in the Arab world prior to the Nazi era. Nevertheless, this article is an important first step. It demolishes the notion that Israel is to blame for Arab Jew-hatred. Also, the article helps to put the Arabic word "Farhud" into circulation. The word needs to be part of the vocabulary of international discourse.

It is important to expose the link between Nazism and Arab anti-Semitism, as this article does. That the Nazis did horrific things to humanity in general and the Jews in particular is well known; "Nazi = evil" is not a controversial statement.

But Nazis are a "safe target". They were white, nominally Christian Europeans acting on a professed ideology of white supremacism; so it's easy to conflate them with the likes of the KKK. Best of all, they lost the war! There is no significant presence of Nazi sympathizers in today's academic or cultural establishments. ('Twasn't always so; but that's another story.) Unlike the Communists, for example - or the Islamists.

Exposing the Nazi-Islamist ties may be the most important thing we can do to disrupt the narrative that paints Israel as the heir to the Nazi mantle.

Nazism is not yet dead in the Middle East.

JPost: Newspaper reports Nazi party forming in Egypt.

A group of Egyptian political activists have announced plans to set up a local version “of the Nazi party,” an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Citing a leftist Egyptian news portal, the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said that “the party’s founding deputy is a former military official,” and that the party would be aimed at bringing “together prominent figures from the Egyptian society.”

The report cited founding member Emad Abdel Sattar as saying that the unestablished party “believes in vesting all powers in the president after selecting him or her carefully,” and that “preparations are under way to choose the most competent person to represent the party.”

Go to the article for full details. But pay special attention to what Mordechai Kedar, of Bar-Ilan University, says about Nazi-inspired groups in the Arab world:

Historically, he said, the German Nazi party saw three attempts to copy it in the Arab world in the 1930s in Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. The Egyptian party of that time was led by former president Anwar Sadat, who went on to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

“They were copying the extreme nationalism of Germany, before the Second World War, and before the word ‘Nazi’ became a coarse word,” Kedar said.[My emphasis - aa.]

Strategy Page has more.

This is ironic on many levels. While Arabs love to call Israelis "Nazis", it is the Arab world that is the true heir to the Adolph Hitler's vision of how the world should be. A major weapon in the Arab arsenal is anti-Semitism. For a long time, even before World War II, the racial hatred tactic was particularly popular in the Arab world. This was partly the result of Islamic radicalism, which pushed hatred of all non-Moslems, not just Jews. But as more Jews began moving into Jerusalem and surrounding areas in the late 19th century, more of the Moslem racial animosity was directed at Jews.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran

BBC:

Security forces with tanks have overrun a square in the centre of Bahrain's capital Manama where anti-government protesters have been camped for weeks.

At least three civilians were reportedly killed after police fired on mainly Shia protesters. Officials said three police also died. ...

Iran has recalled its ambassador to Bahrain.

Stratfor's latest update states that an early-morning crackdown appears to have succeeded in discouraging further protests, for now. This analysis adds that 'The situation remains fragile, with Iran attempting to position itself to come to the aid of the Bahraini Shia, but Tehran’s options appear increasingly constrained.'

Meeting of Minds on the Arab Street

Marc Tracy at Tablet has an excellent piece citing Leon Wieseltier and Hussein Ibish. Tracy also manages a jab at Tablet colleague Lee Smith; I'll leave it to Lee to decide whether Marc's piece fairly represents his views or not, but there's plenty of room for reasonable people to disagree.

Where Wieseltier, Ibish, and Tracy all agree - and from my reading of The Strong Horse, I'd venture that Smith no doubt shares this view as well - is that

“The Arab street,” no longer defined and in part shaped by the Orientalist assumptions of the West (to borrow from Ibish), has achieved, in Wieseltier’s term, “a post-post-imperial moment.”

Hussein Ibish at Bookforum.
Leon Wieseltier at TNR.

Middle East Protests

CNN: Algerians defy protest ban.

Algiers, Algeria (CNN) -- Baton-wielding Algerian security forces clashed Saturday with protesters who defied a ban and took to the streets of the capital demanding political reform.

Eleven individuals and eight policemen were injured, two seriously, the official Algerie Presse Service reported.

Police arrested nine protesters, the news service said.

Algeria's largest opposition party, Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), last week called the demonstration to demand the release of detainees, the lifting of a state of emergency that has been in place for almost two decades, and the restoration of individual and collective freedoms. ...

Full story and video at the link.

"Tunisia-style" protests in Yemen. Arutz Sheva reports that 'thousands of Yemenis fed up with their president's 32-year rule demanded his ouster Saturday in a noisy demonstration'. Article at the link.

Jordanians protest in Amman. CNN video at the link, and yes, those are islamist flags in the background in the first part. The police here are doing their best to play "good cop" and mollify the protesters.

CRIME Report from HAMSA

Civil Rights In the Middle East - June 2008:

6 Years Hard Labor for Yemeni Journalist al-Khaiwani

The charges against him - including “insulting the President” - carried the death penalty. In that respect, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani enjoyed a small victory on June 9, when a Yemeni judge sentenced him to six years in prison with hard labor. But for hundreds of people around the world campaigning on behalf of the pioneering journalist, the ruling was a travesty of justice and a warning bell for Yemen’s independent media.

“Today is the worst day for freedom of press in Yemen,” said Sami Ghalib, head of the Rights and Freedoms in the Yemeni Journalist Syndicate. The American Islamic Congress immediately released a statement slamming the decision. Amnesty International, which had just named al-Khaiwani as a finalist for a prestigious human rights journalism award, condemned the verdict, as did the State Department. Jane Novak, the New Jersey blogger who has driven the campaign for al-Khaiwani’s freedom, discussed the case on Fox News, National Public Radio, and Al-Arabiya. ...

Egypt Bans Book by Ex-Policeman on Police Brutality

Omar Afifi was once considered weak by his colleagues on the police force. The Egyptian worked in the state security department and refused to torture suspects. After he quit the force, he decided to inform the Egyptian public how to avoid getting abused by security forces. In March, his “how-to” expose hit bookstores - only to get banned.

“How Not to Get Smacked on Your Neck,” was declared a “disturbance to public order” by the Egyptian government. Yet all the book featured were questions and answers informing Egyptians of their rights and how to deal with abusive police officers accordingly. Abusive police officers often get away with intimidation and abuse of power, Afifi argues, simply because citizens do not know their own rights. ...

Syrians Skirt Web Blockade on Facebook

Consider this curious fact: In November, when the Syrian regime blocked Internet access to Facebook, the popular online network had 28,000 registered Syrian members. Five months later, the number of Syrians with Facebook accounts had risen to 34,000. ...

QUIZ: What's keeping couples from hitting the beach in Iran this summer?

Physical barriers that separate men from women. By law, most beaches in Iran are segregated - not by race, but by gender. At Chalus’ luxury Hyatt Hotel on the Caspian Sea, for instance, two huge curtains on the beach separate men from women. Another curtain blocks the view so hotel guests can’t see onto these beaches and watch members of the opposite sex. The summer sun may be out, but couples and families in Iran can’t easily hit the waves together.

Ha'Aretz: Britain, France, US Approve Surrender to Hezbollah in Lebanon

SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE.

Shlomo Shamir, Ha'Aretz:

Britain, which currently occupies the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, is expected to issue a statement Friday in support of the recently signed Doha agreement between Lebanese rival political factions. The statement, originally a French diplomatic initiative, enjoys backing from the United States.

The statement thus represents a Western stamp of approval to an agreement that is in practice a capitulation to Hezbollah demands, including a greater share of the political decision-making power in Lebanon. The agreement was the culmination of weeks of turmoil, during which violent incidents initiated by Hezbollah, including the group's takeover of parts of Beirut, gripped the country.

According to the terms of the Doha agreement, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will resign in the coming days; the commander of the army, Michel Suleiman, will be installed as president, and the government will comprise 30 ministers.

Most significantly, however, the agreement meets a key Hezbollah demand to reshape the structure of government representation ...

Go read the whole sorry tale at the link.

Update: CTB's David Schenker - Lebanon's crisis deferred.

Yesterday in Qatar, the pro-West Lebanese Government and Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizballah reached an agreement to deescalate the crisis. The Doha Agreement has largely been seen as a victory for Hizballah; the militia cum political party will be brought into the Government and provided a cabinet veto. Meanwhile, a discussion of the disposition of Hizballah’s weapons—a core issue for March 14th—will be deferred.

Despite these March 14th concessions, in reality, the deal will do little to change the status quo on the ground. Hizballah, as events of early May made painfully clear, already possesses the ability to veto government initiatives by force. ...

Schenker views the agreement as a truce or "hudna". Elsewhere, Schenker analyzes the Doha agreement:

On May 21, after five days of mediation, Qatari officials announced a compromise solution to the Lebanese crisis between the pro-Western government and Hizballah-led opposition backed by Iran and Syria. According to preliminary reports, the negotiations centered on presidential elections and electoral reform, yet avoided the critical issue of Hizballah's weapons. Although details are still emerging, the broad outline of the agreement suggests that Hizballah has translated, at least temporarily, its May 7 military victory into a political victory. But given the potential outcome of the 2009 parliamentary elections, the Shiite group's victory may be short lived. ...

Read the rest here.

CTB: Another Deal with the Taliban

Jeffrey Imm at Counterterrorism Blog:

Once again, the Pakistan government signs another deal with the Taliban, while counting on an impotent American government and an uninformed American public to continue to provide them billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars as our "ally".

This is becoming an near-annual event in Taliban appeasement by the Pakistan government: the September 2006 North Waziristan Accord, the August 2007 calls by President Musharraf to "mainstream" the Taliban, and now a peace agreement with the Taliban in Swat. The next steps will be a further surrender to Taliban-guided Sharia throughout seven districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in the months to come. ...

CTB's Andrew Cochran: "Grand Bargain" Gives Hezbollah Lebanon Victory?

Andrew Cochran, Counterterrorism Blog: Hezbollah wins in Lebanon.

Today is a day which we should mark on the calendar and remember for a long time. For on this day, it became abundantly clear that the Iranian-Syrian axis now controls Lebanon through Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda and the Taliban now control the Northwest provinces in Pakistan (see ABC News and the AP story). Both groups of terrorists won through sustained asymmetric (and, in Lebanon, conventional) warfare which eventually collapsed the will of the opposition, which was not supported in any material way by the United States and other nations. I want to concentrate on the events in Lebanon in this post.

Just eight days ago, in an emergency briefing that I helped to arrange on Capitol Hill for Congressional staff, Walid Phares accurately diagnosed the long-term Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah strategy and forecast the outcome unless forces supporting the Cedars Revolution, specifically the U.S. and the U.N., would quickly mobilize. That didn't happen; I suspect, based on past experience, that the Administration couldn't come to a quick determination on the course of action, with the State Department probably at odds with other elements and the White House unable to build a coherent and forceful counterstrategy in time. As Walid posted below, Hezbollah not only built and runs a private strategic telecom network inside Lebanon, but now, thanks to the "victory treaty," it is capable of moving large numbers of men and material right into southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah's sizable conventional and asymmetric forces are a giant dagger aimed straight at Israel. What's the response? For some time, powerful officials in Washington and elsewhere have whispered about a "Grand Bargain" with Syria, to be concluded with the assistance of other Arab states. ...

Read the rest at the link.