Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens.
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
posted by y2karl
on May 18, 2010 -
105 comments
Staining the nails, skin and hair with
henna is the favorite way of enhancing beauty amongst women in the Middle East. It is used as a hair treatment as well as a dye to make
decorative designs on the skin. The art is known as
mehndi. Henna
markings remain on the skin for about twenty or thirty days.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Aug 13, 2008 -
36 comments
"Hundreds of thousands of Americans have endured tours of duty in Iraq. They are returning home with a new word on their lips. It will have an impact on the American Experiment,
inshallah."
posted by Firas
on Dec 7, 2007 -
52 comments
They hate Flickr for it's Freedom. An
ISP (and government controlled monopoly) in the
United Arab Emirates has decided to ban access to Flickr for it's citizens, apparently due to the complaints of a couple of
UAE expats in the
UK and
Canada. Of course, said blockage won't apply to them. Most interestingly, they blame the rest of the world's non-flesh-fearing photographers as opposed to their ISP (and by proxy their own oppressive government.) Now Flickr joins
Skype, AtomFilms, Friendster, AOL, and anything from Israels top-level domain, as
outlawed content and services in the UAE (related study
here). Well, if they don't care, why should we? Via
linkfilter.
posted by rzklkng
on Jun 22, 2005 -
28 comments
Israeli Pro-Palestinian activist Tali Fahima to remain in custody. Tali Fahima grew up in a conservative desert town in Israel and voted
Likud for years. As the second intifada erupted she read about the brutality of the occupation on the Internet and eventually travelled to Jenin refugee camp where she met Zakariyeh Zbeideh, a local leader of the terrorist organization and Fatah offshoot, Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade. She was arrested and jailed in Israel, accused of translating a document for Zbeideh into Arabic. that allowed him to warn fighters marked for Israeli assassination.
Fahima has been under arrest nearly six months.
Her case has gained prominence not just because she is an Israeli Jew supporting Palestinian resistance
but because she is a Mizrahi, a
Sephardic or "Arab" Jew. This group has historically formed a solid bloc of support for aggressive policies against the Palestinians. [MI]
posted by By The Grace of God
on Jan 30, 2005 -
30 comments
A View from the Eye of the Storm. An Arab intellectual in Europe ponders on the Muslim world and comes to some interesting conclusions. Israel is a sideshow. Iran is the most dangerous country in the world.. in the long run the only way for us (the West) to win the war of terror is to force the problem nations to reform both politically and culturally.
via Steven Den Beste weblog
posted by stbalbach
on Jun 25, 2004 -
45 comments
The Alexandria Declaration. Between March 14 and 17, 2004, intellectuals, scholars, economists and activists from around the Arab world met at the new
Alexandria Library in Egypt for the
Arab Reform Conference. Among the recommendations of the conference was that all Arab governments should ratify "all international conventions on the rights of women providing for the abolition of all forms of discrimination against them."
posted by Ty Webb
on Mar 29, 2004 -
5 comments
Rebellion brewing in Saudi city The tiny city of Sakaka in the remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a revolution against the ruling al-Saud family.
But one does not have to spend too long here to realise that this is what is happening.
posted by Postroad
on Jan 28, 2004 -
44 comments
Thumbs Up? Anal insult or USA A-Number 1? Via the
Riddler.
Defense Language Institute:
This gesture, expressing connotations of “I am winning,” historically is offensive to many Arabs. After the Gulf conflict, however, Middle Easterners of the Arabian Peninsula adopted this hand movement, along with the OK sign, as a symbol of cooperation toward freedom.
That's what you think, GI Joe.
posted by hairyeyeball
on Apr 5, 2003 -
14 comments
English-friendly Arab web portal: For those who want to better understand what Arab news agencies are printing/broadcasting or if you want to be able to read any web site published in Arabic, the Ajeeb portal has a
free translation service. It translated Arabic to English more clearly than how I've seen babblefish handle other languages. However, one should approach any translation with circumspection, especially in light of current events.
posted by Modem Ovary
on Mar 23, 2003 -
5 comments
The light at the end of the tunnel? The findings from a panel of Arab intellectuals on the state of the world's 280 million Arabs, in a Friedman's commentary (NYT).
A
Palestinian argument against suicide attacks, published June 19 in the Arabic language newspaper Al Quds and signed by 55 prominent Palestinian intellectuals and politicians. "Out of our national responsibility, and due to the gravity of the situation the Palestinian people is in, we, the undersigned, wish to hope that those behind the military actions aimed at [harming] citizens in Israel will reconsider [their acts] and cease pushing our youth to carry out these operations, because we do not see them as leading to any results except for increased hatred, enmity, and hostility between the two peoples, deepening the chasm between them, and destroying the possibility of both peoples living alongside each other in peace in two neighboring states."
posted by semmi
on Jul 3, 2002 -
6 comments
Why Europeans And Arabs Hate America And Israel: In this brash, provocative essay for
The Weekly Standard, good old
David Brooks blames what he calls
bourgeoisophobia. He may have gone too far in his desire to make his point, but there's
something in what he says. Is it envy? Is it anti-semitism? Is it hypocrisy pure and simple? There's definitely a ressurgence of the pushy, garish, ostentatious and arrogant "ugly American" stereotype after September 11. Apart from the conservative
Daily Telegraph and
Spectator, it's becoming more and more difficult for Atlanticists such as myself to avoid ritual America-bashing in the European mainstream press. What in the
hell is going on? My feeling is that Americans themselves are going out of their way to reaffirm their way of life and reinforce those prejudices. It's as if you
vont to be alone. Or is it, as I suspect, just us? [
More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Apr 14, 2002 -
84 comments
The best solution I've heard so far to end the mess in Israel. A Saudi Prince suggests plan that trades occupied land in return for the Arab world recognizing the Israeli state. Is it a viable plan? Will Barak have the courage to give it a shot? Could the Arab nations ever recognize a Jewish state? Could Palestine and Israel coexist peacefully next to each other?
posted by aacheson
on Feb 26, 2002 -
28 comments
Arafat's duplicity revealed on video. His call for an end to terrorism, published in The NY Times suggests peacful intentions. This article claims he has made videos which suggest to Arab audiences that his talk is merely strategic and he has the elimination of the State Of Israel as his goal
posted by Postroad
on Feb 4, 2002 -
35 comments
PAX AMERICANA IN THE ARAB WORLD A calm voiced and knowledgable description with excellent links by Fouad Ajami, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
posted by semmi
on Nov 9, 2001 -
3 comments
From the
Sunday NY Times comes an article detailing an unprecedented roundup of Arabic people living in the US, some as naturalized citizens, but most under varying types of visas, (oftentimes lapsed). And release bonds are but non existent The gov's strategy seems to be to try to cast a wide net and scoop up as many "likelies" to put a wrench in "The Base's" homeland terror machine.
Calling it "widescale racial profiling" like the well documented Japanese internments of WW2, defense lawyers and civil libertarians are getting constitutionally antsy about the roundup, which they say accellerated noticably after the 9/22 warnings of imminent attack. Is their alarm well founded or reflexive and hollow?
posted by BentPenguin
on Nov 4, 2001 -
24 comments
Mohamed Heikal, the Arab world's foremost political commentator, talks to the Guardian. This comes from the secular Arab perspective. It is worth reading... Excerpt:
When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication."
posted by talos
on Oct 13, 2001 -
42 comments
Bush plan for Palestinian state in the works First he did not want to get involved. Now he needs Arab support. Might be nice though if he told all concnered (Israel and Arab states) at the same time and when and only when he had the plan made final rather than suggesting and hinting at what might be included. O am I old fashioned in this?
posted by Postroad
on Oct 12, 2001 -
20 comments
Ignoring for a second that he is probably a mass murderer, do you think that
Bin Laden's fight is a just one? I'm not asking about his method, that is obviously appalling, what I am asking you is whether you think that his cause is fair/right/just. Try putting yourself in Arab or Muslim shoes, then consider whether you would support his general plight. (the commentary on Bin Laden starts next to the paypal icon on the left, so scroll down if you are busy, otherwise don't as the rest of the article is quite a good crack.)
posted by Wet Wednesday
on Oct 1, 2001 -
89 comments
Racist America voices its concerns in a new poll: The Gallup Poll not only found that 58 percent of Americans backed more intensive security checks for Arab plane passengers and 49 percent supported special IDs, but also that 35 percent said they trusted Arabs living here less and 32 percent think Arabs living here should be put under special surveillance as were Japanese-Americans following Pearl Harbor.
posted by skallas
on Sep 19, 2001 -
31 comments
New Yorker profile of bin Laden from Jan '00 Interesting background information on bin Laden from over a year ago.
"In a country that is obsessed with parentage, with who your great-grandfather was, Osama was almost a double outsider. His paternal roots are in Yemen, and, within the family, his mother was a double outsider as well—she was neither Saudi nor Yemeni but Syrian."
In his [bin Laden's] mind, the United States had become to Saudi Arabia what the Soviet Union had been to Afghanistan: an infidel occupation force propping up a corrupt, repressive, and un-Islamic government.
...that the more serious threat bin Laden poses to the interests of the United States lies in his ability to destabilize friendly Arab governments, such as Saudi Arabia's, whose support is geopolitically crucial to us.
posted by gen
on Sep 18, 2001 -
6 comments
the map of terrorism An Israeli commentator shows that there are many Arab states and not all are terrorist or so inclined. Regarding all is over simplification.
posted by Postroad
on Sep 16, 2001 -
1 comment
Anti-Arab violence going in Australia: It's not just in the US - In Brisbane, a schoolbus packed with Islamic children was damaged by stones and bottles and there had been abusive calls to mosques. In Perth a mosque was defiled with human faeces and obscenities were shouted from a car doing wheelies in its carpark. The Australian Arabic Council today said a hotline for people to report racist attacks had been swamped by calls. Unconfirmed attacks included children being physically harmed and racially vilified at school. Muslum women being spat on and had their veils pulled off.
posted by Jase_B
on Sep 13, 2001 -
22 comments
