When I was a kid, I outwitted one of our neighborhood’s many bullies in a verbal tit-for-tat, and for weeks after that, all what the neighborhood kids could talk about was the beating I got at the hand of that bully and how stupid I was to have tried to stand up to him. Continue reading “Standing Up to Bullies!”
Author: Ammar
A Syrian dreamer & dissident, not necessarily in that order.
The Price of Arab Optimism! Or, Wagging Israel!
What would you do if you an embattled Arab leader and suffering from major crises at home and wit the international community and you know you simply cannot own up to your mismanagement and your corruption, not to mention the mismanagement and corruption of those around you? You stir up trouble with Israel of course, knowing that your people are either stupid enough and/or cowardly enough to play along. As such,Israel is really the best thing that has ever happened to Arab dictators. Well, that and oil, in some instances. Continue reading “The Price of Arab Optimism! Or, Wagging Israel!”
The Whirling Dervish of the Apocalypse!
There are many young people starving for hope in Lebanon, Syria and across the region, and Hassan Nasrallah’s latest speech was aimed squarely at them. No. it did not offer them hope in the real sense for which they are aspiring, jobs and such, but it did promise them victory, and in their desperate and empty lives, the promise of victory and the call of battle can indeed excite, especially when the leader involved seems to have a certain hard-won credibility in this regard. Continue reading “The Whirling Dervish of the Apocalypse!”
Rocket Rattling!
“You wanted open warfare, so we are going for open warfare and we are ready for it, a war on all levels, that will reach Haifa and, believe me, beyond Haifda and beyond beyond Haifa. We will not be the only ones that will pay the price, nor will our homes be the only ones that will get destroyed, nor our children the only ones that will get killed, nor our people the only ones that will get expelled. That time is over. That time was before 1982 and before 2000. That time is over. I promise you that that time is over. Consequently, you, too, should bear the responsibility for what your government has done and it has accomplished. From now on, [and since] you wanted open warfare, let it be an open warfare then.” Continue reading “Rocket Rattling!”
