Has the Arab Spring Lived Up to Expectations?

Contribution to “Has the Arab Spring Lived Up to Expectations?” published by the Woodrow Wilson Center.

For those who expected a fast and smooth transition to liberal democratic norms, the Arab Spring has certainly failed to deliver. But for those who simply wanted to push their countries into taking one important and necessary step in the right direction by breaking the prevailing political stalemate in their societies, then, the Arab Spring has definitely lived up to expectations. Continue reading “Has the Arab Spring Lived Up to Expectations?” →

Syrian Uprising Shifts Toward Suicide Bombings. Al Qaeda’s Handiwork?

Quoted by Nicholas Blanford, The Christian Science Monitor

“The only Al Qaeda cells that operate in Syria are those manipulated by Assad’s security apparatuses,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based Syrian opposition activist in an online newsletter emailed today. “The suicide bombings are directly staged or facilitated by them. Issues pertaining to the timing and the real beneficiaries, and everything we know about the Assads’ involvement in terror networks, all point in this direction.”

Mr. Abdulhamid’s post carried a YouTube link that quotes Walid Muallem, Syria’s foreign minister, telling a news conference in Damascus in December that suicide bombings would not be an “embarrassment” for the government but would bestow “credibility” upon its claim that it is under threat from Islamist militants.

Of Foreign Intervention

A Note published on my Facebook Public Page:

I hate foreign intervention. It always comes at a high cost. I know that because we’re already paying it. We’ve been paying for centuries now, centuries. For we live in the Middle East, not on some deserted island, “foreign” intervention has always been one of the historical constants shaping our lives and destinies. Today, it is a fact of our daily life. Stopping foreign intervention has never been the real challenge confronting us. Our challenge has always been one of management. We simply have to find ways to influence the intervention process so that our interests can be served and our goals achieved: freedom, justice, dignity, development. Continue reading “Of Foreign Intervention” →

Of Liberty and Security!

Comment 1: In Syria we’ve been living under a state of emergency since 1963, because the ruling regime said we need to curb civil liberties to protect ourselves against Israel, the U.S. and the ghosts of the Netherworld. So, now we are neither free, nor “secure,” because the regime continues to abuse its powers by robbing the people and killing and jailing its critics, and Israel has over the last few decades occupied Syrian territories, bombed targets inside Syria, and carried out a variety of assassinations and incursions, and no one managed to stop her. End result: we should never believe those who promise security at the expense of liberty, because we will end up losing everything. So might as well, and in the words of Hamlet, “take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them,” because in the absence of liberty, peace and security are meaningless.