In response to both Hisham Melhem and Juan Cole:
First of all, there was no Arab civilization in the 19th and 20th centuries. Arabs have long become subsumed under the Ottoman Civilization, a staunchly Turkish entity despite its ethnic diversity, and they had long ceased to be significant contributors to the basic operations of that entity, except as fodder, that is, as conscripted soldiers and farmers.
NO. HAMAS FATHERS DON’T FIGHT WITH THEIR CHILDREN IN THEIR LAPS, AND PROLIFERATING AIR STRIKES IN PROLONGED CONFLICTS ARE RARELY “TARGETED.”
Writing for Tablet Magazine, Lee Smith makes some valid points. Indeed, photographers operating in Gaza do not seem to have enough freedom of movement to allow them to present a more accurate picture of what is happening on the ground during these tragic times. In fact, international photographers and journalists working in Gaza have as much freedom to move as their colleagues working in those parts of Syria still under Assad control. The see what their appointed “guides” and “fixers” want them to see. And they cannot report everything they see, if they still want to retain “access.” This is a perennial dilemma that confronts all journalists and photographers working in war zones.
Continue reading “The reality of targeted lies vs. the illusion of targeted strikes”
Syrian Crisis Threatens Development in Arab World – Inter Press Service.
In some countries, autocratic rule did not come as an impediment to development but as a facilitator thereof, but in Arab-majority countries, among others, communal identities were too entrenched and have severely constrained the ability and willingness of the ruling regimes to develop their countries. In Syria, the Assads have ruled the country as a conquered enemy territory, and try as they did, and they did try, they could not assimilate and reflect in their collective behavior the ideals of unity, integration and justice that they assiduously preached. Their schizophrenic behavior reflected the artificial nature of the state they controlled and served to feed and amplify the identity crisis from which each Syrian community and each Syrian citizen suffer. The result is this devastation, and its regional and global ramifications.
SOFIA LORENA | 03/11/2013 – 00:00
Below is a rough English translation made using Google. The Portuguese original can be found here: http://www.publico.pt/j1752051
He is 47 years old and tired. No. He is broken. But he will endure. Ammar Abdulhamid is a leading Syrian dissident, a fact that means less now than when he became one of the most important Syrian dissidents. Now there are many dissenters, and though many of them will die or give up as this period of accelerated self-destruction continues, there will always be enough at the end of the road to start again. This was not the case back in 2001. Continue reading “The “Founding Father” is broken, but still has everything to give Syria”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 