Israel and Syria: To talk or not to talk…

“Greetings from your Israeli reader and occasional correspondent. I’d be interested in hearing your views on the following matter.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s inveterate devotee of the peace process, has ruffled a few feathers in the Prime Minister’s office by calling for negotiations with Syria. This, in response to an apparent spate of newspaper interviews by Assad suggesting the peace process could move forward (ignoring, or winking an eye at Assad’s simultaneous beating of the war drums). A prominent conservative Israeli economic columnist made an argument this morning in the economic supplement of Haaretz that now is the time for Israel to play the Syrian card, since Assad is opposed to Muslim fundamentalism, and peace with Israel could move him away from his alliance with Iran. Continue reading “Israel and Syria: To talk or not to talk…” →

I Am Syrian

American Public media – The Story

Today Dick talks with Ammar Abdulhamid and his family. Dick first talked to Ammar three years ago. At the time, Ammar was living in Damascus, running a small publishing house and writing and doing whatever he could to push along the process of reform in Syria. It was dangerous work. Now Ammar is living and writing in the United States. He moved his entire family here, and they all continue to write about Syria, even the teens. Each family member has a blog. They find blogging a way to communicate to the world, and each other.

Reactions to “The Imbecile!”

My latest post seems to have hit a rather raw nerve among some of my readers so much so that I think a new post needs to be dedicated to the subject.

Yet indeed, and as Yaman has pointed out, calling Bashar the village idiot is actually not a purely emotional reaction on my part. Rather, it comes as a rational conclusion that I reached on the basis of own observations of Bashar’s behavior and my own contact with him, albeit somewhat limited, when we were at school – I called him an idiot then too and to his face. So, I am merely carrying out a tradition of sorts. Continue reading “Reactions to “The Imbecile!”” →

The Imbecile!

Our six year long scientific experiment in Syria aimed at turning a certain village idiot into a full fledged national leader has hit another snag yesterday when the idiot managed to break his month-long, and not too voluntary, silence and speak out. For, as usual, the National Imbecile with which we are currently blessed ended up putting his anus in it, and the world was there to see and hear. Continue reading “The Imbecile!” →