When you listen to the slickly-attired owner of the Egyptian network Faraeen TV, Tawfik Okasha, expounding his eclectic views each night on social, political and religious issues, you may be entertained, informed, angered, shocked or disgusted—but you will undoubtedly conclude that democracy’s staple freedom of speech is alive and well in post-revolution Egypt. Continue reading
Just a year ago, crowds demanding their rights in Cairo’s Tahrir Square were a source of inspiration to repressed people everywhere. The martyrs killed during the January 25th revolution didn’t die in vain. After more than 30 years of virtual dictatorship when Egyptians were fearful of speaking out, their sacrifice contributed to the new Egypt, ostensibly a free and democratic country. But with democracy comes individual responsibility. Democracy doesn’t equate to the absence of any rule of law. Democracy doesn’t permit citizens to bludgeon one another because they hold different opinions or, as was the case on Saturday evening, to violently protest the sentencing of their former president, once again bringing the capital to a standstill. Continue reading
Anyone who tells you they have the pulse of the Egyptian street is either bluffing or delusional. This is one of those cases where the more you know the less you understand. Continue reading
How on earth did the Muslim Brotherhood’s unprepossessing candidate manage to scoop the edge during the presidential election? That has to be the question on many Egyptian liberals’ lips these days. The organisation’s charismatic first choice, Khairat Shater, was disqualified by the electoral committee, leaving the majority of voters fairly certain that the Brotherhood was out of the race. How wrong they were! Continue reading
Signs point to the US and its European allies in the process of adopting an ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ stance vis-à-vis their long-time stand-off with Tehran over its nuclear programme, one that is starkly out of sync with Israel’s. Continue reading
I woke up to an especially beautiful Alexandria morning yesterday, a clear blue sky punctuated with meandering fluffy clouds. Savoring the aroma of percolating coffee, I watered the multi-hued flowering plants on my terrace before pausing to feel the sun’s rays bathing my face. Continue reading
The second attempt by US authorities to try one of several alleged masterminds of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and his four co-accused is a farce reminiscent of the trial of Saddam Hussein that had a preordained outcome. Continue reading
Any peace process there ever was is virtually dead. Arabs blame the hawkish right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu-led government for the impasse, as do prominent former heads of Israeli intelligence services; Netanyahu blames Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for refusing to return to the table until Israel quits expanding Jewish colonies. There’s plenty of blame to go around but, if the truth be told, the White House should bear more guilt than the protagonists for the absence of progress. If the US were the ‘honest broker’ it has on occasion pretended to be, there would have been a state called Palestine decades ago. Continue reading
It’s not only a great shame that two of the Arab world’s largest and most influential countries are at odds, the fallout has happened at a sensitive moment that could alter the course of history. Continue reading
Iran’s ruling ayatollahs are playing a clever game. Their influence throughout the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf is increasing without a single shot being fired. Continue reading
US presidents love to accentuate the values supposedly shared by Americans and Israelis during their annual pilgrimage to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Just last month, President Barack Obama received a standing ovation during the largest conference in AIPAC’s history for saying the US has Israel’s back and for reaffirming America and Israel’s “shared values” as well as their “special relationship.” In the past, I’ve dismissed such chummy language as no more than ingratiating rhetoric, but upon reflection it’s true. In many respects Israel is America’s mini-me. Continue reading
So-called newly democratic Egypt is suffering from too many cooks. Even so, whatever meal they are likely to produce will ultimately be seasoned by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that has appointed itself as the country’s interior and exterior protector. Continue reading
The definition of democracy is “the government of the people by the people” but that should be redefined when so many citizens in democratic countries feel disempowered. Continue reading
The Middle East is evolving into an ever more dangerous neighborhood largely due to Israel’s increasing belligerence and intransigence. Continue reading
I have to admit it. I’m a huge fan of the Respect Party’s ‘Gorgeous’ George Galloway. He’s a larger-than-life straight-talker who stands tall among so many nondescript mealy-mouthed British politicians, their lips sewn up by political correctness. So when I heard he’d beaten back his Conservative, Labour, Lib-Dem, UKIP and Green Party competitors to grab West Yorkshire’s Bradford West parliamentary seat, I scared the dog by letting out an involuntary deafening, “You go George!” Continue reading
Once again, Israel displays its utter disregard for the United Nations which Tel Aviv believes is its enemy despite being the driving force behind the Jewish state’s birth. Members of the UN Human Rights Council recently voted by 36-to-1 with 10 abstentions in favour of forming an investigatory panel tasked with probing “the implications of the Israeli colonies on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Territories, including occupied East Jerusalem.” Continue reading
American and Israeli intelligence agencies are openly deviating from the political script on Iran’s nuclear program. While Washington and Tel Aviv are bent on ratcheting up the ante with assertions that Tehran seeks nuclear weapons and threats of military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, intelligence chiefs are singing from an entirely different hymn sheet. Continue reading
The White House is proficient in pointing fingers at terrorists, war criminals and murderers provided such criminals don’t hold American passports. Continue reading
There are two different narratives on the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians, including nine children, currently dominating headlines. American news outlets have bought into the lone soldier scenario, the poor decorated Iraq war hero who lost his mind when his buddy’s leg was blown off the day before he went on his murderous rampage. The accent of their reporting lies in the combined effect of multiple tours of duty on a soldier’s psyche as well as debate on whether or not US troops should pull out of Afghanistan before 2014. Continue reading
Former governor of Massachusetts and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has more than his fair share of good looks and personal charm, not to mention oodles of cash stashed away in the Cayman Islands, far from the prying eyes of the Internal Revenue Service. Continue reading
People who believe Israel has the right to send its bombs and emissaries anywhere on the planet to carry out extrajudicial assassinations have a warped moral compass. However it’s dressed, murder is murder. It’s bad enough when an individual premeditates to take the life of another but it’s far worse when murder at will is the policy of a state. Continue reading
Interesting scenario being concocted between Tel Aviv and Washington! Apparently, we are meant to believe that the Obama administration is going all out to restrain Israel’s hawkish prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, from preemptively striking Iran’s nuclear sites. Continue reading
Palestinian leaders are talking tough these days. And who can blame them! For decades they’ve been listening to empty Israeli promises and put their future in the hands of a succession of US presidents duplicitously claiming to be impartial peace brokers. Continue reading
Just about every political pundit and politician in the world is mulling the advisability of an all-out US/Israel war with Iran. Opinions vary widely. Continue reading
Relations between Cairo and Washington are on a slippery slope now that Washington’s man, former president Hosni Mubarak, can no longer protect them. The row is over Egypt’s investigation of non-profit organisations operating in the country without licence and suspected of criminally receiving foreign funding to foment unrest against the ruling military. Continue reading
Washington and its Western allies ideally would like to see Iran brought to its knees for a number of reasons. Iran’s nuclear capability, for all the hype, isn’t one of them. Continue reading
Greeks feel angry, scared and humiliated. They feel let down by successive governments and consider that they are now being punished by the EU and the IMF through no fault of their own. They fear the loss of their economic sovereignty to suited hard hearts in Brussels more interested in balance sheets than sympathizing with the hardships the Greek people are being asked to endure. Continue reading
Most world leaders are currently bristling at China and Russia’s decision to once again use their veto against the passing of a condemnatory United Nations Security Council Resolution against the Assad regime’s ruthless crackdown on dissident protesters. The US, UK and French ambassadors to the UN were unusually outspoken in the aftermath of this failed endeavor on the part of the international community to bring the Syrian government to heel. Continue reading
I was in a shop in the bustling old part of Alexandria, haggling over the price of a tablecloth, when I noticed that a few of the staff were gazing at a TV screen with expressions of horror. I didn’t initially understand what was happening but was amazed to see a furious sports commentator yelling at viewers while one of his co-hosts sat cradling his head in his hands. The scene was so extraordinary, the behaviour of the anchors so unprofessional, that for a moment I thought I was watching a movie. But this was no movie. Continue reading
The US and Europe’s attack on Iran’s oil industry and international banking system is self-defeating as long as Tehran retains eager customers like China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey and India that intends to continue its Iranian imports and circumvent banking restrictions using gold bars. Continue reading
Saudi Arabia and neighbouring oil-producing Gulf countries wield massive clout. If they so choose, together with Iraq, they can hold world economies to ransom by either reducing production to a trickle, selecting their customers or sealing the Strait of Hormuz. Continue reading
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US policy in Pakistan counter-productive and dangerous
Posted on June 14, 2012 by Linda S. Heard
The US government is concerned that an unfriendly country, Iran, is developing nuclear weapons. Tehran is billed as the biggest threat to Western interests in the region and, indeed, there is truth in that assessment. But in case the powers that be in Washington have not noticed, Pakistan already is a nuclear-armed country and, as in Iran, the majority of its people are angry at US interference and generally suspicious over Western designs—real or imagined. I say that because the US appears to be going out of its way to humiliate Islamabad seemingly without a care that doing so is likely to turn an ally into an enemy. Continue reading →