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Michael Fisher

Memo From Cairo - A Nation's Shaken Ego Seen in a Soccer Loss - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...10egypt.html

Egypt Middle East identity New York Times

shared by Michael Fisher on 10 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • With all the challenges Egyptians face — more than half the population lives on less than $2 a day — nothing has mobilized public opinion in recent history quite like the events that occurred in Sudan. Egypt thought it would beat Algeria and earn a World Cup berth for the first time in 20 years. It approached the contest more like a nation going to war than to a soccer game.
  • With all the challenges Egyptians face — more than half the population lives on less than $2 a day — nothing has mobilized public opinion in recent history quite like the events that occurred in Sudan. Egypt thought it would beat Algeria and earn a World Cup berth for the first time in 20 years. It approached the contest more like a nation going to war than to a soccer game. When it lost and Egyptian fans left the stadium, many said they were chased down and harassed by Algerians, and some suffered minor injuries. But, most of all, they said they were deeply offended and left feeling helpless.
  • “How can Egypt, the Arab symbol of strength, be humiliated like this in the streets of Khartoum?” asked Ahmed Tarek, 33, who runs an Egyptian advertising agency in Sudan. “And if we are really a strong country, why aren’t we doing something about it? Nobody had ever insulted the Egyptians to this degree. This issue revealed so many things, it woke up the people.”
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Television talks shows and daily newspapers have been busy with discussion about Egyptian identity, while commentators have lamented the final collapse of pan-Arab unity.
  • Relations between Algeria and Egypt became so strained that the Arab League asked Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, to mediate.
  • “The leader who uses power and oppresses his citizens and forges their will in elections cannot convince anyone when he speaks about the dignity of the citizens,” wrote Alaa al-Aswani,
  • people focused on domestic failings that until now were largely tolerated, or swallowed: A ferry that sank leaving 1,000 Egyptians lost at sea; universities ranked among the worst in the world; an Egyptian border guard killed by the Israelis; Egypt’s longtime culture minister losing to a Bulgarian as the new leader of Unesco; and now Algerians desecrating the Egyptian flag.
  • he object of most people’s ire has shifted from the Algerians to the government, which many have started to accuse of exploiting the defeat for political gain, even as they continue to ache over the personal loss of pride.
  • what has emerged, instead, is a surge in nationalism wrapped up in anger — and despair. “If we are infuriated, it is not over soccer, to hell with the game, we are infuriated over our dignity,” said Hamada Abdullah, who lives in Daqahalya, northeast of Cairo. “We love this country and don’t want to be humiliated whether from the authorities inside or from other people outside. We feel oppressed and constrained and unable to do anything.”
  • Comparing the loss in 1967 with events in Khartoum, he wrote, “The Egyptian dignity which was wounded by the behavior of the Algerian thugs as they chased after the peaceful Egyptian fans in the streets of Khartoum will rise once again across the nation.”
Michael Fisher

Mubarak to build Egypt's Berlin Wall at 3arabawy - 0 views

arabist.net/...ak-to-build-egypts-berlin-wall

Gaza Egypt U.S. Army 3arabawy

shared by Michael Fisher on 10 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels
  • The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers
  • Michael Fisher on 10 Dec 09
     
    Egyptian and U.S. Army engineers are allegedly working together to build a wall separating Gaza and Egypt. TAKE A LOOK AT THE COMMENTS BELOW THE NEWS ARTICLE THIS BLOG LINKS TO.
Michael Fisher

EU: Jerusalem should be joint capital - 0 views

www.aawsat.com/...news.asp

European Union Middle East Jerusalem Israel-Palestine Israel Palestine الشرق الأوسط

shared by Michael Fisher on 08 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Michael Fisher on 08 Dec 09
     
    European Union foreign ministers urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to make Jerusalem their shared capital, prompting a swift, angry reaction from Israel.
Sarah Romano

Coordinated Bombings in Baghdad Kill at Least 121 - 1 views

www.nytimes.com

Baghdad bombing election

shared by Sarah Romano on 08 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Sarah Romano on 08 Dec 09
     
    These bombings were carried out presumably as a protest of elections in Iraq that are supposed to take place in January.
  • Sarah Romano on 08 Dec 09
Ed Webb

The Root of All Fears | Foreign Affairs - 1 views

www.foreignaffairs.com/...the-root-of-all-fears

Iran Israel nukes nuclear deterrent strategy military

shared by Ed Webb on 07 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Israelis know better than anyone else that the trick to developing a nuclear weapon as a small power is to drag out the process of diplomacy and inspections long enough to produce sufficient quantities of fissionable material. Israel should know: in the 1960s, it deliberately misled U.S. inspectors and repeatedly delayed site visits, providing the time to construct its Dimona reactor and reprocess enough plutonium to build a bomb. North Korea has followed a similar path, with similar results. And now, Israel suspects, Iran is doing the same, only with highly enriched uranium instead of plutonium.
  • Although many analysts question the rationality of the Iranian regime, it is in fact fairly conservative in its foreign policy. Iran has two long-range goals, achieving regional hegemony and spreading fundamentalist Islam, neither of which will be achieved if Iran initiates a nuclear exchange with Israel.
  • Israel fears that Iran’s nuclear ambitions could undermine its qualitative superiority of arms and its consistent ability to inflict disproportionate casualties on adversaries -- the cornerstones of Israel’s defense strategy.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The even greater threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program is its potential to unleash a cascade of proliferation in the Middle East, beginning with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. For both of these states, the idea that Jews and Persians could have a monopoly on nuclear weapons in a region demographically and culturally dominated by Arabs is shameful. For Saudi Arabia, a security motivation will be at play as well, given its physical proximity to Iran and the strategic imperative of deterring any Iranian threat to Saudi Arabia’s oil-production facilities.
  • The possibility that Israel may no longer be capable of forcing peace upon those who deny its right to exist is beginning to dawn on many Israelis. Whether Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear infrastructure or not, the time has come for Israel’s defense community to develop a strategic doctrine for long-term coexistence that does not rely on a posture of invincibility.
Ed Webb

Swiss ban on minarets was a vote for tolerance and inclusion | csmonitor.com - 1 views

www.csmonitor.com/...p09s01-coop.html

Switzerland minarets Islamophobia hirsiali opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09 - Cached
  • By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • There are two ways to interpret the vote.
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      Actually, I can think of many more than two ways to interpret it. This is a very limited way of framing the issue.
  • Imams can then preach a message of self-segregation and a bold rejection of the ways of the non-Muslims.
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      Sure. But they can also preach about, you know, pretty much anything. They can preach a message of tolerance and inclusion, too, and having a minaret doesn't actually change things either way.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • It is remarkable that the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said in public that the Swiss vote is a poor act of diplomacy
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      I'm with you there. Very odd and poor choice of words there. The UN condemnation of the vote as intolerance was more to the point.
  • And this is what the Swiss vote shows us. This is a confrontation between local, working-class voters (and some middle-class feminists) and Muslim immigrant newcomers who feel that they are entitled, not only to practice their religion, but also to replace the local political order with that of their own.
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      This may be what the vote shows you. But you have shown no scrap of evidence that the small minority of Swiss who are Muslims have any such agenda. All there is so far is a tendentious Islamophobic narrative backed by the coarsest of generalizations. Where's the substance?
  • None of those Western academics, diplomats, and politicians who condemn the Swiss vote to ban the minaret address, let alone dispute, these facts.
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      I'm a Western academic, and former diplomat, and I'm disputing these 'facts'.
  • There is indeed a wider international confrontation between Islam and the West. The Iraq and Afghan wars are part of that, not to mention the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians and the nuclear ambitions of Iran. That confrontation should never be confused with the local problem of absorbing those Muslims who have been permitted to become permanent residents and citizens into European societies.
    • Ed Webb
      Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
       
      The problem here is that if you're going to accept the Huntington master-narrative of clash of civilizations, then you cannot really separate these things. If you want to see a confrontation between "Islam" and the "West" then you have to accept that it is within as well as across borders. It is much easier to separate out the domestic and foreign policy issues if you abandon the narrative of the 'clash' - I recommend it.
  • Ed Webb on 06 Dec 09
     
    Hirsi Ali's opinion.
  • Jim Franklin on 06 Dec 09
     
    WOW you ripped that to shreds lol....is this what professors do when they are bored?
Sarah Romano

How Obama Came to Plan for 'Surge' in Afghanistan - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...06reconstruct.html

Afghanistan USA Obama decision

shared by Sarah Romano on 06 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Sarah Romano on 06 Dec 09
     
    This article seems to be defending Obama's recent decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Carl Kjellman

Letter From Kabul - 0 views

www.thenation.com/...shank2

Afghanistan USA politics obama

shared by Carl Kjellman on 05 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Carl Kjellman on 05 Dec 09
     
    Interesting piece by someone recently returned from Afghanistan.
Ed Webb

Why they hate us (II): How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years? | Ste... - 4 views

walt.foreignpolicy.com/...us_killed_in_the_past_30_years

opinion walt friedman Arabs Muslims USA

shared by Ed Webb on 02 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Ed Webb on 02 Dec 09
     
    Walt skewers Friedman. Comment section makes fascinating reading, in places. Your thoughts?
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Sarah Henry on 03 Dec 09
     
    I haven't read the comment section, but I think the article alone raises a lot of discussion. Friedman's article has some truth to it, but I do think that Walt makes a good argument as well when he says that Friedman is missing something when he doesn't account for all the Muslims the US has killed. He's right in saying we need to take responsibility for our country's conduct as much as there needs to be some responsibility taken in the Middle East when we talk about why they hate us. However, I don't think us killing Muslims is the only problem, and I don't think trying to figure out which problem is more correct is going to solve anything-when it comes down to it, we're still Americans and we don't know how it feels to be in their situation. I also think that REGARDLESS of what our perceptions are, it's not our perceptions that matter when it comes to their opinion. I also appreciated his little jab at the end about September 11th, although I'm not sure if it was entirely necessary.
  • Rebecca Ben-Amou on 04 Dec 09
     
    I think that there can be a parallel made here between the more broad US relations with the Muslim world and Israel's relations with the palestinians. There is the same case of one side having many more civilian casualties than the other side. Although I do think that hatred can be rooted in such a circumstance, I think that the Muslim world's hatred of America is far more deep rooted than just because of civilian causality numbers. The US is a representation of a forward-moving society, and a wealthy nation (or at least one point remained wealthy.) I think its just easy to hate the U.S. There is no denying the amount of casualties that the U.S. have caused in the region, but there are plenty of cases where the U.S. helped aid the Middle East. I think that there is some validity in Friedmans discussion of "the Narrative."
  • Carl Kjellman on 05 Dec 09
     
    I think it's interesting that Walt comes down so strongly on the notion of "the narrative." While I do agree that the deaths of Muslims because of American foreign policy is an important contributing factor, it also seems silly to assume that they are mutually exclusive. I think it's more likely that there is a narrative about the United States that is fed by the people that have died at the hands of American policies.
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