Category Archives: Arab-Israeli Conflict

Blood money for Killing Yemeni Jew

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Judaism, Yemen, Zaydi


Yemeni Jews: source: Yemen Observer

by Nasser Arrabyee, Yemen Observer, March 3, 2009

A Yemeni primary court in Amran, north of the country, ruled on Monday a payment to be made of 5.5 million YR (US$ 27,500) in blood money for the murder of a Jewish man by Yemeni, Abdul Azeez al-Abdi, last December.

The court, chaired by Judge Abdul Bari Aqaba, also ordered that the convict should be placed in a psychotic sanatorium. The father of the Jew refused the sentence and asked for an appeal to be made to demand the death penalty against the convict.

“As long as there is no justice for us, then (they should) deport us to Israel, it’s better for us.” Continue reading Blood money for Killing Yemeni Jew →

Occupying more than our minds

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, Iraq War, Terrorism Issue

American minds these days are occupied with the financial crisis. The increasingly distant Iraq War, ever expanding military muscle in Afghanistan and recent loss of life and massive destruction in Gaza have been knocked off the front page and main story of daily newscasts. Problematic as the economy worldwide is, we will survive. It is not wealth that has disappeared, nor the ability to make money, but confidence in a system that by its very nature rewards with one hand and takes away with the other. As in economics, so in politics, it seems. And “occupation” is the main problem. In a short interview on FORA TV, Dr. Abdul Mawgoud Dardery (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse at South Valley University, Egypt) brings this point into focus. Of course occupation has been the rule of history with “to the victor go the spoils” a mantra of civilization’s domination of those not considered sufficiently civilized. But unless the occupier empties the land of those already occupying it, as all the American continents’ countries have attempted to do, problems necessarily remain. In fancy we think of getting along with others as a melting pot; for much of the Middle East it has been more of a smelting and pelting pot … and the beating goes on.

Daniel Martin Varisco

Suspects detained in Cairo blast

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Egypt, Terrorism Issue

Suspects detained in Cairo blast
BBC News, February 23, 2009

Egyptian police are questioning three suspects over the bombing of a Cairo market that killed one person and injured 20 others, officials say.

They were detained near the market shortly after the blast, police said.

It happened at an open-air hotel cafe packed with tourists in the Khan al-Khalili area – a major attraction and home to a prominent mosque.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed “deep sorrow” at the death of a French teenager in the blast.

Police said they thought the device had been thrown from a balcony. It is not yet known who was responsible. Continue reading Suspects detained in Cairo blast →

Hampshire College Divests or Do They?

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, Israel, Palestine

Divestment is a two-edged sword. Earlier this week a number of pro-Palestinian sites were ethused with the apparent decision of Hampshire College to divest its financial portfolio from investments in companies involved in the occupation of Palestine. I provide one such report below, followed by a clarification from Hampshire College that the decision was purely on financial grounds and not political.

Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!
Global BDS Movement, 2/12/2009

[press kit attached below] – Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the divestment. Continue reading Hampshire College Divests or Do They? →

Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Egypt, Election 2008


Art by Olaf Hajek for The New York Times

Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama
By ALAA AL ASWANY, The New York Times, February 7, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA is clearly trying to reach out to the Muslim world. I watched his Inaugural Address on television, and was most struck by the line: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” He gave his first televised interview from the White House to Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language television channel.

But have these efforts reached the streets of Cairo?

One would have expected them to. Mr. Obama had substantial support among Egyptians — more than any other American presidential candidate that I can remember. I traveled to America several days before the election. The Egyptians I met in the United States told me — without exception — that they backed Mr. Obama. Many Egyptians I know went to his Web site and signed up as campaign supporters. Continue reading Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama →

Disproportional suffering

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bible and Holy Land, Israel, Palestine, Photography


Residents returned to their homes around Gaza City on Friday. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Gaza is not history, nor is it likely to be soon. The bombs may have ceased on both sides, but the human toll presages a bleak future. Both sides have grievances, but the grief from death, maiming and sheer destruction of property and homes is incredibly disproportional. Even Independent observers must acknowlege this:

Up to 10 times as many Palestinians were killed as Israelis. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says 1,314 Palestinians were killed, of whom 412 were children or teenagers under 18, and 110 were women. On the Israeli side, there were 13 deaths between 27 December and 17 January, of whom three were civilians killed by rockets fired from Gaza. Of the 10 soldiers killed, four were lost to “friendly fire”.

Even if the Palestinian figure is disputed, it is clear that the death toll was massively higher for Palestinians than Israelis. Proportionality is not simply a matter of numbers, however. Continue reading Disproportional suffering →

Another War, Another Defeat

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Palestine


Professor John Mearsheimer

Another War, Another Defeat

The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure.

By John J. Mearsheimer, The American Conservative, January 26, 2009

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win.

The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to restore Israel’s deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the Lebanon fiasco, by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual purpose is connected to Israel’s long-term vision of how it intends to live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a “Greater Israel.” Specifically, Israel’s leaders remain determined to control all of what used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between them, the air above and the water below them. Continue reading Another War, Another Defeat →

Entitled to consideration and respect

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Iran, Judaism, Lithographs, Orientalism, Orientalist Art


Illustration of “Persian Jews” from the People’s Magazine, 1879

The current fighting in Gaza is a tragedy of Greek dramatic proportions. On the one hand a highly sophisticated military machine wielded at present with Hawkish intent, on the other a ragtag guerilla group bent on lobbing barbs at the Hawk’s fortified lair. And in the middle frightened civilians in a humanitarian nightmare of medieval mindset. The problem is that neither side is really willing to treat the other with consideration and respect. In this unethical tie, of course, the onus must be on the stronger to recognize the limited options of the weaker.

The tragedy does not end with the present loss of life, limb and hope for Gazans. Unfortunately, it overshadows a historical trajectory that created the rise of Zionism as a political ideal in Europe. There is no excuse for the present punishing policies of Israel towards the residents of Gaza. Indeed, it is all the sadder given the sordid history of anti-Semitism in both the Christian-dominated West and Islamic-dominated Near East. Recently I picked up an old magazine from 1879, published exactly 140 years ago. On one page I was struck by the extraordinary pathos of an image of “Persian Jews.” Continue reading Entitled to consideration and respect →