Category Archives: Arab-Israeli Conflict

Identity and Religion in Palestine

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Books You Should Read, Palestine

Identity and Religion in Palestine: The Struggle between Islamism and Secularism in the Occupied Territories by Loren Lybarger (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007)

This remarkable book examines how the Islamist movement and its competition with secular-nationalist factions have transformed the identities of ordinary Palestinians since the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, of the late 1980s. Drawing upon his years living in the region and more than eighty in-depth interviews, Loren Lybarger offers a riveting account of how activists within a society divided by religion, politics, class, age, and region have forged new identities in response to shifting conditions of occupation, peace negotiations, and the fragmentation of Palestinian life. Continue reading Identity and Religion in Palestine →

Arabic ‘Threatens’ Israeli Supremacy

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Languages


HEBREW FIRST: File photo of Limor Livnat speaking to the media in the United States in 2000: “In these times, when there are radical groups of Israeli Arabs trying to turn the State of Israel into a bi-national state, it is most urgent to put into law the unique status of the language of the Bible – the Hebrew language,” Livnat has argued. (Newscom)

By MEL FRYKBERG Middle East Times, June 10, 2008

JERUSALEM — In a move that has outraged both Arab Israelis and some progressive Jewish Israelis, a new bill was presented to the Israeli Knesset or parliament last week to relegate Israel’s other official language Arabic to that of a secondary language, leaving Hebrew as the only official language.

The bill was drafted by Likud Member of the Knesset (MK) Limor Livnat, a renowned right-winger, and was seconded by MKs Yuli Edelstein from Likud, Otniel Schneller from Kadima and Ya’acov Margi from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

Should this move be approved by the Knesset, then Arabic would be downgraded to the same level as English, a language native to only a small percentage of Israeli immigrants, and taught in schools primarily for the purpose of communicating with the international community.

Arabic is the native language of Arab Israelis or 20 percent of Israel’s population. Russian is spoken by 1 million people, out of a total comprising just over 7 million, with the remainder of the population speaking Hebrew as its first language. Continue reading Arabic ‘Threatens’ Israeli Supremacy →

For Israelis, an Anniversary. For Palestinians, a Nakba

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Palestine

By ELIAS KHOURY, The New York Times, May 18, 2008

IN 1948, during the war known to the Israelis as the war of independence, the historian Constantine K. Zurayk wrote the book “Ma’na al-Nakba,” later translated as “The Meaning of the Disaster.” The title struck a resounding chord, and nakba (catastrophe) became the term Palestinians used for the cataclysm that befell them that year.

I always considered the word “catastrophe” inappropriate. It rendered the perpetrator anonymous, and it exempted the vanquished from bearing any responsibility for their defeat. Like many members of my generation, born around the time of the war, I tended to place the blame for our defeat on the traditional Palestinian leadership under the sway of the mufti of Jerusalem, and the Arab regimes of the day. Continue reading For Israelis, an Anniversary. For Palestinians, a Nakba →

Not So Swift Boat Apostasy

Apocalypse Watch, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia

In this American presidential campaign just about every possible prejudice has been let out of the soap box and it’s not even June. There was a Mormon, but Mighty Mitt dropped the ball when he was kicked in the polls by a Baptist preacher who plays the guitar. There is, though many wish we could see “was”, a woman who had already decorated the White House and whose husband would in turn (pun fully intended) be the first former president-spouse, not to mention the first admitted philanderer to get a second chance to serve tea on Pennsylvania Avenue. And there is a Black man, whose Kenyan father’s skin color seems to trump his white Kansan mother’s nurturing. And, by the way, he has a name that rhymes with Osama. And don’t forget that his father was born a Muslim. If this were American Gladiators, the battle would be simple indeed: White Naval hero who survived the Hanoi Hilton and answers to the call of Maverick vs. the young Chicago machine Black Muslim who, in the words of George Bush the Elder, kicked some — (rhymes with crass, which it is) in the primary (no matter how the folks in the backwoods down in the WV hills vote today).

So it’s full steam ahead for the mean-spitted Swift (and I don’t mean Jonathan) Boaters. Yesterday’s New York Times allowed one of the piratical advisors of John McCain a forum to broadside Obama. This was Edward N. Luttwak, whose overtly rhetorical and inadvertently satirical “President Apostate?” landed like an unexploded shell on the crowded stacked deck of media-hardened pundits. Luttwak takes his sly secular cue from the Left Behind armageddonites, viewing Arabs and Iranians as part of the Gog and Magog crowd out to destroy Israel. For those who love the plot of a clash of civilizations leading to a real-time nuclear armageddon, Luttwak obliges with a medievally-minded attack on Obama’s personal faith. Continue reading Not So Swift Boat Apostasy →

Hezbollah.. The Ugliest Picture

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Lebanon, Shi'a

By Tariq Alhomayed, Asharq alawsat, 11/05/2008

Exposing falsehoods and uncovering deception; it is indeed true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

In his speech after the coup on Lebanon and its infrastructure, Hassan Nasrallah claimed that millions of dollars were spent in an effort to defame him and distort the image of the “divine party.” However it was the actions of his party that exposed the armed resistance lie and the falsehood of Hassan Nasrallah’s enthusiasm for Lebanon and the unity of its composition.

How horrible were the images carried by international news agencies, which showed Hezbollah’s gunmen and Amal forces stomping and burning pictures of the late Rafik Hariri, and then replacing them with a portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

No less hideous were the images of handcuffed and blindfolded pro-government Lebanese citizens paraded in front of “Al Manar” cameras, the television channel that propagates Iran and Hezbollah venom. Moreover the images came across as if these were Israeli captives fallen in the hands of Hassan Nasrallah and not fellow Lebanese brought together by one homeland, of which the most important guarantee is that everyone has the right to live. Continue reading Hezbollah.. The Ugliest Picture →

Mean Girls

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Humor and Satire

Shhhhhhh!!! A rare opportunity to explore the intrigues of USA High School beckons. Quietly listen in, while Tiffany, Brittany, and Stephanie discuss the latest news (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3897414.ece):

Tiffany: “Did you hear what Bobby Malley did?”

Stephanie and Brittany, together: “No!”

Tiffany: “He works at International House of Pies on the weekend, and he delivered a pizza to Sammy Haniyeh’s party Saturday night.”

Brittany and Stephanie gasp. “Sammy Haniyeh? EWWWW!!”

Tiffany: “I know! He and his friends are so scruffy and obnoxious!”

Brittany: “What’s his problem? He’s always ragging on Zionsville High!”

Stephanie: “I heard it was because Zionsville beat his father’s team for the state championship in 1948.”

Brittany: “1948?? But that was, like, [pause]. . .a hundred years ago!” Continue reading Mean Girls →

TO BANISH THE “LEVANTINE DUNGHILL” FROM WITHIN

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Iran, Israel, Music and Dance

TO BANISH THE “LEVANTINE DUNGHILL” FROM WITHIN: TOWARD A CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF ISRAELI ANTI-IRAN PHOBIAS

By Haggai Ram, International Journal of Middle East Studies 40 (2008), 249–268.

Held since 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest is an annual event traditionally dedicated to the eternal themes of love, peace, and harmony. Yet Israelis asked to pick a song for the 2007 contest in Helsinki paid little heed to these themes. Instead, they settled for “Push the Button,” a controversial number by an Israeli punk group called Teapacks; the song is generally understood as a description of life under the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran with its “crazy rulers.” Meanwhile, an Israeli fashion house (Dan Cassidy) commissioned a series of photos at a construction site in southern Tel Aviv that showed a topless model lying in a pit. The project was designed as a warning against the “holocaust” that would follow Iran’s possible nuclear attack on Israel; the pit, as the project’s creative director explained, represented “the mass grave of complacent Tel Aviv residents.” Continue reading TO BANISH THE “LEVANTINE DUNGHILL” FROM WITHIN →

Deoband’s Anti-Terrorism Convention: Some Reflections

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, India, Terrorism Issue

by Yoginder Sikand, March 11, MADRASA REFORMS IN INDIA

The mammoth ‘Anti-Terrorism Convention’ organised at Deoband late last month, which brought together ulema from all over the country, has received wide media coverage. While smaller conventions of this sort have been organized by other ulema bodies in recent years, this one, unlike others, caught the attention of the media particularly because it was organized by the Dar ul-Ulum Deoband, probably the largest traditional madrasa in the world, which large sections of the media have been unfairly berating as the ‘hub’ of ‘terrorism’.

The speeches delivered at the convention have been considerably commented on in the press. By and large, the non-Muslim press has focused almost wholly on the resolutions that were passed that labeled ‘terrorism’ as ‘anti-Islamic’, leaving out other crucial issues that were raised by numerous ulema who spoke on the occasion, particularly about Western Imperialism and Zionism as major factors behind global ‘terrorism’, and the hounding of Muslim youth and mounting Islamophobic offensives across the world, including India, in the name of countering ‘terror’. Muslim papers have dealt with these issues fairly extensively, but, following most of the speakers at the convention, they have placed the blame for ‘terrorism’ almost entirely on what they identify as ‘enemies of Islam’, thus presenting a very one-sided picture. In short, media reporting about the convention, by both the Muslim and non-Muslim media, has been inadequate and somewhat imbalanced. The same can be said of several of the speeches made at the convention. Continue reading Deoband’s Anti-Terrorism Convention: Some Reflections →