The joke goes that when a security officer once explained to a visiting writer over dinner that Egypt was in reality a police state, a general nearly choked on his drink before correcting him, “good God man, it’s a military dictatorship!” Well, allegedly the Egyptian […]
Everyone and their mother is lining up to condemn the protest at the Israeli embassy on Friday night. April 6 is disowning it, suggesting Habib al-Adly and Mubarak thugs and agents provocateurs are behind it. Al-Jazeera’s correspondent Abdulfattah Fayed talked at length […]
Despite all the fears about the future of the Egyptian uprising, the trouble now with Israel over the deaths of Egyptian soldiers highlights one of the major shifts that have taken place since January 25: the new power of the Arab street […]
Mark Twain once wrote that rumours of his death had been an exaggeration. It’s become fashionable to herald the imminent death of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but I wonder if we’re not jumping the gun. Media reporting about a situation like the Syrian protest movement […]
This Jerusalem Post article, “Analysis: Syria – Is it on the threshold of a civil war?”, illustrates just the point I was making in a previous post about the false difference between the state violence of Israel and that of its neighbours. […]
Kuwaiti Islamists organised a meeting in past two days to lobby support for the Syria protest movement. It involved Kuwaiti Islamists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Salafi trend, all Sunni. The background in Kuwait’s context is that Shi’ites are seen as […]
So, the currently in vogue phrase is “Gulf monarchies”, and although some of their leaders are emir, one is sultan, a few are sheikh, and only two are “king”, I guess it works as a way of grouping the dynasties together. They […]
The Bahrain National Dialogue document has been published in summary and a copy of it is below. They say the Arabic version is to be published on Friday. The king is to meet the Dialogue members today; Wefaq say they will not go, […]
A group of Islamists tried to set up a political party in February. They are one of many small groups of activists on the scene right now but were obviously sticking their heads out further than most. Seven were arrested and of […]
It’s summer in Saudi and that means one thing: Saudi ‘foreign policy’, such as it is, is on hold. The Saudi foreign ministry amounts to the minister, Saud al-Faisal and … well, that’s about it. Except that the king appointed this week […]