What is Sarko up to?
"Has Sarkozy finally chosen to side with Syria? He seems to have fallen into the Syrian trap by sending envoys to Damascus and inviting Assad to the (Bastille Day) celebrations." An editor of the Saudi daily Asharq alawsat (A. Al-Rashid).

That frustration is understandable, and pleasantly surprising as well. Nicolas Sarkozy, a.k.a Sarko, a.k.a whatever Carla Bruni chooses to call him, has proven to be a puzzling man for Arab leaders, potentates, and their tame house intellectuals. No world leader has been harder to predict in recent months, not even Libya's Colonel Qaddafi.
Leaders of the moderate polygamous New Middle East were sad to see Chirac leave- not so the French people. Chirac was in the mold of some other French leaders, thick with some nasty dictators and potentates. He was a close friend of such petro-potentates as the Hariri family, in whose house he stayed after leaving office, according to French and Arab media. He was under a cloud of suspicion, and still is.

Sarko made the right noises, got close to the Bush administration and the democracy-loving absolute Arab leaders felt easier. But Sarko has proven unpredictable, unlike Bush. He doesn't exude the black-white certainty of a reformed alumnus of Yale and Harvard Business School. Hell (o.k make that 'heck'), he doesn't even swagger. And he doesn't have other attributes: an annoying and harmful certainty, an occasional war and a healthy respect for oil and the money it engenders. Nothing wrong with that last one: I grew up in an oil field, the smell of an oil field or a gas station makes me homesick. I also spent enough months under the constant dark and possibly toxic clouds of hundreds of burning oil wells, enough to develop some respect for the destructive potential of oil.

With Sarko, they can't help but feel some latent French contempt, even as he takes their side against the bad guys. Now he is with them and firmly against Syria, Iran, and Hizbullah. Now he is chummy again with the nasty ones. Then again he signals exasperation with the hardliners. Now, on the eve of Bastille Day (14 Juillet), he has gone and done it again: he invited president Bashar al-Assad of Syria to be the guest at the ceremonies. He eschewed the moderate polygamous leaders of the New Middle East in favor of an old line pan-Arab rejectionist (whatever it is they are rejecting at the moment besides common sense). Nothing would piss off an oil potentate more than being upstaged by a poorer relation who is not even polygamous. Even Chirac is pissed enough to boycott the public ceremonies this year.

The moderate New Arab media complains that Assad is being rewarded for his trouble-making, that Sarko has been tricked. But then again, Syria is talking to Israel, Lebanon has a president (but not a cabinet), and the Iran war seems less likely, at least for this week.

Some Arab media analysts, and presumably those potentates who hire them, have resorted to what they understand the most: tribalism and ethnicity. They have tried to explain Sarkozy's behavior through the national and ethnic roots of his ancestors. Meanwhile, he seems set to play a trusted broker for now, a role that the US would play, ante-Bush and the bellicose Neocons.

My advice is: lighten up, get another wife or something.

Middle East Media Tour:
“I have no doubt that Hizbullah is a foreign stooge, that it is sectarian, that it is dangerous. I wish others could see it the same way (yeah, why can't they?). The true goals and foreign allegiance of Hizbullah are shocking.”  Chief editor of Asharq alawsat, the Saudi daily owned by Prince Salman.

“It is hard to accept the apology of Hizbullah on the harsh words and oaths uttered by one of its officials, a former minister, against Saudi Arabia….Harsh language and oaths are not appropriate for politicians and for the media.” Column in alhayat, the Saudi daily owned by Prince Khalid Bin Sultan.

"I am sure that if one orders a pizza for delivery, it will arrive faster than the Lebanese Army would to break up a battle. How else can one explain army behavior during the battles in Trilpoli in northern Lebanon between the Alawite fighters and the Sunni fighters? It is fair now to raise questions about the Lebanmese Army and its allegiance to any one side in the conflict."  Chief editor of Asharq alawsat, the Saudi daily owned by Prince Salman.
Which makes me (moi) wonder: don't they have their own issues and problems in Saudi Arabia that might take up more of the valuable time of their editors?

"Iran has torn the Moslem (Muslim) World into sectarian divisions." Abdul H. Khaddam (former Syrian VP and foreign minister, former frequent visitor to Iran, former praiser of the theocracy in Tehran, current hope of the moderate polygamous New Middle East for regime change in Syria), quoted by columnist in Asharq alawsat, the Saudi daily owned by Prince Salman.

"A Gulf state (Saudi Arabia) is financing sectarian conflict in Lebanon. It seeks to make Lebanon into one of those Gulf emirates that it controls." N. Mussawi, a Hizbullah International Affairs man, quoted by the pro-cabinet daily An-nahar of Beirut.

"Yemen government: the rebel Houthis are hiring Somali fighters at $100 a pop."
"Yemen government: Iranians are stirring up trouble with the rebel Houthis."
"Houthi rebel leader: Saudis are acting as if they are our enemies."
"Saudi editor of Asharq alawsat: Iranians are responsible for all the troubles from Lebanon to Sa'ada (Yemen."
I give up on Yemen, so should all Yemenis who do not chew the qat anymore. I tried looking up Iranian media sites but there was nothing about Yemen.

“What bothers and disturbs the United States about Iran is not really her nuclear program or possession of a nuclear bomb. It is the Iraqi capability of Iran, the amount of control it has over developments in Iraq.” M E Online column.

"Iraqi defense Minsister to Elaph: The USA is pressuring us to purchase only American weapons."