Monthly Archives: June 2013

Arab Revolutions, GCC, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria

GCC Cuts Livelihood of Lebanese Shi’as and Waits for Godot, Desecrating ‘Allah’……….

      

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“Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah who are residing in Gulf Cooperation Council states will pay the price for the Shiite movement’s military role in Syria against freedom fighters.
A GCC statement, citing a ministerial council decision, said the measures will affect Hezbollah members’ “residency permits, and financial and commercial transactions.” The statement urged the Lebanese government to “assume its responsibilities toward the behavior of Hezbollah and its illegal and inhumane practices in Syria and the region.” The six-member bloc strongly condemned the flagrant intervention of Hezbollah in Syria and its participation in shedding the blood of Syrian people. The statement came after the Saudi Cabinet condemned Hezbollah’s “blatant intervention” ……………” Arab News (Saudi)

“The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoods and forbidding them from working in the GCC under the pretext that they support Hezbollah. The GCC hopes this will lead to a popular campaign by the Lebanese Shia to pressure Hezbollah and force it to withdraw from the Syrian war and stop supporting the regime. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoodsThe GCC also hopes that the step will increase the pressure on the Lebanese state in general (which, coincidentally, parallels Israeli thinking in all of its wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon). The GCC and their sponsors also hope for an anti-Hezbollah revolution to erupt in Lebanon…………….”

This probably means that Lebanese Shi’as will be targeted for collective punishment; they almost certainly use “Hezbollah” to mean Lebanese Shi’as. A way to use economics to apply sectarian political pressure on Lebanon. Persian Gulf states often tend to inflict collective punishment (I call them dumb punishment) during crises. Hezbollah defeats their favorite Salafi militias of the FSA and expatriate Lebanese Shi’as pay the price.
The ruling shaikhs of the UAE have been doing it for a couple of years, summarily expelling Lebanese Shi’a families long in the country (90% of UAE residents are temporary foreigners, including laborers and imported mercenaries anyway). Bahrain’s regime of course probably does not allow any Shi’as in to start with, and would love to get rid of its own majority Shi’as (it also imports thousands of foreign mercenaries to keep them repressed). A few tribal Salafis in Kuwait staged a “camera” burning of a Hezbollah banner, perhaps not realizing they also burnt the name “Allah”, something they always advise others never to do.
The GCC are also telling their citizens to stay out of Lebanon for security reasons (as if Bahrain and Qatif are very secure). Lebanon is the closest affordable summer retreat for tens of thousands of Gulf citizens. That would hurt both GCC citizens and Lebanon.
The joke is what is said here that: “Lebanon is urged to curb Hezbollah for its inhumane practices in the region”. Imagine the tribal potentates accusing anybody else of ‘inhumane’ practices. Choppers of heads, crucifixions, home raids, tortures, etc. That is like Saudi Arabia and Qatar complaining that Syria is undemocratic (probably true, but…….).

Cheers
mhg

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Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Internal Palace Wars?…………….

      

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“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has ordered former deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz be put under house arrest. The monarch apparently issued the order after the country’s intelligence services detected suspicious activities by the officers within the ground forces who are close to the former defense minister, mirataljazeera.net reported. The king ordered the house arrest from Morocco where he was on a visit. The monarch cut short the trip and flew home to deal with the issue. The investigation was carried out by a committee comprising six different security agencies. It revealed that the officers, in cahoots with the prince and the former governor of the Eastern Province Mohammed bin Fahad bin Abdul Aziz, currently residing in the United States, were planning to stage a coup d’etat…………….”

The source of this is a Saudi opposition news website (www.mirataljazeera.net) and it was covered by Iran’s Press TV. The details could not be verified, but the facts are that: (1) King Abdullah (90+ years) was rushed back from Morocco too early (Saudi kings and princes prefer Morocco to any other Arab country for vacationing); (2) Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, son of the late defense minister and crown prince, was fired last month from his job.
The Al Saud branches are gearing up for a protracted internal fight over who owns the country that is now called Saudi Arabia (but should be called the Arabian Peninsula). The report also says that former Prince of the eastern province, Mohammed Bin Fahad, son of the late King Fahad, who is vacationing abroad, has been banned from returning home.

Cheers
mhg

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Cinema, Culture, Israel, Jews

Was Superman Jewish? Is Superman Jewish? About the Socialist Haganah…….

      

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“Superman, the invention of two U.S. Jews, is a profoundly Jewish character whose film history is entwined with that of American Jewry…………It’s hard to imagine anyone less Jewish — or more goyish — than Superman. One could point to his white-bread name, his Midwestern origins, his hypermasculine physique, his feats of strength and his overall Man of Steel status. Yet Superman was the creation of two American Jews, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who envisioned him as a conceptually Jewish character……………….”

I am not sure about this. When Superman first landed on Earth and was adopted by a Christian family in the flyover rural Midwest, even Jews would not have identified any Jewishness in his character. He was so physical and apolitical, he was not even a socialist.
Anyway, now the Muftis and shaikhs (Shaikh Al, Shaikh Qaradawi, et al) will have another beef with the Man of Steel, even if he is now claimed to be kosher and halal. One thing in his favor with the shaikhs: he never joined a kibbutz and the Haganah in Palestine. As far as we know; but Hollywood is not done with Superman, never will be.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, GCC, Kuwait

Kuwait Constitutional Court Ruling: a Tough Dilemma for the Tribal Islamist Opposition…………….

      

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The Constitutional Court of Kuwait has closed one door for the opposition while leaving another face-saving door ajar for them. The court ruled that the one-man one-vote system that was introduced last year was constitutional but it ruled that the current parliament (voted December 2012) should be dissolved and new elections be held within two months.
The opposition, which is dominated by tribal Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood with support from Wahhabi-Liberals and some secularists, is facing a dilemma. It looks like the one-man one–vote, their main target, is here to stay. They must decide whether to contest the coming elections or boycott and lock themselves and their allied tribes out of the political system again. After all, the core Islamists and tribals among them were close allies of the government ruling “elites” for several decades during which the secular liberals (and the Shi’as) were both cast out in the wilderness, their political institutions repressed.
The opposition shot itself in the foot early on when it dominated the last parliament, weakening their own prospects by going blatantly tribal and sectarian. Most of their members succumbed to pro-Saudi tribal and Salafi instincts, and focused on the Shi’a minority of Kuwait, about 30% of the citizens, for special discriminatory attention. They adopted divisive sectarian political tactics that may have ensured their own marginalization in the long run.
If they now boycott, it is likely that some of the tribal members will split and decide to participate in the contests and the voting. If they decide to contest the elections, some of them may also decide against it and split. Either way, they would lose because the one-man one-vote tends to dilute the political strength of the tribal blocks. Their supporters usually vote along strictly tribal lines; their 5 votes per man/woman have been reduced to one vote. This system reduces the dominance of the large tribes and their (Sunni) Islamist allies and shifts the balance somewhat back toward the traditional influence of city folks, both Sunni and Shi’a.
 
My guess is that some of them will rejoin the political process. My experience with the tribal Salafis and Muslim Brothers of Kuwait has been that they are willing to dump principle for power. Their commitment to democracy is opportunistic but their commitment to the tribal, clan, and individual power is even stronger. After all, even with the new system of voting they still get a better deal than exists in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, both regimes that the Kuwaiti opposition have strongly supported against the demands of the democratic opposition in both these Gulf countries.

(After writing this post it was announced that 23 former members of the opposition have voted to boycott the coming elections, for now. The next week will clarify things).

I add here the following links to some of my earlier posts on this topic of Kuwait politics:

Christmas on the Gulf: Jingle Bells and Salafi Beards and Reform in Kuwait

Kuwait Politics: Incompetent Government vs. Reactionary Opposition

The Kuwait Elections and the Shi’a Question and Wahhabi Liberals

Banning Demonstrations in Bahrain: Advice from the Kuwait Opposition

Saudi Wahhabi Shaikhs Discussing Recent Events in Kuwait

A Small Wahhabi Protest in Kuwait: Love-Hate-Need-BS Complex

GCC Summit: a Salafi Tribal Dream Team, Taqiyya and a Real Existential Threat

Kuwait Protests? about Saudi Protests, Bahrain Protests, Salafi Uprising

Cheers
mhg

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Africa, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Syria

Morsi Emulates McCain, Urges the Western Powers to Liberate Syria but not Sudan………

      

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So, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi suddenly broke diplomatic relations with Syria, closed the embassy and declared that the Western powers should establish a no-fly zone over Syrian territory. Only one or two days after US President John McCain announces that the United States will deliver more lethal weapons to the Syrian opposition groups. McCain also called for a no-fly zone, in fact he would prefer a full-scale invasion of Syria. Of course Morsi did not mean an Arab League no-fly zone over Syria: regular Arab air forces can’t organize a piss-up in a brewery, something I have noted before, let alone a no-fly zone with all its logistics.
Meanwhile, as Morsi agonizes over the Syrian people, he is has recently returned from visiting Sudan. Morsi is set to receive in Cairo General Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan for 26 years. Al Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for massacres (and other atrocities) in Darfur that reportedly have killed more people than the civil war in Syria.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, Bahrain, GCC, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

Dynasties: Changing the Guard in Qatar, Killing off the Old Guard in Saudi Arabia, Pickled Papa Doc in Bahrain…….

        

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“Change is afoot in the world’s richest nation, Qatar. Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, are said to be putting in place an ordered succession plan for the tiny Gulf emirate. The transition will see them leave a stage they have dominated for nearly two decades enabling the emir’s son Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and younger ministers to take charge. Rumours have been circulating for several months but in recent weeks, discreet communications have been passed on to various diplomats and leading businessmen alerting them that change is coming.………….”

This is, if true, an unusual event in the Gulf states. Unusual in any Arab country. I suspect the Emir of Qatar is having health issues, although there has been only one mention of this possibility in the media. Voluntary abdication is not common in the Gulf GCC states. That other involuntary kind of ‘abdication’ is quite common, as I noted in an earlier post about de Tocqueville of Qatar.
Which brings me to a couple of other interesting dynasties of the GCC states, probably the two most avaricious and most repressive of the Gulf ruling clans:

  • In Saudi Arabia they play a waiting game, as the older princes die off and are replaced with other older princes. It used to take a few years to dispatch one king and usher in a new one. From now on they will be likely rotating every few months. The current King Abdullah has buried two successive crown princes in one year, but his luck may be running out. The Saudi dynasty will probably go through the elderly princes for another decade or so. At some point the king may be 100 years old, on life-support and IVs when he ascends the throne. 
    The last elderly king will probably have to turn off the lights in Riyadh as he takes his last breath. Taxidermy is frowned upon in le royaume sans la Magie, which is a good thing.
  • In Bahrain the old prime minister, Khalifa Al Khalifa, has been in power and doing serious damage, essentially screwing the island almost, but not quite, like the late Papa Doc in Haiti. The imported foreign mercenary militias are his equivalent of the old Haitian Tonton Macoutes. For some 42 years, longer than Muammar Qaddafi ruled Libya. By now he probably smells like a pickled herring, and as oily, and possibly has the texture of over-aged smoked salmon. Nevertheless, he would like to continue looting the country, teargassing and imprisoning his way to death and a long tenure en enfer afterwords. With friendly help from other Gulf GCC potentates and the Western powers.

Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Iran Elections, Israel, U.S. Congress

Iran: Mr. Rouhani’s Illusory Western Honeymoon……….

      

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“The stunning landslide election of Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s next president highlighted a deep frustration among many Iranians about the direction of their country, especially an economy marred by skyrocketing prices, stagnant salaries and dwindling job opportunities. In explaining their vote for Rowhani, many spoke of change. They alluded not to hot-button international issues such as Iran’s contentious nuclear program or its die-hard support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but to the slumping economy…………………”

Iranian elections have shown over the years that they are often unpredictable. The moderate Hassan Rouhani is the newly elected president of Iran. The people of Iran have shown they are eager to reform and engage. But probably not to surrender. There is suddenly so much talk of goodwill in Western media, especially in American media. For now.
We should remember the last reformist president of Iran. Mohammed Khatami was even more reformist, more engaging. Iran’s nuclear program was not deemed as contentious, mainly because Israel had a different government and the U.S. Congress did not act as a branch of the Likud coalition. Khatami even showed sympathy and turned a blind eye to the American invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Yet in January of 2002, Mr. Bush delivered a bad speech in which he added Mr. Khatami’s country to North Korea and Baathist Iraq in a stupidly-named Axis of Evil.
So, give it some time. Mr. Netanyahu and his omnipotent lobbyists and the U.S. Knesset Congress have not started their work on Mr. Rouhani yet. And they will.

Cheers
mhg

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Britain, Corruption, Syria, Tony Blair

The Poodle Roars: Tony Blair is Back, Like a Bad Dream, Calls for War in Syria and Iran and………

      

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“Britain should arm the Syrian rebels and consider imposing a no-fly zone over Syria to prevent “catastrophic consequences”, Tony Blair has said. The former prime minister said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government and the involvement of Iran in the civil war meant intervention was necessary. “You’ve got the intervention of Hezbollah, at the instigation of Iran. The other big change is the use of chemical weapons. Once you allow that to happen – and this will be the first time since Saddam used them in the 1980s – you run the risk of it then becoming an acceptable form of warfare, for both sides,” he told the Times…………………”

In the past Tony Blair has frequently called for war against Iran. Now he has his greedy neo-colonialist sights set on Syria as well. Britain imposing a no-fly zone in Syria? He must think we are back in the pre-Suez glory days.
Nothing corrupts Western leaders, even discredited former leaders, more than association with corrupt potentates, especially petroleum potentates in the Middle East and Central Asia. Add to that some Western bankers and you have a very high low bar indeed. And boy, nobody mingles with these characters better than Tony Blair, perhaps the most undignified of former British prime ministers. From the Persian Gulf to Central Asia to North Africa (Qaddafi) and back, Blair has schmoozed and kissed and done whatever he has had to do after leaving office.
I will not repeat here about the most famous case of Tony Blair and SFO and BAE Systems. The BAE Systems has had a long and cozy inglorious history with the Saudi princes. It goes back at least to the famous Al Yamama scandal when they paid prince Bandar Bin Sultan $2 billion as bribe commission for a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia. Tony Blair (as New Labor prime minister) famously killed an investigation of the scandal by the British Serious Frauds Office (SFO). Gulf potentates have been quite grateful to Tony for that. So, no need for me to repeat that shameful case. No need to repeat all that. Perhaps a few links to earlier posts, leading to other media sources, would help:
 
Netanyahu, Ahmadinejad, and Tony Blair all Pleased with NYC Trip, not Romney

True Arab Opinion of Tony Blair Expressed by a Gulf Man

Return of Tony Blair, Elder Statesman (not)

Bribes and Monkeys and Aesthetics: Babanov of Kyrgyzstan vs. Princov of Arabia

Ugh: More on Tony Blair

The Tony Blair Israeli-Palestinian Barbershop Quartet

Tony Blair Bin Bandar Meets Borat: the Great Money Machine Moves to Kazakhstan

Another Huge Saudi-British Bribery Scandal, Missing Tony Blair

Tony Blair as Scarlett O’Hara: Blair-Gate and the never Ending Saga of International Corruption

ony Blair’s Never Ending Lobbying Act: Living on Uranus

Qaddafi and his Friends, the Rendition of Tony Blair

Miliband and Blair Straddling the Atlantic: Greedy, Selfish, and Immoral

BAE Systems Flexes its Arabian Muscles Again, Ghosts of al-Yamama

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions

One More War: On America in Syria, Bigoted Shaikh Al Qaradawi, and Russia in the Near Abroad…………

      

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The bigoted Shaikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi of Egypt and Qatar, the Nazi-admiring cleric has recently called for a sectarian Jihad in Syria. It is interesting that his call has been heeded by none other than the Obama administration. Supplying weapons and training is not supposed to be “direct” involvement yet, the Iranians and Russians do that too. But the next stage may be set by the Shadow President of the United States, John McCain, who has not met a war he did not like since his days of bombing Vietnamese villages. That nest stage might be a no-fly zone, without the UN approval, and hence an illegal no-fly zone. Who knows, maybe the Russians will learn from the West and start their own illegal no-fly zones in the countries of the “Near Abroad”. The Caucasus region has a plethora of opportunities.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, buoyed by the Obama move (or maybe is it the McCain move), also declared Jihad in Syria. The Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz (owner of the Asahrq Alawsat newspaper) called Shaikh Al Qaradawi to personally congratulate him for calling for a sectarian war in the Middle East.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Sectarian, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Obama Joins Middle East Sectarian Jihad: Muslim Brotherhood Elated, Salafis Hopeful, Shi’as Doubtful………..

      

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“HOOAH! Obama moves to deliver another country to Muslim Brotherhood. USA! USA!……..” Drudge Report, tweeting an understatement

“Syria’s president and his Shi’ite allies were denounced by leading Sunni Arab voices on Friday, including Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood, which had reached out across Islam’s sectarian divide but has now called for jihad. The Brotherhood accused Shi’ites of being at the root of sectarian conflicts throughout history and threw its weight behind holy war – just months after a high-profile rapprochement with Iran, which backs Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. “Throughout history, Sunnis have never been involved in starting a sectarian war,” spokesman Ahmed Aref said, adding that Hezbollah provoked the new sectarian conflict in Syria………………..”

So Mr. Obama has been maneuvered into the Syrian sectarian war by some funny doubtful evidence produced by the French (oh so ethical in these matters) and the British (marginally better) in cooperation with Syrian “activists”, as well as some unrelenting badgering by Sen. John McCain and the taunting of Bill Clinton (who called him a “Wuss”) only two days earlier.
Now Syria is not Libya. This is not a domestic uprising anymore, it is a regional sectarian war instigated by some of the tribal absolute rulers of the Persian Gulf, mainly Saudis and Qataris, and the Salafist movement. None of the above three believe in freedom or democracy anymore than Mr. Al Assad does. The Syrian battle was joined, early on, by an influx of Jihadis as well as training and weapons from the West, Russia, Lebanon, and Iran. It has also been joined by supplies and some human assets from all the above places. So the Obama administration has now more firmly joined one side in this regional sectarian civil war. Nay, it has, by its intervention may have expanded the Syrian war from a regional proxy war in the Middle East to a worldwide sectarian war.

The Al Saud and their palace clerics and the Salafis and the Wahhabi liberals of the Gulf and Lebanon will be pleased. I imagine the tribal Salafis are praying that Allah would further guide the infidel heathens of the West toward supplying heavy weapons as well as a passel of no-fly zones, all for the glory of Allah and the Gulf potentates (not necessarily in that order).
In any case, the sectarian battle is joined and the result does not bode well for Syria or its neighboring countries.

Cheers
mhg

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