Monthly Archives: June 2013

A Glimpse of Qatar’s Generational Transition and Portent for The Middle East Conflict

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Qatar, Regions, Religion

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These days, the term “middle east conflict” would seem to refer to conflict and unrest in every state in the region but Israel.

Nonetheless, while Egypt roils and Syria burns and the King of Jordan fends off the seeding of perhaps a new class of secular Palestinian politico*, Qatar’s new head of state, Sheikh Tamim has this to say of the refugees of numerous Arab-led wars since 1948:

One day when our “Blue Dot” of a planet is a little more gathered together — that as opposed to riven with war — we may find common ground in five language principles:

Compassion

Humility

Integrity

Justice

Security

Of the four, the most difficult term and the one most relevant to autocracies seems to me to be “integrity” — just the power to be honest about ourselves and with others.

This is not as easy as it may sound.  If it were, we would not have the fairy tale that is “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which is in essence and for the ages a story about lying and power.

*****

It may be noted that God placed two trees in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  When the snake entices Eve to eat of the forbidden tree, only mention is made of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, effectively hiding the other tree through omission.

You know the rest of the story: Eve eats the apple, becomes conscious or comprehending, also self-conscious, and, with Adam joining her, possessed of conscience, out of which reaction, perhaps, come the fig leaves, a courtesy, each to the other, and practical too (God, a few sentences later, provides clothing made of skins — one imagines chamois — lending perhaps dignity and protection to their introduction to life as men and women would experience it forever after).

The “Middle East Conflict” — which is never about conflicts in the middle east but only about the creation of the Jews and Israel (or, lost in the Pharaohnic dawn, the gathering together beneath the unrestrained ego and violence of a tyrant)l — seems to me to be always about two things not at ease with one another: 1) the possession of good conscience in light of the knowledge of good and evil; 2) the testing of God for favor when the relationship needs to be the other way around.

*****

Where kings are concerned, I suspect there may be more to the story than meets either eyes or ears.

When God, being God, and with Torah received as divine message, hides the second tree — the Tree of Life that we are told is there but when it counts is not mentioned by the snake and, later, will be barred from access (by cherubim and an eternally revolving sword guarding the Garden left behind) — the sin of omission becomes a virtue: to have eaten of the Tree of Life also would have been too much, for God forbids it, and so protects His children.

*****

To be as gods, lower case that term, with nuclear capabilities, among other extraordinary but still human capacities, one might counsel also a prudent humility.

Carl Sagan’s clip about the “Pale Blue Dot” that is our planet viewed from space, has many renditions on the web — and there’s an entire film available too (somewhere — I’m going to be lazy here) — but this may do for essence.

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FTAC – A Note on Nelson Mandela and Phenomenology and Journalism

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in A Little Wisdom, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Journalism, Philosophy

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23085736 — “”He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night,” Mr Zuma said after speaking to the 94-year-old’s medical team.” — We must put a stop to guessing and rumors when dealing with observable phenomenon!

In the BBC article, Nelson Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe castigates the international press for wanting to get to Heaven’s Gate and the great obituaries ahead of time.

If a family’s “death watch” may be has hard and uncertain as it is natural and beautiful in its human way, that involving an elderly international political celebrity may be that much harder.  Mandel’as journey has been Big News for Big Media since the 1950s, at least, and any moment approaching the end becomes a part of that epic.

Still, we should be careful.

The rumor of Mandela’s death came to me by way of a Pakistani friend and perhaps  on his side from a part of the mouth-to-ear quarter of it.  A fast look-up on the web tells the truth: web-based media, large or small, has no incentive for painting a false picture.

May patience — and fact checking — abet integrity in the news online.

Reference

BBC.  “Nelson Mandela much better today – Jacob Zuma.”  June 27, 2013.

Tales of the Erroneous

Thanks to Pakistani ethnographer and social science research Haroon Janua for locating these gems.

Daily Bhaskar.  “In haste, Gujarat’s Congress leader declares Nelson Mandela as dead.”  June 27, 2013.

Huffington Post.  “Dutch City Council Erroneously Pronounces Nelson Mandela Dead.”  June 26, 2013.

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Syria – The Dismal Killing Machine

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Regions, Syria

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LONDON — An opposition monitoring group that has tracked Syria’s widening civil war said on Wednesday that more than 100,000 people had died in the 27-month-old conflict, with pro-government forces taking far more casualties than rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, while civilians accounted for more than one-third of the overall fatalities, the biggest single category.

Cowell, Alan.  “Syrian Group Says War Deaths Top 100,000.”  The New York Times, June 26, 2013.

Perhaps the old days were better after all: assemble the armies on an open plain, send the warriors into it, and leave the noncombatants of both sides for the spoils of the winner.

Just kidding.

*****

“As always, numbers like these gloss over the many people who have been so grievously wounded, physically or psychologically, that they will never again live productive lives. What the latter figure amounts to in Syria is anyone’s guess. What’s certain is that it’s even larger than the death toll.”

Menon, Rajan.  “Hope for Peace in Syria, But Don’t Expect It.”  Blog.  Huffington Post, June 26, 2013.

Rajan Menon’s report on the suffering goes on to note 1.7 million refugees on top of 4 million Internally Displaced Persons, or 5.7 million displaced souls altogether, about 25 percent of Syria’s total population before the onset of serious hostilities (but I’m not sure I’m getting consistent numbers from any source published within the past two years).

*****

“In one trailer we meet 13-year-old Najwa. She curls back in the corner next to her husband, 19-year-old Khaled, and her mother, hardly saying a word.

Najwa is the youngest of three, her two older sisters in their late teens are also recently married.”

Damon, Arwa.  “No sanctuary for Syria’s female refugees.”  CNN, June 26, 2013.

Evidently, grim statistics don’t tell a whole story, or not much of whatever is to be told at all.

*****

“The head of the International Terrorism Observatory think tank, Roland Jacquard, told Reuters Television the group appeared to be sending fighters abroad, likely to Syria.”

Pennetier, Marine and Alexandria Sage.  “French police arrest cell with possible Syria links.” Reuters, June 25, 2013.

A cousin of a story.

Reuters.  “Spain arrests suspected al-Qaeda Syria network.”  Video.  June 22, 2013.

“Special informed sources from London revealed to the Palestinian al-Manar newspaper that the British security forces arrested early June a group of 11 terrorists in London who had come back from Syria where they were involved in the fighting there.”

Syrian Arab News Agency.  “British authorities arrest terrorists who fought in Syria.”  June 19, 2013.

Wars draw volunteers.  It’s a shame the one in Syria draws teenage ones.  Belgium dealt with this issue back in April of this year:

*****

Thanks to Ken Hanley at Digital Journal for playing this thematically related clip last week in his op-ed, “Many Foreign fighters involved in Syria on both sides” (Digital Journal, June 19, 2013).

*****

While Israel’s cardinal military defense rule seems to remain, “Do not intervene; do not interfere” (DM Yaalon), Israel’s first virtue would seem to remain compassion to the extent that it may provide that.

“The two boys, 9 and 15 years old, were transferred to Ziv Hospital in Safed for treatment. The 9-year-old suffered moderate injuries from shrapnel wounds across his body and lost his right eye, according to a report by Maariv. The 15-year-old was listed in serious condition, according to the report.”

Times of Israel.  “Minors wounded in Syrian fighting brought to Israel.”  June 26, 2013.

Every wounded Syrian is guarded by either an IDF soldier or by a civilian security guard in an attempt to isolate them from speaking with anyone unauthorized to do so who might photograph them or pass on their information to Syria, potentially harming them or their families upon their eventual return to Syria.

As stated, more than a 100 wounded Syrians have crossed the border in recent months. Some 70 of them have been taken to Israeli hospitals, and two have passed away as a result of their injuries.

Zitun, Yoav.  “More than 100 wounded Syrians receive care in Israel.”  YNet News, June 26, 2013.

After 2,000 years or so, Hillel’s negatively stated dictum seems to hold.  “That which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another” — and certainly, the choice between enabling or denying access to hospital services related well to that.

*****

“The request came in a letter handed to Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Harel Locker at a meeting with Druze leaders on the Golan Heights Thursday. The letter included an unprecedented request for Israel to take in Druze students who had left the Golan and settled in Syria, Maariv reported.”

Gur, Haviv Rettig.  “Druze leaders ask Israel to take in Syrian brethren.”  Times of Israel, June 23, 2013.

What would Hillel do?

Druze along the Golan have served both in the IDF and in Syria’s defense forces according to their decisions about citizenship and location, and with the fighting as I’ve described — “Two mad wasps in a bell jar” — Israeli Druze are seeking sanctuary for their relatives.

God knows God would seem to give Jews the toughest ethical and survival challenges.

Both.

At the same time.

Providing infirmary to wounded to be turned back into the field — and who want to be returned to their land — is one thing.

Affording sanctuary to those endangered by this war that only loosely respects boundaries and seems absent of compassion and conscience both in relation to innocents, noncombatants, neutral parties, and so on makes for a more difficult decision.

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Snowden – Living At An Airport

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed Tuesday that the NSA whistleblower is in the“transit” zone of a Moscow airport. This is a security-controlled area where passengers gather to wait on their flights. Passengers cannot leave the area and enter Russia without proper documentation.

Underwood, Madison.  “Edward Snowden is trapped in a 2-star Russian airport with no bar; here are the reviews.” All Alabama, June 25, 2013.

Existential Reference

Snopes.  “Stranded at the Airport”: “Between 1988 and 2006, a man lived at a Paris airport.”  Here is his story on Wikipedia: “Mehren Karimi Nasseri“.

“As ABC Newsman Michael Finney explains it, Weissinger checked one bag too many and incurred a $60 fee that she couldn’t pay on the spot. She hadn’t expected the fees because her itinerary failed to mention them. For security/terrorist-related reasons her airline, U.S. Airways, wouldn’t let her abandon one of her bags at the airport, and they also wouldn’t let her pay the fees once she got to Idaho. So she missed her flight, which resulted in another fee. Then U.S. Airways told her she had to buy a brand-new ticket, which cost $1,000. And this is how she became trapped in the airport.”

Gawker.  “Broke 99 Percenter Trapped in Airport for Eight Terminal-Like Days.”  Around November 1, 2011.  Source: Finney, Michael.  “Woman gets stuck at SFO for 8 days over baggage fees.”  ABC Local, November 1, 2011.

I’ll give the next to last word here to the New York Daily News:

“It’s obvious to all that the FSB, the KGB’s successor agency, could easily transfer Snowden into U.S. custody if it wanted to, but it simply doesn’t want to because there is greater reward in seeing the world’s only superpower thunder and grumble like a mark who’s just lost his fortune in an elaborate con.”

My guess is Snowden’s story will morph from a tale about spying and totalitarianism into one about mental illness with an emphasis on narcissism or another axis involving grandiose and messianic delusions.

Evidently, China has turned out not much interested in Snowden after all, and while stuck in Moscow, he’s become something of a political hockey puck between Obama and Putin.

“Snowden is a free person,” Putin proclaimed during a news conference in Turku, Finland, where he feigned annoyance at getting dragged into the closely watched incident.

“I’d prefer not to deal with this issue at all,” he said. “It’s like shearing a piglet — too much squealing, too little wool.

Miller, S.A., “That swine!  Putin wants O to squeal like a pig over spy, calls NSA leaker ‘a free person’.”  New York Post, June 26, 2013.

Those Who Know very well know what they have been doing in the field of Global Signal Intelligence.

From the “Iran Curtain” (Iranian internal control of constituent communications) to Chinese patent theft to American domestic collection and foreign hacking, there are no secrets that remain undetected forever.  Instead, perhaps, there are only agreements, disagreements, and arrangements involving the uses of massively compiled data.

Trailer to the movie, Terminal:

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FNS – Nasrallah’s Forces

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Regions, Religion, Syria

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Even if the conniving Nasrallah, with Iran’s support, holds on as head of his extremist Shiite organization for a long time to come, his principal goal — to become a pan-Arab and Lebanese leader — is now unattainable. The man who for some time was seen as Israel’s main strategic enemy has, with his own hands, buried his accomplishments.

Bergman, Ronen.  “The Fall of Hezbollah’s Leader.”  Bloomberg, June 24, 2013.

“But regional experts say no one in the struggle has had a greater impact in recent weeks than Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The Lebanese group’s appearance in force on the battlefield has prompted a new direction in a war that had ebbed and flowed and until this spring appeared to be slipping away from the Syrian government.”

Detmer, Jamie.  “Hezbollah Has Edge on Syrian Battlefield.”  Voice of America, June 25, 2013.

“For Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, there is “some good news for his involvement in Syria,” observed Yoram Schweitzer, director the Terrorism and Low Intensity Warfare Project at the Institute for National Security in Tel Aviv.

“Hezbollah is gaining battle experience, but this is smaller in significance than the price Nasrallah’s paying, politically and operationally. There’s an erosion of Hezbollah’s fighting forces and its resources.”

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/06/25/Hezbollah-braces-for-big-Syria-battle-but-takes-losses/UPI-44791372183587/#ixzz2XKaVTBuQ

RT, perhaps reverting to old habits, is getting hard to read as it or its contributors (what follows appears to be an op-ed) picks up on an anti-American screed in thick paragraphs.  Nonetheless, as long as the world is reading the about itself in English, it’s outlook is as much a part of the global information environment as, say, Voice of America’s.

“Undoubtedly Hezbollah did discuss its intentions to enter the Syrian conflict with its patrons in Tehran and coordinated with Iran and then, to a lesser extent, with Russia through Iranian officials and through consultations with Aleksandr Zasypkin, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, and then Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov during his April 2013 visit to Beirut. The involvement of Hezbollah in Syria, however, is purely defensive. Moreover, Hezbollah is one of the last external players to be involved in Syria.”

Nazemroaya, Mahdi Darius.  “Hezbollah fighting in Syria to defend Lebanon from bloodbath.”  Op-Edge, RT, June 26, 2013.

As mentioned a few times on this blog, Syria is the Black Hole and Dark Star of the Islamic Small Wars: it has been drawing energy and matter, one might say, into itself and burning, and the longer it burns, the more it draws, and that includes some of the energies of two superpowers distinctly not invested in Islamic sectarian concerns except as a part of their distinct security structures.

In the early post-Soviet years, Russia appears to have neglected or sustained (both) arrangements with Syria as they were during the Cold War.  There seems perhaps to have been no basis for complaint on the part of those with power: the Assad regime improved its financial standing, the Russians maintained lucrative contracts, and the military had a decent buffer and the core of a useful naval facility (Tartus).

The “Arab Spring” that seems to be giving way to a Burning Islamic Sectarian Summer has played hard on the secular dictatorships in the region and led the theocratic states into a so-far proxy conflict in which Hezbollah today has been spilling blood while spending itself — its intellectual and logistical energies, manpower, and focus.

On the Sunni side, which may be hemmed in or contained by Russian regional interest and military backbone, the fight is as slow as experienced by the Shiite, but its financial and social impacts may be comparatively less devastating.

The absurd ends — my analogy has been “two mad wasps fighting inside a bell jar” — make this form in conflict akin to an unmanageable natural disaster that casualty and displaced person figures underscore (more than 92,000 dead with about four million persons displaced).

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FNS – Turkish Authorities Round Up Alleged Protest “Terrorists”

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

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“Police searched about 30 addresses in the capital, Ankara, and rounded up 20 people with alleged links to “terror” groups and suspected of “attacking police and the environment” during three weeks of protests that have swept Turkey, the state-run Anadolu agency reported. It was the second police sweep against demonstrators in the city this week.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/25/turkish-police-protesters-raids-ankara

The news broke about two hours ago.  One may expect the story to grow.

Reuters is doing pretty good on this beam:

“In a phone call on Monday, “the two leaders discussed the importance of non-violence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press,” the White House said in a statement.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-turkey-usa-obama-idUSBRE95O0M820130625

From Time’s World section yesterday: 

“Profound powers remain available to a Turkish Prime Minister, including a press law that accelerated Erdogan’s transition from populist to authoritarian: Turkey has more journalists in detention than has either Iran or China. Many of the detained journalists are accused of colluding with the generals charged with plotting another coup. The major media outlets in Turkey are thoroughly cowed, managers isolating reporters who irk Erdogan.

http://world.time.com/2013/06/24/erdogans-paradox-turkish-leader-struggles-between-authoritarianism-and-democracy/#ixzz2XFZzNjVL

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Erdogan – Turkey : Jobbik – Hungary — Amplifying the Politics of Division

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Politics, Psychology, Regions, Turkey

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The prime minister has repeatedly and constantly defied criticism leveled against the police for brutality against protesters during the Gezi Park unrest, despite the fact that the excessive use of police force during the unrest in the country since May 3 has resulted in the deaths of three protesters and one police officer and the injury of nearly 5,000 people.

Gunes, Erdem. “Two wise men refuse to attend meeting with Turkish Prime Minister because of Gezi unrest.”  Huriyet Daily News, June 25, 2013.

While the world should not mistake accommodation, compassion, compromise, and kindness for weakness, the fear that a part of it may would seem to propel the opposite: the want of an iron fist.

Turks who may read about Prime Minister Erdogan in Huriyet have been delivered the impression of an autocrat, and one may expect further amplification and cleaving along that seam.  On one side: a dangerous nationalism and the rise of a “strong man” in the too familiar vein, the kind that references “the interest rate lobby” without intending to refer to the Chinese (to whom the world’s largest bank belongs); on the other, a more compassionate, comprehending, and more inclusive humanity, the kind that with Moses and the Jews becomes the “mixed multitude” that leaves Pharaoh and abandons him to his fate.

Turks have grown disgruntled over the headstrong prime minister’s increasingly autocratic leadership and the opaque decision making of a powerful centralized state that is unresponsive to the needs of Turkish citizens, especially those outside Erdogan’s nationalist and Islamic coalition.

Phillips, James and Andrew Scarpitta.  “Turkish Protests Undermine Erdogan and His Foreign Policy.”  The Foundry, blog, Heritage Foundation, June 24, 2013.

What Erdogan may represent is not only Erdogan’s problem.

This comes by way of another front, this one European:

After dark, the respectable mask slipped. While a Jobbik official watched, I was slapped in the head by a reveler annoyed that “Jews” were at his festival. He then poured a beer over my head. Although irritating and sticky, it could have been worse —I was in a forest at night surrounded by thousands of nationalists and stalls selling whips and axes.

Whelan, Brian.  “My Week With Hungary’s Far Right.”  Vice, May 2013.

Brian Whelan‘s clip on the Channel4News YouTube page (“The rise of the far-right in Hungary”):

“Jobbik” is “The Movement for a Better Hungary”.  The Wikipedia entry characterizes it this way:

“Jobbik has been described by scholars, different press outlets and its political opponents as fascist,[9] neo-fascist,[10] Neo-Nazi,[11] racist,[12] anti-Semitic,[13] anti-Roma[14] and homophobic.[15] Measured according to its representation in the European Parliament and the National Assembly, it is Hungary’s third largest party.”

Next to that Erdogan’s “Justice and Development Party (AKP)” enjoys on Wikipedia more gentle treatment, but even so, according to Wikipedia, “The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party.”

For compassionate liberals, no more signal than “Islamist Virtue Party” is needed, for it resonates worldwide today with police units formed around “the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice”.  Moreover, in Islamic states, the same signals the room for maneuver given to venal “takfir” — those who accuse others of blasphemy, which in theocracies provides ever the accuser’s gateway to murder, theft, and revenge.

I feel inspired by the video featured on this post — fill in the blanks: “We have an internal problem that is ___________, and an external threat . . . the Jewish invasion . . . We know there is a global Zionist fund controlling the whole world, including the U.S. and the European Union . . .  It is thanks to them that ________ has become a mess since ________.”

It would seem the political imposition of purity standards — nationalist, racist, or religious — pernicious and divisive from any perspective.

In the larger politics and its psychology, growing Hungarian and Turkish nationalism would seem to share similar characteristics: deflection of responsibility (blame it on the “interest rate lobby” and similarly convenient foils; craving for a uniform cast and homogeneous society (please, no freethinkers, liberals, or Gypsies); want of power and strength by way of a demonstrated and punishing will altogether lacking in compassion, empathy, and love (such a monstrous character is what is most demonstrated by the arrest of doctors attending wounded at demonstrations).

Additional Reference

Arango, Tim.  “Turkish Liberals Turn Their Backs on Erdogan.”  The New York Times, June 19, 2013.

Hanley, Ken.  “Op-Ed: Turkish government to investigate doctors who treated protesters.”  Digital Journal, June 17, 2013:

The Turkish Health Ministry demanded a list of all doctors who had treated injured demonstrators. The Turkish Medical Association (TBB) reported the demand.

Nationalism Studies Network

National Movements & Intermediary Structures in Europe

Vogt, Jonas.  “Far-Right Terror in Hungary.”  Vice, June 2012.

Williams, Lonna Lisa.  “Turkish doctors protest by striking.”  Digital Journal, June 17, 2013:

“The doctors were only trying to help the protesters by giving them emergency medical aid in the clinic set up inside the Divan Hotel,” one witness told me. “The police marched right into the five-star hotel and arrested these doctors dressed in white lab coats. They were led off with their hand behind them, handcuffed.”

FNS – Lebanon – Tanks Move in the Streets

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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From AFP:

From Al Jazeera:

NOW.  “Live Coverage: Sidon fighting sparks tension.”  June 24, 2013.

Is comment necessary?

As mentioned yesterday, the natural drift of Syria’s bitching sectarian and factional conflict into the Lebanese sphere has both clarified and amplified the same tensions in Lebanon and those may not be quelled in a day or two.  In fact, the resentments and rivalries and perceived stakes have been building for years, and the passions surfacing into a hail of bullets do so distinctly absent of reason.

It’s the programming that fights.

Additional Reference

AFP Videos – English (YouTube)

Al Jazeera.  “Deadly fighting rages in Lebanon.”  June 24, 2013.

El Deeb, Sarah.  “Lebanon Clashes Leave At Least 16 Soldiers Dead at Sidon Mosque.”  Huffington Post, June 24, 2013:

The maverick cleric was little known until few years ago and his growing following was a symptom of the deep frustration among Sunnis who resent the Hezbollah-led Shiite ascendancy to power in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its allies dominate Lebanon’s government.

Siryoti, Daniel and David Baron.  “”Lebanon on the brink of war as sectarian violence enters second day.”  Israel Hayom, June 24, 2013.