Al Jazeera has produced a few programs recently that engage with the topic of the Israel Lobby; the Inside Iraq program features a short debate between John Mearsheimer and Norman Finkelstein; Frontline America also recently examined the influence of the Israel Lobby on Capitol Hill.

Inside Iraq - Motives for war - 04 April 08

Inside Iraq examines the ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ reasons the US invaded Iraq.

Part 1 (12.09)

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UPDATE II: The clearest video clip yet:

Following from the UCLA student tasered last November, another incident is rapidly making its way to international coverage across the web. This time, the student has been tasered for asking a question outside of Q & A time at a Senator John Kerry Town Hall Forum at the University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, on Sept 17.

At first sight, the video clip is rather disturbing. It behooves us to investigate further and to mention the prior lead-up however, without for a minute condoning the use of these stun-guns. Partial, over-drawn misrepresentations do not help anybody, least of all those of us who cherish our freedoms and who roundly reject the creeping criminalisation of dissent.

By most accounts (a collection of links compiled by the local Gainsville Sun press appears here), all UF journalism student Andrew Meyer, 21, did was ask a few questions at or near the termination of a Q & A at this event. A video clip hosted here seems to show more coverage of Meyer’s questions than do the clips available at YouTube. Video clip subsequently posted above shows better coverage of Andrew Meyer’s questions; youtube user Fozzymandias writes:

I couldn’t get to my camera in time to record his entrance, but this guy basically comes running in with 4 or 5 cops in tow and says he has been running around trying to get in to ask a question and the cops are going to arrest him for it. they almost do it then but Sen. Kerry says he will answer it.

The questions, though stridently expressed, appear to be neither rude nor threatening. Meyer first asks Senator Kerry why he had too readily conceded the 2004 presidential election when there were obvious examples of voter machine fraud, disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida and Ohio and the compelling case that Kerry had won; Meyer refers to a copy of investigative journalist Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse in his hand. He quickly follows with the question of why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush especially with another act of military aggression gearing up, this time towards Iran, and ends by asking about Kerry’s membership in the Yale-based Skull and Bones secret society (last part of the question recorded in youtube video clips, appended). Read the rest of this entry »

Mark’s website is here.

Jewish American peace activist Anna Baltzer has been doing exemplary peacework in Palestine for awhile now, so it is wonderful to see dear friend Ben Heine, the brilliant Belgian artist, take up the great suggestion to draw Anna’s caricature-portrait. Ben drew an inspired portrait modeled on Michaelangelo’s famous Pietà and has just posted a great feature of Anna’s work here. Thanks to Ressentiment for the heads up on Anna’s work and website.

In these two video snippets from her DVD (available here), Anna speaks directly about her experiences and describes the situation in Palestine on the ground from first hand experience. Her testimony about the experiences of ordinary people and not simply that of statesmen is delivered in a clear and lucid manner with reference to her own photographs and visuals.

More:

Anna’s website | Blog | Book | DVD | Photo albums | Yahoo group-list

Roadblocks and Settlements (6.41)

Outposts, Israeli peace activists and refuseniks (10.07)

Anna’s website | Blog | Book | DVD | Photo albums | Yahoo group-list

Signature - William Blake: One who is very much delighted with being in good company.

When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.
– William Blake

A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent.

From Auguries of Innocence:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

If a thing loves, it is infinite.

Opposition is true friendship.

What is it men in women do require? The lineaments of Gratified Desire. / What is it women do in men require? The lineaments of Gratified Desire.
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Friends, hope you have a terrific weekend; I’ll be back on the blog deck proper next week, but in the meanwhile, here’s a musical interlude. For some, this may be an introduction, to others, simply a revisit to these three recent generations of Arab singing divas.

I have selected but three or four of the leading lights, and my last selection features a 16 y. o. rising star who reprises a song by my first chosen singer and the biggest singing superstar in Middle East modern history, bringing it full circle.

It is fair to say that the Arab world worships its singers, particularly its female singers. A rather nice feature is that they are all crowd pullers whatever their age — something we tend not to see in the West with female singers unless they’re opera singers. (How many female Frank Sinatras do we see still singing and performing into their seventies? I can’t think of one).

My choices: Lebanon has produced the beautiful voice of Fairouz, much loved all over the diverse Arab world, and now about 70. But the biggest star in the constellation, bigger than Elvis in her day, is Egypt’s Oum Koulthoum/ Umm Kulsum (1904 - 1975) [NB. spelled and pronounced Kulsoum in Egyptian Arabic].

Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan dug her music (1966 Playboy interview). Maria Callas called her The Incomparable Voice. Umm Kulsum drew from her religious singing background in which her father, an Imam, taught her to sing verses from the Qu’ran. She went on to become the biggest Middle Eastern diva of the twentieth century and still sells like hotcakes today. Her’s is a life inextricably entwined with the modern history of Egypt: before becoming President, Nasser was a huge fan and his radio campaigns would follow her programs, arguably boosting his popularity by association. Millions mourned her passing in 1975, with more than a million taking to the streets in homage on the day of her state funeral (historic footage here).

Here was singing that produced tarab-musical ecstasy. As helpfully cited in Rudy Meixell’s Oum Kalthoum for Non-Arab Ears: An Incomplete Guide (worth a read but lapsed links at foot of page):

The intensity of tarab depends primarily on the voice and performance style of the singer, as exemplified by Umm Kulthum. Her performances often only approximately followed the fixed rhythmic-temporal organization of the melody. She would strip some melodic passages of their strict rhythmic form in order to repeat, vary, and paraphrase individual sections in an improvisatory way or transform the musical material more dramatically within the framework of traditional modal principles.

Her presentation thus hovered between that which she performed and that which she created herself. The musical contrast between the familiar and fixed on the one side and the new, freely structured though related on the other creates, in general, a tension whose up and down evokes tarab in the listener. The emphasis of this contrast represents the most striking stylistic element of Umm Kulthum’s artistry.” (Music of the Arabs, p.149)

So here’s but a snippet of the legendary Umm Kulsum, and there’s more on the web. My favourites are Amal Hayati and Ya Zaloumni but they are quite long for this introductory post. The poetry of the lyrics will not leap at you unless you understand Arabic but her voice is divine (2.14):

And on to Lebanon’s Fairouz, equally legendary and much loved and still with us. I grew up with my grandmother singing sweet Fairouz songs to me. If I had to nominate a favourite song, it would be one that was my constant companion during the sadistic attacks on and destruction of Lebanon last year by the insane Israeli government: Sakana al-Layal (The Night Became Calm). The lyrics are by Khalil Gibran (yes, the one who wrote The Prophet) and it can be listened to here (with translated lyrics in English).

Here’s Fairouz in Las Vegas, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 1999, performing Khedni “Take Me” (4.49)

Now, the younger set. I’m not as familiar with the contemporary scene, having first learned to appreciate the old-timers rather than the reverse, but I have picked two singers, one established: Haifa Wehbe (Lebanon), and the other a 16 y.o. rising star from Syria: Shahad.

In contrast to Fairouz’s sedate stage minimalism, this vid features Haifa’s coquettish theatrics and hair-flicking made even more famous by great Lebanese comedic impersonator Bassem Feghali (he does a fantastic send-up of Sabah, too, in which he also sings and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart). Fashionistas will love Haifa’s emerald dress.

Haifa Wehbe (8 m– 2 songs)

And the tradition continues with an amazing young talent with a voice, grace and maturity beyond her 16 years, with Syria’s Shahad Barmada who reprises the greats very well. Here’s her singing Oum Kulsoum’s Alf leyla wa leyla: A Thousand and One Nights (3 minutes):

Finally, on the quintessentially Arabic instrument (with thanks to the Persian influence), Syrian singer and musician Farid el-Atrache plays the traditional oud (6m). I should add that until seeing this I had no idea this famous singer was also an accomplished oudist.

Some time-pressed recent links I found of interest rather than write-up(s) as I take some time out.

Like many people, I have experimented with social bookmarking sites (Reddit, Newsvine, Clipmarks, Delicious, Digg etc) that are very useful in collecting and organising your bookmarked links, though they do seem to be predicated upon the links being permanently live — if you also use primary news sources such as press agencies (Reuters, AP), you’ll know that often valuable articles are not archived and URL links lapse.

So a year ago, I started up a group-list, commonly used for notification and/ or as fora for discussion, simply for the purposes of archiving articles. The articles are all full-text contemporary political pieces I find valuable and/or interesting and send to the list where they can be archived and accessed anytime, anywhere, by members. My fellow members are free to add to and access articles in this shared archive. I’m going to open it up for subscription for a short time for those who may be interested in the types of issues Peoples Geography covers. As it can be a high volume list, I encourage people to choose the Daily Digest or No Email option which I myself choose (lets you access all articles online rather than receiving them individually by email online). Click here if you happen to be interested in joining.

Australia

Two issues have marked media coverage: Defence Minister Brendan Nelson’s admission that the war on Iraq was, in part, about oil, and the federal government’s heavy-handed approach sending in the military to remote indigenous communities using child protection as a justification.

• ABC News (Australia), Iraq deployment linked to oil: Nelson, 5 July
• Adrian Newstead, Paternalism, Petrol and Paedophilia, HomePage Daily, nd
• Dave on Fire, Apartheid Down Under - Welfare, Not Warfare, 26 June
• Peter Robson, Indigenous communities reject Howard’s racist hypocrisy, GLW, 29 June
• The Orstrahyun, Howard Hits Iraq Oil Slick As Truth Becomes A WMD/ Murdoch’s Media Rewrites Stories After Furious Calls From Prime Minister’s Office, 7 July
• James Sturcke, Oil a factor in Iraq conflict, says Australian defence minister, Guardian, 5 July

Economy

• Monte Asbury, (On Kiva): I helped Grace’s business!, 4th July
• Catherine Austin Fitts, The American Tapeworm (Overcoming Tapeworm Economics)
• Mike Whitney, Another Great Depression?: The Fed’s Role in the Bear Stearns Hedge Funds Meltdown, Global Research, 1 July

Iran

• Al Alam, Iran, Iraq to Build Joint Power Plant
• IRIN, Iran, Venezuela to establish joint oil company, Payvand, 3 July

Iraq

• Pepe Escobar, Iraq, the new Israel, Asia Times, 6 July
• 24 Steps to Liberty, “Soft Partition” of Iraq!, 7 July
• David Bacon, Iraqi Oil: A Benchmark or a Giveaway? Why Iraqi oil workers oppose the much-vaunted oil law, The American Prospect, 6 July
• Sarah Baxter, Powell tried to talk Bush out of war, Sunday Times, 8 July:
  THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

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Poet Remi Kanazi’s most recent article Prism of Peace: The Failure of the Israeli Left and the Two-State Solution is a good restatement of the case for moving beyond what is increasingly seen as the false promise of the so-called two state “solution”.

New Yorker Remi is a Palestinian American poet and freelance writer who lives online at Poetic Injustice; see also Poets for Palestine, a forthcoming book of poetry he has edited.

In this short video clip, he recites two of his poems at a Lebanon Rally last year after the Israeli attack:

To Exist Is To Resist and Free Yourself (3:45)

Social Bookmarks:

Iraqi Artist: Abdul Ameer Alwan (born Baghdad, 1955)

We are rallying for peace, justice and reconciliation, for dignity and the right of Palestinians to live peacefully on their land. We are rallying against the brutal occupation and apartheid laws and practices. Israel must reconcile itself to peace and to the region if it is to finally attain legitimacy and acceptance in the world community, and security for itself.

We are rallying because, allegorically, we are all Palestinians.

We are rallying because we ask not for whom the bell tolls (Donne), because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere (King).

We are rallying to end the Occupation in its engine-room, the Israeli-occupied territory of Washington DC that allows the Likudnik neocons to invade and pillage any country they choose to bully, threatening human life, peaceful co-existence and common dignity everywhere. We rally in many cities but perhaps Washington is the most important in this respect.

We are rallying for Palestine, for Iraq, for Afghanistan, for Lebanon, for Somalia, for all populations that have suffered from being theatres of war, or threatened with the prospect.

We are rallying because, to update the great words of Pastor Martin Niemöller for the new millennium:

First they came for the immigrants,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t an immigrant.
Then they came for the Palestinians,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Palestinian.
Then they came for the Muslims,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Muslim.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was not a union member.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

We are rallying to reclaim our agency and because another world is possible achievable.

Pertinent links (just from the last day or two):

• • JUST ADDED: Ali Abunimah, Its not just the occupation (see article after the ‘More’ break)
  • Dutch videos, The Six-Day War Deceptions Part One; Part Two
  • Jeffrey St. Clair, Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited
  • Al Haq Report, Wilful Killing of 72-Year-Old Civilian by Israeli Forces in Hebron
  • Ilene R. Prusher, Israelis protest to mark Six-Day War
  • Dr Gideon Polya, Apartheid Israel’s 40th Anniversary
  • Al Jazeera + Agencies, Israeli troops shoot Hebron family
  • AFP, Israelis expand West Bank settlements
  • Jonathan Cook, Defending Israel from democracy: The Shin Bet and the persecution of Azmi Bishara
  • Sharmila Devi and Harvey Morris, New UN map charts West Bank reality
  • ICAHD-USA, Constructing Peace Campaign
  • Chris Hedges, Israel’s 40 Years of Occupation: From Democratic State to Violent Oppressor
• Boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign—-boycott Israeli products:

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UPDATE from Franklin Lamb courtesy Jeff Blankfort:

Update: Saturday, June 3, 4 a.m. Tripoli Time
Contrary to many media reports the Lebanese Army has not entered deeply into Nahr al-Bared. According to PLO Fatah official Abu Imad Halwani this morning, the Army has “not entered the camp, but have been besieging it from the north and the east”. The army has heavily shelled much of the camp but the positions they currently control include only peripheral sniper positions of Fatah al-Islam around the edge of the camp. There are many untouched underground bunkers and tunnels.

Media and Army estimates of casualties are very speculative since no one has any idea, with 20 hours of intensive shelling, how many are dead or wounded there are among civilians and Fatah al-Islam. Two hours ago the Army announced that it lost 5 more troops today bringing its total to 40.

The government and Army are disposed to minimizing the number of civilians killed by their bombardment lest the other 11 Palestinian Camps in Lebanon erupt with violence.

What is clear is that the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians inside Nahr al-Bared is almost beyond description, with up to 11,000 hunkered down praying they will remain alive. It appears that the next two days will clarify whether the army actually has made deep inroads towards taking the Camp and expelling Fatah al-Islam, who minutes ago denied that their leader, Shakir al-Absi is wounded or cornered, according to FAI’s deputy leader and military commander, Mohammad Abu Hureira. FL

The Lebanese Army have entered Nahr al Bared, the Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Set up in 1948 originally as a temporary home to shelter those refugees driven from their homeland after the creation of Israel, it is now one of twelve camps housing a good number of Lebanon’s 400 000 Palestinian refugees, now one tenth of the population.

The entrance of the Lebanese Army is significant not only because of the recent clash between a recent shadowy militant group Fatah al Islam backed by the Saudis, US Neocons and Siniora and the loss of innocent lives after indiscriminate bombing, but because by a 1969 Arab agreement, the Lebanese Army has not entered a Palestinian refugee camp in decades to maintain calm and ameliorate tensions that may lead to another civil war.

Here’s Lamb’s latest dispatch in which he takes stock of the likely beneficiaries and the losers in this conflict, and the implications for Lebanon, the US and the region. I can only hope his hunches are right when he writes:

Significant losers also include the Bush administration whose project has been fairly widely exposed. Possible personal losers may be anyone including David Welch, Eliot Abrams, Dick Cheney et al. shown to have violated US federal law, including, but not limited to, several provisions of the US Patriot Act, to wit: providing material support for terrorists and violating title III, “International Money Laundering”.

Franklin Lamb, writing from Bibnin Akkar, opposite Nahr al-Bared Palestinian Camp, Lebanon:

The Lebanese Army is poised to enter.

With fighting raging this June 1, 2007, humid afternoon, less than 200 yards from the front line Lebanese army position, reporters huddled behind cinder block walls in Bibnin Akkar, speculate that the Army will shortly enter deeply into Nahr al-Bared unless repelled. The smell of rotting corpses which have not been able to be retrieved this past week are pungent across the Tripoli-Syria road as more than 80 Lebanese army Tanks and APC’s line up along the road, gun pointing into Nahr al-Bared. There appear about one thousand nervous Lebanese troops behind cover awaiting orders at 3:30 pm local time as their leaders assess the situation.

Nearly two weeks into the fighting at Nahr al-Bared (Cold River) Palestinian Refugee Camp) across the Tripoli-Syria highway, from the beautiful Sunni Lebanese mountainside village of Bignin Akkar, the fog may be lifting a bit allowing for some tentative findings concerning the short term political consequences of what happened here.

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**UPDATE June 1-2: See Lamb’s Lebanese Army Enter Nahr al-Bared

In his most recent piece (update: now posted at Counterpunch), Franklin Lamb expounds further upon the proposed US airbase in northern Lebanon as the rationale for the recent terrible covert operations that saw dozens of Palestinian civilians, Fatah al-Islam and Lebanese Army soldiers lose their lives. The proposed airbase — marketed as a US/ NATO initiative, with an Israeli lineage going back to the Phalangists — was a topic previously broached in his previous articles and he elaborates here. Boldface emphasis is mine, and I have made slight editing corrections for misspelled words.

It’s the US air base, Stupid!: Memorandum on the planned US Air base at Kleiaat
from Franklin Lamb

Bibnin Akkar, Lebanon, site of proposed US Air base
Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee Camp

On July 14, 1982, (Bastille Day) the late Bashir Gemayel sat with Ariel Sharon, Raphael Eytan, and Danny Yalon at the French flag draped Le Chef Restaurant in Achrafieh, east Beirut for one of their working lunches.

As was by now their habit, the Israelis were inclined to pressure their recently anointed selection for Lebanon’s next president. They were there to present a request for one more favor from the handsome ‘golden boy’ of the Phalange movement, as their army tightened its noose around west Beirut.

There was a good chance they would succeed. After all, Bashir was beholden to the Zionists, for their many ‘considerations’, including the arms for drugs arrangements, the weapons skimmed from what the US reflectively shipped to Israel on demand, the intelligence sharing and assassinations of Palestinians who Bashir could not abide. The trio lunching with him that day, under the celebratory French flags in this Francophone neighborhood could easily destroy Bashir Gemayel and he knew it.

Yet, despite their intimidating talk, the self described ‘cream of the IDF’, exhibiting what Bashir had often explained to his nerdy younger brother Amin, who, unexpectedly was to become his successor as President of Lebanon, and to some of his aids, was a case of ‘congenital arrogance’ erred that day.

They seriously underestimated the Palestinian hating, Muslim despising, would be phonetician [Phoenician?] Prince, Le sheik Bashir. In misjudging the charismatic Maronite, the Israeli trio had failed to appreciate that, on any day of the week, the average Lebanese is rather more sophisticated, clever, decent, and patriotic than many Israeli or American politicians give them credit for.

Sharon pulled out a piece of paper from his chest pocket, as one Phalange security person who guarded the restaurant door recalls, and shoved it across the table to Bashir. Written on it was Israel’s ‘one last request’ which contained one word: Kleiaat. Read the rest of this entry »