Why Michael J. Totten and Thomas Friedman are wrong about Ramallah

It's a heck of a lot different coming to the West Bank from Israel than from the rest of the Arab Middle East. Coming from Israel it seems poor, chaotic and donkey-cart driven. From the Arab Middle East (I have spent the last 3 months in Lebanon, Syrian and Jordan) it seems to be ripe with foreign investment, filled with NGO's and uncharacteristically bi-lingual in English.

Upon arriving (at least this time around) I thought: "Geez. I mean, say what you want about the occupation but the reality may not be so bad.” Palestinians on the West Bank are not in tents—like a sizeable number of refugees are in the camps of Lebanon for example.

But for me, this "not so bad" way of thinking has ended. For it's not the physical investment that makes for the West Banks inhumanity; it's the walls, checkpoints and general lack of freedom (both Israel and now the PA) that make the people fearful and angry.



Just today I traveled from Bethlehem to Ramallah by service taxi, or microbus. It should take no more than 20 min, but it's really over an hours drive because of the settlement-weaving roads across the West Bank.

Nobody in the service taxi—except for me and my almost embarrassing freedom to travel as a foreign journalist—has the “right” to drive across Israel proper. Our "long route" route took us through two Israeli checkpoints; in which the Israeli solders was needlessly rough in questioning and collecting papers.


So, people like Michael J. Totten who have blogged that Ramallah really isn't that bad are missing the whole point. It's not about the new flash of a few West Bank cities, it's about the humiliation and fear that is deliberate with the occupation on the West Bank.

Thomas Friedman seemed to have a similar “positive experience” in Ramallah last month with his flurry of NY Times articles too.

In conclusion, I’m going to outsource the final words to one of the best and most well respected Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, of Haaretz:

‘[T]he prosperity in Ramallah and Nablus is misleading, just as it was misleading between 1996 and 2000, when the Israeli media and the Oslo spin doctors were impressed by all the coffee shops and high-tech companies. Today, as back then, the people so impressed are visitors-for-a-moment who engage in occupation denial.'

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Update: As-Salibi had an intresting take on this post. Perhaps this says somthing about how Michael J. Totten gets his "stuff." He rants in an email:

"In your post, you mention Totten's op-ed. In it, the 'Palestinian journalist' Khaled Abu Toameh is quoted as an expert on Ramallah/the West Bank. This is the same person who penned the 'Ma'an confirms organ story' report/blood libel for
JPost."

Update II: The story from the Evangelical Church "crusade" I covered in Jerusalem.

Support for the war in Afghanistan waning...

It seems that every Tom, Dick and Harry who once supported this so-called "GOOD WAR" in Afghanistan is starting to flee the ship. Or, as it could be put: When the ship sinks, the rats flee. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but really folks, I don't hear anyone boldly defending this war at the moment.

In fact, Al Jazeera reports:

"A key aide to Bob Ainsworth, the UK defence secretary, has resigned and criticised the UK's mission in Afghanistan."

Eric Joyce, the "key aide," basically said that we have already shut down transnational terror groups (al-Qaeda etc) and keeping the same involvement isn't going to make the streets of London any safer. Point taken. And as epic last words, he said to NATO:

"Britain fights; Germany pays, France calculates; Italy avoids".

So what's the word gang? Can anyone support Obama's policy of escalation right now?

To the comments section!


Update: Check out a little myth vs fact on Afghanistan. By Malou Innocent.

The Roman water wheel in Hama, Syria

Make sure you can HEAR this 1,000 year old relic creak as it spins. (Huh?) Yes, turn on your speaker, darn it.

The Best of Syria

(A Bedouin ridding along Syrian highway.)

(The old Roman water wheel in Homs, Syria.)

(The best and most preserved crusader castle in Syria. Oh, the Krak des Chevaliers.)

(Oh, the Krak.)

(The Krak.)

(A cool Persian carving stored in the museum in Aleppo, Syria.)

(A very cool Persian carving in Palmyra, Syria.)

The old Roman theater in Palmyra, Syria. Notice how preserved the rock carving still is. Wow.

(The slow weathering of an old column in Palmyra, Syria.)

(A Syrian Arab with a headscarf flyin’ my way. Palmyra, Syria.)

(Palmyra, Syria.)

(Could this Syrian bus be anymore loaded?)

Comments?

tolerating intolerance

In case you have not been following, The Rooster and I have been in a heated debate on Israel/Palestine in the comments section of the last post. We basically have been talking about how horrifying it is that some crazy Islamist in the Gaza Strip ban the teaching of the Holocaust; while at the same time many in Israel move forward in the legal process to ban the teaching of the Nakba (Palestinian exodus in 1948) in public schools.

Yes, this is truly pathetic on both sides. And in a region that is home to some of the best Holocaust/Nakba scholars in the world, I for one, simply expect better. But what can you say? It seems that anger clouds judgment.

So in an attempt to woo some more debate, I thought I'd give two more examples from the global stage:

1. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman brought a bunch of arms
dealers with him to Ethiopia this week on this African tour. Umm… Read the
story here.

2. As Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, celebrates his
over 40 years of rule, he decided to reiterate his stance that Israel is responsible for all of Africa's wars, including the spread of diseases--like aids. Click here for
the story.

So what is wrong with these people? (That was my first question.) Is this simply political maneuvering? When does the rest of the world simply stop tolerating this kind of intolerance?

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Update: And if that was not enough, read about Jaerock Lee, the evangelical who I am covering this weekend in Jerusalem. The "rally for peace" will have over 3,000 people, from over 36 different countries. Upon researching the good Rev., he claims to talk with angels and have a 100% sinless body. Hmmm... Should be interesting.

Update #2: Click here to read the Jpost article on this event/guy.

The Muslims Who Saved The Jews

Well, this article seems ever so appropriately timed. Why is that you ask? Hmmm, for starters, it coincides with a recent story featured on Huffpost detailing the Hamas religious leader that openly rejected the UN proposal to include the Holocaust of WWII in Gaza school curriculum calling such a proposal to teach school children about the Nazi murder of over 6 million Jews a "war crime". Ok, "and" you say? Well, as a caveat to that story and as a possible addition to the proposed school curriculum, one might suggest to Younis al-Astal, the leader that recently denied the holocaust, the following story:

During the Nazi occupation of Albania and Kosovo during the second World War, Jews facing persecution and death (i.e. Holocaust) had a small group of seemingly unlikely allies - Muslims. Sixty-five people (all Muslims) managed to save some 2,000 Jews, and have been honored by the Jewish Holocaust Memorial as righteous among nations.

Photographer Norman Gershman spent five years taking photos of them and collecting their stories. They've been published in a new book titled, "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II."

Here is an interview on NPR with the author: Click Here.

After listening to the story, do you have any other questions? I do. Does denying the events of WWII degrade and demean the heroic acts of devout Muslims who risked their lives to save others who were hunted and persecuted? What would the Muslims from this story say to those who deny the Holocaust and the events they witnessed and reacted to? Can this story serve as a bridge between Muslims and Jews in any form? Would you suggest this story as a response to Muslim Holocaust deniers? I'll let you answer these questions in the comments section.

Hassan Nasrallah speaking in Dahiya (Hezbollah) - Friday, August 14, 2009

Click here to watch

Though the Syrian secret police would have been fine with me posting this video on The Casbah from Damascus, the snail-paced internet just wouldn't have it.

This video was taken by a good friend of The Casbah in Dahiya, a Shia suburb of Beirut, on August 13, 2009. This rally was to commemorate the third anniversary of Hezbollah's war with Israel.

I am impressed by how organized the rally looks. In a region of governing chaos, looks like Hezbollah has it more together than the vast majority of Arab regimes--perhaps all of 'em.

Thoughts?

Leading by Example

A poem a good friend sent me:

Leading by Example
By Phyllis DeBlanche

Evenings I would see them
the young man, the old dog
walking at the pace of age
my heart would break and fill
as the pair slowly moved along
endless patience and love
on both ends of that leash

Comments?