OPINION

To Topple Assad, It Takes a Minority By BASSMA KODMANI Published: July 31, 2011 The Syrian opposition must convince his fellow Alawites that they can safely turn against the regime.

(via azspot)

yet another amazing episode from DemocracyNow!

BBC News: Rafik Hariri Assassination Arrest Warrants Issued By U.N. Court

markellison:

youlikemealready:

A Committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs.

Ask Any Of The Better Imperial States & They’ll Tell You: Make the people you’re grinding to death under the heel of your boot pay for the privilege. Freedom isn’t free, friends.

Um. Dude.

(via Showdown in Tehran - By Vali Nasr | Foreign Policy)

Greek government faces “moment of truth” due to the country’s vote of no confidence conducted today.

A little economic analysis:

Read the full BBC article and view more charts and quotes regarding this pinnacle moment in Greece’s current day politics.

But the estate tax was meant to do more than bolster budgets and aid charities. From its inception, it was meant to ward off the emergence of a hereditary aristocracy in the United States. Established in 1916, the tax was a populist response to the excesses of the Gilded Age. President Theodore Roosevelt justified it by arguing that society has a claim upon the fortunes of its wealthy. Roosevelt pointed out that “most great civilized countries have an income tax and an inheritance tax. In my judgment both should be part of our system of federal taxation.” Such taxation, he noted, should “be aimed merely at the inheritance or transmission in their entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits.”

(Source: azspot)

markellison:

cassket:

Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, whose blog A Gay Girl in Damascus chronicled her struggle against oppression in Syria, has been kidnapped. Her cousin Rania Ismail writes that she was captured by three men assumed to be “assumed to be members of one of the security services or the Baath Party militia.” Her relatives are looking for any information about her. Ismail’s post concludes chillingly:

We are hoping she is simply in jail and nothing worse has happened to her. Amina had previously sent me several texts to post should something happen to her and we will wait until we have definite word before doing so.

This cannot end well.

Iranian Majlis Bill: Arrest Westerners In Response To West’s Arrest Of Iranians

The Iranian Majlis National Security Committee is discussing a bill on arresting citizens of Western countries in response to the arrest of Iranian citizens in the West.

The Iranians were accused of purchasing military equipment, circumventing the sanctions on Iran.

Source: Yjc.ir, May 29, 2011

More than 50 killed since Sunday in new wave of Yemen unrest 

According to the United Nations, more than 50 people have been killed in demonstrations in the southern city of Taiz since Sunday, raising fears of a civil war break out in the country. “The city is boiling,” said activist Ghazi al Samie. “All shops have been closed and government employees did not go to work and armored military vehicles blocked all the roads leading to the city to prevent people from nearing districts to join the protesters.” Elsewhere, in the capital of Sanaa, a new round of fighting has broken out between tribesmen and President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces — effectively ending a truce that was agreed upon at the weekend. Government forces attacked the home of Sheik Sadeq al Ahmar, the leader of the most powerful tribal confederation in the country and who has joined the opposition. Al Ahmar’s followers, in turn, reoccupied several government buildings they had lost control of. Demonstrations are expected to continue in other cities across the country as the President refuses to step down from power.  

Headlines

• Palestinians plan to approach UN Security Council about statehood in July.  
• Syrian forces kill at least 11 civilians on Sunday, according to prominent human rights campaigner. 
• Turkish activists mass rally in Turkey to mark the death of nine activists killed in the Gaza aid flotilla last May.
• Saudi woman arrested for driving is released, after having been detained for defying the country’s ban on women drivers.
• Libyan state television shows Qaddafi greeting the South African president as military chiefs announce their defection in Rome.  

The Iranian news agency Fars reports that an Iranian flotilla consisting of two ships with 120 volunteers set sail yesterday for Bahrain, as a sign of solidarity with the Bahraini people.

Egypt’s foreign minister has been confirmed as the Arab League’s next chief, after last minute diplomacy left him as the only candidate in the race.

(I don’t like the sounds of “left him as the only candidate in the race”… anyone else?)

Egypt changed its candidate for head of the 22-member Arab organisation at the last minute on Sunday, backing Nabil Elaraby, who was quickly elected.

He replaces Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, who after 10 years as the organisation’s chief has resigned in order to run for the office of president in Egypt.

Interesting… we’ll see how this changes the game between Egypt and its neighbors, not to mention “us” over here in the West. 

Quote Source: Al Jazeera “Egypt FM elected next Arab League chief”

I. Warnings Against fitna, as the cycle of Revolt and repression plays out in Syria and continues to threaten Bashad Assad’s regime. 

• “In any event, the regime has long relied on divide-and-rule tactics. Provincial governors are posted to towns other than their own; army conscripts tend to serve in areas with which they are unfamiliar. Posters have been appearing on walls, warning ominously against fitna, an Arabic word for division that has sectarian overtones.”

II. But the biggest divide is and has not been sectarian, but rather between the haves and the have-nots. (Not a huge surprise to this blogger….)  

• “But the biggest fissure, and a chief cause of the unrest now roiling the country, is between haves and have-nots rather than religious or ethnic groups. A popular chant among the protesters is “One! One! One! Syrians are one!” Most Syrians are practising Muslims, but the young people who have predominated in the crowds of protesters are connected to their compatriots more by the internet than by religion.
• “Fears of sectarian strife are massively overblown,” says Rime Allaf, an expert on Syria at Chatham House, a foreign-policy think-tank in London. “No one is claiming all the sects love each other but there is no history of sectarian strife in Syria and little appetite for it now.” A good three-quarters of Syrians are Sunni, whereas around a tenth are Alawites and a tenth Christian.

III. The bigger problem for the movement: Lack of Leadership. 

Reminds me of the green ribbons in Iran asking for guidance…. 

A bigger problem for the opposition is that it has no obvious coherence or leadership. Political parties have been illegal. Syrians who have started civil groups have often been jailed. In 2001, after a brief breathing space following Hafez Assad’s death known as the Damascus Spring, the new president clamped down on dissent. In 2005 there was another flurry of debate, as some well-known dissidents were freed, but once again it was short-lived.

Who should lead? Enter religion… because you know it’s a huge factor globally, not just the in region….*cough* which brings us to section IV. 

• “The exiled opposition, including Mr Khaddam in Paris, the Islamist Movement for Justice and Development in London, and the Reform Party of Farid Ghadry in Washington, has never taken off. But inside Syria some of the signatories of the Damascus Declaration, an alliance of secular Syrians, Kurds and Islamists who got together in 2005, have been speaking out and are better known. More than 150 people have signed a new “national initiative for democratic change”.
• Some of them are previous signatories of the Damascus Declaration. They include secular people, Islamists, Kurds and young campaigners who have recently emerged from the street in cities all over Syria. A network of young campaigners, including prominent women, such as Suheir Atassi, have been pushed into taking more overtly political role. Young writers and human-rights activists who have lobbied for causes such as Iraqi refugees have come to the fore. Riad Turk, a Sunni businessman who spent 25 years in jail, is a widely respected supporter. For the first time in years, the protests have been giving Syrians a chance to discuss the future outside the clamps of the Baath party. They all agree that one-party rule should end.
• The Muslim Brotherhood, membership of which still carries the death penalty, would certainly benefit from Mr Assad’s fall. But its exiled leaders, as elsewhere in the Middle East, are at pains to promote a non-violent vision. Muhammad Riad Shaqfa, the Syrian Brothers’ London-based leader, says he does not want an Islamist state. But Syria’s Islamists vary. The Sunnis vary too. Most of them shun political Islam. Radical Sunni parties had to remain underground. But most observers doubt they would be very popular if allowed to be legal.

IV. West Side, Where You At? 

• Whereas the United States and European governments have castigated the Syrian government for shooting protesters, virtually all Arab governments in the vicinity have been silent, fearing a sectarian spillover if the strife were to worsen and spread. Turkey, which shares a border of 900km (560 miles) with Syria and dreads an influx of refugees, especially Kurds, has been the odd neighbour out. Its government has enjoyed good relations with Syria’s for the past few years. But Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has publicly urged Mr Assad to use “maximum self-restraint” in dealing with the protests. It seems unlikely that Mr Assad will heed his words. But, even if he kills a lot more protesters, the momentum is against him.

SOURCE: The Economist

“An Egyptian court has sentenced former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly to 12 years in prison for corruption.” -VOA

Surprisingly, he is the first one to have been sentenced since Mubarak stepped down from power this February.