NBC News
'Lost golden city of Luxor' discovered by archaeologists in Egypt
Patrick Smith and Charlene Gubash and Molly Hunter
Sat, April 10, 2021, 3:30 AM·4 min read
Zahi Hawass
A "lost golden city" in Egypt dating back 3,400 years has been revealed in what is being called the most important discovery in the country since the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.
The city, buried under sands near the modern-day city of Luxor for three millennia, was uncovered in September 2020 by a team led by Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and was revealed to the world Thursday.
"This is amazing because actually we know a lot about tombs and afterlife," said Hawass while giving NBC News a tour of the site. "But now we discover a large city to tell us for the first time about the life of the people during the Golden Age."
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Image: A new archaeological discovery is seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
Image: A new archaeological discovery is seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
"Each piece of sand can tell us the lives of the people, how the people lived at the time, how the people lived in the time of the golden age, when Egypt ruled the world," he said.
"We spent a lot of time talking about mummies and talking about how they died, the ritual of their deaths. And this is the ritual of their lives."
The city is the largest uncovered from ancient Egypt and is only partly excavated. Artifacts including rings, scarabs and colored pottery confirmed the dating to the reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C.
Hawass' team was searching for Tutankhamen's Mortuary Temple and was surprised to instead find a series of mud walls rising out of the sand, some about 10 feet tall and built in a zig-zag design characteristic of the period. Other archaeologists had previously searched for and failed to find the city.
Image: Archeological discoveries are seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
Image: Archeological discoveries are seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
With its storage houses, grinding stones, ovens and areas for meat production and everyday tools still intact, the site gives a rare glimpse into a working Egyptian city.
"The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamen," Betsy Brian, a professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University, said in the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities' news release.
Curiously, the team uncovered a buried skeleton lying with arms outstretched to his side and the remains of a rope around his knees. The ministry's statement described this as "odd" and said it would be investigated.
Image: Archeological discoveries are seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
Image: Archeological discoveries are seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
A vessel, containing about 22 pounds of boiled or dried meat, came with an inscription. "That Year 37, dressed meat for the third Heb Sed festival from the slaughterhouse of the stockyard of Kha made by the butcher luwy."
The Egyptian team said this statement, which names two people who lived and worked in the city, also confirms that the city was active during Amenhotep III's reign alongside his son Akhenaten, who was succeeded by Tutankhamen.
Future excavations on a cemetery and unopened tombs at the site may help to answer even more questions about the period.
Hannah Pethen, a British archaeologist and honorary fellow of the University of Liverpool, who has worked on excavations in Egypt but wasn't involved in the Luxor dig, said the discovery was a landmark in the understanding of the region.
"Everybody loves the thought of an exciting, untouched tomb, but actually this is probably more significant and more important than if it was a pharaoh's tomb," she said.
"We have a lot of tombs and we know a lot about them, but we don't have a lot of evidence about how Egyptians lived and worked in their cities."
Image: A skeletal human remain is seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
Image: A skeletal human remain is seen in Luxor (Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology / via Reuters)
The newly discovered city is now one of three sites from around the same period — Rameses III's temple at Medinet Habu and Amenhotep III's temple at Memnon — and the newly discovered city's key role may be in confirming that things found there were common across the empire.
"This is really the major settlement on the west bank of the Nile from this period, so it's going to be directly associated with the tombs and cemeteries there, so we're adding to our understanding of that landscape. We have tombs, temples and now we have quite a big city," Pethen said.
One of the biggest mysteries of the period is why Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti, abandoned their religion and kingdom in Thebes (modern-day Luxor) to build a new city, where they worshipped the sun. Some hope the lost city will provide clues, but not everyone is optimistic.
"I wouldn't put any money on it. Ahkenaten has a habit of keeping his secrets — we've had several opportunities over the last 150 years to learn more, but somehow it's never quite come off, " Pethen said.
But as Hawass put it, our understanding of the ancient world is changing all the time: "You never know what the sand of Egypt might hide."
Charlene Gubash and Molly Hunter contributed reporting from Luxor, Egypt.
https://news.yahoo.com/inside-egypts-3- ... 11063.html
THE MIDDLE EAST
Fierce Foes, Iran and Saudi Arabia Secretly Explore Defusing Tensions
Talks between the two regional powers, if successful, could start to lower the temperature on several conflicts across the Middle East.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a prime-time television interview four years ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia dismissed the idea that his kingdom could somehow find an accommodation with its archrival, Iran.
“How do we communicate?” he asked. “The mutual points that we can agree on with this regime are almost nonexistent.”
Now, Prince Mohammed is finding those points as he embarks on a diplomatic effort to defuse tensions between the two regional powers that have underpinned conflicts across the Middle East.
Last month, the chief of Saudi intelligence began secret talks with a senior Iranian security official in Baghdad to discuss several areas of contention, including the war in Yemen and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Iraqi and Iranian officials said.
And in a television interview this past week, Prince Mohammed cast the kingdom’s view of Iran in a new light, saying that his country objected to “certain negative behaviors” but hoped to “build a good and positive relationship with Iran that would benefit all parties.”
While concrete signs of a new understanding between Saudi Arabia and Iran have yet to emerge and could take a long time, if they happen at all, even a cooling of tempers between the adversaries could echo in countries where their rivalry fuels political feuds and armed conflicts, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
“With negotiations and a constructive outlook, the two important countries in the region and the Islamic world can put their differences behind them and enter a new phase of cooperation and tolerance to bring stability and peace to the region,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said at a press briefing on Thursday in response to Prince Mohammed’s remarks.
The talks in Baghdad began against the backdrop of a wider reshuffling of relations in the Middle East as the region adjusts to changes in style and policy from President Trump to President Biden, changes that appear to have made Saudi Arabia more amenable to regional diplomacy.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Talks between the two regional powers, if successful, could start to lower the temperature on several conflicts across the Middle East.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a prime-time television interview four years ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia dismissed the idea that his kingdom could somehow find an accommodation with its archrival, Iran.
“How do we communicate?” he asked. “The mutual points that we can agree on with this regime are almost nonexistent.”
Now, Prince Mohammed is finding those points as he embarks on a diplomatic effort to defuse tensions between the two regional powers that have underpinned conflicts across the Middle East.
Last month, the chief of Saudi intelligence began secret talks with a senior Iranian security official in Baghdad to discuss several areas of contention, including the war in Yemen and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Iraqi and Iranian officials said.
And in a television interview this past week, Prince Mohammed cast the kingdom’s view of Iran in a new light, saying that his country objected to “certain negative behaviors” but hoped to “build a good and positive relationship with Iran that would benefit all parties.”
While concrete signs of a new understanding between Saudi Arabia and Iran have yet to emerge and could take a long time, if they happen at all, even a cooling of tempers between the adversaries could echo in countries where their rivalry fuels political feuds and armed conflicts, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
“With negotiations and a constructive outlook, the two important countries in the region and the Islamic world can put their differences behind them and enter a new phase of cooperation and tolerance to bring stability and peace to the region,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said at a press briefing on Thursday in response to Prince Mohammed’s remarks.
The talks in Baghdad began against the backdrop of a wider reshuffling of relations in the Middle East as the region adjusts to changes in style and policy from President Trump to President Biden, changes that appear to have made Saudi Arabia more amenable to regional diplomacy.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Israelis, Palestinians and Their Neighbors Worry: Is This the Big One?
Let’s see, what happens when TikTok meets Palestinian grievances about right-wing Israeli land grabs in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem? And then you add the holiest Muslim night of prayer in Jerusalem into the mix? Then toss in the most emotional Israeli holiday in Jerusalem? And a power play by Hamas to assume leadership of the Palestinian cause? And, finally, a political vacuum in which the Palestinian Authority is incapable of holding new elections and Israel is so divided it can’t stop having elections?
What happens is the explosion of violence around Jerusalem on Monday that quickly spread to the Gaza front, and has people asking: Is this the big one? Is this the start of the next Palestinian uprising?
The Israeli government, the surrounding Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority all desperately want the answer to be “no” — Israel because it would find little support from a left-leaning White House, let alone the rest of the world, for a big crackdown on Palestinians; the Arab governments because most of them want to do business with Israeli tech-makers, not get mired defending Palestinian rock-throwers; and the Palestinian leadership because it would expose just how little it controls the Palestinian street anymore.
But unlike the Intifadas that began in 1987 and 2000, when Israel had someone to call to try to turn it off, there is no Palestinian on the other end of the phone this time — or, if there is, he’s a 15-year-old on his smartphone, swiping orders and inspiration from TikTok, the video app often used by young Palestinians to challenge and encourage one another to confront Israelis.
Jack Khoury, an expert on the Arab dynamics of this conflict, put it well Monday in his analysis in Haaretz, writing that the engine of the Palestinian side of the protest “is the popular movement,” which is made up “mostly of the younger generation, which is not waiting for its political leadership — not the Palestinian Authority, nor Arab leaders in Israel or in the Gaza Strip. Over the past few days it has been reported that Hamas is trying to stoke the protest, but the Hamas leadership has no control over the events at all … and so as the Israeli government sees it, there is no one address or person to turn to in order to hold a political discussion on the situation.”
But what sparked it all? The tinder was a collision of “sacred times” and “sacred territories,” Hebrew University religious philosopher Moshe Halbertal told me, and then different actors threw matches to start a raging fire.
Specifically, this year’s Jerusalem Day — a national holiday commemorating the establishment of Israel’s control over East Jerusalem, the Old City and the Temple Mount in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, thereby unifying East and West Jerusalem — was celebrated with prayer services at the Western Wall beginning Sunday night.
This Israeli sacred date roughly coincided with Muslims’ Laylat al-Qadr, or Night of Power, which fell this year on Saturday. It is considered not only the most sacred night of Ramadan but of the whole Islamic calendar. It commemorates the night when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel and is marked by thousands of Muslims gathering at the Aqsa Mosque, near the Western Wall on the Temple Mount.
These overlapping sacred dates led to inevitable clashes in the alleyways of East Jerusalem and culminated Monday with the Israeli police raiding the Aqsa Mosque, where Palestinians had stockpiled stones. Hundreds of Palestinians were wounded while more than 20 Israeli police officers suffered injuries.
That situation was exacerbated by a long-simmering fight over what Halbertal called “sacred territory.” In brief, right-wing Israeli Jews had gotten a court order to evict six Palestinian families who are living in homes on land that was owned by Jews in East Jerusalem before the city was divided in the 1948 war. Palestinian families are fighting their eviction in court. Indeed, Israel’s Supreme Court was slated to rule Monday on whether the Palestinians could be expelled but delayed the decision because of the violence.
Palestinians argue that it is unfair that Jews can reclaim land or homes they owned in East Jerusalem before 1948 but Palestinians have no legal means to reclaim land they owned in West Jerusalem or anywhere else in Israel before 1948.
Clashes over these sacred dates and sacred spaces would be incendiary enough, but they were also fueled, as I said, by scenes on TikTok. In April, some Palestinian youths uploaded a short video of themselves assaulting an Orthodox Jew on public transportation, as a way of inspiring copycat attacks. In response, a far-right Jewish group named Lehava led a march through Jerusalem to the Damascus Gate of the Old City, chanting “Arabs, get out.”
The whole mess makes a Gordian knot look simple to untangle. But what is it all telling us?
The most obvious and important point is that a dangerously naïve consensus has emerged in Israel in recent years suggesting that Israel basically has the Palestinian conflict suppressed and those Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are basically resigned to living under permanent Israeli control. This consensus was so powerful that in all four of Israel’s recent elections, the question of peace with the Palestinians — how to achieve it and what happens if it is ignored — was not on the agenda.
The Abraham Accords engineered by the Trump administration, normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — while valuable in helping to stabilize the region — also reinforced the notion that the Palestinian cause is basically yesterday’s news. Today’s headlines prove the fallacy of that thinking.
By the way, the Biden administration has no interest right now in being forced to react to those headlines. It does not believe the conditions are right for any real progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and the last thing it wants — when its primary focus in the region is trying to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, which is already causing huge tensions with Israel — is to get distracted by having to mediate a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians or blunt Iranian attempts to inflame the situation in Jerusalem.
But where do we go from here?
In part that depends on Bibi Netanyahu. Of all the crazy coincidences of this moment, maybe the craziest is that it comes in what could be Bibi’s final days as Israel’s prime minister — after more than 12 years in office. Netanyahu has an interest in seeing his rivals fail to form a new coalition to unseat him. He would like Israel to go to a fifth election — giving him a chance to hang on and maybe avoid jail if he is convicted in his current corruption trial. One way Bibi could do that is by inflaming the situation so much that his right-wing rivals have to abandon trying to topple him and declare instead that this is no time for a change in leadership.
Much also depends on what Hamas chooses to do. Hamas has failed to produce either significant economic growth in the Gaza Strip that it rules or political progress with Israel. And the fact that the Palestinian Authority just postponed planned elections, which Hamas probably would have dominated, means it is stuck.
What does Hamas tend to do when it is stuck? Fire rockets at Israel. But on Monday it did something really unusual. It fired rockets at Jerusalem to try to assume leadership of the brewing uprising there. Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza and reportedly killing at least 20 Palestinians.
Bottom line: This could all calm down in three or four days as Hamas, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority all find it in their interests to impose their will on the street. Or not. And if it turns into another Intifada, with the street imposing its will on their leaderships, this earthquake will shake Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt and the Abraham Accords.
If that happens, I suggest you download TikTok to follow it all in real time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Let’s see, what happens when TikTok meets Palestinian grievances about right-wing Israeli land grabs in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem? And then you add the holiest Muslim night of prayer in Jerusalem into the mix? Then toss in the most emotional Israeli holiday in Jerusalem? And a power play by Hamas to assume leadership of the Palestinian cause? And, finally, a political vacuum in which the Palestinian Authority is incapable of holding new elections and Israel is so divided it can’t stop having elections?
What happens is the explosion of violence around Jerusalem on Monday that quickly spread to the Gaza front, and has people asking: Is this the big one? Is this the start of the next Palestinian uprising?
The Israeli government, the surrounding Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority all desperately want the answer to be “no” — Israel because it would find little support from a left-leaning White House, let alone the rest of the world, for a big crackdown on Palestinians; the Arab governments because most of them want to do business with Israeli tech-makers, not get mired defending Palestinian rock-throwers; and the Palestinian leadership because it would expose just how little it controls the Palestinian street anymore.
But unlike the Intifadas that began in 1987 and 2000, when Israel had someone to call to try to turn it off, there is no Palestinian on the other end of the phone this time — or, if there is, he’s a 15-year-old on his smartphone, swiping orders and inspiration from TikTok, the video app often used by young Palestinians to challenge and encourage one another to confront Israelis.
Jack Khoury, an expert on the Arab dynamics of this conflict, put it well Monday in his analysis in Haaretz, writing that the engine of the Palestinian side of the protest “is the popular movement,” which is made up “mostly of the younger generation, which is not waiting for its political leadership — not the Palestinian Authority, nor Arab leaders in Israel or in the Gaza Strip. Over the past few days it has been reported that Hamas is trying to stoke the protest, but the Hamas leadership has no control over the events at all … and so as the Israeli government sees it, there is no one address or person to turn to in order to hold a political discussion on the situation.”
But what sparked it all? The tinder was a collision of “sacred times” and “sacred territories,” Hebrew University religious philosopher Moshe Halbertal told me, and then different actors threw matches to start a raging fire.
Specifically, this year’s Jerusalem Day — a national holiday commemorating the establishment of Israel’s control over East Jerusalem, the Old City and the Temple Mount in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, thereby unifying East and West Jerusalem — was celebrated with prayer services at the Western Wall beginning Sunday night.
This Israeli sacred date roughly coincided with Muslims’ Laylat al-Qadr, or Night of Power, which fell this year on Saturday. It is considered not only the most sacred night of Ramadan but of the whole Islamic calendar. It commemorates the night when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel and is marked by thousands of Muslims gathering at the Aqsa Mosque, near the Western Wall on the Temple Mount.
These overlapping sacred dates led to inevitable clashes in the alleyways of East Jerusalem and culminated Monday with the Israeli police raiding the Aqsa Mosque, where Palestinians had stockpiled stones. Hundreds of Palestinians were wounded while more than 20 Israeli police officers suffered injuries.
That situation was exacerbated by a long-simmering fight over what Halbertal called “sacred territory.” In brief, right-wing Israeli Jews had gotten a court order to evict six Palestinian families who are living in homes on land that was owned by Jews in East Jerusalem before the city was divided in the 1948 war. Palestinian families are fighting their eviction in court. Indeed, Israel’s Supreme Court was slated to rule Monday on whether the Palestinians could be expelled but delayed the decision because of the violence.
Palestinians argue that it is unfair that Jews can reclaim land or homes they owned in East Jerusalem before 1948 but Palestinians have no legal means to reclaim land they owned in West Jerusalem or anywhere else in Israel before 1948.
Clashes over these sacred dates and sacred spaces would be incendiary enough, but they were also fueled, as I said, by scenes on TikTok. In April, some Palestinian youths uploaded a short video of themselves assaulting an Orthodox Jew on public transportation, as a way of inspiring copycat attacks. In response, a far-right Jewish group named Lehava led a march through Jerusalem to the Damascus Gate of the Old City, chanting “Arabs, get out.”
The whole mess makes a Gordian knot look simple to untangle. But what is it all telling us?
The most obvious and important point is that a dangerously naïve consensus has emerged in Israel in recent years suggesting that Israel basically has the Palestinian conflict suppressed and those Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are basically resigned to living under permanent Israeli control. This consensus was so powerful that in all four of Israel’s recent elections, the question of peace with the Palestinians — how to achieve it and what happens if it is ignored — was not on the agenda.
The Abraham Accords engineered by the Trump administration, normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — while valuable in helping to stabilize the region — also reinforced the notion that the Palestinian cause is basically yesterday’s news. Today’s headlines prove the fallacy of that thinking.
By the way, the Biden administration has no interest right now in being forced to react to those headlines. It does not believe the conditions are right for any real progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and the last thing it wants — when its primary focus in the region is trying to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, which is already causing huge tensions with Israel — is to get distracted by having to mediate a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians or blunt Iranian attempts to inflame the situation in Jerusalem.
But where do we go from here?
In part that depends on Bibi Netanyahu. Of all the crazy coincidences of this moment, maybe the craziest is that it comes in what could be Bibi’s final days as Israel’s prime minister — after more than 12 years in office. Netanyahu has an interest in seeing his rivals fail to form a new coalition to unseat him. He would like Israel to go to a fifth election — giving him a chance to hang on and maybe avoid jail if he is convicted in his current corruption trial. One way Bibi could do that is by inflaming the situation so much that his right-wing rivals have to abandon trying to topple him and declare instead that this is no time for a change in leadership.
Much also depends on what Hamas chooses to do. Hamas has failed to produce either significant economic growth in the Gaza Strip that it rules or political progress with Israel. And the fact that the Palestinian Authority just postponed planned elections, which Hamas probably would have dominated, means it is stuck.
What does Hamas tend to do when it is stuck? Fire rockets at Israel. But on Monday it did something really unusual. It fired rockets at Jerusalem to try to assume leadership of the brewing uprising there. Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza and reportedly killing at least 20 Palestinians.
Bottom line: This could all calm down in three or four days as Hamas, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority all find it in their interests to impose their will on the street. Or not. And if it turns into another Intifada, with the street imposing its will on their leaderships, this earthquake will shake Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt and the Abraham Accords.
If that happens, I suggest you download TikTok to follow it all in real time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Arab World Condemns Israeli Violence but Takes Little Action
By saying it is defending Jerusalem, Hamas has made it harder for Arab countries not to denounce Israel. But in a changed region, the response so far has been rhetorical only.
BRUSSELS — The Arab world is unified in condemning Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the way the Israeli police invaded Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Governments have spoken out, protests have taken place, social media is aflame.
But by and large the condemnation is only words, not actions — at least so far. The region’s concerns have shifted since the last major Israeli incursion into Gaza in 2014, with new fears about Iran’s influence, new anxieties about popular unrest in Arab countries and a growing recognition of the reality of Israel in the Arab world.
Even those countries that normalized relations with Israel last year — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — have all openly criticized Israeli policies and called for support of the Palestinians and the defense of Jerusalem. The escalation of violence has put a great strain on those governments, which had argued that their closer relationship with Israel would help restrain Israeli actions aimed at the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
“I have not seen any Arab state that has not expressed support for the Palestinians on a rhetorical level, and it would be very difficult for them to say anything otherwise,’’ said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar of Middle East politics at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. “But what they do about it is very different.’’
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/worl ... 778d3e6de3
By saying it is defending Jerusalem, Hamas has made it harder for Arab countries not to denounce Israel. But in a changed region, the response so far has been rhetorical only.
BRUSSELS — The Arab world is unified in condemning Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the way the Israeli police invaded Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Governments have spoken out, protests have taken place, social media is aflame.
But by and large the condemnation is only words, not actions — at least so far. The region’s concerns have shifted since the last major Israeli incursion into Gaza in 2014, with new fears about Iran’s influence, new anxieties about popular unrest in Arab countries and a growing recognition of the reality of Israel in the Arab world.
Even those countries that normalized relations with Israel last year — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — have all openly criticized Israeli policies and called for support of the Palestinians and the defense of Jerusalem. The escalation of violence has put a great strain on those governments, which had argued that their closer relationship with Israel would help restrain Israeli actions aimed at the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
“I have not seen any Arab state that has not expressed support for the Palestinians on a rhetorical level, and it would be very difficult for them to say anything otherwise,’’ said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar of Middle East politics at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. “But what they do about it is very different.’’
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/worl ... 778d3e6de3
For Trump, Hamas and Bibi, It Is Always Jan. 6
There are many ways to understand what is happening today between Hamas and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, but I prefer to think about it like this: They are each having their own Jan. 6 moment.
Just as a mob was unleashed by President Donald Trump to ransack our Capitol on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and prevent a healing unifier from becoming president, so Bibi and Hamas each exploited or nurtured their own mobs to prevent an unprecedented national unity government from emerging in Israel — a cabinet that for the first time would have included Israeli Jews and Israeli Arab Muslims together.
Like Trump, both Bibi and Hamas have kept power by inspiring and riding waves of hostility to “the other.” They turn to this tactic anytime they are in political trouble. Indeed, they each have been the other’s most valuable partner in that tactic ever since Netanyahu was first elected prime minister in 1996 — on the back of a wave of Hamas suicide bombings.
No, Hamas and Bibi don’t talk. They don’t need to. They each understand what the other needs to stay in power and consciously or unconsciously behave in ways to ensure that they deliver it.
The latest rerun of their long-running nasty show is happening now because both were staring at an amazing breakthrough shaping up between Israeli Jews and Israel Arab Muslims — and, like the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, they wanted to destroy the possibility of political change before it could destroy them politically.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/opin ... 778d3e6de3
*******
Israel’s Real Existential Threat
Excerpt:
Ironically, the worst interethnic violence since the 1948 War follows the most promising year in the fraught history of the Arab-Jewish relationship. The coronavirus pandemic, Israel’s first lethal crisis that wasn’t about its conflict with the Arab world, brought Arab citizens closer than ever to the mainstream. The Israeli health system is one of the most integrated areas in our society: According to government estimates about 17 percent of doctors and 24 percent of nurses are Arab. The Israeli news media’s coverage of coronavirus focused on doctors in hijabs and coexistence in the respirator wards. One story that became iconic told of an Arab nurse who recited deathbed prayers with an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
Meanwhile, Israel was in political lockdown. After four inconclusive elections in two years, Jewish Israel was stalemated. Until this year, it was a given that Arab parties don’t participate in helping to form governing coalitions. Arab politicians didn’t want to risk supporting a government at war with Gaza or Lebanon; Jewish politicians didn’t want to legitimize Arab politicians who sometimes supported terror attacks against Jews.
Arab voters, though, were demanding that their representatives become players, even if that meant downplaying a Palestinian nationalist agenda in favor of pressing local issues like rising violent crime in Arab towns. The deadlock provided an opening.
Then came the fighting in Gaza and in Israel’s streets, and the historic partnership unraveled.
Israel’s ability to fashion a common civic identity for Arabs and Jews is confounded by the security situation. Jews wonder how they can trust a minority that is culturally and emotionally aligned with their enemies, and whose politicians reject the country’s identity as a Jewish state. For Arabs, a history of government land confiscation and budgetary discrimination, as well as the seemingly endless occupation of the Palestinians, have left deep wounds and distrust. The message Arabs take from the country’s Jewish identity and symbols is that they don’t quite belong.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/opin ... 778d3e6de3
There are many ways to understand what is happening today between Hamas and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, but I prefer to think about it like this: They are each having their own Jan. 6 moment.
Just as a mob was unleashed by President Donald Trump to ransack our Capitol on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and prevent a healing unifier from becoming president, so Bibi and Hamas each exploited or nurtured their own mobs to prevent an unprecedented national unity government from emerging in Israel — a cabinet that for the first time would have included Israeli Jews and Israeli Arab Muslims together.
Like Trump, both Bibi and Hamas have kept power by inspiring and riding waves of hostility to “the other.” They turn to this tactic anytime they are in political trouble. Indeed, they each have been the other’s most valuable partner in that tactic ever since Netanyahu was first elected prime minister in 1996 — on the back of a wave of Hamas suicide bombings.
No, Hamas and Bibi don’t talk. They don’t need to. They each understand what the other needs to stay in power and consciously or unconsciously behave in ways to ensure that they deliver it.
The latest rerun of their long-running nasty show is happening now because both were staring at an amazing breakthrough shaping up between Israeli Jews and Israel Arab Muslims — and, like the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, they wanted to destroy the possibility of political change before it could destroy them politically.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/opin ... 778d3e6de3
*******
Israel’s Real Existential Threat
Excerpt:
Ironically, the worst interethnic violence since the 1948 War follows the most promising year in the fraught history of the Arab-Jewish relationship. The coronavirus pandemic, Israel’s first lethal crisis that wasn’t about its conflict with the Arab world, brought Arab citizens closer than ever to the mainstream. The Israeli health system is one of the most integrated areas in our society: According to government estimates about 17 percent of doctors and 24 percent of nurses are Arab. The Israeli news media’s coverage of coronavirus focused on doctors in hijabs and coexistence in the respirator wards. One story that became iconic told of an Arab nurse who recited deathbed prayers with an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
Meanwhile, Israel was in political lockdown. After four inconclusive elections in two years, Jewish Israel was stalemated. Until this year, it was a given that Arab parties don’t participate in helping to form governing coalitions. Arab politicians didn’t want to risk supporting a government at war with Gaza or Lebanon; Jewish politicians didn’t want to legitimize Arab politicians who sometimes supported terror attacks against Jews.
Arab voters, though, were demanding that their representatives become players, even if that meant downplaying a Palestinian nationalist agenda in favor of pressing local issues like rising violent crime in Arab towns. The deadlock provided an opening.
Then came the fighting in Gaza and in Israel’s streets, and the historic partnership unraveled.
Israel’s ability to fashion a common civic identity for Arabs and Jews is confounded by the security situation. Jews wonder how they can trust a minority that is culturally and emotionally aligned with their enemies, and whose politicians reject the country’s identity as a Jewish state. For Arabs, a history of government land confiscation and budgetary discrimination, as well as the seemingly endless occupation of the Palestinians, have left deep wounds and distrust. The message Arabs take from the country’s Jewish identity and symbols is that they don’t quite belong.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Life Under Occupation:
The Misery at the Heart of the Conflict
An eviction in East Jerusalem lies at the center of a conflict that led to war between Israel and Hamas. But for millions of Palestinians, the routine indignities of occupation are part of daily life.
JERUSALEM — Muhammad Sandouka built his home in the shadow of the Temple Mount before his second son, now 15, was born.
They demolished it together, after Israeli authorities decided that razing it would improve views of the Old City for tourists.
Mr. Sandouka, 42, a countertop installer, had been at work when an inspector confronted his wife with two options: Tear the house down, or the government would not only level it but also bill the Sandoukas $10,000 for its expenses.
Such is life for Palestinians living under Israel’s occupation: always dreading the knock at the front door.
The looming removal of six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem set off a round of protests that helped ignite the latest war between Israel and Gaza. But to the roughly three million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and has controlled through decades of failed peace talks, the story was exceptional only because it attracted an international spotlight.
For the most part, they endure the frights and indignities of the Israeli occupation in obscurity.
Even in supposedly quiet periods, when the world is not paying attention, Palestinians from all walks of life routinely experience exasperating impossibilities and petty humiliations, bureaucratic controls that force agonizing choices, and the fragility and cruelty of life under military rule, now in its second half-century.
Underneath that quiet, pressure builds.
If the eviction dispute in East Jerusalem struck a match, the occupation’s provocations ceaselessly pile up dry kindling. They are a constant and key driver of the conflict, giving Hamas an excuse to fire rockets or lone-wolf attackers grievances to channel into killings by knives or automobiles. And the provocations do not stop when the fighting ends.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/i ... 778d3e6de3
The Misery at the Heart of the Conflict
An eviction in East Jerusalem lies at the center of a conflict that led to war between Israel and Hamas. But for millions of Palestinians, the routine indignities of occupation are part of daily life.
JERUSALEM — Muhammad Sandouka built his home in the shadow of the Temple Mount before his second son, now 15, was born.
They demolished it together, after Israeli authorities decided that razing it would improve views of the Old City for tourists.
Mr. Sandouka, 42, a countertop installer, had been at work when an inspector confronted his wife with two options: Tear the house down, or the government would not only level it but also bill the Sandoukas $10,000 for its expenses.
Such is life for Palestinians living under Israel’s occupation: always dreading the knock at the front door.
The looming removal of six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem set off a round of protests that helped ignite the latest war between Israel and Gaza. But to the roughly three million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and has controlled through decades of failed peace talks, the story was exceptional only because it attracted an international spotlight.
For the most part, they endure the frights and indignities of the Israeli occupation in obscurity.
Even in supposedly quiet periods, when the world is not paying attention, Palestinians from all walks of life routinely experience exasperating impossibilities and petty humiliations, bureaucratic controls that force agonizing choices, and the fragility and cruelty of life under military rule, now in its second half-century.
Underneath that quiet, pressure builds.
If the eviction dispute in East Jerusalem struck a match, the occupation’s provocations ceaselessly pile up dry kindling. They are a constant and key driver of the conflict, giving Hamas an excuse to fire rockets or lone-wolf attackers grievances to channel into killings by knives or automobiles. And the provocations do not stop when the fighting ends.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/i ... 778d3e6de3
Everyone is wrong about Israel-Palestine – here’s how the pursuit of huge gas reserves and money is fuelling the conflict
Darius Shahtahmasebi
is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst who focuses on US foreign policy in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific region. He is fully qualified as a lawyer in two international jurisdictions.
27 May, 2021
Everyone is wrong about Israel-Palestine – here’s how the pursuit of huge gas reserves and money is fuelling the conflict
A Palestinian flag flies as the ruins of houses, which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israeli-Palestinian fighting © Reuters
There are trillions of tonnes of recoverable gas lying underneath the disputed waters off Gaza, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. And the Israelis want to make sure they alone control and profit from it.
Few topics rile people up on both sides of the political aisle more than the Israel-Palestine question. It is without doubt one of the most – if not the most – explosively divisive issues on the planet.
For example, when I have criticized Saudi Arabia’s criminal bombardment of Yemen, I have never once even contemplated fearing a backlash of people accusing me of being anti-Islamic or labelling me an Islamophobe. (Sure, Saudi nationals critical of its government’s actions may have to avoid entering into their local Saudi consulate upon invitation, but that’s for a different reason.)
Israel’s agreement of an unconditional ceasefire is actually an admission of defeat
Likewise, if I write about Indonesia’s treatment of the population of West Papua, described by some observers as equating to a “slow motion genocide,” I rarely have to worry about being accused of being anti-Indonesian, or racist or bigoted in any other way for that matter.
For those of you who don’t know, West Papua is home to one of the world’s largest gold mines known as the Grasberg Mine, which is co-owned by the American mining firm Freeport McMoRan and the Indonesian government. Curiously enough, Freeport McMoRan is Indonesia’s largest taxpayer – it provided the government with $33 billion in direct and indirect benefits from 1992 to 2004, and has given millions directly to senior military and police officers.
The real reason behind enacting what can only be described as a military dictatorship which brutalises the population of West Papua has been to preserve this literal gold mine since the rights to the mine were first given to Freeport McMoRan in 1967.
it is possible to view the Israel-Palestine conflict through the same lens with the same level of controversy as the above paragraph.
In 2000, UK oil company BG Group discovered an estimated 1.6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Gaza Marine. As noted by Anais Antreasyan in the University of California’s Journal of Palestine Studies, Israel’s continued desire to control Gaza is due to its aim of making “Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-1 gas wells impossible”, with the added goal of not only “preventing the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources” but to “integrate the gas fields off Gaza into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations.”
According to Antreasyan, this is part and parcel of a broader strategy of:
“…separating the Palestinians from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them, and, as a consequence, blocking Palestinian economic development. Despite all formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources.”
Israel barely has enough energy resources of its own to maintain its current exports. Following the discovery of the $4 billion worth of natural gas in Gaza in 2000, there were also later other monumental discoveries of gas in Syria and Lebanon, two known adversaries of the Israeli government. Israel has for some time now shown a keen eagerness to intervene in both countries (for completely unrelated reasons, I’m guessing).
Earlier this year, fresh rounds of talks had begun between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), Qatar and the EU in respect of Israel’s goal of exporting Eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe. The problem has been, at least as far as the US and Israel are concerned, that Hamas has continued to present itself as a thorn in the side of these negotiations, denouncing their legitimacy entirely.
While many on both the left and right, including former US president Donald Trump, are quick to argue that the only reason the US has ventured into the Middle East was for oil and natural resources, very few seem capable of acknowledging the very same issues are also at the heart of the Middle East’s most explosive conflict.
Israel carries out the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and robs them of their homes, yet it pretends it’s the victim
This is despite a UN report, and a US Army study which was commissioned under the Obama Administration which indicated that the recent decision to proceed with a $735 million arms sale to Israel is due to Israel’s aspired domination of the East Mediterranean’s energy resources, and US tacit support for this eventuation. In fact, the 2019 UN report which until recently was unreported, concluded that “occupation has impoverished the Palestinian people, undermined their capacity to access and utilise their resources and denied them the right to move freely within their homelands.”
Occupation? Oh… that’s right. Israel is currently the military power occupying Palestinian territories. The same military power which was brutalising Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque while simultaneously forcibly evicting Palestiniansfrom their homes, which in turn led to Hamas’ decision to retaliate using rocket fire. But we don’t talk about that, because only Israel has the “right to defend itself.”
Except it’s the occupying power, so technically focusing on Israel’s “right” to do anything is misstating the issue. Israel doesn’t have rights – what it has is a series of obligations under international law. You know, obligations to ensure Palestinian people receive respect for their persons, religious practices, be treated humanely, be protected from violence, be provided with food and medical supplies, facilitate relief supplies, to name a few.
While pro-Zionists like to argue that anyone who pushes back against Israel’s protracted assaults on Gaza are either anti-Semitic or terrorist-apologists (or both), in an ideal world there would be no escaping these facts. If discussing these facts paints a negative picture of Israel and its actions, then so be it. And yet, in some cases, talking about these issues can quite literally get you fired.
In July 2014, journalist Nafeez Ahmed learnt this the hard way when he published an article on the Guardian website which claimed Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza during Operation Protective Edge was rooted in Israel’s desire to control Palestinian gas. The Guardian axed his blog completely shortly afterwards.
Talk about “cancel culture.” Yet somehow, I haven’t seen any conservatives complaining about “censorship” and “cancel culture” rushing to Ahmed’s defence.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/525000-israel- ... tural-gas/
Darius Shahtahmasebi
is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst who focuses on US foreign policy in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific region. He is fully qualified as a lawyer in two international jurisdictions.
27 May, 2021
Everyone is wrong about Israel-Palestine – here’s how the pursuit of huge gas reserves and money is fuelling the conflict
A Palestinian flag flies as the ruins of houses, which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israeli-Palestinian fighting © Reuters
There are trillions of tonnes of recoverable gas lying underneath the disputed waters off Gaza, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. And the Israelis want to make sure they alone control and profit from it.
Few topics rile people up on both sides of the political aisle more than the Israel-Palestine question. It is without doubt one of the most – if not the most – explosively divisive issues on the planet.
For example, when I have criticized Saudi Arabia’s criminal bombardment of Yemen, I have never once even contemplated fearing a backlash of people accusing me of being anti-Islamic or labelling me an Islamophobe. (Sure, Saudi nationals critical of its government’s actions may have to avoid entering into their local Saudi consulate upon invitation, but that’s for a different reason.)
Israel’s agreement of an unconditional ceasefire is actually an admission of defeat
Likewise, if I write about Indonesia’s treatment of the population of West Papua, described by some observers as equating to a “slow motion genocide,” I rarely have to worry about being accused of being anti-Indonesian, or racist or bigoted in any other way for that matter.
For those of you who don’t know, West Papua is home to one of the world’s largest gold mines known as the Grasberg Mine, which is co-owned by the American mining firm Freeport McMoRan and the Indonesian government. Curiously enough, Freeport McMoRan is Indonesia’s largest taxpayer – it provided the government with $33 billion in direct and indirect benefits from 1992 to 2004, and has given millions directly to senior military and police officers.
The real reason behind enacting what can only be described as a military dictatorship which brutalises the population of West Papua has been to preserve this literal gold mine since the rights to the mine were first given to Freeport McMoRan in 1967.
it is possible to view the Israel-Palestine conflict through the same lens with the same level of controversy as the above paragraph.
In 2000, UK oil company BG Group discovered an estimated 1.6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Gaza Marine. As noted by Anais Antreasyan in the University of California’s Journal of Palestine Studies, Israel’s continued desire to control Gaza is due to its aim of making “Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-1 gas wells impossible”, with the added goal of not only “preventing the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources” but to “integrate the gas fields off Gaza into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations.”
According to Antreasyan, this is part and parcel of a broader strategy of:
“…separating the Palestinians from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them, and, as a consequence, blocking Palestinian economic development. Despite all formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources.”
Israel barely has enough energy resources of its own to maintain its current exports. Following the discovery of the $4 billion worth of natural gas in Gaza in 2000, there were also later other monumental discoveries of gas in Syria and Lebanon, two known adversaries of the Israeli government. Israel has for some time now shown a keen eagerness to intervene in both countries (for completely unrelated reasons, I’m guessing).
Earlier this year, fresh rounds of talks had begun between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), Qatar and the EU in respect of Israel’s goal of exporting Eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe. The problem has been, at least as far as the US and Israel are concerned, that Hamas has continued to present itself as a thorn in the side of these negotiations, denouncing their legitimacy entirely.
While many on both the left and right, including former US president Donald Trump, are quick to argue that the only reason the US has ventured into the Middle East was for oil and natural resources, very few seem capable of acknowledging the very same issues are also at the heart of the Middle East’s most explosive conflict.
Israel carries out the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and robs them of their homes, yet it pretends it’s the victim
This is despite a UN report, and a US Army study which was commissioned under the Obama Administration which indicated that the recent decision to proceed with a $735 million arms sale to Israel is due to Israel’s aspired domination of the East Mediterranean’s energy resources, and US tacit support for this eventuation. In fact, the 2019 UN report which until recently was unreported, concluded that “occupation has impoverished the Palestinian people, undermined their capacity to access and utilise their resources and denied them the right to move freely within their homelands.”
Occupation? Oh… that’s right. Israel is currently the military power occupying Palestinian territories. The same military power which was brutalising Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque while simultaneously forcibly evicting Palestiniansfrom their homes, which in turn led to Hamas’ decision to retaliate using rocket fire. But we don’t talk about that, because only Israel has the “right to defend itself.”
Except it’s the occupying power, so technically focusing on Israel’s “right” to do anything is misstating the issue. Israel doesn’t have rights – what it has is a series of obligations under international law. You know, obligations to ensure Palestinian people receive respect for their persons, religious practices, be treated humanely, be protected from violence, be provided with food and medical supplies, facilitate relief supplies, to name a few.
While pro-Zionists like to argue that anyone who pushes back against Israel’s protracted assaults on Gaza are either anti-Semitic or terrorist-apologists (or both), in an ideal world there would be no escaping these facts. If discussing these facts paints a negative picture of Israel and its actions, then so be it. And yet, in some cases, talking about these issues can quite literally get you fired.
In July 2014, journalist Nafeez Ahmed learnt this the hard way when he published an article on the Guardian website which claimed Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza during Operation Protective Edge was rooted in Israel’s desire to control Palestinian gas. The Guardian axed his blog completely shortly afterwards.
Talk about “cancel culture.” Yet somehow, I haven’t seen any conservatives complaining about “censorship” and “cancel culture” rushing to Ahmed’s defence.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/525000-israel- ... tural-gas/
Why are Arabs so powerless?
Pervez Hoodbhoy Published May 29, 2021
FOR a terrible 11 days in May, the world watched hellfire rain upon the world’s largest open-air prison camp, otherwise known as Gaza. The dazed, bleeding survivors crawling out of the rubble of collapsed buildings have experienced this before. Everyone knows this tragedy will repeat. In faraway Arab cities, as well as here in Pakistan, people glumly watched the unhindered, televised bombing by Israeli jets. But the most they could manage was a few toothless resolutions and a few impotent slogan-chanting demonstrations trampling the Israeli flag.
What makes Israel with nine million people — between one-half and one-third of Karachi’s population — a Goliath of biblical proportions? Equally, notwithstanding their fabulous oil wealth, why are 427m Arabs the pygmies of international politics? GCC Arabs can certainly control what happens in a few miskeen countries like Pakistan; their leaders can be summoned to Riyadh at a moment’s notice and sent back with sackfuls of rice as wages of obedience. But before Israel — which has almost zero natural resources — Arab kings and sheikhs must perforce bow their heads.
Blame the West if you want and, in particular, America. Indeed, from 2000-2019 armaments supplied to Israel by the Western powers (US, UK, France, Spain, Germany) are documented at a hefty $9.6 billion. But within that 20-year period the same document shows this amount is dwarfed by arms sold by the same suppliers to Saudi Arabia ($29.3bn), UAE ($20.1bn), Egypt ($17.5bn), Iraq ($9.1bn), and Qatar ($6bn). And yet these expensive weapons will provide little protection if Israel ever chooses to attack Arab lands again. While the nine-country Saudi-led coalition has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, it is failing dismally against the rag-tag Iran-supported Houthi forces.
Israelis have long known that brain will rule over brawn, a fact that some Arab rulers are only just discovering.
Okay, so then let’s blame Palestine’s ill-fortune upon Arab disunity. There’s truth in this: Arabs are indeed bitterly divided. But when were they not? From about AD-634 to AD-750 is the only period in history when they stood together. Then, after Nasser won the Suez War against Britain, Arabs united again for a brief, euphoric moment. But this unity did nothing to avert their crushing defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, that which forever changed borders. And while friends and activists for Palestine — including myself — would love to see Fatah and Hamas patch up their differences, doing so will not change things fundamentally.
The secret of Israel’s strength is not hidden in its weaponry. Instead this still-expanding and still-colonising apartheid settler state uses the same magic that enabled just a handful of 18th-century Englishmen to colonise the entire Indian subcontinent. Let’s recall that in ruling over 200m natives for 250 years, at no time did Britain have more than 50,000 white soldiers on Indian soil. Although better guns and cannons gave them an edge, in fact their real not-so-secret weapon was much bigger.
That weapon was a system of organised thought based upon a rational and secular approach to life, a modern system of justice, and a new set of social relations. This was sustained and enhanced by Enlightenment-era education that de-emphasised rote learning of the scriptures, was this-worldly and future-oriented, and which focused upon problem-solving skills using systematic, scientific thinking. Having invented modern means of communication such as railways and telegraph, a mere island in the North Sea could boast of an empire over which the sun never sets.
In a nutshell, imperialist conquests showed that brains would rule over brawn — a stark truth that got still starker with time. But where are brains produced? Obviously in the womb but it is in schools, colleges and universities where minds are shaped and sharpened. Hence, these days everyone and their uncle rush to one single conclusion: fix education and this will level the playing field, greatly diminishing or perhaps ending the inequalities of power.
Ah! That’s so much easier said than done. To have buildings and classrooms with teachers is one thing but to coax the potential out of a student is altogether different. With their vast wealth, Arab countries have built impressive university campuses with well-equipped laboratories and well-stocked libraries. They have even imported professors from America and Europe. Yet, the needle has barely flickered so far. That’s because attitudes towards learning take forever to change — and only if they are somehow forced to change.
Ditto for Pakistan which follows the Arab model as best as it can, together with abayas and jubbas. No university here has a bookshop, a centre for students that hums with open debate and discussion, or a theatre where classic movies are screened. Looking for a philosopher or a high-grade pure mathematician will be in vain. For 20 years, papers and PhDs have been churned out at a frantic rate. But I suspect that many of Pakistan’s decorated “distinguished national professors” with hundreds of research publications would be judged unfit to teach in a high-end Israeli high school for lack of scholarship.
The problem is not genetics — Arabs have a brilliant past and are probably just as smart as Ashkenazi Israelis. But the two groups have different attitudes towards success and different role models. The Ashkenazi child wants to be Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, George Wald, Paul Samuelson, Gertrude Elion, Ralph Lauren, George Soros, or a thousand other such names that fill textbooks on physics, philosophy, technology, medicine, and business. Compare this with the Arab boy who wants to be Salahuddin Ayubi and the Pakistani lad who dreams of becoming Ertugrul Ghazi on horseback. He does not know about Abdus Salam, our discarded Nobelist.
We live in a cruel world which, of course, we must try our best to make less cruel and more humane. But making a socially just world requires much more than condemning the oppressors and crying with the oppressed. Instead, the weak must be made stronger. That strength does not derive from oil or nuclear bombs. Instead, it springs from the human brain, but only when that superb gift of nature is appropriately tutored and trained within a system of secular values that cherishes and rewards logical thinking, questioning and creativity.
The writer is an Islamabad-based physicist and writer.
Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1626332/why-a ... -powerless
Pervez Hoodbhoy Published May 29, 2021
FOR a terrible 11 days in May, the world watched hellfire rain upon the world’s largest open-air prison camp, otherwise known as Gaza. The dazed, bleeding survivors crawling out of the rubble of collapsed buildings have experienced this before. Everyone knows this tragedy will repeat. In faraway Arab cities, as well as here in Pakistan, people glumly watched the unhindered, televised bombing by Israeli jets. But the most they could manage was a few toothless resolutions and a few impotent slogan-chanting demonstrations trampling the Israeli flag.
What makes Israel with nine million people — between one-half and one-third of Karachi’s population — a Goliath of biblical proportions? Equally, notwithstanding their fabulous oil wealth, why are 427m Arabs the pygmies of international politics? GCC Arabs can certainly control what happens in a few miskeen countries like Pakistan; their leaders can be summoned to Riyadh at a moment’s notice and sent back with sackfuls of rice as wages of obedience. But before Israel — which has almost zero natural resources — Arab kings and sheikhs must perforce bow their heads.
Blame the West if you want and, in particular, America. Indeed, from 2000-2019 armaments supplied to Israel by the Western powers (US, UK, France, Spain, Germany) are documented at a hefty $9.6 billion. But within that 20-year period the same document shows this amount is dwarfed by arms sold by the same suppliers to Saudi Arabia ($29.3bn), UAE ($20.1bn), Egypt ($17.5bn), Iraq ($9.1bn), and Qatar ($6bn). And yet these expensive weapons will provide little protection if Israel ever chooses to attack Arab lands again. While the nine-country Saudi-led coalition has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, it is failing dismally against the rag-tag Iran-supported Houthi forces.
Israelis have long known that brain will rule over brawn, a fact that some Arab rulers are only just discovering.
Okay, so then let’s blame Palestine’s ill-fortune upon Arab disunity. There’s truth in this: Arabs are indeed bitterly divided. But when were they not? From about AD-634 to AD-750 is the only period in history when they stood together. Then, after Nasser won the Suez War against Britain, Arabs united again for a brief, euphoric moment. But this unity did nothing to avert their crushing defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, that which forever changed borders. And while friends and activists for Palestine — including myself — would love to see Fatah and Hamas patch up their differences, doing so will not change things fundamentally.
The secret of Israel’s strength is not hidden in its weaponry. Instead this still-expanding and still-colonising apartheid settler state uses the same magic that enabled just a handful of 18th-century Englishmen to colonise the entire Indian subcontinent. Let’s recall that in ruling over 200m natives for 250 years, at no time did Britain have more than 50,000 white soldiers on Indian soil. Although better guns and cannons gave them an edge, in fact their real not-so-secret weapon was much bigger.
That weapon was a system of organised thought based upon a rational and secular approach to life, a modern system of justice, and a new set of social relations. This was sustained and enhanced by Enlightenment-era education that de-emphasised rote learning of the scriptures, was this-worldly and future-oriented, and which focused upon problem-solving skills using systematic, scientific thinking. Having invented modern means of communication such as railways and telegraph, a mere island in the North Sea could boast of an empire over which the sun never sets.
In a nutshell, imperialist conquests showed that brains would rule over brawn — a stark truth that got still starker with time. But where are brains produced? Obviously in the womb but it is in schools, colleges and universities where minds are shaped and sharpened. Hence, these days everyone and their uncle rush to one single conclusion: fix education and this will level the playing field, greatly diminishing or perhaps ending the inequalities of power.
Ah! That’s so much easier said than done. To have buildings and classrooms with teachers is one thing but to coax the potential out of a student is altogether different. With their vast wealth, Arab countries have built impressive university campuses with well-equipped laboratories and well-stocked libraries. They have even imported professors from America and Europe. Yet, the needle has barely flickered so far. That’s because attitudes towards learning take forever to change — and only if they are somehow forced to change.
Ditto for Pakistan which follows the Arab model as best as it can, together with abayas and jubbas. No university here has a bookshop, a centre for students that hums with open debate and discussion, or a theatre where classic movies are screened. Looking for a philosopher or a high-grade pure mathematician will be in vain. For 20 years, papers and PhDs have been churned out at a frantic rate. But I suspect that many of Pakistan’s decorated “distinguished national professors” with hundreds of research publications would be judged unfit to teach in a high-end Israeli high school for lack of scholarship.
The problem is not genetics — Arabs have a brilliant past and are probably just as smart as Ashkenazi Israelis. But the two groups have different attitudes towards success and different role models. The Ashkenazi child wants to be Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, George Wald, Paul Samuelson, Gertrude Elion, Ralph Lauren, George Soros, or a thousand other such names that fill textbooks on physics, philosophy, technology, medicine, and business. Compare this with the Arab boy who wants to be Salahuddin Ayubi and the Pakistani lad who dreams of becoming Ertugrul Ghazi on horseback. He does not know about Abdus Salam, our discarded Nobelist.
We live in a cruel world which, of course, we must try our best to make less cruel and more humane. But making a socially just world requires much more than condemning the oppressors and crying with the oppressed. Instead, the weak must be made stronger. That strength does not derive from oil or nuclear bombs. Instead, it springs from the human brain, but only when that superb gift of nature is appropriately tutored and trained within a system of secular values that cherishes and rewards logical thinking, questioning and creativity.
The writer is an Islamabad-based physicist and writer.
Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1626332/why-a ... -powerless
Looking Beyond the Ayatollah to the Treasures of Iran
The organizers of a major London exhibition wanted to put politics aside and showcase the country’s rich 5,000-year-old culture. But politics kept getting in the way.
LONDON — The board game is roughly 4,500 years old. Shaped like a bird of prey, it has holes running down its wings and chest, where the pieces were once positioned. It’s one of a few dozen ancient objects that were set to travel from the National Museum of Iran for a spectacular exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum here. But they never came.
Other artifacts that were set to be shown — as detailed and illustrated and in the catalog for that exhibition “Epic Iran” — included a gold mask, a long-handled silver pan and a carved stone goblet. To secure the loans, the museum was in longstanding talks with the National Museum of Iran until early 2020, said Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, also known as the V&A.
“At a certain point, silence began to descend, and I don’t think that was internal to them” he said in an interview. “There were outside political forces.”
Ironically, the overarching purpose of “Epic Iran,” according to Hunt, was to put aside the political tensions that have dogged relations between Iran and the West since the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic Republic.
“We want people to take a step back and understand that Iranian history didn’t begin in 1979,” he said. The point was to look beyond “the paradigm of what is called Islamic fundamentalism, and concerns around nuclear testing and visions of the ayatollah,” he added, and “understand the richness, and breadth, and depth, and complexity, and beauty of Iran.”
On display in the V&A show, which runs through Sept. 12, are an astounding array of artworks and treasures spanning 5,000 years: from the remnants of the earliest civilizations to the creations of contemporary artists living in Iran today. The full gamut of arts and crafts practiced for millenniums in Iran is illustrated with centuries-old carpets, illuminated manuscripts, miniature paintings, sculpted ornaments, court portraits and fine textiles.
The exhibition is intended as an all-encompassing feast for the eyes. Yet somehow, recent politics still manage to pervade it.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/arts ... iversified
The organizers of a major London exhibition wanted to put politics aside and showcase the country’s rich 5,000-year-old culture. But politics kept getting in the way.
LONDON — The board game is roughly 4,500 years old. Shaped like a bird of prey, it has holes running down its wings and chest, where the pieces were once positioned. It’s one of a few dozen ancient objects that were set to travel from the National Museum of Iran for a spectacular exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum here. But they never came.
Other artifacts that were set to be shown — as detailed and illustrated and in the catalog for that exhibition “Epic Iran” — included a gold mask, a long-handled silver pan and a carved stone goblet. To secure the loans, the museum was in longstanding talks with the National Museum of Iran until early 2020, said Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, also known as the V&A.
“At a certain point, silence began to descend, and I don’t think that was internal to them” he said in an interview. “There were outside political forces.”
Ironically, the overarching purpose of “Epic Iran,” according to Hunt, was to put aside the political tensions that have dogged relations between Iran and the West since the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic Republic.
“We want people to take a step back and understand that Iranian history didn’t begin in 1979,” he said. The point was to look beyond “the paradigm of what is called Islamic fundamentalism, and concerns around nuclear testing and visions of the ayatollah,” he added, and “understand the richness, and breadth, and depth, and complexity, and beauty of Iran.”
On display in the V&A show, which runs through Sept. 12, are an astounding array of artworks and treasures spanning 5,000 years: from the remnants of the earliest civilizations to the creations of contemporary artists living in Iran today. The full gamut of arts and crafts practiced for millenniums in Iran is illustrated with centuries-old carpets, illuminated manuscripts, miniature paintings, sculpted ornaments, court portraits and fine textiles.
The exhibition is intended as an all-encompassing feast for the eyes. Yet somehow, recent politics still manage to pervade it.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/arts ... iversified
Nearly 200 Facebook employees say pro-Palestinian content is being unfairly removed, and demand that Zuckerberg launch an internal review
Anna Cooban
Wed, June 2, 2021, 10:00 AM
Mark
Facebook workers have asked for a review of moderation systems around pro-Palestinian content.
Nearly 200 workers signed an anonymous letter to Facebook executives, viewed by the Financial Times.
The letter calls for a task force to investigate potential bias, and for the company to hire more Palestinians.
Nearly 200 Facebook employees have signed an anonymous letter to company leadership, demanding a review of moderation systems they believe unfairly suppress content supportive of Palestinians, according to the Financial Times, which saw the letter.
Some staff have claimed that pro-Palestinian content was unfairly removed during the recent fighting in Gaza, the bloodiest fighting between Israel and the militant group Hamas that the region has seen in years. Pro-Palestinian activists accused Facebook of censoring their posts during the fighting, and flooded the company's App Store app with negative reviews.
The letter, which 174 employees signed, called for new measures to ensure pro-Palestinian content was not unfairly suppressed, a commitment to hire more Palestinian workers, and for an internal task force to "investigate and address potential biases" in Facebook's content moderation, the FT said.
Facebook, Inc. employs more than 55,000 people. The company also owns Instagram and chat app WhatsApp.
"As highlighted by employees, the press and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine," the letter said, per the FT.
"We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust."
The letter also asks for a third-party audit of the company's handling of Arab and Muslim content, and for Facebook's independent oversight board to review a post by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The post labeled Palestinian civilians as terrorists, the Facebook employees said.
Israel and Hamas signed a cease-fire on May 21. During the preceding 10 days, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, according to Reuters, which cited health authorities. Nearly 2,000 people in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled territory that is under an Israeli blockade, were injured, and the UN said about 58,000 were displaced.
Facebook-owned Instagram changed its algorithm last week to favor news and viral content following concerns from users that they could not see pro-Palestinian content.
"We know there were several issues that impacted people's ability to share on our apps," a Facebook company spokesperson told Insider in an emailed statement. "While we fixed them, they should never have happened in the first place and we're sorry to anyone who felt they couldn't bring attention to important events, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice.
"We design our policies to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps and we apply them equally, regardless of who is posting or what their personal beliefs are."
Read the original article on Business Insider
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ne ... 48965.html
Anna Cooban
Wed, June 2, 2021, 10:00 AM
Mark
Facebook workers have asked for a review of moderation systems around pro-Palestinian content.
Nearly 200 workers signed an anonymous letter to Facebook executives, viewed by the Financial Times.
The letter calls for a task force to investigate potential bias, and for the company to hire more Palestinians.
Nearly 200 Facebook employees have signed an anonymous letter to company leadership, demanding a review of moderation systems they believe unfairly suppress content supportive of Palestinians, according to the Financial Times, which saw the letter.
Some staff have claimed that pro-Palestinian content was unfairly removed during the recent fighting in Gaza, the bloodiest fighting between Israel and the militant group Hamas that the region has seen in years. Pro-Palestinian activists accused Facebook of censoring their posts during the fighting, and flooded the company's App Store app with negative reviews.
The letter, which 174 employees signed, called for new measures to ensure pro-Palestinian content was not unfairly suppressed, a commitment to hire more Palestinian workers, and for an internal task force to "investigate and address potential biases" in Facebook's content moderation, the FT said.
Facebook, Inc. employs more than 55,000 people. The company also owns Instagram and chat app WhatsApp.
"As highlighted by employees, the press and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine," the letter said, per the FT.
"We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust."
The letter also asks for a third-party audit of the company's handling of Arab and Muslim content, and for Facebook's independent oversight board to review a post by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The post labeled Palestinian civilians as terrorists, the Facebook employees said.
Israel and Hamas signed a cease-fire on May 21. During the preceding 10 days, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, according to Reuters, which cited health authorities. Nearly 2,000 people in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled territory that is under an Israeli blockade, were injured, and the UN said about 58,000 were displaced.
Facebook-owned Instagram changed its algorithm last week to favor news and viral content following concerns from users that they could not see pro-Palestinian content.
"We know there were several issues that impacted people's ability to share on our apps," a Facebook company spokesperson told Insider in an emailed statement. "While we fixed them, they should never have happened in the first place and we're sorry to anyone who felt they couldn't bring attention to important events, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice.
"We design our policies to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps and we apply them equally, regardless of who is posting or what their personal beliefs are."
Read the original article on Business Insider
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ne ... 48965.html
A Historic Moment for Israeli Arabs, but With a Question Mark
An Arab party’s decision to join a right-leaning Israeli government would be an important, if uncertain, step toward inclusion rather than perpetual opposition.
JERUSALEM — The agreement on a coalition that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a dozen years in power and include an independent Arab party in the government for the first time blew up fault lines in Israeli politics and opened a potential new era.
If Parliament backs the eight-party coalition, it holds out the tantalizing possibility that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who account for about a fifth of the population, might play a more active role in politics, to unifying effect.
At the same time, the prospect of Naftali Bennett, a right-wing nationalist leader, becoming prime minister alarmed many Israeli Arabs.
“I have debated Bennett, and he says quite openly, ‘You are not my equal,’” said Diana Buttu, a prominent Palestinian lawyer based in Haifa. “Did I want Netanyahu out? Yes. To the extent of wanting Bennett as prime minister? No.”
The decision by a small Arab party known by its Hebrew acronym, Raam, to join the government so soon after last month’s violent clashes between Jewish and Arab mobs in Israel last month reflected a growing realization that the marginalization of Arab parties brings only paralysis and repetitive elections. It also suggested a desire among some Palestinian citizens of Israel to exert more political influence.
Fakhira Halloun, an expert in conflict resolution, said: “Usually the dominant discourse is one of perceiving Palestinians inside Israel as an internal enemy. We need to change this perception by not being always in the opposition.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
An Arab party’s decision to join a right-leaning Israeli government would be an important, if uncertain, step toward inclusion rather than perpetual opposition.
JERUSALEM — The agreement on a coalition that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a dozen years in power and include an independent Arab party in the government for the first time blew up fault lines in Israeli politics and opened a potential new era.
If Parliament backs the eight-party coalition, it holds out the tantalizing possibility that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who account for about a fifth of the population, might play a more active role in politics, to unifying effect.
At the same time, the prospect of Naftali Bennett, a right-wing nationalist leader, becoming prime minister alarmed many Israeli Arabs.
“I have debated Bennett, and he says quite openly, ‘You are not my equal,’” said Diana Buttu, a prominent Palestinian lawyer based in Haifa. “Did I want Netanyahu out? Yes. To the extent of wanting Bennett as prime minister? No.”
The decision by a small Arab party known by its Hebrew acronym, Raam, to join the government so soon after last month’s violent clashes between Jewish and Arab mobs in Israel last month reflected a growing realization that the marginalization of Arab parties brings only paralysis and repetitive elections. It also suggested a desire among some Palestinian citizens of Israel to exert more political influence.
Fakhira Halloun, an expert in conflict resolution, said: “Usually the dominant discourse is one of perceiving Palestinians inside Israel as an internal enemy. We need to change this perception by not being always in the opposition.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
5000 Israelis achieve Emirati citizenship after amendment of law
5,000 Israelis have reportedly achieved citizenship for United Arab Emirates in the past three months after the Arab country amended the law on granting citizenship.
Citing sources, the website of Emirates Leaks revealed on Thursday a wide turnout from the Israelis under the cover of investment in the UAE, especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The sources underlined that the UAE authorities allow the acquisition of citizenship for investors and entrepreneurs without the need to give up their original citizenship.
With an Emirati citizenship, the Israelis would be able to cross the Persian Gulf and Arab countries without a prior visa, according to the sources.
A former adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi has warned about the repercussions of the United Arab Emirates’ demographic change, questioning the loyalty of those who have recently obtained the UAE citizenship.
“Hundreds of those who obtained UAE citizenship recently do not speak Arabic and their children do not make the effort to learn it and have nothing to do with Islam and do not know the customs, traditions and values of the Emirates and were given the right to retain their original nationality and we do not know the extent of their loyalty to the state,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said via Twitter on Wednesday.
Abdulla, a professor of political science, added that the UAE’s demographic landscape in the next 50 years will be “dysfunctional” and “strange”.
— Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (@Abdulkhaleq_UAE) June 30, 2021
Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates announced plans to grant foreigners citizenship as part of efforts to stimulate its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Persian Gulf country, which is home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said last November it plans to overhaul its religious laws, including loosening alcohol restrictions and allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate.
The UAE has already begun to move in the direction of dismissing its deep-rooted Islamic and Arabic values by normalizing its relations with the occupying regime of Israel – a move that was condemned across the Muslim world.
Several Arab countries, including the UAE and Bahrain, normalized their ties with Israel under US-brokered agreements last year, when former US President Donald Trump was in office.
Last month, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said US assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror General Qassem Soleimani, a revered commander across the Muslim world, and the deal for the sale of US F-35 fighter jets to the UAE were deeply connected with the normalization deals.
The Israeli regime’s new foreign minister arrived in the UAE on Tuesday, marking the highest-level visit by an Israeli official to the Persian Gulf Arab country since the two normalized their relations.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi, Yair Lapid told diplomats that it was a “historic moment”.
In acknowledgment of Benjamin Netanyahu, Lapid said the former Israeli premier was “the architect of the Abraham Accords” who “worked tirelessly to bring them about.”
However, Lapid was reportedly given a subdued reception in the UAE, as the website of the Persian Gulf Arab country’s official WAM news agency didn’t immediately carry a report on his arrival, and his counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, wasn’t at the airport to meet the Israeli foreign minister.
“Israel would like to tout this as a historic visit, but evidently the UAE wants to keep it as low profile as possible and treat it like any other visit,” Abdulla told American economic news website Bloomberg on Tuesday.
“The UAE’s relationship with Israel is there, but this isn’t the time to brag after Gaza,” he added, referring to Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip more than a month ago, which killed over 250 Palestinians in the besieged enclave and injured nearly 2,000 others.
http://www.taghribnews.com/en/news/5100 ... ent-of-law
5,000 Israelis have reportedly achieved citizenship for United Arab Emirates in the past three months after the Arab country amended the law on granting citizenship.
Citing sources, the website of Emirates Leaks revealed on Thursday a wide turnout from the Israelis under the cover of investment in the UAE, especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The sources underlined that the UAE authorities allow the acquisition of citizenship for investors and entrepreneurs without the need to give up their original citizenship.
With an Emirati citizenship, the Israelis would be able to cross the Persian Gulf and Arab countries without a prior visa, according to the sources.
A former adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi has warned about the repercussions of the United Arab Emirates’ demographic change, questioning the loyalty of those who have recently obtained the UAE citizenship.
“Hundreds of those who obtained UAE citizenship recently do not speak Arabic and their children do not make the effort to learn it and have nothing to do with Islam and do not know the customs, traditions and values of the Emirates and were given the right to retain their original nationality and we do not know the extent of their loyalty to the state,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said via Twitter on Wednesday.
Abdulla, a professor of political science, added that the UAE’s demographic landscape in the next 50 years will be “dysfunctional” and “strange”.
— Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (@Abdulkhaleq_UAE) June 30, 2021
Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates announced plans to grant foreigners citizenship as part of efforts to stimulate its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Persian Gulf country, which is home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said last November it plans to overhaul its religious laws, including loosening alcohol restrictions and allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate.
The UAE has already begun to move in the direction of dismissing its deep-rooted Islamic and Arabic values by normalizing its relations with the occupying regime of Israel – a move that was condemned across the Muslim world.
Several Arab countries, including the UAE and Bahrain, normalized their ties with Israel under US-brokered agreements last year, when former US President Donald Trump was in office.
Last month, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said US assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror General Qassem Soleimani, a revered commander across the Muslim world, and the deal for the sale of US F-35 fighter jets to the UAE were deeply connected with the normalization deals.
The Israeli regime’s new foreign minister arrived in the UAE on Tuesday, marking the highest-level visit by an Israeli official to the Persian Gulf Arab country since the two normalized their relations.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi, Yair Lapid told diplomats that it was a “historic moment”.
In acknowledgment of Benjamin Netanyahu, Lapid said the former Israeli premier was “the architect of the Abraham Accords” who “worked tirelessly to bring them about.”
However, Lapid was reportedly given a subdued reception in the UAE, as the website of the Persian Gulf Arab country’s official WAM news agency didn’t immediately carry a report on his arrival, and his counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, wasn’t at the airport to meet the Israeli foreign minister.
“Israel would like to tout this as a historic visit, but evidently the UAE wants to keep it as low profile as possible and treat it like any other visit,” Abdulla told American economic news website Bloomberg on Tuesday.
“The UAE’s relationship with Israel is there, but this isn’t the time to brag after Gaza,” he added, referring to Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip more than a month ago, which killed over 250 Palestinians in the besieged enclave and injured nearly 2,000 others.
http://www.taghribnews.com/en/news/5100 ... ent-of-law
Shops in Saudi Arabia can stay open during prayer times: local media
Reuters Published July 17, 2021
Shops in Saudi Arabia may now stay open during prayer times, a leading government-linked newspaper said on Friday, relaxing the kingdom's strict rules on closing shops and businesses for prayer five times a day.
It is the latest in a series of social and economic reforms intended to modernize the kingdom and boost the private sector's contribution to its oil-dependent economy.
The decision, taken by the Council of Saudi Chambers, will end decades where all shops had to shut for at least half an hour during five daily prayers.
“To prevent crowding, gatherings, long waiting under preventive measures to fight coronavirus and to maintain the health of shoppers, we urge shop owners and businesses to remain open through all working hours, including prayer times,” Okaz cited a circular by the official business federation.
The Saudi government's media office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, has pledged to revive a more “moderate Islam”.
He has loosened ultra-rigorous social restrictions by scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts, lifting a ban on cinema and allowing women to drive.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1635436/shops ... ocal-media
Reuters Published July 17, 2021
Shops in Saudi Arabia may now stay open during prayer times, a leading government-linked newspaper said on Friday, relaxing the kingdom's strict rules on closing shops and businesses for prayer five times a day.
It is the latest in a series of social and economic reforms intended to modernize the kingdom and boost the private sector's contribution to its oil-dependent economy.
The decision, taken by the Council of Saudi Chambers, will end decades where all shops had to shut for at least half an hour during five daily prayers.
“To prevent crowding, gatherings, long waiting under preventive measures to fight coronavirus and to maintain the health of shoppers, we urge shop owners and businesses to remain open through all working hours, including prayer times,” Okaz cited a circular by the official business federation.
The Saudi government's media office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, has pledged to revive a more “moderate Islam”.
He has loosened ultra-rigorous social restrictions by scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts, lifting a ban on cinema and allowing women to drive.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1635436/shops ... ocal-media
Reuters
Egypt finds ancient military vessel, Greek graves in sunken city
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered off the coast of Alexandria
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered in the Mediterranean sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion off the coast of Alexandria
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered off the coast of Alexandria
Mon, July 19, 2021, 9:24 AM
CAIRO (Reuters) - Divers have discovered rare remains of a military vessel in the ancient sunken city of Thônis-Heracleion - once Egypt's largest port on the Mediterranean - and a funerary complex illustrating the presence of Greek merchants, the country said on Monday.
The city, which controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of a western branch of the Nile, dominated the area for centuries before the foundation of Alexandria nearby by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.
Destroyed and sunk along with a wide area of the Nile delta by several earthquakes and tidal waves, Thônis-Heracleion was rediscovered in 2001 in Abu Qir bay near Alexandria, now Egypt's second largest city.
The military vessel, discovered by an Egyptian-French mission led by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), sank when the famed temple of Amun it was mooring next to collapsed in the second century BC.
A preliminary study shows the hull of the 25-metre flat-bottomed ship, with oars and a large sail, was built in the classical tradition and also had features of Ancient Egyptian construction, Egypt's tourism and antiquities ministry said.
In another part of the city, the mission revealed the remains of a large Greek funerary area dating back to the first years of the 4th century BC, it said.
"This discovery beautifully illustrates the presence of the Greek merchants who lived in that city," the ministry said, adding that the Greeks were allowed to settle there during the late Pharaonic dynasties.
"They built their own sanctuaries close to the huge temple of Amun. Those were destroyed, simultaneously and their remains are found mixed with those of the Egyptian temple."
(Reporting by Sameh Elkhatib; writing by Mahmoud Mourad; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/eg ... 08683.html
Egypt finds ancient military vessel, Greek graves in sunken city
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered off the coast of Alexandria
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered in the Mediterranean sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion off the coast of Alexandria
Remains of an ancient military vessel discovered off the coast of Alexandria
Mon, July 19, 2021, 9:24 AM
CAIRO (Reuters) - Divers have discovered rare remains of a military vessel in the ancient sunken city of Thônis-Heracleion - once Egypt's largest port on the Mediterranean - and a funerary complex illustrating the presence of Greek merchants, the country said on Monday.
The city, which controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of a western branch of the Nile, dominated the area for centuries before the foundation of Alexandria nearby by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.
Destroyed and sunk along with a wide area of the Nile delta by several earthquakes and tidal waves, Thônis-Heracleion was rediscovered in 2001 in Abu Qir bay near Alexandria, now Egypt's second largest city.
The military vessel, discovered by an Egyptian-French mission led by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), sank when the famed temple of Amun it was mooring next to collapsed in the second century BC.
A preliminary study shows the hull of the 25-metre flat-bottomed ship, with oars and a large sail, was built in the classical tradition and also had features of Ancient Egyptian construction, Egypt's tourism and antiquities ministry said.
In another part of the city, the mission revealed the remains of a large Greek funerary area dating back to the first years of the 4th century BC, it said.
"This discovery beautifully illustrates the presence of the Greek merchants who lived in that city," the ministry said, adding that the Greeks were allowed to settle there during the late Pharaonic dynasties.
"They built their own sanctuaries close to the huge temple of Amun. Those were destroyed, simultaneously and their remains are found mixed with those of the Egyptian temple."
(Reporting by Sameh Elkhatib; writing by Mahmoud Mourad; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/eg ... 08683.html
Israel Wants to Have Its Ice Cream and Cybersecurity, Too
It is never quiet in Israel, but July brought new scrutiny. First, news broke that governments around the world have used spyware purchased from an Israeli cybersurveillance company, NSO Group, to target journalists, human rights activists and politicians. The revelations could implicate the Israeli Ministry of Defense in granting NSO permission to export hacking software that was then used by countries with authoritarian governments to suppress dissent. The scandal topped international news for days, but Israeli officials were instead preoccupied with ice cream. On July 19, Ben & Jerry’s announced it will no longer be available in the occupied Palestinian territories as of 2023. The divestment story (inaccurately characterized as a boycott) diverted attention from the role Israeli technology plays in global antidemocratic practices. Together the stories highlighted two of Israel’s defining national enterprises: high tech and perpetual military occupation.
The Israeli government’s response to the Ben & Jerry’s announcement was swift and voluble. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid insisted the move was anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Gilad Erdan, appealed to governors of 35 U.S. states to activate anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions measures against the company.
The Israeli government portrayed itself as the victim of a hostile and unethical move on the part of the ice cream company. As if Israel itself did not partake in any immoral behavior of its own; as if home demolitions, institutionalized discrimination, land expropriation, administrative detention and shooting at unarmed Palestinian protesters were not problematic; as if an Israeli company selling highly controversial technology to authoritarian regimes were not more questionable than an ice cream company denying its pints to customers who live in certain areas.
The uniformity of official reaction in Israel to the Ben & Jerry’s decision reflects an Israeli political consensus — unlike that of the international community — that does not distinguish between Israeli territory within its internationally recognized 1948 borders and the territories it occupied in 1967.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/opin ... pe=Article
It is never quiet in Israel, but July brought new scrutiny. First, news broke that governments around the world have used spyware purchased from an Israeli cybersurveillance company, NSO Group, to target journalists, human rights activists and politicians. The revelations could implicate the Israeli Ministry of Defense in granting NSO permission to export hacking software that was then used by countries with authoritarian governments to suppress dissent. The scandal topped international news for days, but Israeli officials were instead preoccupied with ice cream. On July 19, Ben & Jerry’s announced it will no longer be available in the occupied Palestinian territories as of 2023. The divestment story (inaccurately characterized as a boycott) diverted attention from the role Israeli technology plays in global antidemocratic practices. Together the stories highlighted two of Israel’s defining national enterprises: high tech and perpetual military occupation.
The Israeli government’s response to the Ben & Jerry’s announcement was swift and voluble. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid insisted the move was anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Gilad Erdan, appealed to governors of 35 U.S. states to activate anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions measures against the company.
The Israeli government portrayed itself as the victim of a hostile and unethical move on the part of the ice cream company. As if Israel itself did not partake in any immoral behavior of its own; as if home demolitions, institutionalized discrimination, land expropriation, administrative detention and shooting at unarmed Palestinian protesters were not problematic; as if an Israeli company selling highly controversial technology to authoritarian regimes were not more questionable than an ice cream company denying its pints to customers who live in certain areas.
The uniformity of official reaction in Israel to the Ben & Jerry’s decision reflects an Israeli political consensus — unlike that of the international community — that does not distinguish between Israeli territory within its internationally recognized 1948 borders and the territories it occupied in 1967.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/opin ... pe=Article
Collapse: Inside Lebanon’s Worst Economic Meltdown in More Than a Century
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Rania Mustafa’s living room recalls a not-so-distant past, when the modest salary of a security guard in Lebanon could buy an air-conditioner, plush furniture and a flat-screen TV.
But as the country’s economic crisis worsened, she lost her job and watched her savings evaporate. Now, she plans to sell her furniture to pay the rent and struggles to afford food, much less electricity or a dentist to fix her 10-year-old daughter’s broken molar.
For dinner on a recent night, lit by a single cellphone, the family shared thin potato sandwiches donated by a neighbor. The girl chewed gingerly on one side of her mouth to avoid her damaged tooth.
“I have no idea how we’ll continue,” said Ms. Mustafa, 40, at home in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, after Beirut.
Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country still haunted by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, is in the throes of a financial collapse that the World Bank has said could rank among the world’s worst since the mid-1800s. It is closing like a vise on families whose money has plummeted in value while the cost of nearly everything has skyrocketed.
Since fall 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value, and annual inflation in 2020 was 84.9 percent. As of June, prices of consumer goods had nearly quadrupled in the previous two years, according to government statistics. The huge explosion one year ago in the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people and left a large swath of the capital in shambles, only added to the desperation.
On Wednesday, Lebanon observed a day of mourning to mark the anniversary of the blast, and government offices and most businesses were closed for the occasion. Large crowds gathered around Beirut to commemorate the day and denounce their government, which has failed to determine what caused the explosion and who was responsible, much less to hold anyone accountable.
After a moment of silence on the highway overlooking the port, thousands of protesters marched toward downtown, where some fired fireworks and threw stones near the Parliament at security forces, who responded with volleys of tear gas.
The blast exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, which was long in the making, and there is little relief in sight.
Years of corruption and bad policies have left the state deeply in debt and the central bank unable to keep propping up the currency, as it had for decades, because of a drop in foreign cash flows into the country. Now, the bottom has fallen out of the economy, leaving shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
All but the wealthiest Lebanese have cut meat from their diets and wait in long lines to fuel their cars, sweating through sweltering summer nights because of extended power cuts.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Rania Mustafa’s living room recalls a not-so-distant past, when the modest salary of a security guard in Lebanon could buy an air-conditioner, plush furniture and a flat-screen TV.
But as the country’s economic crisis worsened, she lost her job and watched her savings evaporate. Now, she plans to sell her furniture to pay the rent and struggles to afford food, much less electricity or a dentist to fix her 10-year-old daughter’s broken molar.
For dinner on a recent night, lit by a single cellphone, the family shared thin potato sandwiches donated by a neighbor. The girl chewed gingerly on one side of her mouth to avoid her damaged tooth.
“I have no idea how we’ll continue,” said Ms. Mustafa, 40, at home in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, after Beirut.
Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country still haunted by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, is in the throes of a financial collapse that the World Bank has said could rank among the world’s worst since the mid-1800s. It is closing like a vise on families whose money has plummeted in value while the cost of nearly everything has skyrocketed.
Since fall 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value, and annual inflation in 2020 was 84.9 percent. As of June, prices of consumer goods had nearly quadrupled in the previous two years, according to government statistics. The huge explosion one year ago in the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people and left a large swath of the capital in shambles, only added to the desperation.
On Wednesday, Lebanon observed a day of mourning to mark the anniversary of the blast, and government offices and most businesses were closed for the occasion. Large crowds gathered around Beirut to commemorate the day and denounce their government, which has failed to determine what caused the explosion and who was responsible, much less to hold anyone accountable.
After a moment of silence on the highway overlooking the port, thousands of protesters marched toward downtown, where some fired fireworks and threw stones near the Parliament at security forces, who responded with volleys of tear gas.
The blast exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, which was long in the making, and there is little relief in sight.
Years of corruption and bad policies have left the state deeply in debt and the central bank unable to keep propping up the currency, as it had for decades, because of a drop in foreign cash flows into the country. Now, the bottom has fallen out of the economy, leaving shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
All but the wealthiest Lebanese have cut meat from their diets and wait in long lines to fuel their cars, sweating through sweltering summer nights because of extended power cuts.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
In Shift, Israel Quietly Allows Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount
Jewish activists say they are exercising their right to free worship at a site holy to Jews and Muslims. But the change upsets a longstanding compromise aimed at staving off conflict.
Orthodox Jews and others praying at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Monday. Israel has long prohibited Jews from praying there.Credit...
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has long forbidden Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims, yet Rabbi Yehudah Glick made little effort to hide his prayers. In fact, he was livestreaming them.
“Oh Lord!” prayed Rabbi Glick, as he filmed himself on his phone on a recent morning. “Save my soul from false lips and deceitful tongues!”
Since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it has maintained a fragile religious balance at the Temple Mount, the most divisive site in Jerusalem: Only Muslims can worship there, while Jews can pray at the Western Wall below.
But recently the government has quietly allowed increasing numbers of Jews to pray there, a shift that could aggravate the instability in East Jerusalem and potentially lead to religious conflict.
“It’s a sensitive place,” said Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister. “And sensitive places such as this, which have an enormous potential for explosion, need to be treated with care.”
Rabbi Glick, an American-born, right-wing former lawmaker, has been leading efforts to change the status quo for decades. He characterizes his effort as a matter of religious freedom: If Muslims can pray there, why not Jews?
“God is the master of all humanity,” he said. “And he wants every one of us to be here to worship, every one in his own style.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Jewish activists say they are exercising their right to free worship at a site holy to Jews and Muslims. But the change upsets a longstanding compromise aimed at staving off conflict.
Orthodox Jews and others praying at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Monday. Israel has long prohibited Jews from praying there.Credit...
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has long forbidden Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims, yet Rabbi Yehudah Glick made little effort to hide his prayers. In fact, he was livestreaming them.
“Oh Lord!” prayed Rabbi Glick, as he filmed himself on his phone on a recent morning. “Save my soul from false lips and deceitful tongues!”
Since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it has maintained a fragile religious balance at the Temple Mount, the most divisive site in Jerusalem: Only Muslims can worship there, while Jews can pray at the Western Wall below.
But recently the government has quietly allowed increasing numbers of Jews to pray there, a shift that could aggravate the instability in East Jerusalem and potentially lead to religious conflict.
“It’s a sensitive place,” said Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister. “And sensitive places such as this, which have an enormous potential for explosion, need to be treated with care.”
Rabbi Glick, an American-born, right-wing former lawmaker, has been leading efforts to change the status quo for decades. He characterizes his effort as a matter of religious freedom: If Muslims can pray there, why not Jews?
“God is the master of all humanity,” he said. “And he wants every one of us to be here to worship, every one in his own style.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Re: THE MIDDLE EAST
Disney to Build a Magic Kingdom Theme Park in the Middle East
Disneyland Abu Dhabi could become a growth engine for the company in the region. It could also expose Disney and its vaunted brand to criticism.
Mickey Mouse is headed to the Middle East.
In a new test for its singularly American brand, the Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the Miral Group, an arm of the Abu Dhabi government, to build a theme park resort on the Persian Gulf. The property, the seventh in Disney’s global portfolio, will have a castle and modernized versions of some classic Disney rides, along with new attractions tailored to the climate and local culture.
“It’s not just about ‘If you build it, they will come,’” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said in a brief phone interview from Abu Dhabi. “You have to build it right. And quality means not just scale, but quality and ambition. We are planning to be very ambitious with this.”
Disney and Miral declined to give acreage, budget or construction timeline details for what they are calling Disneyland Abu Dhabi, except to say it will be a full-scale property on a par with Disney’s other “castle” parks. Miral is footing the entire bill for building the park. (New theme parks of this scale typically cost $5 billion or more.)
Arab leaders have long courted Disney, which expanded its theme park business to Japan in 1983, France in 1992, Hong Kong in 2005 and the Chinese mainland in 2016. At a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018, Mr. Iger said the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had made an “impassioned plea” for Disney to build a theme park in his kingdom.
“I explained when we make decisions like this we consider cultural issues, economic issues and political issues,” Mr. Iger said then, declining to give further details of their “very frank” discussion. The region, he added at the time, “has not been at the top of our list in terms of markets that we would open up in.”
Image
Robert Iger dressed casually and speaking with his arms folded across his chest.
“We are planning to be very ambitious with this,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.Credit...Philip Cheung for The New York Times
What changed?
For a start, the United Arab Emirates has grown into a tourist destination. Abu Dhabi, the capital, attracted roughly 24 million visitors in 2023, according to government figures. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s president, has set a goal of attracting 39 million visitors annually to Abu Dhabi by 2030. The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2017, has been a hit. Warner Bros. Discovery opened a modest indoor theme park in the city in 2018, and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi arrived in 2023.
The Miral Group, which built Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, made Disney a hard-to-refuse financial offer: In addition to paying for construction, Miral will pay Disney to design the rides, shops, restaurants and accompanying hotels. Once the park is open, Disney will receive royalties for the use of its characters as a percentage of revenue, according to a securities filing. Disney will also receive other fees.
At the same time, Disney has come under pressure to find new areas for growth to offset declines in cable television and at the box office. By opening a theme park in Abu Dhabi, Disney hopes to create an engine that drives demand among the Middle East’s 500 million residents for other Disney products — princess dolls, Disney+ subscriptions, cruise ship vacations, Marvel movies, touring stage productions.
“After studying the region carefully, engaging with potential partners and visiting three times in the past nine months,” Mr. Iger said, “it became more and more clear that not only was the region right and ready for us, but the place to build was Abu Dhabi.”
Disneyland Abu Dhabi could allow Disney to tap into India’s expanding middle class. A direct flight from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi takes 3 hours 17 minutes. Currently, the closest Disney outpost to Mumbai is Hong Kong Disneyland, a six-hour flight away.
“In looking at some research that we’ve done recently, we determined that, for every person visiting one of our parks, there are 10 people in the world that have a desire to visit,” Mr. Iger said. “One of the biggest reasons they don’t — everybody always thinks immediately it’s affordability. It’s not. It’s accessibility. It’s a long trip to get to where we are for a lot of people.”
Image
A cluster of narrow skyscrapers gleams against a blue sky in the background as a family of three walks toward the camera at the top of outdoor steps.
Abu Dhabi has a goal of attracting 39 million visitors annually by 2030, up from about 24 million in 2023.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
There will be obstacles. The climate is one. Disney will need to design a park that allows for visitation in scalding desert heat.
Disney could also face criticism for its partnership with the Emirates, which is ruled as an autocracy with limits to freedom of expression, speech and the press, and which provides arms to fighters accused of atrocities in a devastating civil war in Sudan. In November, Human Rights Watch slammed the National Basketball Association, which has made Abu Dhabi its Middle East hub, for helping the country to distract from its human rights record.
To attract more tourists and foreign investors, the Emirates in 2020 improved protections for women, loosened regulations on alcohol consumption and diminished the role of Islamic legal codes in its justice system. Criticizing the government or its leaders remains illegal, however, and can lead to long prison sentences. Migrant workers are often subject to inhumane conditions, according to human rights groups and the State Department. Homosexuality is illegal.
In 2022, the Emirates joined other Persian Gulf nations in banning “Lightyear,” a major film from Disney’s Pixar, because of a blink-and-you-missed-it kiss between a lesbian couple. “Lightyear,” along with some other content that features L.G.B.T.Q. characters, does not appear on Disney+ in the region.
In a statement, a Disney spokeswoman said, “We are respectful of the countries and cultures where we do business, while always adhering to our own standards and values.”
Disney faced a similar situation when it teamed with the Chinese government to build Shanghai Disneyland. In addition to awkward optics, the construction of that park required the contentious relocation of thousands of suburban Shanghai residents. (Disneyland Abu Dhabi won’t have that headache; it will rise on man-made Yas Island.)
Wall Street, however, is likely to applaud — especially given the troubled state of other Disney businesses, including cable television.
“Are theme parks now the best business in media?” Craig Moffett, a founder of the MoffettNathanson research firm, wrote in a report last year. “The answer is almost certainly ‘yes.’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/busi ... e9677ea768
Disneyland Abu Dhabi could become a growth engine for the company in the region. It could also expose Disney and its vaunted brand to criticism.
Mickey Mouse is headed to the Middle East.
In a new test for its singularly American brand, the Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the Miral Group, an arm of the Abu Dhabi government, to build a theme park resort on the Persian Gulf. The property, the seventh in Disney’s global portfolio, will have a castle and modernized versions of some classic Disney rides, along with new attractions tailored to the climate and local culture.
“It’s not just about ‘If you build it, they will come,’” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said in a brief phone interview from Abu Dhabi. “You have to build it right. And quality means not just scale, but quality and ambition. We are planning to be very ambitious with this.”
Disney and Miral declined to give acreage, budget or construction timeline details for what they are calling Disneyland Abu Dhabi, except to say it will be a full-scale property on a par with Disney’s other “castle” parks. Miral is footing the entire bill for building the park. (New theme parks of this scale typically cost $5 billion or more.)
Arab leaders have long courted Disney, which expanded its theme park business to Japan in 1983, France in 1992, Hong Kong in 2005 and the Chinese mainland in 2016. At a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018, Mr. Iger said the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had made an “impassioned plea” for Disney to build a theme park in his kingdom.
“I explained when we make decisions like this we consider cultural issues, economic issues and political issues,” Mr. Iger said then, declining to give further details of their “very frank” discussion. The region, he added at the time, “has not been at the top of our list in terms of markets that we would open up in.”
Image
Robert Iger dressed casually and speaking with his arms folded across his chest.
“We are planning to be very ambitious with this,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.Credit...Philip Cheung for The New York Times
What changed?
For a start, the United Arab Emirates has grown into a tourist destination. Abu Dhabi, the capital, attracted roughly 24 million visitors in 2023, according to government figures. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s president, has set a goal of attracting 39 million visitors annually to Abu Dhabi by 2030. The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2017, has been a hit. Warner Bros. Discovery opened a modest indoor theme park in the city in 2018, and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi arrived in 2023.
The Miral Group, which built Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, made Disney a hard-to-refuse financial offer: In addition to paying for construction, Miral will pay Disney to design the rides, shops, restaurants and accompanying hotels. Once the park is open, Disney will receive royalties for the use of its characters as a percentage of revenue, according to a securities filing. Disney will also receive other fees.
At the same time, Disney has come under pressure to find new areas for growth to offset declines in cable television and at the box office. By opening a theme park in Abu Dhabi, Disney hopes to create an engine that drives demand among the Middle East’s 500 million residents for other Disney products — princess dolls, Disney+ subscriptions, cruise ship vacations, Marvel movies, touring stage productions.
“After studying the region carefully, engaging with potential partners and visiting three times in the past nine months,” Mr. Iger said, “it became more and more clear that not only was the region right and ready for us, but the place to build was Abu Dhabi.”
Disneyland Abu Dhabi could allow Disney to tap into India’s expanding middle class. A direct flight from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi takes 3 hours 17 minutes. Currently, the closest Disney outpost to Mumbai is Hong Kong Disneyland, a six-hour flight away.
“In looking at some research that we’ve done recently, we determined that, for every person visiting one of our parks, there are 10 people in the world that have a desire to visit,” Mr. Iger said. “One of the biggest reasons they don’t — everybody always thinks immediately it’s affordability. It’s not. It’s accessibility. It’s a long trip to get to where we are for a lot of people.”
Image
A cluster of narrow skyscrapers gleams against a blue sky in the background as a family of three walks toward the camera at the top of outdoor steps.
Abu Dhabi has a goal of attracting 39 million visitors annually by 2030, up from about 24 million in 2023.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
There will be obstacles. The climate is one. Disney will need to design a park that allows for visitation in scalding desert heat.
Disney could also face criticism for its partnership with the Emirates, which is ruled as an autocracy with limits to freedom of expression, speech and the press, and which provides arms to fighters accused of atrocities in a devastating civil war in Sudan. In November, Human Rights Watch slammed the National Basketball Association, which has made Abu Dhabi its Middle East hub, for helping the country to distract from its human rights record.
To attract more tourists and foreign investors, the Emirates in 2020 improved protections for women, loosened regulations on alcohol consumption and diminished the role of Islamic legal codes in its justice system. Criticizing the government or its leaders remains illegal, however, and can lead to long prison sentences. Migrant workers are often subject to inhumane conditions, according to human rights groups and the State Department. Homosexuality is illegal.
In 2022, the Emirates joined other Persian Gulf nations in banning “Lightyear,” a major film from Disney’s Pixar, because of a blink-and-you-missed-it kiss between a lesbian couple. “Lightyear,” along with some other content that features L.G.B.T.Q. characters, does not appear on Disney+ in the region.
In a statement, a Disney spokeswoman said, “We are respectful of the countries and cultures where we do business, while always adhering to our own standards and values.”
Disney faced a similar situation when it teamed with the Chinese government to build Shanghai Disneyland. In addition to awkward optics, the construction of that park required the contentious relocation of thousands of suburban Shanghai residents. (Disneyland Abu Dhabi won’t have that headache; it will rise on man-made Yas Island.)
Wall Street, however, is likely to applaud — especially given the troubled state of other Disney businesses, including cable television.
“Are theme parks now the best business in media?” Craig Moffett, a founder of the MoffettNathanson research firm, wrote in a report last year. “The answer is almost certainly ‘yes.’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/busi ... e9677ea768
Re: THE MIDDLE EAST
Egypt "ready to implement" bridge to Saudi Arabia over Red Sea
Amy Peacock | 23 hours ago 7 comments
Egypt's transport minister Kamel al-Wazir has announced that plans are progressing for a bridge connecting Egypt and Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea.
"We have now completed the planning for the bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and are ready to implement it at any time, whether a bridge or a tunnel," Al-Wazir, who is also Egypt's deputy prime minister, told news agency Reuters.
Bridge will connect Africa and Asia
If completed, the bridge will link Ras Alsheikh Hamid in Saudi Arabia with Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, crossing Tiran Island in between.
Aiming to boost trade and tourism between Africa and Asia, the project is planned as a high-speed railway that will transport cargo over the Straits of Tiran sea passage.
//Egypt's New Administrative Capital
//Read: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/03/27/new-a ... otography/
//Photos reveal monumental scale of Egypt's new capital city
Plans to build a bridge across the Red Sea were originally announced in 2016 by Saudi Arabia's king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
"This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels," he said at the time.
Bridge expected $4 billion
Expected to cost around $4 billion (£2.9 billion), the major infrastructure project will be financed by Saudi Arabia and is set to complement the country's controversial Neom giga project, which borders the Red Sea.
Neom's most high-profile project is The Line megacity, which is set to comprise a pair of parallel 500-metre-high skyscrapers that stretch 170 kilometres.
Neom climate advisor Donald Wuebbles recently warned that the scale of The Line, which is currently progressing in northwest Saudi Arabia, could affect local weather patterns.
In Egypt, photos were recently revealed of the country's New Administrative Capital, which is being built 45 kilometres east of Cairo and is planned to accommodate over six million people.
The top image is taken from Google Maps.
https://www.dezeen.com/2025/06/05/egypt ... ea-bridge/
Re: THE MIDDLE EAST
How to Think About What’s Happening With Iran and Israel
Hossein Fatemi/Panos Pictures, via Redux
Thomas L. Friedman
By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist
The full-scale Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on Friday needs to be added to the list of pivotal, game-changing wars that have reshaped the Middle East since World War II and are known by just their dates — 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2023 — and now 2025.
It is far too early, and the possible outcomes so multifold, to say how the Middle East game of nations will be changed by the Israel-Iran conflict of 2025. All I would say now is that the extreme upside possibility (that this puts in motion a set of falling dominoes, ending with the toppling of the Iranian regime and its replacement by a more decent, secular and consensual one) and the extreme downside possibility (that it sets the whole region on fire and sucks in the United States) are both on the table.
Between these extremes still lies a middle-ground possibility — a negotiated solution — but not for long. President Trump has deftly used the Israeli attack to, in effect, say to the Iranians: “I am still ready to negotiate a peaceful end to your nuclear program and you might want to go there fast — because my friend Bibi is C-R-A-Z-Y. I am waiting for your call.”
Given this wide range of possibilities, the best thing that I can offer to those watching at home are the key variables that I will be tracking to determine which of these — or some other I can’t anticipate — is the most likely outcome.
First: What makes this Iran-Israel conflict so profound is Israel’s vow to continue the fight this time until it eliminates Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capability — one way or another.
Iran invited that, vastly accelerating its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade. It had begun aggressively disguising those efforts to such a new degree that even the International Atomic Energy Agency declared on Thursday that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the agency has declared that in 20 years. Israel has cocked its gun and aimed at the Iranian nuclear program several times in the past 15 years, but each time either under U.S. pressure or doubts by its own military, it stood down at the last minute — which is why it is impossible to exaggerate what is happening today.
Second: The big technical question I have is whether Israel’s bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, like Natanz, which is buried deep underground, induced sufficient concussive shock to the centrifuges used to enrich uranium — and overcome their shock absorbers — to make them inoperable at least for a while. If nothing else, one has to assume that the Israeli strike most likely bombed the entries to underground facilities to slow down their work. The Israeli Army spokesman said Israel inflicted significant damage to Natanz, Iran’s biggest enrichment facility, but it’s less clear how Fordow, another enrichment facility, might have been affected, if at all.
If Israel succeeds in damaging the Iranian nuclear project enough to force at least a temporary halt to its enrichment operations, that would certainly be a significant military gain for Israel, justifying the operation.
Third: What actually interests me just as much is the impact this conflict could have on the region — particularly Iran’s longstanding, malign influence over Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, where Tehran nurtured and armed local militias to indirectly control those countries and ensure that they never moved toward pro-Western consensual governments.
Removing the dead hand of Iran from the neck of these regimes, which began with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to decapitate and cripple Iran’s Hezbollah militia, has already paid dividends in Lebanon and Syria, where new, pluralistic leaders have taken power. Alas, they are both still in a frail state, but they have hope — in Iraq as well — that did not exist before. And their escape from Iran’s sphere of influence has been broadly popular among their people.
Fourth: One of the things that has always struck me about Netanyahu is his strategic acumen as a player in the regional theater and his strategic incompetence as a local player vis-à-vis the Palestinians. It is because as a regional player his mind is for the most part unencumbered by ideological and political constraints. But as a local player in Gaza, for instance, his decision-making is not just influenced by, but dominated by, his personal political survival needs, his ideological commitment to preventing a Palestinian state under any condition and his dependence on the crazy right in Israel to stay in power. He has therefore mired the Israeli Army in the quicksand of Gaza — a moral, economic and strategic disaster — with no plan for how to get out.
Fifth: If you are asking yourself how this conflict might affect your retirement investments, the thing to watch most closely is whether Iran tries to destabilize the Trump administration by taking actions to deliberately drive the price of oil into the stratosphere — and create inflation in the West. For instance, Iran could sink a couple of oil or gas tankers in the Strait of Hormuz or fill it with sea mines, effectively blockading oil and gas exports. Just that prospect is already pushing up oil prices.
Sixth: How is Israeli intelligence on Iran so good that it pinpointed the locations of and killed its two top military leaders, not to mention a number of other senior officers? Of course, the Mossad and the Israeli NSA cybercommand, Unit 8200, are very good at what they do. But if you want to know their real secret, watch the streaming series “Tehran” on Apple TV+. It fictionalizes the work of an Israeli Mossad agent in Tehran. What you learn from that series, which is also true in real life, is how many Iranian officials are ready to work for Israel because of how much they hate their own government. This clearly makes it relatively easy for Israel to recruit agents in the Iranian government and military at the highest levels.
This reality not only pays first-order dividends like the precise targeting manifested in Friday’s strike but also produces a second-order advantage for Israel: Every time Iran’s military and political leaders gather to plan operations against Israel, each one has to ask himself if the person sitting next to him is an Israeli agent. That really slows down planning and innovation.
Add to this the fact that Iran’s supreme leader just saw his two top generals assassinated — the chief of staff of the armed forces and the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards. He surely realizes that Israel could eliminate him. One has to assume, therefore, he is hiding deep in a bunker somewhere, which also has to slow down decision-making.
Seventh: If Israel fails in this endeavor — and by failure I mean this Iranian regime is wounded but is still able to reconstitute its ability to build a nuclear weapon and try to control Arab capitals — it could mean a war of attrition between the two most powerful militaries in the region. This would make the region even more unstable than ever, spiking oil crises and possibly prompting Iran to lash out and attack pro-America Arab regimes and U.S. forces in the area. That would leave the Trump administration no choice but to jump in, probably with the goal of not just ending that war but ending this Iranian regime. Then who knows what would happen.
Last, unlike in Gaza, Israel has gone out of its way to avoid killing large numbers of Iranian citizens, because ultimately Israel wants them to take out their rage on their regime for squandering so many resources building a nuclear weapon — and not on Israel.
Speaking in English in a video shortly after the attack, Netanyahu addressed the Iranian people directly: “We do not hate you. You are not our enemies. We have a common enemy: a tyrannical regime that tramples you. For nearly 50 years, this regime has robbed you of the chance for a good life.”
Iranians are not going to be inspired by Netanyahu, but there should be no doubt that this was already an unpopular regime and you can’t predict what might happen now that it has been militarily humiliated by Israel. It was only three years ago that Iran’s clerical regime arrested over 20,000 people and killed over 500, including some who were executed, in an effort to stamp out a popular uprising that exploded after the regime’s “morality police” detained a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, because she had not fully covered her hair underneath a compulsory veil. She died in custody.
Looking forward, the two most important lessons one can derive from history are: Regimes like Iran’s look strong, until they don’t — so they can go quickly. And in the Middle East, the opposite of autocracy is not necessarily democracy. It can also be prolonged disorder. So as much as I would like to see this government be toppled, beware of the falling pillars.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/opin ... rikes.html
Hossein Fatemi/Panos Pictures, via Redux
Thomas L. Friedman
By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist
The full-scale Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on Friday needs to be added to the list of pivotal, game-changing wars that have reshaped the Middle East since World War II and are known by just their dates — 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2023 — and now 2025.
It is far too early, and the possible outcomes so multifold, to say how the Middle East game of nations will be changed by the Israel-Iran conflict of 2025. All I would say now is that the extreme upside possibility (that this puts in motion a set of falling dominoes, ending with the toppling of the Iranian regime and its replacement by a more decent, secular and consensual one) and the extreme downside possibility (that it sets the whole region on fire and sucks in the United States) are both on the table.
Between these extremes still lies a middle-ground possibility — a negotiated solution — but not for long. President Trump has deftly used the Israeli attack to, in effect, say to the Iranians: “I am still ready to negotiate a peaceful end to your nuclear program and you might want to go there fast — because my friend Bibi is C-R-A-Z-Y. I am waiting for your call.”
Given this wide range of possibilities, the best thing that I can offer to those watching at home are the key variables that I will be tracking to determine which of these — or some other I can’t anticipate — is the most likely outcome.
First: What makes this Iran-Israel conflict so profound is Israel’s vow to continue the fight this time until it eliminates Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capability — one way or another.
Iran invited that, vastly accelerating its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade. It had begun aggressively disguising those efforts to such a new degree that even the International Atomic Energy Agency declared on Thursday that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the agency has declared that in 20 years. Israel has cocked its gun and aimed at the Iranian nuclear program several times in the past 15 years, but each time either under U.S. pressure or doubts by its own military, it stood down at the last minute — which is why it is impossible to exaggerate what is happening today.
Second: The big technical question I have is whether Israel’s bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, like Natanz, which is buried deep underground, induced sufficient concussive shock to the centrifuges used to enrich uranium — and overcome their shock absorbers — to make them inoperable at least for a while. If nothing else, one has to assume that the Israeli strike most likely bombed the entries to underground facilities to slow down their work. The Israeli Army spokesman said Israel inflicted significant damage to Natanz, Iran’s biggest enrichment facility, but it’s less clear how Fordow, another enrichment facility, might have been affected, if at all.
If Israel succeeds in damaging the Iranian nuclear project enough to force at least a temporary halt to its enrichment operations, that would certainly be a significant military gain for Israel, justifying the operation.
Third: What actually interests me just as much is the impact this conflict could have on the region — particularly Iran’s longstanding, malign influence over Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, where Tehran nurtured and armed local militias to indirectly control those countries and ensure that they never moved toward pro-Western consensual governments.
Removing the dead hand of Iran from the neck of these regimes, which began with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to decapitate and cripple Iran’s Hezbollah militia, has already paid dividends in Lebanon and Syria, where new, pluralistic leaders have taken power. Alas, they are both still in a frail state, but they have hope — in Iraq as well — that did not exist before. And their escape from Iran’s sphere of influence has been broadly popular among their people.
Fourth: One of the things that has always struck me about Netanyahu is his strategic acumen as a player in the regional theater and his strategic incompetence as a local player vis-à-vis the Palestinians. It is because as a regional player his mind is for the most part unencumbered by ideological and political constraints. But as a local player in Gaza, for instance, his decision-making is not just influenced by, but dominated by, his personal political survival needs, his ideological commitment to preventing a Palestinian state under any condition and his dependence on the crazy right in Israel to stay in power. He has therefore mired the Israeli Army in the quicksand of Gaza — a moral, economic and strategic disaster — with no plan for how to get out.
Fifth: If you are asking yourself how this conflict might affect your retirement investments, the thing to watch most closely is whether Iran tries to destabilize the Trump administration by taking actions to deliberately drive the price of oil into the stratosphere — and create inflation in the West. For instance, Iran could sink a couple of oil or gas tankers in the Strait of Hormuz or fill it with sea mines, effectively blockading oil and gas exports. Just that prospect is already pushing up oil prices.
Sixth: How is Israeli intelligence on Iran so good that it pinpointed the locations of and killed its two top military leaders, not to mention a number of other senior officers? Of course, the Mossad and the Israeli NSA cybercommand, Unit 8200, are very good at what they do. But if you want to know their real secret, watch the streaming series “Tehran” on Apple TV+. It fictionalizes the work of an Israeli Mossad agent in Tehran. What you learn from that series, which is also true in real life, is how many Iranian officials are ready to work for Israel because of how much they hate their own government. This clearly makes it relatively easy for Israel to recruit agents in the Iranian government and military at the highest levels.
This reality not only pays first-order dividends like the precise targeting manifested in Friday’s strike but also produces a second-order advantage for Israel: Every time Iran’s military and political leaders gather to plan operations against Israel, each one has to ask himself if the person sitting next to him is an Israeli agent. That really slows down planning and innovation.
Add to this the fact that Iran’s supreme leader just saw his two top generals assassinated — the chief of staff of the armed forces and the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards. He surely realizes that Israel could eliminate him. One has to assume, therefore, he is hiding deep in a bunker somewhere, which also has to slow down decision-making.
Seventh: If Israel fails in this endeavor — and by failure I mean this Iranian regime is wounded but is still able to reconstitute its ability to build a nuclear weapon and try to control Arab capitals — it could mean a war of attrition between the two most powerful militaries in the region. This would make the region even more unstable than ever, spiking oil crises and possibly prompting Iran to lash out and attack pro-America Arab regimes and U.S. forces in the area. That would leave the Trump administration no choice but to jump in, probably with the goal of not just ending that war but ending this Iranian regime. Then who knows what would happen.
Last, unlike in Gaza, Israel has gone out of its way to avoid killing large numbers of Iranian citizens, because ultimately Israel wants them to take out their rage on their regime for squandering so many resources building a nuclear weapon — and not on Israel.
Speaking in English in a video shortly after the attack, Netanyahu addressed the Iranian people directly: “We do not hate you. You are not our enemies. We have a common enemy: a tyrannical regime that tramples you. For nearly 50 years, this regime has robbed you of the chance for a good life.”
Iranians are not going to be inspired by Netanyahu, but there should be no doubt that this was already an unpopular regime and you can’t predict what might happen now that it has been militarily humiliated by Israel. It was only three years ago that Iran’s clerical regime arrested over 20,000 people and killed over 500, including some who were executed, in an effort to stamp out a popular uprising that exploded after the regime’s “morality police” detained a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, because she had not fully covered her hair underneath a compulsory veil. She died in custody.
Looking forward, the two most important lessons one can derive from history are: Regimes like Iran’s look strong, until they don’t — so they can go quickly. And in the Middle East, the opposite of autocracy is not necessarily democracy. It can also be prolonged disorder. So as much as I would like to see this government be toppled, beware of the falling pillars.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/opin ... rikes.html