Rolling MENA 2014 (Middle East)

impressive

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/p600x600/10273405_944533125561433_8756276361560008064_o.jpg

caption this plz ^

"I was reading David Brooks' new column..."

"The trick is to get elected as an anti-war candidate. Then you can drop all the bombs you want."

downloaded any good albums recently?

So this camel walks into a bar, and the bartender says

http://jewishphilosophyplace.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/arab-jewish-reconciliation-counterfactual-counter-history-feisel-weizmann-agreement/

Interesting historical item there. Meanwhile in the present I heard Netanyahu on NPR trying to defend defend the below settlements as being in South(east) Jerusalem and noting that a few of them will house Israeli Arab residents:

And Mr. Obama in his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu kept the spotlight squarely on the settlements, raising objections to Israel’s recent approval of plans for 2,610 housing units on geographically sensitive land in East Jerusalem. If the construction advances, a White House press spokesman said after the meeting, it would not only impede peace talks but poison relations with the very Arab countries with whom Mr. Netanyahu said Israel now had a “commonality of interests” against the militants.

....Mr. Obama, who has long had fraught relations with Mr. Netanyahu, did not invite him to stay for lunch after their meeting and seemed more focused on the threats than the opportunities from the chaos convulsing the region.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/middleeast/obama-netanyahu-israel-white-house.html?emc=edit_th_20141002&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=37355772

WTF: ‘Ethnic cleansing for a better world’ — Richard Cohen says Palestinians brought the Nakba on themselves

I am just amazed Richard Cohen has written a book. His Washington Post column always seems sloppy, dashed-off and poorly researched. He has also been criticized for offensive language in his column for years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/twin-fronts-in-syria-and-iraq-struggle-to-drive-by-islamic-state-advance/2014/10/02/b8e86f66-4a26-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html?hpid=z3

Isis still on the move despite bombings

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/02/moazzam-begg-contact-mi5-agents-papers

Embarrassing for MI5

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/world/meast/isis-air-strikes/index.html

So it looks like Turkey might help save the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. They don't want a Kurdish homeland, so after absorbing so many additional Syrian Kurdish refugees, now they may go after ISIS there which has surrounded that location (after being unconcerned to a degree earlier as long as the action was away from the border).

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/03/Turkey-will-do-whatever-to-stop-ISIS-taking-border-town.html

(CNN) -- A short video released by ISIS on Friday shows the apparent beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. In the same video, the terror group threatened the life of an American aid worker.

A taxi driver from near Manchester, England, Alan Henning was part of a team of volunteers that traveled to Syria in December to deliver food and water to people affected by the Middle Eastern country's devastating civil war. He was abducted the day after Christmas by masked gunmen, according to other people in the aid convoy.

Last week, the British foreign office released an audio file of Henning pleading for his life. His wife made a public plea for ISIS to spare his life.

seems like this kind of thing is going to go on for awhile

I don't know if anyone here has actually watched any of these things, but, against my better judgement, I did, and none of them actually "shows the apparent beheading" of anyone.

They all follow the same formula: speech by the guy in orange denouncing own government, pantomime neck chopping by guy in black featuring zero blood or suffering and quickly fading to black. Then cut to, I guess, the corpse lain down in the sand with its severed head propped up on its chest - gruesome for sure. But there's something weird about how folk could be mean enough to behead people but too squeamish to show it in their videos. Why make beheading videos that don't show beheading?

My guess is that these guys get shot or otherwise quickly killed, and the head's just cut off afterwards. I dunno why I'm even thinking about this. This is a bad thing itself, obviously.

Maybe the beheadings are carried out as described, but the ISIS guys edit out the worst bits to make them less likely to get deleted from Youtube?

It's hard to find anyone talking about this without running into conspiracy people who think the killings are entirely staged by the CIA or whoever, with the supposed victims off to new identities, never to be heard of again. (If I were a conspiracy guy, I wouldn't be so quick to assume the CIA wouldn't just the kill the guys for verisimilitude.) In the conspiracy version, the corpse shots are CGI/other special effects: from what I've seen, technically, this wouldn't be very hard to pull off.

There have only been a few mentions of the fakeness of these videos in the press. A few variations of this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/bill-gardner/11054488/Foley-murder-video-may-have-been-staged.html, in which it takes a "forensic analyst" to point out that the video clearly doesn't show what it purports to.

I'm inclined to think that the people making these videos just don't have it in them to behead a live person, and so fake it a little, and the people reporting it to us fudge the faking because nevertheless awful murders have been committed, and maybe we don't want to encourage the terrorists to make more authentic videos. And it suits both sides: ISIS look badass / we need a war. I dunno.

Why make beheading videos that don't show beheading?

The body is not dead at once and neither is the head. Showing the full death throes would increase the viewer's awareness of the victim's suffering.

I should also mention that both carotid arteries would be spurting immense amounts of blood until the supply was depleted.

Showing the full death throes would increase the viewer's awareness of the victim's suffering.

Well, again, what is the point of making a video of a beheading if not to increase the viewer's awareness of the victim's suffering? It's not like there aren't plenty of ISIS-produced videos of actual beheadings in all their gruesomeness.

I should also mention that both carotid arteries would be spurting immense amounts of blood until the supply was depleted.

This is my point. There is no blood. These videos show someone pretending to carry out a beheading. Completely phony. It may be that after the video fades an actual beheading takes place, who knows? If the hostages wind up dead anyway - which I assume they do - then it doesn't make any difference, I suppose. It's just weird that these things are being taken at face value.

These are recruitment videos for European jihadists, with their revenge fantasies for all the alienation, racism, and curtailed opportunities they've experienced. Perhaps the actual sawing through arteries and gristle is omitted as it humanises the infidel, and doesn't serve as propaganda.

Within any body of 10k volunteers, ISIS would have little difficulty finding some eager to enact their fantasy. I imagine those that want to do it twice are viewed with a bit of disdain by cojihadists. Amateur hour with small knives can't be pretty.

what is the point of making a video of a beheading if not to increase the viewer's awareness of the victim's suffering?

xp

This is very carefully calibrated propaganda in my opinion. Here's how I see it.

You may have noticed that the very fact of beheading westerners has given ISIS near-instantaneous worldwide notoriety for a much smaller outlay than al Qaeda required to gain a similar notoriety. By showing the severed head (minus the worst gore) the video is sufficient to establish the beheading as factual. The world's emotional reaction to this fact of beheading is strong enough to achieve all their propaganda aims.

The ultimate aim of the video, far from trying to make the viewer aware of the victim's suffering, is to cast ISIS as utterly fearless warriors fighting against the hegemony of the godless Great Satan of the USA and NATO countries. The westerner is meant to feel fear, while the sympathizer is meant to feel elation.

The bloodless nature of the video (no spectacular gore and writhing) reduces the beheading to a symbolic act more than a physical one. This reduction to symbolism is what allows them to achieve both their aims simultaneously. Forcing the viewer to wallow in the victim's suffering would provoke a reflexive visceral disgust. This might amplify the fear in one part of their audience, but it would suppress the elation they want their sympathizers to feel.

Otm

Turkey...

Last week, Turkey pledged to prevent Kobane from falling to the militants and its parliament authorised military operations against militants in Iraq and Syria.

But it appears to have taken no action so far to prevent the fighting.

Correspondents says Turkey is reluctant to lend support to the Kurdish forces in the town because they are allied to the PKK, banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey.

it's the Uncle Joe Two-step!

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday called the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates to clarify that he did not mean to imply in his remarks last week that the Gulf ally was supporting al-Qaida fighters in Syria, the White House said.

Biden spoke with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and a key Emirati leader, the White House said.

It was the second time in two days that Biden had to call a key partner in President Barack Obama's coalition to walk back comments he made on Thursday, when he said that U.S. allies - including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - had funded and armed extremist groups linked to al-Qaida.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268743/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=AW8cKXSh

Gee whizzums!

In its campaign across northern Syria and Iraq, the jihadist group Islamic State has been using ammunition from the United States and other countries that have been supporting the regional security forces fighting the group, according to new field data gathered by a private arms-tracking organization.

The data, part of a larger sample of captured arms and cartridges in Syria and Iraq, carries an implicit warning for policy makers and advocates of intervention.

It suggests that ammunition transferred into Syria and Iraq to help stabilize governments has instead passed from the governments to the jihadists, helping to fuel the Islamic State’s rise and persistent combat power. Rifle cartridges from the United States, the sample shows, have played a significant role...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/world/isis-ammunition-is-shown-to-have-origins-in-us-and-china.html

Turkey still holding to demands before it will help in border town Kobane, it appears.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-frustration-rises-as-turkey-withholds-military-help-from-besieged-kobane/2014/10/08/311cb190-4f0e-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29570734

The UN special envoy to Syria has warned that up to 700 people, mainly elderly, are still trapped in the Syrian border town of Kobane.

http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/islamic-state-officially-admits-to-enslaving-yazidi-women/

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/14/how_to_squander_home_field_advantage_islamic_state_turkey_ebola_climate_change

my feeling about obama these days is that his exemplary work on some domestic issues (economy + healthcare) eclipses the horror that has been his foreign affairs policies which can't possibly appeal to hawks, doves, or realists.

http://972mag.com/facing-increased-right-wing-violence-israeli-leftists-learn-to-fight-back/97486/

The rising violence of the extreme right in the streets led to the establishment of several organized groups.

The anarchist “Achdut” group organized the “Black Guard,” which trained in self-defense and Krav Maga. Other activists established “Antifa 972″ (no relation to the magazine), a shorthand for “anti-fascists.” At least two other groups, which asked not to be included in the article, also began training and taking part in self-defense activities.

The activists in each of these groups stress that there is no one organization, nor is there any attempt to build political power or a new movement. They also hope that this is not a new trend, but rather a need to respond and protect from new dangers that have become a reality for Palestinians and left-wing activists in the streets. All in all, including the Jerusalemites from the “Local Guard,” the members of the groups amount to approximately 100 people.

"We don’t want these assaults to happen again. We don’t want to be abused children – we want to respect ourselves. We don’t want to attack Baruch Marzel’s headquarters or anything, but we believe the victimhood of the Left must end here.”

While the US military was busy elsewhere, this went on:

The cost of turning against the Islamic State was made brutally apparent in the streets of a dusty backwater town in eastern Syria in early August. Over a three-day period, vengeful fighters shelled, beheaded, crucified and shot hundreds of members of the Shaitat tribe after they dared to rise up against the extremists.

By the time the killing stopped, 700 people were dead, activists and survivors say, making this the bloodiest single atrocity committed by the Islamic State in Syria since it declared its existence 18 months ago.

The little-publicized story of this failed tribal revolt in Abu Hamam, in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zour province, illuminates the challenges that will confront efforts to persuade those living under Islamic State rule — in Iraq as well as Syria — to join the fight against the jihadist group, something U.S. officials say is essential if the campaign against the militants is to succeed.

The Abu Hamam area has now been abandoned, and many of the bodies remain uncollected, offering a chilling reminder to residents elsewhere of the fate that awaits those who dare rebel.

Just as powerful a message for those living under the militants’ iron fist was the almost complete international silence on the bloodbath.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syria-tribal-revolt-against-islamic-state-ignored-fueling-resentment/2014/10/20/25401beb-8de8-49f2-8e64-c1cfbee45232_story.html?hpid=z1

missed this when it first ran but it's good (written by an al-arabiya columnist):
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/the-barbarians-within-our-gates-111116.html

http://www.mediaite.com/print/aps-incredibly-misleading-headline-treats-jerusalem-train-attacker-as-victim/

Mordy, I guess i should read that Foreign policy link upthread before asking you to elaborate re your statement with the phrase eclipses the horror that has been his foreign affairs policies which can't possibly appeal to hawks, doves, or realists.

lol maybe that was a little hyperbolic i mean the guy is no dubya thank god

Oh...I was hoping reading that link will tell me what "realists" want, and what a "realist" pov is re US foreign policy.

i think every realist will have their own take but walt is generally good in FP for that sort of thing

i guess my larger gripe at the time was that alienating your allies is not an effective foreign policy strategy if you're an interventionist or a realist - and if you're an isolationist you can't be happy bc O keeps intervening abroad. it just seems incongruent to me - like he doesn't really have much of a fp strategy.

like "good, obama is being really harsh to our allies and telling them how it really is" like okay who does that benefit? maybe if you aren't planning on running missions in iraq + syria and dropping drones all over the middle east it's not such a big deal if you piss off the egyptians, turkish, israelis, saudis, etc. but if you plan on being so hands-on you are going to need some of these ppl to participate + work w/ you.

But Obama did not cut off military aid to Egypt; not sure what he has done that the Saudis could view as threatening; and re the Turks, are you comfortable with the games they have played re Kurds and Isis?

I think even "allies" though look to their own self-interests first and even if Obama had been even nicer to Turkey, they still would behave as they have.

Obama is clearly not an isolationist dove nor a hawk (to the degree that he would be sending troops everywhere), so he might argue that he himself is a realist, even if some would see him as more hawk-like clearly

like "good, obama is being really harsh to our allies and telling them how it really is" like okay who does that benefit?

Theoretically that benefits the US standing as some sort of examplar for good, and as a message to the people of those countries; even if it aggravates the leaderships of those countries. This is that realpolitik discussion that took place on another thread I think, re Egypt. Would Egypt turn on us if we cut off military aid?

So I skimmed that FP article about Obama being mean to our allies, especially Turkey, and the writer quotes a Wall Street Journal opinion for support (ugh). The FP article doesn't cite or discuss the various allegations re Turkey's stance, and seems a tad light.

Harper's November issue has a very, very good piece on ISIS

Saw Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate and band Friday night in DC. Bassekou said,"Sharia's done with and over in Mali, please come and visit."

But this article says there's still issues:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201410281176.html

http://ottomansandzionists.com/2014/10/29/sticks-and-stones-may-break-my-bones-and-so-will-words/

- Israel instated next level apartheid by not allowing Palestinians on Israeli buses.
- Pull ambassador from Sweden because Sweden acknowledged Palestine as a nation state today
- "Swedish FM: Happy to send Israel FM Lieberman an IKEA flat pack to assemble. He'll see it requires a partner, cooperation and a good manual"

haha is that a real quote