Arab News Blog

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Last links of the year — I won’t be back till early January. Happy new year!

• Hooked on America – The National
  My year-ender essay in The National, on a Middle East addicted to Amreeka.
• Middle East Report Online: The Liquidation of Egypt’s Illiberal Experiment by Mona El-Ghobashy
  Mona ElGhobashy on Egypt post-elections, pre-succession.
• White House recess-appoints envoys to Turkey, Syria, Baku, Prague – Laura Rozen – POLITICO.com
  Obama appoints Ricciardone to Turkey, Ford to Syria.
• Mecca Development Veers to Kitsch – Critic’s Notebook – NYTimes.com
  Terrible architectural projects in Mecca.
• Front page | Satellite Sentinel Project
  George Clooney’s Sudan satellite watch project.
• A Conversation with Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)
  Long interview with Qaradawy.
• America and the Middle East: Great sacrifices, small rewards | The Economist
  America’s footprint in the Middle East.

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Brian Whitaker of The Guardian, in his weekly Middle East roundup, offer a strong opinion:

The biggest story from the Middle East this week … No, the biggest, most important and most inspiring story from the Middle East this year is one that most readers may only vaguely have heard of, if at all. It’s the Tunisian uprising . . .

So, what we have in Tunisia today is the birth of a genuine, national, indigenous, popular movement, not against colonialists or foreign occupiers but against their own repressive regime, and one which is not tainted (as in Iran) by international power games.

This is something new, which is why it’s so important. For years, writers have complained about the “Arab malaise” – the way Arabs have become accustomed to playing the role of victims, their passivity in the face of home-grown tyrants, and so on. The need, as I explained in my recent book, is for Arabs to stop being prisoners of their history and start shaping their own destiny. At long last, that is what the people of Tunisia are trying to do.

Is the Tunisian uprising really that transformative? I’ll admit to still having doubts. Perhaps I’ve seen far too many Egyptian protest movements that fizzled with the appearance of the State Security heavies, and also remember Tehran in the summer of 2009. I remember the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in 2005, and now Sa‘d Hariri is making nice with Hizbullah to keep the lid on. Ever since walls fell in Eastern Europe 20 years ago, some Arab reformers have hoped for a similar wave in the Middle East. They’re still waiting.

Am I too cynical? Is Whitaker too optimistic? I don’t know. But even if — and it’s a very big if — this wave of demonstrations led to regime change in Tunis (which I doubt it will), could it spread elsewhere? Tunisia is very different from most of its neighbors. Its secular traditions, dating from the Bourguiba era, are not readily transferable elsewhere. Other than the PLO, which got to know Tunis very well as a headquarters, and Arab diplomats during the Arab League’s residence there during Egypt’s years outside the league, many Arabs don’t know the country well. The Gulf Arabs tend to prefer Morocco for their villas: perhaps the comfort of a monarchy. I’m not sure what happens in Tunis can resonate elsewhere, though some Egyptians are taking an interest.

Don’t get me wrong; I hope he’s right; I’m just not convinced this will really bring change. But I’d be glad to be proven wrong.

Whitaker raises another issue:

You won’t find much about it in the western media (or the Arab media, for that matter) though you can piece together much of the story from snippets on Twitter and videos on YouTube.

There have been complaints from bloggers about this silence but in a way it’s refreshing not to have the likes of Fox News, Bernard Lewis and Glenn Beck telling us what should be done. In any case, the Tunisians – so far at least – seem to be getting on quite well with their uprising by themselves.

Foreign governments have been similarly quiet and, again, this is something of a blessing: too many activist movements in the region have been killed off by the wrong kind of support from the west.

It’s true that the mainstream media have been relatively quiet, though I’ve seen items in the Washington Post and LA Times. The Tunisian media are of course controlled, and the international media, France excepted, don’t follow North Africa closely. It’s also the week between Christmas and New Year, and lots of people have it off. And there are exceptions. Whitaker himself has been covering it closely. This is also my sixth post on the subject in four days.

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I have only occasionally cited the ongoing Wikileaks revelations for reasons I’ve previously expreessed (and to make things worse, in Zimbabwe the opposition leader Prime Minister is being threatened with trial because of a Wikileaks cable). On the other hand, much as I may dislike the indiscriminate nature of the leaks, the documents are out there in public now, and can shed light on current events. Take three cables released earlier this month from the US Embassy in Tunis, which shed light on the roots of the current protests. I commend them as essential background reading

First is a 2008 report on corruption in Tunisia. Readers of opposition blogs or the French media may have heard much of it before, but it is interesting to see it in an Ambassador’s cable. It spells out the extent of alleged corruption, especially among the First Lady’s family, the Trabelsis. One example among many:

The numerous stories of familial corruption are certainly galling to many Tunisians, but beyond the rumors of money-grabbing is a frustration that the well-connected can live outside the law. One Tunisian lamented that Tunisia was no longer a police state, it had become a state run by the mafia. “Even the police report to the Family!” he exclaimed. With those at the top believed to be the worst offenders, and likely to remain in power, there are no checks in the system. The daughter of a former governor recounted that Belhassen Trabelsi flew into her father’s office in a rage — even throwing an elderly office clerk to the ground — after being asked to abide by laws requiring insurance coverage for his amusement park. Her father wrote a letter to President Ben Ali defending his decision and denouncing Trabelsi’s tactics. The letter was never answered, and he was removed from his post shortly thereafter.

Second, a 2009 report on the state of US-Tunisia relations generally, with a different take than that expressed in official statements. Read the whole thing, but the “Summary” runs:

By many measures, Tunisia should be a close US ally. But it is not. While we share some key values and the country has a strong record on development, Tunisia has big problems. President Ben Ali is aging, his regime is sclerotic and there is no clear successor. Many Tunisians are frustrated by the lack of political freedom and angered by First Family corruption, high unemployment and regional inequities. Extremism poses a continuing threat. Compounding the problems, the GOT brooks no advice or criticism, whether domestic or international. Instead, it seeks to impose ever greater control, often using the police. The result: Tunisia is troubled and our relations are too.

The third is a report on a July 2009 dinner between the US Ambassador and his wife and Mohammee Sakher El Materi and his wife, son-in-law and daughter of Ben Ali. Materi is often mentioned as a possible successor to Ben Ali if the First Lady has any say in the matter, as she plans to. While Materi is described as cooperative and friendly, we also hear this:

¶13. (S) El Materi has a large tiger (“Pasha”) on his compound, living in a cage. He acquired it when it was a few weeks old. The tiger consumes four chickens a day. (Comment: The situation reminded the Ambassador of Uday Hussein’s lion cage in Baghdad.) El Materi had staff everywhere. There were at least a dozen people, including a butler from Bangladesh and a nanny from South Africa. (NB. This is extraordinarily rare in Tunisia, and very expensive.)

It’s a revealing report on a man still largely unknown to non-Tunisians.

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Seventeen Indians, sentenced to death for killing a Pakistani man in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have been offered a lifeline with the victim's family agreeing to settle the case in lieu of blood money as compensation.
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“.. The strong statements of the Egyptian official come at the heels of rare criticism made by the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper last week to Bashir for policies which it said lead to the South wanting to break away from the rest of the country. Egyptian officials in the past have shyly blamed Bashir’s NCP party for the likely split of Sudan. Last February, Egyptian president reportedly criticized Khartoum for lacking the will to preserve the unity…… 

 

El-Fiqy warned of the potential threats to Egyptian national security caused by Sudan’s breakup saying that “Israel will have a presence on our southern border”. “The previous head of Israeli military intelligence admitted that Israel supervised the training of the Southern military,” El-Fiqi said, adding that Israel has “units” there. He further pointed out that South Sudan leader Salva Kiir announced that he will open an Israeli embassy in the new state. However, Kiir denied the reports on the embassy in an interview with the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat….”

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Al Akhbar

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Israel’s similarity with many Arab countries: the head of state is a rapist. However, the similarities stop here: Arab rapist-leaders take pride in the doings and are never exposed, much less, prosecuted!

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I hadn’t mentioned, until reminded by The Moor Next Door’s post, that during Tunisian President Ben Ali’s address to the nation the day before yesterday, his — or someone’s — cell phone (or perhaps landline) starts ringing about 3:38 into the televised speech. Many jokes are already being made about this, and you can watch it here (speech is in Arabic, ringtone is generic), though I can’t embed it. I hope this wasn’t the reason the Communications Minister was fired yesterday.

Set your phone to vibrate before addressing the nation on TV. Set your phone to vibrate . . .

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My year-ender essay in The National, on a Middle East addicted to Amreeka.
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