Category Archives: Arab Spring

The Story of Ziad Rahbani, The Lebanese Left and The Syrian Moukhabarat

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, LB Politics, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV

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I am from a generation who loved Ziad Rahbani, growing up with his music, songs, shows, plays and ‘revolutionary’ appearances and quotes like most of the youth of my time.

I can nearly recite all his plays, which I think they were masterpieces and will be engraved in our cultural heritage. I can never forget Joseph Sakr’s great songs in Sahriyyeh, the revolution of Abbas and Fahed in Nazl el sourour (which suits our current mood by the way), the social struggles of both Thurayya and Zakariya in Bennesbe La Boukra Shou, the Western conspiracy and our sectarian disease in Film Ameriki Taweel, the broken Lebanese society in Shi Fashel and the stubborn Lebanese people in his last series of Bikhsous el Karameh wel Shaab el Aaneed and Lawla Fos’hat el Amal. I adore his music and songs whether were part of his plays or not. He composed the greatest music and anthems, not exhaustively, but I mention Mays el Reem, Prelude 83, Abou Ali, People’s Winds and The Revolution Anthem.

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Let’s Welcome The Salafists to Politics

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, LB Politics, Lebanon, Politics

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A new addition is expected to the Lebanese political scene, which would seriously contribute to its contrasting colourfulness. Apparently, Lebanese Salafists are looking to establish a political party to participate in the 2013 electoral elections and the beyond scene.

This could a bit advanced for them considering they don’t usually recognise post-Caliphates states, so some internal rifts within their movement is possible.

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The New Conflict Coordinator to Syria, Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

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Photo: source

As the Syrian revolution turned violent, comparisons of the situation there have been made to every possible recent regional conflict. The Syrian conflict has gained some sectarian momentum which guaranteed its resemblance – according to many analysts (to different degrees) – to the Iraqi, Lebanese or former Yugoslavian conflicts.

Now, for us the Lebanese, we can very much relate to the sequence of events in Syria. It’s déjà vu for us. We can tell what comes after bombings for example; kidnappings, revenge killings, sectarian mobilisation, rise of local warlords are always on the menu. Continue reading »

Is Hezbollah Sending a Message to Bashar Assad?

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, LB Politics, Media Monitoring, Politics, Press, Syria

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You might not take me seriously if I told you that the below cuttings are taken from an Al-Akhbar article (here is the Arabic version), written by its editor-in-chief Ibrahim Al-Amine.

Al-Akhbar has close links with Hezbollah, with Al-Amine considered the unofficial spokesman of the Party of God. I am not talking about the portrait of Imad Mughniyeh behind his desk, but rather his editorials.

He is a staunch supporter of Bashar Assad’s regime, but he goes out of his way sometimes, mostly in the wrong way, but I can’t fault him this time. This is what he gave us this time:

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The Arab Spring is the Black Swan Moment of the Middle East

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

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The Arab Spring has been described and associated with such a wide variety of symbolic designations that at times, the term chosen to describe the series of protests that have swept across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region may indicate a person’s political position on the wide and highly polarized spectrum. The term ‘Arab Spring’ has even been criticized by some who support the pro-democracy (or anti-regime) protests, citing this description as being Orientalist and therefore inappropriate.

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Caricature Of The Day: Bloody Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

21 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Caricature of the day, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics

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Bernie Ecclestone does not see what the fuss is about with the formula One Grand Prix tomorrow in Bahrain, insisting that the unrest in the country “has nothing to do with them“.

Of course, it’s related to the regime crackdown on the uprising, and the widespread human right violations attached to it. A massive protest took place yesterday against the F1 event.

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Journalist Hosein Mortada as a political advisor to Syrian regime

15 Thursday Mar 2012

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Today the Syrian revolution is one year old, and the day is featuring a frenzy in the main and social media over the leaked emails of Bashar Al-Assad and his wife Asma Al-Akhrass, published yesterday by The Guardian. The emails were obtained by The Guardian via some activists who were monitoring the Assads email accounts since last year. The emails are full of luxurious shopping lists, iTune downloads, games, music, Harry Potter and other silly YouTube video links exchanged between the couple themselves and with others.

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Funding the Syrian revolution with 10 Liras

03 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Media Monitoring, Politics, Syria, TV

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The theory goes like that: if you suspect a foreign conspiracy against your country, then the conspirators would be funding their locals agents with the foreign country’s currency. Well, this is at least what the Syrian TV and Iranian Al-Alam Channel think, who are in the same league with Addounia TV.

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Questioning the Syrian Casualty List?

01 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Media Monitoring, Politics, Press, Syria

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Every time I discuss the Syrian tragedy with an anti-revolution or pro-Assad person, I would be faced with these questions: how do you know the numbers of killed people are right? Can you verify them? Why not count the killed soldiers too? Obviously, these people try to muddle the core problem and cover (unintentionally sometimes) for the Syrian regime atrocities. This is exactly what blogger Sharmine Narwani did in a long article in Al-Akhbar English. From a previous conversation with her on twitter, Sharmine might not be a pro-Assad person, but she is doing her best to doubt the genuine outcome and intentions of the peaceful uprising (yes peaceful, that’s how it started, ok).

In her mentioned piece, she asks:

Perception is 100 percent of politics […] How then does one count 20, 40, or 200 casualties in a few hours while conflict continues to rage around them?

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Syrian constitution referendum: huge turn out in Baba Amr in Homs

26 Sunday Feb 2012

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Despite the rumours that there are anti-regime protests in the country for the past 11 months, and rumours that they are being fired at, and persecuted, and that parts of the country are not the under the government rule anymore, and that some of these parts are under siege and heavy bombardment, Syrians are heavily turning up today to the ballot boxes to say YES to the new draft of the constitution.

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Was Marie Colvin purposefully killed in Homs?

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria

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Again today, on Marie Colvin’s death yesterday in Homs; I did speculate that her death could have been a result of a direct intentional hit by the Syrian army. My confidence in this speculation has shot up now; this is an interesting but strange piece of intelligence by The Daily Mail:  Continue reading »

Witnesses die in Syria too – A MUST READ last dispatch by Marie Colvin

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria

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Just in the last week, several main witnesses of the atrocities being committed in Syria has died or been killed. The famous New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid died due to an asthma crisis when he was being smuggled into the country – due to restrictions on journalists. Citizen journalist Rami Al-Sayyid  was killed by the bombardment of Homs. Rami was responsible for uploading the YouTube videos and securing the live feed from Homs. He replaced his cousin Basel who was doing the same role, and got killed too by the Syrian regime. This morning, journalist Marie Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik have died in Homs due to the indiscriminate shelling by the Syrian army, if not an intentional due to reportedly the fact they were present in a known ‘Press Centre’, which was directly hit. The regime knows how to silence journalists who oppose it.

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Americans teaching sabotage to Syrians

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Jeffrey White, the former American veteran senior intelligence officer and the current defense fellow at The Washington Institute, wrote yesterday about the importance of the indirect intervention in Syria in his point of view. He wrote a couple of month ago as well on the subject, assessing the different options available for intervention available, concluding that something must be done.

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Caricature of the day: a smart one from the Syrian revolution

13 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Caricature of the day, Media Monitoring, Social Media, Syria

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This caricature from Aamouda in Syria is one of the smartest, if not the smartest caricature I have ever seen from and/or about the Syrian revolution: A drilling rig trying to reach the sea of the freedom at the bottom, drills through the different layers above it.
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UN Human Rights Chief: crimes against humanity are likely in Syria – FULL Text speech

13 Monday Feb 2012

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I never do copycat on Lebanon Spring, but there is a first for everything; posting the  speech this afternoon (GMT), which could be marked as ‘historical’ in future, by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Syria.

Pillay previously encouraged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. The full text was obtained by UN reporter for the Washington Post and Turtle Bay blogger at Foreign Policy Magazine Colum Lynch. I post it here with his permission, because it’s a MUST-READ.

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The radicalisation of the Free Syrian Army

12 Sunday Feb 2012

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As Bashar Al-Assad clings onto power, not only sectarianism within the Syrian society will increase but also the political divisions within the revolutions (you can argue this is could delay them). The radicalisation of the revolution is a work-in-progress outcome as well. This is what a TIME report on Free Syrian Army (FSA) published yesterday has showed. The article was a record of a meeting between some of its members in Turkey. It also shows how wary FSA is of the Syrian National Council and Muslim Brotherhood, and other politicians. They want to reap the reward of success of the revolution (which is not unexpected!).

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Caricature of the day: Russia is not foreign to Syria

04 Saturday Feb 2012

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Bashar Assad considers any efforts to stop the current killing in Syria as a “conspiracy” and “foreign intervention”, despite the fact that Syria intervened in Lebanon for donkey’s years, participated with the United States in the first Gulf war in 1991 against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and sent fighters to Iraq in the post-2003 era.

Now Russia is undergoing just the same self-denial position, and adopting the same double standards for their assessment to the situation in Syria. Russia does not only oppose any military threat to Assad, but also any proposal that lead to a peaceful transition of powers. Apparently their current position, including their arms sales and their only military base abroad in Tartous are not classified foreign intervention.

Hence, why I liked this week’s cartoon from The Economist.

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AlQaeda has arrived to Syria

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Media Monitoring, Politics, Social Media, Syria

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The theory stating that turning the Syrian peaceful uprising into a violent insurgency will start a civil war is treated as a matter of fact now. Signs of Islamization of the revolution recently surfaced, and coincided with the loss its peacefulness – due to the brutal regime crackdown. Syrian activists always interpreted the Quraan background or Allah ow Akbar chants in some YouTube videos as spontaneous representations of the personalities in some rural areas. This might be true, and quite irrelevant but it doesn’t mean that AlQaeda won’t enjoy the fertile ground of chaos, and may attract some local followers.

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A tale of a meeting with Bashar Al-Assad

15 Sunday Jan 2012

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Since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, the Syrian regime has faced all the accusations of human rights breaches with pure denial. They denied the existence of protests and the lack of support to its leader Bashar Al-Assad. Bashar Al-Assad claimed instead that protesters were saboteurs and armed gangs, and the Syrian people wanted Assad in power (no mention of the 97% anymore though).

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Israeli settlement for Alawites in Golan?

12 Thursday Jan 2012

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As if the Syrian uprising is not living enough surrealism at these times. To muddle the picture even more, Israel said that it’s getting ready to receive Syrian refugees, or to be more precisely – only Alawites. The remarks were made by Israel’s army chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz to the Knesset committee on foreign affairs and defence:

On the day the Assad regime falls, it is expected to harm the Alawite clan. We are preparing to receive Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights

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The Syrian zoom politics

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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If there are any experts in the ‘zoom-in-zoom-out’ strategies to manipulate crowd images, it’s surely the Lebanese politicians who impressed us in the last decade or so with these technologies. In recent years, both the pro-western (March 14) and anti-western (March 8/Hezbollah) camps spent a bulk of their political airtime discussing the ‘zoom politics’ as I call it.

After 10 months of an internal uprising, the Syrian TV has ‘mastered’ fabricating news tricks, but today we discovered its skills in zooming. These below two videos are footage of the same event: the attendance of the Bashar Assad at supporting rally usually called a ‘spontaneous rally’ with a ‘Nasrallah style’ entrance; the top one was directed by the Syrian TV, in which Assad said @04:00: ‘Allahu Akbar for this crowd’. The bottom one was taken by an amateur/activist.

Fun, eh?

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Syria’s diagnosis: Stockholm Syndrome

07 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Syria

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If you believe he is a leader, symbol, hero, eternal, wise, strategist, impeccable, exclusive, fair, educated, comrade, Lieutenant-General (highest military rank in 6 years military career), father, loving, doctor, reformer, secular, early starter of his working day, fighting corruption, building modern Syria, maintaining the country and region’s stability, protecting Lebanon, fighting Israel, protecting the Palestinian people, fighting for their cause, defusing all conspiracies against Arabs, fighting imperialism, facing a UNIVERSAL (yes, from universe) conspiracy, cracking down on terrorism in general, finishing Syria’s armed gangs, and spreading the spirit of Arabism, unification, freedom and socialism, then I think you truly deserve to be his slave, kneeling on your knees and kissing his poster. Even better, if his father previously did all these things, and still his qualities exceeded the above top marks, then he truly deserve you worship him FOREVER.

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Syrian regime killing people…with laughter

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Media Monitoring, Politics, Syria, TV

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Since the start of the uprising, Syrian state media wasn’t deterred from claiming the silliest, and illogical claims just to defend their unreasonable case, which no one outside their influence believes. Similar insane claims were for example accusing Qatar and Aljazeera of fabricating the protests and filming them in studios. Or getting sensitive with the Syrian weather forecast on AlArabiya Channel, accusing them of coding the forecast news with orders to insurgents!

Today, the Syrian regime went down to a new low, by implementing the saying that Bashar Assad gave in his first speech (since the start of the uprising) before the ‘parliament’: ‘lie, lie, lie until you believe your lie’. So to proof their lie about the presence of Al-Qaeda, which is supposedly responsible for the bombings in the capital, they fabricated an Al-Qaeda today – literally.

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A Tour Inside Syria’s Insurgency – a comment

02 Monday Jan 2012

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One of good articulated stories that came out of Syria was A Tour Inside Syria’s Insurgency by Paul Wood (of the BBC) to The Atlantic; a really fascinating read, but black in its overall theme. I highly recommend reading the full 4,000-words article, which is comprehensive and diverse in its coverage.

The article shows how corrupt and brutal the regime is, but paints the picture of how the peaceful protests were forced to turn their dignity struggle with the government to be increasingly violent (check this Arabic announcement which I copied from a local revolution facebook page) and militarised. The story talks about the torture of Qutaiba, the peaceful protester who is looking now to buy pistol silencers in Lebanon to protect himself.
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