Gaza Fallout- Bashing Memri on Arab ‘Thinkers’ and Reformers- Middle East's Shi'a and Wahhabi Wine Connoisseurs- On the Benefits of Lice and Women in Salafi Dogma
In alio pediculum, in te ricinum non vides:
You see a louse on someone else, but not a tick on yourself.
Petronius(?)
“Renowned Arab Thinker Lafif Lakhdar: ‘Hamas is bringing disaster upon the Palestinians’. On October 17, 2008, liberal Arab thinker Lafif Lakhdar posted an article on the reformist e-journal www.elaph.com....” MemriCalling Elaph, the royalist Saudi site, reformist is like calling the leaders of Hamas… Zionists, like calling Iran’s Ahmadinejad or King Abdullah….wine connoisseurs. Well, you never know, maybe they are. And who the hell is this renowned Arab ‘thinker’ up there? How come I have never heard of him? And how come all the ‘great Arab thinkers’ being quoted by MEMRI are staunch supporters or retainers of the polygamous tribal absolute oligarchies? And isn’t the term ‘great thinker’ and the term ‘Arab’ a mismatch in this dark age of ours?
I see many names in Arab media with the title ‘thinker’ added. I have never seen the term used as a title in any other culture or the few languages that I know. Do these people major in ‘thinking’ in graduate schools at Arab universities? Does this mean that Arabs as a nation appreciate thinkers more than others? Looking at the leaders, rulers, and potentates, maybe this is so. It is a norm to long for what one doesn’t have. Or does it mean that the people need professional ‘thinkers’ to think for them because they are incapable of thinking for themselves? Sort of like those in the United States who rely on Dr. Phil and other pop-gurus and media charlatans to tell them how to live their lives?
“On LBC TV, Lebanese Journalists 'Uqab Saqr, May Chidiac criticize Arab media for airing graphic footage of casualties in Gaza…” Memri
Are they saying the graphic footages were ‘doctored’? If not, why not show them? Unless they were ‘inconvenient truths’.
“Goodbye, O president of catastrophes and disasters…” alquds alarabi
I bet Memri will not translate this eulogy to George W Bush.
“Israeli prime minister Olmert: ‘I cried when I saw a Palestinian father cry for help on live television after his children died in Gaza…’” alarabiya
I am surprised Memri has not posted this touching item yet. Alarabiya has posted a photo of the prime minister with a financial scandal hanging over him, and he has tears in his eyes, and he is wiping them with what looks like his middle finger.
It must be the affinity to the ‘financial scandal’ or the ‘embezzlement’ side of the man: that is what marks him as a soul mate to the oligarchs and potentates. They never felt that way about Israel’s Labor leaders. It all sounds so Middle Eastern, until you read about John Thane of Merrill Lynch, his enabler at Bank of America and the other geniuses and chief executive crooks of Wall Street.
“'Martyrs' or 'Victims' in Gaza? Divisions in the Arab World as Reflected in the Policies of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV: During the recent conflict in Gaza, the divisions between the two camps in the Arab world were reflected in the terminology used by the Arab satellite news channels. Al-Jazeera, which is sponsored by Qatar and is identified with the Hamas-Iran-Syria axis, used the term "martyr" ("shahid") for those killed in Gaza; in contrast, Al-Arabiya TV, which is Saudi-owned, refrained from using this term.” Memri
“Amnesty International: Israeli use of white phosphorous munitions in Gaza in ‘undeniable’....” alarabiya
“Israel does not deny use of banned weapons in Gaza…Israeli government assigns a cabinet minister to deal with charges of war crimes…” Alarabiya
“Many internet web sites are witnessing a brisk trade by Saudi women in lice. Yes, that is right: l-i-c-e, plural of louse, Qaml in Arabic. A handful of lice is traded for about 50 riyals. Rumor has it that lice are good for the hair because it massages the scalp and improves it. It is also reported that they suck the ‘bad blood’ and leave the good blood. Some women are offering unlimited amounts of lice for sale at reasonable prices…..” alwatan
Memri did not cover this one, for some reason, maybe because no ‘renowned’ Arab thinkers were involved. Salafi religious shaikhs have not yet commented on this vital issue either and I am sure they will have something to say about it. Perhaps they have ideas about how to make the universally detested lice kosher, in an Islamic sense of course. Perhaps they will characteristically rule that only female lice can be replanted into a woman’s hair- no male louse can be implanted unless he is a close relative of the woman in question: a father, brother, or uncle. A louse who is a husband of the woman in question is acceptable in most cases, since there typically are many of those.
I will not post any of my own thoughts and alternative ideas on this issue, in order to protect the innocent (no it has nothing to do with Arab "thinkers", and not much with oligarchs and potentates although that is quite tempting).
An interesting war of words is going on in the Middle East. The Gaza war has rekindled the old media war that started after Hezbullah repulsed the Israeli incursion in the summer of 2006. Saudi media and its satellites in the Gulf started a fierce spin campaign for Arab hearts and minds. Arab writers and heavy-weight, not just figuratively, “intellectuals”, were recruited and unleashed across the vast Saudi royal media which controls networks of newspapers in various countries and international television channels (Asharq alawsat, alHayat, Alarabiya, Elaph, LBC, etc..). The goal: to show that Hezbullah had in fact lost that battle and that it is an agent of Iran. The last part was easy: clearly it is close to the ruling mullahs in Iran. But the first part only worked with the converted: most Arabs outside Saudi Arabia, and many inside it as well, chose not to believe that argument for some odd reasons.
The same is happening with the Gaza war. The same writers are writing the same things, literally replacing the word “Hezbullah” with a new one “Hamas”. The Iranian mullahs and the rival Shi’a theocracy in Tehran were pointed at as the real culprits behind the apparent culprits. Talk of the Shi’a threat is being revived. Of course there is a good and legitimate case to be made for not provoking a powerful enemy into unleashing its destructive firepower on your civilian population. This last case has also been made against both Hamas and Hezbullah somewhat more successfully, perhaps, since there are no reliable polls in the Middle East.
Memri, a Western web site always fond of quoting the media of Arab oligarchs, is having a field day re-posting their editorials. They represent only part of Arab opinion.
Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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