EGYPT: New book captures a nation's angst

Thanks to content that hits a sensitive nerve with a highly disenchanted society, the book “Egypt Is Not My Mother, But My Stepmom” has been breaking sales records across the country.

The book is a collection of satirical pieces that tackle a plethora of Egypt's social and political ills, including corruption, political despotism, backwardness and human rights violations, questioning the validity of the sense of belonging to the country. The first edition came out in January 2008; in less than a year, the book went into a ninth printing, garnering an unprecedented success in a county with a slim readership.

"How would you expect people to have a sense of belonging toward a country where they cannot find food, clothing or shelter?" author Osama Gharib told the L.A. Times.

Gharib, a columnist with the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm, does not provide his readers with conventionally sophisticated analyses. On the contrary, his book, which relies on colloquial Arabic in many parts, has derived its popularity from being a ruthless mockery of Egyptian realties.

SYRIA: Attack's aftershocks continue

 

American forces in Iraq launched a daring commando raid into Syrian territory on Sunday in order to strike against a suspected insurgent leader.

But in the end, the operation may wind up being more trouble than it was worth as repercussions continue to reverberate in the Middle East and throughout the world, with even Europeans condemning the attack.

Syria's cabinet today  condemned the assault on the village of Sukkairah as "brutal, vicious American aggression."

Syria's official news agency reported that the authorities have decided to shut down an unidentified Damascus-based "American school" and a cultural center. The report didn't identify the exact name of the school.

But the U.S. Department of State has since 1950 overseen the Damascus Community School, which serves the children of American diplomats and others posted to Syria. The embassy in Damascus also operates a culture center which showcases American arts, including jazz.

ISRAEL: Politics' wheel of misfortune

In May, the police dropped a bombshell on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the country in the midst of its 60th   anniversary celebration: another investigation of corruption allegations, this time far more serious.

Olmert professed innocence but promised to resign if indicted.

In June, defense minister Ehud Barak threatened to break up the coalition and coerced Kadima into electing a leader to replace Olmert as party chairman and prime minister.

In September, Tzipi Livni became chairwoman of Kadima by a narrow and contested margin and was entrusted with the task of forming a new government, while Olmert resigned and became caretaker of the now-transitional government. But after a month of negotiating, Livni returned this mandate to the president and asked for general elections after failing to form a new coalition.

On Monday, the parliament returned from the summer and holiday recess and reconvened for what might be the shortest winter session ever; the 17th Knesset will be quickly dissolved. Olmert will remain prime minister until elections are held, most likely in mid-February. Now the police say the prime minister could be indicted in a matter of days.

Dizzy? Join the club.

EGYPT: Dissidents in jail and exile

One critic is pardoned, another is left in prison, a third is in exile writing missives and giving speeches that chafe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The forgiven critic is Ibrahim Issa, an independent newspaper editor and relentless government detractor who was sentenced to two years in jail for printing stories in 2007 that suggested Mubarak was ill and near death. In announcing the pardoning of Issa earlier this month, the 80-year-old Egyptian president said he wanted to “affirm his concern for freedom of opinion.”

Such concern has not been granted Ayman Nour, the leader of the Tomorrow Party, who has been in jail since 2005. He was charged with forging political documents, but his conviction was widely criticized by human rights groups as a less than veiled attempt to silence opposition to Mubarak’s 27-year-rule.

A jail cell awaits dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim. The sociology professor was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation and urging Congress to make nearly $2 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt contingent upon progress toward political reform.

SYRIA: Talk of a response to U.S. attack, an 'outrageous crime'

A spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in London called the U.S. attack within Syria on Sunday afternoon an "outrageous crime" and hinted at a reprisal.

"We expect a clarification, and of course Syria reserves the right to respond accordingly in the proper way," Jihad Makdissi told the BBC.

Reuters quoted the spokesman for the Iraqi government this morning as saying the raid was meant to target bad guys conducting operations against Iraqi forces. Ali Dabbagh said:

"The attacked area was the scene of activities of terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq. ... The latest of these groups ... killed 13 police recruits in an [Iraqi] border village. Iraq had asked Syria to hand over this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist activities."

IRAQ: Commando raid on Syria raises question of timing

The timing of the reported raid by U.S. special forces on a location in Syria raises an intriguing question.

The Syrian government pinpoints a spot about five miles or so away from the Iraqi community known as Al Qaim.

For five years the Marines used a massive railroad yard at Al Qaim as a major base on the Syrian border.

From there, the Marines and other U.S. military and civilian agencies could watch for insurgents sneaking into Iraq along desert smuggling trails that go back centuries.

SYRIA: What's behind U.S. raid?

U.S. forces on Sunday afternoon apparently crossed the Iraqi border to launch a commando raid in a Syrian town that left at least eight people dead.

It was a high-stakes move that could not only increase tensions between Washington and Damascus but could unnerve Iraqi officials contemplating the signing of a Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. that would legitamize the presence of American troops in Iraq.

So why now at the end of the Bush administration, with Washington trying to play nice with Damascus and tensions easing throughout the region, would U.S. forces stage such a gambit?

The blog-o-sphere was all abuzz with theories and speculation. Bill Roggio, writing at the Long War Journal, said that the U.S. must have had a compelling military reason for the attack, especially given the uptick of insurgent attacks in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is close to Syria and has became a haven for insurgents.

Iraqi forces in northern Iraq launched a series of raids Sunday that netted 13 suspected insurgents, an official in Mosul said.

"The US military must have detected a senior member of al Qaeda in Iraq in the region," he wrote. "Abu Ayyub al Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is reported to have left the country earlier this year after the terror group lost its sanctuaries in Diyala province."

But others saw political considerations...

ISRAEL: Water woes

Israel's geographic location, steady population increase and rising living standards place a chronic strain on the country's limited water resources. Now, four consecutive years of drought are pushing the water problem into a full-blown crisis.

The shortage touches all areas of life -- agriculture and the environment as well as personal hygiene. Twenty-five years ago, "Raful," as then-agriculture-minister Rephael Eitan was known, proposed that Israelis shower in pairs. Fun as that may be, long-term national planning would have been more effective, according to a parliamentary inquiry committee on the Israeli water sector in 2002. More recently, national infrastructures minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer initiated an emergency plan that will, among other things, dramatically increase the country's desalinization capabilities.

Israelis are aware of the problem, even if not everyone applies themselves to conservation. Many actually listen when weather reporters speak animatedly about how much rain fell where, and monitoring the water level in the Kinneret -- the country's only natural freshwater lake-- is something of a national sport. Some websites affectionately indicate the sorry levels with a rubber duck bobbing up and down.

A media campaign run by the country's Water Authority offers a series of short spots urging conservation in all possible spheres, reminding the public that every drop counts.

EGYPT: Enough with old leaders, Islamist activist complains

Would the old guard of Egypt’s largest Islamist group one day cede power to the younger generation? Mostafa El-Naggar, one the leading young voices for reform within the Muslim Brotherhood, recently startled the group's leadership by raising this controversial question on his blog. The suggestion hit a nerve with the brotherhood's higher echelons, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef, who turned 80 this year. 

In a satirical post under the title “We Just Received the Following Communique,”  El-Naggar, a 28-year-old dentist, imagined that the Muslim Brotherhood leaders older than 70 issued a statement announcing their resignation from all senior posts, making way for young cadres to "rejuvenate" the organization.   

“With this initiative, we try to give a good example to the aging Egyptian regime, which still insists to lead the country,” reads the fictional statement.

IRAN: Noam Chomsky says Americans support Iran's right to nuclear energy

The scholar and leftist political activist Noam Chomsky says his fellow countrymen support Iran's nuclear enrichment program and oppose any kind of military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

Chomsky, a noted linguistics professor who is among the most outspoken American critics of U.S. foreign policy, spoke in an interview with Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency. The 80-year-old scholar and Massachussets resident was in Berlin:

"Now nobody thinks they have the right to develop nuclear weapons, however that's a different issue. But the majority of the [American] population agrees [on Iran's right to enrich uranium]. ... Public opinion here overwhelmingly holds that Iran should have the right to develop nuclear energy."

Mastering the enrichment of uranium is a key step toward building either a peaceful nuclear energy program or creating a homegrown atomic-bomb industry. The U.S., Israel and Europe accuse Iran of exploiting loopholes in international arms-control regulations to build nuclear-weapons capability. Iran has strongly denied the charge.

Chomsky is enormously popular in the Middle East, where his books are widely sold and translated. His critiques of U.S. Middle East policy are a huge hit with Iranians and Arabs.