This is incredible! Must watch!

An Arab tells what is wrong about the Arabs!

Memri TV is down, so I've uploaded it.

Algerian author Anwar Malek on Al-Jazeera TV, Quatar, on March 3, 2009.

Edited to add:
I cross-posted this at IBA. Somewhat naturally, Wafa Sultan was mentioned. For me, the old anti-feminist diehard, it's not amazing that Wafa Sultan made (justifiedly so) headlines and this man remained (unjustifiedly) largely unrecognized.

Another thing Pastorius brought up:

The distinct difference between this guy and Wafa is that Wafa defended the Jews. This guy buys into the Palestinians as oppressed narrative. That will probably spare him the death threats.

And...

...it would be unreasonable for him to buy into the Palestinian story given his otherwise reasonable take on the Arab world.

He recognizes the inherent problems, so why would he not recognize that in the Palestinian territories they don't even keep their streets nice, they don't plant trees, they don't keep businesses going, etc. (Particularly in Gaza, from what I understand.) So, why would he observe that and think, well, in that case it's not the Arab's fault but the Jews fault.

I wonder what will follow. There is remarkable little about Anwar Malek in the Internet and even less in the blogosphere.

allahuakbar

FOX NEWS reports yesterday that Hezbollah finds opposition from an unexpected side:

A leading Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has issued a scathing fatwa against Hezbollah — the latest in a series of condemnations from the usually supportive Arab world. Sheik Abdullah bin Jabreen declares it against Muslim Sharia law to support, join, or even pray for the terror group, writing, "Our advice to the Sunnis is to denounce them and shun those who join them to show their hostility to Islam and to the Muslims."

The New York Sun reports that the fatwa also condemns Iran for funding and supporting Hezbollah to further what Jabreen called its imperial ambitions.

That would go together with other evidence, for example that the influential Quatar Al Djazeera news channel is buying anchormen, columnists and advisors in the democratic West or the recommendable broadcasting of the now famous interview with Dr. Wafa Sultan on February 21, 2006. Click HERE for the video.

Ray of Hope or Bullshit PR?

Yesterday's issue of the German newspaper DIE WELT carries an interesting opinion peace by the mighty Lord Weidenfeld, which I have translated:

Trial of Strength in Gaza
Israel and the Arab World
by Lord Weidenfeld

During the heated discourse over the situation in the Gaza Strip, the buzzword proportionality comes up once again. Do the kidnapping of a young soldier, weapon smuggling or the rocket shelling of the Israeli border town Sderot justify major attacks with inevitable civilian deaths? Isn't moderation the only done thing now?

The tragic truth is that moderate, "symmetrical" reactions on the part of Israel are what the Hamas leadership most urgently wants. As the weaker party in military terms, yet more aggressive, Hamas profits from an ongoing guerilla war hoping to wear thin the morale of the arch enemy Israel. Israeli "moderate" reactions have been always taken as signs of weakness and led to more and bigger terrorist action. When Israel left the Lebanon, the first Intifadah started, and the peace negotiations at Camp David and Taba, supported by President Clinton, were hardly even over (and failed) when the second one started. And now, only a few months after the pulling out from Gaza, which all the world found praiseworthy, another, maybe even cross-border, crisis emerges.

Syria is stirring up the civil war in the Palestinian territories and supports the permanent guerilla war against Israel. The true leader of the Hamas armed forces, Khalid Meschaal, can do as he pleases in Damaskus. So far it was said that Hamas and a dozen other terror groups are just keeping press offices in Syria. Bashir Assad hopes that the USA and their coalition partners are too much stuck with their problems in Iraq and Afghanistan and that Iran will go on helping him out financially. He did pull out his army from Lebanon, but his political agents went on doing business there. Also, things have become quiet regarding Syria's involvement in the murder of the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri.

The case of 19-year old Corporal Gilad Shalit has become a trial of strength. Any deal with Hamas, an exchange or temporary ceasefire, would increase the danger of further blackmailing. That is understood by other Arab countries as well, for example Egypt and the Gulf States. For the first time, there are major voices in the Arab media who criticise the Hamas leadership explicitly. A well-known Saudi columnist, Yusuf Nasir al-Suweidan, calls the hostage-taking in the Kuwaiti newspaper "Al-Siyassa" a crime and, for the first time, the Hamas terrorists.

The Arab world is in a schizophreniac position. The oil-producing countries are richer than ever. The longing for political change is growing among the people but fear of the fanatic Islamist underground groups is keeping the leading classes back from more extensive concessions. The ruling oil-rich regimes are eager to establish trust in their stability and non-partisanship with the world public. Big TV networks, like Al Djazeera, are supposed to prove that freedom of thought is largely established and that competing with the major American and European broadcasters is not unreasonable. Al Djazeera is buying anchormen, columnists and advisors in the democratic West. The Brit Sir David Frost is supposed to present a weekly programme. A technical advisory board boasts names like Andrew Neil, publisher of the "Spectator" and TV-journalist, the French writer and journalist Christine Ockrent and Josef Joffe, co-publisher of "Die Zeit". One can only hope that the station will develop into a respectable and politically moderate mouthpiece of the Arab world. If not, the newly-recruited stars would be the first to feel the consequences.

Article appeared Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I hope my translation brings across his Lordship's intentions, as he was, intentionally or not intentionally, a bit vague at some points.

I always found that a deliberate opening to the West was the only explanation for the recommendable and otherwise inexplicable broadcasting of the now famous interview with Dr. Wafa Sultan on February 21, 2006 by Al Djazeera. Click HERE for the video.