Why is it that the media has been referring to “Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein,” but never says “Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak,” “Saudi dictator King Abdullah,” or “Jordanian dictator King Abdullah II?”

From Google News:

* Results 1 - 10 of about 1,130 for Iraqi-dictator-Saddam-Hussein. (0.35 seconds)
* Results 1 - 2 of 2 for Egyptian-dictator-Hosni-Mubarak. (0.24 seconds)
* Your search - “Saudi dictator King Abdullah” - did not match any documents.
* Your search - “Saudi dictator” - did not match any documents.
* Your search - “Jordanian dictator King Abdullah II” - did not match any documents.
* Your search - “Jordanian dictator” - did not match any documents.

Tags: Current Events by yaman
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In the fall of 2006, conspicuous posters printed by a marketing firm called BlueStarPR began to appear on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Others reported seeing them in places around the Bay Area. The stated goal of BlueStarPR is to “shape public opinion through knowledge and understanding” by producing “positive and educational posters, advertisements, and learning materials.” In other words, propaganda “designed to appeal to American sensibilities.”

There is nothing wrong with trying to promote a positive and humanizing image of Israelis. In fact, Israeli institutions may be acclaimed in a variety of different ways. The intention of these advertisements, though, given the context in which they are presented, are to present a distorted and fluffy image of the state of Israel in order to win the sympathy of Americans to the point that they are willing to overlook the crimes against humanity that have been and continue to be inflicted on the Palestinian population under the control of the Israeli military.

I almost entered this essay contest on civil rights in the Middle East last year sponsored by the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance. Looking over the first place essay, I’m glad I didn’t, and I’m almost certain I will not participate this year either. Responding to the question “Why should Americans like you help civil rights reformers in the Middle East?,” an American student named Mohammed Halawi wrote a piece worthy for publication in the California Patriot belittling the people of that region and advancing an imaginary, mythical image of America for the low price of $2,000.

The first sentence defines the submission: What will U.S.-sponsored freedom in the Middle East unleash? In a nutshell Halawi denies hundreds of millons of people, for whose welfare he claims to have great concern, any sense of agency and initiative. Freedom, for them, will not come as a result of their own struggles; instead, it will be “sponsored” by the U.S., who, as we all know, may threaten to take away that “freedom” whenever it disapproves. “Freedom,” after all, isn’t free but a service possible only with the support of that great liberator America. It might not be in the interests of the United States to “sponsor” freedom in the Middle East anyway because it’s not quite clear what happens when the blob of faceless people there and their uninformed and perhaps medieval opinions will do once “unleashed.” Later, Halawi writes that “freedom is not part of a ‘Western conspiracy’ or a ‘foreign imposition.’” This is true. Freedom is not an invention or an export of the West; however, “U.S.-sponsored freedom” is.

If there is such thing as a Holocaust industry allowing Israel to act with impunity in Palestine, then now it is also true that President Ahmadenijad has succeeded in creating an industry out of Holocaust denial. Dressing first a Holocaust cartoon contest and later an equally revolting Holocaust ‘conference’ in the language of academic freedom and free speech, Ahmadenijad is building an equally egregious myth out of latent anti-Semitism and frustration with the state of Israel.

The premise of this conference is not that the massacre of six million innocent Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II has been abused by politicians, as more respectable scholars like Norman Finkelstein maintain. Rather, it is that this slaughter was invented, exaggerated, or otherwise forged in order to support the ascendance of Zionism in historical Palestine. These analyses are not equivalent, and the latter, rooted in politics and racism, is completely illegitimate and unconvincing.

The California Patriot claims to be Berkeley’s “conservative student voice.” Looking through their magazine, though, it’s difficult to come away with anything but the conclusion that they spend a lot more time hating liberals, or rather liberal stereotypes, than they do promoting any sort of coherent and consistent ideology–unless, of course, ‘hate’ counts.

Yesterday, members of the Students for Justice in Palestine staged a “mock-checkpoint” on Sproul Plaza to illustrate the disruptive and abusive nature that the several dozen checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank have on the daily lives of Palestinian civilians. One of our members prepared an educational flyer which was handed out to passersby to put our event in the proper context of reality.

My criticisms of the event aside (just briefly, I thought we could have done with less theatrics and that some of the agent provocateurs should not have been engaged in useless screamfests), members of the Israel Action Committee began to distribute “rebuttal” flyers which were nothing more than a copy-and-paste of material from the Jewish Virtual Library.

Why is it that when the Shia protest it is called a coup, but when the Sunnis do it it is called a “Cedar Revolution?”

I do not think I have given due credit in the past to the impact events have on me as they transpire, and especially as they are covered by the press. Nothing has had more influence on me during the past year, I think, than the way that the so-called “Arab liberals” responded to the onslaught of Lebanon in the summer, the way they responded to Hamas’ election, the way they did not respond to the siege of Palestine, and the way they continue treat America as a messianic liberator that will thrust them into power. In this regard, I think Nasrallah’s recent television statement regarding the inevitable fate of those relying on external support is most accurate (this link is not an endorsement of MEMRI).

Cool photograph of protesters from BloggingBeirut, and an accompanying descriptive story from Anecdotes from a Banana Republic.

Tags: Current Events by yaman
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