What Ice Bucket Challenge?

In Lebanon it's the ISIS flag burning challenge.  Screw you, ISIS!

Big Pharaoh's "Complete Idiot's Chart to Understanding the Middle East"

Big Pharaoh's a long-time Egyptian blogger (and tweeter), and this pseudonymous wit has come up with the fittingly, deceptively named, and only partly tongue-in-cheek chart that the WaPo ran a few days back.  If you haven't had a chance to look, take a gander:

Even Big Pharaoh himself admits that it's incomplete and he's constantly having to add to it.  I have to say too that there aren't enough red lines directed at Israel, but perhaps hating Israel is taken so for granted that it's not even necessary to note the fact.  Since the "USA" means for all intents and purposes "the Obama Administration," it should really have green lines going in every direction possible, y'think?

A Movie To Look For: "The Attack"

Take a look at Ziad Douieri's film adaptation of a novel by Yasmina Khadra. It's been controversial, which means it's worth seeking out to see for yourself:

Sometimes the screenplay for “The Attack” (written by Doueiri and his partner, Joëlle Touma) hits the emotions a little too squarely on the nose, but this doleful and nuanced Middle Eastern tragedy is unlike any other recent film from the region in various ways. Doueiri has said that leaders of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s de facto governing power, privately promised not to interfere with his film – but that was before he made it. In depicting Israel as a complicated and conflicted modern society rather than a demonic, monolithic imperialist power, Doueiri should have known he was entering a no-go zone for Arab cinema (which either ignores the existence of Israel altogether or indulges in the worst kind of anti-Jewish stereotypes). 

It isn’t even ironic that “The Attack” won the best-film award at the Marrakech International Film Festival, the Arab world’s leading showcase, and has now been banned in Lebanon and all other nations of the Arab League. That’s exactly how these things work. Producers from Egypt and Qatar have even removed their credits from the film, so that it now appears to be a European-Israeli co-production. But all these marks of disapproval, as Doueiri surely knows, will only heighten the appeal of “The Attack” to younger Arabs hungry to break free of ideological certainty and listen to new alternatives. In its own way, “The Attack” is a crucial step forward: It’s time for the artists of the Middle East to engage in real dialogue, since the politicians can’t or won’t.

The Post-WWI Map That Ruined the Middle East?

Cartography matters: thoughts from a PhD candidate in international relations at Georgetown.  The collapse of the Ottoman Empire opened a Pandora's Box.

A View From Lebanon: Grading Obama's Middle East Foreign Policy

How's that hope and change working out from one Lebanese journalist's point of view?  In terms of foreign policy toward the Middle East specifically, the assessment is pretty darn brutal.  I guess the lack of strategic vision is simply too obvious to ignore or whitewash.  Do read the whole thing.

Foreign Affairs Explained With Cows

Brilliant.  See the follow-up too.

Awesome: Singing Easter Flash Mob in Beirut Mall

Easter was last Sunday, but this video from Lebanon is too delightful to be passed over.  Watch as a flash mob in a Beirut mall bursts into song, singing "Christ is Risen." It's also a reminder of the deep historical roots that Christianity has in the Middle East -- a fact that is all but forgotten.  Now enjoy the show!  Great job, everyone!

UN Approves Airstrikes, No Fly Zone on Libya

Oh boy.  The Security Council resolution was proposed by the UK, France, and Lebanon.  Here we go, though part of me can't help feeling that it is too little, too late ... or at least an act at the eleventh hour.   The WSJ story says air strikes could start "within days."  The rebels likely don't have days.


UPDATE:  News of imminent Western-led military force against Gaddafi leads to jubilation in Libya.  Hmmmm.  The Insta-Prof has some thoughts.  

What a Gas: Energy Issues and an Israeli Discovery

Things just got even more interesting in the Middle East and ramifications for foreign policy and geopolitics as Israel announces the biggest deepwater find of natural gas deposits in a decade -- 16 trillion cubic feet, enough to meet Israel's gas needs for a century.  And perhaps turn Israel into an exporter of natural gas.  Well, well, well.  Game-changing action?  Bonus: the name of the gas field is ... wait for it ... Leviathan.  It's worth tens of billions of dollars.

The best humorous response has to come from Ace of Spades, which offers this snarky thought:

No doubt the Obama administration is hard at work trying to figure out how to force Israel into not only a freeze on settlement construction but also an off-shore drilling moratorium.

Quote of the Day: On Relationships Above Galilee

One resident's comment about his neighbors:

"I don't care if they like me ... I just want them to stop trying to kill me."

TRUE DAT.

Defending Taiwan: Hey, Let's Copy Hezbollah. What?!

Here is the quote from a recent article about military aspects of the Taiwan Strait: "Perhaps Taiwan should borrow a page from a non-traditional military power: Hezbollah." And then later: "Trying to buy or build a traditional conventional defense is becoming nearly impossible. As China invests more of its great wealth in a high-end military, Taiwan should consider going low-tech."  

Read the whole crazy thing written by a PhD egghead.  Now read Dignified Rant disassembling it.  Sometimes one does have to wonder about the mental stability of "professional" opinion on various matters.  Pay attention also to how the original article apparently doesn't realize that the ultimate goals and objectives of the parties involved matter.  China wants to annex and absorb Taiwan, whereas Israel doesn't have the same intention for Lebanon.

Kitchen Notes: Lebanon and Israel in Food Fight over Falafel

Well, at least this new Lebanese-Israeli war doesn't involve actual bullets, but it's still acrimonious. Welcome to the Great Falafel War of 2008. The Lebanese seem to want a copyright for falafel, as the Greeks have one for feta cheese.

(Do you like falafel? I do, but it's terribly messy to eat in sandwich form. I always get tahini sauce and shredded lettuce all over me.)

Nerd Analysis: Michael Oren on the Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon

Michael Oren has a new commentary on the 2006 Israel-vs.-Hezbollah war in Lebanon. It's worth reading, and it is not a rosy assessment at all. Oren calls the entire episode a disaster. At the time, I remember saying unhappily that Olmert's leadership was a catastrophe. This seems now to be the common view.

Oren's academic work on the Middle East, by the way, is always worth reading. I'm pretty sure I've recommended his excellent history of the Six Day War.