Media Review Network – Page 1221 – Providing Context and Substance

Resistance book review

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Resistance – Book Review

Hamas fighters pray
‘One main object of the book is to try to explain the essence of the Islamist revolution.’

By Ludwig Watzal – Bonn

Alastair Crooke, Resistance. The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, Pluto Press, London 2009.

With the failure of the ‘war on terror’ and the mess into which the Bush administration has led the United States, it is time for the new President Barack Hussein Obama to revise US policy from scratch. All the decisions which Obama has taken regarding Guantanamo (not to speak of Bagram), torture, extraordinary renditions, secret prisons, and random surveillance of emails and telephones, have been half-hearted. Obama does not talk constantly about the56anymore, he just keeps on waging it. The new President appears increasingly as a Bush-light version: plenty of rhetoric but hardly any change. “Looking forward” should not be Obama’s sole concern but also “looking back” to assess the damage the Bush-warriors have done to the heart and soul of the United States and to bring the instigators to justice starting from the man in charge, downward. In the ongoing debate on torture Obama has already lost out to former Vice-President Dick Cheney, the person primarily responsible for the whole malaise and the Kafkaesque situation in the country.

Just as important as restoring the rule of law to America and repairing the ruined reputation of his country, is the normalization with the Islamic world. Widespread anti-Muslim obsessions, not only among the ruling elite and the media, but also within the American population, must be repudiated and stigmatized as racist. In his Cairo speech he has pledged to do it. Muslims want to be treated on a par with everybody else. And they want the US to withdraw its occupation forces from Muslim countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Arab peninsula. America’s Muslims doubt about the seriousness and ability of the American political elite to understand and address the real causes of the conflict between the West and the Islamic world.

A boy and an artificial leg a Gaza story

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

A Boy and an Artificial Leg: A Gaza Story
Ramzy Baroud

Shobi

Growing numbers of children forever maimed, dismembered and killed by Israel are somehow disregarded by the world media.

His room is ready; the walls have fresh paint and my kids prepared a basket of chocolates and other treats to place beside his bed. They hung a poster on his door that has been decorated with colored pens and glitter that says "Welcome Shobhi!" I have taught them that "Sobhi" actually means the "morning light", and that during his visit, he will not be treated as a visitor, but as a brother. They have compiled a list of fun places to visit, parks, the beach and maybe a ferry ride.

Two weeks ago, my family, after months of anticipation, were scheduled to be the host family for a very special and unusual exchange program for kids from Gaza to visit the US. Our host child, Sobhi was schedule to arrive on May 30th.

Smile on the face of the tiger

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Smile On The Face Of The Tiger
John Pilger

At 7.30 in the morning on 3 June, a seven-month-old baby died in the intensive care unit of the European Gaza Hospital in the Gaza Strip. His name was Zein Ad-Din Mohammed Zu’rob, and he was suffering from a lung infection which was treatable.

Denied basic equipment, the doctors in Gaza could do nothing. For weeks, the child’s parents had sought a permit from the Israelis to allow them to take him to a hospital in Jerusalem, where he would have been saved. Like many desperately sick people who apply for these permits, the parents were told they had never applied. Even if they had arrived at the Erez Crossing with an Israeli document in their hands, the odds are that they would have been turned back for refusing the demands of officials to spy or collaborate in some way. "Is it an irresponsible overstatement," asked Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University, who is Jewish, "to associate the treatment of Palestinians with [the] criminalised Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not."

Mashaal why is Obama setting preconditions only for hamas?

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Mashaal: Why is Obama setting preconditions only for Hamas?

Jun. 11, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

While most of the Arab world responded with enthusiasm to the overtures in Cairo of US President Barack Obama last week, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Thursday complained that the president was presenting Hamas with preconditions ahead of entering into dialogue while he was not insisting on these preconditions regarding both Syria and Iran.

"Obama adopted a new language for speaking with Hamas," Mashaal told Asharq Al-Awsat, but added "we hope this will translate into actions on the ground, and that he will cancel the preconditions for talking to Hamas. He is opening a new page with the region and is beginning dialogue with the Iranians and the Syrians without preconditions, then why is he setting up preconditions for Hamas?"

On Tuesday night, Mashaal said "Hamas will be a positive force in helping to find a fair solution to the Palestinian people and enabling them to fulfill their rights."

"Hamas will not be an obstacle. Everyone knows that Israel is the obstacle," he said.

In his Cairo address, Obama called on Hamas to end violence, abide by previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians and recognize Israel’s legitimacy.