Why it won’t work: because of India!–The Nation in Pakistan
Feb 08
Will Israel attack? asks Ya Libnan. Maybe. Maybe not. But everybody in Lebanon is preparing.
Feb 08
Who killed Dr. Masoud Ali Mohammadi?
More than a few commentators, and the Iranian government, blamed Israel for the remote control bombing that killed an Iranian nuclear socientist in January. Friends of Israel did not seem bothered by the allegation. In Haaretz, Yossi Melman attributed his murder to “opponents of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Israel acted in a similar fashion during the 1960s against German scientists working to develop missiles in Egypt, and during the 1970s against various scientists. These included Egyptians and the Canadian scientist Gerald Bull who worked on Iraq’s nuclear and missile projects under Saddam Hussein.
But Frontline’s Tehran Bureau, came out with a better-sourced narrative last month, reportings that Ali-Mohammadi was supporter of the Iran’s reformist Green Movement, was knowledgeable about the dual-use technologies, and interested in visiting the West.
In sum, the new information on Professor Ali-Mohammadi’s background and the circumstances surrounding his murder, and the fact that he had turned against the hardliners and had become a strong supporter of the Green Movement, all point in one direction: the likelihood that he was killed by hardliners terrified by the prospect that he might disclose information on Iran’s nuclear program.
This is hardly the final word on a murky crime but it has more more convincing reporting to back it up.
Feb 08
Who took the elaborate care necessary to carve the symbol of Jewish statehood into Palestinian turf?
The Jerusalem Post investigates.
Feb 08
Its the 31st anniversary of the Revolution. In anticipation, the government installs security cameras ( thanks to Persian2English) and plays the Palestinian card.
Feb 08
Presumably because they are more of a pain to Israel. From the Pew Global Attitudes Project, these and other nuggets.
- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is losing popularity at home and abroad.
- Even before their disputed elections last year, both Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were generally unpopular. Ahmadinejad’s highest ratings are in the Palestinian territories (45% confidence) and Indonesia (43%), although even among these publics fewer than half express a positive view of his leadership.
- There is no country in which even 40% express confidence in Karzai. In Pakistan (10%), Turkey (7%) and Lebanon (7%) one-in-ten or fewer hold this view of Washington’s favorite Afghan.
- And there’s a couple of pockets of support for Osama. Continue reading »
Feb 08
WOS samples what they’re saying in the (Spanish-language) Latin American media about Rep. Peter Hoekstra’s charge that the U.S. intelligence has not been held accountable for the anti-drug attack that killed an American missionary and her child
Feb 07
Media navel-gazers are obsessing that the son of Ethan Bronner, a New York Times correspondent in Israel, recently joined the Israeli Defense Forces. Times ombudsman says Bronner should take a different assignment. The blog of NYT insiders sees no conflict of interest. Natcherly. Ditto for left-liberal Haaretz in Tel Aviv. Double Natch. Times editor Bill Keller stands by his man. Triple natch.
But Electronic Intifada and Angry Arab beg to differ, saying Bronner’s coverage tilts toward the Jewish state.
There’s a measure of truth in that charge, if only because Bronner’s reporting inevitably embodies some of the cultural assumptions of his workplace. At the New York Times, those assumptions include secular liberalism, moral relativism, empiricism, cynicism, feminism, Zionism, and a few other -isms too scandalous to mention here. Calling for his reassignment is a way of calling attention to those assumptions.
It is also true that Bronner, like many a journalist in the region who tries to adhere to professional standards, is vulnerable to being smeared as “pro-Palestinian,” (in this case by my old friend Steve Emerson. I met Steve when we both worked for Marty Peretz at TNR. Steve had the more agreeable personality; Marty, the more capacious mind, relatively speaking.)
Proceed to Thought Experiment #1: Imagine Anthony Shadid, former Washington Post and current NYT Lebanese-American correspondent in the Middle East, has a son or daughter who is active in the boycott and divestiture movement targetting Israel on the American college campuses? (Full disclosure alert: I’ve shaken Shadid’s paw a couple of times. I don’t know if he has kids or if they are pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian; both, I hope.) Would/should such a filial political commitment disqualify Shadid from covering Israel for a newspaper of record?
Quite apart from what I think (no), I suspect that Israel’s supporters would be able to make it enough of an issue that the Post/Time senior editors would discretely choose not assign him to Jerusalem. Does anybody with elite media newsroom experience disagree?
The matter at hand is Bronner. The probable difference in the treatment of a Jewish journalist and an Arab-American colleague is the issue.
Feb 07
Hoekstra says ‘Justice Denied’ in CIA Shootdown of Missionaries in Peru – ABC News.
Feb 07
From London, they look like a narrow pipeline to the President– FT.com
