avari | haroon moghul

Jon Stewart, the Daily Show and Palestine

Featuring the first heckler in the Daily Show's 11 years, and yet, what a response offered by Mr. Barghouti.  They are getting a lot of flak for this (I've linked through Mondoweiss b/c Adam Horowitz was there, and offers a really inspiring overview of how the show went down, and how the crowd, as a whole, reacted.  In the first minutes of clip one, watch Jon Stewart, my hero, get p.o.'d at Joe Wilson, Jr.)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Israel Project: Selling Americans on the Settlements

In a recently released report, summarized here, you can find out how advocacy groups attempt to change the discourse in order to persuade the public of their cause.  A definite, absolute, complete must-read (then come back and tell me what it says.) 

Muslim World: "Americans Are Not Your Enemy"

Therefore, Haroon is not your enemy, either.

Obama struck the right tone in his interview with Al-'Arabiyya, here in two parts (though, admittedly, it would have sent another and stronger message had he selected Al Jazeera.)  He offered to talk to Iran, to listen to what all sides had to say, and to negotiate to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Especially the first - talking to Iran - that's so important.  As unsavory as it might seem, we are in no position to dictate to any country in the region, and a long-term deal with Iran, recognizing its power and influence in the region, would help stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and contribute to better relationships and interactions, regionwide, between and amongst the GCC, the Levant and even, I think, India and Pakistan.

In other news, another Bush administration failure!  His boneheaded and violent policy of asking Ethiopia to invade Somalia, just about two years ago, has ended exactly where it began, except the supposedly Qaeda-affiliated Islamists might be a lot more amenable to such rhetoric after fighting an American proxy army.  And, to top it off, Bush selected Somalia's oldest nemesis to do the job it couldn't and ultimately didn't want to do.  Bush was so bad he fails even after his presidency.  It's like Star Trek: "Watch your futures end."  I mean, sort of.  Isn't this why you read my blog?  Because I can connect George Bush to Somalia and then to First Contact's Borg Queen?

Lastly, the BBC's refusal to air a charity appeal has reached even the Times: "The BBC has rarely been buffeted as severely as it has in recent days over its decision not to broadcast a television appeal by aid agencies."  Goatmilk has a clip of a surprisingly blunt interview with Tony Benn.  Speaking of charity appeals, are you coming to NYU tonight?  6.30pm.  Kimmel Center.  Be there.

CBS' 60 Minutes: Is it the End of the Two-State Solution?

Watch CBS Videos Online

All Over Gaza

Many voices.

On LRB, a set of reactions from contributing authors, as well as an essay on Gaza by Ilan Pappe.  All are worth your time, especially as far as they debate what happens next.  The One-State-Solution voice seems particularly empowered.

At TAC, the Cover Story: "What Israel Lost."  A set of articles, including one by John Mearsheimer, on the conflict and its aftermath.  A different way of looking at the same challenge.

Noam Chomsky weighs in at ZNet.  Long.  Very, very long.

Over at the Islamic Center at NYU, we are holding a qiyam for Gaza from 9pm-11pm tomorrow, Thursday, Jan 22nd.  We are located at 371 6th Avenue, St. Joseph's Church, entrance on the side (basement stairs).  This to precede our January 27th fundraiser for Gaza.

Wajahat Ali discusses Israel's strategies.  Does the Hamas war belong in the same category as the 2006 Lebanon War?

An IC-NYU Fundraiser for Gaza

• The international Committee for the Red Cross has warned of a "full-blown humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.
• "We are short of rooms and supplies, we are up to our necks," said a surgeon at Gaza's main Al-Shifa Hospital. Added the doctor, "The buildings are falling on the heads of the patients."
• There are reports of major surgeries being carried out without any form of anesthesia due to stocks running out while hospital generators are running out of fuel needed to power them and the life saving machines they operate with.
• Islamic Relief's aid worker on the ground, Hatem Shurrab, who is writing about the situation for BBC News, has said, "I've met families who are resorting to boiling weeds that they've dug out from the ground in order to feed their families."

The Islamic Center at NYU with Islamic Relief invites you to a Fundraiser for Gaza

When: Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Where: NYU Kimmel Center
E&L Auditorium, 4th Floor
60 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

(Directions)

Admission: $25 per person for Charity (Dinner provided)

Guest Speakers:
Osama Abu Irshaid
Haroon Moghul
Yousef Abdullah

Performances by:
Tahani Salah
Remi Kenazi
and more to come!

Our Program includes dinner, poetry, spoken word performances, and more

Co-Sponsors:
Arab Students United at NYU
Students for Justice in Palestine at NYU
CAIR-NY
NAAP-NY
Arab American Association of New York

If you would like to co-sponsor this event please call the Islamic Center at NYU at 212.998.4712. Co-sponsorship of this event entails a minimum $250 donation towards Islamic Relief's efforts in Gaza

PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN:
1) TELL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO ATTEND THE EVENT AND DONATE
2) INVITE OTHERS TO JOIN THIS EVENT PROFILE
3) DONATE!

ISLAMIC RELIEF WEBSITE:
http://www.irw.org/

Ways to Help and Wants to Understand

This website provides a helpful means of finding the right people to contact (works for American, Canadian and British voters) about the ongoing violence in Gaza, while at LRB, Henry Siegman has put together a flowing essay that point by point clarifies the nature of events and positions that have led us to our present crisis.  Definitely one of the better pieces out there.

How to Lose the PR War

Video of Alex Thomson from Channel 4 (London News) interviewing -- with no apologies, forcefully and powerfully -- Israeli spokesman Mark Regev on the matter of starving children in Gaza.  This is part of a broader, disturbing trend of civilian costs and casualties suffered overwhelmingly disproportionately by the besieged population of the Gaza Strip. Why is it that over 800 Palestinians have been killed, but only 130 of these were Hamas fighters?  (On the other side, 13 have been killed, 10 of them soldiers, several apparently in instances of friendly fire.)  Consider those ratios.

In a bit of positive news, Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine has attached his name to a call for an immediate cease-fire which will run in the New York Times.  I have echoed that call.  All persons of conscience must support an immediate cessation of violence, in order to bring needed aid to the civilians of Gaza and to peacefully negotiate a long-term solution that finds a workable solution acceptable to both peoples.  The use of violence has failed both sides, and has resulted, for Israel especially, in a dramatic, worldwide decline in reputation and standing.

Is that really the outcome the Israeli government would like to conclude with?

Elsewhere:

On January 27th, I will be speaking at a fundraiser for Gazan civilians, co-sponsored by the Islamic Center at N.Y.U., Islamic Relief, etc.  Tickets, sold to raise monies for badly-needed humanitarian aid, will cost $25 per person.  Details will of course follow, along with notice of other events at NYU, Columbia and in the region, including the upcoming IMAN Community Cafe, scheduled for January 31st. 

Landing on Gaza

I wanted to point out two videos that especially caught my attention. Jon Stewart dissects the conflict in a way only he can. The man has more courage than most of our leaders. And more honesty, too. Over at CNN, Rick Sanchez makes a conclusion that seems to blow his mind into changing his mind. Watch the latter for a really rare occurrence, a reporter reporting.

End the conflict now, and end all attacks on civilians.

There Are Other Israels

It is an obvious reality that there are many other Israeli perspectives than the radical one espoused by and too often uncritically reflected by a neo-con and major-media refusal to consider anything but absolute good versus absolute evil, a Bush-like world of simple-minded and naive belief in war and the purifying, cleansing, moral character of asymmetric and disproportionate destruction as the road to (as they claim) "freedom" (for who, we know.)  But most Americans never hear about these other voices.

Firedoglake reports on increasing criticism of the Israeli right-wing narrative within the blogosphere, as much a result of the horror of the last few days as a result of progressive and critical Jewish and Israeli voices, from J-Street to Tom Segev to Joe Klein.  It is so important we note and appreciate such fair-minded and far-sighted thinking, and grow such institutions as can communicate similarly positive, humane, decent, democratic and respectful visions in our communities.  It is the narrative of this conflict that needs to be intelligently challenged before the dim possibility of peaceful change fades.