Thursday, January 27, 2011

It's getting hot but its not global warming

The Tunisian Jasmine revolution did not spark the wave of protest that has taken over the Arab World, but it has catalyzed the boldness of the protestors and increased the level of their demands. Now people are shouting "down with the regime" when previously people wanted lower food prices, better services, higher wages, or, at most, the dismissal of the government and its replacement with what would eventually turn out to be a similar government.

Yesterday in Egypt protests went on in spite of the heavy handed response by the forces of oppression of the Mubarak regime. People filled Tahrir square shouting "down with the tyran". Demonstrations are stil going on. The Mubarak regime might well fall and the son of the pharaoh has reportedly fled to London. There has been plenty written about this in the mainstream press, as Egypt is the model child of the US for being the first Arab nation to sign a peace agreement with Israel. What a failure. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Feltman, the man who has fomented all the trouble of Lebanon, is trying to dilute the Tunisian revolution. He was kicked out and has gone to Paris where he met members of the March 14 forces. What a diplomatic failure this man is. Not that I'm unhappy about it.

The Israelis are watching closely the events in the region and they are worried, and they should be: lok at the political landscape. First Tunisia where the fallen regime was ultra sympathetic to the Israelis, then Lebanon where the government has changed hands and is now strongly influenced by the Resistance, Palestine where the Palestinian Authority is quickly losing credibility du to the latest Palestine leaks which show the PA to have become an outfit at the service of the Zionist project, and Jordan where the wave of protests against the cost of living and poverty are quickly gaining momentum. Soon, the Israelis will have no friends left in the Arab world and things will go back to normal. Israel is a colonizing entity and must be treated as such, through rejection and isolation. The situation will soon become such that even a mega war (Israeli specialty) won't be able to turn the tables in their favor. Israel's days are numbered, as my comrade angry arab keeps repeating.

But Arab dictatorships will fall before. In Sanaa, there are today demonstrations against the regime of Ali Abdallah Saleh and the police is arresting students. A demonstration is planned in Jordan for tomorrow. Algeria has declared that it wil start importing wheat in order to reduce the prices in order to avoid further protests (wheat prices have peaked worldwide and are now higher than during the food crisis of 2008). Kuwait is spending USD 4 billions ($3,572 to every citizen) to keep them quiet. In the UAE the authorities have arrested 70 migrant workers on charges of attempting to organize 3,000 workers to demand an increase in wages.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of issues that are worthy of mention. One is that while the internet and information technology were not the decisive factor in the success of the Tunisian revolution, they certainly played an important role in sharing knowledge and in organizing. The same can be said for the events in Egypt. Two is that wikileaks has initiated a new leaks movement: In Lebanon we have had the TruthLeaks, a collection of recordings from the International Tribunal's investigations aired by New TV. These were damning for a number of politicians. And how can one forget the Palestine leaks, documents  published by Al Jazira showing that the Palestian Authority was a party in the assassination of Palestinian activists and knew about the Gaza onslaught before it happened, and is ready to concede to the Israelis the rest of historical Palestine.





2 comments:

Yann said...

My fellow French citizens have a duty to unite and demonstrate against our corrupt and criminal government. The US' have to do it as well. We dominate and enslave the whole world.
Please, Rami, tell me if I'm wrong.

Rami Zurayk said...

Mais bien sur Yann! En esperant que la pression populaire pourras faire changer d'avis aux dirigeants.