Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"Zionists were demanding Mubarak stay in power back in February 2011 because otherwise extremists were going to take power. No one argues sovereignty to excuse Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen since they were invited in by the Yemeni government. And if anti-imperialism is fine with replacing US imperialism with Russian imperialism, then that’s a bad anti-imperialism. There is also a purposeful ignorance being perpetuated around Syria by those who want us to think the choi ce is either Assad or ISIS, ignoring the existence of local coordination committees and other grassroots formations that could be an alternative and are need of support. "The US left for the most part continued to push the regime change narrative, which again ignored all the actions the United States has pursued to preserve the regime despite all the rhetoric. They mocked the idea that there were moderate Syrian rebel groups, claiming everyone fighting Assad was an extremist and then acted all shoc

"The Arab uprisings were followed by a great deal of bitter violence, repression, counter-revolution, and cynical regional and international great power manipulation. On the other hand, these uprisings showed that ‘presidents-for-life’ and parts of regimes could be overthrown or substantially threatened by ‘people power’ – a fundamental innovation on the post-colonial stage in the MENA region. They have exposed the bankruptcy and violence of command and control structures that rely solely on violence and coercion. They have drawn attention to the importance of trans-local, transregional and transnational forms of politics. They have also underlined the importance in the MENA region of the question of radically democratic, de-centralized, and leaderful organizing — its possibilities and limits." — John Chalcraft The Middle East: an interview with J. Chalcraft

A bit repetitive in the beginning, but it's generally good. Syria and the Left

The "leftists" admirers of Assad's Syria

"As Hitchens said, those who secretly cheer Assad’s takeover of Aleppo don’t know what they are talking about. Or they forgot what it is like to live under a regime that kills and tortures in times of peace as it does when it is embattled. People in Syria rose up because they wanted their country to be free. What happened later, including the rise of extremism and lawlessness, was a product of the way the regime responded to the demands of young men and women." Note : Christopher Hitchens supported the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq thus he was the camp of "the liberal defence of murder".  Using Hitchens' argument for the Syrian situation excludes the fact that an uprising/a revolution aimed at overthrowing the regime. It also implies that there is no way for the Syrians, or any other people who rise up against dictatorship, to achieve anything without the help of the Western imperialism. The "Western states" should always do something. No t

An interview with Leila al-Shami

"This sad story of betrayal and opportunism by Arab and international Marxists has made Sadiq al-Azm an isolated voice among Marxists who initially were confused about how to respond to the Arab uprising after peaceful protests against Bashar al-Assad started all over Syria and gradually found themselves supporting the brutal regime directly or indirectly." Good-bye Sadiq Jalal al-Azm

Bahrain and the International Institute of Strategical Studies

Engaging Books Series

Hizbollah, Syria, and the Arab Uprisings

Algeria:  The political economy of regime survival

Lessons from the Arab Spring

Since the beginning of the Arab uprising the defenders of the status quo helped co-opt and domesticate the uprisings. Here they have twisted marxist and socialist ideas/ideals to try to absolve themselves and the criminal role they have played in aborting a meaningful change in the region.  In the case of Egypt we have seen how the US, a fact this article unsurprisingly ignores, supported a power-sharing between Mubarak's regime without Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood and how later, when the latters were ousted, the US regime continued its financial and military support of the Egyptian army and the Egyptian regime.  We also saw how the leadership of the MB, like its sister Al-Nahdha in Tunisia, hurried to Washington to kiss the hands of US imperialism and show that they could be reliant upon in maintaining the status quo: new faces, the army in the background, elections, but no changes in the fundamentals, i.e. the socio-economic structure that determines the daily bread an

01 August 1944 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

In 1993 Halim Barakat wrote:  "One may also suggest that the greater the socioeconomic inequalities in mosaic societies, the more the likelihood of uprisings. However, such uprisings are more likely to result in civil wars (in which one controlling elite is substituted for another), rather than popular revolutions (in which society is transformed, and the dominant order is replaced by a new order). The reverse pattern is more likely to emerge in relatively homogeneous societies. In the latter, the greater the inequalities, the greater the class solidarity, mobilization, and prospect of revolution. If these assumptions are correct, one should expect the first Arab popular revolution to take place in Egypt or Tunisia. This does not, however, exclude the possibility that revolutions may occur in more pluralistic societies as well."  — Halim Barakat, The Arab World: Societ, Culture and State , pp. 15-17, 1993.

Who Said Gaddafi Had to Go? An in-depth analysis of what happened then.  See also the comments and the reply.

After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts ‎"After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts" "If like me you are sceptical of what the media is telling us about the Arab Spring, or at least feel you are not being given the whole picture, you'll benefit from reading this powerfully argued and passionately written book. John R. Bradley turns conventional wisdom on its head, arguing that the revolts were not initially about a thirst for democracy but brought about because of economic misery and questions like personal dignity. He covers Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other countries to show how the Islamists then went on to hijack the revolutions everywhere because the progressives were disorganized and have not broad constitutency among the amsses. This counterrevolution was carried out with crucial backing from Saudi Arabia -- and, yes, the West too." (J, Maynard, USA) And...

Economic Grievances and the Syrian Social Contracts

"Revolution and Counter-revolution in the Arab World"

How Syria Works (October 2011)