Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 11 (since 2009-11-17 05:44:21)

eatbees

writer, photographer, blogger, living in Morocco

Website: http://www.eatbees.com/blog/

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  • Agnon and Joyce on the cruelty of community
    • eatbees May 26, 2011 at 10:54 am with 1 replies

      It's interesting that Agnon seems to have stolen his story from the classic Arabic romance of Qais and Leila. But in the original Qais dies in the wilderness, still pining for love (he never married and used to send Leila messages from afar through his poetry), and Leila visits his tomb which is guarded by animals.

  • Ghonim on '60 Minutes' with the White Stripes as soundtrack-- can the west claim this revolution?
    • eatbees February 12, 2011 at 3:17 pm with 5 replies

      I've been following journalist, photographer and labor activist Hossam el-Hamalawy ("3rabawy") for years. He was the first I'm aware of to expose Egyptian police abuse in the English-speaking blogosphere, and he extensively documented the Mahalla strike of 2008 that was the birth of the April 6 movement. Here is what he said today about Wael Ghonim in a tweet:

      Each time he tweets, I get even more furious with this guy. Here he wants the strikes to end, though the job isn't finished yet!!

      Here is his more extended take on the same theme from his blog:

      Since yesterday, and actually earlier, middle class activists have been urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies about “let’s build new Egypt,” “Let’s work harder than even before,” etc… In case you didn’t know, actually Egyptians are among the hardest working people in the globe already.

      Those activists want us to trust Mubarak’s generals with the transition to democracy.... The military has been the ruling institution in this country since 1952. Its leaders are part of the establishment. And while the young officers and soldiers are our allies, we cannot for one second lend our trust and confidence to the generals. ...

      All classes in Egypt took part in the uprising. In Tahrir Square you found sons and daughters of the Egyptian elite, together with the workers, middle class citizens, and the urban poor. Mubarak has managed to alienate all social classes in society including wide section of the bourgeoisie. But remember that it’s only when the mass strikes started three days ago that’s when the regime started crumbling and the army had to force Mubarak to resign because the system was about to collapse.

      Wael Ghonim seems to have had as much of a role in sparking the January 25 protests as anyone, and he certainly paid the price with his twelve days of black-site detention. But he was treated far better than most people would have been in his situation, because his social status and the importance of his technical knowlege to Egyptian institutions ensured he would not be tortured; indeed he was listened to respectfully and had a chance to convince Egypt's intelligence specialists, with logic alone, that there was no foreign plot behind the uprising. When he was released, he was chauffeured home by the head of Mubarak's own party, the NDP.

      More to the point, his public comments since his first galvanizing interview have struck a false note, celebrating too soon, trusting the military too much, and telling everyone: your revolution is over, now go home and get back to work. In fact the revolution is far from over, it has only begun, and to ensure its gains will take months if not years. I don't want to take away from his self-evident accomplishments or intelligence by calling him a child of privilege; but that remains true, and it may explain his difference in perspective from many of the others who were ready to give their lives from freedom. So let's celebrate what he did, but no pedestals please.

      By the way, here is an excellent analysis of the Egyptian revolution, its evolution, and the factors in its success. And all of the analysis on this site, jadaliyya.com, is first-rate.

  • Goldstone missed the cut
    • eatbees June 27, 2010 at 5:56 pm

      Well, that's one out of three then who was apparently involved in neither castration, nor covering up massacres. So I would say it's a fair panel. Eminently fair!

  • My mother, the infiltrator
    • eatbees April 14, 2010 at 1:52 pm

      How ironic that back in the days before Israel became a state, Zionists settling in Palestine really were infiltrating.

      Not that I like that word in any context, because I don't really believe in borders and nation states.

  • The West Bank expulsion order is merely the latest step in a long process
  • Israel lobbyist warns Obama, he'll pay on health-care vote
    • eatbees March 19, 2010 at 9:29 pm

      One wonders why this "horsetrading" is being done on Alhurra of all places? We want to broadcast to the Arab world that our president is being forced to jump for Israel's dog biscuits? What purpose will that serve? Fortunately, as is well known, no Arab actually watches Alhurra, so I guess the intended audience was Washington insiders after all.

  • One-state solution is debated in California congressional race
    • eatbees January 11, 2010 at 10:08 pm

      My comment above was meant as a reply to this from wonderingjew:

      ...the Palestinian Israelis have lived under democracy even though it is second class, they have lived in a democracy for quite a while...so there is less risk involved in evolving from a Jewish state to a state for all its citizens.

    • eatbees January 11, 2010 at 10:02 pm

      This is doubly ironic because as you point out, Israeli Arabs have "second class" democracy while Palestinian Arabs have military occupation — so there is a kind of sub-apartheid going on that is not even based on Jews vs. Arabs, but dividing the Arabs (Palestinians) themselves, based on which side of the border they happened to be on at a particular point in time.

    • eatbees January 11, 2010 at 9:22 pm

      I think they understood two things: 1) they would lose in the end anyway, and 2) they had a trustworthy partner (or opponent) who wouldn't slaughter them or push them into the sea, but rather, would provide guarantees that the previous ruling minority would have their rights protected on every level. So they gave up power in exchange for those guarantees, which meant among other things no longer living in a security state at war with its neighbors. Many thorny things had to be worked out, such as integration of the armed forces, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, political power-sharing leading up to elections, and so forth.

    • eatbees January 11, 2010 at 8:49 pm

      Here's something I found that reminded me of the recent confrontation between Hedy Epstein and Elie Wiesel, which I read about on this site.

      The conversation is between Waxman and Frances W. Wells, a Jewish resident of his district in her 90s, who is "incensed" at his attack on Winograd.

      Wells: You're supporting Jane Harman instead of Marcy Winograd?
      Waxman: Jane's on important committees.
      Wells: Yes, but she never votes the way I want her to.
      Waxman: Marcy's for a one-state solution for Israel.
      Waxman then walked away, leaving Wells even further incensed.

      Wiesel and Waxman are old guard, and can't handle that things are changing.

      I sent this e-mail to Waxman:

      I am deeply disappointed to see your recent attack on Marcy Winograd. I have always admired you, but you are the one being "morally repugnant" in this case, I'm afraid. I support a one-state solution for Israel-Palestine, as do an increasing number of progressive Jews such as Philip Weiss of mondoweiss.net. You should read him, you might learn something. These views are no longer outside the mainstream. Indeed, they deserve to be heard. I didn't know that Marcy Winograd supported a one-state solution until your attack on her, but now that I do know, I support her even more than I already did. I look forward to having her voice in Congress seeking a real peace in the region, based on sharing the land among two peoples, rather than wall building and ethnic cleansing. Israel can no longer "disappear" the Palestinians from their fathers' and mothers' homeland. Marcy Winogrand's vision is more humanistic than the one you're defending, I'm afraid. It is the future. And you, Congressman Waxman, should be ashamed of yourself.

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