Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 4 (since 2009-11-18 02:25:00)

Lysander

Pro-Palestinian Doctor living in Las Vegas. Arab (Egyptian)-American.

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• An angry Obama warns the lobby that the 'world is moving too fast' (to preserve a Jewish state)
  • Lysander May 22, 2011 at 10:06 pm with 1 replies

    I almost never post here, though I certainly appreciate the site and Phil's work. The bottom line is that Obama will not willingly change much of anything in a second term. There will be a just peace if and when the balance of power in the region tilts more favorably towards the Palestinian side. That means such things as 1)a powerful Iran with nuclear capability (not necessarily weapon) 2) a very well armed Hezbollah 3) expensive oil 4) stronger global competitors to the US (Russia, China, etc) 5) collapse of US friendly governments in the region as in Tunisia and Egypt but especially Saudi Arabia and the Gulf 6) an independent, oil wealthy Iraq that spends its wealth as would an Anti-Saudi Arabia.

    A lot of those things are already happening and as they happen more, it will be harder for the US to carry the burden of maintaining Israeli supremacy. If Obama was saying anything at all at AIPAC, that was it. I don't believe he cares about the Palestinians anymore than the Pakistanis he kills with his drones so regularly.

• Les cheveux, la chemise, les sans-boutons, l'ideologie-- tout wrongee!!
  • Lysander September 6, 2010 at 5:24 pm with 1 replies

    It seems the whole story about stoning to death is nonsense. Here is a comment by b (Bernhardt) formerly of moonofalabama.com posted at Pat Lang's sic semper tyranis blog.

    "There is a lot of propaganda around this story and hardly a fact reported in the western media.

    From what I gathered:

    1. The woman was sentenced by a low court for aiding and abetting to murder her husband and for adultery and the punishment of stoning to death.

    But in July the highest Iranian court judged that this was invalid and that the lower courts opinion was false.

    There simply is no case anymore against that woman for adultery and there is no legal sentence of stoning her to death. It simply doesn't exist anymore.

    2. There is a sentence against the woman for aiding and abetting to the murder of her husband. That sentence is to 10 years of prison.

    So far the facts.

    Since 2002 stoning is abolished in Iran. While it is still on the books, it is no longer used.

    Stoning:

    The Iranian judiciary officially placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002, although the punishment remained on the books, and there were a few cases of Judges handing down stoning sentences in 2006 and 2007 [21] In 2008, Iran's judiciary decided to fully scrap the punishment from the books in a legislation submitted to parliament for approval.[22] As of June 2009, Iran's parliament has been reviewing and revising the Islamic penal code to omit stoning as a form of punishment.[23]
    ...
    In July 2010, the Iranian judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad was quoted as saying "Stoning has been dropped from the penal code for a long time, and in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", further adding that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were over-ruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out."[26]

    A crazy judgment by a lower court is certainly not something unusual even in the U.S.

    So what is all the fuzz about if not for simple Iran bashing to prepare the public for war against Iran?"

    Posted by: b | 06 September 2010 at 08:16 AM

• Internet killed the hasbara star
  • Lysander June 8, 2010 at 6:22 pm with 1 replies

    This is all well and good but, according to Today's Haaretz;
    "Ramussen poll: Only 19% of Americans believe Israel is to blame for clash aboard Gaza-bound aid ship Mavi Marmara last week."

    Most of the public still gets its info from the MSM. Mondoweiss and many other sites are doing a great job and it is deeply appreciated. But I still maintain that things wont change until the regional balance of power changes to Israel's disfavor. Meaning a strong Iran and Hezbollah, high price for oil, difficult economy for the US, a withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, a collapse of the "moderate" Arab regimes, possibly a shift in Turkey's pro Israel position, etc.

    If those things happen, you will see Israel much more amenable to compromise. A change in US attitudes towards Israel will come AFTER all of the above happened (if they happen) and not before. It will be the sign of change (and a late sign at that,) not the cause of it.

• 'Huffpo' reflects staggering shift in liberal American discourse
  • Lysander June 3, 2010 at 12:10 pm with 1 replies

    Well, whom would we give it to? Most races are AIPAC sock puppet #1 vs AIPAC sock puppet #2.

    There was Ron Paul and I did give the 2300$ max to his campaign (over the course of 8 months, not all at once)

    Otherwise, there is Marcy Winograd, but I haven't given her any money yet. John Dennis, a Ron Paul republican running against Nancy Pelosi, maybe BJ Lawsonn another Ron Paul republican running in North Carolina. Maybe there are a couple of others.

    There is Rand Paul, I suppose, but he seems different from his dad, whom I love. I wish him well, but I'm not confident enough in him to send him money.

    I have thought about doing an Arab-American "money bomb" ala Ron Paul in '07 and '08. Though being Arabs we may have to call it something else :-) The problem, though is that money from Arabs could be toxic to some politicians.

    Anyhoo, the idea is worth kicking around.

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