Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Monday, October 10.
1) Is Iraq the model?
Jackson Diehl asks Is Iraq the model for the Mideast after all? It turns out that the end of autocracy in the Arab Middle East, unlike in Central Europe or Asia, will not happen peacefully. People power isn’t working. Dictators such as Assad, Moammar Gaddafi and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, backed by mountains of weapons and armies bound to them by tribe or sect, prefer to fight to the death rather than quietly yield. Despite seeing Hosni Mubarak in his courtroom cage — or maybe because of it — they don’t shrink from crimes against humanity. The carnage might be seen as regrettable but acceptable if the bad guys were losing. But with the notable exception of Gaddafi, they are not. Assad has been written off by most of the West’s intelligence services, but his tanks and artillery are proving more than a match for the ragtag groups of army defectors in towns such as Homs and Rastan. Saleh was nearly killed by a bomb, but on his return after three months in a Saudi hospital, forces commanded by his son still held the presidential palace in Sanaa.
Diehl, a few paragraphs later argues that, imperfect as it is, the current state of Iraq must be the envy of revolutionaries in Syria and Yemen. Diehl doesn't discuss with the problem of Iraq seemingly moving into the orbit of Iran.
2) Is there any place for Jews and Christians in the new Middle East? Barry Rubin observed yesterday: Christians are fleeing the Middle East and Western Christians are indifferent. More than half of Iraqi Christians, threatened with death and terrorism are out of that country, though many are in neighboring Syria. Virtually all Christians have fled the Islamist Gaza Strip and Syrian Christians generally (though not all) support the regime there, fearing an Islamist takeover. But Egypt is home to millions of Christians that dwarf these numbers. In fact, the number of Christians in Egypt exceeds the populations of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia. Copts have emigrated in the past, but they have been so rooted in Egypt as to tend to remain there. Now the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations reports that 95,000 Christians have emigrated since March 2011. If Egypt continues to look as if it is going down an Islamist road, or at least if the government and military appear ready to tolerate such assaults, one can easily imagine one million or so Copts heading for the exits in the next few years. How would Europe like to receive these people who—in contrast to many other immigrants—would be legitimate asylum seekers with a genuine fear for their lives?
Today's news: Church Protests in Cairo Turn Deadly A demonstration by Christians angry about a recent attack on a church touched off a night of violent protests here against the military council now ruling Egypt, leaving 24 people dead and more than 200 wounded in the worst spasm of violence since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Note how carefully the article blames the military council for the violence. Muslims are generally portrayed as protecting the Christians. Here's how the reporter framed the conflict: Nada el-Shazly, 27, who was wearing a surgical mask to deflect the tear gas, said she came out because she heard state television urge “honest Egyptians” to turn out to protect the soldiers from Christian protesters, even though she knew some of her fellow Muslims had marched with the Christians to protest the military’s continued hold on power. “Muslims get what is happening,” she said. The military, she said, was “trying to start a civil war.”
Later on there's an acknowledgement: The protest took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population. Christians had joined the pro-democracy protests in large numbers, hoping for the protections of a pluralistic, democratic state, but a surge in power of Islamists has raised fears of how much tolerance majority rule will allow.
But then it's hedged with: But the most common refrain of the protests on Sunday was, “The people want to bring down the field marshal,” adapting the signature chant of the revolution to call for the resignation of the military’s top officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. “Muslims and Christians are one hand,” some chanted.
One question is whether the reporter was on the scene as the protests happened or simply interviewing witnesses after the fact, when he can be a lot more selective about what aspects of the story to emphasize. Naharnet has a rather different approach. Several cars were on fire in a large street next to the hospital, and Coptic protesters were tapping the cars to make petrol bombs. "God is with us, Christ is with us. They want that it (the state) be Islamic, but we will not leave," said one of the demonstrators. The Muslim protesters, for their part, chanted: "Islamic, Islamic", of their view for the Egyptian state.
The Naharnet does blame security forces for the killing of protesters, but doesn't mix in the "Muslim concern for their Christian neighbors" theme so prominently included in the New York Times report. More from Elder of Ziyon and Israel Matzav. Knowing that the threat of Islamization may accompany the downfall of a tyrant might be one reason why the New York Times reports Fearing Change, Many Christians in Syria Back Assad. Abu Elias sat beneath the towering stairs leading from the Convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a church high up in the mountains outside Damascus, where Christians have worshiped for 1,400 years. “We are all scared of what will come next,” he said, turning to a man seated beside him, Robert, an Iraqi refugee who escaped the sectarian strife in his homeland.
“He fled Iraq and came here,” said Abu Elias, looking at his friend, who arrived just a year earlier. “Soon, we might find ourselves doing the same.”
In fact a few years ago Keith Roderick observed: While the Muslim population has expanded rapidly in Europe and the U.S., Christians in the Middle East have experienced a negative population-growth rate. The only country noting a positive growth rate for Christians is Israel.
(Don't worry there are still plenty of people who blame Israel for the declining Christian population in areas ruled by the PA.) Elder of Ziyon notes that revelations in Wikileaks endanger few remaining Jews in Iraq. David Gerbi's experience in Libya may not be an isolated incident. Is one of the likely outcomes of the so called "Arab spring" even less tolerance for non-believers?
Labels: Arab spring, Christians, David Gerbi, Iraqi Jews, Jews, Libyan Jewry, Middle East Media Sampler, Soccer Dad
Jews not welcome in the Arab spring
You will recall the story of David Gerbi, the Libyan-born Italian Jew who so loved his homeland that in the aftermath of Gadhafi's fall he wanted to
return to Libya and re-establish the Jewish community there.
Gerbi may love Libya, but Libya - or at least its current residents - do not love him or any other Jew. And so, after an angry protest calling for his deportation, Gerbi will voluntarily
return to Italy.
A few hundred angry protesters gathered in central Tripoli on the eve of Yom Kippur on Friday, calling for the deportation of a Libyan Jew who has been trying to reopen a synagogue sealed since ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi expelled the country’s Jewish community in 1967.
The protesters carried signs reading, “There is no place for the Jews in Libya,” and “We don’t have a place for Zionism.”
The crowds tried to storm Italian Libyan Jewish psychoanalyst David Gerbi’s Corinthia Hotel in central Tripoli. There was also a demonstration in Benghazi in the east of the country.
According to Gerbi, the crowd wanted to forcibly remove him from the hotel.
“They were impeded by hotel and Libyan security and government officials,” he said.
Gerbi said that National Security Adviser Abdel Karim Bazama, rebel leader Mustafa Saghezli, Interior Minister Ahmed Dharat and Justice Minister Muhammad Allaghi were among the government officials present at the hotel.
“The Tripoli crowd dispersed after Allaghi warned that any use of force on the part of the protesters would immediately result in strong international condemnation,” Gerbi said.
“He [Allaghi] reassured them the ‘problem’ would be resolved within 48 hours.”
Gerbi (at least says he) blames Gadhafi for his former countrymen's anti-Semitism.
“I want to contribute to, not obstruct, the building of a new democratic and pluralistic Libya. It is sad and absurd that my mere presence in Libya, should set off so much hostility and I regret this,” Gerbi said.
“However,” he continued, “what happened reveals the extent of Gaddafi’s anti-Semitic conditioning of an entire generation, those in their forties and fifties. Forty-two years of lies, of hate propaganda falsely accusing Jews of having been paid off to abandon the country in 1967, of having robbed Palestinians of their homes and of planning to colonize Libya.”
“Fortunately, the older generation still recalls warm friendships with former Jewish neighbors,” Gerbi said, “and I will continue to work to restore a 2,300-year-old coexistence and advocate active roles in the NTC for Libyan Jews, for the Libyan Amazigh population, for women and all ethnic and religious minorities.”
On Sunday, after a personal meeting with Libyan and Italian diplomatic representatives, he agreed to return to Rome on Tuesday by military plane in order to ease the tension.
Gerbi said the Italian ambassador in Tripoli claimed that the controversy over his actions was strengthening the extremist wing of Islam in the current internal war in Libya between extremist and more moderate, liberal Muslim forces.
Gerbi had been told he was “complicating matters,” that “the time is not ripe for such actions” and that his security was endangered. In addition, his attempt to clean out the garbage littering the synagogue was defined as “breaking into an archaeological site without permission,” for which he received a police summons.
Whether it's Gadhafi's or Mubarak's or Assad's or Ben Ali's doing, the fact remains that most of the people of Libya and Egypt and Syria and Tunisia are deeply anti-Semitic, and there is little or no prospect of their changing anytime soon. In some respects, Jews and Israel might have been better off with the former, strongman rulers, who would keep the anti-Semitic impulses at least somewhat in check. The Arab spring is not for us.
Labels: anti-Semitism, Arab spring, David Gerbi, Libyan regime change
Shocka: Libyan Jewish refugee dropping plans to renovate synagogue
What a surprise. David Gerbi, the Libyan-born Italian Jew who wanted to
renovate Tripoli's Dar Bishi synagogue and move back to Libya is
having second thoughts.
Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst who has lived in Italy, said he had permission for the restoration from the local Muslim cleric and members of the Transitional National Council, the force that ousted Moammar Gadhafi back in August.
But two days into his effort, it came to an abrupt end.
"The building is not safe. The area is not safe. There are a lot of people armed. We don't know what happens. So the best thing for him is to leave," said Hadi Belazi, one of many people in a crowd that gathered outside the synagogue in the city's old Jewish Quarter.
The atmosphere was tense, and Belzai's son Haitham agreed with his father.
"It's not the right time for this," he said. "It's a very sensitive matter. We appreciate having different religions in our country. We want that. But not at this time."
...
For more than 40 years there was virtually no Jewish presence in Libya, though there was anti-Semitism. Calling someone a Jew in Libya is considered a serious insult.
Despite this, Gerbi came back to Libya to help the rebels as they ousted Gadhafi in a six-month uprising. Gerbi, who assisted with psychological treatment, earned the nickname "the revolutionary Jew."
He was widely believed to be the first Libyan Jew to return, though he hoped he would not be the last.
But his prayers were interrupted at the synagogue, and he emerged to the commotion outside.
"They told me that if I am not leaving now, they are going to come and they are going to kill me because they don't want Jews here," he said.
As he was talking, his security guard whisked him away, afraid for his life.
"My intention was to clean the synagogue and take the garbage out of there," Gerbi said. "I am scared only of God. If I have to die in this moment, I die."
As he walked down the street, people turned to look at him. Wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David pendant, he's was hardly inconspicuous. One Libyan man confided he had never seen a Jew before.
Some Libyan Jews
didn't like the idea either.
“This is not a one-man show,” said Raphael Luzon, a Libyan Jew living in the UK who had negotiated with longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and is involved in talks with the National Transitional Council (NTC).
“You have to be part of a framework, part of an organization. I have received many calls from [Libyan Jews in] Rome because he is not talking about the community but about himself as a new messiah. We have to move very carefully.”
In Rome, a leader of the local Libyan Jewish community, the second largest after Israel, was also critical of Gerbi’s tactics.
“I personally believe that such personal initiatives, without any coordination with the Jewish community, is not in its interests,” said Elio Raccah over the phone. “We believe such talks should be done on a collective basis. The rebuilding of a synagogue by itself is an isolated concession because what we want is restitution of our rights and certainly not of a single building.”
But Meir Kahlon, the head of the Israeli-based World Organization of Libyan Jewry, rejected those arguments, saying Gerbi acted responsibly and with authority.
“I sent Gerbi,” said Kahlon. “We speak for all the Libyan Jews in Israel and many outside the country. I don’t need permission from the Libyan Jews in Italy or the UK.”
Kahlon defended Gerbi, saying he did not plan to renovate the building, only to clean it from debris so that Jews could pray there. “The problem is that everybody thinks they can do better,” he added.
Talks between representatives of the roughly 200,000 Jews of Libyan descent in the Diaspora and the Libyan government over restoring their civil rights and restitution of Jewish property have been going on for years without real progress.
I don't expect to see a lot of Jews living in Libya for some time to come.
Labels: David Gerbi, Libyan Jewry, Tripoli
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Monday, October 10. 
