Chicago Arabesque festival starts today: look for “Amal” vendor to support women survivors of war

Oh, goody, Arabs again. Last year’s Arabesque festival in Chicago’s Daly Plaza was perfect. The weather was gorgeous, there was plenty of Arab music, calligraphy, henna hand painting, flavored tobacco for your hooka pipe and a line of graceful guys with those gorgeous Arab eyes getting up on the empty stage to dance a little impromptu Dubka arm in arm.

This year one of the vendors is Amal which is promoted as a supplier of unique jewelry which gives ten percent of its proceeds to Women for Women, a highly rated not-for-profit organization for women survivors of war. Highly appropriate, as this week the U.N. finally declared rape as a weapon of warfare. Says the Amal “about” page:

We believe in honor, respect and love.

We are a company designed to help women by combining the modern techniques of jewelry with the historical evil eye protection to provide everyone an item to wear with pride.

Ah, the evil eye protection. There’s something to that, you know. A friend of mine in the middle east had an evil eye on her kitchen wall that faced anyone entering her apartment. A week before she was assaulted, the eye, and nothing else, disappeared from her apartment.

If you go into the right shops, away from the tourist section, you can even find blue plastic eyes about the right size for sheep and cows.

I just happen to have two eyes that guard me as I sleep. Are they just nice to look at, or are they something else?

Does John McCain want to destroy Jordan?

It was all a hoax, but the Arab world keeps talking about it all the same.

A report that an aide to presidential candidate John McCain wants to turn Jordan into a Palestinian state is apparently a hoax. It was reported widely in the Arab world that Robert Kagan had given a speech at a New York university that advocated turning Jordan into a Palestinian state. But Kagan denies making the statement or even that such a speech took place. The university in question can find no record of any such event where such a speech might have been given.

The speech was reported by news tabloid service Ammonnews, but it was later revealed the information came from the Israeli site Filkka Israel.

In case there is any question about the agenda of the above Arab-language blog, they list (in English) one of their goals as “Destroying the kingdom of Jordan peacefully and bringing back its land to its normal situation as a part of great Palestine.” They have also been known to write dubious stories about such topics as “Saudi Ambassador Saves 3 Mossad Agents but a 4th is still in Beirut [6/15/2008] as well as stories about Israeli intelligence borrowing cars from the wives of Hizbullah members”. Hee, hee, hee.

The above Arab language blog post is translated, rather laboriously, as might be expected with machine translation, with the FoxLingo toolbar as follows:

John McCain Adviser for Foreign Affairs: John built a solid option Jordanian final solution for the Palestinians. نيويورك - جاين بيتيفت New York - Jane Ketevan

خلال محاضرة ترويجية لأفكار المرشح الجمهوري للرئاسة الأميركية جون ماكين في قاعة ألمرت هولمز بوبست في جامعة نيويورك . During the lecture promotional ideas for the Republican presidential candidate John McCain at the American Chamber salary Holmes Stopes at the University of New York. وأمام الآلاف من الطلاب والأكاديميين أعلن الخبير في شؤون الجغرافيا السياسية والسياسات الدولية روبرت كاغان وهو يشكل مع ويليام كريستول الفريق المكلف بتقدم تصور مفصل لإستراتيجية السياسة الخارجية في الشرق الأوسط للمرشح الجمهوري . Faced with thousands of students and academics announced expert in the affairs of political geography and international policies Robert Flanagan It is with William Kristol team progress to imagine a detailed strategy for foreign policy in the Middle East for the Republican candidate.
أعلن روبرت كاغان أن المرشح الرئاسي عن الجمهوريين قد تبنى بالفعل إستراتيجية الخيار الأردني للتخلص من العبء الذي تشكله قضية النزاع الفلسطيني الإسرائيلي حول الأراضي في الضفة الغربية على السياسة العامة للولايات المتحدة في الشرق الأوسط. Robert Flanagan announced that the presidential candidate of the Republican strategy has already built the Jordanian option to get rid of the burden posed by the issue of Palestinian-Israeli dispute over land in the West Bank on the public policy of the United States in the Middle East. الخبير المعروف في الشؤون الدولية والمحسوب على الصقور المسماة ” نيو كون ” قال بأن السياسة الأميركية الخارجية مع جون ماكين ستأخذ منحى مباشرا للتعامل مع القضية بشكل يريح المنطقة ودولها للتفرغ بمعاونة الأميركيين لنشر الديمقراطية ومحاربة إرهاب الإسلام الفاشي. Known expert in international affairs and calculated the hawks, called “New fact”, he said that U.S. foreign policy with John McCain will take direct action to deal with the issue and its comfort zone for full-time help of the Americans to spread democracy and fight terrorism fascist Islam. وفي شرحه للإستراتيجية الجديدة قال: In his explanation of the new strategy, he said:
الأردن هو الوطن الطبيعي لملايين الفلسطينيين من سكانه وكذلك هو الحل الأمثل لقضية اللاجئين الذين ذاب أغلبهم في المجتمعات التي يقيمون فيها ولكن البقية ممن تعيش في المخيمات سيكون عليها الإختيار بين البقاء في أماكنها أو الإستيطان في الأراضي الفلسطينية شرق الأردن . Jordan is the natural home for millions of Palestinians of the population and also is the best solution to the issue of refugees who have mostly melted away in the communities in which they reside, but the rest of those who live in the camps will have to choose between staying in place or settle in the Palestinian territories east of Jordan. وقد أثار إ‘ستخدام روبرت كاغان لتعبير ” الأراضي الفلسطينية شرق الأردن ” وهو الخبير الأميركي المعروف بأنه كاتب إستراتيجيات عدة بخصوص الدول العربية إستفادت منها الإدارة الأميركية برئاسة جورج بوش وهو مقرب منها، أثار إستغراب الأكادميين الحاضرين فوجه أحدهم سؤال لكاغان فور إتاحة الفرصة له وقال: The effects of a ‘Khaddam Robert Flanagan of the term “Palestinian land east of Jordan” which is known to be an American expert writer strategies regarding several Arab countries benefited from the American administration headed by George W. Bush is close, the effects of amazement academic attendees drew one of them asked Flanagan soon allow him and said:
هل يعني ذلك أن الضفة وغزة لن تكونا مكانا لدولة فلسطينية مستقبلية وفقا لإعلان جورج بوش العام 2003؟ Does this mean that the West Bank and Gaza will not be a place for a future Palestinian state, according to George Bush declared the year 2003? فأجاب كاغان: Agha replied:
الأردن يضم أغلبية فلسطينية ومن الطبيعي حين نتحدث عن الدمقراطية أن تحكم الأغلبية في بلدها، وبالتالي لن يكون هناك حاجة لدولة أخرى لأنها بالفعل موجودة وهي قائمة ويمكن للعائلة الهاشمية أن تبقى في الملك إن أراد الشعب الفلسطيني ذلك، أما عن الضفة الغربية فمشكلتها بسيطة، التجمعات السكانية الإسرائيلية تبقى جزءا من دولة إسرائيل والتجمعات السكانية الفلسطينية يتم تبادل الأراضي فيما بينها وبين إسرائيل حيث هي غير قابلة للتواصل مع الدولة الفلسطينية شرق الأردن والباقي يصبح جزءا من فلسطين التي تمتد من حدود العراق إلى حدود إسرائيل. Jordan has a majority Palestinian Of course when we talk about Damaqratih that govern the majority in the country, and therefore there will be no need for another country because it already exists a list of the family can remain in the Hashemite king that he wanted the Palestinian people, either from the West Bank problem is simple, residential areas Israel remains part of the State of Israel and the Palestinian population centres are exchanging land between them and Israel, where they are not continue with a Palestinian state east of Jordan and the rest become part of Palestine which extends from Iraq’s borders to the borders of Israel.
سؤال آخر وجه لكاغان عن غزة فقال: هاواي تبعد الاف الأميال عن الأراضي الأميركية ورغم ذلك هي جزء من هذه البلاد . Another question to face Flanagan said from Gaza: Hawaii thousands of miles away from U.S. territory, although it is part of this country. طالب أردني إعترض على كاغان وقال له بأنه من أصل فلسطيني ولا يوافقه الرأي فأجابه : Jordanian student objected to the songs and told him that, of Palestinian origin does not share his opinion replied:
وأنا لا أوافقك الرأي ايضا …لقد أصبحنا متعادلين ويمكننا أن نكون أصدقاء ما أثار الضحك في القاعة . I do not share his ideas … We are also equivalent and we can be friends as the effects of laughter in the hall.

Here are the two photographs that appear on the blog with the hoax:

And who might Robert Kagan be? He is one of the neoconservatives (as opposed to “pragmatists”) currently vying for McCain’s favor, although he claims he is not a Straussian. That appears to be his photo on the right. Here is a podcast of him speaking about his book The Return of History, and the video of an interview with Charlie Rose here.

And who might be the other photo? Is it “Jane Ketevan”, the purported author of the piece? No Google hits on that name. What about spelling it more like the Arabic spelling–”Jane Beteft”? Still no hits. if you click on the photo in the original blog and check the properties, it gives the information “pitfieldmain.jpg”. Could this be a photo of Canadian politician Jane Pitfield, who once ran for mayor of Toronto? Could be. Maybe a really old photo of her. This “destroy Jordan” thing doesn’t sound like the type of thing she would be interested in though.

Oh, but what does it mean? By now everyone in the Arab world has figured out the whole thing was a fake, but they keep talking about it just the same. Does anything happen by accident over there?

Maybe it’s an attempt to discredit Kagan and the neocons ahead of the U.S. elections–after all, Kagan’s brother is the architect of the Iraqi “surge”. Or maybe it is a another push towards Palestinian statehood, as the clock keeps ticking on the American political window of opportunity for George W. Bush. Bush could set it up for McCain, so McCain can ride the euphoria of an apparent Middle East resolution into the November elections without incurring blame or displeasure from the conservative Jewish vote.

What IS the Bush administration doing about Palestinian statehood???

J Street–a new American Jewish lobby for a two state solution

Time is running out for the Bush administration’s Middle East policy.

We remember the Nixon presidency for Watergate, but also for recognizing China.

History will remember George W. Bush for Iraq. It is not too late for Bush to also be remembered for recognizing Palestine as a state.

But the American Jewish community has often been seen as the deal-breaker in any peace negotiations, whether fairly or not, I don’t know. As a result, American politicians only show active support for the Palestinian state when they are lame ducks in the last phases of their terms. That means that realistically, the window of opportunity for Palestinian statehood only opens up once every eight years, when the incumbent president is ineligible to run for reelection.

Now another piece of the Palestinian statehood puzzle is falling into place–an American Jewish interest group called J Street that says it supports a two-state solution.

Palestine the Nation.

Just do it.

Arabic language: “Tasmeem” computer script uses the secrets of calligraphy

When I signed up for Google feedreader, I also subscribed to a couple of language websites. They tend to be peopled by linguists with their own special esoteric sense of humor and a penchant for delving into the arcane aspects of medieval Irish or Russian literature. But every time I think about removing the feed to simplify my display, I get caught up in whatever they are saying and forget to delete it.

This week they surprised me by talking about Arabic.

I was always taught that Arabic letters have four forms depending on whether they are in a word: at the beginning, middle, end, or standing alone. Thomas Milo, the inventor of the Arabic computer script Tasmeem, just made writing Arabic letters even more difficult. Above is an exhibition in Amsterdam using the computer script to write the Corsi Aya from the Koran. Below he shows how the letter “ha” can be written in various forms depending on what form of the letter is used and what letters are attached to it.

If you have ever been puzzled by Arabic calligraphy, much less the handwriting of ordinary Arabs, this is absolutely fascinating. There is also a powerpoint presentation of Milo with audio describing the challenges in making the script into a computer language. A few minutes into the presentation is Milo’s not-to-be-missed overview of the history of the Arabic script with the original letter order–he describes it as being originally a “numerical” alphabet.

If that isn’t enough, Languagehat this week has discovered that the word “barrio” meaning “Spanish-speaking neighborhood” comes into the English language from Arabic through the intermediate stage of Spanish. Probably something they forgot to sweep out after the Reconquista. There are supposed to be some one hundred English words derived from Arabic. The only other one I know about is “potato”–Spanish “patata”, Arabic “batata” البطاطا.

Iranian Barbershops closed by religious police: Can the unibrow be far behind?

Religious police have closed some 20 barbershops in Iran as a part of a crackdown on “bad hijab” or unIslamic clothing. On the forbidden list are makeup, tattoos, hairstyles with gel where the hair stands up, and plucking eyebrows for men.

Plucking eyebrows?

I saw a barber who knew how to do this in the north of Jordan. A friend of mine had a rather wolfish look–widow’s peak, eyebrows growing close together and a huge Arab mustache. I walked around with his sister while he went in for maintenance. The eyebrow plucking he was adamant must be done with a string. The string is held between the barbers two hands and dragged across the skin. As it is dragged across the skin the thread twists. The hairs get caught in the string and are plucked. After my friend emerged from the barber, I realized he had a unibrow and needed frequent attention to keep from looking Neanderthal.

The hair-plucking trick with the string is common and women do it too. One day I went with my Iraqi neighbor to find a beauty salon with reasonably priced haircuts. We ended up paying around four dollars each. I didn’t know what I wanted, so the stylist said “I will give you a Versace cut” and it was pretty good too. My friend knew in detail what she wanted layered and so forth and her haircut was more of a process. At the end, the stylist pointed out some courser facial hair on her temples, a new price was negotiated, and out came the string, deftly rolled across her forehead. I couldn’t see a difference but she was enormously satisfied with her appearance.

After my friends’ experience with plucking hair, I started becoming more aware of the appearance of Arab men on the street. A surprising number of them look like they might have unibrows that are kept separated into distinct eyebrows only by a barber’s frequent attention.

I am picturing the new Iran, without barbered eyebrows. A chorus line of Iranian men comes on stage in the Monty Python tradition looking like they might be ready to burst into a chorus of Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam! As they turn, you can see they each have a unibrow and look exactly like Bert as in Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street.

Of course there is only one song that goes with Bert’s unibrow. The line of husky Iranian men bursts into a chorus of “Rubber ducky, you’re the one…”

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of Palestinian legislature boycotts.

Hamas is boycotting the Palestinian legislature, reports the New York Times.   The reason?   Oh,  “at least 39 Hamas legislators from the West Bank now being held in Israel jails without charges”.

Imagine that.

The legislature can’t meet without a quorum.  You’ve gotta love the Palestinians though.  When the video link between Gaza and Ramallah was lost during the emergency session, what did they do? Whipped out their cellphones, of course.

What else? Sunday, Omar Karmi of the Jordan Times reported cessation of hostilities by the Fateh Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigade”:

Meanwhile, the Israeli Cabinet Sunday approved a plan to stop hunting 178 Fateh members in the West Bank in return for their agreement to end any attacks on Israeli targets.

Scores of wanted members of Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades convened on Palestinian security forces headquarters across the West Bank to sign the agreement.

A spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Miri Eisin, said Israel agreed on a list of those who have “deactivated themselves as terrorists… are going to hand down their arms, and, as part of the new developing security relationship, Israel will not pursue them any more”.

It’s a busy region this week.

Sunday, former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres was sworn in as Israeli president replacing Moshe Katsav, who resigned in the latest scandals.

Monday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his official residence in Jerusalem.

Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will be in town.

Palestinian news service Ma’an  now reports 45 Hamas legislators detained in Israeli jails. Oh, dear, they’re missing all the fun.

Iraq Insurgency: the Saudi connection

Iran, Syria and Moqtadr get plenty of press  for their role in the Iraq insurgency, but the LA Times has published new information about the Saudi link.

According to “a senior U.S. military officer”:

• 45% of all foreign militants are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa…

• Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliate groups number anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 individuals….Iraqis make up the majority of members, facilitating attacks, indoctrinating, fighting, but generally not blowing themselves up. Iraqis account for roughly 10% of suicide bombers…

• With its own border with Iraq largely closed, Saudi fighters take what is now an established route by bus or plane to Syria, where they meet handlers who help them cross into Iraq’s western deserts…

• An estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters cross into Iraq each month…

• Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliate groups number anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 individuals…

• Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis…

• …50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

Is a Palestinian State Offensive?

Abu Ameerah over at Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah comments:

The “formation of a Palestinian state” sounds almost offensive at this point. The fact is that state will never truly enjoy independence so long as it is surrouned by a neo-Colonial power (Israel) on the one hand and ruled internally by a band of thugs on the other hand (Abbas and his cronies)….

Why on earth would statehood for Palestinians be offensive, and to whom? To Palestinians? Don’t they want their own country? Do they want to be a second-rate people forever, crying about oppression and obsessing about what Israel is doing every minute? Don’t they want to be a big grown-up nation and do the stuff the big countries do, like, um, have their own passports and stuff?

Parsing the statement more carefully, it appears the writer is saying Palestine cannot declare independence until Israel is destroyed and Abbas is out of power. How does the existence of Israel prevent Palestine from declaring independence? Can’t they basically, you know, just do it? This appears to be just another version of the “drive them into the sea” kill-all-Jews mentality that the western world finds so barbarian.

I have noticed that whenever the Palestinian leadership is expected to do something, whether it’s stoplights or fire hydrants, they trot the old Israel excuse, and suddenly the leadership is off the hook. Now how exactly would the existence of Israel keep Palestine from “enjoying” being a country? And how do they know unless they try? It’s just easier to say ‘oh, it never would have worked in the first place’, and blame it on Israel, when the fact of the matter is, although Palestine has fought numerous wars and two intifadas without any clear goals, the Palestinian leadership hasn’t lifted a finger towards statehood.

And why does the writer find Abbas so offensive? Cronyism is nothing new in the Arab world. Sometimes I think the Arabs created wasta, although when I look around at America’s political systems I see a more subtle form of it. Changing one particular leader isn’t going to change the way Arabs have been running things for years. If you want to change cronyism, it is the system that needs to be changed.

Palestinian Independence: no action but lots of talk

The Jordanian Prime Minister met with aides from key U.S. congressional committees Tuesday. No surprise that the main topic under discussion was the formation of a Palestinian state.

Does anyone see a pattern here?

Oh, and Zogby’s column this week was on the same topic.

From the Jordan Times 7/4/07:

Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on Tuesday reiterated that the Palestinian question is the core regional issue, emphasising that finding a just solution for the Palestinian issue will help overcome most problems, including terrorism.

During a meeting with a delegation of US Congressional aides currently on a visit to the Kingdom, the premier said the Arab Peace Initiative represents a historic chance to achieve peace since it provides solutions that satisfy both the Arabs and the Israelis.

Bakhit voiced hope that the Israeli government would work to market the Arab peace proposal among the Israelis to provide it with better chances for success.

The Arab Peace Initiative offers Israel full peace and normal relations with Arab countries in return for the withdrawal from all Palestinian territories occupied after 1967, as well as an agreed solution to the refugee problem and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Al Aziza “free from alcohol” perfume sniff test

Today at the Arab festival I found a great bargain at the Yemen booth: Al Aziza perfume on sale two for a dollar. You can find Arab perfumes all over–in the suq in Arab countries and in the little Arab neighborhood shops. The Al Aziza stuff is alcohol-free too, so if you follow a religious prohibition against ingesting alcohol, now you don’t have to put it on your skin either.

It’s pretty hard to tell what perfume is going to smell like on your skin just by sniffing the bottle, so I just bought four of the little 3-ounce bottles and now I am busy dabbing and sniffing. I got Abu Ghutra (which smelled the best in the bottle) plus Majmooa, Marina, and Solitis.

The Majmooa was definitely the “majnoona”, having a very strong and fun scent in the beginning. After several hours the odors of all the perfumes had faded quite a bit. The Majmooa could hardly be smelled at all, and the Marina was a very faint sweetish smell. But the Solitis had a curiously fresh smell–I don’t know any other way to describe it–and the Abu Ghutra was still quite strong and had kept its characteristic scent. So if you want a scent that can last for several hours, it’s definitely the Abu Ghutra.

You probably won’t find the exact same perfumes in your own neck of the woods. But playing with perfume scents is just another way to stop the American push button rat race culture for a few moments and just savor life.