Twitter Tidbits

By John Ballard

My Twitter feed is proving more interesting than the old aggregator system of keeping up. I still check the blogworld intermittently, but by catching what a handful of selected smart professionals tweet about is proving more timely and insightful.

?Did 'The Israel Lobby' Change Anything?
Writing in FP Stephen Walt reflects on the publication of the explosive book by himself and John Mearsheimer five years ago. (Wow, the last five years went by fast.) Like Walt, I'm pleased to see that knee-jerk reactions both here and in Israel have subsided somewhat but tired of the right-wing grip on Israel's domestic politics.

When we wrote the book, we also hoped that our work would provoke some soul-searching among "pro-Israel" individuals and groups in the United States, and especially those found in the American Jewish community. Why? Because interest-group politics are central to American democracy, and the most obvious way to shift U.S. policy on this issue would be to alter the attitudes and behavior of the interest groups that care most about it and exert the greatest influence over U.S. behavior.

?Syria's Assad No Longer in Vogue
Tony Badran, writing in Foreign Affairs, lays out the cold, hard facts about Syria. The headline is a play on an unfortunately untimely article in Vogue Magazine which in retrospect shines a Marie Antoinette light on the Syrian first lady and the ruling family as the Arab uprisings reach Syria.

According to many observers, Assad was supposed to be immune to this kind of popular movement. His anti-American policies and enmity toward Israel were thought to boost his legitimacy in the eyes of his people. Compared the advanced age of Egypt�s former president, 82-year-old Hosni Mubarak, and Tunisia�s ex-president, 74-year-old Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Assad�s relative youth at 45 was also thought to be an asset. One Syria specialist, Joshua Landis, noted that unlike the aging Mubarak, the young Assad was �popular among young people� who �tend to blame [corruption] on . . . the �old guard.�� An unfortunately timed puff piece on Asma al-Assad, the president�s glamorous wife, in the current issue of Vogue, spoke of the �first lady�s central mission . . . to change the mind-set of six million Syrians under eighteen [and] encourage them to engage in what she calls �active citizenship.�� It gave plausibility to the claim that the Assads are a fresh breeze blowing through a decrepit house.

Ironically, the basis for such arguments was Assad�s own public relations strategy. When Assad inherited power from his father in 2000, he adopted the �old versus new guard� theme to cultivate his image as a reformer and bolster his legitimacy at home and abroad. For a brief period, he allowed dissidents to criticize corruption openly. But this so-called Damascus Spring was a cynical mirage. In the past decade, Syria has not seen a single meaningful act of reform.

The Assad dynasty, now in its second generation, is a family affair like others in the region. I have been mystified by the ease with which Basher Assad has effectively hypnotized influential people into believing he's such a nice guy. Dianne Sawyer's interview four years ago made him look like someone from a Disney movie. Looks nice, talks good English, carries himself with the quiet presence of a cleric. Or a Don Corleone. Check out this video (Caution: grim, shocking images) of the aftermath of a prison massacre in 2008 featuring brother Maher. The family resemblance is unmistakable, as well as the detached calm which takes on a more sinister quality under the circumstances.

Another factor playing into Syrian politics is a particular variation of Islam almost unique to that part of the region and associated with the Assad family, the Alawites.  I don't think everyday Westerners can possibly appreciate the complexities of how religion and politics are woven together in other countries, particularly in the Middle East. (I am certain that the Christian Zionists I know personally have such a narrow world view that trying to speak intelligently with them is a waste of time. Perhaps others are not surrounded by so much ignorance.) in any case, if the reader will forgive the carelessness of the comparison, my take on the Alawites is that they are a Muslim analogue to Unitarians. In the same way that many Christians don't consider Unitarians to be Christian, many Muslims, both Sunni and Shiite, have the same aspersions against Alawites.

?In the interest of balance, check out As Protests Mount, Is There a Soft Landing for Syria? by Josh Landis in Time.  Landis is one of Syria's most effective advocates and I followed both him and Tony Badran for several years through their respecve blogs. Landis travels to Syria often and reports back with a very soft touch when referring to harsh conditions there. His wife and inlaws are Syrian so he needs to be careful, but his academic credentials are impecable.

Having been brought up in privilege in Damascus, the President has more in common with the capital's elite than he does with the Alawites of the coastal mountains who brought his father to power. When Bashar al-Assad took over after his father's death in 2000, he began liberalizing the economy and society. High culture has boomed. Foreign imports, tourism and arts are being revived. Today, Syria is a wonderful place to be wealthy; life is fun and vibrant for the well-heeled.

For the impoverished majority, however, the picture is grim. One-third of the population lives on $2 a day or less. Unemployment is rampant, and four years of drought have reduced Syria's eastern countryside to a wasteland of dusty and destitute towns and cities like Dara'a. The last thing wealthy Aleppines, Homsis and Damascenes want is a revolution that brings to power a new political class based in the rural poor, or for the country to slip into chaos and possible civil war.

The Arab rebellion is sorting out the countries of the Middle East, distinguishing those that have become true nations, with a cohesive political community and an ability to leave behind the postcolonial era of dictatorship and repression, from those doomed to struggle by divisions of ethnicity, sect and tribe. Lebanon and Iraq have both stumbled. Libya is crashing before our eyes, and Yemen may also follow in a downward spiral.

I'm not sure I agree with his assessment of "those doomed to struggle by divisions of ethnicity, sect and tribe." He mentions  "Lebanon and Iraq have both stumbled. Libya is crashing before our eyes, and Yemen may also follow in a downward spiral." My view is that those divisions are the very substance of which the Arab uprisings are made. An idealistic younger generation is bringing to the political scene fresh notions of what real representative politics is about.

It is true that Libya is crashing and Yemen may soon follow. It is also true that Lebanon and Iraq are a both a mess. But it should be noted that unlike previous unrest in the region, this time there seems to be little, if any anti-American animus and relatively little aimed at Israel. Lebanon is an interesting case with its consociational constitutional form which protects (in fact, enshrines) various political and confessional minorities by constitutional mandate. When I first saw the term consociational I thought it was a typo. In the same way they say a camel is a horse designed by a committee, Lebanon's consociational system is a camel-looking version of what we like to think of as constitutional government. 

?Jay Rosen tweets a heads-up about a piece that appeared in the NY Times this week.

Ever read a story in the New York Times that starts with an anecdote that seems so perfect its... suspicious? http://jr.ly/8npx

Go read the details meticulously combed together at Adam Minter's Shanghai Scrap
It's a fun romp for readers with time to follow a shaggy dog story, And it should be noted that the Times has since appended a note softening the tenor of the article somewhat.

The article did not point out that in both cases, the recipients of the calls were in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times. Because scrutiny of press communications could easily be higher than for those of the public at large, the calls could not be assumed to represent a broader trend; therefore, those examples should not have been given such prominence in the article.

Reading about a phone conversation in China reminded me of one of the Internet's most comical phone conversations. This is over four years old but for those who may not have heard it, here it is.

I must confess, dear reader, that when I back away from this piece and look at it objectively, I see racism, religious intolerance and class warfare written all over it. My own amusement then becomes an embarrassment because I have spent most of my life fighting such evils. But in this case I cannot help myself because this is really funny stuff. It shows how closely comedy and tragedy are intertwined and why late-nite monologues sometimes get replayed along with the Sunday political talking heads.

?'Birthing tourism' center in San Gabriel shut down
This snippet found by Gady Epstein documents a real story of "anchor babies." Those of us who would dismiss the term as just another misguided myth tossed around by the anti-immigrant crowd might become better informed that the phenomenon is not always the irrelevant argument we dismiss it to be. Just saying...

?Refugees fleeing Libya to Egypt denied humanitarian assistance
Egypt News Live linked this piece revealing a dark underside to the otherwise impressive support Egyptians are offering their Libyan neighbors.

In contrast with the Tunisian border, where humanitarian agencies are assisting refugees with the support of the local population, this group of refugees on the Egyptian border, which includes around 53 Eritrean adults and over 20 children aged between 6 months and ten years, are sleeping in the open with no access to tents or mattresses. Two days ago they were even denied food. +

Non-Arab refugees in Libya are regularly subject to racism, abuse and arbitrary imprisonment; however, with reports of African mercenaries fighting on the side of the government, there has been a sharp rise in harassment and violent attack.

More at the link. This is not the first or only time I have come across references to Arab racism.

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