There is little to say. There is little hope that rationality will have any effect. The bases (pardon the pun) are loaded and the Israelis have a green light to pursue their need for security AND to continue their colonization of Arab land. The Palestinians are even losing their Christian minority, not that it ever carried much favor with literalist Biblical America. Israel is also emboldened as Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon are Balkanized. Egypt is ruled by a puppet Pharaoh and Russia is well prepared to create trouble for the US in Syria and by encouraging Turkey to weaken the Kurds. It weakens NATO.
Of course Abdullah is concerned. His great grandfather fell foul of making peace with Israel. The US has its sights on Iran and that is probably enough to hold any opposition to the steamroller.
What a sad state. US power in the region determined by an ill educated President, an immature Jewish property speculator and a Zionist, fundamentalist Vice President.
I consider the price we are about to pay is much more than the loss of a Jordanian King.
Just another fall out of WWI, the gift that keeps on giving...
Regarding Saudi Arabia, Prof. Juan Cole of Informed Comment says of their decision to move away from oil, "It has been a great party since the 1940s; it is going to be a hell of a hangover."
My own thoughts are that the version of Islam the Saudis have promoted abroad has been at the root of much of the terrorist mess we have endured over the past few years. That such a regime which panders to a bunch of retrogressive and viscous men, regards others as less than decent, educates children to hate Jews, and turns a blind eye to the wickedness at home...such a regime deserves to founder and the profligate who have benefited, to be punished.
Having lived in Dammam, Saudi Arabia for five years in the early seventies, I can see that social progress is fitful, if that. Since my sojurn, mixed bathing has been banned at the Aramco camp which also boasts the only public cinema in the Eastern Province.
When there, my wife was not allowed to drive, nor to use the Aramco worker's bus. She had done until the Committee for the Condemnation of Vice and the Commendation of Virtue so ruled. It was a mild problem, avoiding isolation and getting her safely to the western facilities...
But Arabia is a complex society. Public morality is policed by the muttaween. The ruling family recognize their debt to their Salafi support which is locally called Wahabbism, but many educated, sophisticated Arabs pay lip service to the impositions and live private, decent lives according to their own lights.
Although it was unacceptable for women to work in shops, for example, there were many situations in conservative Dammam where women were the brains of a retail enterprise and their husbands merely helpers. In the Hejaz, social mores were more "advanced."
Driving is impractical if you are wearing a veil. Women do drive in Dubai and the UAE, but wear burka instead, affording better vision.
Big social change may happen, quite suddenly, in time, but one can see the conservative strategy in the economic alliance the Saudis are promoting with China. More comfortable for them to be associated with a authoritarian society than with faulty democracy.
It is a complicated issue. Easy to criticize from outside, but with the society developed from nomadic, tribal alliances from only seventy years ago, the issue is how to affect change without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Oh goodie...maybe we can look forward to "use" rather than the portentous "utilize" and simple nouns such as "peace" rather than nonaligned adverbs such as "peacefulness." much better!
Thank you, Prof. Soysal for underlining the diversity of people that are making up this protest. In my time in the Middle East, I became aware when meeting people of their not wishing to identify their ethnicity as they wished to be listened to as a human being without filters and prejudices being applied to view through some particular political stance.
That filter is what we all do as a matter of expediency and Mr Erdogan is no exception, except he is the Prime Minister. These events seem very healthy and hopeful for the future. Would that they were repeated in other countries, including my own.
Ladies from my parish in the diocese of San Francisco, recently voted the Episcopal church not to support Palestinian issues despite the obvious injustices, the church's support of ecology, and Bishop Riah's pleas for help. The Israeli publicity system is very effective.
That Iran would want nuclear weapons is understandable as is that Israel would want to disrupt that development. Killing a few scientists is not enough per se, but it does heat up the mix and increase the probability of war with America, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UK. The actual issue of nukes is moot. No state would resort unless in extremis. The unlikely solution is disarmament. Unlikely because the nuclear powers will probably clutch their weapons close as a non-nuclear Armageddon of global climate change assaults us. But, for now, in the short term it is enough to destabilize the situation. Let loose the dogs of war.
There is little to say. There is little hope that rationality will have any effect. The bases (pardon the pun) are loaded and the Israelis have a green light to pursue their need for security AND to continue their colonization of Arab land. The Palestinians are even losing their Christian minority, not that it ever carried much favor with literalist Biblical America. Israel is also emboldened as Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon are Balkanized. Egypt is ruled by a puppet Pharaoh and Russia is well prepared to create trouble for the US in Syria and by encouraging Turkey to weaken the Kurds. It weakens NATO.
Of course Abdullah is concerned. His great grandfather fell foul of making peace with Israel. The US has its sights on Iran and that is probably enough to hold any opposition to the steamroller.
What a sad state. US power in the region determined by an ill educated President, an immature Jewish property speculator and a Zionist, fundamentalist Vice President.
I consider the price we are about to pay is much more than the loss of a Jordanian King.
Just another fall out of WWI, the gift that keeps on giving...
Regarding Saudi Arabia, Prof. Juan Cole of Informed Comment says of their decision to move away from oil, "It has been a great party since the 1940s; it is going to be a hell of a hangover."
My own thoughts are that the version of Islam the Saudis have promoted abroad has been at the root of much of the terrorist mess we have endured over the past few years. That such a regime which panders to a bunch of retrogressive and viscous men, regards others as less than decent, educates children to hate Jews, and turns a blind eye to the wickedness at home...such a regime deserves to founder and the profligate who have benefited, to be punished.
Having lived in Dammam, Saudi Arabia for five years in the early seventies, I can see that social progress is fitful, if that. Since my sojurn, mixed bathing has been banned at the Aramco camp which also boasts the only public cinema in the Eastern Province.
When there, my wife was not allowed to drive, nor to use the Aramco worker's bus. She had done until the Committee for the Condemnation of Vice and the Commendation of Virtue so ruled. It was a mild problem, avoiding isolation and getting her safely to the western facilities...
But Arabia is a complex society. Public morality is policed by the muttaween. The ruling family recognize their debt to their Salafi support which is locally called Wahabbism, but many educated, sophisticated Arabs pay lip service to the impositions and live private, decent lives according to their own lights.
Although it was unacceptable for women to work in shops, for example, there were many situations in conservative Dammam where women were the brains of a retail enterprise and their husbands merely helpers. In the Hejaz, social mores were more "advanced."
Driving is impractical if you are wearing a veil. Women do drive in Dubai and the UAE, but wear burka instead, affording better vision.
Big social change may happen, quite suddenly, in time, but one can see the conservative strategy in the economic alliance the Saudis are promoting with China. More comfortable for them to be associated with a authoritarian society than with faulty democracy.
It is a complicated issue. Easy to criticize from outside, but with the society developed from nomadic, tribal alliances from only seventy years ago, the issue is how to affect change without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Oh goodie...maybe we can look forward to "use" rather than the portentous "utilize" and simple nouns such as "peace" rather than nonaligned adverbs such as "peacefulness." much better!
Magic!!! What a voice!
Thank you, Prof. Soysal for underlining the diversity of people that are making up this protest. In my time in the Middle East, I became aware when meeting people of their not wishing to identify their ethnicity as they wished to be listened to as a human being without filters and prejudices being applied to view through some particular political stance.
That filter is what we all do as a matter of expediency and Mr Erdogan is no exception, except he is the Prime Minister. These events seem very healthy and hopeful for the future. Would that they were repeated in other countries, including my own.
Ladies from my parish in the diocese of San Francisco, recently voted the Episcopal church not to support Palestinian issues despite the obvious injustices, the church's support of ecology, and Bishop Riah's pleas for help. The Israeli publicity system is very effective.
That Iran would want nuclear weapons is understandable as is that Israel would want to disrupt that development. Killing a few scientists is not enough per se, but it does heat up the mix and increase the probability of war with America, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UK. The actual issue of nukes is moot. No state would resort unless in extremis. The unlikely solution is disarmament. Unlikely because the nuclear powers will probably clutch their weapons close as a non-nuclear Armageddon of global climate change assaults us. But, for now, in the short term it is enough to destabilize the situation. Let loose the dogs of war.