West Bank Hamas

Omran Risheq addresses and important question: what is Hamas up to in the West Bank?

"Sources inside Hamas say that the movement has frozen its activities, in line with a 1989 strategy delineating how the movement should handle crises. Hamas followed this course in 1992, for example, when Israel exiled 416 activists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad to southern Lebanon following the kidnapping and murder of Israeli border patrol soldier Nassim Tolidano. Hamas is not ready, according to one of its leaders, to mobilize supporters behind a coherent course of action for fear of exposing them to arrest by the PA or Israel. Hamas also is reluctant to cause its followers to lose their jobs, given that 1200 of them have already been laid off from government jobs in the West Bank.

"This damage control strategy is due partly to Hamas’s belief that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas—unlike his predecessor Yasser Arafat--would not hesitate to destroy the group if it became too much of a nuisance to him. Arafat, on the other hand, was more careful in his dealings with Hamas for two reasons: he feared being seen as an agent of the Israeli occupation if he confronted Hamas forcefully; and he used Hamas as a card to boost his negotiating position with Israel, portraying himself as the only one capable of containing the group.

"Hamas has also gone to ground on the West Bank because it is convinced that the current situation will eventually redound to its benefit, especially given Abbas's inability to begin serious peace talks with Israel. U.S. President Barack Obama's failure to exercise pressure on Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank has left Abbas in despair, leading him to announce that he will not run for reelection in the upcoming presidential elections."

Brotherhood Watching

Ibrahim al-Houdaiby's excellent overview of the challenges facing the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood reminds me of this session at this month's MESA meeting:

"It has been forty years since the publication of Richard P. Mitchell’s The Society of the Muslim Brothers, the seminal study of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and a groundbreaking work on modern Islamic movements. While commenting on Mitchell’s contributions to the field, this panel will also explore more recent studies of the Muslim Brotherhood. Panelists will pick up where Mitchell’s study leaves off, examining the movement from the 1950s to the present. Though Mitchell concludes with what appears to be the final blow to the organization in post-revolutionary Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood survived the period of repression in Gamal Abdel Nasser’s prisons. The first paper will describe the means by which the group’s leadership were not only able to communicate within the confines of prison networks, but also refine their message in keeping with the intellectual developments of the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by the ideas of figures such as Sayyed Qutb and Hasan al-Hudaybi, the Muslim Brotherhood transformed its discourse in the face of new challenges. The second paper will explore the framing mechanisms employed in the Muslim Brotherhood’s literature following their release from prison and reconstitution in the 1970s. This period saw a reimagining of the recent past and a fresh outlook toward the future of Islamic activism. The third paper will focus on the concepts of 'auto-critique' and 'auto-reform' within the Muslim Brotherhood, dating back to the mid-1990s. Among the many questions to which these practices relate is the contemporary understanding of the early Muslim Brotherhood and the legacy of its founder, Hasan al-Banna. An interesting contrast emerges between Mitchell’s documentation of this figure and recent framings by the organization’s leaders. Finally, the fourth paper will examine the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in the 2005 parliamentary elections, where it made surprising gains and its subsequent release of a party platform, sparking widespread debates over the future of the movement. From the organization examined by Mitchell, which attempted to negotiate a prominent role for itself in the age of liberal Egyptian politics, to the most recent election of the largest Brotherhood contingent in the movement’s history, the discussion comes full circle. In addition to owing much of their insights to Mitchell’s contribution four decades earlier, all of these papers have advanced the study of the Islamic movements generally and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in particular."

The presenters of the papers, in order, are Barbara H.E. Zollner, Abdullah al-Arian, and Carrie Rosefsky Wickham. Unfortunately the fourth paper, on the 2005 elections, seems to have been withdrawn. This session is high on the list of those I'm interested in attending, as the lack of a current history of the Arab world's most influential Islamist organization is a travesty.

Watching Yemen

I feel like I should be trying to learn more about this:

"Lambasting the dubious role being played by Iran in the stand-off between government forces and Al Houthi rebels in Yemen, Saudi analysts accused Iran of breeding ‘Al Houthi Hezbollah' in order to create a security headache for the kingdom.

"Dr Ali Al Atiyyah, a political analyst, said Al Houthi rebels are simply tools in the hands of a big player."

In the Christian Science Monitor, Laura Kasinof reports on another angle:

"While domestic insurgencies chip away at the control of Yemen's central government and an Al Qaeda branch gains strength in regions beyond the government's reach, another crisis — one that affects Yemen's entire population — has the potential to contribute to the country's instability and potential trajectory toward failure.

"Yemen is running out of water – fast.

"But the water crisis and the rise of militancy are not unrelated perils said Abdulrahman Al Eryani, Yemen's minister of Water and Environment, in an interview. Much of the country's rising militancy, he argues, is a conflict over resources.

"'They manifest themselves in very different ways: tribal conflicts, sectarian conflicts, political conflicts. Really they are all about sharing and participating in the resources of the country, either oil, or water and land,' said Minister Eryani. 'Some researchers from Sanaa University had very alarming figures. They said that between 70-80 percent of all rural conflicts in Yemen are related to water.'

"Khalid Al-Thour, a geology professor at Sanaa University, adds that recent reports have indicated that Sanaa's wells will run dry by 2015 at current water-usage rates."

Tenured Radical's Academic Job Search Advice

Last year, Tenured Radical did a series of posts on the academic job search. I've referred people to these, and been asked where they are, but putting them all together is a pain, and the relevant tag is slowly getting dated, so I've decided to do so just once in a post here which can then be forwarded to people. Without further ado:

Another Year, Another Job Market: When Not Perfecting Your Tan This Summer, How Can You Prepare?

What Do You Do, Dear? The Radical Announces a Series of Posts on the Upcoming Job Season (The real beginning of the series, with advice for search chairs)

Tell Me What You Want -- What You Really, Really, Want: Writing and Placing the Job Advertisement

Dream A Little Dream Of Me: Six Easy Steps to Writing a Great Job Letter

Jumping the Tracks: Applying for a Job When You Already Have One

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe*: Or, How to Evaluate the Candidate Pool

Receiving the Call: What To Do When Scheduling A Conference Interview

How To Succeed At Your AHA Interview Without Really Trying: Looking Smart

Grand Hotel: The AHA Conference Interview Redux

Advanced Interviewing; or, My Favorite Martian

If At First You Don't Succeed: Getting A Visiting or Adjunct Teaching Gig -- And Do You Really Want One? (Not part of the series, but it seems to fit here)

More advice is, of course, being posted across the academic blogosphere all the time.

Egyptian Fish Farms

Inter Press Service reports on the growth of fish farming in Egypt:

"Egypt has built the largest aquaculture industry in Africa, accounting for four out of every five fish farmed on the continent. Egyptian fish farms produced over 650,000 tons of finfish last year, or about 60 percent of the country's total freshwater and marine fish production, providing a cheap source of protein for the country's 80 million people...

"Commercial fish farming in Egypt began in the 1960s with mullet-rearing pens in coastal lakes and lagoons. The industry has witnessed explosive growth over the past decade. Total aquaculture production has grown by 500 percent since 1998 due to a shift to intensive rearing methods and faster growing species such as tilapia...

"Integrated aquaculture currently accounts for a small fraction of Egypt's total fish farm production, but its share is expected to grow quickly. Fathy sees enormous potential for the technique to increase the food productivity of vast tracts of reclaimed desert land."

Egypt has been pushing fishing for awhile, and it is the largest fish producer in the Middle East as well as Africa. The biggest fish stock is actually found, not near the Mediterranean, but in Lake Nasser.

Purim in Jerusalem

Purim is sometimes called the Israeli Halloween because people wear costumes and get food baskets. As this picture shows, you can also buy balloons.

The Biggest Crime

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i has upped his rhetoric a tad about the dispute over June's election:

"Iran' s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has described questioning the country's disputed June 12 presidential vote as the 'biggest crime.'

"Khamenei's comments, reported in Iranian media, appear to be his strongest warning yet to opposition leaders such as Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi, who have on a number of occasions said that the vote was massively rigged in favor of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

"The comments could also be intended to create fear within the opposition movement, which is preparing to return to the streets for a mass protest on November 4."

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Hijab Not Mandatory

Kuwait's highest court has ruled that female MP's do not have to wear headscarves:

"The Constitutional Court dismissed a case raised by a voter who claimed that two of four women elected to parliament in May--Rola Dashti and Aseel Al Awadhi--can not be members of the legislature because they do not comply with the Islamic dress code...

"Kuwait's parliament approved a suffrage bill in 2005 but fundamentalists added an obscure last-minute article saying women have to abide by the rules of Sharia, or Islamic law, when they exercise their political rights...

"The court ruled the election law article was neither well-defined nor 'specific' to the dress code, and stressed that the country's 1962 constitution guarantees personal freedoms and freedom of religion."

There was some uncertainty as to what the provision requiring women to follow shari'a actually meant. Apparently, however, it means nothing.

Abu Mazen and Reelection

Marc Lynch muses on the implications of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stepping down, but he doubts it will happen:

"There's quite a bit of buzz around Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's reported threat to not stand for elections in January unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to a settlement freeze. He's reportedly furious about the criticism he received over the Goldstone report fiasco, and despondent about Israel's approach to the Palestinian issue. It isn't likely that the threat will be taken especially seriously -- he's made such threats before without following through, he's most likely trying to recoup some domestic standing and to put some pressure on Netanyahu, and Palestinian and Arab leaders generally don't do this sort of thing. It's receiving only minimal coverage thus far in the Arab press."

I agree the most likely explanation is that this is just grandstanding, but it's worth keeping in mind that Abbas did resign as prime minister in 2003 due to similar frustrations, and in this case he'd still be the head of Fatah and an important power behind the scenes.

Blogger Election Monitors

Bahrain's 2010 parliamentary elections will be monitored by bloggers:

"Bloggers in Bahrain will create a network to monitor the parliamentary and municipal elections next year, a human rights watchdog said.

"'The group of bloggers will produce news and statements about the elections and will post pictures and video clips from the day when candidates submit their papers to the announcement of the final results,' said Menashi Cohen, deputy secretary general of Bahrain Human Rights Society.

"'The bloggers will be from the society. It will be our contribution to higher levels of transparency and to the success of the elections,' he said. The blogs will be a reflection of the reality on the ground without any political bias, Cohen said."

Back Soon

First I was busy, then I was sick. I should be back with substantive posting soon, though, perhaps even tonight!

Aluf Benn and Reality

Aluf Benn must be living in an alternate universe:

"Operation Cast Lead in Gaza was perceived in Israel as a shining victory. Rocket fire from Gaza was brought to a halt almost completely. The Israel Defense Forces emerged from its failure during the Second Lebanon War and deployed ground forces with few casualties. 'The world' let the operation continue and did not impose a cease-fire. A wonderful war.

"Ten months later, it seems the victory was a Pyrrhic one. Israel did not realize that the rules have changed with Barack Obama's election as U.S. president. Prime minister Ehud Olmert timed Cast Lead to take place during the twilight period between the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations, and rightly assumed that the incumbent, George W. Bush, would fully back Israel. However, in contrast to the Lebanon war of 2006, which ended with a cease-fire, the Gaza campaign continues being fought - in the diplomatic arena and in public opinion - and Israel must cope with its consequences in a less-friendly Obama era."

The context for this is the Goldstone Report, which Benn argues Obama is using, in some nebulous fashion, to punish Israel. Meanwhile, in the reality I inhabit, the U.S. worked to block the report, and, about the same time, withdrew from the Anatolian Eagle military exercises after Turkey excluded Israel. Rhetoric might have changed slightly, but the Obama administration has shown no teeth of any kind toward the Netanyahu government and Israel's settlement policy, which is the real problem.

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Rafsanjani on Ahmadinejad

Rafsanjani is definitely no longer part of the opposition in Iran:

"Head of the Expediency Council, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, said he was a firm believer in the legitimacy of the new Ahmadinejad administration.

"'Since the inauguration of the 10th administration, I believe in its legitimacy. Presently Mr. [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad attends the Expediency Council meetings as president, with invitations signed by myself,' Rafsanjani said in a meeting with Iranian political figures in favor of the national unity plan."

(Crossposted to American Footprints)

Turkey and Armenia

In the "wait until next year" camp for the Nobel Peace Prize, Turkey and Armenia have signed the official agreement normalizing their relations:

"Turkey and Armenia have signed a landmark accord to normalize diplomatic ties and end a century of acrimony between the two nations.

"The foreign ministers of both countries signed the accord at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. The deal, which calls for the border to be reopened within two months, follows six weeks of negotiations mediated by Switzerland...

"Now signed by Turkey's Ahmet Davutoglu and Armenia's Eduard Nalbandian, the accord must still be approved by both countries' parliaments.

"But a long-standing dispute between Turkey's ally Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh clouds reconciliation efforts."

And yes, I'm being unfair with my opening snark, as the nominations deadline was February 1, and these peace moves only got really serious after that.

Sea Stacks of Reynisdrangur

These are the Sea Stacks of Reynisdrangur, off the south coast of Iceland near the village of Vik.