Things I am Going to Miss About New York

I've left New York - only one week until I leave for Syria. Of course I already miss it: Specifically, I miss:

- anonymity on the street - this does not exist in Damascus, where I might as well wear a sign that says "FOREIGNER"

- PDAs - not exactly down with the culture in the Middle East

- Flight of the Conchords, Weeds, The Office

- free concerts all the time

- that I can see any movie on a big screen from mainstream to indie, the latest to something from 1936

- Baked (in Redhood)cakes and cookies

- everything that makes the red states cringe: on-demand abortions, abundant gays, and craploads of immigrants


- a city so liberal that Manhattan Mini Storage can put on a billboard "Your closet space is shrinking faster than her right to choose" with a picture of a coat hanger

- breakfast anytime, which means greek omlette anytime

- a variety of restaurants, from Indian to Ecuadorian

- biking daily through at least two, and often three boroughs

- the view from the Williamsburg bridge

- the view of all of Manhattan from my apartment in LIC

- bars with pool and kareoke

- all my lovely friends, of course

2006: Damascus: Mosque Party!

I had finally made it to Damascus after a fun journey. I was dropped off at al-Haramein hotel on Sharia Bahsa, got a room, threw my shit down, brushed my teeth, and took a long-overdue shower. Despite having not slept since the ferry the previous day, I felt envigorated and went out into Damascus.

It was immediately apparent that I was in Syria: pictures of Bashar al-Assad everywhere. Not just on giant billboards, but on the backs of cars and in store windows, like a mustachioed icon, a saint in sunglasses. Some back car windows even had the trinity of the current president, his late father the former president, and his late brother the former heir to the Republic (all in sunglasses naturally).






I followed the copied pages from the Lonely Planet Middle East and went to Suq al-Hamidiyya. Since it was Friday the street was pretty empty and most of the shops were closed. But the Ummayad Mosque was sure open!

There are seperate entrances for tourists and the faithful, the former needing to give up about a dollar in entrance fees and don a black abaya. Once inside, you can wander and photograph to your heart's content, as I did. It was after Friday prayers so it wasn't stuffed, but still had a bit of activity. The Ummayyad Mosque was a Roman temple to Jupiter turned into a Christian church under the Byzantine Empire then turned into a mosque under the Ummayyad Empire. It's very cool because vestiges of the mosque's previous incarnations are visibile: the structure. The mosaics looked Byzantine to me.

Just outside the mosque are the bones of the gosh darn bestest Muslim in the world (at least according to every Crusader): Salah ad-Din. Without much fanfare or signage, twin sarcophogi are lit up by green florescent lights. Salah ad-Din was buried in a wooden sarcophagus in 1193, but in 1893 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany donated a marble one. The body was never transferred so there remain the two.

Away from the Ummayyad mosque, I went to the Shi'i Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque, daughter of Hussein grandson of the Prophet. Built by Iran, Lonely Planet finds the mosque "quite alien, but very striking, Persian".Those with better standing to evaluate Persianity must judge. I once again was handed a temporary abaya (this time by a man, who also tried to help me secure it). Handing it back to him when leaving I discovered that he spoke English, and he discovered that I was an unsaved soul in need to proselytizing. "Meet me tomorrow. I will tell you all about Islam" he said, giving me a paper with his number. He was cute, and I wondered if he was trying to convert me, hit on me, or both.

I was mosqued out so I ate some falafel (delicious) and made for Azem Palace, residence of the wali (governor) of Damascus during the Ottoman Empire. I took a free tour in Arabic, of which I understood a surprisingly large amount (surprising to me). I even asked a couple of questions. The guide was very impressed, as many people are when a foreigner, especially an American, speaks Arabic. Sadly, the bar is set very low: I guess "Sabah al-gheer" is a welcome change from "EX-CUSE me, do YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? ENGLISH?", at least in Egypt. In Syria people were surprised that I was even in their country.

COMING UP: I explore the Christian Quarter which means Church Party!

Blackout Fun!

This looks fun!

Syria has had a summer of power failures and electricity shortages... The power failures have occurred in one of the warmest summers in recent memory. In Damascus, which has had daily blackouts lasting as long as five hours, the roar of gas generators is drowning out the city’s notoriously loud traffic. In some suburbs, the lights are on for only six hours a day.

Why is Syria, usually an energy exporter to Lebanon and Iraq, experiencing shortages? The government blames American and French sanctions. Government critics blame a lack of planning and incompetence. But everyone can agree that the two million Iraqi refugees are adding a strain. (NYT)

Douchebaggery! I hate the NY Post

This really should be no surprise as the New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the only man capable of being evil and a "Rupert" (it just sounds like such a friendly name). And though I don't read it, it looks fun when I see others on the subway leafing through - always so many puns! And how can you but feel warm fuzzies for a paper in which the article "AIDS-Bite Threat from 'Hooker,'" appeared today with the following: "A hefty hooker threw a hussy fit yesterday when she was collared for trying to pick up an undercover cop... threatening to bite him and give him AIDS"?

But it continues to harangue Debbie Almontaser, former principal of the upcoming dual-language English/Arabic school Khalil Gibran International Academy, as well as the school itself in both two news items and editorial column today (as if editorial and news are seperate at the Post). The new principal to replace Almontaser is a non-Arabic speaking Danielle Salzber, and as the name suggests she is indeed a Jew. "New Principal 'Chosen'" is the headline - get it, she's a Jew? Previously she worked at the nonprofit New Visions for Public Schools that is helping to fund the Academy and worked with Almontaser and the teachers to develop the curriculum, so this is no left-field pick as the Post suggests.

And then there's the column, "School Bad Idea Even Before Hebrew-haha" - get it, she's a Jew? - in which Andre Peyser calls the Jewish principal of an Arabic school "the worst joke ever to hit Brooklyn" before getting on with the business of assailing the very idea of the school: "Some bright combination of political correctness and insane guilt has determined that New York needs a public school catering to Arabs." "Using the public schools to segregate Muslim students seems antithetical to every societal ideal."

Peyser's head is so far up her own ass she doesn't even know that "Jew" and "Arab" are far from mutually exclusive identities (ask all the Mizrahim here in New York!) The school is not a "Muslim school" or for Arab students, nor a "potential hotbed of anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment". Have you ever worked in a public school in New York? The shit you say is monitored. I once wore a t-shirt that was a little out-of-line and had to wear a jacket over it the rest of the day. Furthermore, there are Spanish, French, Mandarin, Korean, Haitian Creole, and Russian dual-language programs and schools already in New York. Why not Arabic? The political affiliation of the columnist is not hard to discern (see: owner of paper) and I bet I could also guess her views on the "war on terror". How do these Islamophobes expect to gather intelligence for their favorite war when they oppose the teaching of Arabic?

Having half their classes in Arabic is no more going to turn students into radical Islamists than learning Russian will produce alcoholic communists or French smoking avant-garde existentialist filmmakers.

That's it - I won't talk about the Post again. It's just too maddening.

Principal Resigns After Explaining Meaning of Word

New York Department of Education is opening a small public Arabic secondary school that will eventually serve grades 6-12, Khalil Gibran International Academy. About half will have Arab heritage and half will not have any experience in Arabic or have Arab heritage - it will be the latest of several dual-language public schools in New York. The school's been generating some controversy since the beginning, with some claiming the school would promote radical Islam. Being a DOE school, a public school, they will presumably be teaching the same topics as other public schools, only in Arabic. It furthermore is not even an Islamic school (there are several private Islamic high schools in New York), but a regular ol' public secular school in Arabic. How is Arabic alone going to radicalize students? Apparently because Arabic words themselves are way too contentious:

The principal's stepped down because of the controversy over statements she made last week at a press conference. Debbie Almontaser was asked by The Post about the phrase "Intifada NYC," on T-shirts being sold by Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media, group that has no relation to the school. Her response was apparently the wrong one:

"The word basically means 'shaking off'. That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic. I understand it is developing a negative connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas. I don't believe the intention is to have any kind of that in New York City. I think it's pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society... and shaking off oppression."

Oh my god every body freak out! The Post certainly did, calling her the "Intifada Principal" in a headline. Somehow, this quote has morphed into "comments that seemed to support the violent Palestinian Arab uprising known as the intifada" (The Post). More from The Post:

The school hasn't even opened yet. But the hijab-wearing principal of a taxpayer-funded school founded especially for Arab students has issued a fatwa against the kids of New York. She said there is nothing wrong with intifada. And the principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy - scheduled to open next month less than two blocks from that hotbed of radical Muslim thought, Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue - argued about the definition of the word that has sent so many to their graves.

First of all, why was she even asked about some unrelated group's t-shirts? Her only association is that the group with these t-shirts is in the same building as the Saba Association of American Yemenis, of which Ms. Almostaser is part. And second, she didn't argue about the meaning of the word - she gave the actual meaning of the word. She even acknowledged the connotations of the word in the Israeli-Palestinian realm, but offered her thought (because she doesn't know for sure, not being part of the group that produced the t-shirt) that the shirt was probably invoking the meaning of intifada, not the Palestinian intifada. Really, there's no way she could have answered this question "right", short of ripping off her hijab and offering to join the IDF (notice the dig about the hijab and the incorrect information about the school being only for Arab students).

Congratulations! She's resigned.

2006: Cairo to Damascus by Bus Part II

I left off in Aqaba, Jordan about to board a 15-passenger van with a bunch of Palestinians and Ahmad, a half-Jordanian half-Indonesian. It was Thursday evening, a full day of traveling (and mostly waiting around in Nuweiba) after I left Cairo Wednesday night.

Third Leg: Aqaba to the Jordanian/Syrian Border: Across Jordan
Ahmad had taken a shine to me early on. He was the first one of that group to approach me waiting for the ferry in Nuweiba. He manuvered to sit next to me on the ferry and invited me to his sister's wedding and to stay with him in Amman. He would have liked to have been my protector during the crush to get on the ferry if not for Bilal's superior size and assertiveness. He did accept my decline of the wedding invitation the first couple times, and I had told them all I already had a boyfriend (not entirely true), but Ahmad was undaunted. "Get off with me in Amman" he said. "No, I want to go to Syria." Ok, he shrugged, and I thought the matter had been settled before we even set off.

Low on cash, I asked the driver if we could stop at an ATM in Amman so I could get my share (we had to stop in Amman for Ahman anyway). Sure, mafii mushkila, I was told. No problem. So we loaded into the van. Ahmad was out-manuevered, and had to sit up in front next to the driver, while I was in the second seat wedged between Bilal and another man. So as not to appear partial or raise any one's hopes, I simply sat in the back and let them work out the rest of the seating arrangement. Ahmad did not look happy up in front.

A half-hour into the journey, pitch-black now, we heard several thumps as the shit piled and tied onto the roof of the van slipped and fell onto the road. We pulled over and a couple guys ran back down the road to retrieve their shit. Everyone accounted for their possesions (my backpack had been in my lap). Some one was missing a suitcase. The driver put the car in reverse on the road, paying no mind as another car, going the correct, forward direction, swerved not to hit us, honking and cursing. We felt the car roll over something. It was the suitcase. It was added to the retied pile on the roof and we were on our way once again.

Apparently not exhausted earlier, the talk turned once again to dating, American style. They wanted to know what Americans did when they dated, how much boys and girls hung out, if they could really hang out and just be friends like some of them are in the movies. Sure, I said, aren't we all just friends? This drew laughter, and Bilal assured me he thought of me as his sister.

The questions continued. "You have a boyfriend?" "Do all Americans have sex with their boyfriends?" "Would you marry an Arab man?" "What do you think of Arab men?" "Would you marry a black man?" When I said, why not, I've dated black men, my answer was met with shock. "How could you be with a black man?"

Bilal was particulary emphatic on this point: "I could marry an American or European girl, but not a black one." Well buddy, that's your hangup. No one in Cairo had any trouble hitting on (or proposing) to Mariama, one of my supremely sexy roommates. Bilal much preferred my answer to "Do you drink alcohol?" I reminded them that I was Christian (that's a yes). "So do we! Do you smoke hash?" Sorry, shisha bas, but then I was then regaled with stories of their partying out in the desert with copious amounts of booze and hash. "Next time you're in Cairo, you should come with us!" Sure, why not?

During our conversations, we had also been listening to the driver's tapes. Songs we all knew elicited cheers, as did my ability to sing part of Nancy Ajram songs. Then the tape changed to Sami Youssef, a British Muslim who sings all relgious songs about Islam. The mood became much more somber. In one song, Sami sang in English, Arabic, Turkish, French. "That's because everyone should come to Islam. He's trying to reach everyone." The men started talking about their faiths (note: all Fatah supporters - Bilal even had a portrait of Yasser Arafat in a locket necklace) and asking me about mine. "You should cover up more. I don't mind the way you dress, but it's not what I say. It's what God says. He says women should wear hijab."

"Doesn't He also say you shouldn't drink?"

"Yanii, no one's a perfect Muslim."

Inside Amman, I heard Ahmad speaking with the driver (in Arabic naturally) about how I was to be let out with him. "No, I'm going to the border." I said in Arabic. Ahmad told me "No, it's okay" in English and then he reiterated to the driver how I was going to get off with him in Amman in Arabic. "No. I'm not going to Amman. I just need an ATM but I'm going to the border."

"Yes," Ahmad said in English, "don't worry. You will go to Syria." Then again, to the driver (who didn't speak English) about how I was going to get off with him in Amman. "Ana afhimak!" I yelled, I understand you! "wa iyeeza arouh lihudoud souriya. Mish liAmman!" The other guys started yelling back on my behalf, while Ahmad kept trying to reassure me in English, then talking to the driver in Arabic. The driver pulled over to a police officer. I was told to get out and talk to him.

"Miss, do you want to get down from the car in Amman?" He asked (in English). Ahman ran over and tried to talk to the police officer, who waved him away. "He says you want to get down in Amman?"

"No, I want to get down at the Syrian border." The officer told the driver, and we all got back in the van, Ahmad pouting. At his house he got out, asked if I was sure I didn't want to stay with him. Fucking definitely, buddy. So on we went to the border. Before we left Amman I kept asking to stop at an ATM, when I realized the driver didn't know what one is. I explained about the machines, from banks, you put in a card, they give you money. "mafii mushkila" he said. There's some near the border.

It was very late, so I dozed off on Bilal, who told me it was okay because I was his sister. We pulled up to the border past 4:30am. It was very desolate, unlike Lebanon-Syria. No dutyfree. The driver asked for my share of the cab money. Where's the ATM? He wouldn't let me leave the van's side, afraid I would run off without paying, so he held onto my backpack for collateral while I searched for cash. The border guards led me to the one bank, where they woke up a man sleeping inside, who got me a cash advance on my credit card. I ran back to the cab, paid, said goodbye and posed for pics with the guys, got my backpack, and proceeded to go through Jordanian customs.

Fourth Leg: Jordanian/Syrian Border to Damascus
The Syrian side of the border was a good kilometer or two away, and I had no transportation other than my feet. But the border officials decided to help me out, and had me wait outside with a guard. We chatted in Arabic, until he told me I was the most beautiful woman in the world and then I waited a little farther away form him. The officials coerced the next person crossing the border to take me to the Syrian side. "He will not charge you." So, hello strange man, thanks for letting me into your car.

This man was insane. The border officials introduced us, and then he told me to run! to the car. The officials had no reaction to his hustle, so I ran afterwards. He got in the car and tore off. We were going over 120 km on a badly maitained road. We got air on a bump and slammed down hard. The man only laughed in my direction likeisn't this fun? and kept going. He offered to take me into Damascus, but for a high price. Plus, I like living, and I don't know how long I would have lasted in that car. At Syrian immigration, he ran in. I walked.

This time, it was perfectly smooth, took only a few minutes. "Have you ever been to Israel?" The border official asked. No, I replied. "Why not?" He asked. "Ana bakrah Israel," I said, finally getting something out of that song. He laughed. I was in, but I didn't have a ride. I was told there would be a bus coming through at 8am I could join. It was almost 6am. Sounds good, so sat down and got out my copied pages from the Lonely Planet and few tourist brochures there at the border and set about making an itinery.

I wasn't waiting long when a man came up to me. "You need a ride?" I assured him I was fine, I was just waiting for the bus. He asked me several times. "Look, my family is outside, you can come with us." So okay, I walked out to his car, where his wife, son, and their every earthly possession were loaded into a car. There didn't seem to be any place to sit, but he insisted, so his wife and I shared the front seat. She was young, maybe a few years older than I and massively pregnant. His 15-year-son from his first marriage (wife dead) sat in the back. They were moving from Saudi Arabia back to Syria. The wife and I moved so that she sat on my lap, more room for her belly, but she still didn't look happy about her husband's generosity. I told her I could just talk the bus, no problem, but she insisted now too. Damn that Arab hospitality - can't refuse tea or a free ride with a pregnant lady on your lap.

We stopped at their place South of Damascus, and I helped unload their stuff from the car. There was a marital spat that I really hope was from the stress of such a long roadtrip and not the passenger they had picked up on the last stretch. He ran down to the car, told me it was only her moods from the pregnancy, and drove me into Damascus. He wanted to know all about my travels and studies, so we talked. In Damascus, he accidently ended up in the old city and almost hit a man on a bike. He asked if I was hungry, and I said no, so he stopped in the middle of traffic to run out and grab some zataar for me.

Finally, we pulled up in front of al-Haramayn, the backpacker's staple. "Ahlan wasahlan!" he said, and took off again. It was 10am Friday morning - I had left Cairo Wednesday night - but I had finally made it.

1936 Travelogue to Damascus and Jerusalem

Sometimes youtube spits up pure brilliance:

Damascus and Jerusalem in a 1936 travelogue. Syria was under French mandate, and Jerusalem was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. 1936 is in fact the beginning of the Arab revolt in Palestine, which lasted until 1939. But the haughty superiorior expressed by the narrator, the mangling of foreign words, calling Islam "Mohammadan" - this is truly a gem. The narrator is particularly keen on emphasizing the dirtiness and lack of progress of Damascus:

"Cheap soap, but from the appearance of the people there is little demand for it." Men are described as wearing "headdressed which remind us of Biblical characters." At a bakery, we are reminded "no, the baker's not wearing gloves."

How Orientalist can you get?

2006: Cairo to Damascus by Bus Part I

Near the end of my semester at AUC in May 2006, I knew I still wanted to go to Syria, despite failing horribly on the first attempt. Nothing would keep me out. I decided to play it safe and get a visa beforehand the only way possible: mailing my visa to the Syrian embassy in Washington DC. For three anxious weeks I waited for my passport, which finally came back on the last Monday of classes. I moved my ticket home back two weeks. I spent Tuesday packing up all my shit (a suitcase, three shishas, a duffle bag, and various other shit stuffed into plastic bags and boxes that wouldn't fit) leaving myself only the essentials what would fit in a backpack. All my other shit was supposed to go in my friend Alex's apartment until I got back two weeks later.

Wednesday I bought my bus ticket to Nuweiba in the morning. In the afternoon I found out that Alex would still be in Sharm al-Shaykh with his girlfriend Joanna when I got back, thus I wouldn't be able to retrieve my shit before going to America. I called everyone I knew with an apartment in Cairo, but everyone was giving up their places to go home or travel. Shit. With darkness and the time of bus departure approaching, I ran down to the bowab (doorman). He didn't speak any English, so I had to make use of the Arabic I was supposed to be learning for 5 months. "I have a big problem. I need to put my stuff somewhere while I'm in Syria," I explained. He took me to an abandoned apartment in complete disrepair on the 8th floor (I lived on the 10th). We moved all my shit into a corner of the room and put a tarp over it. "Is that really going to be safe? For two weeks?" He assured me it was. Everything I had was there: my clothes, my souvenirs, my laptop and associated electronics. I offered to pay him to watch it. "No no no no" he told me. He'd watch it for me. So jumped in a taxi with my backpack, with only a few copied pages from Shadee's Lonely Planet: Middle East to guide me.

First Leg: Cairo to Nuweiba - Across the Sinai
At the bus station I struck up a conversation with a young muhagaba, complete with face niqab and gloves on her hands. She wondered how I could travel so far by myself, wished me luck and good health.

An hour outside of Cairo the bus broke down. We all piled outside, waiting in the sand by the side of the road. An hour later a new bus pulled up and we were off once again! During the wait I struck up conversation with an Iraqi man who was studying in Cairo, family in Amman. They had fled Falluja. We quickly got over that awkward "yeah, sorry about that war that forced you from your home and all." On the new bus he sat next to me and kept me entertained with video clips on his phone and we talked about various stuff. At some point I fell asleep. Thursday morning we rolled into Taba, my next destination point of Aqaba clearly visible past the sliver of Israel (Eilat) in between the two Arab nations. But I wanted to get into Syria, which meant as little Israel as possible - none. So the bus swung south to Nuweiba where there's a ferry to Aqaba. It was early, about 8am.

Second Leg: Nuweiba to Aqaba - Across the Gulf of Aqaba
The ferry leaves once a day to Aqaba. I wanted to buy a ticket but found out that I didn't have enough money. With buses, my residence visa got me the Egyptian rate, but it didn't work on the ferry. I wandered off to find a bank, waiting quite a bit for them to open. While waiting, I saw a lone camel walking down the road, no sign of an owner in sight.

After changing some money I had enough for the ferry. I fought the line and went into the large shaded waiting area, where I soon attracted the attention of a group of about 14 Palestinian guys and one half-Jordanian, half-Indonesian who went to school in Cairo. We started talked in half Arabic and half English. Bilal, tall and muscular, enjoyed talking to me, shutting out Ahmad, the half-Jordanian, half-Indonesian who had approached me originally. We waited for hours so we all had a lot of time to talk. We talked about the occupation, about Bilal's older brother shot dead by IDF during the intifada, about Cairo, about religion, about relations between men and women.

"You see," said Bilal, "if you were my wife, I wouldn't want you to go outside wearting that." That was big tied pants that reached mid-calf showing off my lower unshaved leg, a big t-shirt, and my short hair tucked under a baseball cap. Sexy. "Other men would look at you."

I replied, "If you were my husband, I wouldn't want you to wear that." I said about the tight t-shirt he wore, which showed off his well-defined upper body. It was, um, not bad looking. "Other women would look at you."

"It's different!" he replied. "No it isn't." I said.

Finally we could board the ferry. It was massive, but the crush of people rushing toward the small door out onto the dock was more massive. The Palestinian boys took it upon themselve to protect me, which was mutually beneficial. The boys protected me from the mass of men trying to board (I found out later there was a seperate entrance for women and families), and my presence in the group moved us all up quicker, as the ferry employees noticed the white, foreign woman and let her and her friends through.

We sat for forever and waiting for the ferry to fill. It took hours. We waited for the ferry to leave the dock. It took hours. It was a horrible purgatory, alleviated little by the conversation. Ahmad told me about his sister's wedding tomorrow in Amman and invited me along. Sorry, nothing was going to sway me from my mission: Syria. Besides, I imagined an awkward scene if Ahmad rolled into his sister's wedding with a random American whore (and we all are whores). Plus I had nothing nice to wear. Despite Bilal's insistance that my outfit made me quite the temptress, in truth I looked like just a grungy backpacker. At some point I dropped off. Ahmad woke me up once we docked in Aqaba, with the long shadows of afternoon. We waited to get off the ferry. We waited to get our visas. There was no ATM, and I had little money after the unfavorable exchange rate from Egyptian guinee to Jordanian dinars. It was sunset by the time I got off the dock to ground transportation.

"Ya Aneet! Habibi! Come with us!" yelled the Palestinian men by a 15-passenger van. "I was going to get on a bus..." I said. "Don't you guys have to go Palestine?" "The border's closed until tomorrow. Ahmad's going to Amman and then we'll take you all the way to the Syrian border." Well, fine then. So onto a van in Jordan with 15 young men at night...

Stalling...?

Who is really itchn' for peace? This past weekend Palestinians Say Olmert and Abbas Are Set to Meet (NYT) in Jericho soon. What are they going to talk about? Well, like fall peace conference idea, it's a bit vague, and all parties are saying stating different purposes for the meeting:

An Abbas aide, Nabil Amr, said the leaders must be ready to hold “political” talks that included so-called final status issues for the creation of a Palestinian state, including borders...But an Israeli government official said that Israel was prepared to “mention larger issues in the realm of the future,” but would not negotiate on these issues at such meetings.

This meeting might be another gesture to bolster Abbas/Fatah against Hamas, and might indeed be nothing more than a gesture. The moderate peacenik foreign minister, Tzipi Livni suggests that both sides focus on the "widest common demoninator," presumably instead of Hard Issues. Prime Minister Olmert has floated a "declaration of principles" between the govs. Ooh, can I make some suggestions? How about an accord stating the respective governments' dislike of dead children? Or perhaps their shared admiration of hummus? And people of both sides must also be in agreement that Lindsay Lohan needs to pull her shit together. This is just a start, of course.

Delays benefit the Israeli side more than the Palestinian. The Hard Issues were left off the table in exchange for photo-ops throughout the 90s Oslo peace process, and in the meantime? More Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Stalling benefits the more powerful side, which can continue to shape the status quo to a position it's willing to negotiate from. And it is hardly radical to say that Israel is the massively more powerful party here.

Speaking of settlements, sounds like there was quite a show in Hebron this morning: Israel Removes Settlers in West Bank. No, not all of them, just a bunch of truly gung-hos who had illegaly (according to Israeli courts) set up in the center of Hebron. The "well-advertised confrontation" could be, and is intended to be a sign of the Israeli government cracking down on unruly settlers. But NYT sees some other intended messages behind the show:

In contrast to the way the Israeli army operates quiet arrests of Palestinians at night in the cities of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli government gave the settlers significant notice. A relatively fierce confrontation served both the settlers and the government, creating heroes among the settlers and allowing the government to show to the world that dismantling the nearly 80,000 settlers who live beyond the separation barrier will not be an easy task.

Syria FAQs

When I tell people I'm going to Syria, I usually get some questions:

Aren't you scared?
No. If I was scared I don't think I would have gone through all this effort. But I like the supposition that I should be scared. I am, however, somewhat nervous, as is natural with any big transition: going off to college, moving to a new city, beginning a new job.

Is it safe?
Yes. One of the upsides about a dictorial regime is very little street crime. It was the same situation in Cairo. Sucks to be a political dissident, but little worry about getting stabbed.

Is that near Iraq?
Yes. But it is not Iraq itself.

Will you have to wear a burka/"one of those Muslim hair things"?
No. Not in Syria, nor in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, UAE, the Palestinian occupied territories, Tunisia, and elsewhere. Just because hijab is the law in Iran and Saudi Arabia doesn't mean it is for every Arab or Muslim country. Syria also has a secular government. I'm not going to get shit for walking around uncovered - all the Christian girls do.

There's Christians in Syria?
Yes.

Really?
Totally.

Are Americans allowed to go there?
That's a definite yes. In fact, Americans are even allowed to go there with other American taxpayers footing the bill (thanks dudes!).

Don't they hate Americans?
No. A lot of people don't like our president, the war in Iraq, or our long- and short-term foreign policy, but they don't hate Americans. Traveling alone, I found that people were surprised I was an American and very, almost overly, welcoming. Their stereotype of us is that we are scared and uninformed about the outside world, so they were impressed that I a)was in Syria and b)knew the name of their president. A few people asked me questions about how on earth could we have voted for Bush again in 2004, but I too have asked this question nearly every day since. Not one single person the entire time reacted negatively towards me because of my nationality. And why should they? Syrians understand that governments do shit people don't agree with all the time.

One Month!

In exactly one month I will be getting on a plane to go to Syria! I won't actually arrive in Syria until the next day, but still. I gotta get some shit done first.

Taking Sides for Peace

After years of a half-hearted "Quartet" Road Map, Bush is gearing up for the Peace Conference to End All Peace Conferences. With Iraq, um, as it is, his only hope to have something not disastrous is this new Fall Peace Conference. The Administration is pulling out all stops on this one - Rice has been meeting up a storm with government officials. There's talk that Syria may even be invited (even Syria!).

All of these diplomatic machinations (like the recent Israeli freeing of Palestinian prisoners and a promised $80 million for Abbas's security forces) are attempts to bolster Abbas and the Fatah-West Bank against Hamas in Gaza. In other words, Hamas should not be expecting an invitation to the conference, despite the fact that Hamas is part of the elected and legitimate Palestinian government. When Israel includes Yisrael Beitenu in its majority coalition, a party that believes even Israeli Palestinians (Israeli Arabs) should be kicked out, that sort of extremism is alright, but God forbid an Islamist party is included in the Palestinian government. The U.S, E.U, and Israeli policy of shunning was certainly a success in any case...

But now that Hamas and Fatah have been conveniently seperated, we can lend our support to one faction against the other. No matter Fatah's horrible corruption- Hamas won legislative elections in 2006 partly because many voted "against Fatah" rather than "for Hamas". The corruption was so bad that it was cheaper to buy goods off the Israeli settlements in Gaza (obviously before their dismantling) than from the marketplace after all the bribes to Palestinian Authority officials (basically Fatah). So Fatah is crap in the eyes of many Palestinians (as is Hamas in the eyes of many others), but Fatah does not wave the green flag so the U.S. supports them wholeheartedly.

But is there a chance that this proposed peace conference will actually achieve anything? There are some hints that it might. Today Saudi Arabia indicated it might take part: Saudi Arabia Says it May Meet Israel. Saudi Arabia put forth their own peace proposal, endorsed by the Arab League, and negotiated the Mecca agreement between Fatah and Hamas, so they are no stranger to the issue. Saudi Arabia says they will only attend the conference if it tackles the big "final status" issues:

the fate of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced to flee their homes in Israel, mostly before or during the 1948 war; the status of Jerusalem; the borders of a Palestinian state; and the dismantlement of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Thus they might actually work on the hard issues, the ones that everyone knows needs to be addressed but are much easier to leave aside (see: Oslo) and then bite everyone in the ass later (see: everything after Oslo).

Then again, maybe not. The Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni (about whom there was a massive article in the Times Magazine - sorry it's Times Select so get registered with your .edu address for free already!) responded by saying that sometimes "it's not wise to put the most sensitive issues out first." So what instead? Leave any issue of subtance off the table and have a pretty photo op rather than a serious attempt at solving issues? Livni, by the way, protested back in 1979 against peace with Egypt. She felt Sinai (Sinai!) was part of greater Israel. It'll be interesting to see how she feels about giving up "Judea and Samarra" now.