Wednesday, May 19, 2010

OneMidEast.Org: The mighty deliberations of Syria's intellectual and blogging elite

Did you just feel the earth shake?

No?

The world wide web now has another website dedicated to resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Again, "reasonable" people from both sides of the conflict will set out to try and sort out the problems our clumsy leaders have been either unable or unwilling to resolve. Will they succeed? Well you can decide as you read through a set of not 1, not 2 but 20 arguments and counter-arguments. It was that simple all along...

But firstly let me say that I am furious that Lena Sinjab of the BBC did not get the opportunity to report on this momentous occasion as Syria's cafe intellectuals stir from their slumber.

According to Ian Black from The Guardian, "The groundbreaking OneMideast.org website aims to bring together prominent Israeli and Syrian bloggers, academics and experts seeking ways to break the stubborn impasse in negotiations."

Prominent Mr Black? Let's have a look...

We've got Forward Magazine, edited by a man who defies logic and physics by being all things to all people at all times (Syria's secret weapon). Also one of three prominent Syrian intellectuals and thinkers who were turned away in spite of the fact that they were trying to prostrate themselves in front of AIPAC in Washington DC. They had not carried out the ritual ablutions required for their prayer to be accepted.

We have Hind Kabawat, everybody's favourite housewife who by night is actually our top political negotiator (stand aside Mr Muallem!). This woman is like the Nigella Lawson of Syria (sans fame) but for politics. Her most feared negotiating technique is subjecting her opponents to the inane background music on her website.

Furthermore, apparently many of the Syrians on the links in that site did not consent to having their details on there and in fact they were "volunteered". Apart from being a silly idea, I'm not quite sure how much raising your profile internationally with such stupidity will benefit a person when they fly back to Syria. Not clever, unless somebody knows something that I don't, or has contacts that nobody else knows about. I'll be commenting more on this ridiculous circus.

4 comments:

Yazan said...

Oh dear, Wassim why do you have to do this?

You jump the gun everytime. First of all, Abu Fares, Anas and I are not involved in the project. The links to these blogs were provided on the initiative of Camille. So you might want to backtrack a little there. At the very least that less than sensible comment about Abu Fares. I am not even sure whether Hind Kabawat or Moubayed are involved.

I didn't expect you to agree or to support even the premise of this kind of project, but I would've expected a little more substantive critique from you. Not that I don't enjoy your sarcasm but I like it more when you leave the moral high ground and posture at home as you write.

Maysaloon said...

Yazan,
Why would I jump the gun when it is reasonable to assume from both the Guardian article and from the website that those people might be involved? No, the onus is on both Camille and on Mr Black to point out that those prominent Syrians that were mentioned were not in fact those who were listed in the links on the side. That is unprofessional and frankly quite dangerous considering many of these people either live in Syria or visit there regularly. I don't think I need to remind you what happens to people who slip up, especially on something as dangerous as this.

So come down from the moral high ground and stop peeing on me.

Qifa Nabki said...

I could have sworn that I saw something in the original draft of this post about you "quite liking Qifa Nabki", or something to that effect... and now? It's gone! :)

What gives?

Maysaloon said...

It was there indeed. I removed references to people who had been listed there because apparently Camille put them on there without their permission. So my scathing wrath has been diverted elsewhere. But I still hold the same opinions, you can rest assured :)