person:al akhbar english

Saudi Arabia Consolidates its Alliance Against Iran | Al Akhbar English
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-arabia-consolidates-its-alliance-against-iran

Saudi Arabia needs Egypt and Turkey politically and militarily in its confrontation with Iran. The relationship with Cairo is stable even if it undergoes some changes. Talk about reviving the Muslim Brotherhood under US pressure, and out of an Arab and international need to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), may be greatly exaggerated. Hours before Sisi headed to Riyadh, death sentences were issued in Cairo against the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an Egyptian court classified Hamas as a terrorist organization.

These rulings further angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; and perhaps Egypt wanted to anger him on purpose. Before heading from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, he announced that he will not meet with Sisi in Riyadh, demanding serious steps from Cairo before such a meeting could take place. It is hard to imagine Erdogan and Sisi shaking hands as long as the Egyptian president continues to pursue the Muslim Brotherhood. The turkish project in the Middle East depends on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hezbollah member, two Syria jihadists freed in prisoner swap | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hezbollah-member-two-syria-jihadists-freed-prisoner-swap

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement said one of its members captured in Syria by Syri’as al-Qaeda’s branch, al-Nusra Front, was released on Tuesday in exchange for two jihadists held by the resistance group.

“Prisoner Imad Ayyad has been freed, in exchange for two members of Nusra who were being held by Hezbollah, after weeks of negotiations,” Al-Manar news channel reported.

What is it about Iran that scares the US?: On Tehran’s military capabilities | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/what-it-about-iran-scares-us-tehran%E2%80%99s-military-capabiliti

Iran built its deterrent capabilities while avoiding competition with the US on its turf. It knows in advance that it will never be able to confront a Western power in air or at sea. It is from here that asymmetrical war technologies emerged, trying to exploit existing gaps and hit the enemy with unconventional means, like missiles for instance. For years, the US was busy developing defense means for protection against Russian, Chinese, North Korean and Iranian missiles. But a report published recently in the Economist magazine explains the difficulty of doing so. The US could not stop talking about the missile shield program but few people know that a program which cost more than US$ 40 billion failed in all five interceptor tests conducted since 2008. The Economist says that about a US$ 100 billion were spent in the last decade on similar programs that did not get the US any closer to neutralizing the missile threat. On the contrary, it may have proved that the goal itself is impossible and that, indeed, is the conclusion that many US Generals who worked in this field came to. The problem is not limited to technical difficulties – trying to intercept a warhead or multiple warheads the size of a small closet floating in space at a distance of 8 Mach or more – but also has to do with how easy it is to mislead complex defence systems with simple methods. Russian missiles today are designed to launch dozens of fake targets when the warhead separates from it in outer space, all of them similar in size and moving at the same speed, thus, making it almost impossible to distinguish between them. As the US develops new interceptor technologies, Russia launches counter measures that nullify their effect.

Lebanon: Another Lost Opportunity for Change | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-another-lost-opportunity-change

Lebanon: Another Lost Opportunity for Change
The message behind publishing The Impossible Vindication “elect us and you will see.” (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)

By: Charbel Nahas

Published Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The declared purpose of publishing The Impossible Vindication is to put March 14’s record before the electorate ahead of the June 2013 parliamentary elections. The message is “elect us and you will see.” We will see what? That the FPM will be represented by ten Christian ministers? And what will they do that is different from what they have been doing so far?

The commitment of any political party in changing the system means that it must confront it directly. And there is no hope of it achieving any change unless it is prepared to mobilize popular forces behind its reform plan. FPM leader General Michel Aoun has a long history of taking a strong stand in making fateful decisions – is this also true of his party?

Achieving real reform is not a matter of good and bad individuals, but rather a commitment to confronting and changing the system. It requires a long and difficult struggle that passes through a number of stages, in which the active forces may sometimes disagree over how to proceed.

ُEst-ce un by product de la polémique sur les propos jugés antisémites du président Morsi ??? ▻http://fr.reuters.com/article/frEuroRpt/idFRL6N0ALH4J20130116

En tout cas, plusieurs articles récents sur la place et le rôle des juifs (minuscule intentionnelle) égyptiens dans le cinéma arabe. Dans Al-Akhbar avec la version anglaise ci-dessous (et sa version arabe ▻http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/174989).

Mais il y a eu aussi un bon article dans Al-Quds al-3arabi sous un titre assez ravageur :ليلى مراد أعلنت إسلامها وتزوجت أحد الضباط الأحرار وراقية إبراهيم تجسست على مصر فعينتها إسرائيل سفيرة !
–Leila Mourad convertie à l’islam épousa un des Officiers libres, tandis que Raquiyat Ibrahim, espionne en Egypte, fut nommée ambassadrice par Israël !_

Before Israel, a Look at Jews in Egyptian Cinema | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-look-jews-egyptian-cinema
#Egypte #cinéma #juifs #antisémitisme

Historians may differ as to when modern Egyptian cinema emerged, but it was not far behind the late 19th century inception of cinema in the rest of the world. During cinema’s fledgling years in Egypt – before the foundation of the Zionist state – Jews produced, directed, and appeared in a number of Egyptian films, many helping to establish cinema in the country.

US withdraws scholarships to Gaza students | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين
►http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/us-withdraws-scholarships-to-gaza-students

US withdraws scholarships to Gaza students

October 15, 2012 by occupiedpalestine 0 Comments

Al Akhbar English | Monday, October 15, 2012

The American Consulate in Jerusalem has withdrawn scholarships awarded to students in Gaza to study in the United States after Israel announced it would deny them permission to travel outside the coastal enclave, the Associated Press reported Monday.

“Under Israeli pressure, US officials have quietly canceled a two-year-old scholarship program for students in the Gaza Strip, undercutting one of the few American outreach programs to people in the Hamas-ruled territory,” the AP reported.

It added: “The program now faces an uncertain future, just two years after being launched with great fanfare by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during a visit to the region.”

The program, launched in 2010, offered about 30 students from the West Bank and Gaza scholarships to study at US universities.

Israel, which has imposed a paralyzing land, air and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007, allowed the students to travel when the program originally launched, but now cites security concerns over its decision to deny them travel permits.

Israel bans Palestinians of Gaza from travelling to the West Bank except in rare cases. The ban also applies to students who want to travel to the West Bank to study.

Israel’s supreme court last month upheld the ban after rights groups petitioned to allow five students from Gaza to travel to the West Bank for a master’s program.

(Al-Akhbar)