Syria News Wire

Israel’s campaign against everything continues. This time, fans of the apartheid state have piled the pressure on Britain’s ambassador to Beirut after she made a controversial blog post.

Two days ago CNN’s Middle East editor Octavia Nasr was sacked after she tweeted “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

Around the same time, the UK’s envoy to Lebanon, Frances Guy wrote:

“People in Lebanon like to ask me which politician I admire most. … Until yesterday my preferred answer was to refer to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, head of the Shia clergy in Lebanon and much admired leader of many Shia muslims throughout the world.  When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. …

Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon’s shores.  I remember well when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a Muslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get a chance to meet Sheikh Fadlallah. Truly he was right. …

The world needs more men like him …  May he rest in peace.”

If Nasr’s statement was a sackable offence, Guy’s post should’ve been a crime worthy of public execution. But, no, Frances Guy is still in her job. Why? Because while Americans have a knee-jerk reaction to anything perceived as anti-Israeli (even though Nasr and Guy’s comments were about Muslim-Muslim relations, rather than anything to do with Israel), Europeans understand the world a little better.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry complained to the UK to about Frances Guy’s post, and the Conservative British Foreign Minister duly agreed to remove her writing. Frances Guy also wrote the following apology:

“I would like to be clear. I have no truck with terrorism wherever it is committed in whoever’s name. The British Government has been clear that it condemns terrorist activity carried out by Hizballah. I share that view. …

I recognise that some of my words have upset people. This was certainly not my intention. … I regret any offence caused.”

The witch-hunt which Nasr and Guy have had to endure just mean that in future public figures (especially Brits and Americans) will be a lot more cautious in their tweets and blog posts. They will look more like formal news reports than a personal take on the events they are covering, and the internet will be a lot poorer for it.

Meanwhile, Frances Guy will probably be lying low for a while. She is one of the Foreign Office’s Arabists, having spent most of her career working in the region. She may still have a job, but if the current mood is anything to go by, her next posting will be a back office job hidden away in London.

Israel 2 – Justice 0.

One of CNN’s most senior reporters has been sacked after mourning the death of a Muslim cleric.

Octavia Nasr was the news network’s most senior Arab journalist, joining in 1990 after making her name in Lebanon when she became the first female reporter to interview Shia leader Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. Two decades on, and a seemingly innocent comment about that man’s death has cost Nasr her job.

She posted the following statement on Twitter: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

It was that single word, the H-bomb, which caused all the trouble, even though Fadlallah had been sidelined by Hezbollah in recent years, and certainly wasn’t one of the group’s leaders. Fadlallah was considered a liberal in many circles, and a passionate defender of women’s rights.

Lobby group Honest Reporting (which says it is monitors anti-Israel media bias) led the internet campaign to hound Nasr out of her job. CNN’s decision to drop her points to America’s jittery reaction to half-heard anti-Israeli statements, regardless of what was behind the comment.

Nasr went on to clarify her position, explaining that she was mourning the loss of an influential religious figure who had taken a stand against honour killings and Muslim misogyny more widely. That backpeddling couldn’t save her.

Imagine if Nasr had been working for the BBC. Would the reaction have been as uncompromising? How about if she was working for the British government? Britain’s ambassador in Beirut, France Guy, went much further than Nasr, without causing a single diplomatic ripple:

“People in Lebanon like to ask me which politician I admire most. … Until yesterday my preferred answer was to refer to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, head of the Shia clergy in Lebanon and much admired leader of many Shia muslims throughout the world.  When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. …

Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon’s shores.  I remember well when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a Muslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get a chance to meet Sheikh Fadlallah. Truly he was right. …

The world needs more men like him …  May he rest in peace.”

Nuances like that seem to be completely ignored because of the trigger-happy instincts of America’s Israel-apologists.

Jillian York, Matthew Teller and Brian Whitaker have posted interesting commentaries.

CNN’s Senior Editor of Middle East Affairs, Octavia Nasr, is coming under increasing pressure for a comment she made on Twitter.

She tweeted: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot,” following the spiritual leader’s death on Sunday. Israel-apologists are accusing her of supporting terrorism. And if they get their way, they’ll soon hound her out of her job.

But what they fail to acknowledge is that Fadlallah was a ‘moderate’ (to use the terminology of those who think that politics can be reduced to black and white). He was a man who even Britain’s Ambassador in Lebanon felt comfortable to defend. Frances Guy, the UK’s woman in Beirut, went much further than Nasr in her blog post:

“People in Lebanon like to ask me which politician I admire most. … Until yesterday my preferred answer was to refer to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, head of the Shia clergy in Lebanon and much admired leader of many Shia muslims throughout the world.  When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. …

Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon’s shores.  I remember well when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a muslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get a chance to meet Sheikh Fadlallah. Truly he was right. …

The world needs more men like him …  May he rest in peace.”

Indeed. And may Octavia keep her job.

Just a month after a Lebanese girl won the Miss USA competition, a Damascus-born woman has won Germany’s Top Model 2010 contest.

20-year-old Alisar Ailabouni was born in Syria, and moved to Austria with her family. Forward Magazine reports that she beat 23,000 rivals to win the contest, and has already appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan.

Syria has stopped issuing visas to US citizens at its border crossings.

Official policy has always been easy to understand: if there is a Syrian embassy in your home country, then you can not get a visa at the border. Yet many took a risk and set out on the Beirut-Damascus journey without a visa. In most cases visas were issued at the Masna’a crossing (albeit with the occasional lengthy wait). But now Syria is enforcing the rules which have always been widely known, and some travellers are crying foul.

It has never been guaranteed, and always relied on the mood of the particular border official. It used to be easier if you had evidence of previous Syrian visas in your passport. Not any longer.

But for anyone visiting from Beirut, there is still one more loophole which is still wide open. Even though the rules state that you need to get a visa from your home country, the Syrian embassies in Beirut and Ankara are the (unofficial) exceptions – foreigners can still buy visas in Beirut. So why all the fuss?

It shouldn’t need saying but I will anyway: that loophole could close at any time. So please don’t take it for granted.

They survived piracy on the open seas, a murderous attack by Israeli commandos and unlawful detention in an Israeli jail. Now, the Syrians on the Gaza aid flotilla have returned home to a hero’s welcome.

Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, the Bishop of Jerusalem in exile, plus Shaza Barakat, Mohammad Satlah and Hasan Rifai were welcomed back in Damascus by cheering crowds.

“Israel won’t be able to continue the same way it has used to, the situation on the regional and international arenas won’t allow that siege to continue,” the President’s media advisor Buthaina Shaaban said after meeting the group at the Dedeman Hotel.

The four activists were released by the occupation authorities and travelled by bus into Jordan, before continuing on to Syria.

Arab Media Watch has been studying the UK media’s coverage of the Israeli allegations that Syria has been sending scud missiles to Hezbollah. It says that the Israel allegations have been given more prominence than the Syrian/Lebanese denials.

It is concerned that analysts who question the veracity of the Israeli claims have been sidelined, while the US support for the Israeli statements have been over-represented. And furthermore, Hezbollah is portrayed as more of a threat to Israel, than Israel is to Lebanon or Hezbollah.

AMW also says that most mainstream media completely ignored the UN’s denial of the Scud allegations: ”We have no evidence of any Scud missiles in Unifil’s area of operations,” Unifil’s Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas was quoted as saying to Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper. AMW says Al Jazeera English reported it one day after An-Nahar, but that the BBC ignored it for a week.

Arab Media Watch is scathing: ”The failure to report Unifil’s statement follows a trend of patchy, incomplete coverage of the whole issue, a selectivity in Israel’s favour.”

You can read AMW’s full report here.

2pm, DOWNING STREET, LONDON, TODAY, MONDAY 31 MAY 2010.

At least 16 unarmed aid workers have been killed in international waters, some of whom were sleeping, after the Israeli navy stormed the ship. The least you can do is join this protest, in memory of the 16 aid workers who gave their lives to help the people of Gaza.

For the latest updates, you can search for #flotilla and #israil on Twitter.

Spain and Sweden have called in the Israeli ambassadors for verbal rebukes. Reports that Greece and Turkey have kicked out the Israeli ambassadors.

Demonstrations around the world: Istanbul, where the Israeli consulate was stormed, Amman, Cairo and many more cities expected.

A couple of recent articles you may have missed on Syria and Lebanon.

In ‘Russia shows US how to deal with Syria‘, James Denselow looks at some interesting details of the Russian-Syrian relationship over the past fifty years. It’s a relationship that’s rarely been written about since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Deen Sharp writes about the fight to save Beirut’s heritage in ‘The battle for Beirut’s buildings‘. You thought the Downtown/Solidere row was over. Think again.

News translation service Mideastwire is starting its first Damascus Exchange allowing students from the west to gain first hand experience inside Syria.

Along with 20 hours of language tuition, the $2000 program provides meetings with political, religious and social figures. It runs from 1-15 August, with applications accepted until 20 June.

Mideastwire has been running a similar program in Lebanon for 3 years, and has also recently launched the Istanbul-Ankara Exchange.

Mornings start with Arabic language classes, followed by academic classes in the afternoon. The meetings with Syria’s leaders take place in the evenings and at weekends.

In Syria, the academic classes will be on the following subjects: Economic reform challenges; The evolving relationship between Syria and Turkey; Syria’s role in the Middle East peace process; Arab nationalism; Hydro-politics in the Levant; and, Doing business in Syria: Barriers, opportunities and practices.

Applications can be made at info@mideastwire.com.