What Arab mothers want for their single daughters

Pleasing the mother in your choice of men, faster internet Lebanon campaign is now a protest, Anti-Shiia alarm in the GCC, Syria- to intifada or not to intifada, Palestine's latest spat not by Hammas.

Arab Moms love doctors for their daughters

KABOBFEST [2]

The Perfect Seven: Arab Men Your Mom Wants You to Marry By Hanitizer

Even if this doesn't apply to your Arab parents who have a different code for what's marriage material, take a look at this mother's dream eligible bachelors... The Gulfie, The lawyer...

Beirut Spring [3]

Towards Anti-Shiaa McCarthyism In The Gulf States

"If one is to believe the Kuwaiti newspaper Alsiyassah (an admittedly less than credible rag), there is a tendency in the GCC countries to make a collective decision to “banish” Lebanese Shiaa supporters of Hezbollah from their countries."

Blogging Beirut [4]

DEMONSTRATING FOR FASTER INTERNET IN LEBANON

I wonder how long this post took in the posting... Lot's of sympathy for this cause. And word on the protest street tells us that the Lebanese also demonstrated their disgust with the government monopoly on mobile phone tariffs. By turning their phones off for 3 hours yesterday. Causing a void in telecommunication that must have had an impact. It is a nation of citizens accustomed to the blackouts, power cuts, water cuts, after all. "Twitter Hashtag: #FlipTheSwitch Perhaps we're the first to call for it, but surely not the first to think about it... We are calling for a Mass Demonstration on April 17 at 10 AM at the root of the problem, at the IMEWE Internet Cable Trunk in Tripoli, North Lebanon."

Mich Cafe [5]

Syria: The impossible intifada?

F. Najia guest posting: "Two native Syrians, one a distinguished professor at France’s Sorbonne and the other a Paris-based political analyst, draw contradictory conclusions on the prospects for a spring revolution in Syria." One is hopeful for the Syrian capacity to shake off the shackle of suppression and secret policing... - "The Syrians are not less deserving than other peoples. They are not quasi-human. They are not dismissive of the value of dignity and unconscious of the meaning of freedom. They won’t accept the status of half-citizens." While the other, Imam, "however, is downbeat." He explains why a mass uprising in Syria is “impossible": - "I said earlier the most potent weapon of an intifada is its ability to move would-be protesters from computer screens to the streets… Short of this, settling for low turnouts on the streets is a daring venture on Bashar Assad’s home turf, where brutal dialogue is instant and by means of truncheons and arrests…”

Haaretz Blogs [6]

Hamas not likely behind Jerusalem bombing

"Despite the escalation, Hamas does not seem to want large-scale clashes yet. The organization actually has good reasons to believe that Israel is the one heating up the southern front."