Do You? Do You? Do You? / عائلة بندلي

Partridge Family? Brady Bunch?

They got nothing on the Bendaly Family. What's groovier than a Lebanese family spilling out their souls and bopping tambourines on the coast? I just watched this six times in a row...

The Bahraini Invasion

My Bahraini friend claims his uncle had the first Beatles LP on the Gulf island - here's a 'toon about their Fab Four tribute band. If only there were a bootleg out there to post with this little comic...
If you're wondering what the Honey Bees sounded like, this will give you a taste of what Bahrainis were jamming on.

Crossposted at The Seminal.

Let's Go Comprehensive

This piece was originally published at The Washington Note.

During President Obama's brief presser with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday, one word was conspicuously absent: comprehensive.

While much of the two leaders' remarks focused on the Israel-Palestine track, they only alluded to the Arab Peace Initiative (API), which holds out the opportunity of normalized relations with the Arab states as an incentive for Israel to end the occupation and solidify a two-state solution.

Thus far, President Obama has tried to break down this everything-for-everything scenario by turning the comprehensive aspect of the API into a sequential process. In letters President Obama reportedly sent to a handful of Gulf and Arab states, he urged them to take the lead in confidence-building measures toward Israel. Special Envoy Mitchell has also pursued this short-term goal.

Compare this to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal's view. While visiting Washington last month, FM al-Faisal maintained a strong line on the need for a comprehensive two-state solution while also asserting that a bits and pieces approach will not bring the parties closer to a deal:

Incrementalism and a step-by-step approach has not and - we believe - will not achieve peace. Temporary security, confidence- building measures will also not bring peace. What is required is a comprehensive approach that defines the final outcome at the outset and launches into negotiations over final status issues: borders, Jerusalem, water, refugees and security.

The United States Senate has taken a decidedly different approach. At the end of their legislative session, 77 senators signed onto the Bayh-Risch Letter which put the onus on Arab states to "do more to end their isolation of Israel."

However, if Arab states were to upgrade relations with Israel based on minor policy changes coming out of Tel Aviv - such as the temporary construction freeze in the West Bank which Ha'aretz reported yesterday - what incentive would that leave for Israelis to clinch a comprehensive deal?

Early normalization gestures are just that - too early and merely gestures. True progress will be cultivated at the very moment of establishing a Palestinian state, and a tit for tat strategy will only sidetrack this big picture goal.

Shai Feldman and Gilead Sher echo this point in their op-ed, "The grand bargain that is the Mideast's best hope," published in today's Financial Times:

The reluctance of Saudi Arabia's Prince al-Faisal to reward a partial Israeli move such as a settlement construction freeze is understandable given the distrust between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The failure to end the conflict through interim stages has made all parties skeptical about such steps being more than temporary.

Instead, what is proposed here is that the Arab states engage Israel in an exercise in reverse engineering. The Arab states should announce that once Israel reaches an agreement with the Palestinians on a permanent resolution of the dispute, the Arab states would reward Israel for every step it takes towards implementing this vision.

To resolve the conflict, gestures have not and will not be enough. It's not the incremental steps in and of themselves that are negative, but rather the fact that those baby steps will in turn be viewed as the objective.

Let's go comprehensive.

Not Another Great Recession Reference

Crossposted at The Seminal (now @FDL)

Back when I published this cartoon in Winter 2008, "The Great Recession" was a coy - perhaps even funny - way to jab at our economic state of affairs. At this point the term has become so ubiquitous that I'm sick of seeing it in print. According to the chart, I suppose our male-pattern baldness is taking its toll.

Let's just shave our heads and pretend we're edgy.

Gaddafi - Dressed to ill

"Which edition of my little green book matches this outfit?"

Full slideshow of Gaddafi's fashionista tendencies up at Vanity Fair. Don't think they'll have fab feature on Hosni Mubarak anytime soon.

For some of my 'toons of Gaddafi, see here and here.

The Pencil is Much Mightier...

...than me.

!!! Drones !!!

Crossposted at FireDogLake.For those supportive of unmanned planes bluntly targeting alleged terrorists in Pakistan, the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud was a moment for celebration - a validation of this policy. In spite of a random success such as Mehsud's death, the blowback of drones is clearly self-defeating. Take this wire, for instance, just in from Antiwar.com:

A US drone strike into the South Waziristan Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) struck a house in the village of Ladda, killing at least 14 people and wounding several others.

A tragedy like this raises life-or death questions as to whether there is an upside to such a US-driven effort.
The worst part? Under President Obama, this tactic has remained in the shadows:

Since early 2009, Barack Obama administration officials have been claiming that the predator attacks in Pakistan have killed nine of 20 top al Qaeda officials, but they have refused to disclose how many civilians have been killed in the strikes.

But perhaps a debate in Washington is broadening. The Center for a New American Security's latest Af-Pak report went as far to say,

...[T]he costs of drone attacks against non-al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan outweigh the benefits and they are, on balance, harmful to U.S. and allied interests. The drone war has created a siege mentality among the Pashtun population in northwest Pakistan.

Mehsud may be dead but I'll await the end of indiscriminate killing before I celebrate.

A Holiday Snark for Messrs. Putin & Berlusconi

The Financial Times weekender published this bril cartoon but I couldn't manage to find it on the interwebs. It's quite shameful that in the columnists section of FT's website, there are no cartoonists listed. and as is often the case on newspaper sites, no editorial cartoon archive to note. No respect.

So here it is - exclusive - scanned for your digital consumption.