One step forward, two steps back

"An anti-Saleh tribesman in Sana this month." via NYT

Here's a taste of my latest HuffPo piece:

Following 10 months of popular protests calling for his resignation, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed an agreement last week to transfer power to his vice president. It's unlikely, though, that a piece of paper will bring a peaceful transition to this beleaguered Arabian Peninsula state....

Since the agreement was signed, "plainclothes government thugs" shot dead at least five protesters in the capital. Meanwhile, "Yemeni troops appear to have unlawfully killed as many as 35 civilians in the city of Taizz," the country's third-largest, according to Human Rights Watch.

Alas, violence -- from state-sponsored forces to independent militias, not to mention drones strikes from the U.S. -- is commonplace in Yemen. That Saleh has returned to Sanaa and continues to issue statements as if he were in power -- even after accepting the deal in Riyadh -- is a perhaps a bigger threat to the transition than the continuing violence across the country.

For more, come listen to Laura Kasinof, a New York Times correspondent who has reported from Sanaa since 2009, as she reflects on Yemen's uprising tomorrow, December 1, at 12:15pm. We'll be live-streaming the discussion (here).

The Mendacious Mr. Netanyahu?

My first blog at The Huffington Post:

By now you've heard that French President Nicholas Sarkozy -- without realizing that his microphone was live -- called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar," at last week's G20 summit, according to reports.

Most Israelis would agree.

A full 60 percent of Israelis do not find Netanyahu to be "honest and trustworthy," according to a survey of 1000 Israelis, conducted by the New America Foundation's Middle East Task Force in 2009. Surprisingly, even among Israelis who respond favorably to their prime minister, 41 percent do not think he is truthful.

So, what's the big deal? Netanyahu's Israeli colleagues have not been shy in calling Netanyahu out either. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying, "A liar you were, and a liar you have remained," to Netanyahu's face, according to Sharon's son Gilad.

Dan Meridor, who now serves as minister of intelligence and atomic energy in Netanyahu's cabinet, has accused Netanyahu of "turning his lies into an art form."

Keep reading at Huff Po.