Mid-East roundup

The Canadian Federal Election distracted me a bit from the latest developments in the Mid-East. Luckily I can count on the mid east blogs to get me right up to date with their coverage:

The Lion has been tamed
-Rampurple from the Lebanese Blogger Forum fisks Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Count your days Bashar, the people aren't buying your b.s. anymore.

Hamas as partners in Peace? I don't know.
-Freedom for Egyptians has an interesting observation regarding the Palestinian Parliamentary elections on Hamas' participation. Now I don't exactly agree with it as I suspect Hamas is just pulling this off as a temporary thing. More or less a Trojan Horse strategy, while simply postponing their "holy war". I pray to god I'm wrong though.

Curse you capitalism and your peacemaking, prosperous ways!
-Our buddy Sandmonkey (currently touring the U.S.) gives us the latest economic stats as a result of the QIZ free trade agreement between Egypt, America and Israel: Higher Wages, increased exports, lower unemployment, goodwill gestures on all sides...Its terrible..absolutely terrible! Down with capitalism!

Iranian Warmongers?
-Even the most radical peacenik must acknowledge that Iran isn't making things easier to prevent a military clash. h/t Kash's Newsroom

Freedom of the Press takes hold in Iraq:



Prior to the Liberation of Iraq in 2003, these types of cartoons were unheard of in Iraq. Usually in the Arab world, editorial cartoons were inspired by the S.S