Radio War Nerd EP #482 — Gaza Genocide's Impact on Arab Masses, feat. Nihal El Aaser & Aamer
Guests: Nihal El Aasar and Aamer
Recorded: November 12, 2024
We're joined by friend of the show Aamer and guest Nihal El Aaser to discuss how Israel's Gaza genocide is impacting the Arab masses and Arab states, focusing on Egypt and Bahrain.
*Read Nihal's article "Left-wing Melancholia:The Arab political subject" in ParaPraxis magaine.
Total time: 1:15:02
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
*
Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd
Sound production by Telescope Audio
Check out the Radio War Nerd Merch store here!
Order your print or ebook of John Dolan's new book Erdogan Pizza: Dispatches from a Violent & Grotesque World
Comments (30)
There was an interesting story out of Malaysia doing rounds of Malaysian internet. There had been the usual boycott of Starbucks, MacDonalds etc. until Malaysia gave shelter to a small number of refugees from Palestine. The refugees were somehow ungrateful or misbehaved in some other way and when this was reported in the local media, people went back to Starbucks and MacDonalds - according to the media. I think the Comprador mentality extends throughout a client state. How are the owners of the Egyptian franchises reacting to these boycotts?
Good episode that clarifies the Arab public opinion. However, the ample usage of a vague word like "imperialism" by the guests should be correlated to what it means in reality - Arab upper middle classes making money off business relationships with Europe, Israel and USA (to lesser extent). This is why Arab TV , print media etc are pro-Israel and not simply because their Govts are censoring them
New band name: Simping for Kissinger
album titles like: Death Camp for Cambodia
Unrelated to this episode but how do I access the discord?
What do you think gang? Shall we blood him in?
Great interview. Super informative and the funniest anecdote about a mediocre Egyptian soda.
Are Amer and Nihal going to be safe talking with the war nerd?
Respect Nassrallah.
very strong episode. very thoughtful guests.
Great episode. Does anyone have a recommendation for a biography of Nasser?
John has recommended Nasser: The Last Arab before
One of your best episodes
Great episode- I love this kind of analysis. I’ve been struck by how little our supposed “liberal democrat” leaders ever consider (or even acknowledge) the existence of Arab public opinion- especially when it comes to Israel. This glaring absence speaks to how “inconvenient” the existence of any kind of independent Arab civil society is to US and Israel. For if they were consistent in their supposedly “liberal democratic” principles, they’d have to reckon with the profound unpopularity of Israel across the region. Insofar as Israel can continue to survive in the manner it does, it has to depend on the complicity of autocratic, illegitimate, and brittle regimes in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
Arab public opinion ranges an entire gamut, just like ours. The biggest source of anger is the current conditions (esp. economic) from the huge demographic youth bulges. Further, no political way to express that anger because of the political repression. It is interesting to see the political thought finally growing out of the cracks. The whole comprador thought of imperialism is simple. What can a people do if the neighbors are tiny, but militarily far superior? As for the people who lose the wars, well nobody ever gets anything beyond sympathy. I speak as the son of one who was a displaced person as a child. The choices of the leadership to keep repressing the people reflects their venal greed, and also the reality that the west will manipulate them into the easy way to "buy" a semblance of peace.
Excellent episode! Aamer great as always and hope for further interviews w the very insightful Nihal in the future
Great episode! Interesting that Nasser's legacy is being reassesed. I have noticed a similar tendency in Croatia and other ex-YU countries in regards to Tito. I guess that the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement speak to the notion of personal welfare and national sovereignty in these increasingly imperial times.
Interesting! In western Europe, I’ve never heard a bad word about Tito from former Yugoslav people. But there’s a selection bias with them or their parents having fled the 90’s wars.
This episode really goes to show why Israel's claim to being the only democracy in the Middle East isn't anything worth boasting about. All these authoritarian and monarchist regimes were propped up by the Angloids through terror and bloodshed, and every attempt by anyone besides Israel to form a real nation has been violently destroyed. And that's not even mentioning the fact that Israel and America aren't that much more democratic than Iran is.
Honestly, guardian council notwithstanding, the last several Iranian presidential elections have been competitive races between ideologically opposed candidates that led to major swings in policy when the office changed hands. You definitely cant say that all of these things are true in Israel or the US over the same span.
Can someone tell me what the term for the Palestinian concept of accumulation was?
Great episode
Thinking about the relationship between the Zionist/US imperial interest and the comprador tyrants in the Arab world, I flashed back to the Stuart Seldowitz video where he's telling the poor halal cart guy "Does your father in Egypt like his fingernails? The mukhabarat will tear them out, one by one" and grinning that shit-eating rictus. They fucking get off on the oppression and dysfunction they've brought about, so much.
What scares me the most is people who legitimately care about oppressed communities in the US looking away for this. I understand a lot of liberal concerns, but to pretend an imagined Hamas position on LGBT justifies the slaughter, collective punishment, and genocide of a whole people is beyond the mental gymnastics I thought possible. I shouldn't, because justifying such atrocities has happened before, but regular people smugly assuring that it's woke to do so really horrifies me.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that I'd be SUPER interested in war nerd eps on the 67 war and the ensuing conflicts.
absolutely
Can anyone tell me the name of the Egyptian memoirist Nihal mentioned? About Sadat stabbing the army in the back. Thanks.
Saad el-Din el-Shazly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_el-Shazly
Can tell it’s gonna be a banga
Always love an Aamer episode!