The Pessoptimist

Jew in Arabia, goy in Israel

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Iran hits world record with number of journalists in jail

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More than 100 dissidents and journalists faced vague antistate accusations during a mass judicial proceeding in August. ...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Peace talks restart against background of more building in Betar and damning news from CBS about the so called 'building freeze'

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Children playing in the settlement Betar Illit. In the background the Arab village Nahhalin. (Photo AP) Proximity 'peacetalks' hav...
Thursday, March 4, 2010

Wilders´ victory reveals frightening tendencies in The Netherlands

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Wilders at the trial that is currently being held against him in Amsterdam for inciting hatred against groups among the population. Left of...
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Arab Ligue gives four months 'cover' for indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks

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News from Reuters. No comment needed. Arab League ministers on Wednesday backed a U.S. call for indirect Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, ...

Car bombs in Iraqi city Baquba kill more than 30

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At least 30 people have been killed and 42 more wounded after three powerful co-ordinated suicide...
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Jerusalem mayor - for now - puts off plan to demolish tens of Palestinian homes in Silwan

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 It seems that - for the moment at least -  a large scale operation to demolish tens of houses belonging to Paletinian residents of the Al-...
Monday, March 1, 2010

UN-Assemblee grants Israel, Palestine five more months for credible investigations of war crimes

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Israel and the Palestinians an additional five months to conduct inde...
Sunday, February 28, 2010

Kramer's Lösung: let Palestinian have fewer babies

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Martin Kramer, a rightist authority on Islam and Arab politics (he works with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the offcial Aip...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dubai identifies more fraudulent passports in killing

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DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has identified four more suspects who carried fraudulent British and Irish passports in the Dubai...
Friday, February 19, 2010

El-Baradei, the home coming man

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Egypt, or many Egyptians at least, are quite excited these days: Mohammed El-Baradei, the former chief of the International Atomic Energie A...

Egyptian blogger Abbas acquitted

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Hadayeq El-Qobba Misdemeanors Court found Egypts best known blogger Wael Abbas innocent on appeal Thursday.A court of lower intance had covi...
Thursday, February 18, 2010

Nasrallah's warning to Israel

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i The Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 after three days of Israeli bombardments  This was still due om this blog: the speech that Hezbollah ...
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Abu Pessoptimist
This blogname was derived from a satiric Arabic novel by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby. In the ''The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimist'' he uses absurdism as a weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. I consider it to be an example for how events in Israel/Palestine best can be approached. The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. In a way that is also still my motto. My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. In 2018, I concluded the study 'Arabic language and culture' at the University of Amsterdam. I started 'Abu Pessoptimist' in January 2009 out of anger about the onslaught of that month in Gaza. The other blog, The Pessoptimist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)
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