MENA House: Arab League Weakness; Egypt Cultural Corner; Fun Football Facts

Christina Baghdady is in the MENA House:

Arab League Extraordinaire: Yet again, the Arab leaders have failed to agree. The question on this occasion is, "What have they failed to agree on?"

Well, it's whether the Palestinians should resume their peace talks with Israel. The hot-blooded Arab League has once again lived up to its reputation of talking too much, flexing their muscles against superpowers, but not achieving very much.

MENA House: Changing of the President in Egypt?

The 22nd Arab summit was held in the Libyan city of Sirte on 27-28 March. Moussa Kossa, Secretary to Libya’s People’s Committee of Foreign Liaison and International Coorporation, urged Arab states in his opening statement to "take action to lift the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and to salvage Jerusalem”, in a reference to ongoing efforts by Israel to "Judaize" the city.



Some analysts, however, downplayed the Arab threat to end support of negotiations with Israel. “The Arab leaders might introduce rhetorical changes in their resolutions, but the substance will remain the same,” said Tarek Fahmy, an expert in regional affairs at the Cairo-based Middle East Research Institute. He added that the Arab "moderate" camp --- which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority --- does not want to jeopardize what it sees as a readiness on the part of US President Barack Obama to exert pressure on the Cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It will be interesting to see how this may play out regarding the expansion of Israeli settlements and any further pressure on Israel.

On that note, today Egypt and Israel commemorated the 31st anniversary of the signing of the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, which came on the heels of the 1978 Camp David Accords. In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel.

Cultural Moment: This week is the anniversary of the death of the cultural icon of the Middle East and North Africa; Abdel Halim Hafez, otherwise known as Al-Andaleeb. If you ever consider a holiday to Egypt and you reach for local tips and advice, there will always be information in the music section on Al Andaleeb. He was born on 21 June 1929 and completed 15 movies and more than 206 songs before he died in 1977. His first musical hit came in 1951 when he stepped in for singer Kareem Mahmoud on Egyptian National Radio. To this day his music and films live on.

Andaleeb’s music has gone beyond borders. The background music for the Chemical Brothers, "Galvanize" is originally from Abdel Halim’s song "Zay il Hawa" (Like the Air) and Jay-Z’s song "Big Pimpin’" draws from "Khosara".

Did You Know? King Farouk I (the father of the last King of Egypt, King Farouk II) had his own football team. Founded in 1911 as "Kasr il Nil" (The Palace of the Nile), the team was renamed in 1940 to, "Farouk Al-Awal" after Farouk I. Following the Revolution in 1952, the name was changed to "Zamalek" after the area where the club is located.

Comments

[Catherine]

Thanks for your cultural note - please keep those coming. I have some CDs of Abdel Halim Hafez but I didn't know his nickname, Al-Andaleeb.

For the curious, go to http://www.7alim.com/ a site dedicated to the "king of Arabic Music", Abdel Halim Hafez. The live recordings are fun because of the enthusiastic audience reactions. Personally I prefer classical Arab music and singers, but you can't deny Al-Andaleeb has a great voice and is a fantastic interpreter of the lyrics.

[kouki]

Al Andaleeb has grown on me to be honest. When I was younger I wasn't much of fan but when you listen to his songs and if you understand his words-wow! classics!

[Catherine]

Kouki,
I have a recording of his live concert 'Madah El-Amar', and it's really fun. Some of the numbers are a bit Hollywood-Middle Eastern (bring on the dancing girls!) at times, especially with the western violins and electrified instruments, but his performance is outstanding. I'm listening to it again right now thanks to your cultural heads-up. :-)

The concert can be downloaded or listened to via livestream on this page:
http://www.7alim.com/wma/live.shtml
Scroll down through the titles to the 2 Maddah El Amar (Live) New! links . The concert starts with the 1st link.