2014 is going to be a very bad year for Hamas’

Every time political scientist Mukhaimar Abusaada goes to his second-story apartment in Gaza City, he is grateful he doesn't live on the seventh floor. The increasing cost of fuel in Gaza, a result of Hamas' rocky relationship with the military government in Egypt, means high-rise buildings can no longer afford to power their elevators. And that shortage appears likely to continue now that Egypt's military has endorsed Field Marshal Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi's presidential bid.

'Under the current circumstances 2014 is going to be a very bad year for Hamas,' said Abusaada, of Gaza City's Al-Azhar University.

The Gaza Strip is an isolated enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians. It has suffered shortages of fuel, food and building materials ever since Israel imposed a blockade in 2007 after Hamas seized control of the territory. But over the past year Hamas has also lost vital alliances with Egypt, Iran and Syria. The economic squeeze of that isolation is pushing Hamas into the unlikely position of peacekeeper with Israel and of courting rival Fatah in the West Bank.

Since 2007, Gazans have bypassed Israel's blockade by importing construction materials, cars, livestock, and subsidized fuel through a network of tunnels from Egypt. Even though Gaza's power plants cannot keep up with local demand for electricity, cheap fuel from Egypt allowed homeowners - and operators of high-rise buildings - to keep the lights on with generators. Residents of Gaza could also come and go through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Tunnels were also big business for Hamas, which relied on taxes for smuggled goods for as much as 40 percent of its budget.

Running on empty

When Egypt's military seized power in July, one of el-Sissi's first moves was to destroy the tunnel network and close the Rafah crossing. Now the only fuel coming into Gaza is double the price - and that's why Abusaada's neighbors are trudging up seven flights of stairs.

'Three years ago, when we got Egyptian diesel the generators worked longer hours,' Abusaada told DW. 'For the past six months since the closure of the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt we are running from crisis to crisis.'

El-Sissi has also declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization - implicating its sister movement Hamas as well.

Hamas's problems with Egypt are compounded by other fraying regional alliances. In January 2012, the Hamas leadership left Damascus to protest Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on a national rebellion. In response, Syria's supporter Iran cut off aid and weapons deliveries to Hamas.

Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad confirmed his movement is facing dire straits.

'It's not easy for us,' Hamad told DW by phone. 'We feel some countries are working against Hamas, to undermine and destroy the project of resistance.'

Cash crunch

Money is so tight that Hamas has not paid full salaries to its 47,000 employees in the last six months. The 2014 budget already has a deficit of 75 percent. Hamad said his government is performing a triage, trying to preserve the work of the security, health and education ministries and stripping down operations of other offices.

The immediate cash crunch aside, Hamas's isolation has political ramifications. Israeli newspapers report that Hamas has deployed its own militia along the frontier with Israel to prevent rocket firings. Several Israeli airstrikes, including two strikes that killed three people in Gaza last week, have met with anemic responses. Shlomo Brom, former director of the strategic planning division of the Israeli army, said Hamas is doing its best to prevent Gazans from triggering an escalation with Israel.

'Hamas is investing many resources in trying to keep the Gaza Strip quiet and to avoid conflict with Israel,' Brom said.

Reaching out

Meanwhile, Hamas has also reached out to Fatah, its rival movement in the West Bank, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In January Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh released seven Fatah prisoners in Gaza. He also offered Fatah members exiled from Gaza in 2007 a chance to return. Political scientist Abusaada sees a direct link between the gestures and the financial crisis.

'Pressure from Palestinians in Gaza is mounting against Hamas as a result of the tense situation of electricity, cooking gas, gasoline and diesel,' he said. 'So Hamas is trying to alleviate some of the public pressure by proposing or implementing these positive gestures toward Fatah. '

Hamas spokesman Hamad confirmed his government is courting Fatah, but he added, 'there is no connection between the financial situation and reconciliation.'

With Egypt's el-Sissi poised to run for president, Hamas could face a bleak 2014. Nevertheless, Hamad stands by his movement's strategic decisions.

'I can say that the situation around us has changed, but we have not changed,' Hamad said. 'We are not in the pocket of any country - not Iran and not Syria. We are working according to our vision and strategy.'

Bahrain’s government ‘addicted to teargas’

Used properly, tear gas is non-lethal. Used improperly it can cause death, blindness and miscarriage. Used improperly in great quantities on a daily basis, it is considered tantamount to chemical warfare. That, say Bahrainis, has become the face of their existence.

A layman could easily be forgiven for thinking teargas canisters a uniform product, but the average Bahraini is more expert than lay. Citizens on the tiny Gulf Island have become so familiar with the canisters that have rained on them since their uprising in early 2011 that they can easily differentiate between the various models in circulation.

Many are boldly emblazoned with their country and even company of origin. Not so, however, the widely used 40mm silvery gold canisters with a thick red band and lettering. Activists at the human rights organization Bahrain Watch say the unnamed cartridges bear an uncanny resemblence to those manufactured by the German-South African defense company Rheinmetall Denel Munition Pty (RMD).

Bahrain Watch has a track record of tracing scantly unmarked spent canisters back to their place of manufacture. Last year the group’s research into the provenance of an unlabelled brand led them to South Korea’s Dae Kwang chemical corporation. 'The company had the products on its website,' Reda al-Fardan of Bahrain Watch told DW. 'The features were the same as those on the ones being fired and the dimensions gave us further confirmation.'

Having established that Dae Kwang was poised to export up to three million canisters to Bahrain in early 2014, the rights group launched a campaign to stop it. And they achieved their goal. In the first week of January, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced it would halt the planned shipment on grounds of 'political instability' in the recipient country.

Verification issues

Amnesty International’s Head of Arms Control, Brian Wood, heralded the change of tack, as 'a clear message that the Bahraini authorities’ ongoing repression of peaceful protests is unacceptable and will not be rewarded with future weapons transfers.' But there is always another supplier eager to do business.

Scouring defense manufacturers’ brochures and stands at arms fairs for products that match used cartridges is a painstaking process, but in a sector characterized by shady dealings, Al-Fardan says it is often the best starting point. Bahrain Watch has seen photographs of RMD’s tear gas canisters in its promotional material, and says their size and markings appear to be the same as the models that litter the streets of the country.

DW has seen the images and can confirm the visual similarities, but for copyright reasons cannot publish the pictures. Despite repeated requests, Rheinmetall Denel did not make a picture of its tear gas canisters available. It did, however, offer a statement saying its subsidiary Rheinmetall Denel Munition (Pty) Ltd had to date 'neither offered nor supplied tear gas cartridges to the government of Bahrain.'

A follow-up request for information about any exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - both of which provided military power to help crush the uprising three years ago - went unanswered.

The South African component

The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in Berlin, which is responsible for arms export licenses, was more forthcoming. In a statement to DW it said it had not granted permission for exports of the chemical irritant to either country in 2011. And although Saudi Arabia was Germany’s most important arms export destination for 2012, the Berlin ministry said tear gas did not feature on its shopping list worth 1,237 million euros. The UAE did receive 2,000 German canisters of the chemical agent in 2012. But Manama deals in the millions rather than the thousands.

As for exports of the substance directly to Bahrain, the BMWi told DW 'there have been no applications from German companies to export tear gas to Bahrain in recent years.'

But 49 percent of the company is South African, and its production plants are located there. Under German export regulations, RMD could manufacture tear gas in South Africa and ship it to Bahrain without a license from Berlin.

In South Africa the National Conventional Arms Control Committee oversees exports, but it has come under scrutiny from human rights observers in the past for its choice of recipient countries. When asked to offer a statement on how tear gas canisters believed to have been manufactured by their company came to land on the streets of Bahrain, RMD remained silent.

Jan van Aken of Germany’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation offers two possible explanations for the emergence of what is allegedly RMD tear gas in Bahrain. 'It could be an earlier shipment,' he said. 'Or Rheinmetall Denel could also have sold it to another South African company that shipped it.' David Maynier, South Africa’s Shadow Minister of Defence, indicated to Deutsche Welle, that he would put the latter point to his government.

Lethal non-lethal weapons

Meanwhile tear gas is making life treacherous for the people of Bahrain. The international guidelines for its use say it should be fired in open spaces at a 45-degree angle, but YouTube and other social media platforms are awash with videos that show it being used irresponsibly. There are countless reports of police launching it into homes and into mosques and even hairdressing salons.

Witnesses and victims say there is no escape. In a statement issued earlier this year, the Bahraini Interior Ministry said it always uses the substance 'entirely in compliance with international law.' Vincent Iacopino from the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights begs to differ. His organization put together a detailed report on the issue.

'First and foremost it is being used against peaceful demonstrators to quash opposition or rights of freedom of assembly,' Iacopino said. 'And it is also being aimed directly at protesters, at close range.'

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights has recorded 14 deaths following direct hits from tear gas canisters. It has also logged thousands of injuries, and further fatalities as a result of respiratory complications. Doctors say miscarriage rates have risen, and they are worried about the unknown long-term effects of over-exposure to the irritant.

'It is misuse on a huge scale, it is being used to punish and kill,' Al-Fardan said. 'It has to stop.' He is not planning to give up the fight until all suppliers have been named and shamed. France, Spain, the US and now South Korea have already announced a halt to their export programs, now it is time to pressure the manufacturers of the 40mm canisters with the unmistakable thick red band.

Jerusalem’s famous flashpoint

One hundred female Israeli soldiers and 35 Orthodox Jews from the US were recently guided onto the site in the Old City. The group was accompanied by journalist and radical rabbi Yehuda Glick, a former head of the Temple Institute. Israeli settlers have also entered the site in the past weeks, with one scaling the side of the Dome of the Rock in protest of the site being closed to non-Muslims during the day. The settlers reportedly exchanged verbal blows with Muslim worshippers.

Glick has campaigned that a third temple should be built in the place of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque. Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, the general director of Muslim Endowment and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, has condemned the actions, calling them 'a provocative and dangerous step.'

Restrictions for non-Muslim visitors

The site of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and is their third holiest site. The plaza on which they both sit is known as Judaism's most holy place - the Temple Mount - where Jews believe the First and Second Temples once stood. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Today, the site is one of the most contested holy sites in the world and the place of frequent tensions. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently cancelled his visit to the Dome of the Rock, citing security reasons.

The plaza has been the site of repeated violent demonstrations, clashes, stonings and shootings, despite being steeped in religious symbolism for Jews, Christian and Muslims alike.

Non-Muslim visitors are restricted from entering the site of Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, it is rare to have had a glimpse inside either.

Al-Aqsa is located in East Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian territories that have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967. The glittering gold dome of the Dome of the Rock dominates the Skyline of Old Jerusalem and overlooks the Western Wall.

The head of the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch told DW he did not accept Muslims preventing Jews from going up onto the plaza housing Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock.

A holy monopoly?

'The Jewish way says we do not have a monopoly over god - that's why this place [The Western Wall] is open to everyone. A holy place should not be closed for anyone, no matter what his religion is, or what his view on life is.'

Unlike radical Yehuda Glick, Rabbi Rabinovitch says Jews should not visit the site, he has put signs about the entrance to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque saying it is forbidden for Jews to enter.

According to mainstream Jewish religious leaders, Jews are forbidden from entering for fear they would profane the 'holy of holies,' or the inner sanctum of the Second Temple.

Rabbi Rabinovich said Judaism also prevented them from digging inside the Temple Mount. When asked what he would like to see in a peace agreement if one arose this year he said he could not see a resolution for the claims over Jerusalem.

'Jerusalem is one of the more problematic places to come to agreement on - not everything has a solution. It will be impossible to remove Jews from the Western Wall and I am not sure there is a solution for the Old City of Jerusalem. I do want the world to know that Jews are peaceful and we do have ethics,' he said.

Jerusalem and its holy sites came under Jewish control after the Six Day War in 1967. Since then Jerusalem has become the focal point of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as Palestinians insist Jerusalem is the capital of their intended state.

Western Wall tunnels

A lesser known part of Jerusalem's Old City are tunnels that weave underneath properties in the Muslim Quarter along the length of the Western Wall, a site sacred to Jewish people.

Today, the Western Wall tunnels that border the sacred sites of Al-Aqsa, Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount are open to tour groups. They were cleared out by the Israeli government and follow the length of the Western Wall. At first glance the tunnels seem to be carved out underground, but in reality they were built above ground.

The secretary to the Rabbi of the Western Wall and tunnel guide Devora Birkin said Muslims wanted to build their homes in the valley next to the western wall. 'They decided to build a neighborhood in the air, you do this by elevating it with arches. Finally the neighborhood is completed and it's much closer to the height of the temple mount granting easy access into the mountain,' said Birkin.

At the time the Ministry of Religious Affairs began excavations that show the continuation of the wall. Houses were cleared in front of the part of the Western Wall where today 57 meters of the wall are used for Jewish prayer. The remaining 438 meters can be seen in the tunnels.

Inside the tunnels there is a women's section for prayer overlooking the Western Wall, a 2,000-year-old room beside the Temple Mount with Roman features and an ancient Roman Street leading to Temple Mount. About 46 meters into the tunnel is a sealed entrance known as 'the cave.'

While early Muslims allowed Jews to pray there for hundreds of years, these days the site has become a focal point for the disputes and differences between the two sides. A resolution of the problem seems as distant as a solution to the Jerusalem question as a whole.

US circumvents bill to transfer aid to Egypt

As Egypt's controversial political transition moves forward under the watchful eye of a military-backed interim government, the United States faces a dilemma over whether to embrace General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi or risk jeopardizing its relations with Cairo, a key strategic ally in the Middle East.

So far, the White House has declined to label General el-Sissi's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi - Egypt's first democratically elected leader - as a military coup. That's because the US Foreign Assistance Act bars Washington from providing aid money to 'any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.'

By calling Morsi's ouster a coup, the Obama administration would have been obligated to cut $1.5 billion (1.1 billion euros) in aid money to Egypt. A significant portion of that money goes directly to US defense contractors which manufacture weapons systems for Cairo. The money also helps to maintain the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace agreement.

In January, the US Congress passed a spending bill that effectively allows the Obama administration to circumvent the Foreign Assistance Act and transfer aid money to Egypt under the condition that the country makes progress toward democratic governance.

'It's an attempt by the Congress to give more space and freedom to the administration to deal with a government that came to power by a coup,' Khalil al-Anani, an Egypt expert with the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., told DW.

Half-measures

Last October, the White House suspended $250 million in cash transfers to Egypt as well as the delivery of tanks, attack helicopters and warplanes among other weapons systems. But according to Tarek Radwan, the Obama administration was only paying lip service to the Foreign Assistance Act.

'These were halfway measures that neither satisfied US law, which prohibited this kind of assistance to governments that have been overthrown by the military, but it's also not been enough to really correct the behavior,' Radwan, an Egypt expert at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., told DW.

'We're looking at the imminent accession of General el-Sissi to the presidency - if that's not pre-2011, I don't know what is,' Radwan said.

Procedural democracy

Under the legislation passed by Congress, the White House can transfer $975 million in aid to Egypt once a constitution has been approved in a national referendum. In January, the military-backed draft constitution was passed with 98 percent of the vote. But only 38 percent of the Egyptian electorate cast their ballot.

After the referendum, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern, citing NGOs that said the process had not been inclusive and that opponents had been arrested for campaigning against the constitution. Kerry called on Cairo to 'take these concerns into account as preparations are made for presidential and parliamentary elections.'

'What Kerry's statements show is a support for essentially lip service to procedural democracy rather than any kind of substantive democracy,' Radwan said.

Once presidential and parliament elections have taken place, the Obama administration can then release the remaining money to Egypt, nearly $577 million. According to Radwan, the White House is 'essentially giving up' on the democratic process in Egypt in order to focus on preserving Washington's strategic ties with Cairo.

'We are going to try and resurrect our same old security arrangement in Egypt as we did under Mubarak,' Radwan said of the US position.

Jay Z and Beyoncé’s $2 million Super Bowl show

Jay Z, Beyoncé and DJ Tiesto were paid more then $2 million to perform at the most expensive Super Bowl party of all-time on Saturday night (01.02.14). 
The couple performed for 6,000 guests at Pier 40 on Manhattan's West Side, while DJ Tiesto took to the decks, and the trio banked huge pay cheques for their night's work, according to the New York Post newspaper. 
Hollywood stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx were joined by music legend Sir Paul McCartney to watch Beyoncé and her husband perform her single 'Drunk in Love' at the DirecTV Super Saturday party.
The show took place in a specially-constructed 88,000 sq ft stadium - while guests drank in a heated stadium tent which took weeks to build. 
Macklemore, Spike Lee, Hayden Panettiere and Kate Upton were amongst the other guests. 
Jay, 44, headlined and performed a greatest hits set including his ode to New York City 'Empire State of Mind', before being joined by his wife Beyoncé, 32, to perform their latest collaboration. 
The notoriously private pair, who also put on a steamy performance at the Grammy Awards last month, kissed on stage and Jay Z urged the crowd to 'all hail Queen B.'
The event was sponsored by Mark Cuban's Axs TV and Bank of America.
Later on in the evening the couple attended the Roc Nation Sports and Airbnb party at Jay Z's own 40/40 Club.

Prince Harry into ‘hardcore thrash metal’

Prince Harry is a fan of heavy metal.
The 29-year-old royal took part in a gruelling 208-mile journey across Antarctica in December where he was accompanied by actor Dominic West and Alexander Skarsgard, in addition to disabled servicemen.
Dominic - who was catapulted to the spotlight as Detective Jimmy McNulty in the HBO drama series 'The Wire' - claims the flame-haired prince had 'terrible' tunes to listen to while they did the trek to raise money for the charity Walking with the Wounded. 
He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: 'Harry has a terrible selection on his iPod. It is the sort of thing soldiers listen to, hardcore thrash metal.'
Following the mission Harry paid tribute to his teammates for completing the challenge. 
He previously said: 'This truly unbelievable achievement by everyone behind me... will remind everybody that they can achieve anything they want to. Our wounded, injured and sick [servicemen] they simply want to be treated the same way as before they were injured. With respect. 
'For some the journey may be more of a challenge and it is up to us to make it as easy for them as we can. We can do that with training, with employment, or even with adventure.'

Big data, streaming – the music industry’s path ahead?

It was around two years ago that a completely unknown German musician named Marius Lauber, who uses the moniker Roosevelt, put a demo track titled 'Sea' online. By 2013, the indie-electronic performer had landed coveted gigs at clubs such as Berghain in Berlin and Le Bain in New York, while music critics at the Guardian and Pitchfork hailed him as an act to watch.

'I uploaded the song to YouTube at some point - without looking for a label. [Record label] Greco-Roman discovered it there, and we met up. After a year, everything had fallen into place,' he told web radio station bln.fm just after his first track's official release in late 2012.

Roosevelt's success story is now commonplace, reflecting one way in which streaming sites such as YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify or the recently launched Beats Music are reshaping how artists are discovered and listened to.

That transformation represents a headache for many in the music industry, who give streaming sites part of the blame for a loss of what estimates hold to be nearly half of the volume of music sales over the last 15 years.

Mining Twitter for talent

Others, like Lyor Cohen, want to seize the change as an opportunity. The former Def Jam and Warner Music Group head introduced his new music venture called 300 on Sunday (02.02.2014) at the Midem music conference, stressing, 'I certainly believe in streaming as being the future of very healthy business.'

By culling and analyzing music-related data that is generated online, Cohen intends to sidestep the massive machinery of the major labels. That would be in keeping with the name '300,' a reference to a battle in Greek history in which 300 Spartans successfully fought against thousands of Persian soldiers.

Speaking to a packed house at Midem in Cannes, the industry veteran announced a partnership with Twitter that will allow his company to mine troves of Twitter's music-related data, including information like location tags that are not publicly available. In exchange, 300 will use its findings to assist Twitter in developing software that could be of interest to others working in music.

Cohen's intent is to use such data to pinpoint up-and-comers like Roosevelt long before they would land on a traditional talent scout's radar.

YouTube - 'legal pirate'?

YouTube is often the first port of call for listeners upon hearing about a new artist. But the frustrations in the industry toward YouTube have been evident in Cannes. Streaming service Deezer's CEO Axel Dauchez described the site's lack of payoff for many artists as making it 'the most important legal pirate.'

Other streaming services have recently met the wrath of artists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead, David Byrne of the Talking Heads and Beck, who say they simply don't pay out enough to make artists' efforts worthwhile.

US sales data from 2013 show the impact of streaming sites. Nielsen SoundScan reports that 2013 was the first year in which digital track downloads fell in the US market - the world's largest. CD sales also fell by a hefty 14 percent. Meanwhile, the number of songs streamed grew 32 percent to just under 120 billion.

Exact data on 2013 sales is still out for Germany, which is among the top five largest music markets. Preliminary figures show sales of physical music articles dropping two percent against a 12-percent increase for revenues in the digital arena, which includes streaming.

Billions in growth

However, Marc Geiger, head of global music at William Morris Endeavor (WME), believes those figures are hardly grounds for pessimism.

Speaking at Midem, he urged fellow industry members to recognize that file downloads 'are over' and that streaming is the 'next stage of the system' - a system he estimates will vastly exceed the music industry's profits during their peak of around $40 billion in the late 90s. In 15 years, he told Midem attendees, he thinks revenues from streams could top $100 billion.

Geiger bases that estimate on several premises: that subscription-based fees start low but inevitably rise over time, that monthly fees for data are the new normal and that music streaming services will likely be bundled into the price of other packages in the future. A package on offer between American telecommunications provider ATT and Beats Music, the streaming service launched by Dr. Dre in January, may point the way forward when it comes to such bundling arrangements.

Avoiding the 'jukebox' effect

Streaming raises another thorny issue, Deezer chief Axel Dauchez told DW - calling it the 'jukebox' effect, meaning that users just play the tracks, albums and artists they already know. The problem with that, he added, is that new or adventuresome artists lack a path to fund the music they're creating.

'To build the streaming business as being sustainable for everybody, we absolutely - it's a common duty of all in the industry - need to transform the streaming service into discovery,' he said.

But before users can discover new music on premium streaming sites, they'll have to fork over the subscription fees. Just how many are prepared to do that will be a key question for the industry in the next few years.