Iraq is poised to explode
While everyone's looking at Iraq's effect on American politics and whether or not John McCain and Barack Obama are converging on a policy that combines a flexible timetable with a vague, and long-lasting, residual force let's take a look instead at Iraqi politics. The picture isn't pretty. Despite the optimism of the neocons,...Bodies swap is uneasy triumph
BEIRUT (IPS) The image of 199 coffins covered with Lebanese, Palestinian and Hizbullah flags neatly aligned in a southern Beirut compound was broadcast last week on all national Lebanese TV stations. On Tuesday this week, 144 of these remains were transferred to Syria, their final place of rest. Such images have stirred varying...
Bush, U.S. military pressure Iraqis on withdrawal
July 26th, 20080 WASHINGTON (IPS) Instead of moving toward accommodating the demand of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal, the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military leadership are continuing to pressure their erstwhile client regime to bow to the U.S. demand for a long-term military...
Roadblocks cripple West Bank economy
July 26th, 20080 HEBRON (IPS) The Israeli military has erected three additional roadblocks, further blocking vehicular access on the road between the south Hebron village of At-Tuwani and the commercial hub of Yatta in the southern West Bank. The West Bank is the Palestinian area west of the Jordan river, much of it under Israeli control....Cancer on the rise in Lebanon
BEIRUT (IPS) Reports of a rising incidence of cancer now worry many families across Lebanon. Over the past 40 years, reported cases of cancer have risen from 3,000 to about 8,000 a year. "Cancer has certainly increased in terms of real figures. Statistics in the 1960s show 100 incidents per 100,000 individuals. The most recent...The coming of the third Palestinian exodus
Israel has once again sealed off the Gaza Strip from all but limited humanitarian aid, spawning widespread food, water and fuel shortages and crippling the local economy in the overcrowded territory of 1.5 million people. By depriving Palestinians of the basic conditions of a normal life, it is assumed that they will eventually...Has the ‘surge’ in Iraq worked?
In 2006, things seemed to be going badly for the U.S. military efforts in Iraq. The Iraq war became a top issue in the 2006 Congressional elections in the United States. It is generally agreed that the Republicans did poorly in those elections, largely because the U.S. electorate had become disillusioned with the viability and...
Historic prisoner swap
July 18th, 20080 The Israeli cabinet's decision to strike a prisoner exchange deal with the Hizbullah movement in Lebanon on the eve of the anniversary of the war between the two sides of July 12 August 14, 2006 will not be remembered as one of Israel's most glorious moments. Even its chief architect, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has referred to...‘Worse than apartheid’
I thought they would feel right at home in the alleys of Balata refugee camp, the Casbah and the Hawara checkpoint. But they said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were...U.S. changes course on Iran
WASHINGTON In the seemingly never-ending internal battle between hawks and realists in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for control of foreign policy, the realists appear to have chalked up another win over their once-dominant foes. The decision to send the State Department's third-ranking official to Geneva...
Syria comes in from the cold
July 18th, 20080 Paris Rarely has the French capital witnessed such an extravaganza as on July 13, when 43 heads of state and government launched the "Union for the Mediterranean" in the grandiose setting of the Grand Palais, and a day later attended a Bastille Day march past down the Champs-Elysιes, undoubtedly the finest parade-ground in Europe....A wave of Islamic insurers gears up to woo Syrians
Damascus Every morning, as Ibrahim al-Mohammed opens the shutters of his Damascus store, he invokes the name of God. For Mr. al-Mohammed, who sports a trim white beard and a portly belly, divine protection is key to safeguarding his array of soaps and cleaning products. The thought of insurance has never crossed his mind. "I...Iraqi Shi’a party rises as Sadr falls
NAJAF At a teeming rally in this holy city last Thursday, thousands of Iraqi Shi'a made an election pledge. "We are at your beck and call, Hakim," they shouted in unison to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), arguably now the country's most influential and best organized Shi'a religious...
A peace package for the Iran crisis
July 11th, 20080 Reckless hawks in Israel and the United States continue to talk up the possibility even the unavoidability of a strike against Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. Moreover, according to Seymour M. Hersh in the July 7 issue of The New Yorker, U. S. Special Forces are already engaged in extensive clandestine operations...Israel launches all-out war on Islamic institutions in the West Bank
Palestinian Muslim leaders have called on Arab and Muslim states as well as "all human beings who believe in justice" to strongly condemn an ongoing Israeli campaign against Muslim civilian institutions throughout the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army on Tuesday, July 8, rampaged through the northern town of Nablus,......
Gaza under siege despite truce
CAIRO (IPS) Despite a torrent of mutual recriminations, the fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian resistance faction Hamas survived into its third week. Israel, however, has been slow to fulfill its pledge as laid down in an Egypt-brokered ceasefire agreement to allow desperately-needed humanitarian supplies into the...Sewage in water threatens Gazans
GAZA CITY (IPS) Gaza is being forced to pump 77 tons of untreated or partially treated sewage out to sea daily due to the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. The fear is that some of this is creeping back into drinking water. "The health of Gaza's 1.5 million people is at risk," Mahmoud Daher, from the U.N. World Health......
Hawks belie Iran’s “existential threat” to Israel
WASHINGTON (IPS) New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favor of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all. The new arguments contradict Israel's official argument that it faces...U.S. forces to hand over hard-won Anbar Province?
FALLUJAH This is a city literally rising from the ashes. While reminders of two major U.S. assaults here in April and November 2004 are inescapable, signs of rebirth are plenty. Men in jumpsuits busily work on construction sites, sewers are being installed, and a hospital is nearly completed. Now, the U.S. military is poised to...Muslim Brotherhood stronger after party election
CAIRO (IPS) Recent internal elections within the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement were trumpeted in the local press as a victory for the group's "conservative" faction over its "reformist" rivals. But according to independent commentators and a Brotherhood spokesman, media claims of a split within the movement's ranks are...Poll backs greater U.N. role in Mideast peace
WASHINGTON (IPS) A majority of global publics say their governments should "not take either side" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead supporting a call for the United Nations to play a greater role in regional peace, according to a new international poll of 18 countries released here Tuesday. World publics gave low......
Is Doha unraveling in Lebanon?
BEIRUT Unresolved disputes and sectarian rancor have bubbled to the surface in Lebanon this week, jeopardizing the brief respite provided by the Doha agreement to end the 18-month political crisis. Having filled a six-month presidential void by the election of Michel Suleiman on 25 May, the country may be on the brink of yet...
Hizbullah affirms prisoner swap
July 5th, 20080 BEIRUT Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah, has announced his group's agreement to a prisoner exchange deal with Israel. In a televised speech on Wednesday, the Hizbullah leader said he expected the swap to take place in one to two weeks. He said that the exchange should include the release of Samir Kantar, a......
Hamas and Hizbullah gain, almost hand in hand
CAIRO (IPS) Hizbullah's dramatic seizure of Beirut last month stunned observers and dealt a heavy blow to Washington's Lebanese allies. In Cairo, analysts compared the episode to last year's takeover of the Gaza Strip by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, noting that both actions were pre-emptive rather than offensive in...
A blueprint for withdrawal from Iraq
June 27th, 20080 WASHINGTON (IPS) Proponents of a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq routinely brush off criticisms that their ideas are "irresponsible." But until this week, the charge that withdrawal cannot be accomplished responsibly and just how that would be done has never been coherently answered. With the release Wednesday of the......