Let’s hope Bush does no more damage
In the troubled, conflict-ridden Middle East, President George W Bush has done everything wrong. But his mandate still has half a year to run and, unless restrained, he can do a lot more damage — to the region and to America — before he retires to his ranch at Crawford, Texas, and to the obscurity he amply deserves. At the heart...Arabs not worried about Iranian nukes
To make its case against Iran's right as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop nuclear capabilities, the U.S. government has tried to claim that the people of the region, in U.S.-allied countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states, are concerned about Iran's nuclear developments. Yet,...Conquering the land: Why one Israeli writer isn’t celebrating
As I write this, I can only guess how all the various media outlets will mark Israel's birthday. As much as I love nostalgia, the compulsive reading of the weekend papers and obsessive watching of old people singing on television — I have no intention of taking part in the celebrations this time. Because I know the naked truth about...Anniversary should be turning point
As Israelis finalize preparations for their momentous 60th anniversary — a date marking 10 years of consistent economic growth and industrious expansion — there remains the underlying question that will go unanswered yet another decade: What will be done with the West Bank and the Golan Heights? Despite all of its considerable...When will Israel learn?
In present form, it looks as if Israel might need another six decades to grasp that Middle East security is indivisible — in other words, that its own security cannot be won at the cost of the insecurity of its neighbors. For all its achievements over the past six decades, Israel has failed one crucial test:...Diamonds in Dubai and Israeli settlements
Dubai is known as both a wonderland of exuberance and a stopping point for tourists, travelers and international businessmen. Unimpressed by its display of wealth and luxury, activists are rallying against Dubai's decision to allow an Israeli businessman and active builder of Israeli settlements to set up shop there. He...MIT of Middle East should include Saudi people’s welfare
American universities in need of funding may find an unlikely ally in the Middle East, as Saudi Arabia prepares to launch an international, graduate level research university. Already, Berkeley and Stanford have signed millon dollar contracts with the university. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), set...America’s Palestine-Israel fairytale
A memorable quote in Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer Abroad" (1894) still carries a wealth of relevance. He writes, "They own the land, just the mere land, and that's all they do own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made it holy, and so they haven't any business to be there defiling it. It's a shame and we ought not to...Will the Middle East go up in flames this summer?
These are dangerously unsettled times in the Middle East. There are so many bitter scores to settle, so much violent dissension, such implacable hatreds, that it would take only a spark to set the whole region alight. Or so it would seem. Many observers predict a hot and bloody summer. What they have in mind is not only a continuation...The choice of non-violence: Our strategy for Palestine
Sixty years after the Naqba, the catastrophe, Palestinians are still without a state. They are living under occupation, many are in refugee camps, others are scattered around the world, and a part of the Palestinian people are no more than second class citizens in Israel itself. The Palestinian struggle to achieve...Petraeus points to war with Iran
The neocons may yet get their war on Iran. Ever since President Nouri al-Maliki ordered the attacks in Basra on the Mahdi Army, Gen. David Petraeus has been laying the predicate for U.S. air strikes on Iran and a wider war in the Middle East. Iran, Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee, has "fueled the recent...What is wrong with Egypt?
Not since the downfall of the British puppet King Faruq in 1952 has the Egyptian national will been so shamefully subservient to a foreign power, namely the United States, whose politics and policies are tightly controlled by Zionist Jews. Today, Egypt, which could have become an African or Middle Eastern economic tiger, is facing...Time for Iraq’s neighbors to show leadership
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has once again set herself an impossible goal. This time, she is not attempting to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace — a task at which she has been spectacularly unsuccessful — but rather to improve the security of Iraq. At an international conference in Kuwait, 21-22 April, she is hoping......
West needs to better assess Islam
BOSTON — The United States is a confused and frustrated country when it comes to dealing with the wide variety of voices and actions coming out of Muslim societies. Everywhere in the public sphere, discussions of foreign policy issues inevitably touch on how to deal with "Islamic extremism," often revolving around the "terrorism" and...Standing in the shoes of the foe
My life in the West Bank during the summer of 2006 was a lot less dramatic than some might imagine. I wasn't kidnapped and I didn't see any gunbattles in the street. I went to university every day, ate delicious food, and traveled throughout various cities in the area. This is not to say that life is normal in this part of the......
The power of the ink of the scholar
WASHINGTON (IPS) — In an age when suicide bombings and religious and ethnic riots comprise the bulk of the evening news, it seems as though compassion and compromise are more elusive than ever. Buddha said that there are three poisons in this world: greed, anger, and ignorance. These poisons have the capacity to destroy individuals —...Film designed to anger Muslims divides the West
The timing could not be more truthful. Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a peacekeeping mission to Israel-Palestine and declared her opposition to Israeli settlement expansion, Israel announced plans to build 1,400 new settler homes in the West Bank. Last week Secretary Rice gave a press...A responsible response to Geert Wilders
NEW YORK ? As soon as I heard that right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film had been uploaded onto an internet site, I did what any self-respecting Muslim would do: I clicked on the link and prepared to be offended. Talk about anti-climax! What happened, Geert? Like a magpie stringing cheap trinkets together,...When a ‘custodian of freedom’ is the perpetrator of ethnic cleansing
A few weeks after newly elected Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, apologized to the Aborigines, the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, Rudd was party to a motion in Parliament describing Israel as a "robust democracy" and a "custodian of freedom" in a region abounding in autocracies and theocracies. Opposition Liberal......
Granholm did not deserve the coverage
To the Editor: How much did Granholm pay you to write this untrue letter about her and the state of Michigan? (Michigan ranked one of best-managed states, Issue 1153, March 8-14, 2008). Granholm is an anti-American who hates herself and everyone else! She's trying to close all the schools here, the jails and the mental...End the shame of NSEERS
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced a plan that would reduce the Naturalization Background backlog, as well as the green card backlog. Officials hope to move nearly 900,000 applicants by the end of September. This is great news for......
Something bad is happening to us
We have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior people. Generations come and go, and new soldiers abuse the residents of occupied Hebron in almost the same manner. This time, it was regular soldiers in the Kfir Brigade. They exposed their backsides and sexual organs to Palestinians, pressed an electric heater to the...A hole in the wall
As the massacres against unarmed Palestinians continued under the policy of ethnic cleansing which has been utilized by the global Zionist movement since the beginning of its occupation of Palestine, two important studies concerning the preparations for the war on Iraq were released in the West. The first study, "Flimsy......