Syria: Israel’s most valuable partner for peace
July 10th, 20090 The recent gesture by the Obama administration to re-open the U.S. embassy in Damascus and renew talks with the Syrian government was meant to lay the groundwork for a resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks under American auspices. There is indeed a window of opportunity for Israel to make peace with another Arab country, which if...Hamas’ political impasse: Principle vs. necessity
Much can be said to explain, or even justify, Hamas' recent political concessions, where its top leaders in Gaza and Damascus agreed in principle with a political settlement on the basis of the two-state solution. Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (C) attends a rally in Gaza City in solidarity with Palestinian parliament...
Leap of faith
July 4th, 20090 Boys jump from a hill into the Tigris River in Baghdad's Adhamiya District, northern Baghdad July 1, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer WASHINGTON (IPS) — U.S. combat troops pulled out of most Iraqi cities Monday, a day before the Jun. 30 deadline for their withdrawal in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) ratified by...
Humantarian aid boat seized by Israeli Navy
July 4th, 20090 RAMALLAH — Twenty-one international peace activists were seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire (R) stands with another peace activist on a previous Gaza aid boat on October 29,...Hizbullah remains strong after elections
DAHIYEH — While on the surface the pro-U.S. team here did preserve its "majority" in the recent elections, the Hizbullah-led opposition actually won the election by nearly ten percent of the popular vote. Of approximately 1,495,000 votes cast on June 7, 815,000 voted for the national Lebanese resistance led by Hizbullah while 680,000...
How did a single teenage girl survive the Yemenia crash?
July 4th, 20090 Bahia Bakari, 14, the sole survivor from the Yemeni plane which crashed into the Indian Ocean with 153 people on board, receives medical attention during her journey by French government jet to Paris July 2, 2009 in this video grab. Bakari, who can barely swim, clung on to floating debris for more than 12 hours before search teams...Future of Fatah in doubt
RAMALLAH — The future of Palestinian unity talks is far more complex than the bitter rivalry, bloodshed and division which represent the yawning chasm separating Palestine's two main political factions, Hamas and Fatah. There are serious issues within Fatah that need to be resolved. After two decades of power struggles and acrimony...
Berri re-elected as Lebanon speaker
June 27th, 20090 BEIRUT — Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shi'a Muslim Amal movement, has been re-elected for a fifth term as the speaker of Lebanon's parliament. Lebanon's Parliament majority leader Saad al-Hariri (R) applauds upon announcing the re-election of Nabih Berri (front L) as house speaker at parliament in Beirut June 25, 2009....
Spike in violence as government offers referendum on withdrawal pact
June 27th, 20090 WASHINGTON – As Iraqis witness a spike in violence after a months-long relative lull, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has decided to put its security agreement with the U.S. to a public referendum, although the move appears to be only heightening a sense of uncertainty over the fate of the...Bloody showdown looming if unity talks fail
RAMALLAH – Egyptian mediators have set July 7 as deadline for final Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo. The Egyptians say time is running out, and if there is no progress in July, they will no longer be prepared to arbitrate. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal makes a speech during a rally in Damascus June 25, 2009....Election law reproduces elite, preserves their power
Lebanon's June 7 national election was a box office success. It had it all: shady politicians, foreign intrigue, bribes, beautiful women, meddling religious figures, sectarian agitation, recently exposed spy rings, fundamentalists collaborating with capitalists, the poor and oppressed voting for the rich and privileged. Druze...Opposition ponders uncertain future
TYRE (IPS) — A large highway cuts through the green hills connecting Lebanon's south to the Mediterranean Sea. Here, nestled amid banana trees and colorful bougainvillaea bushes, lies the city of Tyre, a bastion of the Shi'a community and a significant base of the Lebanese opposition. Now, following the parliamentary elections and the...Arabs need bargaining power
In their reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech, Palestinians and Arabs have unanimously rejected his conditions for a two-state solution. In a major political speech, Netanyahu said Israel would accept the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state only if Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish...
New hope for Carter in peacemaking?
June 19th, 20090 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (C front row) poses for a photo with senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (2nd row) and Palestinian children in Gaza City June 16, 2009. Carter met the children, who lost relatives during the three-week offensive Israel launched in Gaza last December, during his one-day visit to Gaza....Iraqi cultural attaché builds bridges
For the last three decades or so, Iraq has suffered tremendously from wars, destruction, economic sanctions, foreign invasion, occupation and the horror of sectarian strife and ethnic clashes. Perhaps the most horrifying loss inflicted on Iraq besides civilian casualties is the loss of Iraqi scientists, professionals, experts and......
Lebanon’s intelligence war with Israel
BEIRUT— Israel's ability to wage another war against Hizbullah may have been compromised by an unprecedented wave of arrests of people in Lebanon alleged to have been spying for the Israelis. Experts say the arrests appear to add up to a major strategic blow to Israel. Mobile phone footage circulating in Beirut shows one of the...Is Lebanon now a Wahabi state?
The fifth series of parliamentary elections held in Lebanon's Second Republic since its birth in 1989 were in some respects the most dominated by Saudi Arabia. Vote-buying was perhaps more rampant than ever before. In order to influence the election result, Saudi Arabia directly addressed the citizens of Lebanon by buying votes in...
Ruling party wins in Lebanon
June 10th, 20090 BEIRUT – Lebanon's Western-backed March 14 coalition has defeated a stiff challenge by the Hizbullah-led opposition in national elections to retain its parliamentary majority. A Lebanese election official counts ballots after their polling station closed in Zahle in the Bekaa valley June 7, 2009. Lebanese voted on Sunday in...A return to resistance in Iraq
At least 20 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in May, the most since last September, along with more than 50 wounded. Iraqi casualties are, as usual — and in both categories — at least ten times that number. A U.S. soldier walks past a man during a patrol in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad June 2, 2009.......
Palestinian Authority going the Israeli way
RAMALLAH (IPS) — A surge in confidence, following unprecedented U.S. political support, led to the Palestinian Authority's bloody crackdown on a Hamas cell in the northern West Bank on Sunday which left six Palestinians dead. However, reports of questionable Palestinian Authority (PA) tactics, including the use of Palestinian...Family history counts for women in race to parliament
BEIRUT (IPS) — In Lebanon's Jun. 7 parliamentary poll, women represent only two percent of the candidates, many of them with family names that have been appearing on ballots for generations. A banner of Nayla Tueni, parliamentary candidate and daughter of assassinated MP Gebran Tueni, hangs from a building in Beirut May 27,......
West Bank settlements are anathema to the entire world
Moshe Ya'alon, the Strategic Affairs Minister of Israel told Meet the Press last Saturday that his country will not follow American dictates and will not halt construction in the settlements. He was referring to the American demand that Israel halt all settlement activity, voiced by U.S. President Barack Obama to Prime Minister Binyamin...Provoking the inevitable in Iraq
On Monday, Iraqi government security forces arrested two prominent Sunni leaders in Iraq's volatile Diyala Province. One of them, Sheikh Riyadh al-Mujami, not coincidentally, is a prominent leader in the local Sahwa (Sons of Iraq), the 100,000-strong Sunni militia that was set up by the U.S. military to quell attacks against......
