By Amnon Lord The news last week that the Quartet is suggesting indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over the territorial issue caught me by surprise. I believe most Israelis were not aware of any development at all on the Palestinian front, let alone that the Palestinians had responded favorably and that Israel rejected the …

By David Haslam LONDON: The classic 1981 horror movie The Monster Club, starring Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance, and John Carradine as monsters, included a cast of cannibals, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and a hybrid creature called a “shadmock.” Among this group of misfits, the only outcast was an ordinary fat girl. Hollywood did not invent the concept …

By Nasser Al-Sarami DUBAI: As I write this article, a television screen in my office at Al Arabiya broadcasts images of brave Egyptians lining up, in the face of intimidation and uncertainty, to elect a new parliament. It’s a spectacle I wouldn’t have imagined only a year ago — but it’s also consistent with the unprecedented …

By Carl Bildt STOCKHOLM/MEXICO CITY: Indonesia’s parliament has just taken a historic step, one that makes the planet safer from the threat of nuclear weapons. The importance of Indonesia’s decision to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty cannot be overstated. This is a golden opportunity for the remaining eight countries to endorse the CTBT, enabling it to …

By Hamid Eltgani Ali and Warigia Bowman The first round of Egyptian parliamentary elections is drawing to a close, but in another sense, Egyptian multi-party politics is just beginning. After a partially successful revolution, Egypt is now on a crash course to multi-party democracy. Other countries that have gone through major political transitions from dictatorship to …

By Tatiana Zhurzhenko VIENNA: Seven years ago, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution inspired hope that the country was moving towards genuine democracy. Since then, democratic freedoms have been curtailed, the former prime minister and co-leader of the revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been imprisoned, and President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime has become internationally isolated. Ukraine is unraveling. Today, a small …

By Mohammed Najib The Palestinian Authority’s latest financial crisis — which Palestinians widely believe was punishment for President Mahmoud Abbas’ request for statehood at the United Nations in late September — has seriously impacted various sectors within the Palestinian community, including both civil sector employees and West Bank security personnel. Israel’s blockade of $200 million in …

By Hassan Barari For Jordan, the impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian track could not be more threatening. Time and time again, King Abdullah II has stressed that the failure of a two-state solution would be detrimental to the national security of his country. For this reason, Amman has pushed both Palestinians and Israelis to get their act …

By Katherine Marshall WASHINGTON, DC: The deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26 during NATO operations at two border posts inside Pakistan was, as US President Barack Obama observed, a tragedy for the soldiers’ families and for their nation. It would be another tragedy to miss the opportunity that this crisis offers to step back …

By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: The only certainty is change — the tenet of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus resonates through Egypt’s transformation. The next phalanx of voters might consider Heraclitus’ concept: You can’t step into the same river twice because the river is different water and your perception has changed. Egypt’s state of flux pits ideas against …

By Labib Kamhawi Recent statements by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lack credibility and do not seem to reflect a real change in Israel’s stated or hidden policies, expressed through various other official avenues. His acknowledgement that Jordan is not Palestine came about, it seems, through pressure exerted by Jordan, which has a peace treaty with …

By Amira Hass My crystal ball shattered long ago, so I cannot predict whether or not a Palestinian reconciliation government will indeed come into being. All I can do is offer a few thoughts and questions, and emphasize that it is not my Israeli identity that is responsible for them but rather my left-wing identity. First, …

By  Omar El Sabh For the extended periods of time I spent in the square, during the various sit-ins and protests, it became clear to me, from day one, that the social rules and dynamics of Tahrir are of a nature of their own compared with the rest of Egyptian society. Problem is that recently it …

By Mohamed El Sayed CAIRO: As millions of Egyptians turned to polling stations to take part in the first of three phases of the historic parliamentary elections, it was clear that a new era had dawned. For the first time in six decades, Egyptians are freely casting their votes in democratic elections. Regardless of minor irregularities …

  The news of an alleged assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, in October read like a first-class movie script, but the manner in which government political elites dealt with the incident signaled that Washington and other European capitals did not see the matter as a joke. Despite the …

By Lord Julian Hunt The main aim of the UN climate summit at Durban, which began on November 28 and ends Dec. 9, is to produce an agreement about targets for emissions by developed countries, and longer term targets from developing countries. But with sudden switches in energy policies, environmental regulations and accidents such as Fukushima, …