On Dec. 21, an Italian doctor, Mario Riccio, disconnected a respirator that was keeping Piergiorgio Welby alive. Welby, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and was paralyzed, had battled unsuccessfully in the Italian courts for the right to die. After Riccio gave him a sedative and switched off the respirator, Welby said “thank you three times …

In the span of five days last week, I had the pleasure of participating in five different events that brought together concerned civil society activists, assorted professionals, academics, and a few public figures from across the Arab world. These gatherings are routine nowadays, but are also noteworthy because they mirror a wider determination among Arab …

That Saddam Hussein’s execution at the hands of the Iraqi government was completely botched is no secret. That Saddam’s reputation among Arabs was “rehabilitated to some extent due to the grotesque handling of the killing is also a well known fact. While the feelings of indignation will more than likely fade in the near future, …

The real impact of globalization on Muslim-Western relations has been mixed, but as the adage reminds us, bad news travels faster . Ironically, the speed advantage of globalization’s negative press can be attributed primarily to globalization itself. Empirically, it seems credible that income levels and life-expectancy in Muslim-majority countries have improved in the last half-century, …

One of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s favorite metaphors was that of the “chute, the narrow fenced structure through which ranchers push cattle to the slaughterhouse. The rancher-turned-prime minister frequently used it to refer to what he saw as attempts by the international community to force upon Israel a solution to its conflict with …

Fifteen years after the Soviet Union collapsed and split apart, Russia still fits Winston Churchill’s characterization of Stalin’s USSR nearly seven decades ago: “A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Throughout the presidencies of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s and today that of Vladimir Putin, Russia has opened its doors to international trade, …

Last November’s congressional elections dealt US President George W. Bush a sharp rebuff over his Iraq policy. Shortly after the election, the Iraq Study Group offered a bipartisan formula for the gradual withdrawal of American troops. But Bush rejected this, and persists in speaking of victory in Iraq – though it is unclear what that …

Neighboring Arab states face uphill battle to temper situation in Palestinian territories Thirty people have lost their lives in the power struggle that has engulfed the Palestinian territories in the past several weeks. There is a face-off between Fatah, which holds the Presidency under Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, the cash-strapped elected government headed by Prime …

Precisely because expectations of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s trips to the Middle East usually plunge lower than the Dead Sea, she seems to feel that she can quietly gauge receptivity to new approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian situation without setting off world headlines. As President George W. Bush puts forth a new strategy in …

As the United States prepares to implement a new strategy in Iraq, its main target in Baghdad is the Mehdi Army led by Moqtada al-Sadr. In December, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group identified the Mehdi Army and the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), as …

Last November’s congressional elections dealt US President George W. Bush a sharp rebuff over his Iraq policy. Shortly after the election, the Iraq Study Group offered a bipartisan formula for the gradual withdrawal of American troops. But Bush rejected this, and persists in speaking of victory in Iraq–though it is unclear what that now means. …

It is only natural that people go to sleep not sure that they will wake up alive the next day, but what is not natural is the new feeling I have these days. I go to sleep everyday not sure that I will wake up to go to work the next day, I go to …

US President George W. Bush is working hard to achieve a wholesale transformation of Iraq and the Middle East into something more stable, productive and democratic, or so American officials tell us. Bush enjoys reading American history, but he would do well to check out some historical narratives from our own region, especially if he …

Representative Rahm Emanuel, the architect of the Democratic victory in November’s congressional elections, watched President George W. Bush’s Iraq speech Wednesday night like the coach of an opposing debate team: “Tired, he said. “Too wooden. “Doesn’t fill the screen. The military consequences of Bush’s new policy in Baghdad aren’t knowable. But politically in Washington, it …

It may already be too late for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to reach an agreement using the present format of negotiations – or rather non-negotiations. The methods attempted by the sides thus far, and which, for a moment, seemed as if they were about to succeed, have failed. The peace process that began …

Researchers who say the 9/11 Commission was a cover-up are often denounced as “conspiracy nuts. In reality, millions of people are calling for a new probe of disturbing unanswered questions. The Zogby International poll found that 66% of New Yorkers support a new investigation.1 While I don t expect everyone to agree on what happened …

European unity is indivisible. When one nation is intimidated or ostracized, all are not free. Every aspect of our shared culture, if not the last century of shared suffering, confirms that for us. So a prime objective of the European Union is to promote stability and security through a dynamic structure of economic and political …

What makes sense in Iraq? The political debate is becoming sharply polarized again, as President George W. Bush campaigns for a new “surge strategy. But some useful military guideposts can be found in a new field manual of counterinsurgency warfare prepared by the general who is about to take command of US forces in Baghdad. …

In what is now quickly becoming a tired old soap opera with predictable script, a beleaguered cast, and an angry audience, US President George W. Bush has yet again promised to declare victory in Iraq and bring the troops home . by sending in more troops. Those should be catchphrases of American pop culture: “Victory …

It has been all too easy, both inside the Muslim-dominated world and in the West, to dismiss Islamist organizations, i.e. those affiliated with parties advocating political Islam as opposed to those who have no political affiliation whatsoever. At best, they are described as charity networks´, a label which carries a lower status´ than secular, non-governmental …

In looking at the likely status of the Arab-Israel conflict or diplomatic process during 2007, a key factor is the dramatic change taking place in Arab politics. On a strategic level, there is the rise of a new alliance of Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Hamas. On the ideological front, this bloc is accompanied by a …

Every time I walk through the frontline of the political confrontation in downtown Beirut between the American and Saudi-backed Fouad Seniora Lebanese government and the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah-led opposition, I have the sense of walking through a 1970-era American rock festival or a World War II movie set. The Beirut scene encapsulates today’s multiple …

The United States and the world are focused on whether the Bush administration will adopt the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations for an exit strategy from Iraq. That is the most pressing question, but America’s leaders should also be thinking ahead. America needs a post-occupation strategy for Iraq and the Middle East, one grounded in a …

After years of warlord control over Mogadishu and southern Somalia in general, in 2006 the so called “Islamic courts conquered all the center-south territories of the former Italian colony. Defeated and forced to flee from Mogadishu, the remains of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) moved to Baidoa, where President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad obtained concrete help …

Usually at this time of year, people are obsessed with what the coming year will bring. But in Russia, the real uncertainty concerns 2008, not 2007. Indeed, one can boil Russian politics down to one issue nowadays: Will President Vladimir Putin stay on as president after 2008, despite repeatedly stating that he won’t? And if …

Was the destruction bad in Beirut? asked the driver on the way to Tel Aviv s Ben Gurion airport. Some parts weren t touched, I answered. Others, in the southern suburbs, were completely flattened, I added, remembering vivid scenes of smouldering, bombed out buildings from this summer s war. It was early December and I …

Democratic victories in the US House of Representatives and Senate in November are causing an earthquake in US Middle East policy. While it is clear that the White House is under significant pressure to shift course regarding Iraq and to consider a more robust peacemaking effort in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is less clear how …

Now that the Democrats have taken control of the United States Congress, President George W. Bush has decided it’s time for fiscal discipline and a balanced budget. That’s shameless, even by local standards. Who does Bush think was in power when the big deficits of the last six years were created? A good way for …

In a Sept. 11, 2006 video, Ayman al-Zawahiri declared that, “Osama bin Laden has told me to announce to the Muslims that the GSPC (the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) has joined Al-Qaeda. This should be a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness for the apostates [of the Algerian regime], the treacherous sons …

Of the many transformations taking place throughout the Middle East, the most striking is that the new regional security architecture gradually emerging in the Arab world seems to be managed almost totally by non-Arab parties: Iran, Turkey, Israel, the United States, and now Ethiopia. It is possible that the Arabs could write themselves out of …