In international relations the security discourse is often monopolised by those with a myopic view of security as focusing disproportionately on military matters. Other factors, be they economic, social or environmental, whilst perhaps considered important, have a tendency of being relegated firmly to the second tier of concerns ahead of the simple, brutish realities of …
TEL AVIV: At precisely 11 am the ceremony began on the White House lawn. The announcer proclaimed the entrance of US President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Palestinian Chairman Arafat. Disregarding the rules of etiquette, I stood on my chair to get a better look at the day s heroes. As someone who was …
NEW YORK: Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, the world is facing another stark choice between two fundamentally different forms of organization: international capitalism and state capitalism. The former, represented by the United States, has broken down, and the latter, represented by China, is on the rise. …
MOSCOW: The German people, and the whole world alongside them, are celebrating a landmark date in history, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not many events remain in the collective memory as a watershed that divides two distinct periods. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall – that stark, concrete symbol of …
TEL AVIV: The face of the conflict in the recent war in Gaza was indeed the face of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. His call for help, broadcast live on primetime Israeli television, poignantly revealed the human tragedy of that war to the world in general and to Israeli viewers in particular. Dr. Abuelaish lost three daughters …
NEW YORK: For weeks, the scene has been re-played on TV screens around the world, as if the events were breaking news: joyous Berliners dancing atop the infamous Wall, toppled 20 years ago on November 9, 1989. “Die Mauer ist Weck, the people cried out, punching their fists in the air before the cameras at …
WASHINGTON, DC: The J Street conference was by any account a tremendous success. For the first time ever, a pro-Israel organization convened in Washington to voice constructive criticism of the Israeli government’s more extreme policies. J Street defines itself as “pro-Israel , but also supports a Palestinian state. It wants the United States government to …
The latest train tragedy in Egypt, a collision that killed 18 and wounded tens, wasn’t surprising; it came following a series of fatal train accidents, the most deadly of which was in 2002 when a train fire killed over 373 third-class passengers. For many Egyptians, such accidents signify the government’s negligence and disregard for the …
NEW DELHI: By marking the Cold War’s end and the looming collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago transformed global geopolitics. But no continent benefited more than Asia, whose dramatic economic rise since 1989 has occurred at a speed and scale without parallel in world history. For Asia, …
AMMAN: When the PLO leadership was in exile, Yasser Arafat would often stress the “independent Palestinian decision . His statements about independence had nothing to do with Israel; those who were able to decipher these words knew that Arafat was signaling opposition to Arab meddling in Palestinian affairs. Those days are long gone. The current …
CAIRO: The 2009 installment of Egypt’s National Democratic Party’s (NDP) sixth conference couldn’t have come at a more opportune time – for the NDP, that is. Only days before the annual performance kicked off, a tragic train crash that killed 18 and wounded tens provided the perfect pretext to sacrifice a minister at the alter …
This is the season for Asian gatherings. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand in late October brought all the key players of Asia together. Come mid-November, almost all of them will meet again in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which will include other Pacific leaders, plus US President …
BRUSSELS: Hated, alienated, and shunned as thieves and worse, the Roma have for too long been easy and defenseless targets for disgruntled racists in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and other European countries. The Roma, as a people, reaped next to nothing from the prosperity that the former East Bloc countries have enjoyed since …
PRINCETON: Currency chaos is back, highlighting demands for a revised international monetary order. The rapid decline of the dollar and the pound, but also of the renminbi – now more firmly tied to the dollar than ever – is fanning tensions. Some of the ghosts of the 1930’s have returned, too – in particular, the …
BEIRUT: Report after report from the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and the Arab League emphasize that the education deficit in the Arab world is among the main causes of its underdevelopment. With 5% of the world’s population and the bulk of the world’s oil and gas, the Arab world nonetheless lags behind most …
NEW YORK: Twenty years ago, when the Berlin Wall was breached and the Soviet empire was collapsing, only die-hard believers in a communist utopia felt unhappy. A few people, of course, clung to the possibility of what was once called “actually existing socialism. Others criticized the triumphalism of the “new world order promised by George …
TOLEDO: Israel’s predicament with the Judge Richard Goldstone’s report accusing it of war crimes in Gaza, and the report’s subsequent endorsement by the United Nations Human Rights Council, brings to mind the reaction of United States Vice-President Spiro Agnew to his indictment on corruption charges in 1973: “The bastards, they changed the rules, but they …
“Where are the moderate voices from the Arab world? This common lament often leads to nostalgic evocations of the Golden Age of Islam, which stretched from the 7th to the 16th century. President Obama recently harked back to this period of Islamic enlightenment, innovation and tolerance in his Cairo speech, in which he attempted to …
BERLIN: Those who witnessed that night 20 years ago in Berlin, or elsewhere in Germany, will never forget what happened – the night the Wall came down. History in the making is all too often tragic. Only rarely is it capable of irony. November 9, 1989, was one of those rare moments when irony reigned, …
UMM-AL-FAHM, Israel: Last August, the Israeli Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar, presented to the government his program entitled “The Israeli government believes in education . The program aims to fulfill two basic goals: enhancing the values that guide education and improving its results in international assessment examinations. With regard to the values, the program aims …
JERUSALEM: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a presidential decree that elections will be held in January. This followed his decision to sign the Egyptian plan for intra-Palestinian reconciliation, knowing that Hamas would refuse to sign. Abbas is demonstrating decisive leadership. After 20 years, he convened the Fateh conference that even Yasser Arafat feared …
NEW YORK: Last week, rumors from the world of print media were rife: a hundred reporters from The New York Times news desk to be bought out – or to lose their jobs if they refuse; steep cutbacks at British newspapers; staffs slashed at Condé Nast – eight respected editors axed at Glamour magazine. In …
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS: Equating war with individual evil has become ubiquitous – if not universal – in contemporary international politics. Wars are fights against evil tyrants and the illegitimate governments they control. Such rhetoric makes wars easier to justify, easier to wage, and easier to support, especially for elected leaders who must respond directly to …
CAIRO: Al-Azhar University in Cairo is one of the oldest and most respected Sunni religious institutions in the world. It works hard to uphold the image of Islam by supporting tolerance, urging Muslims to avoid extremism and rendering edicts on the proper behavior for Muslims – such as respect for one’s neighbors and the need …
BERKELEY: In America today – and in the rest of the world – economic-policy centrists are being squeezed. The Economic Policy Institute reports a poll showing that Americans overwhelmingly believe that the economic policies of the past year have greatly enriched the bankers of Midtown Manhattan and London’s Canary Wharf (they really aren’t concentrated along …
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida: In “Transforming America’s Israeli Lobby, Dan Fleshler argues that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is not helping Israel’s long-term interests and it is not properly reflecting the progressive sentiments of the American Jewish community. Fleshler explains the complexity of the Jewish lobby in America and urges Congress to listen …
TOKYO: Earlier this month, Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. This religious and spiritual ceremony is an opportunity to reflect on Father Damien’s life and the lives of those with whom he is most closely associated – people affected by leprosy. In 1873, Father Damien, a Belgian priest, went to live …
JERUSALEM: Jewish history and Biblical studies are the two main humanistic subjects taught in Israeli schools. However, the average Israeli pupil doesn’t learn anything about the rest of the history of the land of Israel. In my opinion, the absence of this field of study greatly influences the development of Israeli pupils’ identity and their …
CAIRO: Egypt’s train accident in Al-Ayyat last Saturday was a terrible tragedy, claiming the lives of 18 people, but was anyone truly shocked by it? I think not. Our scandalous history of transport catastrophes is matched only by the equally scandalous failure of our education system’s failure to educate – the murder of minds is …
HERZLIYA, Israel: The difficulties surrounding preparations for the Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meeting in New York last month should bring the US administration to one conclusion: There is no sense in pressing for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks now. That is not because there is no urgent need of a negotiated agreement – there certainly is. It is because the …
