BRUSSELS: Several years ago, as terrorism, immigration, and unrest in suburban Paris were at the top of the news in France, a French police officer confided to a researcher: “If you consider different levels of trafficking, it is obviously done by blacks and Arabs. If you are on the road and see a black man …

CAIRO: It’s hard to understand what s really going on in Iran. Every time I log on to the internet and go to reputable news sites, Iran is making headlines. But I am still confused and ignorant about whether the election results are legitimate or not, and whether the majority of Iranians are against conservative …

BERKELEY: There has never been a question about the ultimate purpose of the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI), the system of Asian financial supports created in 2000 in that Thai city. That purpose, of course, is to create an Asian Monetary Fund, i.e., a regional alternative to the International Monetary Fund, whose tender ministrations during the …

PARIS: Since the arrival of President Barack Obama in the White House, there has been an undeniable rapprochement between Europe and the United States. But on the deeper and more fundamental level of emotions and values, is it possible that the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic has widened? Today, there is much …

WASHINGTON, DC: For years now, my colleagues and I at the American Task Force on Palestine have argued that advocates of a two-state resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict need to form a real, functioning national coalition in the United States to support this goal. President Obama has put a great deal of his own political …

NEW DELHI: Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt. For instance, changes are taking place …

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak s op-ed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Wall Street Journal (June 19) should not be viewed through the prism of economic and political challenges he faces at home nor should it be influenced by the increasingly vocal domestic demands for democratic reform. Failure to put his speech in the proper …

ATLANTA: Did US President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo sharpen the differences in how American Jews espouse their support for Israel, or has it moderated the divergent opinions, bringing the wider pro-Israel Jewish community closer together? Hopefully, the President’s forceful new direction in the Middle East will now motivate more American Jews to join the …

Following the failed assassination attempt on President Mubarak s life in Addis Ababa in 1995, the Egyptian regime quickly used the occasion to serve its own interests. the Egyptian regime decided to use the unpleasant incident to bolster Mubarak s legitimacy at home. Representative of different segments of the society, such as MPs, members of …

TEL AVIV: Israel has very real reasons to be afraid. But the Netanyahu-Lieberman politics of fear that is supposed to justify occupation of the West Bank has catastrophic consequences, and the world no longer wants to listen to the cries, “The wolf, the wolf. Here is how the dynamics works: Israel’s critics often say that …

LONDON: Home to one-sixth of the world’s people, but contributing only one-fortieth of world GDP, Africa is the most conspicuous victim of the global recession. After a half-decade of 5% growth, the continent’s growth rate is expected to halve in 2009. Some countries, like Angola, are contracting. Elsewhere, the crisis has swept away the benefits …

JERUSALEM: US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech and subsequent remarks by him and other senior US officials have made it clear beyond any doubt that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is two states for two peoples. There is no other solution. Today only three countries in the world are in opposition to it: Iran, …

CAIRO: Contrary to pessimistic Arab expectations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to US President Barack Obama’s initiative for the creation of the Palestinian State as the only viable solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his speech last Sunday, Netanyahu confirmed his acceptance of a Palestinian State but stipulated that it should be demilitarized without …

NEW YORK: One odd and disturbing aspect of global politics today is the confusion between negotiations and problem-solving. According to a timetable agreed in December 2007, we have six months to reach a global agreement on climate change in Copenhagen. Governments are engaged in a massive negotiation, but they are not engaged in a massive …

BEIRUT: It sees itself as one of the Middle East s most liberal countries, but Lebanon s lack of female politicians sticks out like a sore thumb. While Lebanese women today enjoy senior positions in the private sector, political appointments have all but eluded them. Lebanese women were granted suffrage in 1953, yet to this …

BERLIN: Great speeches are all too often underestimated as being mere words. In fact, they can have powerful consequences. This is obviously the case with President Barack Obama’s recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo, because – mere coincidence or excellent timing? – things in the Middle East have been in flux ever since. …

BUDAPEST: This month marks the 20th anniversary of the reburial of Imre Nagy, the leader of Hungary’s failed anti-Soviet revolution of 1956. The reinternment, organized by Hungary’s anti-communist opposition on the 31st anniversary of his execution, drew more than 100,000 attendees, heralding the beginning of the end of the country’s sclerotic regime. We Hungarians, and …

WASHINGTON DC: My mother, who immigrated to America from Poland, often told me to follow the Golden Rule, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This fundamental principle, which transcends nations, peoples and time, was echoed in US President Barack Obama s speech at Cairo University on June 4. While …

HOUSTON, Texas: At my mosque, like almost all mosques across the country, women pray upstairs or at the back of the prayer hall. Watching elderly and pregnant women, often with young children attached at the hip, painstakingly traverse the back entrance and hike up concrete stairs evokes a cognitive dissonance within me as a young, …

One of the most internationally well-known pieces of Arabic literature is “One Thousand and One Nights , in which a new bride forestalls her execution by spinning yarn after yarn for her homicidal husband. After watching Benjamin Netanyahu deliver his “endorsement of the two-state solution yesterday, it was clear to anyone paying close attention that …

The 10th presidential election in Iran that took place in June 12, 2009 is a paradigm shift in Iranian politics. Since 1979, the authority of the state was based on Islamic and republican values. However, the way in which this election was conducted could indicate that, perhaps, a new era has begun. It can be …

The coming days will determine whether Iran continues to be governed by a rogue and expansionist regime hiding behind the veil of a moral theocracy or a government that is friendlier, less intimidating and a cooperative member of the international community. Iran’s Arab neighbors must ensure that it is the latter which prevails. The youth …

CAMBRIDGE: If stock market and interest-rate spreads are to be believed, America’s economy has seen the worst and may be on its way to a slow recovery. But the troubles for the world economy are just starting. If globalization does not get the fix it needs, economic prospects will be dim for rich and poor …

MELBOURNE: Something new is happening at Harvard Business School. As graduation nears for the first class to complete their Master of Business Administration since the onset of the global financial crisis, students are circulating an oath that commits them to pursue their work “in an ethical manner ; “to strive to create sustainable economic, social, …

JERUSALEM: Of particular note in President Obama s impressive speech to the gathering jointly hosted by Cairo University and Al Azhar, was his use of religion as a language of communication. It was not just a matter of sprinkling his text with quotations from the Quran. Obama reflected a grasp and sensibility that has been …

NEW YORK: The World Health Organization has now officially declared the H1N1 flu virus to be a global pandemic. Governments, international organizations, and people around the world are rightly focused on fighting it. The speed with which the H1N1 virus has spread to almost every continent highlights our mutual interdependence. Nowadays, the impact of disease …

LAHORE: Pakistan is now a nation caught between its army and the Taliban, fighting a war not of its own making. Its population lives in fear of bombings and suicide attacks – the next one could be at the local mosque, an internet café, or a roadside restaurant. Most Pakistanis are now resigned to full-scale …

JERUSALEM: The final results of the Lebanese elections last Sunday clearly indicate a continuation of the political status-quo. The distribution of parliamentary seats between the two rival blocks has hardly changed. The majority coalition (“March 14 ) of the Sunni, Druze and a large section of the Maronites led by Sa ad Hariri, son of …

TEL AVIV: The 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the United States is nothing compared to the short distances of about 100 miles between the major cities in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Borders, distances and how we cross them have taken on new significance lately with the latest outbreak of swine flu, or the …

The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids. Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20 feet (six meters) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations estimates that sea …