Standing with Slobodan Milosevic 13 years ago on the veranda of a government hunting lodge outside Belgrade, I saw two men in the distance. They left their twin Mercedes and, in fading light, started toward us. I felt a jolt go through my body; they were unmistakable. Ratko Mladic, in combat fatigues, stocky, walking as …
On August 8, 2008, South Ossetia attracted the world s attention when Russian military forces entered Georgian territory, and seriously interfered in the Georgian-South Ossetian unresolved conflict. This conflict is known to the world, yet, current Russian military intervention helped amplify the dispute. South Ossetia is a small region in the South Caucasus within the …
In weeks and years past, each of us has argued that Russia was pursuing a policy of regime change toward Georgia and its pro-Western, democratically elected president, Mikheil Saakashvili. We predicted that, absent strong and unified Western diplomatic involvement, war was coming. Now, tragically, an escalation of violence in South Ossetia has culminated in a …
Our demand for a separate Arab educational system is not an expression of a (separatist) desire to break away from the State of Israel. On the contrary, it is a demand for recognition and for support to practice our unique culture, just like the Israeli religious educational system. Shlomit Amichai, Director-General of the Education Ministry, …
Both the left and the right say they stand for economic growth. So should voters trying to decide between the two simply look at it as a matter of choosing alternative management teams? If only matters were so easy! Part of the problem concerns the role of luck. America’s economy was blessed in the 1990s …
With the opening of the Beijing Olympics, many wonder whether China’s grand coming-out party will also mark the occasion when it wrests dominance of the medal tally from the United States. China’s dedicated athletes are widely assumed to have dozens of gold and silver medals in their grasp. Whether or not they overtake the US, …
Prophets, it is said, are supposed to be without honor in their homeland. Yet Moscow has just witnessed the extraordinary sight of Alexander Solzhenitsyn – the dissident and once-exiled author of the Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – receiving what amounts to a state funeral, with Prime Minister Vladimir …
When we re inside Sadaka Reut, I believe that everyone is good to each other, said Lena, describing her Arab-Israeli summer camp. But then we go out on to the street, and it s [a different story] . Seconds later, her point was proven perfectly. On a busy intersection in the heart of Yafo, a …
Dear Editor, I m an irregular reader of the Daily News Egypt, although I can see myself picking it up on a daily basis. But it is articles like the one titled Moulid Sayeda Zeinab: a birthday to remember (Aug. 2, 2008, page 9) that makes me hesitant about the depth of your stories and …
I have no clue why our adept government has issued a new traffic law. Everything was fine before that. No one stopped at a red light or heeded the pedestrian crossings and until recently, we were the only country in the world where seatbelts were ripped off cars as soon as they arrived from abroad …
It would be naive to assume that Undersecretary of State William Burns presence at the recent EU-Iran nuclear talks has opened the door to a rapid improvement in US-Iranian relations, or that the US administration has abandoned its military option. But this recent tilt towards diplomacy offers a pause in which to take note of …
The last 15 years have shown that neither Israel nor the Palestinians can reach peace on their own, each for complex internal and external reasons. My claim is that only a permanent, internationally sponsored regional peace conference can unfreeze the deadlock, and that Britain, France and Germany are bound to play a central role in …
Last week kicked off with what I vote the déjà vu moment of “Egypt 2008. Once again a court hands down a jail sentence and fine to democracy advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim in a cartoonish redux of what happened to the very same 70-year-old sociologist in 2001. Back then Ibrahim got seven years and was …
I have met many remarkable people in my life: presidents, kings, diplomats. One of the most memorable of these encounters – and certainly most moving – came a bit more than a year ago, when I met a group of HIV-positive staff members at the UN. For me, it was a moment of epiphany. I …
US Undersecretary for Political Affairs, William Burns, attended a recent meeting in Geneva between EU Secretary-General Javier Solana and Iran s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. This decision was the first direct and official contact between the US and Iran after nearly three decades of troubled relations. The decision to send Burns to the talks …
The pattern of policymaking in the Middle East, as it was defined since President Bush’s “axis if evil speech of January 2002, is undergoing a momentous change of direction. Bush’s foreign-policy paradigm of an alliance of “moderates to defeat the “extremists – a model too enthusiastically seconded by an unimaginative Israeli leadership and by those …
Images of the Beijing skyline seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been a common sight on the world’s TV screens in recent days and weeks. Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust. Everyone seems keen to prove that …
The British government s recent announcement about tackling religious extremism by giving young Muslims citizenship lessons among other things is an interesting one. It s easy to sneer at initiatives in the face of the omnipresent threat of Muslim religious extremism worldwide, but Britain is not the only country pursuing such an approach. So too …
The looming Iran-Israel confrontation has a seemingly deterministic quality to it. Listening to the politicians, one gets a sense that powers beyond our control are pulling us toward a 21st-century disaster. Yet a great deal of the force propelling us into confrontation is fuelled by ignorance and dehumanization. Israel is demonized as Little Satan , …
Is there anything in common between the recent acquittal of Mamdouh Ismail, owner of the ill-fated Al-Salam 98 ferry which sank in February 2006, claiming the lives of 1,034 people; the accusation leveled against Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir by the International Criminal Court, which is calling for his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity; …
At the outset of the ongoing violent protests in South Korea over imported beef from the United States, the entire cabinet of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak offered to resign. Last week, President Lee fired three of them. But beef, it turns out, represents just the tip of the iceberg of grievances against President Lee. …
Will they or won’t they? Will the world’s trade ministers eventually sign a new multilateral trade agreement that reduces agricultural subsidies and industrial tariffs, or will they walk away empty-handed? The saga has been ongoing since November 2001, when the current round of negotiations was launched in Doha, Qatar, with numerous subsequent ups and downs, …
Last year, a Spanish court found two cartoonists guilty of offending the royal family by drawing a caricature of the Spanish crown prince having sex with his wife. They were fined ?3,000 each. “I don’t see the world up in arms defending freedom of expression, my editor told me after listening to the news on …
The judge who acquitted the defendants in the case of Al-Salam 98 ferry is as innocent as the victims of the sinking ship, their families and all those who were expecting a just verdict. The verdict was shocking and has fueled sentiments of deep sadness and frustration nationwide since it was announced last Sunday. The …
As the biennial international AIDS industry conference (Aug. 3-8) gathers 25,000 delegates in Mexico, a wind of change is blowing. UNAIDS, the UN’s AIDS advocacy body, stands accused of exaggerating the threat of AIDS, wasting billions on “preventing epidemics that were never going to happen and undermining basic healthcare in Africa by diverting ever-larger funds …
Syrian President Bashar Assad appears to be serious about pursuing peace. But just how serious is he? Assad seems to be taking his desire to talk peace with Israel to heart, an issue explained in greater detail by his ambassador in Washington. But more on that in a moment. The Syrian president indicated during his …
When the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games begins in a few days, viewers will be presented with a minutely choreographed spectacle swathed in nationalist kitsch. Of course, images that recall Hitler’s goose-stepping storm troopers are the last thing that China’s leaders have in mind for their Olympics; after all, official Chinese nationalism proclaims …
Was there ever a once upon a time when we were more tolerant and open towards those we perceive as different? There was a golden age in Spain 1,000 years ago when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in mutual harmony. Now, however, there are indications of an increasing global intolerance within and between nations. We …
Since 2003, I have been saying that the global economy is badly unbalanced and vulnerable to a macroeconomic catastrophe that would yield one of the worst episodes of economic distress of modern times. Since 2004, I have been saying that the situation, once it started, would probably become clear within a year: we would know …
Police investigations, commissions of inquiry examining the errors committed during the Lebanon war of 2006, repugnance at former President Moshe Katsav’s alleged sex crimes, and now Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s announcement that, with charges of corruption swirling about him, he will resign in September: all of this suggests profound wounds in Israel’s moral tissue. Old …
