Ten years ago, when Dr. David Sagiv began preparing the Arabic-Hebrew – Hebrew-Arabic dictionary he recently completed, he was more optimistic than he is today. At that time, he and his wife, Marcelle, would go every year to Cairo, where he had established contact with some of the most important intellectuals in Egypt. The shelves …

The axis of evil has no relevance for me when I think of Iran, a country I ve found to have a human, loving, hospitable face throughout 40 years of encounters. I lived in Iran between 1968 and 1978, and started returning again, this time with peace delegations, in 2005. It is one of the …

On any given day, the social networking site Facebook connects long lost friends and allows you to “poke attractive strangers you wish would be your friends. But in Egypt, Facebook is the stage for the latest twist in the generation gap, playing host to politically hungry young Egyptians eager to take on their aging leader. …

Although the Chinese ship that was carrying arms to Zimbabwe, the An Yue Jiang, has reportedly turned back, we don’t know where else President Robert Mugabe’s military and paramilitary forces may be acquiring weapons. In light of the escalating violent repression of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change – and of those whose support apparently …

Should poor governments be allowed to break drug patents for humanitarian reasons? That question is front-and-center at a major public health conference sponsored by the World Health Organization that started on 28 April in Geneva. Top-notch policy experts from around the world have gathered to make formal policy recommendations about patents to Third World governments …

In just a few short years, the “two-state solution has gone from presumed conclusion to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an increasingly distant hope. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has himself said that without such a deal, “the State of Israel is finished. By the dozens, Israeli dignitaries solemnly warn: The window is closing on a two-state …

A state of uncertainty dominates the Egyptian street. Everybody is waiting for an important event on May 4. Some are afraid that matters would get out of hand and we would witness a repeat of what happened on the April 6 strike – destruction, sabotage and violent intervention by the authorities to suppress citizens. Others …

Everyone everywhere has by now heard about the “clash of civilizations. This Samuel Huntington concept has become universal. In the 1950’s, the French economist, Alfred Sauvy had a comparable success with the expression “third world. One reason these phrases gain wide acceptance is their lack of clear definition. The “clash of civilizations, basically the West …

Jimmy Carter s visit to the region and his meetings with several parties including Hamas officials coincided with serious Egyptian efforts to try to forge a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The former US president s meetings with the Syrian leadership and Hamas were controversial in the United States, however, and he was brutally criticized …

Last Christmas eve, I received a surprise telephone call from Mr Mohamed Mahdy Akef, the Supreme Guide of Muslim Brotherhood. He passed his greetings on to me and my family on this occasion and wished me a prosperous life. This call and other calls I received from Islamists undoubtedly had a positive impact on me. …

Iraqi women’s organizations and international observers point to an escalating war against women in Iraq, aided by the widespread chaos and lawlessness under the US occupation. In addition to violence by US troops inside and outside of prisons, women in Iraq face daily violence from militants under the guise of religion and “liberation. In Iraq’s …

If the call for a second public strike within a month is proof of anything, it’s that we are witnessing a new and different Egypt; one which appears on the horizon but without any clear features. This vagueness is also characteristic of the general strike called for by some people next Sunday, May 4. It …

Though I have been to the region many times, my most recent trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan confirmed the alarming new obstacles facing the quest for peace in the Middle East, and the urgency with which they need to be addressed by all parties. Tackling these issues now is crucial because, even …

We all remember one phrase from the first presidential campaign by a Clinton. When Bill Clinton was running for the job in the early 1990’s, one of his staff explained what the central issue in the election was. “It’s the economy, stupid. he said. Economics explains all – jobs, prices, savings, houses. It determines the …

Since the publication of his controversial book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid two years ago, former US President Jimmy Carter has incurred wholesale criticism from policy informants, think-tanks, and his closest admirers. Even at his own Emory University in Atlanta, student protest and ridicule followed a highly publicized campaign of condemnation from senior faculty. While Carter …

Switzerland is about to become ground zero for the future of health policy in Africa. Next week, the World Health Organization s (WHO) Intergovernmental Working Group will convene in Geneva to discuss public health, medical innovation, and intellectual property. Many participants are expected to express their support for efforts to undermine patent protections for drugs. …

Earth Day, for some, is comparable to a sacred holiday, reminding us to tread carefully on nature s hallowed ground. For others, Earth Day serves as a starter on the basics of recycling and light-bulb changing. Regardless of the myriad ways in which Americans approach Earth Day 08, it remains substantially different from 07. What …

Someone stopped me in the street the other day and with a sparkle in his eyes asked: “Is it true what you wrote about the Arab League’s Secretary General Amr Moussa that he doesn’t go to Beirut to resolve the Lebanese Presidential crisis, but to shake hands with Al-Manar channel’s presenters who wear the niqab? …

I never thought I d consider the chairman of the Brixton Mosque a close friend. A devout Muslim, Abdul Haqq Baker lives in Britain and Saudi Arabia with his wife, who chooses to wear a burqa, a garment that fully covers a woman s body, head and face. I am a proud American who chooses …

As Zimbabwe marked 28 years of independence from minority rule last Friday, a feeling of despair and great anxiety looms in all corners of this impoverished and increasingly turbulent southern African state. Once regarded as the region’s bread-basket, blessed with an abundance of mineral deposits and the most skilled and educated workforce on the continent, …

Immediately after taking office last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the release of the 60 judges who had been detained by President Pervez Musharraf since November. This is a triumph for the rule of law in Pakistan, and above all a triumph for the brave Pakistani lawyers who took to the streets …

Rivalry seems to be hardwired into human nature. Whether we take the Darwinian view or the theological one, it doesn’t bode well for peace on earth, goodwill toward men. “Why can’t we all just get along might be the mantra of human history, resounding through all political systems as well as belief systems, wherever they …

With all the attention in Iraq over the last five years focused on the fate of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the conflict between Sunni and Shiite, the role of Iran, the security of Anbar province, the surge and, most recently, the further deterioration of Basra, the situation in northern Iraq has only received sporadic attention. The …

In a country with a growing economy and record-breaking foreign investment, the idea of a food crisis seems almost obsolete. Yet, on April 6, Egyptians from all walks of life united in a general strike, in solidarity with disgruntled factory workers in Mahalla, primarily over the most basic of commodities: bread. The Egyptian Arabic term …

The world economy is being battered by sharply higher energy prices. While a few energy-exporting countries in the Middle East and elsewhere reap huge profits, the rest of the world is suffering as the price of oil has topped $110 per barrel and that of coal has doubled. Without plentiful and low-cost energy, every aspect …

“Do not mix sports and politics! That defiant cry from China’s rulers to the threat of a boycott of this summer’s Beijing Olympic Games does not stand the test of reality. Sport and politics have always been closely linked. Obvious examples abound. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were dominated as much by Nazi propaganda as by …

Twin brothers Hassan and Hussein harvest cocoa bean pods in Sinikosson, Ivory Coast, for the lucrative multibillion dollar chocolate trade but remain mired in poverty. Their story is repeated manifold among other workers in Africa and elsewhere, including women and children. But new hope is rising from the recent emergence of developing countries as major …

The military sentences issued against some members of the Muslim Brotherhood represent a turning point in the relationship between the group and Mubarak regime. This is not only because they are harsh, as they are the harshest rulings against the group since the trials that took place in the 1960s during the Nasser era, but …

It is not the fault of Gamal Abdel-Rehim, a member of the Press Syndicate council who gathered six like-minded journalists to forcibly prevent a conference against religious discrimination from being held in the headquarters of the Press Syndicate. It is the fault of all journalists. Abdel-Rehim had garnered the support of journalists in the 2007 …

News agencies reported last month that President Mubarak ordered the army to intervene to resolve what has come to be known as the bread crisis in Egypt. For the past few weeks, thousands of Egyptians failed to find subsidized bread and queues in front of bakeries witnessed mounting levels of violence, eventually leading to tens …