Iran is at once impressive yet offensive. I want to embrace it, but it keeps pushing me away through its own misdeeds. Iran is widely demonized in the United States, much of Europe, and throughout Arab official circles and pockets of Arab society; yet it is also lionized among other quarters in the Middle East …

In the past two months, Lebanon has witnessed unprecedented levels of violence that threaten to mortally weaken what is left of the country’s institutions and governance apparatus. The war that the Lebanese Army has been waging against Fatah Al-Islam in the northern camp of Nahr Al-Bared is part and parcel of a carefully orchestrated campaign …

In what may be Turkey’s most important political event since the republic was founded in the 1920’s, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a landslide parliamentary election victory, with around 47 percent of the vote. Only two other parties – the Republican People’s Party (CHP) with 21 percent and the National Movement Party …

The Western media have a habit of going on feeding frenzies. Ironically, when it comes to China, the latest frenzy concerns food itself. The execution two weeks ago of the former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), Zhen Xiaoyu, who accepted almost $1 million in bribes, shows that the frenzy has now …

Many people around the world are indulging in what the Germans call “schadenfreude : pleasure at the suffering of others. The pleasure appears to be derived from the suffering the United States is enduring after four years of efforts to stabilize Iraq. On one level, that reaction is predictable. Resentment of the wealthy and powerful …

The Bush administration is groping toward a diplomatic firewall strategy that might help keep the inferno in Iraq from spreading in the Middle East. This approach has two basic components: pushing harder for negotiations to establish a Palestinian state, and creating a standing “Iraq neighbors’ conference to prevent states in the region from taking advantage …

Last month, a Chaldean priest, Ragheed Ganni, and three sub-deacons were murdered by Islamist terrorists in Mosul, Iraq. Before being executed, they were informed that they would be spared on the condition that they converted to Islam. All refused. Ganni was one of many Iraqis killed since 2003 for no reason other than their Christian …

This week was marked by yet another meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and yet another speech on the Palestinian issue by US President George W. Bush. All this activity should not deceive us into assuming that it’s business-as-usual between Israelis and Palestinians under Abbas’ rule. On the contrary, …

In the sizzling July temperatures, something unmeteorological and very sinister is provoking Cairo’s heat sensation. Those behind it give it happy terms like Egypt’s “growing economy and “real estate boom. After acquiring large swaths of cheap, mostly desert land from the state, Arab and Egyptian real estate companies are now reselling their purchases at staggering …

Pakistan is in the grip of a wave of vicious suicidal attacks after religious extremists vowed to avenge the operation on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad last week. The suicide attacks on July 15 targeting security personnel, principally in the Frontier Province, left more than 45 dead and 100 injured. These attacks …

July14 was the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in France. A day later, last Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner did a good impersonation by almost storming off the stage in anger at a pushy Lebanese journalist. The Celle-Saint-Cloud gathering was a lot about atmospherics, however its usefulness might be supplanted by its …

For a number of years, I have been advocating the importance of constructively engaging Syria, not only to improve the prospects for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, but to substantially contribute to the stability of the Middle East. With security conditions throughout the region deteriorating daily, especially in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq, Damascus can …

BRUSSELS/BEIRUT: As the world enters a new age of enlightenment both technologically and intellectually, conflicts plague the earth while large distances between continents vanish as a result of a newly emerging global community. The amalgamation of people with different cultural backgrounds, traditions and values enriches this community, yet it also contributes to the appearance of …

Cambridge, Massachusetts: I recently returned from an extraordinary visit to Iran coordinated through the US-Iran Working Group on Health Science Cooperation, which I co-chair. This network was founded to exchange information, promote collaborative research and build trust and understanding among health scientists in the United States and Iran. The Working Group identified Iran s Isfahan …

LONDON: The recent bomb plots to wreak devastation on the cities of London and Glasgow are an urgent reminder not only of the need to sustain collective efforts in the fight against terrorism, but that perhaps it is high time we critically rethink our methods in dealing with this challenge. Centering on what must be …

It is hard to know if we should be pleased or terrified that US President George W. Bush Monday signaled renewed involvement by the United States in Arab-Israeli peace-making. It is certainly vital to have direct American engagement in order to move ahead on this issue. But if such engagement is biased, half-hearted in spirit, …

The last time I remember Ambassador Ryan Crocker warning about a possible bloodbath, it was in September 1982 as the Sabra-Shatila massacre was taking place in Beirut. So when Crocker tells The New York Times that a rapid US withdrawal from Iraq could produce a human tragedy on a far larger scale, people should take …

In the parlance of our times, “chatter is how we would describe the debate about a possible international force in occupied Palestine. As in all chatter, the one most important objective is to sort the wheat from the chaff and attempt to determine if, when, and what impact the result of such intense banter might …

There was something pathetic in the knee-jerk reactions of both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Hamas takeover in Gaza last month: “Bring in an international force. They ignored at their peril the most basic lessons that all of us, Israelis and Arabs, should have learned from the past …

When it comes to whether and how to regulate the economy, Western societies have a history of liberal theory upon which to rely. But when it comes to immigration, there is not much in the liberal tradition to which they can turn. As a result, in both Europe and the United States, much of the …

Over three decades after Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara, the fate of the region is back on the negotiating table. However, Sahrawis longing for a free and independent homeland fear that it is their dream that will be served up on the United Nations-sponsored menu, fit to be gobbled up as an appetizer for …

In cases of military intervention in politics, the military establishment in third-world countries has played two kinds of roles. The first is a negative role of delaying the natural process of democratization by resorting to force or the threat of force to control power. It was this practice that opened the door for coups and …

In the long history of Egyptian-Palestinian relations, and in particular the relationship between Egypt and Gaza, there has been nothing to rival the current crisis in Gaza for intensity and for the implications it holds for future stability in the area. While it is too early to tell whether a fundamentally different relationship will develop …

It is absolutely not true that the leaders of Israel want to turn it into a Jewish ghetto, isolated from its neighbors. What they strive for, as they’ve been hammering it into our heads time and again, is for Israel to blend in with its neighbors in peaceful coexistence. This is precisely what I believe …

Washington, DC: A recent poll looking at the viewpoints of young Muslims in the United Kingdom shows some shocking results. According to this January 2007 poll conducted for UK think tank Policy Exchange by the polling company Populus, young Muslims in the UK are much more likely than their parents to be attracted to political …

Hezbollah, one of the most important groups on the Lebanese and Middle Eastern political scene these days, is also one of the most enigmatic. This week, the first anniversary of the Hezbollah-Israel war of July-August 2006, much attention in Lebanon has been focused on Hezbollah and its aims, which remain unclear to many people. Hezbollah’s …

One has go back to the “Year of Three Popes in 1978 to find a succession drama as strange as what has been happening at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the two pillars of the global financial system. Two months ago, the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, resigned amidst an extraordinary staff …

The release of an abducted BBC journalist in Gaza is being seen by some as an attempt by Hamas (which denies any part in the kidnapping) to curry favor with Tony Blair, who on stepping down as Britain’s prime minister was appointed international envoy to Israel and Palestine. Blair has the thankless task of helping …

The designation last week of the modern-day Seven Wonders of the World via a global poll of 100 million people offered a nice break from the usual menu of depressing conflict around the world. We in the Arab world are especially pleased that one site, Petra in Jordan, made the list. Though all the winners …

CAIRO/IOWA CITY, IOWA/JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: Norhan Mohammed, an 11-year-old student, loved participating in her school s swim team, but not anymore. She left the team in May 2006 after she put on a hijab (headscarf), which did not go with her swimsuit. Mohammed does not regret her decision to put on the hijab. She still has …