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Palestine splits Arab street and state
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May 18, 2013 12:33 AM
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An important but unclear aspect of the ongoing Arab uprisings has been how more democratic and legitimate Arab governments would impact on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Several incidents in Egypt indicate how government and popular street sentiment are likely to behave differently on Israel-Palestine...
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New rules for an evolving Arab order
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May 15, 2013 01:03 AM
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The worsening war in Syria has heightened regional and international concerns that the situation there may destabilize the entire Middle East region. This assumes that the Middle East region, or its core Arab component, was in a relatively stable condition that was upset by the Syrian spillover....
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China’s intriguing Palestine proposal
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May 11, 2013 12:41 AM
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It might be coincidental timing or just a really bad case of mean-spirited in-your-face aggressive Israeli diplomacy. In the same week that China announced a peace plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict, Russia and the United States announced agreement to hold an international conference to try to...
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Look at the bigger picture in Syria
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May 08, 2013 12:41 AM
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The big question being asked by many in the international, especially American, media is whether the United States will now respond and engage militarily in Syria, due to the reports of the use of chemical weapons there. I suspect both parts of that question are the wrong issues to focus on, for...
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The old method of peace will fail again
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May 04, 2013 12:43 AM
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There is good news and bad news on the Arab-Israeli peacemaking front this week. The good news is that the United States and the Arab League’s ministerial committee seem energized to restart Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. This culminated a few days ago in the Arab clarification that the...
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Arab troubled transitions are normal
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May 01, 2013 12:47 AM
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As various countries across the Arab world navigate difficult transitions from former dictatorships to new forms of governance, much remains unclear in terms of exactly how much citizen participation and government accountability will prevail. Egyptians, Tunisians and Libyans are at the most...
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A lesson from Birmingham for the Arabs
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April 27, 2013 12:42 AM
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One of the most troubling aspects of recent developments in several Arab countries has been growing domestic polarization based on an interplay of ideology, religion and ethnicity. Iraq and Syria are the two most worrying immediate cases, with fighting resulting in hundreds of deaths during the...
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Don’t jump to conclusions on Boston
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April 24, 2013 01:13 AM
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If we had as many certain facts as we have strong emotions about the Boston Marathon bombings, we would all be better off. Sadly, this is not the case, but as with every such act of terror we are challenged yet again to disentangle the emotions of our response from the motives of the bombers.The...
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Kuwaitis say no to unaccountable rule
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April 20, 2013 02:30 AM
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I am mesmerized by the continuing political developments in Kuwait – and to a lesser extent in other Gulf Cooperation Council countries – where thousands of citizens of a wealthy, paternalistic and generous Gulf oil-producing country continue to protest against the government for a...
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Syria’s six simultaneous conflicts
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April 17, 2013 01:23 AM
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The conflict in Syria has assumed more dangerous dimensions with the latest developments along the Syrian-Lebanese border, where forces with and against both the Syrian government and Hezbollah have engaged in cross-border shelling. This builds on a recent spate of tit-for-tat kidnappings in...
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Above all, Palestinians need liberation
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April 13, 2013 12:47 AM
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I and many others applaud and are surprised by the speed and persistence of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s engagement in diplomatic efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. I applaud his initiative because it can only result in something positive, whether it succeeds or...
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Remember Deir Yassin, John Kerry
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April 10, 2013 01:10 AM
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It is appropriate that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Jerusalem this week, exactly 65 years to the day when pre-state Zionist troops massacred some 100 unarmed Palestinian men, women and children in the Palestinian Arab village of Deir Yassin, west of Jerusalem. That was five weeks...
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The pain of following Iran in U.S. media
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April 06, 2013 12:30 AM
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One of the most annoying aspects of spending time in the United States, as I have just done during a month’s working visit there, is to follow news coverage of Iran in the mainstream American media. Well, calling it “news” coverage is a bit of a stretch, because the mainstream...
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Everywhere, Arab dialogues of the deaf
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April 03, 2013 12:52 AM
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It is quite bizarre that in almost every country in the Middle East where a serious political conflict or war is under way, there is also a parallel political “dialogue” either in progress or proposed. If the contemporary Arab world is an example of how political dialoguing works, then...
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A day of learning about American power
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March 30, 2013 12:24 AM
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Every once in a while in my reporting and writing life, seemingly forever ricocheting between the Middle East, Europe and the United States, a day occasionally passes when complex issues become clear and confusion is replaced by precision. This is especially true in that vast arena of human and...
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