The global aviation industry has suffered a loss of some $38 billion over the last three years. The crisis began in 2001 with a global economic slowdown amplified by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The consequent “war on terror” is still negatively affecting the industry with all that it entails in loss of tourist activity, the cost of added security measures at airports and onboard planes, and the continuous terror alerts that disrupt flight schedules. The SARS outbreak in 2003 was another factor that discouraged people from traveling. |Full Story
Q: How central do you judge the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be to Arab-Israel relations? Perthes: We will not see any substantial normalization of Israel-Arab relations in general unless there is a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict and particularly the Palestinian conflict. We also see that for Arabs in countries geographically more distant from the conflict theater, Israel is basically perceived not as a neighbor in the region but as a participant in this conflict. This perception has certainly been strengthened through the decades by the fact that Palestinian refugees are all over the place; they form a trans-national element of this international conflict and basically remind their host societies all the time that there is a conflict here that must be solved before normalization.|Full Story
Arab states’ avoidance of antagonizing the United States in its “anti-terrorism” war will lead to internal conflicts according to an expert on Islamic issues, AUB Professor Nizar Hamzeh. With bloody anti-US protests raging in Pakistan, a Muslim country which has joined the US-led coalition against “terror,” Hamzeh told The Daily Star that a similar fate might await Arab countries in the near future. “Something like a civil war has erupted in Pakistan between Islamists and the regime. It’s a dilemma that will be faced by Arab countries when their turn comes to decide whether to join the coalition or not.” |Full Story
If all goes well, members of the Bar Association will look back on this week and see in it the seeds of an institutional rebirth that finally put the legal community back on the right track by re-focusing its efforts on what made lawyers necessary in the first place: the public good. The Bar announced the creation of its own environment committee on Monday, and the 16-member body will have its hands full if it intends to make the difference that many environmental activists are hoping for. The move was especially important because having a group under the Bar’s aegis make important strides on green issues will do more than just add impetus to an area of public discourse that affects each and every Lebanese: it will also restore some of the Bar’s faded luster. |Full Story
Barring unforeseen developments, it looks very much like Israel’s occupation forces will be gone very soon. Many Lebanese have been dreaming of the day when this country can finally make good on its potential without the burden of foreign aggression, but it won’t happen by itself. Lebanon needs to have a plan in place so that when the time comes, the recovery of our economic health can begin immediately. |Full Story
After a weekend in which anyone who ventured outdoors was probably soaked to the skin, it seems inappropriate to talk of drought and the need to conserve Lebanon’s water resources. Yet, amazingly, as The Daily Star reports on its front page today, the country is threatened this summer with a water shortage and rationing, with supplies to the capital being limited to one day a week. |Full Story
