Developments in the Palestinian-Israeli arena over the past few weeks have moved dazzlingly fast. Almost every 24 hour period saw a different story in the headlines: Kerry’s apartheid (the “A-word”) comments, the Fatah-Hamas unity deal, Abbas’s public condemnation of the Holocaust, ‘price tag’ attacks against Israeli-Arabs inside Israel, and of course the breakdown of negotiations. […]
I was recently reading on the history of the Persian Empire and was drawn to the history before Alexander the Great, where the Persian Empire conquered ancient Babylon. The Persian Empire was likely the first multicultural empire that allowed different groups to preserve many of the cultures within its dominion. Part of the history discussed […]
Algeria just re-elected its longest-serving president for a fourth term, in what many describe as a fraught campaign punctuated by violence and citizen apathy. While the April 17 vote yielded no surprise, it unleashed a pertinent debate about the future of Algeria’s seemingly impermeable regime. In an awkwardly short ceremony, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sworn in on […]
Holocaust denial and even the praise of the slaughter of six million Jews during WWII are widespread within Palestinian society. However, there are indications that this phenomenon is beginning to change, although some critics remain skeptical. Holocaust denial and even the praise of the slaughter of six million Jews during World War II are widespread […]
The end of April marked the passing of United States Secretary of State John Kerry’s set deadline for negotiating an extension of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry told reporters during a press conference in Addis Ababa that for now the peace process is on pause and he hopes both sides will come back […]
Kenneth Pollack is a former CIA intelligence analyst and currently a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Pollack’s expertise is on Middle East politics and military affairs with particular emphasis on Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States of the Persian Gulf region. He previously served […]
Western claims that Abu Mazen was a peace partner for Israel have turned out to be a delusion, in the wake of the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. When it comes to Israel, Fatah and Hamas see eye-to-eye. Israel presently has no peace partner. The official peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians have officially collapsed, as […]
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” ― Albert Pike A few years ago, while wearing a different hat, I was invited to speak at an event hosted by U.N. Millennium Development Goals guru Jeffrey Sachs and Columbia […]
On Wednesday, April 23, the Palestinians announced that rival political factions Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization reached a reconciliation deal and are discussing plans for a unified government. The proposed deal would unite Hamas, the Gaza-based radical political group that both the United States and Israel call a terrorist organization, with the moderate leaning […]
“I have no forts, no houses, no country. I have no cultivated fields, no silver or gold for you to take — all you can get from me is war, nothing else. I have met your men in battle and have killed them. We are greatly pleased about this. Our men who have fallen in […]
A notable poll of Palestinians was published a month ago that did not receive much attention. The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Policy and Survey Research Center (PSR) in Ramallah, found that a majority of Palestinians support extending the peace talks with Israel past the April 29th deadline if Israel partially halts settlement construction […]
Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard has been a thorn in the sides of U.S. and Israeli administrations for 25 years. Since his conviction of sending classified information to Israel when working for the U.S. Navy, the Israeli public and politicians have repeatedly called for Pollard’s release, with their request falling on deaf ears at the White […]
Israeli and Palestinian negotiation teams are expected to meet today with United States Special Envoy Martin Indyk in Jerusalem to arrive at a formula for extending the talks past the April 29 deadline. The meeting was delayed 24 hours, with media outlets reporting different reasons for the one-day postponement. Israeli officials would neither confirm nor deny reports […]
In September 2011, on the heels of the Arab Spring upheaval, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, visited Cairo. In the shadow of the chaos of the Arab Spring, he took the opportunity to point out that “the Turkish state is in its core a state of freedoms and secularism.” Two and a half […]
The journalist who broke the story of the My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal believes that the al Nusra Front backed by Turkey, not Assad, was responsible for the chemical weapons attack last August. Numerous Turkish commentators disagree with his assessment. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story of the My […]