By Jehan Sadat As the widow of Anwar Sadat, I cannot count myself an objective analyst of his policies; but I am not the only one who believes that the world is poorer for his absence, nor am I the first to note that statesmen of Sadat’s caliber are in short supply. Perhaps then, it […]
The Middle East Channel at Foreign Policy has an interesting story on Israel’s escalating attacks on South African judge Richard Goldstone, written by Foreign Affairs senior editor Sasha Polakow-Suransky. Goldstone was the leader of a UN report on Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the January 2009 clash […]
The Israeli media has been on edge in recent weeks over the unprecedented case of journalists privy to sensitive military documents. Uri Blau, a reporter for the left-wing Haaretz newspaper, got about 2,000 pages of documents from a former Israeli soldier who leaked the information to him illegally. Blau is currently in London, where he […]
As a follow-up to the last post on U.S. Middle East peace efforts, I wanted to mention this week’s meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at which Secretary Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu will speak. I was especially curious to see how Secretary Clinton would describe U.S. efforts and the “crisis” in […]
You may recall the diplomatic storm that raged last week when Vice-President Biden visited Israel and was greeted by news of a new construction project in East Jerusalem. Biden and the Obama team reacted as if this was an unprecedented provocation by Israel and a dire threat to Mideast peace. As The New York Times […]
This week, President Lula kicked off his tour of the Middle East, the first time a Brazilian head of state has been to Israel. His visit began on Sunday in Israel, and Lula will continue on to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian leaders and to Jordan to conclude his trip. In Israel, President […]
In Brazil, nicknames are very common, especially for famous people and even politicians. President Lula da Silva received his nickname when he was young, since the common nickname for Luiz, his given name, is Lula (similar to calling a person named Robert, Bob). However, given that lula means squid in Portuguese, the president has really […]
A year after the Gaza War, the debate rages on about the conduct of forces on both sides during the three-week conflict. By now, major human rights organizations both in Israel and abroad have had their say in what crimes may have been committed during the war, and the UN released the results of their […]
It’s been, indeed, a transitional year for the world. In the midst of a devastating global economic downturn, Barack Obama took the U.S. presidency January 20. In many ways, it has been the year of Obama. A strategic review of Afghan policy in March ended with sending more troops—and President Obama doubled down on a […]
1) The Nation, Pakistan: Pakistan may be the most talked about country in the world today. Here’s “Pakistan’s Perspective” by Tariq Osman Hyder. Note what he writes about the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 2) Der Spiegel, Germany: Really, you can’t get more brutal than this, from Klaus Brinkbäumer: The United States is now a republic of bloggers […]
2 for 1 on this Friday. We’ll start with the op-eds. 1) The always provocative Gideon Levy, in Haaretz: Let’s face the facts, Israel is a semi-theocracy. 2) Nir Rosen, in the Boston Review, hammers the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. 3) Hassan Haidar, in the Lebanese daily Dar al-Hayat: The Rediscovery of Afghanistan. 4) FP […]
1) General Petraeus before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today: Achieving progress in Afghanistan will be hard and progress there likely will be slower in developing than was the progress in Iraq. Nonetheless, as with Iraq, in Afghanistan hard is not hopeless. Wonderful to put to rest any suspicions that the military might be trying […]
1) Dawn, Pakistan: We must come together—now 2) Dawn, Pakistan: U.S. signaling 3) The Nation, Pakistan: No light in the Afghan tunnel 4) Guardian, U.K.: The U.S. cash behind extremist settlers 5) Hurriyet, Turkey: Pakistan and Turkey’s difficult decision
1) Anders Aslund in FP writes that including Russia in BRIC isn’t accurate. I made a similar point here. 2) India is floating withdrawing a “significant” number of troops from Kashmir, a move which could only help the tattered Indo-Pakistani relationship. 3) The EU has been increasingly vocal lately on East Jerusalem, most ominously—in Israel’s […]
1) To nobody’s surprise, Somalia is the most corrupt country on earth—followed closely by Iraq and Afghanistan. Transparency International wrote in its report, “When essential institutions are weak or non-existent, corruption spirals out of control.” The task, then, for America is institution building—but is it willing to spend the time and effort to create civil […]