There is still doubt in the minds of serious people about Israel’s attack on the Free Gaza flotilla and the events that lead to the death of 9 of the activists aboard. There can be little surprise of…
BLOG (archive)
A Rentier Coup in a Rentier State
Published: 03/07/2010The quickly declining health of Ras Al Khaimah’s ruler is precipitating a round of intrigue and succession stories in the northernmost Emirate of the UAE. Sheikh Saqr Al Qasimi, 92, one of the longest ruling leaders in the world having…
Failed Summits -The Union for the Mediterranean at a standstill
Published: 30/06/2010After being in place for two years the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has not achieved any policy outcome and still lacks a visible rapprochement between the two shores. This is even more frustrating when considering that the Spanish EU…
Palestinian Rights in Lebanon: Reform on the Way?
Published: 24/06/2010Contrary to what many reported immediately after the fact, the debate in the Lebanese Parliament last Tuesday over the issue of Palestinian rights did not slam the door on any potential future reforms.
True, no law was passed. But the…
Blogger siriani e israeliani provano a superare le loro divergenze online
Published: 10/06/2010Original Version: Syrian and Israeli bloggers try to resolve their differences online
Siriani e israeliani stanno affrontando una delle grandi spaccature del Medio Oriente cooperando – sul web – alla ricerca di modi per promuovere la pace tra…
Sudan elections – A Travesty, a Logistical Nightmare, Irrelevant, Democracy
Published: 13/04/2010Sudan’s first multiparty elections in 24 years started yesterday in an atmosphere of anger, hope and confusion. The last election, in 1986, followed a people’s uprising that removed a military dictator. How times change. Today another military dictator – Field…
I “numeri 2″ dei talebani: forse sono troppi
Published: 27/02/2010La recente cattura del leader talebano, Abdul Ghani Baradar, offre lo spunto per delineare una mappatura dei mujaheddin “most wanted” catturati o uccisi dalle forze Nato e Isaf in Afghanistan, oppure dall’esercito pakistano oltrefrontiera. Baradar è stato preso grazie a…
Politica internazionale 2009: ogni potere è responsabilità
Published: 29/01/2010Ci sono due modi di stilare i bilanci. Il primo è quello tradizionale, di tipo contabile: “tirare le somme” e mettere il segno più o il segno meno al totale. Il secondo è quello che identifica invece le linee di…
DIARIO ISRAELIANO: Fra i Drusi del Golan
Published: 22/01/2010Majdal Shams (Alture del Golan) – A. è una ragazza bellissima, ha 30 anni, due figli e un sorriso luminoso che le scintilla negli occhi verdi. Abita a Majdal Shams, un villaggio druso del Golan, al confine con la Siria.…
Natale di sangue per i copti egiziani
Published: 09/01/2010La presenza della minoranza cristiano-copta in Egitto rappresenta da sempre un motivo di apprensione per il governo del Cairo. La difficile convivenza con la maggioranza musulmana è sfociata spesso in scontri diretti. L’ultimo risale alla notte tra il 6 e…
Shooting Your Foot: Jordan’s Afghanistan And CIA Connection
Published: 07/01/2010It has undeniably been the talk of the town here in Amman, to say nothing of the local virtual spheres; an interesting contrast to the local mainstream media that has remained relatively hush-hush about the death of Sharif Ali bin…
In Gaza, even the walls go underground
Published: 28/12/2009A wall is going down at the Egypt-Gaza border – but by ‘down’, I do not mean it is falling: it is going underground. 20 to 30 meters deep, to be exact.
After unconfirmed rumours first reported by Israeli…
Hajj
Published: 30/11/2009was invited by the representative of Imam Khomeini in Hajj Affairs, Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha to be a member of the International Affairs Delegation, in 1983. I had attended the Omra ceremonies of Hajj when I was very young, but this…
Movie Review: Pomegranates and Myrrh
Published: 05/11/2009Yesterday I went to the movies and watched the Palesinian movie “Pomegranates and Myrrh” directed by Najwa Najjar. I showed a preview for this movie in my post Click here for a review. I will not spoil the movie for…
Expanding my settlement in the West Bank
Published: 27/09/2009They are building on our yishuv (settlement) right now. There is heavy machinery in place and I hear about plans for around 50 houses or so. Right now all they have done so far is taken part of a hill…
The Second Biden Mission to Iraq
Published: 18/09/2009Writing about the Iraq policy of the Obama administration is difficult these days. There is a dearth of policy statements, and what little exists in the public domain is either rather bland or involves a continuation of the policy of…
La « résistance non-violente » dans les territoires palestiniens : Changement de stratégie ou recherche d’une légitimité nouvelle ?
Published: 30/07/2009Le texte qui suit est une communication effectuée en juillet dans le cadre du Séminaire “Violence, droit et Justice”, co-organisé par le Laboratoire de Théorie
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Empire’s Paranoia About the Pashtuns
Published: 28/07/2009Despite being among the poorest people in the world, the inhabitants of the craggy northwest of what is now Pakistan have managed to throw a series of frights into distant Western capitals for more than a century. That’s certainly one…
The Turkish Link
Published: 22/07/200912/07/2009 - Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed is the emerging world’s Warren Buffet. He’s as comfortable investing in the United Bank of Africa as he is investing in Citibank. So, it was worth taking notice when the Turkish daily, Sabah,…
Egypt: What’s good for the goose is NOT good for the gander
Published: 19/07/2009When Marwa El Sherbini was shot dead in a German court Facebook users and the Egyptian blogosphere mourned her as the victim of the veil, the victim of racism, and the victim of her beliefs. But when a heap of…
Ethnic Tensions, Mad Libs, and other dysfunctional relationships
Published: 15/07/200908/07/2009 – I’m back from Hunan and I’ve got some great posts from our trip, but I did want to take a moment and comment on the recent unrest in Urumqi.
The violence on both sides has been shocking and…
Washington and the Iran Protests: Would they be Allowed in the US?
Published: 26/06/2009President Barack Obama had this to say about the Iran crisis on Tuesday:
‘ First, I’d like to say a few words about the situation in Iran. The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged…
How to think about Iran
Published: 22/06/2009It is one thing to defend the Iranian state from outside assault and interference, all necessary and laudable, one thing to recognize the occasional political usefulness of the Iranian state on the world’s stage, which is real enough if often…
The Irony of Iran’s ‘Twitter Revolution’
Published: 20/06/2009I had earlier written about the use of social technologies in the 2009 Iran presidential election campaign.
Now, Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s supporters are disputing the overwhelming victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the elections (Hamid Tehrani at Global Voices).
Various observers have…
Iran: Storm of protest after election
Published: 14/06/2009Thousands of people demonstrated in Tehran, Mashhad and several other major cities in Iran to protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s proclaimed victory in the Iranian presidential election on Friday. Two different reformist rivals and their supporters insist there was election…
Lebanon: Hizbullah’s defeat
Published: 13/06/2009Lebanon’s elections on 7 June confirmed the continuing victory of Saad Hariri’s 14 March group and the defeat of the alliance between Hizbullah and the Maronite general Michel Aoun. This alliance had hoped to be the winners, but failed to…
An Objective Analysis of Iranian Election
Published: 09/06/2009The motivation to write this article grew as I started a semi-concrete study of current election campaigns in Iran. In following I will give a brief introduction of Iranian politic system as a try to shed light on complexities of…
Lebanon – Election Day
Published: 08/06/2009I awoke this morning with the Sunday mixture of Orthodox chants and car horns wafting in through my bedroom window, which is a normal Sunday in this part of Ashrafieh, but today the percentage of honking was a little higher…
China: A New Number One in the Middle East
Published: 04/06/2009Here’s one for the history books. China overtook the United States earlier this year as the world’s largest exporter to the Middle East. It’s the first time the United States has lost its number one ranking since at least the…
L’Iran, le elezioni ed internet
Published: 01/06/2009La stampa e i mezzi di informazione non hanno mai avuto vita facile nell’Iran della Rivoluzione islamica. Tuttavia, anche sotto il regime sciita la libertà di espressione ha vissuto fasi di maggiore apertura e aspettative di cambiamento.
La stampa riformista…
Lebanon – Parliament Elections 2009
Published: 30/05/2009Reiterating a previous position I’ve taken on this blog, it is with despair and dismay that I continue to follow the parliamentary elections in Lebanon.
This blog post will touch on the subject of women in Lebanese politics, or…
Christians, like all Palestinians, want to live in freedom
Published: 26/05/2009I have always been proud of being a Palestinian Christian, born and raised in Bethlehem, the holiest town in all Christianity.
Even before the start of the first intifada, when I was ten years old and before knowing about…
Saudi Arabia – Municipal elections delayed
Published: 19/05/2009It’s official now. The municipal elections will be put off for two years, but instead of saying we are delaying the elections the government came out today saying they will extend the mandate of municipal councils by two years. Classic.…
Delicious
Has Washington Decided to Focus on Syrian-Israeli Peace?
Published: 10/02/2010Is the return of a US ambassador to Damascus connected to a decision by Washington turn to the Syrian track of the peace process?
Jeb Koogler, a research fellow at the New America Foundation, writes here that the Al Sharq…