Così intitolava Oriana Fallaci (prima maniera) uno dei suoi libri, sottintendendo che dalla storia non avevamo imparato nulla, e amen… appunto. Ma rassegnarsi a dire amen è un esercizio a cui non voglio fare l’abitudine, sforzandomi invece di andar sempre…
Categoria » English
U.S. gave Israel green light for East Jerusalem construction
Published: 12/03/2010The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king’s bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen’s bottom.
The statement…
Biden calls for Middle East talks to resume (video)
Published: 12/03/201012/03/2010 – US Vice President Joe Biden calls for peace talks to resume in the Middle East (ITN News)
Turkey’s Troubled Road To Democracy
Published: 11/03/2010
Turkey’s difficult and troubled course towards the consolidation of its democratic institutions has witnessed new and unexpected developments starting from the end of February, while other crucial events are expected in the coming weeks and months.
On February 22nd, dozens of…
Renewed talks – a short tour to nowhere
Published: 10/03/2010Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has finally managed to provide himself with badly needed cover to resume the yearlong stalled Israeli Palestinian negotiations.
When he had entrenched himself behind US President Barack Obama’s demand that Israel stop all settlement expansion before…
A new constitution, award of growing more civilian
Published: 10/03/2010Turkey is going through a historic period. We are at the very beginning of being more civilian; demilitarization and normalization processes continue unabated.
Naturally, it will be very painful. So many people see the present situation as a crisis but, in…
Poll shows Turkish public longs for legal reform, new constitution
Published: 10/03/2010A newly released opinion poll has shown that a majority of the Turkish public strongly backs the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s plans to introduce a judicial reform package and supports the replacement of the existing Constitution with…
And now, the plot is proven…
Published: 10/03/2010Something very important happened last Monday. A short statement from the Turkish General Staff noted that its investigators had gathered “evidence that might prove the existence of the document in question.”
“The document in question” was quite a terrible one. It…
Turkey’s military under pressure
Published: 10/03/2010Last week, 68 serving and retired Turkish officers, including 24 generals and admirals, were taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a coup in 2003. It was the largest police operation against the military in Turkish history, and by week’s…
Israelis and Palestinians: Agreeing to Talk — and to Fail
Published: 09/03/2010They won’t be talking directly to each other, but at least the leaders of Israel and Palestine have a common objective in the “proximity talks” the Obama Administration is launching this week. Unfortunately, that shared goal is not to reach…
Fresh Israeli-Palestinian talks run into brick wall (video)
Published: 09/03/201009/03/2010 – Amid an American diplomatic offensive comprising visits by the vice-president, Joe Biden, and the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to hold indirect negotiations after more than a year of deep freeze.
But even before ties could begin to thaw, Israel’s move to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank a day after agreeing to talks, has turned things frosty again (al-Jazeera English)
American foreign policy shouldn’t focus on elections, in Iraq or elsewher
Published: 08/03/2010When the Iraqis go to the polls Sunday, they will begin choosing a new government. The Americans, of course, won’t cast a single ballot — but they will be voting with their feet. If the elections unleash more violence, beyond…
Raw Video: Israeli Soldiers, Palestinians Clash (video)
Published: 07/03/201007/03/2010 – Three Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Burin, medics said. The clashes began when Jewish settlers tried to bathe in a cistern that villagers use for water. (March 6) (AP)
US-Turkey – Counting the votes and counting the cost
Published: 07/03/2010“Anger” was the way the BBC described the Turkish reaction to the US congressional committee’s vote to call for the recognition of the deaths of the Armenians under Ottoman rule as genocide. The Wall Street Journal said Ankara was “riled.”…
Turkey outraged by House resolution on Armenian genocide (video)
Published: 06/03/201006/03/2010 – By a margin of one vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a non-binding resolution calling the World War I-era killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks a “genocide.” The fallout continues between the U.S. and Turkey, one of America’s key allies (World On Focus)
Iraq’s election, the future of Iraq, and the Kurdish stand
Published: 06/03/2010All the indicators clearly show that post-Saddam Iraq is anything but a democratic state.
Former Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani stated that the forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held on March 7, are very important for Iraq…
Early voting begins in Iraq (video)
Published: 05/03/201005/03/2010 – Early voting has begun in Iraq’s parliamentary elections.
Security personnel, detainees and hospital patients were among those allowed to vote ahead of Sunday’s election, when most Iraqis will cast their ballots.
Security is tight after Wednesday’s suicide bomb attack in the city of Baquba, which killed at least 32 people (al-Jazeera English)
Suspicions swell as Iraq elections near
Published: 05/03/2010DAMASCUS – The Iraqi government is printing 26 million ballots for the March 7 elections, nearly 35% more than are needed for all eligible voters. Several contesting parties are crying foul play, claiming that the extra 7 million ballots will…
Gaza War victims believe Israel will trump UN probe (video)
Published: 04/03/201004/03/2010 – A new UN resolution gives Israel and the Palestinians five more months to investigate the three-week Gaza war, which started at the end of 2008. A report last year found both sides guilty of war crimes. Israel calls it biased and flawed. And the Palestinians say even if the probe confirms that war crimes were committed, Israel will never be held responsible (Russia Today)
Islamic scholar Tahir ul-Qadri issues terrorism fatwa
Published: 04/03/2010An influential Muslim scholar has issued a global ruling against terrorism and suicide bombing.
Dr Tahir ul-Qadri, from Pakistan, says his 600-page judgement, known as a fatwa, completely dismantles al-Qaeda’s violent ideology.
The scholar describes al-Qaeda as an “old evil with a…
Elections in Iraq overshadowed by the US-Iran Confrontation
Published: 03/03/2010
The first half of 2009 was relatively quiet in Iraq. The main events were the January provincial elections, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities at the end of June, and a substantial drop in violence throughout the country.
The…
Turkey – The fallacy of ‘secularist military’ vs. ‘Islamist government’
Published: 03/03/2010What is going on in Turkey? I often hear this question raised nowadays by foreign observers of Turkish politics. To this, some Western journalists have a very simple answer: “A power struggle is taking place between the Islamist Justice and…
Iraqi elections – more foreign than domestic interest
Published: 03/03/2010There are many claims and complaints that external elements are trying to manipulate the coming elections in Iraq. Some of these are substantiated while others are made for propaganda purposes. That there are strong external influences is beyond doubt. Some…
Head to head in Iraq
Published: 03/03/2010Parliamentary elections in any country tend to be influenced by local issues and concerns and sometimes by personalities. While politics is more complicated than that, voters still tend to give their votes to the candidates they trust and will serve…
The main issues facing Iraq’s next government
Published: 03/03/2010Iraqis vote in an election on March 7 seen as a test of Iraq’s young and tenuous democracy, its ability to provide security, and the prospects for reconciliation between warring factions after years of violence.
The next government faces a raft…
Iraq’s Refugee Crisis
Published: 03/03/2010Psychological distress among Iraqis is on the rise. Though normalcy has returned to a large extent and the country is picking up gradually, the issue of displaced persons is yet to be resolved. According to estimates, millions of Iraqis are…
Another lame summit
Published: 02/03/2010This year’s Arab summit, scheduled to be held in the Libyan capital 27-28 March, is unlikely to spark great excitement in an Arab public that has grown weary of how ineffectual Arab summits are. If the Arab League suffered a…
Let’s calm down on Syria and Hezbollah
Published: 01/03/2010Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has visited Syria four times, twice during the past year. Bashar Assad has visited Tehran four times since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. If reciprocal visits by the presidents of Iran and Syria are cause for panic,…
Jundallah arrest proves timely for Iran
Published: 28/02/2010TEHRAN - If the snow-covered Elbruz mountains rising just north of Tehran took on an extra glint in the bright wintry sunshine on Wednesday, there was good reason. It was the morning after the dramatic capture of the 31-year-old leader of…
Building the first ‘Palestinian settlement’
Published: 28/02/2010Standing on the hills of Rawabi just north of Ramallah on the West Bank, at the moment there’s little more than a stunning view. On a clear day you can see as far as Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean.
But the…
Nato forces move on to Kandahar (video)
Published: 28/02/201028/02/2010 – After two weeks battling the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Marja town in Helmand province, Nato and Afghan forces are setting their sights on their next objective – securing Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar (al-Jazeera English)
US folly unites Iran and Syria
Published: 27/02/2010The show of unity between the Iranian and Syrian presidents during a meeting in Damascus Thursday puzzled some Western observers who thought that Syria’s recent rapprochement with the US would have transformed the country into a servile ally.
Despite an earlier…
Inside Story – tensions rise over holy sites (video)
Published: 26/02/201026/02/2010 – Palestinians are angered by Israel’s plan to restore two sites in the West Bank (al-Jazeera English)
The El-Baradei phenomenon
Published: 26/02/2010Right now it is Friday morning, only hours before Mohamed El-Baradei is due to arrive in Cairo. Three days ago, I was in Kuwait where I attended a workshop on strategic circumstances in the Middle East. Although Iran, Iraq and…
Preempting a ‘white intifada’
Published: 25/02/2010The status quo between Israel and the Palestinians serves Israel’s strategic interests and allows it to focus on confronting the Iranian threat. The relatively calm security situation and the ongoing haggling over the terms of negotiation with the Palestinian Authority…
Israel’s underground war
Published: 24/02/2010
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a prominent member of Hamas and one of the founders of the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigade, the movement’s military wing, was assassinated on January 19th in Dubai, but the repercussions are still being felt today especially because of the…
Israel relies on a deadly specialty
Published: 24/02/2010Reporting from Jerusalem – When Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman faced questions Monday from European diplomats over Israel’s suspected role in the Dubai assassination of a Hamas militant, he responded with familiar indignation: Why is Israel always the first to…
Dubai and Israel’s own suicide mission
Published: 24/02/2010I have mixed feelings about the Mossad “hit” on the Hamas terror chief in Dubai.
No doubt Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a legitimate target in the covert war against a terror organisation that has certainly lived – and died – by its…
Israel is back
Published: 24/02/2010We are currently facing an odd situation the likes of which we have not seen for many years: Israel’s enemies are in panic, or is it paranoia, for fear that Israel will be attacking them. Hezbollah is convinced that it…
Questions for Israel that it cannot avoid
Published: 24/02/2010Israel has some explaining to do, but not the sort that the country’s foreign ministry is contemplating. It thinks that Israel’s increasingly negative image can be countered with better public relations, that negative stereotypes of Israelis can be reversed by…
Israel’s hubris is proving its shame
Published: 24/02/2010Perhaps we are displaying hubris to conclude that Mossad agents killed Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, but we believe it is the assassination that perfectly reflects the hubris of overconfident and unaware people.
The hit reveals a cabal…
Dissecting Dubai
Published: 24/02/2010Some perspective – I: The world has not been impoverished by the death of Mahmoud Mabhouh.
Mabhouh was the self-confessed murderer of two Israeli soldiers, Ilan Sa’adon and Avi Sasportas, in two separate kidnap-slayings which he perpetrated with another Hamas terrorist…
Moshtarak or a Trap?
Published: 24/02/2010Moshtarak is the name of the NATO operation that is being led by the US in collaboration with Afghan troops in order to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan in what is considered to be the largest military operation since the…
Netanyahu faces double intifada from Palestinians and settlers
Published: 24/02/2010Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy day and night, preparing Israel for a fateful confrontation with Iran. But his real problem may occur elsewhere. The territories are heating up, with the Palestinians escalating their protests against the settlements and the…
KURDISH MOVEMENTS KEEP A VOICE IN TURKISH PARLIAMENT
Published: 23/02/2010Approximately two months after the ruling party in Turkey, AKP, announced its new plan to tackle the Kurdish conflict, the constitutional courts delivered a landmark decision by banning the pro-Kurdish party DTP.
In summer 2009, the government made official its intention…
Civilian casualties continue to mar Afghanistan war effort (video)
Published: 23/02/201023/02/2010 – In Afghanistan, officials said that 27 people were killed last night in Uruzgan province, when NATO aircraft fired on what was believed to be a convoy of insurgents. It turned out that the people were all civilians, including women and children (World Focus Online)
Nuclear debate between Soltanieh and Walsh
Published: 23/02/2010The following is a debate between Iran’s Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh and Jim Walsh, a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Progress.
Soltanieh: We should not underestimate the fact that…
Qatar’s diplomatic balancing act (video)
Published: 22/02/201022/02/2010 – Qatar, economically dependent on both Iran and the United States, will need to draw on its renowned diplomatic skills to maintain relations with both.
Qatar’s diplomatic relationship with Iran sets it apart from its neighbours. While most Gulf states keep Iran at a distance, Doha, the Qatari capital, often appears keen to close the gap (al-Jazeera English)
Dubai hit – another move in the Israel-Iran cold war
Published: 21/02/2010The assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mahbouh in Dubai, allegedly perpetrated by Israel, was another expression of the all-out cold war between Israel and Iran. The two regional powers are fighting for clout and influence in the Middle East, threatening…
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