Is the current Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in danger of facing a fate similar to that of his predecessor? It might be a pessimistic question, but some of the rumblings coming out of Palestinian National Authority headquarters, Muqataa, these days point to lack of trust, by some in the PNA after the results of the recent meetings Qureia had with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Continue Reading »

Politicians and commentators have filled newspapers and airwaves with criticism against the Bush administration’s publicly stated motivation for going to war against Iraq. In most of the attacks blame has been made to the administration’s neo conservative officials as being the ones who were actively behind the war decision. These commentators, however, have failed to present a logical explanation as to what they believe was the real motive for George Bush’s war that has left American occupying 25 million Iraqis. Continue Reading »

President Bush’s recent endorsement of Ariel Sharon’s policies has mostly hurt one important group- moderate Arabs. The new US position received extremely angry reactions from Middle East leaders and activists as well as many European and other international leaders. Political leaders and commentators alike attacked the US president for his legitimization of the some of the illegal settlements and his call on Palestinians to give up their inalienable right to return to their homes and lands. These attacks concentrated on the fact that Washington has shifted its long held positions. While the attacks came from persons of all political colors, the most intense attacks came from the moderates who saw in them a scary signal as to what might happen in the future. The postponement of Jordan’s King Abdullah from a scheduled meeting on the 21st with President Bush reflect how this US move has hurt America’s closest Arab allies. Continue Reading »

During the difficult negotiations following the signing of the declaration of principles on the White House lawn in 1993, Palestinians tried to convince Israelis to give up Netzarim and Kfar Darom. After all, Palestinian argued, these two tiny Jewish settlements were located in the center of an extremely populated area of the Gaza Strip. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem — The Bush administration is passing up an important possibility for winning the war on terrorism: a military intervention and international supervision of elections in Palestine.

Few anti-terrorism experts would disagree that solving the Israel-Palestine conflict can offer an important impetus for winning the global war on terrorism. Failure to resolve this conflict has been repeatedly stated as a source of irritation in the Arab, Islamic and most of the developing world. Continue Reading »

Reform is not a new issue in the Arab world. It has been the demand of Arab democrats and human rights activists for years. Most of those fighters for democracy have been muzzled, detained, tortured, or have disappeared or been killed by Arab dictators and even leaders who are believed to be moderate in the eyes of the western world. Continue Reading »

Along with a number of other Arab leaders, the prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, is expected in Washington next week. Many analysts expect the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Sharon’s plans to withdraw from Gaza to top the agenda of the meetings. Continue Reading »

There is no doubt that Sheikh Yassin will be remembered for some time for his role in creating and leading the Islamic Hamas movement in Palestine . Yassin has taken a relatively weak branch of the Egyptian founded Muslim brotherhood and made it a power to reckon with. In order to do that, he had to deviate from the traditional political mode of the Brotherhood. The Muslim brotherhood in most Arab countries is relatively moderate and usually refrains from using arms against the ruling powers. Continue Reading »

It is often said that there is a time for everything. The meaning of such a saying is that when it is the time for war those who believe in peace should shut up. It is certainly difficult to talk when the sound of canons (and in our case apache killing missiles) drowns any other noise. But it can be just as easy to argue that at the height of intolerance, murder and anger voices of reason are even more needed to speak. Continue Reading »

For years whenever the PLO’s executive committee met, astute observers paid more attention to what happens the day before. Usually before important meetings of the PLO, crucial all night sessions of  the central committee of Fatah take place to set the framework for the more public PLO sessions. This traditional, in a slightly different form, has continued after the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority and the elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On the eve of the meetings of the Palestinian Legislative Council scheduled for Wednesday the 10^th of March, the Fatah caucus in the PLC met at the shelled out offices of the Palestinian president. Arafat, who is also the secretary general of Fatah called for the meeting to coordinate who will be the next speaker of the Palestinian parliament. The importance of this positions has added value because in the sudden absence of the president of the PNA, the speaker of parliament becomes president for a 60 day period until new elections can take place. Continue Reading »