Month: January 2009

The only three Arab parties represented in the Israeli parliament vowed yesterday to fight a decision by the Central Elections Committee to bar them from running in next month’s general election. In an unprecedented move signaling a further breakdown in Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel, all the main Jewish parties voted on Monday for the blanket … Continue reading “Israeli Arab Parties React to Election Ban”

At least six Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, Iraq formally turned over to the U.N. a document ratifying a ban against chemical weapons. In Mosul, a suicide bomber killed two people and wounded at least four others at a Zanjili … Continue reading “Wednesday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 13 Wounded”

In the first comprehensive statement of President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign policy priorities, his nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said “cooperative engagement” backed up by what she called “smart power” will define Washington’s approach to the rest of the world. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is likely to recommend her … Continue reading “Clinton Stresses ‘Cooperative Engagement,’ ‘Smart Power’”

CAIRO – A week after the unveiling of a Franco-Egyptian cease-fire proposal aimed at stopping the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian resistance faction Hamas and, on the face of it, Israel are still discussing the fine print of an agreement. "Details of the proposal remain unclear," Abdelaziz Shadi, coordinator of Cairo University’s Israeli studies … Continue reading “Cease-Fire Hopes Fading Away”

With hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, killed during nearly three weeks of fighting in Gaza, there is a growing demand either for an international tribunal or an international commission to investigate charges of war crimes committed by Israel. But there are fears that any such move may be shot down by the United … Continue reading “Gaza Killings Trigger Call for War Crimes Probe”

RAMALLAH – A number of armed attacks have taken place on Israel’s borders with Palestinian territories in the last six days as Arab public anger over the death and destruction wrought on Gaza spills over from massive street demonstrations. Israeli security officials have voiced concern that the Gaza violence could affect Israel’s borders and that … Continue reading “Anger Begins to Knock at Israel’s Borders”

The U.S. State Department fiercely denied claims made by Ehud Olmert about his influence over President George W. Bush, in an incident that has stirred up old debates about the role of the Israeli government and the so-called "Israel lobby" in formulating Middle East policy in Washington. On Monday, Olmert claimed that he demanded and … Continue reading “Olmert’s Claims Revive Israel Lobby Controversy”

Now that the greatest strategic disaster in American military history is an accomplished fact, its architects are distancing themselves from their handiwork. For the past year or two, we have been treated to the spectacle of what might be called neoconservative panic syndrome – the cabal that lied us into war is frightened to death … Continue reading “Richard Perle: Still Crazy After All These Years”

Human rights groups are hailing reports that President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. But they are urging him to provide details on when and how it will be done and what will happen to … Continue reading “Fate of Guantánamo Detainees Still Murky”

While in a farewell press conference Monday George W. Bush once again expressed the belief that his eight-year presidency, particularly his foreign-policy record, will be vindicated by history, the portents are not particularly good. Already last spring, nearly two thirds of 109 professional historians polled by the History News Network rated Bush the worst president … Continue reading “Bush Foreign Policy Legacy Widely Seen as Disastrous”