BELGRADE - Serbia is preparing to go before the United Nations next month to renew negotiations over the future of Kosovo, its southern breakaway province that has declared independence and been recognized by a number of countries. Serbia is planning its next steps...
Uprooted Villagers Hold Fast During Ramadan
JERUSALEM - On the eve of the start of Ramadan last week, Israeli police demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert. It was the third time within two weeks that the village had been razed. Unfazed, the Bedouin villagers immediately began...
The Secrets in Israel’s Archives
Wednesday: 25 Iraqis Killed, 33 Wounded
No Room for Arab Students at Israeli Universities
Measures designed to benefit Jewish school-leavers applying for places in Israeli higher education at the cost of their Arab counterparts have been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups. The new initiatives are viewed as part of an ongoing drive by right-wing...
Cordoba House: The Acid Test
It's hard to believe that a national campaign led by lunatics has taken off with such momentum, but then again, it looks like we're still living in Bizarro World, where the values we upheld before 9/11 have been hideously inverted. So what else can we expect? The...
Portrait of a Sagging Empire
In September 1998, I was handed a submission for a proposed book by Chalmers Johnson. I was then (as I am now) consulting editor at Metropolitan Books. 9/11 was three years away, the Bush administration still an unimaginable nightmare, and though the prospective...
Bin Laden’s Rising Influence In America
American leaders are always trying to assess Osama bin Laden's level of influence over Muslims. They should look at his influence over their own countrymen. The aversion to a proposed Muslim center near Ground Zero shows that it is Americans, not Muslims, whose...
Histrionics Over the Mosque: Symbolism Crowds Out Reality
The American media, and to a lesser extent the world media, focus on symbolism at the expense of underlying reality. And sometimes they can't even make sense of the symbolism. The artificially generated controversy over a proposed mosque within about two blocks of the...
Questioning COIN Assumptions in Afghanistan
Recently, Gen. David Petraeus issued new guidance for the members of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) operating in Afghanistan. This guidance differed little from the direction offered by his fired predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Petraeus's...