One day before announcing Wednesday, Nov. 21’s cease-fire agreement, at a brief news conference prior to talks between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, late on Tuesday night, the secretary announced that her itinerary included Ramallah and Cairo in addition to Jerusalem. The visit to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was […]
A close observation of the recent developments in Gaza might reveal broader implications for the region: Israel‘s operation Amud Anan (“Pillar of Cloud”) in Gaza could be preparation for an Israeli strike on Iran. The story begins late October when a mysterious blast destroyed the Sudanese military base Yarmouk on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum. The Yarmouk was […]
EVEN before the firing between Israel and Hamas had fully died away in the wake of the ceasefire announced on the night of November 21st, two new/old battle-fronts had opened up for Binyamin Netanyahu and his ministers. The first is over public and governmental opinion in the region; the second over the support of the […]
Default became a dirty word in the United Arab Emirates after 2009, when Dubai World requested a six-month delay on payments on US$26 billion in debt. So much so that when UAE energy company Dana Gas this month missed repayment on a US$920 million Islamic bond, local press hesitated to label it as a default. […]
Why is it that Hamas — purveyor of terror, launcher of Iranian-supplied rockets, and source of “death to the Jews” tropes — is getting more attention, traction, legitimacy and support than the “good” Palestinian, the reasonable and grandfatherly Mahmoud Abbas, who has foresworn violence in favor of negotiations? Since the crisis began, President Obama seems to […]
Touring the luxurious campus of the American University of Sharjah last week, I was yet again struck by what money, especially petrodollars, can buy. Sharjah is an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, located adjacent to Abu Dhabi. Designed by the ruler of Sharjah, Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, one of the more enlightened of […]
The militants of the Palestinian group Hamas are sending a clear message: They are prepared to take great risks to kill Israelis. When it fired rockets at Jerusalem today from the Gaza Strip — the first time Jerusalem has been targeted — Hamas hoped to hit Jewish residents. The rockets, however, might just as easily have damaged Islamic holy […]
As President Barak Obama resettles in the Oval Office and casts his gaze again beyond US politics, he may well be reminded that few eyes were on the ball when the Arab uprisings appeared to erupt suddenly in the spring of 2011, catching pundits and politicians by surprise, and re-positioning Washington’s Middle East policies. Today, […]
With the formation of the Syrian national coalition in Doha last weekend, the Syrian conflict seems to have entered a new phase. For the first time since the breakout of the Syrian revolution almost 20 months ago, the Syrian opposition has a representative body that can speak in its name. Western governments have long been […]
Lieutenant-Colonel Hussein Harmoush, one of the first Syrian army officers to defect, was contacted by the Muslim Brotherhood shortly after he arrived at a refugee camp in Turkey’s Hatay province in June of 2011. He was one of a small group of defectors, the Free Officers. Brotherhood members visited him several times and promised him […]
