PRESS ROOM

274 Article

• Syria’s policies may save it from a Dignity Revolution

  4 February 2011, by John Bell

  Tunisia has fallen; Egypt is on the verge; Jordan, Yemen and Algeria are feeling the tremors.
  Many commentators have mentioned that these revolutions are about bread, freedom and justice, and they have also frequently mentioned “dignity.” Having used that word often to describe Palestinian needs vis-a-vis Israeli occupation, I sought a definition of this keyword, and found: “the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect.”
  This need for status and legitimacy in a community is basic and (…)

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• The Fake Moderation of America’s Moderate Mideast Allies

  4 February 2011, by Asli Bâli, Aziz Rana

  As the Mubarak regime turns to violence in a vain attempt to repress the peaceful protests that have swept Egypt’s streets for over ten days, the risks associated with current U.S. strategy for Egypt and the wider region continue to grow. In its response to the events, the Obama administration has subtly shifted its message, incrementally increasing pressure on the regime over the last week. But the more important story is the remarkable continuities reflected in the administration’s (…)

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• Why isn’t the PA supporting the Egypt uprising?

  3 February 2011, by Amira Haas

  Palestinian leadership has been careful not to support the uprisings, banning demonstrations in solidarity with the Egyptians; Palestinian television has virtually ignored the events in Egypt. By Amira Hass
  The Palestinian leadership has been careful not to support the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and has banned demonstrations in solidarity with the rebelling peoples. Palestinian television has virtually ignored the events in Egypt.
  Dr. Mamdouh al-Aker, a 68-year-old urologist, (…)

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• The triviality of US Mideast policy

  31 January 2011, by Robert Grenier

  "Watching and responding."
  That was the phrase used by PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, in his recent interview with Al Jazeera.
  In the midst of the startling and compelling events taking place in the Middle East since the advent of Tunisia’s ongoing "jasmine revolution", with people taking to the streets in Algeria, in Yemen, in Jordan, and, most importantly, shaking the foundations of the Mubarak regime in Egypt - the US, he said, is passively "watching and responding". (…)

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• Tunisia’s Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer

  26 January 2011, by Amy Aisen Kallander

  The January 14 departure of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali amidst popular protests was a long overdue demonstration of the possibility for genuine democratization in the Arab world. Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor whose self-immolation set off the protests, tapped a deep vein of anger in Tunisian society at police harassment and the general arbitrariness of the state, but also at severe, endemic economic inequality sharpened now by rising global food prices. It remains to be (…)

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• Egypt’s day of reckoning

  28 January 2011, by Robert Fisk

  A day of prayer or a day of rage? All Egypt was waiting for the Muslim Sabbath today – not to mention Egypt’s fearful allies – as the country’s ageing President clings to power after nights of violence that have shaken America’s faith in the stability of the Mubarak regime.
  Five men have so far been killed and almost 1,000 others have been imprisoned, police have beaten women and for the first time an office of the ruling National Democratic Party was set on fire. Rumours are as dangerous (…)

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• The rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act

  1 January 2009, by Robert Fisk

  There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" – the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut – and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people? And now – after three decades of Hosni Mubarak – can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to (…)

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• Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast

  29 January 2011, by Aluf Benn

  The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.
  From now on, it will be hard for Israel to trust an Egyptian government torn apart by internal strife. Israel’s increasing isolation in the region, coupled with a weakening United States, will force the government to court new potential allies. (…)

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• Fear Extreme Islamists in the Arab World? Blame Washington

  29 January 2011, by Jeff Cohen

  In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. questioned U.S. military interventions against progressive movements in the Third World by invoking a JFK quote: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
  Were he alive to witness the last three decades of U.S. foreign policy, King might update that quote by noting: "Those who make secular revolution impossible will make extreme Islamist revolution inevitable."
  For decades beginning during (…)

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• Egypt Protests Show American Foreign-Policy Folly

  28 January 2011, by Stephen Kinzer

  One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I walked into the British Foreign Office for a meeting with Middle East policy planners. “Tunisia is melting down and the Lebanese government has just fallen,” my host said as he welcomed me. “Interesting times.”
  During our meeting, one veteran British diplomat observed that since American policy toward the Middle East is frozen into immobility, change there comes only when there is a crisis. I asked where he thought the next crisis might erupt. (…)

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