March 12th, 2009

Time for better decisions to be made on Palestine-Israel In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Star (Opinion) - May 21, 2003 - 12:00am The Palestine-Israel conflict has become a hostage to fundamentalists and ideologues of every description, to people who advocate a clash of civilizations and religions in pursuit of their own warped visions of history and mythology. These fanatics, whether Jews, Christians or Muslims, can best be called “clashists” (to rhyme with fascists.) The sad fact is that the issue of Palestine has become the latest “last refuge of scoundrels.” The rest of us, unencumbered by divine certitude about the future and open to reason and compromise, have found it harder to have a public voice and space. » Read more

Time for Palestinians to take charge of their destiny In Print by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) - June 9, 2004 - 12:00am The cautious President Mubarak has overcome Egyptian reticence to get involved in Gaza. His initial concerns about the risk of getting Egyptian personnel targeted by Palestinians and enhancing the risk of direct confrontation with Israel after four decades of peace, have given way to accepting to take on an active security role in Gaza. It seems that Egypt’s concerns about the ensuing anarchy, or fundamentalist take over in Gaza after the withdrawal, and Egypt’s strategic choice to play the regional power broker in coordination with the US, have all overweighed other considerations. » Read more

Wall and Peace In Print by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) - August 20, 2003 - 12:00am The long struggle to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians is at a crossroads that will almost certainly determine the direction of future events for decades, if not indeed for generations. » Read more

March 5th

The Gaza War & What All Sides Must Do In Print by Hussein Ibish - Encylopaedia Britannica Blog (Opinion) - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am The recent war in Gaza proves yet again what all reasonable people understood about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for many years: there is no military solution for either side, and both peoples’ hopes for a better future depend on reaching a peace agreement with each other. » Read more

February 27th

Rescue a two-state solution in Palestine In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Star - February 27, 2009 - 1:00am In the wake of the devastating war in Gaza, the immediate challenge facing the United States, its Arab allies, and the international community, is providing essential aid and reconstruction to the people of Gaza without bolstering Hamas. Hamas launched reckless and provocative rocket attacks against Israel. But Gazans, already suffering under siege, are not Hamas, they are not combatants, and should not be punished. » Read more

Remembering Edward Said - Worth a Thought. And Many more In Print by Ziad Asali - United Press International (UPI) (Blog) - September 26, 2003 - 12:00am A university professor of literature at Columbia University has died. He was witty, elegant and powerful, passionate about his field of study and a man of aristocratic bearing. He loved opera and art and wrote lovely, erudite books. What made him especially important, however, was none of the preceding. Edward W. Said was one of the architects of all reasonable discussion on the question of Palestine and commanded the moral authority to discuss the subject honestly and outside the rhetoric of hatred and violence. He was a brilliant man who sought to improve the world through the » Read more

A Palestinian View: In search of a Palestinian strategy In Print by Ziad Asali - Bitterlemons - April 26, 2004 - 12:00am The foundations of the historic compromise have been shaken in this cruelest month of April. The president of the United States, publicly and clearly, redefined the right of return to mean the return to the yet-to-be-born Palestine. He questioned the "sanctity" of the 1967 borders and sanctioned "reality on the ground" as a determining factor for the future of settlements and borders. » Read more

February 26th

A Waltz With the Dogs of Memory In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Nation - February 24, 2009 - 1:00am Initial reaction to the surprising failure of the Israeli film Waltz with Bashir to win this year's Academy Award for best foreign-language picture has suggested that it confronts harsh truths and painful realities, especially about Israel, too unflinchingly for the Hollywood mainstream to embrace. As a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz put it, this year's Oscars demonstrated that "Hollywood knows exactly how it likes its Jews: Victims." Waltz with Bashir obviously provides little to feed that narrative. » Read more

January 25th

Martyrs vs. Traitors myth gains currency in Gaza war's wake In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Chicago Tribune (Opinion) - January 25, 2009 - 1:00am The conflict in Gaza has the potential of becoming a transformative political event in the Middle East that allows Islamists to capture the Arab political imagination for at least a generation. Along with familiar appeals to religious and cultural "authenticity," and dubious claims regarding good governance and democracy, Islamists are beginning to consolidate an exclusive claim to the most powerful Arab political symbols: Palestine and nationalism. » Read more

January 21st

As Obama takes office, Mideast needs his attention In Print by Ziad Asali - The Philadelphia Inquirer (Opinion) - January 20, 2009 - 1:00am By Ziad Asali and Tom Dine Joe Biden predicted that Barack Obama would be tested by a foreign-policy crisis early in his term. The recent surge of violence in Gaza came even sooner than that. How Obama approaches Gaza will be critical not only for the immediate security of Israelis and Palestinians, but also for the resolution of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. relations with the world's Muslims. » Read more