June 14th, 2012

Hamas 'left behind' by Arab Spring Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The National - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am When Hamas won control of the Gaza Strip after a brief but vicious round of factional fighting in 2007, it earned a degree of influence unprecedented in its short history. Its clashes with its archrival Fatah that culminated in military victory five years ago today emboldened Islamists, rattled Israel and the West and divided Palestinians between rival leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. » Read more

June 7th

When Will the Six-Day War End? Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The Atlantic - June 7, 2012 - 12:00am This week marks the 45th anniversary of the Six-Day War. It was a war of necessity for Israel -- Egypt and Syria, in particular, had manifested themselves as existential threats to the then-19-year-old Jewish state (Jordan less so) -- and it was a war whose first phase ended in unambiguous victory. » Read more

June 5th

Palestinians: US refugee bill may delay peace Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Jerusalem Post - June 5, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian advocates are warning that a new US Senate amendment dictating a reporting requirement on the issue of Palestinian refugees could set back efforts to reach a peace deal. The amendment to a bill, recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, mandates that the secretary of state must report how many of the Palestinians serviced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency fled or left homes in Israel during the War of Independence and how many are only their descendants. » Read more

May 31st

Defining a Palestinian refugee a US complication Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Associated Press - May 31, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON—A simple congressional request for the United States to distinguish between Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict and millions of their descendants poses a high-stakes diplomatic and political challenge for President Barack Obama. » Read more

May 14th

Arabic media mum on Nakba Day events Media Mention of Ziad Asali In The Jerusalem Post - May 14, 2012 - 12:00am » Read more

May 7th

The Visionary Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The New Republic - May 4, 2012 - 12:00am If you were to pinpoint one moment when it looked as if things just might work out for Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, it would probably be February 2, 2010. That day, Fayyad addressed the annual Herzliya Conference, a sort of Israeli version of Davos featuring high-powered policymakers and intellectuals. It is not a typical speaking venue for Palestinians; yet Fayyad was warmly received. » Read more

April 20th

Radical action needed after Oslo's decline Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The National - April 20, 2012 - 12:00am In 1993, when the Oslo Accords were signed and the Palestinian Authority was born, the senior Israeli politician Yossi Beilin was a leading advocate for Palestinian self-rule. The accords, and the Authority, were intended to pave the way for permanent solutions on borders, refugees and two-state control. » Read more

April 13th

The Peace Process Stuck in a Rut of Malaise Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The National - April 13, 2012 - 12:00am The Quartet of Middle East mediators - the US, the UN, the EU and Russia - met Wednesday on the sidelines of the G8 foreign ministers' meeting in Washington. But the Quartet's first high-level meeting since December passed almost without notice in the US. Neither The Washington Post nor The New York Times had a story about it in yesterday's editions. In part, say observers, the lack of interest is due to other, more pressing issues. The violence in Syria dominates the attention of the foreign-policy circuit in Washington, where Iran's nuclear programme is also a perennial concern. » Read more

February 8th

Who’s Pulling the Strings in the Middle East? Little Qatar, says Syria Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The New York Times - February 7, 2012 - 1:00am LONDON — The Syrian regime is in no doubt about who sits at the center of a web of international conspiracy seeking to undermine it: the rulers of the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Like the regime of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and that of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s Libya before it, Syria has singled out Qatar as an éminence grise behind the unrest in its streets. In a dispatch on Tuesday, the Syrian State news agency SANA claimed to have discovered a document showing Qatar was funding writers in Russia to fabricate news about Syria. » Read more

January 30th

Meshaal's cordial visit to Jordan helps open 'new page' in relations Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The National - January 30, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM // The leaders of Hamas have never been known for globetrotting or an appetite for diplomatic fanfare. They were confined to the Gaza Strip, unable to leave because of the Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave. Or, if they were among the clutch of senior Hamas officials based in Damascus, they maintained a low profile to avoid testing the patience and straining the hospitality of their Syrian hosts. Those days are gone. » Read more