May 8, 2008

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

The Economist looks at recent legislation concerning Jewish refugees from their April edition. (1) The Associated Press reports on a Fatah victory in Hebron (3). Tony Blair calls on Israel to work to improve Palestinian lives(4)as Daniel Levy discusses checkpoints (6). Former President Jimmy Carter speaks out against conditions in Gaza in a Daily Star Op-Ed (9).

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Fatah Wins Key W. Bank Student Election

Hebron University officials say Fatah has won student council elections in a former Hamas stronghold.

Fatah activists loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won 21 seats Wednesday, compared to 20 for Hamas. Fatah supporters honked car horns and fired guns in the air when the results were announced. Islamists controlled the university's student council since 1986.

Middle East Peace Process Needs To Move Faster, Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday the Middle East peace process needs to move faster if there is to be any chance of an agreement this year.
In an exclusive interview with the satellite TV station 'Sky News' in the West Bank town of Jenin, Blair also said Israel must do more to lift restrictions on the Palestinians to improve their economy.

Israel's Half A Step Forward

The May cover of The Atlantic magazine, a respected monthly, was daring. The headline was unbelievable for an American publication: "Is Israel Finished?" The Star of David was larger than the characters on the cover which was adorned by the four colors of the Palestinian flag –– red, white, black and green.

Israel At 60

I don’t often, or ever really, write about my own relationship to Israel or how I ended up there, but I’ll make an exception for the 60th anniversary.

It happened for me at the time of the ‘good’ Iraq war, you remember – the one whose ambitions were limited to ensuring continued access to Kuwaiti oil – not the contemporary Iraq tri-fecta effort – own the oil, change the regime, and transform the region.

Bush Plans No Peace Talks On Mideast Trip

The White House says now isn't the time for a peace conference between U.S. President George Bush and leaders of Israel and the Palestinians.

Bush will be in Israel next week to help the Jewish state mark the 60th anniversary of its founding. He also plans to visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that next week "did not seem the time for a big high-level, three-way event " with the president, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

For Some Palestinians, One State With Israel Is Better Than None

Frustrated by years of on-and-off peace talks with Israel, Palestinians are losing hope for an independent homeland, and some are proposing a radically different cause: a shared state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews.

Politics Aside, A Human Rights Crime Is Happening In Gaza

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where 1.5 million human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population is being brutally punished.

Mideast Change Is Coming, And May Not Be Pretty

 

The convergence of six trends in the Middle East - the changing realities of food, energy, water, population, urbanization and security-dominated politics - is likely to create conditions that will be politically challenging, if not destabilizing, in many countries in the years ahead. The confluence of these trends is very similar to what happened in the region in the mid to late 1970s, when the current Islamist wave of social identity and confrontational politics was initiated.

Palestine: Liberation Deferred

The "Palestine Question" has been with us for sixty years. During this time it has become a running sore, its solution appearing ever more distant. Whether the events sixty years ago that created this question solved the previously perennial "Jewish Question" is once again open to debate. This is the case after many years when the apparent triumph of Zionism stilled doubts and drowned out the protests of those who argued that what purported to be the solution to one problem had created an entirely different one.

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