Over the past year, the seemingly impossible has occurred. Firstly, the region reeled at the occupation of huge swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory by the so-called “Islamic State,” which began life as a small group of disgruntled Iraqi remnants of the Saddam era partnered with anti-government tribes numbering no more than 10,000. And now we learn that a Yemeni Shiite minority has succeeded in taking over Yemen, a reality that almost beggars belief! Continue reading
If the White House is out to offend some of its closest Arab allies and is intent on heightening their suspicions, it’s succeeded. Egyptians, in particular, were outraged to learn that top officials from the US State Department recently hosted a delegation that included two senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders and others closely aligned with the organisation deemed terrorist by some of its closest Middle East allies. Continue reading
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a tough cookie. For him, making enemies is as routine as eating a sandwich. He makes no secret of the fact that his main priority in life is Israel’s security, which he’ll do just about anything to maintain. Continue reading
The Israeli prime minister’s plan to persuade Congress to slap the Islamic Republic of Iran with further sanctions is aimed at subverting US-led negotiations with Iran over its uranium enrichment programme. Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on the issue in early March, which has set President Barack Obama fuming, according to White House insiders. One unnamed official apparently warned that Netanyahu “will pay a price” for this departure in protocol. Continue reading
In the US, a Western democracy with a population of 316 million, it’s astonishing that whenever there’s a presidential election in the offing, the same old familiar names are trotted out time and time again. And when one of them has a dynastic ring about it, the American public hardly blinks. Can it be mere happenstance of fate that candidates have been plucked from a handful of mega-wealthy establishment families more often than not? Continue reading
Oh what a tangled web the Arab country, considered to be the Cradle of Civilization, has become! When George W. Bush’s squads launched “Shock and Awe” on the false premise that Iraq had stocks of weapons of mass destruction, Pandora’s Box was opened and out popped a gift with the message “With love to Iran,” a message obliterated by the concept of democracy and freedom. Continue reading
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must surely feel he’s fighting windmills. This is a leader who has wholeheartedly rejected violence, choosing instead the path of peaceful negotiation. Nevertheless, his legitimate efforts to bring about a Palestinian state always result in disappointment, despite the fact that the majority of UN General Assembly member states are in his camp. Unfortunately, there are those who pay lip service to a two-state solution, but when push comes to shove they throw the Palestinian people’s aspirations under a bus. Continue reading
It wasn’t so long ago that the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was considered to be the poster child for political Islam. At one time, there were a slew of articles in the mainstream press praising the Turkish system of governance as an example to be emulated by other regional predominantly Muslim states. Turkey was considered an economic miracle that was well on the path to democracy en route to joining the European Union. Continue reading
It is irksome to hear US presidents admonishing other countries on human rights and alleged crimes against humanity, while trumpeting their own country’s set-in-stone values. A nation either operates on a certain set of values, ethics and principles or it does not. Values cannot be cherry-picked as a matter of convenience. US administrations go out of their way to present a squeaky clean facade and when they are caught on the hop, they invariably attempt to get themselves off the hook by stating the crimes in question were committed by a few bad apples who end up getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Continue reading
It has taken me decades to gain some understanding as to why so many members of the human race fear and detest their fellows merely due to the hue of their skin or their belief system, because I was brought up to believe the world is my oyster and we are all brothers and sisters under the skin. Continue reading
A gale of international disapproval, far from softening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline stance towards Palestinians is having the opposite effect. It reminds me of one of Aesop’s fables. The wind and the sun were in dispute as to which was stronger. They noticed a traveller wearing a cloak. Whichever of us can force the man to remove his cloak is the winner, they decided. The wind blew hard but the man wrapped his garment more tightly around him. When the sun shone brightly, he took it off. Continue reading
Life in the most populated Arab country is an emotional rollercoaster. Two revolutions in almost four years and a slew of both elected and caretaker leaderships have triggered instability. But serial surges of adrenaline have taken their toll. Most are aware that the promise of western-style democracy is unlikely to manifest within the foreseeable future, but they are fatigued by the highs and lows and have gained an understanding that security and stability must take priority over idealistic ambitions. Continue reading
Internet users are plagued by viruses, spam and government spying, which we know is happening thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. But you may not be aware that there are gangs of cheats and blackmailers prepared to ruin your reputation, if not your life, for a whole lot more than a fistful of dollars. Continue reading
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself in unfamiliar territory. He has tumbled from his once set-in-stone international pinnacle and how! Netanyahu is increasingly feeling the cold and this time it is emanating from Israel’s tried and true allies. Continue reading
Pro-Palestinian sympathies are on the rise. Due to the prevalence of social media, mainstream news outlets can no longer control the message. Ordinary folk around the world were incensed by the horrors inflicted upon the residents of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army, seen graphically in videos posted on YouTube and many rounded on the corporate media for seeking to frame the conflict as one waged between equals. Continue reading
It was no happenstance that the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) chose the anniversary of Egypt’s 2013 dispersal of six-week-long Cairo Muslim Brotherhood (MB) sit-ins to release its damning report during a planned press conference in the Egyptian capital. And this at a time when the Brotherhood announced it was poised to “sow chaos throughout Egypt” under “the banner of retribution.” Continue reading
Don’t know about you, but I’m experiencing a discomforting sense of unreality. Our once familiar world, where we more or less knew the rules, has changed into what one of my friends on social media described as “a creepy Disneyland,” except it’s infinitely creepier than Disney-like. Continue reading
It’s indisputable that Hamas is winning in the court of global public opinion and understandably so, when almost 2,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 440 children. The sight of toddlers’ mutilated bodies has even galvanized housewives in Kentucky to lend their support on social media to Hamas, which is becoming increasingly viewed as a group of heroic freedom fighters instead of the terrorist organization designated by the US, the UK and several other western nations. Continue reading
A photograph seen on social media of fighters from the misnamed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) could have come straight out of an historical documentary on the Middle Ages. If some seer had told me five years ago that 10,000-15,000 deranged killers could have established a caliphate over 30 percent of Syria and 35 percent of Iraq, he wouldn’t have had his palm touched with my gold. But at a time when crazed killers, who slaughter thousands without blinking are mushrooming, the fact that ISIL exists is less astonishing than the fact those murderers have been permitted a virtual free hand to behead, crucify and threaten Iraqi minorities with ‘death by the sword’ if they refuse to convert to their twisted brand of religion that has nothing to do with Islam. Continue reading
There has been too much blood under the bridge for any discussion of the possibility of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or even the lifting of Israel’s blockade of Gaza to manifest any time soon, or that is how it would seem to most onlookers. But often times, just when situations look as though they cannot get any worse, is when they get better. Continue reading
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Barack Obama not to “second-guess” him on how Hamas should be treated. Continue reading
The Middle East is arguably suffering the worst turmoil in recent history—occupied Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and other parts. Yet, the voices of Arab leaders are muted while the Arab League, as always, is in a state of paralysis. Granted the Arab World, beset with divisions, is far from being monolithic. But surely, it is time for Arabs to set aside their differences and look at the big picture. If this seeming inertia continues, without wanting to be overly dramatic, country after country is likely to be carved up along sectarian, religious or political lines. Continue reading
The root of the carnage in Gaza is Israel’s occupation, colony expansion, blockade of the Strip and reticence to get serious about peace, so it’s little wonder that Hamas refuses to accept a ceasefire based on the ‘peace for peace’ 2012 model. Its demands include a complete lifting of Israel’s siege on the Strip, the reopening of the Rafah crossing to Egypt 24/7 and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Continue reading
I’ve just seen a photograph of the sweetest tiny girl, a Palestinian child little more than a baby, hugging her dead father. I’ve watched televised footage of a distraught father clinging to his young daughter who’s missing half her head, screaming “Please wake up. I’ve brought you a toy.” There are so many children in Gaza now without mothers and fathers, and so many parents grieving the loss of their kids. Continue reading
There’s a photograph circulating in cyberspace of an official from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), talking to Gaza’s Hamas chief, Esmail Haniyah, superimposed with imaginary bubbled conversation that says it all. “We have formed a unity government, the world is supporting us and turning against Israel and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] is funding us. What should we do next,” the PNA official asks? “We should kill three innocent teenagers to wreck our own government and allow Israel to bomb the crap out of us,” Haniyah answers. Continue reading
The murder of three Israeli teenagers was horrifying but the Israeli government’s response is equally so. Two suspects—allegedly members of Hamas—who disappeared from their homes, had been effectively pronounced guilty before an investigation was concluded, let alone a trial. Israel’s revenge was swift. Homes were demolished and over 420 Palestinians were arrested, many with no affiliation to the group. Continue reading
On June 22, in reference to the crisis in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “When your enemies are fighting each other, don’t strengthen either one of them, weaken both.” Every Arab conflict is in Israel’s interest was expressed by Oded Yinon, an Israeli journalist attached to the Foreign Ministry, in a 1982 paper, titled “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen-Eighties.” Continue reading
Al Jazeera’s campaign to pressure Egypt into releasing three of its employees has been successful in as much as it has kept their plight alive and galvanised its media colleagues and western politicians. But it has not had an impact on the people who matter most — judges who delivered seven and ten-year sentences. And neither has it strong-armed President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi to interfere in the judicial process. Continue reading
Britain’s adherence to political correctness has created a potential enemy within. The majority of the country’s estimated 3.5 million Muslims have struck a successful balance between embracing social norms, enhancing the United Kingdom’s multi-cultural fabric and retaining their Islamic identity. That said, a small minority of Islamist radicals, often with the shrill support of leftist politicians and media, are cultivating extremist politicised views. Continue reading
The self-ascribed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has swept through northern Iraq like a bulldozer on speed and is currently just 60 kilometers from the capital Baghdad. Moreover, it has captured the Al-Qaim crossing permitting the group an unfettered access to its cohorts in Syria. And what is the international community doing in the face of Iraq’s imminent collapse? Precisely nothing! Continue reading
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck was one of former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s favorite sayings in 2003 when Shock and Awe turned the Iraqi capital into a ball of flame. But just as he was wrong about Saddam’s nuclear weapons that were destroyed in the early 1990s, those who are jumping to conclusions about the situation now could be misguided. Continue reading
RSS
Egypt and Russia cement relations
Posted on February 18, 2015 by Linda S. Heard
Russian President Vladimir Putin received a right royal welcome during his recent landmark two-day visit to Cairo. Streets and bridges were decked out with posters reading ‘welcome’ in Arabic, English and Russian. The leaders of Russia and Egypt have very different personalities but have developed a cordial relationship rooted in mutual interests, benefits and strategic concerns. Continue reading →