Category: The Middle East

Unbridled nationalism

Today’s borders are the ‘indefensible’ ones Haaretz editorial, published 01:16 22.05.11 … Lots of high-sounding words were uttered over the weekend. There was U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech, in which he welcomed the civil revolutions in the Middle East and sketched the outlines of the best diplomatic plan to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then came …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/22/unbridled-nationalism/

Struggle for political survival

Barack Obama has passed the buck on Palestine By Carlo Strenger, Friday 20 May 2011 15.01 BST … Binyamin Netanyahu is angry, and it is easy to understand why. He is about to be the big loser in the diplomatic chess game against the Palestinians, who are building up momentum for a successful bid for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/22/struggle-for-political-survival/

What we’re working for

Our revolt is not Obama’s By Ahdaf Soueif, Saturday 21 May 2011 … This wasn’t slipping poison into the honey; it was smearing chemical sweeteners on to toxic pellets. Barack Obama listed what he sees as his country’s “core interests” in my country Egypt and my region; his country’s “core principles” governing how it will …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/22/what-were-working-for/

Fit the battle

Which chapter from the Book of Joshua? By Yitzhak Laor, 01:37 19.05.11 … Between 1949 and 1956, in what Israel calls “retribution operations,” thousands of Palestinians, who did not come to attack, were killed on the borders. Hundreds of others, probably fewer, who came to kill or steal or take what was theirs, were also …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/21/fit-the-battle/

Revelant history

Dear Friends: A propos President Obama’s Middle East policy speech yesterday,  and the vigorous reaction that it provoked from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, I have recalled an Op-Ed of mine that was published in the International Herald Tribune in November 2002, a few months before the Iraq invasion.  I believe it retains striking relevance in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/20/revelant-history/

It may not be possible

Bibi and Barack By Thomas L. Friedman, May 17, 2011 … Reading the headlines from the Middle East these days — Christians and Muslims clashing in Egypt, Syria attempting to crush its democracy rebellion and Palestinians climbing over fences into Israel — you get the sense of a region where the wheels could really start …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/18/it-may-not-be-possible/

And we better wake up

President’s fine words may not address the Middle East’s real needs By Robert Fisk, Thursday, 19 May 2011 … OK, so here’s what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/18/and-we-better-wake-up/