Mathias M
January 30, 2008
"Making a Great Arab City"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The people and leaders of Dubai might consider defining their "model" not in terms of what they have built with concrete and steel, but rather in terms of what their new urbanism can now contribute to the rest of the world in the realm of ideas, knowledge, culture, and universal human norms. I, for one, am cheering for them to succeed.
AP Photo
January 28, 2008
"The Tragic Political Geography of Fleeing"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
Israel and the United States refuse to do the hard work of making reasonable compromises that all the Arabs, including Hamas, have already suggested: to engage with all the Palestinians and negotiate, first, a long-term truce and, consequently, a permanent peace that is fair to all, that gives Israelis and Palestinians alike a chance to live in peace and dignity.
January 22, 2008
Isaiah in Babylon, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gaza
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The coincidence of the Israel's siege and starvation of Gaza this week and the celebration of Martin Luther King's life reminded me of the universal sense of hope that allows people in such inhuman situations to get through their ordeal and look forward to a better day. Life seemed bleak for the Jews sent into forced exile in Babylon in the five decades or so in the middle of the 6th Century BC, just as it did for African-Americans in the middle of the 20th Century. Their conditions changed and improved in the years to come, however, partly due to their own faith and hard work, and partly due to fortuitous changes in prevailing political conditions.
I do not understand how the same Jewish ethos that permeates the Book of Isaiah can also define the Israeli government's decision to apply a total blockade on Gaza, in an effort to starve, squeeze and freeze several million Palestinians into submission. Is Israel testing the Palestinians in Isaiah's "furnace of adversity" in the same way that God tested the exiled Jews in Babylon? If so, why would Israelis expect the Palestinians today to respond to their dehumanization any differently than the Jews in antiquity and in modern times responded to their own bestial treatment by their own oppressors with determination, faith, patience and, above all, steadfastness rather than submission?
January 16, 2008
A Soldier's Heartening Assessment of the War on Terror
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
Colonel Laurence Andrew Dobrot, Deputy Director of the US Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser Program might do well high-positioned in the US State Department's diplomatic corps. He has articulated the best insights on the "global war on terror" (GWOT) thus far.
January 14, 2008
"Independence and Sovereignty"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
Many in the Arab world feel that their governments are not fully free to make decisions that are in the best interest of their people, but rather must succumb to Israeli, American, European or other pressures.
AP Photo
January 8, 2008
"The Best and Worst of America This Week"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
This week's competitive US presidential primary and Bush's journey to the Middle East are substantially contrasting events revealing the best and worst of America's current political culture.
January 7, 2008
"Bush’s Worrisome Middle East Visit"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
If the past 54 months reflect Bush's idea of how the US can work with the people of the region to "advance peace and stability in this area," then maybe we need a little less peace and stability for a while, and a little more rational analysis of the forces driving this region in its current self-destructive trajectory.
December 31, 2007
"A Billion Peace Prayers for the New Year"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The start of a new calendar year will not change the ways of the bombers, killers, and generals who orchestrate the violence that defiles our societies, whether they are holed up in a mountain cave in central Asia or a local militia base, comfortable in an Arab presidential palace or an American-European capital, or strutting in the Israeli, Turkish, Iranian or Russian defense ministry. We can, however, start a fresh year by deciding to analyze and understand the cycle of violence more comprehensively and accurately.
Mudsi
December 29, 2007
"Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? We All Did"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Globe and Mail
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"The tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto has engulfed Pakistan in grief and turmoil. But her death symbolizes the wider calamity that envelops us all - throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States. The real significance of this killing - and the others sure to follow - is not their surprise, but rather how common, almost inevitable, this sort of event has become in our part of the world. If we wish to end this horror show engulfing more Arab-Asian regions, and increasingly sucking in American and other Western armies, we should get serious about what it means and why it happens."
December 28, 2007
"Who Killed Benazir Bhutto?"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The tragic assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will engulf Pakistan in grief and turmoil. Her death symbolizes the wider calamity that envelops us all -- throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the United States. The real significance of this latest killing -- and the others that are sure to follow -- is not their surprise, but rather how common, almost inevitable, this sort of event has become in our part of the world. If we wish to end this horror show engulfing more Arab-Asian regions and increasingly sucking in American and other Western armies, we should start getting serious about what it means and why it happens.
