By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

31 October 2007

A year and a half after they published their ground-breaking article "The Israel Lobby" in the London Review of Books, distinguished American academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have now published their book entitled The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

The venerable American publishers, Farrar Straus and Giroux, proved far more courageous in publishing the book than The Atlantic Monthly magazine, which had commissioned the original article, then refused to publish it -- presumably because The Atlantic did not want to handle the consequences they anticipated would follow such an open analysis of the influence of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

29 October 2007

The main Middle Eastern issue being discussed in the United States these days is not Iraq, Arab-Israeli peace-making, or Turkish-Kurdish-Iraqi tensions, but rather what to do about Iran and its perceived threat to the region, the United States and the world. The Bush administration sets a shrill and aggressive tone on this and is taking action, including this week's new sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, its Quds force, and several banks.

Possible American moves against Iran should be considered in light of the 2001-2007 lessons of US-led wars to change regimes and remake national governance systems in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and indirectly in Palestine and Lebanon. This is not just a Bush-Cheney problem: This is an all-American problem, since most presidential candidates in both parties do not stray far from the administration's aggressive policy options.

Editorial
25 October 2007
The Guardian

Occasionally the mask slips and unpalatable truths emerge. The Guardian has filmed rare scenes inside Hamas-controlled Gaza which the various players in the unfolding tragedy of the Middle East would rather we did not see - Hamas beating up Fatah dissenters, Palestinian doctors forced by their Fatah paymasters to go on strike or forfeit their salaries, the militants who log on to Google Earth to search for Israeli targets for their Qassam rockets. The images, now on the Guardian's website, affront our concept of right and wrong, but they serve our understanding of what is going on.

By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

24 October 2007

It is very refreshing when law, international responsibility, and human courage converge in the remarks or actions of a single person. This occurred earlier this month in New Zealand, in a talk by Karen Abuzayd, commissioner-general of UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides humanitarian aid and basic social services to Palestinian refugees. She made a few points that are noteworthy, precisely because international officials rarely speak with such clarity, moral force and political urgency.

By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

22 October 2007

Some things move slowly in life, including transitions to democracy and getting governments to treat their citizens decently. I mention these two because they cropped up again and again this week during a working visit to Jordan, where, among other things, I had to twice engage the menacing Ottoman-era bureaucracy: to renew my driver's license and complete a power of attorney procedure with my brother.

The procedures turned out to be far less demeaning or frustrating than they used to be in years past, when such routine bureaucratic transactions often required half a day of work. We finished the power of attorney form in under thirty minutes, and the driving license was in my hands in 46 minutes.

Bottom line: The streamlining of the bureaucracy and the state serving its citizens in an efficient, dignified manner is probably more important right now for the future of Arab countries than holding elections for parliament.

By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

17 October 2007

What does it mean when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says it is time to establish a Palestinian state within a year, for the sake of Palestinian, Israeli and US national interests, and that, "We are not going to tire until I have given my last ounce of energy and my last moment in office [to working for a two-state solution]"?

There is an unreal yet intriguing quality to America's newfound enthusiasm for an instant Palestinian state. That is a welcomed goal -- if it were sincere. Rice's first big problem is that few people in the Middle East believe the United States is sincere, because every aspect of Washington's policy during the past seven years flatly contradicts everything Bush-Rice have stated rhetorically in recent months about their commitment to creating a Palestinian state.

By Simeon Kerr
15 October 2007
Financial Times

Hollywood's The Kingdom blockbuster has been banned by some Gulf states for tackling the politically sensitive topic of terrorism in Saudi Arabia.

But the film is being run in cinemas in the United Arab Emirates, in a sign of a drive by Abu Dhabi, the UAE's capital, to become a cultural and creative hub.

By Rami Khouri, Arab Media Watch adviser, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.

10 October 2007

The November Arab-Israeli peace-making meeting that President George W. Bush has called for replays several similar moments in the past quarter-century, when a gathering was convened but did not achieve its full promise -- at Madrid, Camp David, Taba, and Oslo, among others. Will this year be any different? I hope so in my heart, but I do not think so, to judge by current political realities.