Middle East & North Africa Archives - Page 309 of 633

Corporate America and Israeli Occupation

by Sam Bahour | May 1, 2002

In light of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, the time has come for corporate boardrooms of companies involved in that region to reassess their role, even if that role has been to remain silent for all these years. The corporate world must channel its influence to end the Israeli occupation. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a dangerous point that has the potential to disrupt business activity, especially U.S. business interests throughout the Middle East. Long-term U.S. national strategic interests in the region are also at risk–namely the cost of and uninterrupted flow of oil. Millions of U.S. corporate and citizen tax dollars spent on building the Palestinian economy were lost in this latest Israeli offensive against the Palestinian civil and national infrastructure.

The Homeland is in Danger

by Aviad Kleinberg | May 1, 2002

I did not pick this title lightly. There comes a time when even a historian, well versed in patient, hysteria-free observation of historical processes, feels his hair stand on end as he realizes how bad, how really bad, things are getting.

U.S. and Israeli Governments Out of Step with Public According to New Polls

by Jim Lobe | May 1, 2002

Both in the U.S. and in Israel, government policy and actions do not reflect popular sentiment. Two recent surveys–one by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and another by the Dahaf Institute in Israel–found that the American and Israeli public support more even-handed approaches to settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Challenging the Myths about the Failure of the 2000 Camp David Talks

by Stephen Zunes | May 1, 2002

Israel’s State Terrorism

by Lev Grinberg | Apr 1, 2002

What is the difference between State terrorism and individual terrorist acts? If we understand this difference we’ll understand also the evilness of U.S. Middle East policies and the forthcoming disasters. When Yassir Arafat was put under siege in his offices and kept hostage by the Israeli occupation forces, he was constantly pressed into condemning terror and combating terrorism. Israel’s State terrorism is defined by U.S. officials as “self-defense,” while individual suicide bombers are called terrorists.

U.S. Eyes Caspian Oil in “War On Terror”

by Armen Georgian | Apr 1, 2002

The arrival of U.S. troops in Georgia on April 29 raised as many glasses in Ankara and Baku as it did jitters in Moscow. Touted as a new front in the “war on terror,” the Bush administration is in reality scrambling for Caspian oil in a bid to oust Russia from its traditional backyard. Washington insists its “train and equip force'” of 10 combat helicopters and 150 military instructors is solely intended to help Georgia combat Islamic radicals in the lawless Pankisi Gorge, allegedly a safe haven for al Qaeda militants and their Chechen allies. But other motives became apparent, although largely unnoticed by the Western press when Georgian Defense Ministry official Mirian Kiknadze told Radio Free Europe on February 27: “The U.S. military will train our rapid reaction force, which is guarding strategic sites in Georgia–particularly oil pipelines.” He was referring to the embryonic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project, set to reduce Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s energy reliance on Russia and bring the southern Caucasus into the U.S. fold.

A Way Out

by Sam Bahour, Michael Dahan | Apr 1, 2002

Every foreign military invasion has a predefined end called withdrawal. The hideous Israeli incursion of internationally recognized Palestinian territories is no exception. Every military operation has a defined political goal, yet Sharon seems to be keeping this a secret from his cabinet, the Israeli people and, indeed, the world.

Economic Development Under Fire

by Sam Bahour | Apr 1, 2002

The Palestinian economy is one of the many, but less often discussed, victims of Israeli military aggression on Palestinian towns, cities, villages, and refugee camps. Before Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was elected, the Palestinian economy was engaged in an internationally acknowledged pattern of growth. This growth started to be realized despite the fact that during the first several years after Oslo, the Palestinian standard of living actually decreased because of Israeli closures and land appropriation for illegal settlement building. The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) reported, “In the spring of 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Finance projected that the Palestinian economy would continue to grow as it had since 1997 and that real growth rates for GDP and GNP for the Palestinian territory would reach 5 and 6 percent respectively.” Today the Palestinian economy is in shambles.

Palestinians and the American People

by Sam Bahour | Apr 1, 2002

The Palestinian people have no grudge against the American public. We never did. As a matter of fact, if one resists the media spin and takes a closer look at what the Palestinians have been struggling for during the past two weeks–let alone the past thirty-five years–it will be revealed that the Palestinian Intifada is a very American struggle. After all, it is a struggle for national independence, civil liberties, human rights, as well as a struggle to establish an open market in an independent economy, free to market forces and free from Israeli domination.

Bush Disengagement Not Limited to the Middle East

by Jeffrey Fields | Apr 1, 2002

President Bush is currently being assailed from all sides for his Middle East foreign policy. In his 15 months in office, the president allowed the Israeli-Palestinian situation to go from bad to worse with a baffling level of detachment. It would be easy to blame this on a president with a notable lack of foreign policy acumen. The Middle East peace process is complex and in the case of the current administration requires the moderation of the president between two camps in the administration at odds over the level of U.S. involvement, with one camp eager to look past it and take on Iraq.