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The forked-tongue eunuchs and Israel

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Rami G. Khouri - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - For years, US administrations called Israeli settlements "illegal" and an "obstacle to peace," but in recent years those terms have been replaced by a mere "unhelpful." On her first official trip to the region earlier this month, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton referred to the Israeli demolition of Palestinian Arab homes in East Jerusalem as "unhelpful." Earlier this week, the European Union presidency said that Israel's demolition of homes in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem "threatens the viability of a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement, in conformity with international law."

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Second-term climbdowns might salvage scraps for Bush legacy

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Jim Lobe - Jan. 14 (News Analysis) - During a farewell news conference on Monday, US President George W. Bush once again expressed the belief that his eight-year presidency - particularly his foreign-policy record - will be vindicated by history, the portents are not particularly good. Already last spring, nearly two thirds of 109 professional historians polled by the "History News Network" rated Bush the worst president in the nation's history, while another 35 percent said he was among the 10 worst of the 42 who preceded him. And that was six months before the mid-September financial crisis that most economists agree will turn out to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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Obama's Biden pick could herald a better US foreign policy

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - Aug. 25 (Editorial) - Biden would come to the post of vice president with more than 35 years of experience in the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. During that period of time, he has visited the region on numerous occasions and is known to have listened attentively to the concerns of local leaders and citizens. He has also been among the most outspoken critics of Bush's haphazard policies in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan and other countries in the broader region. Biden's extensive hands-on experience makes him a suitable candidate to guide US foreign policy in a much more realistic direction.

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God's warriors are multiplying, for our foul luck

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Raja Kamal - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - Time is not on the side of peacemakers in the Middle East. Even relentless optimists are giving up. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become increasingly overshadowed and orchestrated on both sides by extreme and uncompromising religious groups that view their political mandate as holy and sacred.

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Sound advice for Iran's notoriously outspoken president

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - Jul. 02 (Editorial) - A top adviser to Iran's supreme leader has offered some good advice that should be heeded by all Iranian leaders who care about their country's future. In remarks published by an Iranian newspaper on Tuesday, Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign affairs adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cautioned leading politicians against adopting an overly aggressive stance when publicly discussing the issue of Iran's nuclear program. "Officials and experts need to avoid provocative and illogical declarations and slogans," Velayati said, adding that the Western states involved in the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program scrutinize "every word of such speeches and slogans."

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Targeting media outlets is never a good idea

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - May. 12 (Editorial) - One of the most disturbing aspects of the violence that broke out in Beirut last week was the targeting of media outlets. The extent to which freedom of the press is respected in Lebanon is one of the most important features distinguishing this country from less fortunate peers across the Middle East. Any failure to cherish and protect this characteristic is therefore a failure to preserve the principles of tolerance which alone can help make Lebanon's diversity a strength rather than a weakness.

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Four days that changed the Middle East

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Rami G. Khouri - May. 12 (Opinion) - The new domestic political balance of power in Lebanon will reflect millennia-old indigenous Middle Eastern traditions of different and often quarreling parties that live together peacefully after negotiating power relationships, rather than one party totally defeating and humiliating the other. Lebanon can only exist as a single country if its multi-ethnic and multi-religious population shares power. As the political leaders now seek to do this, they operate in a new context where the strongest group comprises Iranian- and Syrian-backed Islamist Shiites and their junior partners, Christian and Sunni Lebanese allies. They will share power in a national unity government with fellow Lebanese who are friends, allies, dependents and proxies of the United States and Saudi Arabia.

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Instability has damaged Turkey's international standing

Fri, 11 May 2007 15:16:20 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Joseph S. Nye - May. 11 (Opinion) - Turkey will hold its parliamentary election in July, four months earlier than scheduled, thereby narrowly avoiding a constitutional crisis over the choice of the country's next president. Nonetheless, Turkey's bout with political instability has damaged its foreign policy and international standing. At the center of the storm are Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the General Staff of the Turkish military, which regards itself as the guardian of the secular republican tradition established by Kemal Ataturk. When Erdogan contemplated moving from the prime minister's job to the presidency earlier this spring, the military and secular political parties indicated profound dissatisfaction. Buyukanit said in April that the country's new president must be secular "not just in words, but in essence."

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The way to beat Iran's confrontationists

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:23:04 -0700

Daily Star (Lebanon) - By Karim Sadjadpour - Apr. 28 (News Analysis) - Though Iranian officials publicly project a unified mindset, in reality the country's ruling elites are divided into three broad categories: those who favor pursuit of the nuclear fuel cycle at all costs; those who wish to pursue it without sacrificing diplomatic interests; and those who argue for a suspension of activities to build trust and allow for a full fuel cycle down the road. Understanding and exploiting these differences should be a key component of any diplomatic approach.

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