Whenever a terrorist attack like the ones that struck Beirut's southern suburb and the Iranian embassy there, occurs, a person may become puzzled as to how to express sorrow and solidarity with the victims, while not falling into emotional (...)
With Francois Hollande's visit to Israel, which did not try to tone down its warm welcome of the French president, and with the increasingly clear French tendency to be firm with Iran on the nuclear issue and desire to provide stronger ground (...)
Some observers and analysts are rushing to conclusions and predicting outcomes. For instance, American-Western dialogue with Iran is portrayed as inevitable rapprochement, and talk about the Geneva 2 conference depicts it as a complete victory for (...)
The U.S. Secretary of State, whoever occupies the post, is not a likeable person in the Arab world. Indeed, it is this person who implements a despicable policy and represents despicable interests over which we have become accustomed to agree, (...)
Levantism, or Arab Levantism, is a new call being made today by voices and parties that support the Syrian regime. Even former security officer and current Syrian ambassador to Amman, Bahjat Suleiman, has volunteered his views on the matter, setting (...)
With some generosity and exaggeration, historian Albert Hourani used the term the "liberal age" to describe the time between the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 and the end of the 1930s.
The reasons that have justified accusing Hourani of (...)
After the defeat of June 1967, frustration overwhelmed the Arab peoples and their elites, in a manner that went even beyond what happened after 1948. Frustration spread everywhere, in daily discourse as in literature and theater, and in intellectual (...)
Over two and half years, the theory of "combating terrorism" came ahead of all else when it came to the discourse of the Syrian regime in its war against its people. The theory of defending "Arabism" appeared from the outset to be fragile and (...)
When the Nakba occurred in Palestine in 1948, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to neighboring countries, most of the host peoples and countries received them in two ways: On the one hand, pledging ad nauseam to liberate Palestine and (...)
In a movement saturated with ideology like the Muslim Brotherhood, it is difficult to accept this much dearth in model and appeal. Even if we accept the golden era of early Islam as the model of the Muslim Brotherhood, this is still not enough to (...)
The revolution, any revolution, assumes that by toppling the existing regime, it can topple the entire status quo. To be sure, the regime is often the source, architect, and executor of the status quo. And the more tyrannical a regime is, and the (...)
One step forward, and one step back; one step to the right, then one to the left; this is how the Ennahda movement in Tunisia moves away from the resignation of the government of Ali al-Arid, the only acceptable prelude for serious dialogue followed (...)
It is truly amazing how joyous the Axis of Defiance has been with the ‘breakthrough' achieved in U.S.-Iranian relations, or in a more explicit and more candid description, the so-called American-Iranian rapprochement.
This is like a bald man (...)
If the protests in Sudan continue, we will be facing the possibility of a new revolutionary experience that might go beyond economic grievances (fuel prices), to touch on the political issue of the regime itself. This trend, it seems, is what the (...)
If we put the small details aside, and also the humanitarian and moral appeals that major – morally and humanitarianly weak – policies ignore, we will find that there is a deep misunderstanding between the Syrian revolution and the United States, or (...)
Among the many foul odors in Lebanon, there is one that emanates from the stance of the Lebanese vis-à-vis the past, the past of their civil war. Not only does the latter never pass, but it also remains their best project for the future. This is how (...)
Many differences over the interpretation of the recent U.S.-Russian agreement have surfaced, and over whether it was a defeat or a victory for the Syrian regime. But there are two main points that serious observers and pundits are in agreement (...)
The postponement of the U.S. strike on Syria was seen, as usual, as an occasion to declare victory. According to the brilliant mind that the axis of defiance is blessed with, anything that does not kill automatically or cast dirt upon the corpse is (...)
In the folds of Western hesitation and reluctance over intervention in Syria, from waiting for the UN inspectors' report, to the vote at the British House of Commons, lies the Iraqi experience. Its manifestations can be seen in the fact that it has (...)
Perhaps the chemical attack in Ghouta has re-galvanized the idea of intervention that could follow the Kosovo model, or the Libya model. This is what a growing number of Western politicians and observers are alluding to, each in his or her way.
In (...)
When areas in Ghouta near Damascus are bombed with chemical weapons, and the corpses of children are lined side by side in a picture reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust, the Syrian regime would have pushed its desire to survive to a surreal level. (...)
One of the leading causes of polarization in Egypt today, and to some extent in other countries of the Arab Levant, is that no one wants to sacrifice what they see as a non-comprisable principle, or to tolerate what appears strange or unfamiliar to (...)
With the eruption of the ‘Arab Spring' wave of uprisings, it was hoped that healthy politics would be the main fruit of the newfound freedom. But a quick look at Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, which saw its own ‘spring' in 2003, and then at Lebanon, which (...)
Peoples, in order to remain peoples, are supposed to have something in common, or seek hard to build such denominators under the leadership of the party among them that is the most alert to this issue. If this is not possible, and if there is (...)
It remains surprising that Lebanon and Jordan have not exploded, being two countries that are deeply and intimately affected by what happens in Syria and Iraq.
True, conditions in the two small states are very bad, and the widespread reputation of (...)