MIDEAST: Israel-U.S. Tensions Continue to Percolate
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) – Despite assurances by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday that the United States and Israel share a ”close, unshakeable bond”, the week-old crisis between the two allies continued to percolate here Tuesday.
Washington cancelled a planned trip to the region by its [...]
MIDEAST: Israeli Raids Target Children
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
SILWAN, EAST JERUSALEM, Mar 16, 2010 (IPS) – Three thousand heavily armed Israeli security service forces locked down large parts of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as battalions of police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters in the [...]
RIGHTS-BAHRAIN: Weak Laws Let Rapists Off the Hook
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Suad Hamada
MANAMA, Mar 16 , 2010 (IPS) – Cunning rapists in Bahrain can avoid victimising virgins so they could escape the maximum penalty provided by law, and those who force themselves on young girls can evade punishment by promising to marry their victims.
These are two of [...]
MIDEAST: An Unlikely Collision Takes Place
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Mar 15, 2010 (IPS) – In the middle of last week, it seemed that the old cliché about the light at the end of the dark Middle East tunnel was being confirmed: the U.S. had successfully cajoled both Israel and [...]
Perfidy In The Shadow Of Highly Touted Friendship
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
By Ernest Corea
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Senator George Mitchell, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for the Middle East, is expected somehow to keep the planned Palestinian-Israeli “proximity talks” process alive, despite the Government of Israel’s attempt to pull the plug on it.
Whatever [...]
IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail*
BAGHDAD, Mar 12, 2010 (IPS) – Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year’s maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women [...]
EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Cam McGrath
LUXOR, Mar 12, 2010 (IPS) – Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country’s high population growth.
"Egypt is one of the most challenging countries for any literacy programme," a literacy programme administrator at Catholic relief [...]
EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
William Fisher
NEW YORK, Mar 11 (IPS) – Despite diplomatic maneuvering designed to block any review of its human rights record, a United Nations special rapporteur has told the U.N. Human Rights Council that proposed changes in Egypt’s constitution ”would create a permanent legal state of emergency”.
The report [...]
MIDEAST: Iran, Israel Spoiling for a Fight?
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Mar 10 (IPS) – Iran and Israel appear to be spoiling for a fight, going by recent belligerent statements emanating from several regional capitals.
Military movement on the ground is also lending credence to the idea that the mutual loathing and major ideological differences [...]
IRAQ: Elections Bring Joy and Uncertainty
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (IPS) – The holding of Iraq’s third parliamentary elections on Sunday has generated a sense of satisfaction in Washington, but there is a feeling of anxiety about how the post-election negotiation process to form a new government might proceed.
Millions of Iraqis rushed [...]
MIDEAST: Palestinians Preparing for Statehood Anyhow
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) – Was it Yasser Arafat’s biggest political error? A decade ago, the deadline for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as envisaged in the 1993 Oslo peace accords thrust itself into the fruitless Palestinian-Israeli [...]
IRAQ: Secular Candidates Have Their Best Chance
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) – As Iraqis go to the polls on Sunday, a key question in the minds of many in Iraq and Washington is whether secular candidates can continue their recent rise and possibly come out as winners.
For the first time after the [...]
US-TURKEY: Armenian Genocide Vote Threatens Ties at Key Moment
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Mar 5 (IPS) – Thursday’s vote by a Congressional committee condemning the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as ”genocide” is almost certain to complicate U.S. ties with Turkey, a long-time strategic ally and increasingly influential player in the Middle East [...]
MIDEAST: U.S. Policy in Gaza Remains Unchanged
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Charles Fromm and Ellen Massey
WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (IPS) – One year ago Thursday, the last Israeli tanks were lumbering out of the Gaza Strip, ending the 22-day Gaza War and leaving in their wake a decimated landscape and population.
A year later, the humanitarian and security situation in [...]
MIDEAST: Mayhem in Gaza, Relief in Haiti
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Jan 22 (IPS) – A week after the devastating Haiti earthquake, Israelis watched proudly as their TV channels showed the New York Fire Department rushing two young boys, extricated from the rubble of a building, to a field hospital set up by the [...]
MIDEAST: Israel Lands in Public Relations Nightmare
Posted by editors on March 14, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mel Frykberg
JERSUSALEM, Mar 14 (IPS) – Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50.
Outside the walled Old City, and in several West Bank villages, clashes were reported between [...]
Filed under Commentary, Diplomacy, Media, Middle East, Politics · Tagged with Israel, United States