Middle East Politics.Net

The latest war in the region ended January 18 when Israel and Hamas each declared separate ceasefires. During 23 days of bombardment and ground fighting, 1300 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and 13 Israelis (3 civilians) died. The disproportionate death toll tells the story of military asymmetry, but not the true dimensions of the human tragedy. In addition to loss of innocent life on both sides, there are almost 5,000 Palestinians injured, 21,000 homes lost and 50,000 people displaced. More than a million citizens of Gaza are struggling in what some have described as the world’s largest prison, sealed off from help. Infrastructure and agriculture are wrecked. Schools, factories and hospitals are severely damaged or destroyed. Palestinian sources within Gaza claim 60% of agricultural land destroyed and 80% of this year’s produce obliterated. Financial loss in the agricultural sector is said to be $170 million. It may take 20 years for Gaza to get back to where it was on December 26, 2008, the day before the latest war started.

David Hulme

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February 9th, 2009 | Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel | Category: conflict | Leave a comment

Gordon Fraser has written Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam- The First Muslim Nobel Scientist (2008). He’s blogging about it too at Oxford University Press USA.

David Hulme

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January 27th, 2009 | Tags: Muslims, Nobel Prize | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Ethan Bronner is Jerusalem bureau chief for the The Times. Here he reviews a new collection of scholarly essays on how to resolve the ME’s various critical problems. The authors, who work in two ME think tanks deal in “nuance and realism, despite small lapses.” The two policy research groups also have close relations to the incoming Obama administration. The road to peace may lie not so much through Jerusalem, but through Tehran.

David Hulme

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January 16th, 2009 | Tags: conflict, Iran, Israel, Jerusalem, Peace, Tehran | Category: Middle East politics, conflict, middle east tradition | Leave a comment

Israeli author, David Grossman has a reasoned piece in the NYT today about the current Israeli campaign to crush Hamas. He argues for a 48 hour unilateral ceasefire on Israel’s part. Grossman, whose eldest son was killed in the 2006 Lebanon War, maintains that such an approach taken early in that conflict, would have put Israel in a much better position now. During the proposed 48 hour ceasefire, he suggests that international mediators should be invited to resolve the immediate crisis. His analysis takes note that Israel has the duty to defend not only Israeli citizens subject to Hamas rockets, but also innocent Gazan Palestinians.

David Hulme

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December 31st, 2008 | Tags: Gaza, Grossman, Hamas, Israel, Palestine | Category: conflict | Comments (1)

According to the NYT Dec 26, 2008, “The Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said Friday that 110 ships have been attacked in the gulf [of Aden] this year, and 42 have been hijacked. Fourteen ships are still being held for ransom.” This is part of the reason that China is sending warships to protect Chinese vessels carrying 60% of its oil imports and also raw materials from Africa. Both kinds of cargo cross the Gulf of Aden, the area suffering most from Somali pirate infestation. Chinese warships have not ventured outside of the Chinese region since the 15th century. They will join international efforts by other navies against this current form of piracy.

David Hulme

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December 25th, 2008 | Tags: China, Gulf of Aden, piracy, Somalia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On Saturday in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a 150-men council met to discuss important issues such as water, real estate investment, adoption of international agreement on oil pollution, infrastructure development, and employment issues. The council heard from the Water and Electricity Minister, among other officials of the Saudi bureaucracy.

Replace ‘the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ with, for instance, the State of Connecticut, and the paragraph above would still read just fine, which is remarkable. Okay, I concede that the decisions of the council are no more than recommendations to His Highness and must be implemented by feet-dragging bureaucrats. However, with the Kingdom growing ever more complex and an independent judicial system in place, the council is well poised to take on a much larger role in Saudi politics.

Called Majlis al-Shura, which translates roughly to the Consultative Council, the quasi-legislature was formed in 1992 and is in its fourth term. The representatives are all commoners rather than royals; they include tribal representation from the likes of Rashid, which is quite the equivalent of a Cherokee seat in the US House. What’s more, members also include Shi’ites, who enjoy(ed) similar political legitimacy as Communists during the Red Scare.

Skeptics will hurry to point out that the members of the Majlis are all appointed by King Abdullah. But considering His Highness is actually older than the Kingdom itself, appointing “rebels” and “heretics” to give him advice is progressive to say the very least. I am among the optimists who believe the Majlis holds great potentials for representation for groups traditionally marginalized in the Kingdom. You know the word I’m alluding to.

Bo-yun Liu

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December 20th, 2008 | Tags: Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Today, Bill Clinton, in an unprecedented move, disclosed the names of donors to the Clinton Foundation. The move was meant to give transparency to the foundation as Hillary awaits confirmation for her appointment as the Secretary of State.

Among the most controversial donors are the government of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Oman. The pundits are now questioning Hillary’s ability to stay independent of external influences when it comes to making decisions on her would-be job.

What I find interesting is that donors like Norway, Jamaica, and Italy barely caused a stir, even though Norway is run by communists, Jamaica smokes funny things, and Italy was the bad guy in WWII.

In all seriousness, how influential can Saudi Arabia’s donation to a book shed in Arkansas be? Do the Clintons desperately need to start Clinton Foundation 2.0 that they would try to please all 205,000 donors any way possible? Come on, America, it’s just charity and good will.

Besides, how many of us think twice about the Chrysler Building? ‘Cause that’s owned by Abu Dhabi.

Bo-yun Liu

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December 19th, 2008 | Tags: Hillary Clinton, Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

A few days ago, I mentioned Robert Kaplan’s piece in the NYT on his idea that the Middle East needed redefining. It got me thinking about other authors’ definitions. Here are a few:

In The Foreign Policies of Middle East States (2002), Hinnebusch and Ehteshami have a map labeled “The Middle East (the Arab League plus Iran, Israel and Turkey).” There are 22 countries in the Arab League. They stretch from Mauritania in the far west of Africa to Oman, east of Saudi Arabia. The League includes Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia, the Comores in the Indian Ocean and three observer states Eritrea, India, and Venezuela. To be fair, the Arab League’s observers were added in 2003, 2006 and 2007.

The map in Politics in the Middle East (2000) by Bill and Springborg shows an area that stretches from Morocco (including Western Sahara) to Pakistan. It excludes Somalia and Djibouti and includes Turkey, Israel, Iran and Afghanistan.

The cover on State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East (2004) by Roger Owen, shows Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, part of Afghanistan and part of Pakistan. Inside, there’s a 20th century inter-war map of the Middle East, showing an area from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to Sudan.

Monte Palmer’s The Politics of the Middle East (2006) has a map bounded on the west by Egypt and Sudan, on the east by Iran, on the north by Turkey on the south by Yemen.

Read the rest at Causes of Conflict.

David Hulme

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December 17th, 2008 | Tags: Middle East | Category: Middle East politics | Leave a comment

The Free Gaza Movement claims to have smuggled at least 11 university students out of Gaza, reaching Cyprus on Friday, according to reports by Al Jazeera. Israel’s blockade has previously not permitted students studying in Gaza to leave. The move is intended to allow the students to study at universities elsewhere in Europe and Canada, which would not otherwise been possible since Israel has denied requests for exit visas from the area. Israel allowed the vessel Dignity into the prohibited area because it contained pro-Palestinian activists seeking to offer humanitarian supplies to Gazan residents. The Movement has stated that the mission’s purpose is to allow students located in Gaza to continue to pursue academics at other universities at which they have been accepted.

Paul Shapiro

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December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Gaza, Israel | Category: conflict | Comments (2)