Early Monday morning, December 15, more than 220 Palestinian prisoners freed by Israeli authorities arrived in the West Bank. They were greeted by a crowd that seemed to be overjoyed with the release, a move that Israel has termed a gesture of goodwill towards Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. However, comments made by Palestinian prisoners minister Ashraf al-Ajrami seemed to detract from the action, accusing Israel of taking unilateral action with regard to which prisoners were released rather than heeding to Palestinian demands, saying “The Israelis decided to release these prisoners without any negotiation or any connection with the Palestinian side.” Al-Ajrami seemed to be implying that Israel’s true motivation in the release was merely the illusion of diplomatic efforts on an international stage, as opposed to a genuine desire to adhere to Palestinian requests. Such accusations hinge on the estimated 10,000 Palestinian prisoners who remain in Israeli custody.
Paul Shapiro
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Israel, Palestinians | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Twenty Palestinian prisoners were removed from the list of prisoners to be released from Israeli custody, Tuesday, December 9. In what they described as a gesture to the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government had stated that it would release 250 Palestinian prisoners – the list is now down to 230. The move to release these prisoners was intended to honor Eid al-Adha, “…the Muslim festival marking the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca,” according to the Israeli Ministerial Prisoner Release Committee. All of the prisoners are associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular nationalist Fatah movement rather than Hamas – the organization currently in control of the Gaza Strip territory – which the Israeli government has classified as a terrorist organization.
Paul Shapiro
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Israel, Palestinians | Category: conflict | Leave a comment
Undercover Israeli troops suspected that Jihah Nwada, a fighter involved with the Islamic Jihad group, was planning to carry out an attack in the West Bank town of Jenin. Nwada fled when troops attempted to arrest him outside of a café, causing them to open fire and kill him. Overnight, a total of 22 Palestinian fighters were arrested and detained by the Israeli army, which often conducts raids into the West Bank region. While such incidents have recently shown a decrease in the frequency of lethal action, the incident is certain to have both political and military consequences for Israeli forces.
Paul Shapiro
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Israel, West Bank | Category: conflict | Leave a comment
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has garnered little support for his rumored plan to extend his term in office by an additional year. A recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research indicates that almost two-thirds of Palestinians believe that Abbas’s term should end in January, rather than be extended without new elections, as some have suggested he may do. However, the same poll shows that Abbas’s secular nationalist Fatah party is enjoying a slight lead in popular support over rival organization Hamas.
Paul Shapiro
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Abbas, Palestinians | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
The central bank of Saudi Arabia reduced key policy rates by 50 basis points to help boost banking sector liquidity.
Charging or paying interest is forbidden by the Sharia, which, technically, should be the law that governs the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia is feeling the effects of the international financial crisis. One of the country’s flagship development projects, King Abdullah Economic City, is definitely feeling the pressure from the drying up of investments.
Bo-yun Liu
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
The Human Rights Commission, a government group, issued a statement outlining their commitment to improving human rights conditions in Saudi Arabia.
Some of the progress includes a multi-faith dialogue recently held in New York, sponsored by King Abdullah.
One of the most significant involvements of HRC is perhaps its intervention in court cases that are relevant to the human rights issue in the Kingdom. It has been involved in over one thousand cases from April to August 2008, many with notable results.
Bo-yun Liu
December 16th, 2008 | Tags: human rights, Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
If historical evidence is anything to go by, the former appears to be the case. In an effort to curb falling oil prices, which could have damaging effects on some of the petro-dollar-reliant economies, OPEC has announced production cuts since crude fell from a $150/barrel high (now at $40/barrel). However, the effectiveness has obviously not been great.
One of the prime culprits is that not all of the countries follow production quotas. This erodes OPEC’s internal cohesiveness and its external credibility.
Falling oil prices present an especially difficult scenario for OPEC. Many of its member states rely on petro income to survive, so are disincentivized against a production cut. This, of course, enrages larger producers like Saudi Arabia, which has to suffer fiscally from lower production without seeing the intended rise in price.
Previously, Saudi Arabia has pumped production to drive down the price of oil to as low as $10/barrel, effectively starving the more oil-dependent regimes of income. It proved to be effective, but will Saudi Arabia do the same this time? We consumers can only hope.
Bo-yun Liu
December 15th, 2008 | Tags: OPEC, Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
For the fifth time this month, the Israeli military has allowed humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, temporarily permitting international officials to travel through the blockade it has in place. Though Hamas controls Gaza, the United Nations has urged Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to allow aid to be dispersed to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the area. Both the United States and the European Union currently classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. However, with living conditions reported to be extremely poor, and in the wake of militant rocket attacks that prompted Israel to tighten its security around Gaza, UN officials have described the conditions there as the “worst ever” and sought to deliver supplies to Gazan residents in an effort to help them deal with the myriad problems that plague the area.
Paul Shapiro
December 15th, 2008 | Tags: aid, Gaza, Israel | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Not until recently when US banks begin to topple left and right did the activities of so-called Sovereign Wealth Funds begin to occupy the headlines. Indeed, very little has been heard about what the Gulf Oil States do with their sizable petro income.
What’s for sure is that the billions of dollars are not stuffed under a mattress. In a recent report, Saudi Arabia alone holds a 878 billion-dollar portfolio of of foreign assets. To put this figure in perspective, it is comparable to the entire GDP of Turkey in 2007 (IMF Data).
That may not impress most people, but it implies significant economic ties between Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world. It may not be a physical relationship, but the ramifications are significant.
This figure, which, by the way, exceeds Saudi Arabia’s own GDP by 300 billion or so, represents the reality that the country can no longer aspire to a policy of isolation. As mentioned in a previous post, this also presents a catch-22 situation for the state’s petro pricing policy. Whatever the implications are, one thing is for certain - Saudi Arabia’s welfare is absolutely inseparable from the rest of the world.
Bo-yun Liu
December 15th, 2008 | Tags: oil, petrodollars, Saudi Arabia | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
“So what if the guy threw his shoes at me?” questioned President Bush in the wake of an attempted assault in Baghdad. In the midst of a surprise final visit to Iraq, an intrepid Iraqi reporter, later identified as “Shoeless” Muntadar al-Zeidi, abandoned his objective journalistic stance and let his unconventional footwork do the talking as he alternately flung both shoes at the American President. Although considered a grave affront to dignity in the Muslim world, the subtle severity of the foot-based insult failed to translate across a deep cultural divide; “I don’t know what his beef is,” the President remarked, citing the “unusual” move as “a sign of a free society.” The President displayed remarkable reactions and feline-like agility when he dodged the full pair of flying footwear. The barefoot assailant was quickly swept off his feet by startled bystanders and searched from head-to-toe for any remaining projectiles. In what will surely be regarded as one of the most bizarrely comedic missteps of the Iraq War, the President downplayed the significance of the bipedal terrorism and sidestepped most questions relating to the incident, choosing instead to focus on the continued need for American boots on the ground. Given the recent decision of the Iraqi Assembly, this drastic increase in shoe-related violence comes at an inopportune moment for the Americans, who find themselves in the awkward position of having one foot out the door, while the other remains firmly planted in Iraq.
Zack Freundlich
December 15th, 2008 | Tags: Bush, Iraq, U.S. | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
