Middle East: MidEastWeb (original) (raw)
Bashar Assad and the Mysterious West - Is there any reason why only the Syrian regime is allowed to massacre its citizens, while everyone is silent?
Scenarios for Egypt - The Egyptian revolution might be the birth of democracy, but it will probably be something else.
Prophet and loss statement 2010 - I got most of 2010 right, but failed to predict the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
Did Bibi blow it?- Israel should have led the way to peace with a settlement freeze.
9-11- Trashing a Tragedy - Conspiracy theorists, mosque demagogues and Islamophobes are turning 9-11 into a circus.
The secret Palestinian peace offer - Neville Teller discusses Saeb Erekat's peace offer.
Israel-Palestine: The Jewish one-state solution - Are they serious? Like the Arab one-state "solution," the Jewish one will deprive one or both peoples of their rights, intentionally or otherwise.
Is anyone serious about the Middle East peace process? - Process process everywhere, but no peace in sight.
Horse Sense about America and the Middle East A review of Lee Smith's, "A Strong horse."
A Palestinian peace plan for all of us - A plan that has ideas that might work is very dangerous, and therefore must be ignored by leaders of both sides.
The end of the peace process movie? - Was Tom Friedman right about the peace process movie? Are the Americans just a passive audience or could they change the ending?
The summit of the absurd: Middle East process without peace - The failure of the trilateral summit epitomizes the "peace process," which is all about process and not about peace.
Why Israelis and Americans are angry - The gap between Israeli Jews and Americans may be more imaginary than real, and less about settlements than about how the issue was presented and faith in the peace process.
The vicissitudes of the Israeli-Palestinian-American Peace Process - Barack Obama will have to provide more than public relations spin if he is to win back the confidence of Israelis and Palestinians in the peace process. The United States will have to pressure itself as well as the sides, and it will have to take "painful risks for peace."
Michael Jackson effect on the Middle East - For the rest of the world, the problems of the Middle East recede into obscurity and are replaced by more interesting infotainment, but the reality remains.
## MidEastWeb - Hope for the Middle East
The Middle East is not all bombs, violence and fanaticism. Wonderful people live here, people with dreams and hopes about democracy and peace and decency. The Middle East was once the birthplace of the world's great ideas. It was the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the three monotheistic religions. "Greek" science was born in Asia minor. After the decline of the ancient world, civilization and intellectual curiosity were revived and maintained by the Arab civilization, born once again in the Middle East.
Those achievements, and not wars and conquest, are the real enduring legacy of the Middle East, that we must revive and pass on to our children. The Middle East is our home. It is time for our home to become ours, not the playground of alien, evil and dogmatic ideologies, cynical dictators and religious fanatics. We will not have a bright future in the Middle East until we stop letting extremists manipulate us. A brighter future for the Middle East is up to us. Can we build a better future for the Middle East?
---
Pilots' Ward Abu Salam Al-Arabi June 23, 2003
I was a reserve lieutenant serving in an Arab army during the 1973 war. I was positioned at a big military hospital. The adjacent ward was assigned to the injured Israeli pilots whose jet fighters were shot down by air defense missiles. Many of them ejected from their planes just seconds before being hit by SAMs. More Arabic Version