Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Clouds of war hover over Lebanon. The country is adrift without a president and with a contested government as well as a Parliament whose doors have been closed since late 2006. Tensions between rival groups spill over regularly into street clashes amid news that they are arming and training.
Confrontational U.S. policy that tried to create a “New Middle East,” but ignored the realities of the region has instead exacerbated existing conflicts and created new problems.
Confrontational U.S. policy that tried to create a “New Middle East,” but ignored the realities of the region has instead exacerbated existing conflicts and created new problems. To restore its credibility and promote positive transformation, the United States needs to abandon the illusion that it can reshape the region to suit its interests.
The Middle East peace process will fail unless Palestinian political institutions are rebuilt. The international efforts to rebuild Palestine are in reality counterproductive. Instead, a long-term international strategy based on restoring Palestinian institutions, encouraging a Fatah–Hamas agreement, and emphasizing regional diplomacy are needed.
Carnegie's Amr Hamzawy appeared on BBC Radio Scotland to discuss President Bush's visit to the Middle East. The poor domestic situation in Israel and Palestine make significant diplomatic gains unrealistic, argued Hamzawy. Mr. Bush is more likely to make progress on his Iran agenda—pulling Gulf countries closer to the American perception of Iran as the main threat to Western and Arab interests.
Since global change accelerated a decade or so ago, mentioning globalisation has tended to upset many people in the Arab world. Was 2007 the year that the region moved closer -- and more comfortably -- to the rest of the globe?
This week, President Bush will be hosting representatives in Annapolis, MA for an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference. Carnegie's Mohammed Herzallah argues that the Palestinian leadership will be in a position to haggle in Annapolis without being held accountable by their own constituency. There must be a democratic connection between the Palestinian negotiators and the people they represent.
Virginia Representative Jim Moran is no stranger to controversy. And he now finds himself in midst of another one--over what he said about Jews, Iraq, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in an interview in the September-October issue of Tikkun magazine.
Interview with Amal Saad-Ghorayeb on the status of Hezbollah.
On June 25, Carnegie senior associate Nathan Brown presented his commentary "The Peace Process Has No Clothes: The Decay of the Palestinian Authority and the International Response." Daniel Levy of the New American Foundation served as discussant and Marina Ottaway moderated.