Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Even though many Lebanese people and several Arab governments criticized Hezbollah for instigating the crisis with Israel, the Israeli air attacks -- including the killing of many civilians -- have now quieted the criticism, and in fact have worsened the already poor standing of the United States in the Arab world.
On July 26, Amr Hamzawy appeared on Al Arabiya to discuss regional and international dimensions of the ongoing Middle East crisis.
On July 28, Amr Hamzawy and Paul Salam appeared on Al Arabiya to discuss ideological and strategic dimensions of Rice's "new Midde East."
The Indian government has not backed away from its dialogue with Pakistan over the future of disputed Kashmir and other issues despite declared that groups in Pakistan--including, potentially, Pakistan's intelligence service--supported the Mumbai bombers. Just one week after the Mumbai bombings, Indian and Pakistani officials met at a border checkpoint to discuss critical security issues.
Amr Hamzawy appears on NPR's "The Conversation" to discuss the current crisis in the Middle East.
Given the last two weeks in the Middle East — client entities like Hizbollah provoking a conflict, the Saudis and Egyptians speaking without power from the sidelines, Western uncertainty about the role of Syria and Iran — is it possible to draw a new map of the Middle East?
Aggressive acts like the ones Hizballah and Hamas have perpetrated against Israel in recent weeks are rare against a country that has the strongest military in the region and the world's only military superpower as its chief sponsor. The raids are attributable less to U.S. engagement in Iraq, for instance, than to Washington's disengagement in recent years from the Middle East peace process.
This is a dangerous moment for the Middle East, because the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon could easily escalate to involve the broader region. Any strategy to address the present crisis must deal with the realities of the Middle East as they are now, not try to leapfrog over them by seeking to impose a grand new vision. Such a vision would be bound to fail as it did in the case of Iraq.
Over the last few decades most, if not all, Arab-Israeli crises have occurred when the United States has been either unable or unwilling to play an aggressive role as a mediator; and most have only abated after the United States has finally thrown itself into the middle of them.