By: Ali Younes

 Will Iraq return to the strong man rule or there will be a military coup?  Or it will be splintered into smaller entities within something called Iraq? Will it be a failed state that looks like Somalia with Oil, or a Persian Iraq under Tehran stewardship? These are some of the scenarios that shape the debate in Washington about the future of Iraq.

 The upcoming Iraqi elections, scheduled to be held on 7 March, will prove decisive not only for Iraqis but also for the future American presence in that country.

The primary concern for American policy planners and military strategists in Washington is how the political map in Iraq[Read More]

 BY: Ali Younes

 The assassination of Hamas commander, Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai on January 19^th underscored the ruthlessness of Israeli politics in the region and how it intends to project its un-checked power onto the Arab states.

 At the beginning, Dubai was taken aback by this brazen assassination which took advantage of the open-door policy with which Dubai treats European and American citizens. Arab and Israeli press reported that the governments of Dubai and the UAE did not wish to have this issue blown out of control so as not to tarnish the image of this economic powerhouse emirate.

President Hosni Mubarak was reported to have tried to “mediate” between UAE/Dubai and Israel to end this issue in exchange of a “quiet” Israeli apology to Dubai which does not appear to be an option for Israel[Read More]

http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2009/12/03/93049.html

The end of the balancing act

By: Ali Younes

As President Barack Obama hold talks this week with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s worth examining how Obama’s Middle East policy has shifted to be closer to the Israeli position and why the visiting right wing Israeli prime minister actually rebuked the US president.

Change was president Obama’s theme that propelled him to power to the presidency of the United States. Back then, it meant change for the better, that is, better domestic economic policy, and change from the US unilateralist posture into multilateral one. In the Middle East change did occur, but only for the worst. Obama started off on the right foot by appointing seasoned US diplomat George Mitchell to revive talks between Israel and Palestinians during his first week in office. Almost a year later, the Obama administration finds itself unable to pressure or even convince the right wing Israeli government of halting its building of settlements on occupied Palestinian territories. US secretary of State Hilary Clinton said last week during her trip to the middle East that: "What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy of settlements ... is unprecedented," Her statement was a clear departure from the stated US policy objective that demands Israel to completely halt settlement constructions. Mitchell was also unable to convince the Palestinian leadership to ease their demands of complete freeze on Israel settlement building in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

There are several reasons why the Obama administration seems to be unable to pressure the Israeli government to change its position and stop its illegal settlement buildings.

1: Israel occupies a special place in the American political system, it has supporters across the political divide with some consider unequivocal support of Israeli policies and behavior in the middle east supersedes any other consideration whether that might be violations ... [Read More]

H1N1: Spreading the Conspiracy

By: Ali Younes

In the Middle East, a vast conspiracy connects a popular Arabic news channel, with a graphic email chain, and the Libyan leader Muamar Qadafi. All three in one way or another claim that the vaccine for H1N1 “swine flu” disease is part of western conspiracy that not only is manufacturing a cancer-causing vaccine for the disease, but also created the disease itself in western laboratories.

During his visit to NY last September, the Libyan leader Muamar Qadafi claimed in an interview with the BBC that swine fu was “a disease made by western companies so as to create a vaccine for it, and then sell it in order to make a fortune at the expense of third world people”

Popular Arabic news channel Al Jazeera, interviewed American Dr. Leonard Horowitz, regarding the swine flu disease and its impact on public health. Dr. Horowitz; however, is a dentist, and has no scientific background or training in infectious or allergic diseases. Dr. Horowitz claimed during the interview that the “swine flu” disease was made in a laboratory. An Arabic language email that supposedly explain in detail the “western plot” that created the disease quoting several unverifiable sources and misconstrued scientific resources.

Amid this fog of information and uncertainty and in order to discern science from fiction, Al Jazeera talk show host Ahmad Mansur a respected journalist, featured [on his popular show, without borders] a dentist Leonard Horowitz as an expert on swine flu”. Horowitz has made claims that the US government is secretly involved in “depopulating” the world of Africans and other non-whites among his other conspiracies. According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, “Horowitz is a known conspiracy theorist” whose website Tetrahedorn.com is more concerned with selling books and “holistic medicine” than treating people or writing scientific papers on infectious diseases.

His books include “Love: t... [Read More]

The visit to Damascus of King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, is perhaps the best news Syria has received in recent years. It comes as the crowning culmination of high-level meetings in Kuwait earlier this year and a visit by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, to Riyadh in September.

For Damascus, such a high-level visit from a leader of a regional powerhouse marks a victory for its political brinkmanship and is an acknowledgement that Syria has matured into an indispensable player in the divided Arab World.

Syrian foreign policy has been basted on two pivotal principles: first, that there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends; and second, that every situation can and will be used as leverage that will serve national interests and ensure the survivability of the regime.

Such a two-pronged approach is pragmatic when it calculates winnings and losses, and elastic when it absorbs any situation and attempts to turn it to its advantage.

For example, Syria saw no apparent conflict with its declared slogans of "Arab unity" and "Arab brotherhood" when it joined the US in its "war on terror" in 2003 and surrendered several Iraqi leaders who took refuge in its territories in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.

Syria also endorsed the 2002 Saudi-brokered Arab Peace Initiative to normalise relations with Tel Aviv and even held bilateral talks with Israel with Turkish mediation.

Emerging from isolation

Turkey's role in bringing Syria to the negotiating table should not be underestimated.

It was through Turkey - which is a US ally, Nato member and maintains diplomatic relations with Israel - that Syria managed to break its regional isolation, imposed by "moderate Arab states" as a punitive measure in the wake of the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese premier, and for its support for Hezbollah.

Syria has persistently denied involvement in al-Hariri's death.

Despite its talks with t... [Read More]

Gilad Shalit in the Arab media

By Ali Younes

Every time I read and watch how Arab media outlets cover the story of prisoner’s exchange of the Israeli solider Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, I come to think how Arab media have fallen victims to Israeli PR machine (propaganda).

There are several issues at play here when covering this story. Note that Gilad Shalit is always mentioned by name, I know his name, you do, and maybe my grandmother knows his name too!

Why, because the Israeli government has made sure that the whole world, and even my grandmother knows this soldier name. Every effort to release him

( note its always about him ) was made specifically for him, the Egyptians, the Germans, the Americans, even some Palestinians care more about him than their own.

How many Palestinian prisoners’ names do we know? We know that there are 12000 of them in captivity I might know Marwan Barghouthi, whose only image I know is him in chains and handcuffs waving them off. Maybe few others and that’s about it. The rest I just see them without actually see them in Israeli busses or cages, or jail cells. Or, we might see a crying wife, a saddened son, or an ailing mother clinging to a picture of her imprisoned son. But I don’t know who he is, or how, when and why did the Israeli army arrest him. We don’t even know if those prisoners have children or if they are married even.

Moreover, I watched an Arab media outlet over the weekend looping a report as part of a show on the possibility of prisoner’s exchange, where the Israeli soldier was shown with his “boyish looks” smile around, eating, and joking like any other normal person. But this should be anything but normal.

The Palestinian movements did not capture him out of his bedroom or out of his school yard. He was manning a tank and military position that was laying siege against Palestinia... [Read More]