- November 23, 2024
Articles
Unity is Not Compromise: Towards a Real Palestinian Strategy
By Ramzy Baroud As the Palestine Papers demonstrated, the major obstacle to a real, lasting and just peace in Palestine is the Israeli leadership’s unwillingness to accept anything less than full domination over the Palestinians. Not only do Israeli leaders refuse to partake in any serious peace talks, they also refuse to agree on universally […]
Moving beyond Bin Ladenism
By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News We’ve got him! squealed a waitress as I walked into a coffee shop in Washington state. It took me few moments to realise she was referring to US President Barack Obama’s triumphant declaration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden near Islamabad on May 2. In no time, […]
Gaza Marathon: A Race for Freedom and Summer Camps
By Ramzy Baroud Nader al-Masri is an inspiration. The 31-year-old Gaza athlete seems completely oblivious to challenges that would seem insurmountable to most. On May 5th, he led a small pack of nine runners into the finish line of Gaza’s first marathon. Behind them, 1,300 children ran various distances. Many of the children who participated […]
Palestinian Unity and the New Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas-Fatah deal in Cairo was both swift and predictable. "The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both," he said, in a televised speech shortly after the Palestinian political rivals reached a […]
High Stakes for US in Syria
By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News Although now largely governed by a military leadership, Egypt, the most populous and influential country in the Arab world, has, for now, escaped the US sphere of influence. It is also showing clear signs that it may fall into a foreboding trajectory involving Iran, Syria and other such […]
US Rethinks Strategy: War as Opportunity in Libya
By Ramzy Baroud The brutality of Libyan leader Moammar Ghaddafi, and his refusal to concede power, is costing Libya much more than innocent lives. The country is now also facing a possible loss of future independence and sovereignty. From its early days, the Libyan revolt seemed to take a difference course than those of other […]
Staying Human: The Heroic Legacy of Vittorio Arrigoni
By Ramzy Baroud "Dear Mary," wrote Italian justice activist Vittorio Arrigoni to a friend. "Do you [know who] will be on the boats?… I’m still in Gaza, waiting for you. I will be at the boat to greet you. Stay human. Vik." "Mary" is Mary Hughes Thompson, a dedicated activist who braved the high seas […]
Gaza War and Goldstone’s Moral Collapse
By Ramzy Baroud Shocking is not a sufficient term to describe Justice Richard Goldstone’s decision to recant parts of the 2009 report on alleged war crimes in Gaza. The document, known as the Goldstone Report, was compiled after a thorough investigation led by the South African judge and three other well-regarded investigators. They documented 36 […]
War on Palestinian Memory: Israel Resolves Its Democracy Dilemma
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinian citizens of Israel must have been proud of the fact that their collective tenacity always proved stronger than any Israeli attempt at dislocating them from their rightful historical narrative. Now, they are being told to cease and desist from commemorating al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948, which saw the brutal seizure and […]
For the Love of Egypt: When Besieged Palestinians Danced
By Ramzy Baroud A dear friend of mine from Gaza told me that he hadn’t slept for days. "I am so worried about Egypt, I have only been feeding on cigarettes and coffee." My friend and I talked for hours that day in early February. We talked about Tahrir Square, about the courage of ordinary […]
Natural Flow of History: Hamas Should Rethink Charter
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Now it is time to naturalize the flow of history,’ wrote Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (British Guardian, March 16). The process of naturalization is now underway in the region Davutoglu refused to describe as the Middle East (arguing that the term is “orientalist”, and preferring to call the region […]
Civil Society and Palestine: The Growing Power of the Ordinary
By Ramzy Baroud The global boycott movement (BDS) and other related campaigns were aimed at exposing Israeli transgressions against the Palestinian people and galvanizing international solidarity. What is so uplifting to see now is how their achievements have far surpassed these initial aims. The campaigns have animated, accentuated and actually legitimized Palestinian civil society – […]
A Neoconservative ‘Shock and Awe’: The Rise of the Arabs
By Ramzy Baroud A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies everywhere. What is underway in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense– it is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively. Hollywood has long […]
Mixed Messages: Arabs Challenge Israeli Hasbara
By Ramzy Baroud When the Libyan people took on their reviled dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, Israeli officials seemed puzzled by the alarming and unprecedented trend of popular awakenings in the Arab world. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has claimed that these awakenings are only proof of the ‘weakening’ of the Arabs – even at a time […]
Till September: The PA’s Meaningless Deadlines
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his supporters in the Fatah party want us to believe that dramatic changes are underway in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is part of a strategy intended to offset any public dissatisfaction with the self-designated Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. The PA hopes the ‘news’ […]
‘From the Gulf to the Ocean’: The Middle East is Changing
By Ramzy Baroud Now that the Egyptian people have finally wrestled their freedom from the hands of a very stubborn regime, accolades to the revolution are pouring in from all directions. Even those who initially sided with Hosni Mubarak’s regime, or favored a neutral position, have now changed their tune. ‘Arabs celebrate from the Gulf […]
Hurriya is Arabic for Freedom: Just Listen to Egypt Roar
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Just listen to that roar,’ urged a CNN correspondent in Egypt, as thousands of Egyptian protesters charged, fists pumped, against hundreds of armed Egyptian security forces. What a roar it was, indeed. The protests have shown the world that Arabs are capable of much more than merely being pitiable statistics of unemployment […]
Palestine Papers: The Palestinians’ ‘Generous Offer’
By Ramzy Baroud As Palestinians are becoming increasingly confident about the authenticity of the Palestine Papers – 1,600 leaked documents that Al Jazeera began publishing on January 23 – they can also find little to be proud of in their contents. According to Palestinian political commentator Mazin Qumsiyeh, the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat “comes […]
Tunisia: How We Got Here and the Task Ahead
By Ramzy Baroud Hunger strikes. These were the last resort for Tunisian activists as they fought against a brutal and highly oppressive regime. Prior to the ousting of Zineal-Abidine Ben Ali by an unprecedented people’s uprising on January 14, there seemed to be no end in sight to the regime’s wide-ranging human rights violations. Over […]
The Palestine Papers: Offering Palestine, Selling Out Its Refugees
By Ramzy Baroud The Palestine Papers had damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians The Palestine Papers, the 1,300 leaked documents that Aljazeera began publishing starting January 23, are the Palestinian response to the Israeli ‘generous offer’, an Israeli diplomatic ruse that was aimed at discrediting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat following […]
Generalizing Tunisia: Context Overrides Story
By Ramzy Baroud When faced with problems, most authoritarian regimes maintain a policy of rigidity when the appropriate response would be flexibility, political wisdom and concessions. This policy gives authoritarian leaders their ability to control their populations to serve the interests of a few individuals and political and military elites. It can also, however, usher […]
Failure of Academia: A Book Not Meant to Be Published
By Ramzy Baroud Deepak Tripathi’s most recent book, Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism (Potomac Books) raises several issues, both within and outside of its content. It is based on research for his doctoral dissertation, the qualification for which he never received. Tripathi, a former BBC producer, is immensely proud of his […]
Declaring Palestine: Revisiting Hope and Failure
By Ramzy Baroud When late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat read the Declaration of the Palestinian Independence just over 22 years ago, Palestinians everywhere were enthralled. They held onto his every word during the Palestinian National Council (PNC) session in Algeria on November 15, 1988. The council members incessantly applauded and chanted in the name of […]
Hope in 2011: Peoples, Civil Society Stand Tall
By Ramzy Baroud When the Iraqi army fell before invading US and British troops in 2003, the latter’s mission seemed to be accomplished. But nearly eight years after the start of a war intended to shock and awe a whole population into submission, the Iraqi people continue to stand tall. They have confronted and rejected […]
Whitewashing Defeat: Obama’s Indecisiveness Defines His Presidency
By Ramzy Baroud He may still possess the poise of a confident leader and an eloquent intellectual, but the presidency of Barack Obama is now suffering its most difficult phase to date. Certainly, Obama cannot solely be blamed for all the factors that have stifled his country’s chances of recovery from the failures of the […]
Insisting on Their Humanity: ‘The Plight of the Palestinians’
By Ramzy Baroud When a copy of William A. Cook’s latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians arrived in my mailbox, I initially felt a little worried. The volume, featuring the work of over 30 accomplished writers, is the most articulate treatise on the collective victimization of Palestinians to date. From Cook’s own introduction, ‘The […]
WikiLeaks Indicts, Vindicates U.S. Diplomats
By Ramzy Baroud The WikiLeaks vs. the US government saga started in July, when 77,000 secret US documents directly relating to Afghanistan were made available to major media organizations. Many of us shook our heads with a mixture of disgust and vindication. We had long been aware of the brutality of the war, and the […]
Lebanon at Stake: Turkey Must Reveal Its Cards
By Ramzy Baroud The timing of the Turkish Prime Minister’s two-day visit to Lebanon could not be more judicious. Lebanon’s enemies have been banging the drums of war louder than ever before. All the malevolent plans hatched following the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri are about to converge for one formidable goal: […]
More Than a Bribe: Obama Surrenders Palestinian Rights
By Ramzy Baroud The Middle East policies of US President Barack Obama may well prove the most detrimental in history so far, surpassing even the rightwing policies of President George W. Bush. Even those who warned against the overt optimism which accompanied Obama’s arrival to the White House must now be stunned to see how […]
A Follow Up on My Fifth Grade Essay: Education at Gunpoint
By Ramzy Baroud I recall the first sentence of my fifth grade essay on ‘Education and Youth’. Written with the occasional aid of my father, and dotted with clichés, it might have read something like this: “Youth is the backbone of any nation, and education is essential to arm the youth with the knowledge they […]
