Turkey's foreign policy tug of war
Istanbul - Turkey has recently ratcheted up pressure on US and Iraqi authorities to end the presence of the violent separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in northern Iraq.…
Hamas's ghost in Annapolis
America's return to the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic front is a welcome development. One surely that EU diplomacy has sought to bring about. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to push the…
WITH A GRAIN OF SALT: Long live a free Egypt
This week marked the anniversary of an event of great significance: the release of one of the most important literary works in our modern history, Naguib Mahfouz's "Trilogy comprising "Palace…
Déjà-vu in the Middle East
Does history repeat itself, after all? Recent developments in the Middle East suggest that the answer is "yes, because the situation at the end of President George W. Bush's tenure…
Where is Jewish support for Annapolis?
WASHINGTON: The call for American Jewish organizations to support the current peace efforts came from an unexpected direction: Israel s Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger. For years closely associated with the…
Sadat and Annapolis
Is there a statute of limitations for saying I told you so ? And can the dead say it? I can imagine the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat whispering those…
Desert art in danger at Egypt's new tourism frontier
CAIRO: A rising tide of travelers seeking out the new frontier of Egyptian tourism is threatening priceless rock art preserved for millennia in one of the most-isolated reaches of the…
I know a valley where the wild thyme grows…
Sheikh Musa leans back and smiles. His long white galabiya, Saudi silk, folds gracefully over his crossed legs. He flicks his kofeyya over his head, and continues his story. Musa,…
Saudi women activists furious at gang-rape ruling
DUBAI: A recent Saudi court ruling sentencing a woman to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang-raped highlights the injustice faced by women in the ultra-conservative kingdom,…