June 8, 2011 · 13:23

Syria’s Winds of Radical Change

Commentary by @LeShaque  – 8 June 2011

The winds of change have been blowing throughout the Middle East in what has become known as the Arab Spring. In a region that has known little change over the past few decades, people are taking to the streets demanding improvement of their living standards. Not surprisingly, as their lives are more or less the same as they were in the 1950s. These hopes for change came into direct conflict with the regimes’ desire to maintain the status quo that has kept them in power all this time. Continue reading →

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June 5, 2011 · 12:48

Les candidats républicains face aux enjeux du Moyen-Orient : une demande de fermeté dans des temps incertains

Par Antoine Alhéritière – 5 juin 2011

Alors que je dinais avec mon ami américain Sam Seifman, diplômé en Lettres à Temple University, j’ai abordé la question des primaires républicaines en vue de l’élection présidentielle de 2012. Le jeune démocrate que j’avais en face de moi affirmait sans hésitation que le prochain candidat républicain courrait à l’abattoir, l’ « Obamania » allant certainement durer, selon lui, quatre ans de plus. Pourtant, ces dernières semaines, les candidatures fleurissent chez les Eléphants, avec déjà neuf déclarations et encore une douzaine de pressenties. En effet, les annonces viennent de plus en plus tôt dans le calendrier électoral, et dès à présent, les financements massifs entrent en jeu dans la perspective du choc des deux macro partis, une gigantomachie made in USA. Continue reading →

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May 30, 2011 · 15:06

Bavures et non-dits du « Nakba Day » au Liban-Sud

Par Federica Pesce – 30 mai 2011

Dimanche 15 mai 2011, des milliers de Palestiniens et de sympathisants de la « cause palestinienne » se sont rendus à Maroun el-Rass, au sud du Liban, pour commémorer la Nakba, ou la « catastrophe ». Ce n’était pas la première fois que des manifestations étaient organisées pour ce que l’on nomme le « Nakba Day », mais, il s’agissait cette fois-ci du plus grand rassemblement de Palestiniens à la frontière israélienne depuis 1948. Continue reading →

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May 21, 2011 · 12:04

Obama’s Speech: What Was Unsaid

Commentary by Tamer Mallat and Mélissa Rahmouni – 21 May 2011

Obama’s long overdue speech on the Arab Spring has provoked a series of mixed and muted reactions across the Arab world. For many, his outspoken remarks claiming that any Palestinian state must be created on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, were received as an encouraging sign that the US is upping the ante on Israel. President Obama’s clear embrace of non-violent and pro-democracy protests in addition to his condemnation of the brutal crackdowns in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen, aimed to highlight America’s firm position that favors democratic reform. However, Obama continues to stop short of calling for regime change. By encouraging autocrats from Bahrain to Syria to undergo sincere reforms, Obama’s policy remains focused on ‘behavioral change’ over ‘regime change’. Obama’s silence on a number of issues betrays a possibly more sordid foreign policy shift. Not one word was directed at the developing state of affairs in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria and Morocco. Continue reading →

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May 20, 2011 · 14:28

Fighting Terrorism in Iraq: Are the Americans Leading the Game?

Eyewitness account by Jean Carrere – 20 May 2011

Piled in the back of a police truck we finally left the police station at one o’clock in the morning. The night was pitch dark and the only light in the streets came from our convoy. In the back of the truck, the soldiers laughed, smoked cigarettes and checked their AK47 rifles. It hardly seemed like we were going on a hunt for suspected militants in the Salahadin province of Iraq. Continue reading →

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May 18, 2011 · 13:36

A Bullet for a Rock: An Eyewitness Account of the “Bloody Sunday” Massacre

Commentary by Sabah Haider – 18 May 2011

For many of those who protested — and died — on Israel’s border with Lebanon this May 15, it was their first sighting of their ancestral home. On Sunday May 15, I stood in solidarity with tens of thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese and other pro-Palestinian protestors in Maroun al-Ras, Lebanon, where I witnessed the Israelis respond to protestors throwing rocks at Israel, over the barbed-wire fence marking the border, with live ammunition. Many young men were shot: 10 people died and 115 were wounded, the largest number of casualties at any of the day’s border protests in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon. There were reports that the Israelis used rubber bullets, but rubber bullets don’t kill. Continue reading →

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May 14, 2011 · 12:12

Crise des réfugiés : à Lampedusa, l’Europe a échoué

Par Antoine Alhéritière – 14 mai 2011

Avec le renversement populaire du régime de Ben Ali et le prolongement des luttes armées en Lybie, plus de trente mille réfugiés nord-africains ont rejoint dans l’adversité, les rives de Lampedusa. Si en 2010, l’Italie recensait 4 300 nouveaux venus, il s’agit désormais d’un véritable boom migratoire – un « tsunami humain » pour Silvio Berlusconi. Selon l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations, environ 10 300 migrants venus de Libye ont déjà atteint l’île méridionale depuis le début de l’année, et encore 24 000 issus de Tunisie. Continue reading →

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