Ramzy Baroud
A Mideast democracy project
 The implications of Hamas' sweeping win in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza cannot be limited to the geopolitical boundaries of the occupied territories. Indeed, it goes beyond such borders to include a region trapped in an outdated political process neither meaningful nor equitable.By Ramzy Baroud |
Politics of chaos: Gaza's turmoil in context
| The most recent kidnappings in the Gaza Strip are a disheartening testimony to how factionalism, corruption and lack of discipline can scar a national struggle that was meant to exemplify precisely the opposite.
Although attempts to hijack and reduce the Palestinian struggle date back to its very early days, never before have these efforts succeeded in eclipsing Palestinian national priorities in their entirety, as we are witnessing today. By Ramzy Baroud |
The root cause of terrorism: Blaming the mosque for the sins of governments
By Ramzy Baroud
The deadly terror attacks in Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh last month and the earlier October 2004 bombings at two other Red Sea resorts seem to have disrupted the consistency of the rationale that links the current terrorism upsurge in the Middle East to the US war effort in Iraq.
The Christian Science Monitor attempted to neatly package the ongoing debate in the West on the root causes of political and ideological terrorism within two primary schools of thought; (Why Jihadists Target the West, July 25) one that links terror directly to the war on Iraq, and another that believes that terror groups are ideologically, rather than politically motivated, thus reinforcing the "clash of civilisations" argument.
The civilisation argument, as dissected by the Monitor, contends that the Sharm El Sheikh terror - directed at Westerners regardless of the role played by their governments to aid the Iraq war effort - is a perfect case in point. "The mecca for Westernised Egyptian and European tourists was targeted for the sin of being a beachhead of a globalised, tolerant culture in Arab Muslim territory," it maintained.
US' Middle East foreign policy mischief
By Ramzy Baroud
The Bush administration's policy in the Middle East remains consistent with its support for the actions carried out by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government.
The latest "controversy", ignited by Israel's clandestine scheme to expand its illegal settlements in the West Bank, attests to the above assertion.
The record shows that President George Bush's commitment and loyalty to Israel have pressed him to take measures never taken by any other American president. The imaginary line of impartiality and decency that has allowed, even if timidly, successive US governments to allege their legitimacy as "honest brokers" in Israel's conflicts with Palestinians and Arabs was forever crossed. This historic pass-over could not have happened if it were not for the ideological devotion exhibited by the pro-Israeli neoconservative circle currently overrunning the US government.
'A series of unfortunate events'
By Ramzy Baroud
I visited Baghdad as a reporter a few years before the US invasion. There were posters and statues of now ousted President Saddam Hussein everywhere. But not one checkpoint.
Those lucky enough, or maybe unfortunate enough, to report from the occupied Iraqi capital after March 2003, must have noticed how things have changed. It seems as if for every torn poster or knocked-down statue, a checkpoint was erected, manned by frightened or angry US troops ready to open without warning. And they often do, killing entire families on the spot under various pretexts: "The car was speeding", "the driver wouldn't respond to various signals", "the passengers acted suspiciously", and so forth.
A Newsweek photo gallery, recently posted at MSNBC.com and titled "Suddenly Orphaned", brings to life one of the tragically frequent "incidents" experienced by Iraqi civilians at the hands of occupation troops. A "speeding" car was acting "suspiciously" in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar. The driver was "ordered" to stop, yet "failed" to do so, despite clear "hand signals", and "warning shots".
