Death in Baghdad and the UN role in Iraq
By (22/05/2008)
With "Chasing the Flame – Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World" (Penguin Press, 2008) Samantha Power, Anna Lindh Professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, has written a fascinating portrait of the kind of compassionate cosmopolitan figure of which there are far too few in this world. The book is also a remarkably well-researched handbook on the UN, and it contains new and important material for a much-needed discussion, namely: under which circumstances should the UN be engaged in Iraq?
Lebannon: facing another wave of destruction?
By (13/05/2008)
The latest wave of violence in Lebanon shows the limitations of organising the state along confessional lines, and the weight of other countries, from the United States and France to Syria and Iran, along with Israel, in the country’s destiny. Mariano Aguirre analyses the roots of the confrontations and the dangers they represent for the region.
Europe, Israel and Palestine: endgame?
By (28/04/2008)
The Annapolis initiative last November is already doomed to failure as the Palestinians and Israel fail to engage and Hamas is deliberately isolated by Europe and America. Could Europe intervene instead? George Joffe argues that, having betrayed its own principles of normative power and constructive engagement, the European Union now has no viable alternative to offer.
No Middle East peace without tough love
By (14/04/2008)
Instead of new European initiatives for “peace conferences” on the Israelí-Palestinian conflict, it is necessary to stop the violence from both sides –Hamas attacks and Israeli´s occupation– in order to recover some level of dialogue that must be based on the UN Resolutions and the 1967 Green Line.
Bring in Hamas
By (10/03/2008)
Last October, a bipartisan group of eminent former senior government officials urged President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to entertain the fantasy that an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord could be negotiated with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, without the participation of Hamas. You cannot make peace with half of a country’s population and remain at war with the other half.
Photo by Getty Images
In this Comment article Henry Siegman calls on the US leadership to adopt a more realistic approach to achieving a lasting peace between the belligerent parties.
