U.S. Foreign Policy
News and perspectives on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond.
Gaza turmoil
 James M. Wall, Christian Century, discusses White House Middle East policy chief Elliott Abrams'alleged plan, contained within a leaked 16-page document, to "arm and train Fatah loyalists" so that they might "topple the Hamas government" (tonykaron.com).He concludes that "The realities of U.S. military funding of Fatah and U.S. training of Fatah troops leave little doubt that the U.S. is once again choosing sides in another country's internal conflict, and once again displaying the arrogance that led to disasters in Vietnam, El Salvador, Guatemala and Iraq." |
America's gift: a new tradition in Islamic thinking
 America contributes to maintaining the global order and has created and sustained some of the most important institutions of the international system, such as the United Nations and the World Bank. In recent years, U.S. foreign policy has resulted in billions of dollars of tsunami relief in Southeast Asia, earthquake assistance in Pakistan and economic and development aid across Muslim lands. The United States is the biggest foreign aid donor to the Muslim World.
In the past, the United States has also intervened militarily on behalf of Muslims in Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo and Kuwait. On the domestic front, the United States is one of the best places to live on the planet according to many. People from all over the Muslim world apply, in the millions, for visas to come to the US (even after 9/11) in search of a better future. Yet hardly any indigenous American Muslims are seeking to migrate to predominantly-Muslim countries to improve their lives. The United States, and not any one of the fifty five Muslims nations, is the number one choice of Muslims for permanent relocation. |
Bush won't get much help in Iraq unless he earns it in Palestine
 Daily Star Editorial | date: 2007-01-25BEIRUT - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's emphasis on the "road map" as a route to Middle East peace and the Quartet as a vehicle to get there betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how Palestinian-Israeli negotiations broke down and why they have remained in stasis. The "road map" envisions a series of preparatory steps and delays a final status agreement until the final stage. But all of the foundations for a workable peace pact have already been laid through decades of negotiations, including those that took place during the administration of her boss's predecessor, Bill Clinton, who sought a deal until the very last weeks of his presidency. While Clinton's effort established that an American president could summon the stamina for an exhaustive peace process, he too fell short of securing ironclad commitments from the Israelis and Palestinians. |
Bush's last chance
 Commenting on the Baker-Hamilton Report, Shlomo Ben-Ami writes, "The report's recommendation for an international conference in the style of the Madrid peace conference is not only a timely indication of the linkage between the Israeli-Arab conflict and the region's other troubles; it is also a long overdue reminder that bilateral negotiations between the parties cannot produce an agreement. That realisation prompted the all-Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, which established the conditions for an Israeli-Arab comprehensive settlement." |
Emphatically stating the obvious on Iraq
 David Ignatius, a regular Washington, D.C.-based contributor to the Daily Star, analyses the findings and recommendations in the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's report. Acknowledging that the real national security threat to America is the "sense in the rest of the world that Iraq symbolises America's fatal new combination of arrogance and incompetence", he highlights how this report can help to turn this around. |
This year, Arabs express pessimism
 James J. Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), compares poll results of the mood in Arab countries. He finds that there is a prevailing sense of pessimism across the region that is distinctly different from last year, and, based on his survey findings, examines some of the reasons behind it. |
Balancing realism and reform on the Arab periphery
 Washington, D.C. - In an ironic turn of events, Yemen's September 20 presidential and local elections garnered extensive favourable coverage by the normally critical Al-Jazeera, while they received only scant attention from the U.S. government, heretofore eager to highlight any sign of reform in Arab states. Why did U.S. officials refrain from highlighting what many foreign observers have praised as successful elections? Possible explanations include a return to traditional priorities in which security interests supersede democracy promotion, a calculated U.S. effort to promote Arab reform more quietly, or simply an oversight due to other distractions. by Jeremy M. Sharp |
