Monday September 12, 2011
"To govern is to choose, and the choices made [by the Bush Administration] in 2002 were fateful. The United States began that year shocked and wounded, but with tremendous strategic advantages. Its population was more closely united...World opinion was strongly sympathetic. Longtime allies were eager to help...The federal budget was nearly in balance...All that was required was to think broadly about the threats to the country, and creatively about the responses. Read More »
Tuesday September 06, 2011
For Arab Americans, the 2012 election will be different. Many of the same critical issues that shaped the 2008 contest are still in play, and will define the national agenda in 2012: Iraq remains unsettled; there is no Israeli-Palestinian peace; the U.S. economy is still in shambles; and intense partisanship continues to impede solutions to some of our nation's most pressing problems. Nevertheless, this election will be different. Read More »
Monday August 29, 2011
In the past few weeks, the Republican presidential primary contest has become more confusing and, for some in the GOP, disheartening. For months now, the rather lackluster field of ten or so announced Republican candidates has been raising money, hiring staff, and campaigning vigorously in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina—sites of some of the earliest contests in the 2012 presidential nominating contest. Read More »
Monday August 22, 2011
For months now, the world has witnessed an acceleration of deadly violence in Syria, as the Assad government has resorted to increasingly brutal methods in an effort to smash a mass uprising in the country. While the government maintains that it has offered the protesters a range of reform proposals, their heavy-handed and lethal repression of largely peaceful demonstrations has called into question the seriousness of their intention to change their approach to governance. Read More »
Monday August 15, 2011
Several sad parallels can be found in the bumbling way Washington dealt with raising the debt ceiling and averting financial catastrophe, and the U.S.'s overall handling of the search for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Read More »
Monday August 08, 2011
Critics' reactions to polling results can sometimes be as interesting and disturbing as the results themselves. During the month of July, we released the findings of a six nation survey of Arab public opinion on topics ranging from the standing of the U.S. two years after President Obama's celebrated Cairo University speech, to evolving Arab attitudes toward Iran, and the expectations created by the "Arab Spring". Read More »
Monday August 01, 2011
Iran's favorable ratings are in a "freefall" across the Arab World, with Iran's behavior in Iraq, Bahrain, and the Arab Gulf region being viewed negatively by most Arabs. These are a few of the key findings of an Arab American Institute poll conducted by Zogby International during the first three weeks of June, 2011. The poll surveyed over 4,000 Arabs from Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, and has a margin of error of 3.5% (in Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia) and 4.5% (in Lebanon, Jordan, and UAE). Read More »
Monday July 25, 2011
In July of 2002 I was in Damascus, Syria, having been invited by the U.S. Embassy to deliver an address at the University. I was delighted that the auditorium was full, but a touch nervous since I had chosen to speak on the challenges facing the country. Read More »
Monday July 18, 2011
A few months back I had a quick exchange with President Obama about the U.S. standing in the Arab World. When I mentioned that we would be conducting a poll to assess Arab attitudes two years after his Cairo speech, he responded that he expected that the ratings would be quite low and would remain low until the U.S. could help find a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read More »
Monday July 11, 2011
On the very day that The New York Times reported that the Israeli military had demolished the homes of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley in order to clear the area to consolidate Israeli control, that very same military was being rebuffed in its efforts to remove an illegal Jewish settler outpost in that very same occupied West Bank. Read More »
Monday July 04, 2011
When it comes to issues involving Israel, politicians in Washington can become quite hysterical, making the dumbest remarks or doing the most illogical things. Evidence of such bizarre behavior abounds, and this week provided several examples. Read More »
Monday June 27, 2011
Back in 2009, when President Obama announced his political compromise plan for a "surge" in Afghanistan there were complaints from both "hawks" and "doves" alike. And so it came as no surprise that he would hear the same complaints this week as he announced the "beginning of the end" of the "surge". Read More »
Monday June 20, 2011
The contest has begun to determine who will be the Republican candidate to square off against President Obama in 2012 national elections. For months now, individuals have been announcing either their intention to run or to form what are called "exploratory committees" to determine whether or not they should run. Read More »
Monday June 13, 2011
This week a bit of controversy erupted in Washington when it was announced that the performance of Malek Jandali, a Syrian musician, had been dropped from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's (ADC) annual convention. It appears that Jandali had insisted on including "Watani Ana", a song about freedom, in his repertoire—and that some leaders at ADC had been equally insistent that the song be dropped. With no meeting of the minds, Jandali was dropped from the program. Read More »
Monday June 06, 2011
I am writing from the Middle East where I am catching an earful about last month's dueling speeches between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To say that majorities here express deep disappointment in American leadership would not be accurate. They were already disappointed, now most have given up. Read More »
Monday May 30, 2011
Given the upheavals occurring across the Middle East, with some of the most difficult situations right on their doorsteps, it might be seen as remarkable that business leaders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar demonstrate high levels of satisfaction in the current economic environment in their countries and optimism about the future. Read More »
Monday May 23, 2011
Reactions to President Obama's speech on developments in the Arab World were a striking reminder of just how deep and troubling the disconnect in the U.S.-Israel-Arab relationship, and how dysfunctional politics in the U.S. have become. Read More »
Monday May 16, 2011
A few days back, The New York Times reported that President Obama was planning to deliver a major speech designed to "reset" U.S. relations with the Arab World. I found the article troubling. Read More »
Monday May 09, 2011
The killing of Osama bin Laden—a man who was responsible for numerous acts of mass murder—should have been the end of a story. I have no doubt that the essential elements of how he met his death are true: that he was tracked down by intelligence agencies; that with the President's authorization, a meticulously planned operation was designed; and that after being presented with estimates as to the certainty of the target and prospects for success, the President dispatched a team to the site and in the process of carrying out the plan, bin Laden was killed. Read More »
Monday May 02, 2011
The Israeli response to news that Palestinian factions had achieved a unity agreement was predictably irritating. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu derided the agreement in stark terms, saying that the Palestinians had a choice of either "Peace with Israel or peace with Hamas". His spokesperson reduced this bumper sticker rejection of Palestinian unity even further to "reconciliation or peace". Read More »
RT @Justin_D_Martin: City of #Jerusalem approves #Jews-only parking area http://t.co/B3z3pHIL - MT via @AAIUSA
about 8 hours, 58 minutes ago.
City of #Jerusalem approves #Jews-only parking area http://t.co/B3z3pHIL - MT via @AAIUSA
about 9 hours ago.
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about 9 hours, 6 minutes ago.
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 18
Be Part of the Change!ABU DHABI, UAE: I've just finished teaching a three week January term course at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus (NYUAD). I've had the great fortune to teach before at some wonderful schools across the U.S. But this, for me, was a special experience, the result of the unique mix of students who had been brought together in this one place. Read More »
Air Date: 12/29/2011
Rob Malley, Middle East and North Africa Program Director at the International Crisis Group; Amb. Hussein Hassouna, Chief Representative of the League of Arab States to the United States; Lara Friedman, Director of Policy and Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now. Read More »
The subcommittee's meeting today to explore whether there are risk factors or preincident indicators of terrorist activity identified by intelligence and law enforcement organizations to enable them in thwarting attacks while preserving -- let me repeat that -- preserving individuals' right to privacy and civil liberties. Read More »
