West Asia

There is a good deal of discussion in the halls of the UN, both in New York and Geneva, concerning a possible application of full membership in the UN by the Palestinian Authority.

Mounting tensions over the Iran’s nuclear controversy serve both the interests of Western neo-conservatives and Iranian hardliners. The main losers will likely be the pro-democracy and civil society movements within Iran.

Nader al-Masri is an inspiration. The 31-year-old Gaza athlete seems completely oblivious to challenges that would seem insurmountable to most.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas-Fatah deal in Cairo was both swift and predictable. “The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both,” he said.

From its early days, the Libyan revolt seemed to take a difference course than those of other Arab countries. It represented a window of opportunity for the United States and its western allies to reposition themselves, slowly but surely, around a conflict that promised grueling and bloodier times ahead.

Shocking is not a sufficient term to describe Justice Richard Goldstone’s decision to recant parts of the 2009 report on alleged war crimes in Gaza.