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- The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews
- Building Mosques on Sacred Sites of Defeated Enemies a Symbol of Conquest
- Hypocrites in Washington: What Egypt's Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah Really Want
- The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews, Part II
- The Mosque at Ground Zero, a Muslim View: Planting a Flag on an Islamic Conquest
Most Mailed
- Hypocrites in Washington: What Egypt's Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah Really Want
- Behind the Cordoba Mosque Controversy
- The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews, Part II
- Latin America: Press Review
- The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews
Hudson Institute is attempting to encourage civil discourse on important issues of our time. The views expressed are not necessarily the opinions shared by those at the institute, but reflect a variety of viewpoints that may be controversial and sometimes provocative.
Latest Articles
Hypocrites in Washington: What Egypt's Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah Really Want
by Khaled Abu Toameh • September 3, 2010 at 5:00 am
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ShareEgypt's Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah, who were invited to Washington attend the launching of direct negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, went there out of concern for their regimes, and not because they cared so much about the Palestinians or the Middle East peace process. The two Arab leaders accepted the invitation mainly due to the growing problems each one is facing at home.
Mubarak's trip to Washington comes amid growing opposition in Egypt to the idea of his son, Gamal, succeed him as president. Posters carrying the pictures of Gamal and seeking support for his candidacy have appeared in many places in the country, drawing sharp protests from many Egyptians.
The 82-year-old Mubarak is understandably desperate to have his son succeed him, but knows that without the backing of the US and the approval of the mainstream media in the West, Gamal will never be permitted to step into his father's shoes.
Such backing from the US and other Western countries is even more important than winning the support of the Egyptians, whose opinion doesn't matter anyway.
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Behind the Cordoba Mosque Controversy
by Mark Silverberg • September 3, 2010 at 4:40 am
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While liberal elites focus on the soon-to-rise Cordoba mosque as a symbol of religious tolerance, liberty and interfaith understanding, other issues have been pushed to the sidelines – issues that may appear trivial to us, but which resonate throughout Arab and Muslim world.
The New York authorities could have declared the location a nationally-protected historic site but chose not to do so; and there is no question that Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf and his supporters have both the legal and constitutional right to build the mosque wherever they wish; but there are other questions that merit serious attention – one of which is why Rauf (despite declaring his intention to foster greater religious tolerance, pluralism, inter-religious dialogue and understanding) would demonstrate such insensitivity and lack of reverence by choosing to build this mosque near a site where, on 9/11/2001, 2,700 New Yorkers were incinerated by radical Islamic terrorists.
Focus on Yemen, Not Israel-Palestine
by Aymenn Jawad • September 3, 2010 at 4:30 am
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As summer draws to a close, much speculation has arisen in the media on the upcoming direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which the Obama administration hopes will bring about a lasting agreement and a viable Palestinian state within a year. Meanwhile, news has just come out concerning the start of Qatari-mediated talks between the central government of Yemen led by Ali Abdullah Saleh and Shi'a Houthi rebels based in the north of Yemen.
Although these talks are unlikely to receive anywhere near the same level of attention as the direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the U.S. should, in fact, act as a mediator in the Yemeni peace talks, and concentrate on urging the Houthi rebels and the central Yemeni government to reach a worthwhile peace agreement, while leaving the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations alone. The reasons for such a shift in policy is necessary are many.
Latin America: Press Review
Venezuela-Iran Relations
by Anna Mahjar-Barducci • September 3, 2010 at 4:00 am
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A recent Israeli Foreign Ministry report finds that Venezuela and Bolivia are providing Iran with Uranium. Venezuela has an estimated 50,000 tons of untapped Uranium that it may exploit in cooperation with Iran, according to a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last December.
The latest U.S. State Department report on global terrorism states that Iran and Venezuela are running weekly flights between Tehran and Damascus with Caracas serviced by Iran Airlines and the Venezuelan national carrier. According to an informed source, these flights are permanently full, seats are never open to the public, the passengers are exempt from customs and border screening, and the cargo area is always full.
In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department of Foreign Assets Control accused the Chavez administration of having ties with Hezbollah by "employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers."
Turkish Daily Press - September 3, 2010
September 3, 2010 at 3:00 am • AK Group
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The following are translations of excerpts from the Turkish press.
CHP DEPUTY WARNS PM ERDOGAN
Tacidar Seyhan, CHP Adana Deputy questions the reliability of the results of the referendum on Sept. 12, 2010.
He says the electronic logging system is not secure enough against possible tricks.
He submitted his questions in written to the Turkish Grand National Assembly to be answered by PM [Prime Minister] Erdogan: "Are we sure the electronic logging system is secure and protected for outside interferences. If not, did the Government and the High Election Council check the security of the system after 2007 and 2009 elections?"
He added that the system can easily be programmed to get the results as 53% "yes".
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/haberdetay.asp?Newsid=326454&Categoryid=9
NO OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OTHER THAN TURKISH, ERDOĞAN SAYS
Spain Cozies Up To Cuba
But "Are They Emptying Cuban Prisons Just to Fill Them Again?"
by Soeren Kern • September 2, 2010 at 5:00 am
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Six Cuban political prisoners arrived in Spain in August, joining 20 others who came to the country in July after being released from prison by the dictatorship of Cuban President Raúl Castro. They form part of a July 7 deal struck between communist Cuba and the Roman Catholic Church, brokered by the Socialist government in Spain, in which the Castro regime agreed to free 52 of 75 dissidents sentenced in 2003 to prison terms of up to 28 years.
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero hopes the prisoner releases will help him to achieve a long-term political goal: to persuade other European Union countries to relax sanctions on Cuba. The EU's Common Position on Cuba, which dates back to 1996, links any improvement in relations to progress on democracy and human rights.
by Ali Uyanik • September 2, 2010 at 4:45 am
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister and leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), has called for revision of the Turkish constitution through a referendum making it impossible for the secular judiciary to close down Islamist parties. His chief political adversary, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People's Party (CHP), says "No" to constitutional amendments that would reinforce the position of the AKP.
Kilicdaroglu comes from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli. If you travel to Tunceli, you will see inscribed on a hillside a uniquely malevolent warning from the state: "We are strong and brave; we are ready." The message is unmistakable. Tunceli is also the name of the provincial capital, a city 99 percent populated by Alevis, who practise a stream of spirituality combining Sufi mysticism, Shia Islam, and traditional Turkish practices.
by Richard Miniter • September 2, 2010 at 4:30 am
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Announcing the departure of the last U.S. combat troops from Iraq, President Obama made it sound like a defeat. "Ending this war is not only in Iraq's interest – it is in our own," he said Tuesday night. "We have met our responsibility. Now, it is time to turn the page."
He could not more wrong about Iraq or the war: the fact that those troops are leaving in victory —and not exiting from the roof of the embassy in crowded Huey Cobra helicopter — will not be noticed as much as the plain fact they are leaving.
If politicians or the press admit that we have largely won the war, it would reveal that the combat troops' departure is purely an ideological necessity, not a military one: America is not being pushed out of Iraq by a relentless foe, but calmly leaving on its own schedule.
Already anti-war activists are painting the liberation of Iraq as the squandering of American blood and treasure that did not make America any safer, and only deepened the divide between America and the Muslim world.
Meanwhile, conservative commentators, like the Council on Foreign Relations's Max Boot, only mumble that it is "too soon to tell."
