AMMAN -- Despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, the Israeli war on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip continued for the 14th day on Friday, virtually eliminating any prospects for peace in the Middle East after seriously damaging an already weak peace process.
CAIRO – A convoy of buses crammed with 100 Cairo protesters on route to the Egyptian-Gazan border was forced back by police Friday evening in the Sinai town of Arish, just 25 miles from the Rafah crossing, which Egypt has kept shut even as deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continue.
EDITORIAL
Beyond the human losses, the tragedy of Gaza is that each side has fulfilled its strategic goals in the latest spasm of violence in the apparently endless dance macabre between Israelis and Palestinians.
OPINION
ANNENBERG, CA, USA -- The much maligned Al-Hurra, the U.S. government's Arabic TV service, is now a "go-to" news channel in Iraq, one of the largest TV markets in the Middle East of more than 28 million population. Because of its growing number of viewers in Iraq, Al-Hurra can now lay claim to its legitimate connection with the mythical "Arab Street,' a term which writer Amir Hamzaway says elites use "in the absence of independent public opinion surveys, in representing their own quite ideological views as those of the Iraqi majority and as those of Arabs generally."
The establishment of the state of Israel was largely due to the dedication and resistance of young Jews who fought vigorously against an outnumbered and hostile local Arab population to establish a Jewish homeland. It was an ideological war of survival and independence.
