Life after Bush: Forecasting Peace in Palestine, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Life after Bush: Forecasting Peace in Palestine

'The relationship that governs US-Israeli love affair is convoluted and institutionalized.'

By RAMZY BAROUD

3 Oct 2008

If the last 10 months were a lesson, it was that neither the Bush administration is ready to abandon its pro-Israel position — which has jeopardized any real chance at true peacemaking — nor is the Israeli government under Ehud Olmert ready or willing to advance the cause of peace. It also became obvious that Abbas is hopelessly ineffectual in exercising any pressure, or holding any leverage to determine the speed or direction of peace negotiations with Israel. This, once again, reinforces the belief that the re-launch of peace talks under American auspices was a strategic choice pertinent to isolating Hamas following its election victory in Jan. 2006, and its clash with Fateh in the summer of last year.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat reportedly conveyed Bush's pledge to Abbas, made "behind closed doors", according to AFP, "that if a Palestinian state does not come about during his presidency, it will happen in the near future, not more than a year."

http://newageislam.com/life-after-bush--forecasting-peace-in-palestine/islam-and-the-west/d/848

Does Barack Obama's faith matter?, Islam and the West , NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Does Barack Obama's faith matter?

By Ramzy Baroud

The events of 9/11 have indeed politicised faith like no other past event — in a country where faith is already a powerful player in political affairs. Chris Hedges writes: 'Dominionism, born out of a theology known as Christian reconstructionism, seeks to politicise faith. It has, like all fascist movements, a belief in magic along with leadership adoration and a strident call for moral and physical supremacy of a master race, in this case American Christians.'

Under these unfortunate circumstances, Obama's faith matters and matters greatly.

The candidate of the Democratic party is fought harshly on the question of his faith, often accused of being a 'closet Muslim' — thus, supposedly, bearing wicked plans to destroy this country from 'within'. His detractors continue to accentuate the claim, knowing fully that they have an audience, large enough to cause the energetic candidate some trouble along the way.

http://newageislam.com/does-barack-obama-s--faith-matter?/islam-and-the-west/d/145

Coexistence, not apartheid, Current affairs,

Current affairs

Coexistence, not apartheid

By Ramzy Baroud

Needless to say, neither a figurative Iron wall, like that proposed by Vladimir Jabotinsky in 1923, nor an actual massive and menacing structure as the one being erected in the West Bank can really separate Israel from its 'problem', the Palestinians. An area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Vermont cannot sustain such a complex model — a country that is open unconditionally for all Jews who wish to immigrate, and an oppressed population that is caged in between walls, fences, and hundreds of checkpoints — without inviting perpetual conflict.

http://www.newageislam.com/coexistence,-not-apartheid/current-affairs/d/34