MIDEAST: New Year Reopens Wounds of the Old

For many survivors of the last Israeli war on Gaza, time has not healed their wounds, physical or emotional.

LEBANON: Hip-hop Kindles Hopes in Destroyed Refugee Camp

The hip-hop beats ringing through the muddy, unlit streets of this burnt-out Palestinian refugee camp seem incongruous. But the rhymes are camp-grown - and courageous.

Q&A: ”U.S. ‘Grand Bargain’ Can Save Israel From Itself”

Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the two-state parameters seems less likely with Israel torn between accepting a Palestinian state and the settler ideology which calls for Israel's exclusive rule over the whole of Jerusalem and the West Bank.

US-LEBANON: Hard Line on Hezbollah Clashes with Political Reality

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman visited Washington last week, for his first visit with President Barack Obama. The meeting was a quick one, tucked in amongst the myriad of domestic issues that are demanding Obama's attention.

MIDEAST: ‘’What About the Mailboxes?’’

The sun is about to set over Jabel Mukaber. The call of the muezzin envelops the valley beneath Naim Aweisat’s balcony and, rolling from the mosques of Abu Dis across the wall in the West Bank, rebounds from the stark concrete Israeli security wall to answer the minarets that peer over the walled Old City.

MIDEAST: Gaza March Puts Spotlight on Civilian Suffering

More than 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Gaza on Dec. 31 for a mass march designed to send a message to the United States, a key supporter of Israel's army, that the situation in Gaza violates international human rights laws.

JORDAN: Palestinian Refugees Live Out Lives in Limbo

Music enlivens the yellow taxi as it traverses the Jordanian capital. A small Palestinian flag hangs from the rearview mirror. Jihad, the cab driver, says his father fled here from the Palestinian West Bank in 1948.

EUROPE: Cosy With Israel, Despite the Headlines

Israel's relations with the European Union were tense for most of 2009 - if newspaper headlines are to be believed. In the past week, a British court drew fierce criticism from Israeli politicians after it issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, following a complaint that she had authorised war crimes in Gaza.

MIDEAST: Occupation Eats Away Israel’s Heart and Soul

After Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank torched a mosque and desecrated copies of the Quran in the Palestinian village of Yasuf, last Friday morning, they ran into a wall of condemnation.

LEBANON: Hizbullah Fortifies Frontier Against Israel

In the mountains towering above this southern city, Hizbullah (Party of God) is building a new line of defence on lands where a fierce war was once fought between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel.

MIDEAST: Human Rights Deteriorated in 2009, Report Warns

Human rights abuses in Arab countries increased throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2009, according to the annual report of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, released earlier this week.

POLITICS: Poll Finds Optimism for Obama’s Mideast Diplomacy

Israeli attitudes toward U.S. President Barack Obama aren't nearly as dismal as previous reports have implied, according to a poll released Thursday by the Washington-based think tank, the New America Foundation.

MIDEAST: In a Muddle Over Mixed Signals

"Get your hands off the Land of Israel and the people of the Land of Israel - that's what we need to tell Mr. Obama - get on the phone to the White House each and every one of you!"

MIDEAST: Europe Steps In to Pressure Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Palestinian counterpart Salam Fayyad have both been scrambling earnestly to win the backing of European leaders in advance of what could be a major EU policy shift that aims at creating new impetus for Palestinian-Israeli peace prospects.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Say No to Crumbs

The Palestinian Authority (PA) appears to be successfully countering the Israeli government's refusal to work towards a two-state solution to end the decades- long conflict.

MIDEAST: Settlers Aim a Kick at Football

Without an efficient bureaucracy, occupation of the land of another people cannot be sustained. This is all the more true of Israel's 42-year occupation of Palestinian lands.

BOOKS-US: Hawkish “Israel Lobby” More Bark Than Bite?

The Nov. 25 announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a "moratorium" on settlement construction brought very different responses from the Jewish American "pro-Israel" groups J-Street and the heavyweight American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), calling attention to the increasing divide within the American Jewish community.

MIDEAST: One Palestinian Prisoner Could Change the Balance

The fate of one prisoner locked in an Israeli jail could release the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process from its own jail - provided the timing is right.

MIDEAST: The Man Who Would Move a Hill

In this city of fraternal faiths and conflicting political aspirations, dreams need to be made of sterner stuff.

MIDEAST: Settlements “Moratorium” Still Short of Freeze

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday that Israel will impose a 10-month "moratorium" on settlements, but warned that the move falls short of a freeze on settlement building - a condition that has been a mainstay of U.S. policy towards Israel.

LEBANON: Refugees Remain Sceptical of Nahr al-Bared Reconstruction

More than two years after their refugee camp was destroyed in a war between the Lebanese army and the Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam, Nahr al-Bared refugees Wednesday witnessed the start of the camp’s reconstruction. Their relief is mixed with scepticism, however.