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May 4, 2014

Vested interests and the erosion of government

When Professor Paul Whiteley of the new Essex Centre for the Study of Integrity published his study “Are Britons getting more dishonest?” this month, he didn’t have to wait...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

Israeli settlements are an affront to European values

Nick Clegg’s condemnation of Israel’s settlements as “an act of deliberate vandalism” was the understatement of the week, but it still managed to provoke the wrath of the Israeli...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

Here we go again – another round of futile negotiations

The bad news from Israel keeps coming thick and fast. If the report by European embassies in Tel Aviv on Israel’s discrimination against Palestinian Arabs was bad, then surely...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

When Abbas refuses to be another Antoine Lahad

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has stressed in discussions on the sidelines of reconciliation talks in Cairo that he refuses to let the Palestinian Authority become a security apparatus protecting...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

Bethlehem deserves more than a single voice

Throughout 2011, as in previous years, the British political class remained pitifully indifferent to the tragedy of Bethlehem. When the Archbishop of Canterbury moved a debate in the House...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

The ‘Arab spring’ and the west: seven lessons from history

There’s a real sense in which, more than any other part of the former colonial world, the Middle East has never been fully decolonised. Sitting on top of the...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

Tunisia leads the way for Arabs striving for democracy

The Arab world is lucky that its spring started in Tunisia, a society of ethnic and sectarian homogeneity distinguished by its high educational standards, civil sentiment and political conscience....

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

Still making excuses for Israel

The late Palestinian scholar Edward Said pointed out famously that “Israel is unique in the world for the excuses made on its behalf”. These excuses have become more prevalent...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

More haste, less speed Mr Abbas

If there is anything that the Palestinian Authority is good at, it’s proving to Israel how “flexible” and “generous” it is. This week, the Ramallah Authority did just that...

Commentary & Analysis
May 4, 2014

The Brotherhood takes the lead… why the surprise?

That the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, should lead after the first phase of the parliamentary election is not a surprise....

Commentary & Analysis

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