Opinion

LAST August I predicted that as the US election drew closer, and as the President's re-election became certain, a credible scenario would be for Israel to strike Iran, pre-empting...

The past few weeks have witnessed a convergence of several important issues facing post-uprising Egypt: new Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi's opportunism in his attempt to reform the judiciary (as...

Thirty years after it was signed, the Egypt-Israel peace treaty is the focus of attention in strategic debate in Washington, Tel Aviv and Cairo. The renewed interest arises from...

ISRAEL squirms and wriggles like a worm on a fishhook over the Turkish trial into the deaths of nine unarmed humanitarian aid volunteers on board a ship bound for...

Contrary to what Israel might have expected, Hamas's reaction to the latest Israeli escalation in Gaza didn't follow the normal pattern. Thus, Israeli calculations have been confused. Normally, Hamas...

Within the past two weeks, Cairo has received two messages of special significance. The first was from Washington and the other was from Tel Aviv. During his election campaign,...

Out of nowhere, a sister of the late President Yasser Arafat has insisted that no exhumation of his remains should take place. We have never heard of this honourable...

On 15 November, 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) National Council, a body representing all Palestinians, declared an independent Palestinian state. The gesture did not change life for Palestinians...

The revolutions in a number of Arab countries and their effects on a number of strategic issues, at the forefront of which is the Palestinian case, are at the...

The criminal Israeli offensive on Gaza is taking place in the midst of the Israeli general election campaign. There should be no doubt that it is connected to the...

It should come as no surprise that King Abdullah of Jordan has cancelled a proposed visit to Britain during which he was to attend the annual fundraising dinner of...

As the conflict in the Gaza Strip reaches its eighth day, there is no tangible evidence to suggest a truce is imminent. The Israeli military has dropped leaflets over...

Israel's war on Gaza has not stopped since Palestinians exercised their democratic free will and voted for Hamas in the 2006 election. The relentless warfare has alternated between overt...

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel finally came into effect on Wednesday night, 21 November. As expected, both sides claimed victory. Gazans streamed elatedly onto the streets to...

The Gaza Ceasefire, unlike a similar ceasefire achieved after Operation Cast Lead four years ago, is an event that has a likely significance far beyond ending the violence after...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to impose a long-term ceasefire on Hamas and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, one that lasts for fifteen years at least. This is...

Israel's latest aggression against the Gaza Strip was not just a military assault on occupied land which has a geo-strategic link with Egypt, but it also presented a serious...

Like millions of Egyptians, I have received a detailed copy of the new constitutional statement issued by President Mohammed Morsi. I have also received the bundle of decisions issued...

The history books will record November 2012 as the month in which the Palestinian people achieved three major victories which could change the power equations in the region: The...

EGYPTIAN democracy is alive and well. That is about the only positive observation on the current pro-Morsi and counter-demonstrations in major cities across the country. President Mohamed Morsi's pronouncement...

Opposition to something like President Mohamed Morsi's now-controversial constitutional declaration is an inherent right in a democracy. In any free country, authority needs to have a strong opposition, up...

It is impossible to understand the modern Conservative Party without a grasp of the scale and profundity of its links to the state of Israel. The connection dates back...

A DAY after the UN vote to upgrade Palestine's status at the UN, the right-wing Israeli government responded by adding 3,500 illegal Jewish-only homes in the occupied West Bank...

After the victory of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza against the Israeli offensive and the relative success at the United Nations, there is a positive atmosphere with regards to...

No one knows how the Egyptian opposition makes decisions or exactly what its leaders want. They apparently decided to remain on the streets while participating in the referendum at...

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, yesterday called for an emergency Arab summit to rescue the Palestinian Authority from financial distress which he said had left it...

I'm writing from Finland this week, where the omnipresence of snow and festive Christmas lights heralds another celebration of the birth of Jesus. In parallel, the descendants of the...

The crisis did not begin when Israel decided to transfer the tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the Israeli Electricity Company instead, to pay for its...

There is a long history of struggle, domination by leftist Marxists, as well as recent disputes between the old guard and the outcomes of the revolution in Tunisia. The...

The Israel Lobby is flexing its muscles against Barack Obama's expected nominee to be the next Secretary of Defence. Frontrunner Chuck Hagel is co-chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence...

The plight of Palestinian detainees being held by Israel has an important place in the general framework of the Palestinian national cause because it has affected a huge number...

The Syrian crisis marks not only one of the bloodiest modern revolutions, but also one of the most blatant humanitarian failures for the international community.  The Syrian Observatory for...