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Conflict in the Middle East

 

Conflict has become an increasingly common feature of the contemporary Middle East for a variety of geo-strategic, political and historical reasons. This section explores a variety of unorthodox ideas for mitigating conflict and building bridges in the region.

 

Wisdom, not intelligence

February 2008 – Britain needs political wisdom more than the intelligence services to prevent terrorism on its shores. Read on

 

Glimmers of hope

February 2008 – Palestinian and Israeli peace activists have joined forces to demand the lifting of the Gaza blockade. Could such joint action offer a glimmer of hope for the future? Read on

 

A civil solution

December 2007 – If the Annapolis peace conference fails, then Palestinians should abandon their national struggle and demand their civil rights. Read on

 

                                                        

After Annapolis… the burden of proof

Tom Kenis

December 2007 – A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still possible, but time is running out. Read on

 

The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

November 2007 – This year’s debate will consider the question of whether Israeli intransigence is at the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read on

 

Middle Eastern cult heroes

October 2007 – With political disillusionment at an all-time high, a certain brand of hardline Middle Eastern leader is being elevated to the status of cult hero. Read on

 

A perfect spy 

October 2007 – An ageing billionaire falls to his death in Mayfair. Vital evidence disappears. The latest Le Carré novel? No, a real life Middle Eastern spy thriller. Read on

 

Darfur: fighting fire with water

September 2007 – There is no military solution for the Darfur conflict – but peace may be achieved by better management of the region's dwindling natural resources. Read on

 

The art of peace

September 2007 – It is time for Arabs to come out of their trenches and explore the no-man's-land of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Read on

 

The art of peace (2)

September 2007 – Last week, I invited Arabs to come out of their trenches and explore the no-man’s-land of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Now it’s the turn of the Israelis. Read on

 

Uri Avnery v Khaled Diab –

One state or two?

July 2007 – Could a ‘one-state’ solution end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Read on

 

The other right of return

July 2007 – Palestinians have not been the Middle East's only victims. We Arabs should recall the many Jews who paid the price for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Read on

 

Small bombs, big trouble

Katleen Maes

June 2007 – There are renewed hopes of an international treaty on cluster munitions – although the only way forward is to ban them. Read on

 

A war on error

June 2007 – It is time to dispel the myths surrounding Muslims – namely, that we are all terrorist anti-feminist teetotallers. Read on

 

A war on error (2)

June 2007 – It is time to dispel the myths that conservative Muslims often propagate about 'the west'. Read on

 

Without a road map –
Travels in Israel and Palestine

May 2007 – Khaled Diab travelled through Israel and Palestine on his own personal peace mission. Read about his ‘Without a road map’ tour here.

 

A better weapon

May 2007 – Palestinians are beginning to discover the value of non-violent resistance. Read on

 
Pint-sized peace

May 2007 – Boozing for a good cause in Jerusalem, that unholiest of holy cities, has a wonderful irony to it. Read on

 
Behind the ‘Zion curtain’

May 2007 – Just as Arabs do not realise just how 'Middle Eastern' Israelis are, Israelis don't realise how 'western' millions of Arabs are. Read on

 

Arab League should enter uncharted territory with Israel
April 2007 – The Arab League’s reaffirmation of the Saudi Peace Plan is a good step in the right direction, and the Israelis should seize the opportunity it offers. The Arabs can boost the prospect for peace by recognising Israel now. Read on and Readers’ reactions
 
Madrid for the people

February 2007 – Some 15 years after the Madrid conference which launched the now defunct Israeli-Palestinian peace process, former statesmen and stateswomen from both sides got together to try to revive the quest for peace. What we now need is to complement this crème-de-la-crème peacemaking with a gritty ‘Madrid for the people’, Khaled Diab argues in a letter to former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, one of the figures who spearheaded the initiative. Read on

 

Arabs and Israelis held hostage by a common enemy

February 2007 – Salom Now! And METalks are two experimental initiatives which sought to rewrite the script of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and give ordinary people a starring role in the quest for peace. Those involved experienced profound changes to their outlook and took the first steps towards forging a new, more inclusive narrative for the Middle East. However, such popular, grassroots action is held hostage by some common enemies: despair, hatred, antipathy and distrust.

 

Part I – War and elusive peace

Part II – Talking under fire

Part III – Dangerous liaisons

Part IV – Constructive ideas

Part V – Let’s talk about you and ME

Part VI – Terrorised by a common enemy

Part VII – Existential angst

Part VIII – Moving forward

 

Exchange of friendly fire

February 2007 – Anat el-Hashahar, an Israeli and founder of METalks, debates the Arab-Israeli conflict – from Oslo to Lebanon – with Khaled Diab, an Egyptian journalist and writer. Read on

 

No defeating hate

February 2007 – Marina Werbeloff gives her opinion on the METalks experiment. Read on

 

Saddam Hussein:

In desperate pursuit of a hero

January 2007 – The US-UK occupation of Iraq is succeeding in achieving the once implausible feat of turning a reviled dictator into something of a cult hero. This demonstrates the utter failure of the Anglo-Saxon military adventure there. It also reveals the desperate need in some Arab quarters to find a hero amongst the villains who pass for leaders in the region and to salvage some pride amidst all the humiliation and defeat.

 

Part I – Anti-heroics and wishful thinking

Part II – Champion or villain of the Arab cause?

Part III – The dead don’t talk

Part IV – Emulating history

 

Madrid II: towards a civil peace in the Middle East

November 2006 – Prompted by the dire situation in Gaza, Spain, France and Italy have floated an unexpected Middle East peace drive. This initiative will almost certainly join other similar aborted road maps and peace plans slowly decaying in the graveyard of international diplomacy. What the EU needs to do is to abandon the deadlocked political level and organise a high-profile Madrid II conference targeted at civil society to set in motion a ‘people’s peace process’. Read on

 

How I learned to start worrying and hate the bomb

November 2006 – With North Korea’s recent nuclear test and Iran’s suspected nuclear designs, Khaled Diab explains why he learned to start worrying and hate the bomb and suggests how the proliferation of nuclear weapons can best be arrested – and reversed. Read on

 

Give ‘salom’ a chance

September 2006 – The best lessons to draw from Lebanon and Gaza are that all sides lost the battle and the only way for everyone to win the war is through peaceful means. Politicians have shown a lack of imagination and willpower and so it is up to ordinary Arabs and Israelis to lead them down the path to salam/shalom (peace). It is high time to demand Salom Now! Read on
 
Using a carrot and stick for peace

September 2006 – Given the fragile situation in Lebanon, the pledge by EU member states to provide troops to police the UN-backed ceasefire was well-timed. However, to avoid a fresh crisis from erupting, Europe will have to aid efforts to forge lasting peace in the Middle East. Read on

 

Salom now!

Mobilising the untapped power of Arab and Israeli peaceniks

August 2006 – Arabs and Israelis have a common way of greeting people and it is to wish them ‘peace’. As advocates of violent solutions chalk up another victory in the Middle East and the international community fails the test again in Lebanon and Gaza, the time has come for Arab and Israeli citizens to join forces in a broad-based regional coalition to work towards salam/shalom… now. Read on

 

We would like to hear your views on the ‘Salom Now!’ idea. Drop us a line at diabolic_digest@skynet.be

 

Crisis in Lebanon and Gaza –

From complete failure to comprehensive solutions

July 2006 – Israel’s massive onslaught against Lebanon – and before that Gaza – reveals a monumental failure on the part of the international community to prevent an avoidable tragedy. Now it is up to the European Union to avoid a replay of 1982 and revive the idea of a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Read on

 

Getting to the grassroots of the Middle East conflict

By Khaled Diab and Katleen Maes

April 2006 – The new Kadima party’s election victory in Israel looks set to continue the comatose Ariel Sharon’s bid to impose a unilateral solution on the Palestinians. The evacuation of settlements is setting in motion a new and potentially positive dynamic, but continued one-sidedness could cause the situation to slip back into deadlock as usual. Israelis and Palestinians need to recognise that they have no political shepherds to guide them through the valley of the shadow of conflict. Ordinary people must seize the initiative from the political classes who lack the imagination and courage to make peace.

 

Part I: Getting to the grassroots of the Middle East conflict

Part II: The end of the road for unilateralism?

 

The EU’s new Palestine dilemma

February 2006 – It may be better for the EU to provide more carrots and fewer sticks for Hamas, writes Khaled Diab. Read on

 

Time to rethink the EU’s role in the Middle East

January 2005 – If Yasser Arafat’s death is to signify anything more than the symbolic start of a new era, the European Union must radically rethink its role as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to persuade the two peoples to work towards a new dawn. Read on

 

Commission wants closer EU-Israeli ties

January 2005 – The European Commission and the EU’s former envoy to the Middle East have both come out in favour of enhancing economic and political ties with Israel. But critics question the wisdom of extending a policy of good neighbourhood to a country that has done little to make the neighbourhood a safer place to live. Read on

 

Raising a new olive branch

December 2004 – Following the loss of Yasser Arafat – for decades, the international face of the Palestinian struggle for statehood – it is time for the Palestinians to rethink radically how they defend their cause. Read on

 

Taking up peace, putting down arms

September 2004 – Sistani won his peaceful protest in Najaf. But Gandhian methods in the Middle East must substitute rather than supplement violence, writes Brian Whitaker. Read on

 

Gaza for the Gazans

August 2004 – The latest Egyptian diplomatic initiative to revive the peace process is sustained by a belief that the art of the possible will pave the way for the wishful. However, an Egyptian presence in the Gaza Strip will not expedite peace and may have dire long-term consequences. Read on

 

Why set menus for Middle East peace do not work

By Katleen Maes

May 2004 – “Why all the fuss?” was the question recently asked on the pages of the Globe and Mail, a liberal Canadian daily, regarding US President George Bush’s support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s latest unilateral blow to prospects for peace in the Middle East. Read on

 

Alternative peace plan for Middle East ‘should be put to the people’

Katleen Maes and Khaled Diab

February 2004 – THE Middle East peace juggernaut stalled before taking the first turn along the EU-backed road-map. But prominent European politicians came out recently in favour of an alternative peace plan. Despite the ongoing cycle of violence and political inertia, Israelis and Palestinians are embracing other avenues to peace – and the EU should aid them in their quest. Read on

 

Peace and its alternatives

Katleen Maes and Khaled Diab

February 2004 – As prominent European politicians come out in favour of an alternative Middle East peace plan, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has embarked on a European tour to jumpstart the ailing Quartet-backed Road Map. Read on

 

EU sticks with Middle East road map amid uncertainty

November 2002 – The collapse of Israel’s ‘national unity’ government, following the exit of the Labour Party, has sparked fears in EU corridors that a hardening of Israeli politics could further endanger the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the two-year-old bloody conflict with the Palestinians. Read on

 

Peace activists to join forces

June 2002 – Israeli and Palestinian civil society should not count on their deadlocked politicians to deliver peace and must join forces to mobilise grassroots support for a peaceful resolution to the violent conflict in the Middle East, peace activists from both sides agreed at a meeting in Brussels this week. Read on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ã2006 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is the copyright of Khaled Diab.