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November 22, 2024
 

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David Hirst
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2003
'Israelization' of U.S. Middle East policy proceeds apace
BEIRUT -- Few disputed at the time that Israel was a factor that pushed U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war on Iraq. Just how much weight it had among all the other factors was the only controversial question. But what is clear, six months on, is that Israel is now a very important one indeed...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2003
Few know but many fear where the U.S. 'road map' leads
BEIRUT -- By the summer of 2002, U.S. President George Bush had firmly set his new course: "regime change" and reform in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and, where necessary, American military intervention to achieve it.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2003
The identity of the Arab world
DAMASCUS -- Fadil Shururu, chief political officer of Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, has come a long way since I first met him 35 years ago in Jordan's Ghor Valley, seedbed of the newborn guerrilla movement that was to liberate the whole of the Palestinian...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2003
Arab 'democrats' vie against nationalists in wake of Iraq war
BEIRUT -- Ever since the Anglo-American armies went to war against Iraq, the Arabs have been wondering whether the conquest of one of their major states will lead to success or the most catastrophic of failures. Can the Americans really make Iraq into a platform for a strategic, economic and cultural...
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2003
Blasts send message to Riyadh
BEIRUT -- Such a spectacular al-Qaeda-style exploit might have come as no great surprise to moderate Saudi Islamists familiar with the thinking of the extremists in their midst. The Iraq war brought anti-American sentiments in the kingdom to new heights and increased the determination of militants to...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003
War fuels Saudi fears and anger
RIYADH -- You won't find the newly published "Hatred's Kingdom" in any Saudi bookshop, but it is in such demand among high officials that the government has brought out a reprint of its own. Its author is Dore Gold, a hardline Israeli spokesman. According to him, the "hatred" in question is rooted in...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2003
What Arabs fear the most: aftermath of a war on Iraq
BEIRUT -- All Arabs, regimes and citizens agree on one thing: War on Iraq may affect the entire world, but they and their region will pay the highest price by far.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2002
For Arabs, a year of growing darkness
CAIRO -- There is no better place to take the pulse of Arab and Muslim sentiment than Cairo, pioneer or hub of the two great movements that have swept the region in recent times: the pan-Arab secular nationalism of which President Gamal Nasser was the champion and the "political Islam" that came into...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2002
Palestinian reform paradox
BEIRUT -- Following the hammer blows of the Palestinian intifada and Israeli repression, Palestinian reforms are the great new prescription for Middle East peacemaking, which is to be directed by an international conference.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2002
America's own 'rogue state'
BEIRUT -- Since the Taliban's defeat in Afghanistan, the United States has been focusing on that long-standing "rogue state" and newly anointed member of the "axis of evil," President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, as the next target of its "war on terror."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2002
Explosive issues dominate Arab summit
BEIRUT -- Arab summits may deal with any matter of common concern to the 22 member states of the "Arab Nation." The matter may be "ordinary" or "emergency," but in practice the more or less permanent emergency of Palestine has furnished 90 percent of their resolutions. Only occasionally have other issues...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2002
No alternative to Saudi peace 'vision'
BEIRUT -- There is little new about Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's proposal for full Arab "normalization" with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestine state. A vision more than a plan, it leaves vague or unmentioned potential stumbling...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2002
Siege of Arafat set to weaken Sharon, defeat peace hopes
BEIRUT -- It has been three months since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon laid siege to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters. Physically, his position remains dire. An Israeli tank is stationed a mere 70 meters away.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2002
Israel may push U.S. to deal with Iran
BEIRUT -- As America's campaign in Afghanistan winds down, who the next target will be in the promised "phase two" of the "war on terror" remains firmly in the realm of conjecture. Speculation has focused most intensely on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein himself. Yet, if Israel gets its way, Iran could...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2002
Arab nations leaving Palestinians to face Israel alone
BEIRUT -- There has always been a vital Arab dimension to the Palestinian struggle. For a long period, in fact, the Arabs bore the brunt of the struggle, waging four, mainly disastrous, wars, in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, with little or no Palestinian participation in them.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2001
Arafat losing his grasp on leadership
BEIRUT -- The closer Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat gets to the fulfillment of his long-standing dream of establishing a Palestinian state, the more his plans seem to go awry. Now holed up in Ramallah, just 10 km from the holy city, his chances of ever entering it look their bleakest ever....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2001
Egypt: a mirror of what is wrong with U.S.-Arab relations
CAIRO -- In a workshop in the Khan Khalil bazaar in the heart of medieval Cairo, Atef Hamid unwraps three beautifully crafted copper plates, each with designs taken from ancient and famous mosques, on which his grandfather has been laboring.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2001
For many Arab regimes, the 'war on terror' begins at home
BEIRUT -- The United States has long divided Arab regimes into two broad categories: the friendly, pro-Western "moderate" ones and the less friendly, "radical" ones. Since Sept. 11, two key "moderates' -- Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- have undergone a drastic change of status in American eyes. Only arch-villain...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001
Emigration: a Kurdish national obsession
On the face of it, the Sheikhallah bazaar is just the shabby little side street in downtown Erbil where you go to change money. But the whole of "liberated" Iraqi Kurdistan knows that another, more serious business is conducted behind those counters piled high with debased Iraqi bank notes.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001
Ten years after the Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds struggle to build a 'liberated' Kurdistan
SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq -- The Kurds have a national flag of their own. The tricolor of red, green and white, with a sun at its center, is the emblem of a people who, numbering 40 million, are the Middle East's fourth-largest ethnic group.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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