The Middle East articles from February 2008

The Middle East archives from February 2008

Comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2008... HE CAME, HE saw, he walked away with a shed load of contracts that will put more than $20bn into the coffers of American arms manufacturers. What is left to say about President George Bush? If his visit to the region had not come six or...

Climate conflicts: oil, money, land--the opportunities for argument in the volatile Middle East region are myriad. But it is water and the results of global warming that present the region with its greatest potential hazard over the coming decades.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As if the violence-plagued Middle East did not have enough to worry about, proponents of tough legislation against greenhouse gas emissions warn that global warming could lead to even greater instability in the...

Dubya's mission impossible: described by Israel as its staunchest ally, President George 'Dubya' Bush waited seven years before his first official visit to the Jewish State.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COMMENTING ON THE American leader's week long tour of the Middle East analysts agreed on one thing: it was not clear what he would bring his hosts apart from gridlock. Parties in the troubled region had different...

Upping the ante: Israel has threatened to launch an all-out invasion of the Gaza Strip if the violence against its border towns continues. There seems a fair chance Hamas and Fatah will join forces to fight the invading Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) troops if that happens. The prospects for peace, despite the fine rhetoric of international politicians, do not look good, as Mel Frykberg reports from Gaza.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SDEROT, A WORKING-CLASS Israeli town of 22,000, has been battered by more than 4,500 crude Qassam rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, just a mile away, since 2001. A total of 970 rockets and 1,200 mortar shells...

US spy report averts threat against Iran.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... THE THREAT OF early military strikes by the United States and its allies against Iran to thwart its relentless pursuit of nuclear power has receded, giving way to the advancing prospect of a disastrous new cold war enveloping the Middle East....

Ankara claims success on PKK targets: after nearly a year of debate and manoeuvre, with a roar of warplanes and the thud of artillery Turkey finally launched its long-awaited offensive into neighbouring Northern Iraq in late 2007.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TARGETING LOCATIONS REPORTED to be bases of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the rugged and largely snowbound mountains of the border region, the Turkish military claimed hundreds of guerrillas killed and the PKK...

After Benazir ... The death late last year of the controversial Benazir Bhutto has been much debated. Milan Vesely reports from the United States on some of the likely causes and culprits behind her cowardly killing.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TAHE ASSASSINATION OF Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan on 27 December highlighted the disarray in America s foreign policy. And with President Bush stubbornly sticking to the old Ronald Reagan guideline of backing...

Ambivalence was never an option.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Biography)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BENAZIR BHUTTO WAS flawed but she was also courageous and committed to bringing change to Pakistan. Love her, or hate her, few successfully ignored her, writes Richard Seymour. Bhutto was born in Karachi in 1953...

Arab world: capitalizes on private equity.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Cover story)
February 1, 2008... IN THE GCC and other parts of the Middle East, private equity is expanding massively, as governments, corporations and individuals seek to maximise the returns on their growing wealth. Family-owned firms in the region are expected to benefit as...

Investments by GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds in Western Financial Institutions: May-December, 2007.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Table)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Investments by GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds in Western Financial Institutions May-December, 2007 AMOUNT HOLDING SWF FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ($ BN) ...

Sovereign wealth funds.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are closely this year at the prospect of investing yet more funds in western financial institutions, particularly those that have been adversely affected by the...

Arab private equity: a case study.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Case study)
February 1, 2008... WHEN TWO GIFTED and ambitions young men in Amman, Jordan, decided in 2005 that they needed finance and advice to expand their website business, a Bahrain-based private equity fund, Abraaj Capital, came on board to help. The result has been a...

MENA: region throws open its doors to business.
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A thriving business sector requires companies (ranging from large, medium and small enterprises) operating in the formal economy, which can more easily obtain bank credit. hire workers, trade with diverse partners...

Gaddafi's grand tour accelerates the pace.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Muammar Gaddafi)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LIBYAN LEADER COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi, swept through the major capitals of west Mediterranean Europe signing contracts and healing old wounds, receiving the political elite in a traditional Bedouin tent big enough...

Egypt embraces the age of renewables.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MOST DISCUSSION OF the Egyptian power sector focuses on the political battle over liberalisation and the replacement of oil with gas as a feedstock for thermal power plants. Yet the country is fast becoming the...

OPEC's $150bn upstream investments.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVEN WITHIN THE past 12 months, the possibility of the $100 barrel has been described as unlikely by analysts who were confident prices would fall towards $60 a barrel on the back of new field development. These same...

Will $7.5b.n really make a difference.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TWO MONTHS AFTER Annapolis and the launching of the new US-sponsored peace process for Israel and Palestine, the foundations of the "economic" road map, as well as its political outlines, are becoming clearer. Some...

Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza: poor & growing poorer.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a report issued by the Arab Monetary Fund in Abu Dhabi in January, the Arab League--which represents 22 Arab countries--cited Israel's refusal to transfer funds raised by taxes on Palestinians to the Palestinian...

Hope on the horizon: Mel Frykberg reports from the occupied territories.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CERTAIN PALESTINIAN BUSINESS sectors IN THE WEST BANK HAVE STARTED TO SLOWLY recover. "I believe the country is on the right track and I feel very optimistic for the future," Bassim Khoury, chairman of the...

Major donations to Palestine.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Table)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... MAJOR DONATIONS TO PALESTINE PARIS CONFERENCE, 17 DECEMBER, 2007 Saudi Arabia $750m over three years Past donations and aid European Union $650mover three years have suffered from Israeli United States $555m for 2008...

Making East Jerusalem "Jewish".(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALICE ROTHCHILD, THE US-based author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience, noted that while, "despite pronouncements to the contrary, every Israeli government...

Gaza faces medical crisis: Mel Frykberg reports from the occupied territories.(MOSAIC)
February 1, 2008... GAZA IS ON the brink of a medical disaster as the Israelis continue to tighten their siege of the strip. Hospitals have run out of many essential drugs and pharmaceuticals and other supplies are running chronically low. Insufficient amounts of...

Limbless in Gaza: the brown eyes of 14-year-old Assad look serious within his skinny frame. But the unsmiling face reflects trauma: two months ago, an Israeli tank shell exploded in Belt Hanoun, northern Gaza, where he and his friends were playing football. Seven of his close friends were killed and many injured.(MOSAIC)
February 1, 2008... ASSAD LOST AN arm and two legs, one below and one above the knee. He seems small within his new wheelchair, a tracksuit arm dangling empty at his side, and stumps still bandaged. "From the first day I refused treatment in an Israeli...

Hidden Afghanistan.(MOSAIC)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] WHEN ALL THE news about Afghanistan is of conflict and misery, it's heartening to hear something positive. "Poor Afghanistan" we mutter, suffering since the Russian invasion of 1979 and now the war between local...

Still smoking after all these years.(MOSAIC)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MILLIONS OF EGYPTIANS invoke the name of Cleopatra daily, offering money in exchange for packets bearing images of the queen. No, they're not members of a neo-Ptolemaic cult, only avid consumers of some of the...

The message stays the same: Pat McDonnell Twair reports from the US.(MOSAIC)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] WHILE WORLD LEADERS wring their hands and lament there is no solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, a generation that came of age around the onset of the second Intifada has found its own expression in a...

Playing Politics with Terrorism: A User's Guide.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PLAYING POLITICS WITH TERRORISM: A USER'S GUIDE Edited by George Kassimeris published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd ISBN: 978-1850658474 price 45.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Playing Politics with Terrorism: A...

Water Sheikhs & Dam Builders.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WATER SHEIKHS & DAM BUILDERS by Francesca de Chatel Published by Transaction Publishing ISBN 978-0-7658-0377-1 price $ 32.95 hardback In Water Sheikhs & Dam Builders Francesca de Chatel discusses the problems and...

The Scar of David.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE SCAR OF DAVID by Susan Abulhama Published by Journey Publications ISBN 978-0-9772078-8-6 price $28.95 hardback The Scar of David is fiction about a Palestinian family from the village of Ein Hod, which was...

The Middle East and North Africa 2008, 54th Edition.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 2008, 54TH EDITION Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 978-1857434316 price 385.00 [pounds sterling] hardback The Middle East and North Africa 2008 is internationally regarded as among the...

Swimming Up the Tigris.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SWIMMING UP THE TIGRIS by Barbara Nimri Aziz Published by University Press of Florida ISBN 978-0-8130-3144-6 price $24.95 hardback As Americans went about their daily lives in the 1990s, few could imagine what...

Poems from Guantanamo: the Detainees Speak.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] POEMS FROM GUANTANAMO: THE DETAINEES SPEAK Edited by Mark Falkoff published by University of Iowa Press ISBN 978-1-58729-606-2 price $13.95 hardback Mark Falkoff, who has represented 17 Yemeni prisoners at...

The last word.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I am not a politician but I know one thing. There is no military solution. We are blessed or cursed to live with each other... Even not very intelligent people are saying that the occupation has to be stopped." ...