A decade ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) shone a spotlight on the sorry state of education in the Arab world with its inaugural Arab Human Development Report in 2002, and its 2003 follow-on report, “Building a Knowledge Society.” The reports’ statistics still shock: in one year, Spain translates the same number of More »

Children building snowmen and palm trees sprinkled with snowflakes were just some of the many pictures that filtered through my Facebook news feed last week when Jerusalem experienced its heaviest snowfall in more than 20 years. As I clicked on photo after photo of the snow-covered holy city and its surrounding white-laced hilltops, I was More »

Last night, Palestinians cheered their new United Nations status. In Ramallah, the headquarters of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, thousands gathered in a central square to hear Abbas speak and wait for the results of the General Assembly vote. Many were excited for the new recognition, and some were confused about the meaning of More »

On November 29, ‘Palestine’ was recognized as a State by the U.N. General Assembly, albeit as an observer rather than a full member. A total of 138 countries voted in favor, with nine voting against and 41 abstaining. Exasperated by the failure of two decades of sporadic and mainly U.S.-mediated peace negotiations, and the continued More »

As U.S. President Barack Obama approaches the beginning of his second term, experts caution that his Administration must radically rethink its strategy to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal or risk seeing its stated goal of a two-state solution slip away. Such was the conclusion of a Washington symposium organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International More »

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed a Palestinian Authority bid to upgrade its status of “non-member observer entity” to that of a “non-member observer state.” The Palestinians sought the upgrade despite stiff opposition from Israel and the United States. Both countries have insisted that the move will not advance peace or change More »

-        There has been a shooting at the border separating Israel and the Gaza Strip -        Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi gives himself almost total power -        Increasing pressure on China to help end the violence in More »

- The truce between Israel and the main force in the Gaza Strip seems to be holding - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations defends herself on what she knew about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi - Syrian rebels take control of a key military base in eastern More »

Israel and Hamas on Wednesday agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt on the eighth day of violent conflict between the two parties in the Gaza Strip.   Israel has agreed to stop all hostilities, whether by land, sea or air, and has pledged not to target individuals or undertake any kind of military incursions More »

Three Middle Eastern countries , Iran, Turkey and Egypt, play a decisive role in the current Israel-Hamas round of hostilities.  These three countries do not usually hold much in common insofar as their foreign policy is concerned – or at least not until recently. So, what is it that binds them together over the More »

- Air raids continue in Gaza, although an Israeli ground operation is “on hold” - Obama sends Clinton to the Middle East for talks on a truce - The Kurdish insurgency faces a crossroads - Critics of Jordan’s king bemoan possible missed More »

-  Hamas militants in the Gaza strip continue to fire rockets into Israel and the Israeli military continues its relentless counter attack -  NATO says it might provide military assistance to Turkey… if it asks… to defend against rocket attacks from Syria -  And an increase in stability in parts of the Middle East is translating More »

The escalating violence between Israel and Gaza should remind us of old lessons that still need to be learned and new realities to which attention must now be paid. First and foremost among the old lessons is the fact that the successive waves of violence that have characterized the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have More »

The fighting between Israel and Hamas has escalated. Hamas rocket barrages are targeted the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon along with areas as far south as Dimona (seventy-five kilometers from Gaza and home to Israel’s nuclear reactor). In all, 274 rockets have been fired at Israel so far, reportedly including a longer-range Fajr-5 More »

As fighting in Gaza continues, reactions from major world powers have little to do with mediation – all while Iran seems to be benefiting the most from the current escalation. From Washington to Moscow, everyone was counting on Egyptian diplomacy to end the current bout. China remains ‘concerned’ about the developments and many are stressing, More »

After nearly a month of low-level fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, the situation erupted into a fully-fledged conflict on November 14, following the death of Ahmed Jabari, military chief of the Islamic Hamas movement, in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, and other militant groups responded More »

The conventional wisdom is that American presidents who win a second term are less bound by domestic electoral considerations that may impose constraints on their foreign policy. But in his second term, President Barack Obama is unlikely to take any bold initiatives in the Middle East. Indeed, he is far more likely not only More »

While Americans have been focusing on their election, there have been a few developments in the so-called “Middle East Peace Process.” PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said he would drop his precondition for negotiations – a total construction halt in the settlements and in East Jerusalem – and return to the table after the U.N. More »

With President Barack Obama’s re-election, many people across the Middle East are contemplating what this region might expect from his second term. Over the next four years, Obama will likely continue the policy directions set in his first term: by completing the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, for example, and reaching out to global players like More »