OPINION
| America’s Woes |
| President Barack Obama’s departure for his first trip to Asia as president was delayed by a day to allow him to attend the memorial service for victims of the Fort Hood massacre. The delay symbolised well the tension between America’s two destinies. |
| The Wet Side of the Moon |
| Picture a habitat atop a hill in warm sunlight on the edge of a crater near the south pole of the Moon. There are metal ores in the rocks nearby and water ice in the shadows of the crater below. |
| Two Smart Guys Trying to Figure it All Out |
| They’re up against it now, the two of them. They looked over the precipice and gasped at the steepness of the drop. They looked down at a desert of dashed hopes and old skeletons, scraping the bottom of the canyon. Yes, this is where a failed US-China relationship might wind up. |
| Palestine After Abbas? |
| A political leader’s decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, President Mahmoud Abbas’s withdrawal from the presidential election scheduled for January 24, 2010, has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine—not because of a dearth of leadership or a reluctance to mention possible successors, but because the presidency of the Palestinian Authority has become irrelevant. |
| Malaysia Battles On |
| The Shariah authorities in the Malaysian state of Selangor have charged the former Mufti of Perlis, Dr. Mohammed Asri Zainul Abidin, of preaching Islam without a permit to do so. |
| Of Crimes and Punishments in the Modern Age |
| I am fully aware that the penalty of lashing is a very sensitive issue for most people. Nevertheless, as one who seeks to uphold the law every day and who has great respect for Islam and loyalty to my country, I am compelled to speak because the image of Saudi Arabia was profoundly affected recently by a decision of one of our courts. |
| The Minus-One Brigade |
| A week is indeed a long time in politics. Just last week the get-Zardari campaign was in full swing. Media gladiators and assorted prophets were convinced that he had to go. Indeed that his departure was inevitable. They only differed about the timing. |
| US, China: Equals at Last, for Better or for Worse |
| While no breakthroughs came out of the Barack Obama-Hu Jintao summit meeting, the U.S. president’s maiden trip to China will go down in history as a pivotal event in the relations between the two most powerful countries of the 21st century. |
| Israel’s Endless Fear of Demographic Demon |
| When the TV news starts with a murder, people are relieved. This means that no war has broken out, no suicide bomb has exploded, no Qassam rocket has been launched at Sderot. Ahmadinejad has not test-fired a new missile that can reach Tel Aviv. Just another murder. |
| Peace Without Dialogue? Impossible |
| There aren’t too many English-language journalists who have covered Arab Jerusalem as I have for In Jerusalem in recent years—reporting on everything from a home in Anata built and demolished four times and now facing a fifth demolition order, to the first shopping mall along east Jerusalem’s main street Salah a-Din Street which received a building permit after 42 years of bureaucracy; from the al-Mamal Foundation for Contemporary Art inside the New Gate, to a conference on Palestinian refugees at al-Quds University in Abu Dis. These are all stories I have reported in an objective manner. |
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