Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh
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The meeting between Abbas and Gantz was shameful
Why was anyone astonished when Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the “sacred” security collaboration Palestinian Authority, met with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz? After all, the bottom line is that Abbas’s loyalty lies with Israel, not the people of Palestine. Didn’t he announce proudly that he meets monthly with...
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The Arab world seeks internal disputes rather than confrontation with its enemies
As if the domestic issues facing the Arab world are not enough, we seem to need more crises and tension between regional states. An old-new crisis in north-west Africa has risen yet again; the Algerian government has decided to cut diplomatic relations with Morocco, and justified this by citing...
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The Taliban victory has seen Arab conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork
They don’t want an Islamic group to achieve any victory, let alone a victory over the most powerful country in the world. Hence, the conspiracy theorists, most of whom are Arab “liberals”, came out of the woodwork when the Taliban triumphed over the US. Such “liberals” cannot tolerate Islam...
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The Taliban has triumphed and exposed the US as a colonial entity
The fighters of the Taliban movement have taught the submissive Arab leaders an important lesson about dignity and pride: that the US Qibla to which they direct their devotion is not an inevitability; that it is not a requirement for success in this life. The Taliban has also exposed...
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A loaf for living, not just a loaf of bread
Egyptians are unique in that they call the loaf of bread a ‘loaf for living’, as it goes beyond being a commodity to eat and is the pillar of life and existence. There is an Egyptian saying that goes, “those who target the livelihood of the poor will not...
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The final leaves of the Arab Spring have fallen
There is no doubt that the coup led by President Kais Saied in Tunisia has caused a major tremor in Arab societies yearning for freedom and democracy. They could smell the aroma of freedom from the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring. Tunisia gave them...
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What fate awaits Lebanon?
Lebanon’s Saad Hariri has finally apologised for only forming the government nine months after President Michel Aoun tasked him with this mission. However, Aoun rejected the ministers proposed by Hariri, especially when it came to selecting Christians, which the president regards as his speciality. Aoun also wants to keep a...
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Twenty years on from 9/11, the Taliban returns to the forefront in Afghanistan
Twenty years have passed since the US invasion of Afghanistan, President George W Bush’s response to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, the responsibility for which was laid at the door of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Bush accused the Taliban government in Kabul...
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Since when has the UN Security Council supported Arab issues?
Egypt resorted to the UN Security Council to solve the problem of the Renaissance Dam after it had exhausted all its efforts in futile negotiations that did nothing. As Dr Mohamed Nasr Eldin Allam, the former minister of irrigation, said: “Egypt did not stand against the Renaissance Dam. Egypt...
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Egypt’s antiquities are a pawn in the Ethiopia dam crisis
Nearly two centuries ago, the Egyptian state began giving attention to Pharaonic antiquities, preserving them in a museum and presenting them to the Egyptian people, as the Europeans used to do. On 29 June 1835, the ruler of Egypt at the time, Muhammad Ali Pasha, issued a decree establishing...
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The puppet authority is killing the Palestinians
Nizar Banat was not the first victim of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority who believes that security coordination with the Israeli enemy is “sacred”; nor will he be the last as long as this puppet authority continues to burden and control the Palestinians. This is the...
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When will the Palestinians unite?
One vote was enough to overthrow “King Bibi”, who ruled over Israel for twelve consecutive years, and three more before that. He was prime minister for 15 years altogether, longer than anyone else in the post. Not even Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, did that. Benjamin Netanyahu was removed from...
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The never-ending reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah
The reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah have become futile; boring get-togethers that have lasted for more than ten years. They have got to the stage where the negotiations themselves have become the goal; negotiations for the sake of negotiations. It is a game at which both sides excel,...
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Has the Sword of Jerusalem uprising slain Netanyahu?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a viable coalition government and so was forced to call the fourth election in under two years, which was held in March. Another stalemate resulted, not least because the other right-wing parties don’t want him to stay in his position. This...
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The Palestinian resistance is the pride of the Ummah
As soon as Israel’s latest military offensive ended, and our foes witnessed the victory of the resistance and defeat of the occupation state, the political and media attack on Hamas began. When the head of the movement’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, thanked Iran for its support for the resistance,...
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The battle for Jerusalem has humiliated Israel and its Arab Zionist supporters
Nuclear-armed Israel, and its army equipped with the latest weaponry, has been defeated. It’s much-vaunted and hugely expensive “Iron Dome” missile defence system failed in the face of rockets fired by the Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip. The result was that the rockets could reach all...
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The missiles of the Palestinian resistance throw the enemy off balance
This year’s 73rd anniversary of the Nakba was not marked with sadness, bitterness and grief over the loss of the land, as it was in the past, but rather with joy despite the pain, and pride despite the bitterness. It has spread hope amongst the people about the restoration...
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Palestine will not be the same after another Aqsa Intifada
Coinciding with the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba (Catastrophe) and the theft of Palestine, the Zionist state of Israel continues to usurp what is left of the historic land and erase the Islamic and Arab identity of Jerusalem by Judaising it. In an effort to unify West and East...
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Abbas has climbed down on holding the Palestinian elections, as usual
I was one of the first to predict that the Palestinian elections will not take place, from the moment that Mahmoud Abbas, the president of security coordination with the occupation, decreed their dates. That was my belief then, and it remains so now because I am aware of his...
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They can try to sell us a fake history, but we stand witness to the truth
It is said that history is written by the victors, but when do they write it? In the heat of the moment while the witnesses are still alive? Or after they have died? We have suffered for a long time from fake stories and false narratives told to us and...
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Deir Yassin must never be forgotten
Have our special days just become painful memories that we relive every year? Such days within the past few weeks were some that will not be forgotten or erased from the memory of the Palestinians, nor should they be erased from the memory of every Arab worthy of the...
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Is the Nile still king in Egypt?
In the 5th century BC, the great historian and traveller Herodotus said that Egypt is the gift of the River Nile. Four hundred years later the Roman poet Tibullus venerated the Nile, saying: “Along thy bank, not any prayer is made to Jove for fruitful showers. On thee, they...
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Israel is taking advantage of the Suez Canal accident to push its alternatives
There has been a lot of anxiety due to the closure of the Suez Canal caused by the giant container ship MV Ever Given running aground and blocking the waterway, leaving up to 400 other vessels in a queue to pass through. The cost to global trade has been...
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Who can forget Bin Salman’s pride at launching his war on Yemen?
I cannot forget the sight of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman standing in the Ministry of Defence command room in Saudi Arabia on 25 March 2015 and, as proud as a peacock, announcing the creation of an Arab coalition led by the Kingdom to restore legitimacy in Yemen...