In Lebanon and Beyond: Could the Arab League be on the Verge of Resurgence?

June 4, 2008 – 3:35 pm

Arab League-bashing is a favorite past time of the Arab masses. There is, at best, a sense of resignation that the Arab League is an institution that has failed miserably in resolving the conflicts engulfing our region.

The last annual summit of Arab Heads of states in Damascus, in March this year, was met with a chorus of apathy on the streets of Amman, Cairo, Casablanca, Gaza and every other corner of the Arab world. The only thing that seems to get people to turn on their TV sets is the perennial (and always entertaining) Gaddafi speech, with the average Arab viewer wondering just how far the Colonel will go in his latest oration.

It is difficult to blame the Arabs for deriding their league. The seeming impotence of the Arab League in the face of adversity is quite legendary. As the situation in Palestine, especially Gaza, deteriorates, as the cruel civil war wages in Iraq (not to mention the illegal invasion that sparked it), as the Darfur situation worsens, the Arab league stands totally powerless. And this is just a snapshot of the current crop of crises in Arabia. The history of the last six decades since the founding of the League in 1945 is deluged with examples of the Arab League’s inefficiency and incapacity to resolve any of the major issues facing the region.

But then, in the midst of all this inaction, we woke up one morning last week to the sight of a truly extraordinary and improbable achievement: a real Arab League success. The Arab League’s success in brokering an agreement between the endlessly feuding Lebanese factions is a major triumph of unprecedented caliber. Of course, particular credit is due to the Qatari Government and the few Arab Foreign Ministers who devoted their time and energy towards the attainment of this goal in the period leading up to the agreement. But it was the institution of the Arab League that made this entire effort possible and, despite all our instincts to disbelieve, we should all recognize that.

The success is particularly laudable in light of the initial inability of the Arab League to put a meeting together quickly enough to respond to the surge of violence in Lebanon that started earlier this month. When the decisions of the Lebanese government to dismantle the telecommunications network of Hezbollah and to remove the security chief of Beirut airport unleashed an unprecedented reaction by Hezbollah on the streets of Beirut, it took the Arab League almost a week to get the Foreign Ministers of its members to meet.

When the Foreign Ministers finally managed to congregate, most Arabs didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in current affairs, lebanon, politics | Comments (1)

The Mindless Menace of Violence in the Muslim World

December 29, 2007 – 8:26 am

One more act of senseless violence greets us in the Muslim world this week. One more suicide bomber or assassin, or whatever we can call them these days, kills others and himself in a moment of premeditated madness.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is tragic. There can be no doubt about that. But what shocks me today, as I am shocked on a daily basis with the stream of murders and suicides in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and so many other countries is this nagging question: Where on earth do they find them?? Where on earth do the plotters and schemers find so many willing men and women of young age to mould into their insane vision of the world? How did those who planned this latest act of violence stumble upon this latest specimen of misguided fervour and convince him (at least it seems to be a him at the time of writing) to go and end his life by assassinating a mother of three children. How did they get through to this guy? And more importantly, why is it so goddamn easy to find self-terminating assassins in our region?

(To read this article in full, please visit GlobalComment)

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in current affairs, islam, terrorism | Comments (0)

Reclaiming Islam in this Summer of Terror

August 31, 2005 – 11:38 am

“It’s good to be alive this morning,” my friend Firas wrote on MSN Messenger. It was the morning of July 23, 2005. The world had just woken up to news of the massive bombs in Sharm Al-Sheikh, a car bomb in the heart of the buzzing night life of Beirut, and various stories related to the hunt for the failed bombers in London. A month later, the news of death and destruction continue unabated, with the latest being a series of rocket attacks in Aqaba that killed a young Jordanian soldier, not to mention the sad monotony of the daily reports on the massacres in Iraq. The mad terrorists are on a roll this
summer, and they seem to be chasing every breath of life on planet earth. Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in current affairs, islam, terrorism | Comments (0)

The English Patient’s Fourth Hand

February 18, 2004 – 4:30 am

John Irving’s latest book “The Fourth Hand” is crap and he knows it! Irving must have realized that at some stage during the writing process because suddenly his two leading characters start exchanging accolades about another novel. It is as though Irving is saying “Damn it, if only this novel could be half as well written as that other book.” Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in arts and literature | Comments (0)

Towards a New Arab Movement

April 27, 2003 – 11:51 am

As the dust begins to settle on the American/British victory in Baghdad, it falls upon all Arabs now to reflect seriously on the future. I cannot provide accurate percentages, but it would be fair to say that an overwhelming majority of Arabs were against this war, to say the least. A sense of outrage was palpable across Arab society. And I am not talking only of the underprivileged or the disenfranchised. The outrage, despair and humiliation, as hundreds of thousands of bombs pounded Iraq, were equally felt by palace and ghetto dwellers. Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in current affairs, iraq | Comments (2)

Media Coverage of the Intifadah - the Logic of Power

March 30, 2001 – 11:52 am

I was watching an episode of “Diplomatic License” on CNN the other Sunday. It was hosting one of those supposedly fair and evenhanded discussions on the Palestinian Uprising (the “intifadah”).

Of course, each side was represented: on the right corner, you had the two debating champs representing the Israeli point of view, one of whom is the editor of one of the leading “current affairs” magazines in the US, and the other the head of one of the myriad Israeli lobbies. And for the Palestinian side, you had two protagonists (how admirably neutral of CNN): one was a spokesman for an Islamic organization that is as famous in the United States as the author of this article, and another who heads a Jerusalem Studies Centre that must have been established on the day on which “Diplomatic License” was recorded! And so the debate raged on and on.

Richard Roth, the program’s presenter and debate arbitrator par excellence, presided over the proceedings and portrayed an image of utmost impartiality. Equal time was given to each side to air its views, Richard acted graciously, both sides raised their issues, and the program concluded with a quote from Kofi Annan’s speech before the recent Arab Summit in Amman. Kofi Annan, god bless him, was of course a picture of justice and righteousness. His quote had something for both sides - yes, the Arabs had every right to be miffed by the continued occupation of Palestinian territories, but Israelis had a right to worry for their security.

On the other side of the world, on the same day, Slobodan Milosevic was being arrested. Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in current affairs, palestine | Comments (1)

The Arab Free Trade Zone - The Arab World’s Best Kept Secret!

January 1, 2000 – 4:40 am

Call me old fashioned, but I believe in Arab unity. Yes, I know all the counter-arguments that are the norm these days in every dinner party in every corner of the Arab world. Arab unity, many “pragmatist” Arabs love to proclaim, is just a dream that was shattered by the failure of the Pan-Arab project in the 1950’s and 1960’s, culminating in the defeat of 1967, and, more recently, by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. here are a multitude of responses that can be made to such claims. I can point out that Arab unity is not some fancy idea that blows in the direction of every passing political event; it is an issue of identity rooted in language and history, two of the most important constituents of nationhood. But, more importantly, the pitch for Arab Unity in the 21st century must be economic. Read More »

Nasser Ali Khasawneh. By Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Nasser Ali Khasawneh graduated in law from Oxford University, and holds a Masters in Law degree from University College at the University of London.
Posted in business world | Comments (0)