Archives for May, 2014

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he arrives for a ceremony marking Memorial Day in Jerusalem May 4, 2014. Israel commemorates its fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, which begins Sunday night. REUTERS/Nir Elias (JERUSALEM - Tags: ANNIVERSARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3NQKA

Netanyahu, unscathed by peace talks collapse, finds new agenda

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launches a bill defining Israel as the Jewish homeland, composing a new public agenda after the collapse of diplomatic talks and the fading away of the Iranian issue.

Turkish press certified 'not free'

The latest Freedom House report on press freedom will likely contribute to further tension in Turkey.

A Turkish supporter of capital punishment holds a hanging rope as activists launch a petition campaign for its reinstitution in Ankara March 29, 2011. Public debate on the issue has been revived following a number of sexually motivated murders recently committed in the country which abolished the death penalty on January 15, 2003. The group also protests the reprieve given to Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) whose death penalty was approved by the appeals cou

Turkey's child murders revive death penalty debate

Despite the public outcry, it is unlikely that Turkey will reinstate capital punishment.

-PHOTO TAKEN 10JAN06- A general view of the Khagoo bridge on the Zayandeh-Rood river in Isfahan, 450 km (280 miles) south of [Tehran], January 10, 2006. Isfahan was designated 'Cultural Capital of the World of Islam' by the Organization of the Islamic Conference for 2006. PICTURE TAKEN JANUARY 10, 2006. - RTXO487

Iran sinks in water crisis

The Iranian government needs to find the balance between consumption and resources.

Members of the Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas movement take part in a parade marking the fifth anniversary of the three-week offensive Israel launched in 2008-2009, in Gaza City January 13, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY MILITARY) - RTX17CGC

Hamas sticks to its guns; Egypt could still surprise

The fate of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades could hold up the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas; Bassem Sabry’s last article for Al-Monitor anticipates surprises still to come in Egypt.

The chief of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Ahmad Jarba (C), the General Secretary of the Syrian National Council Bader Jamous (R) and member of the coalition Monzer Akbik (L) attend a meeting of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition forces on September 13, 2013, in Istanbul. AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

Week Ahead: Syrian opposition comes to Congress

A look at the Middle East issues Congress will be addressing the week of May 5.

An election campaign poster of Iraq's former prime minister Ayad Allawi is pictured in Baghdad April 3, 2014. Iraq's parliamentary election is scheduled for later this month. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3JUUI

Allawi: Even Syria interferes in Iraq’s elections

Iraqi politican Ayad Allawi spoke with Iran's IR Diplomacy about his complicated relationship with Iran.

'David the Nahlawi' sparks viral protest in Israel

The tremendous public protest generated by footage of a soldier cocking his firearm at a Palestinian youth is directed not at the IDF, but the political echelons.

A worker from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) walks amongst ballot boxes during a vote counting at an analysis centre in Kerbala, south of Baghdad May 2, 2014. Iraq held a democratic vote to choose a leader with no foreign troops present for the first time on Wednesday, as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to hold power for a third term in a country again consumed by sectarian bloodshed. The electoral commission said 60 percent of all voters had so far cast a ballot, according to

Iraqis defy terrorists to vote in elections

The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission is reporting a 59% voter turnout, despite the threats of violence.

A Palestinian farmer harvests barley on a farm near the border of southern Gaza Strip with Israel April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: AGRICULTURE) - RTR3MW43

Smuggling of banned pesticides a problem in Gaza

Misuse of pesticides in Gaza’s agricultural industry poses a dangerous risk to farmers and consumers of Gazan produce.

Palestinian Hamas militants carry a coffin containing the body of their fellow comrade Rami Meshmish during his funeral in the central Gaza Strip April 16, 2014. Meshmish and another fellow militant were killed in an accidental explosion on Wednesday, al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas movement, said in a statement. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3LJNS

Hamas won't give up military wing despite agreement

Fatah and Hamas have deferred discussion on the fate of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Iraqi women walk towards a poster depicting images of Shi'ite Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at al-Firdous Square in Baghdad February 12, 2014. An Iraqi daily newspaper stopped publishing after two bombs were planted in the entrance to its headquarters in Baghdad on Monday and after threats from an Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia. Editors and reporters at Assabah AlJadeed said they had received death threats from the influential Asaib al-Haq militia in response to what it had described as an "i

Iran not just focused on Maliki in Iraqi elections

The Iranian government expects to be well-positioned no matter who wins in Iraq’s elections.

A Palestinian man stands near a door and wall of a mosque which were vandalised in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya, near the Jewish settlement of Ariel January 15, 2014. The mosque in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank was partly set on fire on Wednesday, in what Palestinians residents said was an attack by Jewish settlers living nearby. The main gate of the mosque and some of the carpeting inside were charred by the flames. Graffiti in Hebrew, reading "Revenge for spilled blood" and "Arabs Ou

US terror report details 'price tag' violence by Israeli settlers

The State Department's annual report on terrorism includes acts of violence by Israeli settlers along with terrorism by Palestinians.

Volunteers work on the verification of election results at the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara April 1, 2014. Turkey's main opposition CHP party said on Monday it would appeal against municipal election results in the capital Ankara where it suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) on Sunday. The AKP won 44.8 percent of the vote in Ankara to the CHP's 43.9 percent, according to provisional results on Turkish televi

Turkey's opposition needs youth to challenge AKP

A Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy tells Al-Monitor how his party is failing to capture the youthful dynamism of the country.

A masked woman demonstrator shouts slogans against Egypt's former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and against a law restricting demonstrations near El-Thadiya presidential palace in Cairo, April 26, 2014. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3MR49

Egypt's atheists find each other on social media

Atheism is still a target for immense criticism in Egypt, and some have gone to jail for “contempt of religion.”

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, speaks during an interview at the U.S embassy in Kabul September 14, 2011. A marathon siege in Kabul's diplomatic enclave ended on Tuesday with the death of the last two of a group of gunmen who had held off Western and Afghan security forces for nearly 20 hours, showering rockets on Western embassies in a dramatic show of insurgent strength. Crocker said around six or seven rockets had hit inside the embassy perimeter during the early hours of the attack, l

Former US diplomat warns of possible 'grave mistake' in Syria

Ryan Crocker, former US ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, warns against a regime change plan that would depose the Alawite power structure in Syria and advises the Obama administration to contain the fighting by backing US regional allies, but not to intervene militarily.