"It’s no state secret that Lebanon is being held hostage to give the Syrians a little leverage in dealing with the Israelis. The wisdom of Syria’s strategy would only make sense if America or Israel really cared. They don’t. Damascus can count on the Bush administration to uphold the Kissinger tradition. George Bush will demand all kinds of immediate Syrian concessions without so much as mentioning the Golan Heights."

"When an American president wants to make war, he doesn’t rely on private contributions. The U.S. warfare in Iraq has already cost taxpayers more than $150 billion, not counting the regular Pentagon budget that is now well over a billion dollars per day."

"As far as Sharon is concerned, the disengagement plan plays with the dismantling of some small settlements in a remote corner of the occupied territories for the fulfillment of his grand design to take over most of the West Bank."

"Almost 38 % of the governmental funds for the Arab Bedouin communities in the Negev will be allocated to implement land confiscation policies of the government especially in the unrecognized villages in 2004. Nearly 200 homes have been demolished and 30,000 dunams of crops were sprayed and destroyed in the Negev since 2002."

"Wars never fail to produce their share of pithy lines. Tommy Franks made sure this one would be no exception."

"Lebanon possesses a very troublesome political history. Actually the western influence over Lebanon is so devastated since it’s origin that it seems Lebanon would never gain the absolute independent power for its own or will remain under foreign pressure to shape-up its political development in the region."

"Anan was actually America's compromise to replace Boutros Boutros Ghali, a distinguished intellectual and diplomat, hated and pushed from his post by Americans. His crime was being too cosmopolitan and not pro-American enough, Americans so often blurring the initials U.N. into U.S. Well, since Ghali's departure, the standard of adequate pro-Americanism has swelled like a malignant brain tumor. The soft-spoken, urbane Anan is just not good enough now, having quietly said during Bush's re-election campaign that the American invasion of Iraq was illegal, which it clearly was. Anyway, urbanity alone can get you into serious trouble with the Grand Ole Opry crowd running Washington."

"In a society in which ideas are allowed to compete, extremism will be forced to move from the center stage to the fringe of society, and moderate voices and practices will prevail."