Middle East

"No other major network beat the war drums quite as loudly as FOX – although CNN made a serious attempt to challenge their rivals with an orchestra of ‘pundits’ who are marginally less obnoxious then the FOX crowd. Both networks – with long standing pro-Israeli biases – spared no effort to propagate the WMD canards and Iraq’s alleged ties to Al Qaeda."

"For Karen Hughes to succeed in changing Muslim hearts and minds, she must use her newfound knowledge to focus attention on the hearts and minds of those who formulate American policies that impact ordinary Muslims worldwide."

"Five years of intifada appear to have persuaded a majority of Israelis to readjust their strategic outlook: to prefer demography to geography, unilateralism to negotiations, strategic consolidation to strategic depth."

"As long as governments control media, the ability of independent media to exist and flourish is next to impossible. Therefore, media reform must be directed towards either seeking ways to lobby governments to end their control and support for some media outlets at the account of others or, conversely, (and until such a change takes place) create a mechanism so as to subsidise media not supported by governments, thus establishing some sort of equilibrium between government-supported and private-supported media."

"There are many lessons to be learned from this intifada. No matter who achieves what in which round of confrontations, the conflict and the struggle will continue for as long as the occupation exists. There is only one way to bring peace, security and economic prosperity. That is to allow Palestinians to live normal lives in an independent state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with its capital in East Jerusalem."

"Think about how more efficient they could be in reaping returns for their investors. Both parties are unable to reign in corporate greed and corruption, and depend heavily on corporate largess to win political races."

"The continuing brutality of the occupation pushes Palestinians away from peace, and reminds them of the seven years of failure that led to the second Intifada. While Israel forgoes their responsibility to take care of the Occupied Territories under international law, they cannot forgo the reality of the conflict."

"It is no exaggeration to conclude that it is Ankara's readiness to dance to the tune played by Europe that is encouraging the EU to treat it so shabbily and keep it at the EU's gates for so many years. Turkey is a large and strategically important country, and the EU countries are interested in maintaining economic ties with it, as German chancellor Schmits (for one) confirms. Paradoxically, one way Ankara can raise the EU's interest in having it as a member would be to forge and strengthen ties with other Muslim countries and work publicly and seriously for a Muslim union, while suspending its efforts to join the European Union."