The following are excerpts from an article which appeared in the Egyptian English weekly, Al-Ahram of Al-Ahram Weekly 5th - 11th February, 1998 Front page headline: "WAR?" by Dina Ezzat, Galal Nassar and Nevine Khalil [Heading:] Cairo worked feverishly to prevent yet another Gulf War, but Washington seemed determined to let "all hell break loose" in the region. In what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to forestall an imminent military strike against Iraq, President...

The following is an excerpt from an article which appeared in the 22nd October, 1996 edition of the London publication, Almashad Alsiasi: The Arabs Inside Israel by Azmi Bishara Member of the Israeli Knesset ... One is at pains here to determine how "loyalty to the state" can be accommodated in liberal discourse (What exactly is loyalty to the state in a liberal democratic society. Why should it constitute a condition for granting rights of equal citizenship? What means and...

The following is an excerpt from an article which appeared in the 22nd October, 1996 edition of the London publication, Almashad Alsiasi: Syria has carried out a reorganization of its surface-to-surface missile units since 1982. At the end of 1988 the Syrians had more than 36 launching systems for SS-21 missiles, 24 launchers for FROG 7, 18 launchers for SCUD-B, and launchers for the SS18 and SSC-3 missiles which are designed for coastal defense. The Syrian surface-to-surface missile forces...

Over the past two weeks, no one can deny that there have been widespread televised reports that have shown mass Palestinian Arab demonstrations for Iraq's Saddam Hussein, with daily Palestinian chants that call for Saddam Hussein to reign missiles again on Tel Aviv, while marchers burn American and Israeli flags. The question that many people have raised concerns whether or not Arafat and the PLO, now operating the Palestine Authority, gives official "sanction" to these...

"... The corruption within the Palestinian Authority... is not widespread." "... Should something happen to Arafat, it would be a disaster of national proportions." "... Palestinians are not afraid to loudly voice their sharp criticism." Uri Avneri, Israeli writer Washington -- One of the reasons the real Israeli left is so demoralized and confused -- and has so tragically abdicated to the deceptive left of the Israeli Labor Party better known as "Peace...

Angermuende, Germany -- The football-sized rocks crashed through the window of Holger Zschoge's ground-floor apartment on the night of Jan. 30 while he was sleeping. Not surprisingly, Zschoge, a 35-year-old schoolteacher, has come to conclude that right-wing extremists from this small, bleak town in eastern Germany are mobilizing for an onslaught on people like him from what Germans call the "alternative scene" -- a loose and ill-defined coalition of leftists, foreigners and others...

Madhol, Sudan (February 8, 1998 00:19 a.m. EST) -- Stacks of money pass from the Christian foreigner to the Muslim trader, an exchange anxiously watched by a 13-year-old girl with diamonds of sweat on her brow. The Sudanese trader, his lap buried by currency worth $13,200, waves carelessly to free his merchandise -- 132 slaves. Akuac Malong, the young Dinka girl, is among them. She has spent seven years -- more than half her life -- enslaved by an Arab in northern Sudan. Her brilliant smile...

The fragile situation in Luxor and the general depression which set in after the massacre, should have given Luxor officials some idea of what to do and what to avoid doing in the future. ... a few days ago in Gourna, on the western bank of the Nile near Luxor, Several villagers were killed and scores more injured by the security forces which opened fire and sprayed tear gas into a crowd at random, thus placing Luxor once more on the map of horrific violence. ... A presidential decree...

IMRA interviewed Labor MK Ehud Barak's spokeswoman, Meirav, in Hebrew, on January 26 and again on January 28, 1998. January 26: IMRA: What is MK Barak's view regarding the changing of the Palestinian Charter? Meirav: As Ehud said last Saturday, the Charter has been canceled and any step to add and strengthen that is welcome. IMRA: Former Foreign Ministry Legal Adviser Yoel Singer, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the Oslo agreements, said in an interview on Israel Radio this week...

LONDON (AP) Britain's Gulf War commander said today that air strikes alone would not be entirely effective against Iraq. Using "the rather blunt weapon of a single strike military force... has never worked in history," retired Gen. Sir Peter de la Billiere told BBC Radio 4. "You usually have to have balanced forces if you want to achieve a military objective. These will not be balanced forces and are likely to have side effects which will be very unwelcome," he said. De...