Mar
26
2007
The following appeared in the Washington Post
Obstacle or Opportunity?
How the Palestinian Unity Government Offers a Path to Peace
By Daoud Kuttab
Monday, March 26, 2007; A15
When Henry Kissinger coined the term “constructive ambiguity” during his attempts to negotiate Arab-Israeli peace, he couldn’t have expected that one day Palestinians would use it in their own peace initiative. The ambiguity in the agenda of the new Palestinian “unity government” depends on whether one sees the cup as half full or half empty. If Israel and the United States want to move forward on the peace process, the cup is half full. But if there is no real will to pay the price for peace, the cup is half empty. Continue Reading »
Mar
23
2007
PostGlobal Live Online Debate: U.S. And Hamas
On Friday, March 23 at 2:00 PM ET, Daoud Kuttab and David Makovsky debated whether the U.S. should speak with Hamas ministers in the new Palestinian National Unity Government, as part of mediating the Israel-Palestine conflict.
PostGlobal is a discussion forum on global issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria. The two veteran journalists created PostGlobal in 2006 as an experiment in global, collaborative journalism. The forum features discussions among dozens of the world’s best-known editors and writers at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/.
Continue Reading »
Mar
09
2007
Olmert-Abbas again; not much hope  Daoud Kuttab
There are few expectations that the upcoming Palestinian-Israeli summit will produce any breakthrough. It is now an accepted assumption that without a strong proactive role of the US, little change will happen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Americans have shown higher level of interest in the conflict, but the efforts of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still lack the full presidential power that is probably the only way that any serious change will happen in this part of the world. Continue Reading »
Mar
08
2007
To the Editor:
As a columnist, Thomas L. Friedman is free to state an opinion. I agree with him that reform is necessary in the Arab world; there are many reform heroes. But reprinting a poem by an Arab poet that generalizes an entire nation is the way that stereotypes are made and perpetuated. If you replace the word “Arab” with “Jew,” or replace the words “an Arab country” with “a black neighborhood,” this poem would not be fit to print.
Daoud Kuttab
March 4, 2007
The writer is director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah, West Bank.