In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08: Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08: The View from Gaza —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08: Getting on the Right Track —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Partnership for Progress —Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress
Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business —Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan) —Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

Gaza’s Media Under Heacy Surveillance

October 29, 2007

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

The latest repercussions of the conflict between Fatah and Hamas in the media field were reflected in the decision issued by Salam Fayyad’s government to shutdown the Ministry of Information’s headquarters in Gaza because of what he described as serious and unprecedented violations against Palestinian media figures. The Palestinian Journalists’ Union has entered into a showdown with Hamas condemning the latter’s decision that stipulates that journalists have to obtain their media credentials from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Information, rather than the press union as is customary. …

In Gaza, surveillance over the media has redoubled so that news reports and investigations are usually delivered to satellite news channels or to newspapers’ editorial offices after having undergone self-censorship by the journalists who live under the weighty gaze of Hamas’ surveillance and direct regulation on the strip… Journalists who are summoned to the Ministry of Information or the Hamas- affiliated governmental media committee are interrogated for using certain terminology in their media reports. Some are even subject to military investigations and are threatened with imprisonment. Access the full article>>