United States
United States
Fair Observer provides inclusive, insightful and non-partisan analysis of important American issues, events and trends.
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360° Analysis / Egypt / Israel / Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process / Jordan / Palestine / Politics / United States / Middle EastThere is one conventional wisdom regarding the Middle East Peace Process, which has already become axiomatic: There can be no peace without active American involvement. As conventional wisdoms go, so is the case with this one, argues Josef Olmert, former Israeli peace negotiator. Somewhat true, somewhat exaggerated, altogether an oversimplification of an otherwise complicated reality. If we track the beginnings of the saga known as the Middle East Peace Process to the aftermath of the 1973 war, we have enough historic perspective to evaluate the pros and cons of the case on hand. The verdict must be that the US does play a significant role, though less crucial than what it seems to be. The...
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360° Analysis / Arab Spring / Iran / Israel / Palestine / Politics / United States / Middle EastBy Ari BasenThe status quo of fractious relations will continue as a right-wing Israel clashes with the United States over a changing Middle East. On January 22, 2013, two days after President Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term, Israel held parliamentary elections for the Knesset. The current Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu right-wing bloc maintained its hold with a slim majority, while Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to continue as Prime Minister in the 19th Knesset until 2016. The political merger between Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu on October 25, 2012 produced a right-wing political bloc with a focus on giving the...
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360° Analysis / Cultural identity / Cultural Psyche / Global Security / Guns / security / United States / Arts & CultureOur collective narrative is more and more dominated by fear and instability. Amy Edelstein explores how we need structural changes to reduce the influence of such elements in our collective psyche. A combination of advanced technology, a 24 hour media cycle, and troubled, alienated youth has splashed the unthinkable too frequently across our minds’ eye. We’re becoming no strangers to eruptions of fear in our youngsters, to shadowy threats in fleeting moments of our common patterns of life. We are not prepared by acts of war nor trained for acts of valor. Oddly, we now live with the unthinkable in neighborhoods where Mr. Rogers used to only button his cardigan, change his shoes,...
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360° Analysis / Arab Uprising / economy / Iraq / MENA / Noam Chomsky / Politics / United States / Middle East / AfricaBy Noam Chomsky[Note: This piece is adapted from “Uprisings,” a chapter in Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to US Empire, Noam Chomsky’s new interview book with David Barsamian (with thanks to the publisher, Metropolitan Books). The questions are Barsamian’s, the answers Chomsky’s.] Does the United States still have the same level of control over the energy resources of the Middle East as it once had? The major energy-producing countries are still firmly under the control of the Western-backed dictatorships. So, actually, the progress made by the Arab Spring is limited, but it’s not insignificant. The...
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360° Analysis / Israel / Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process / Palestine / Politics / United States / Middle EastThe essentiality of US mediation in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is an unchallenged axiom in most Washington policy circles. US leadership has been central to negotiations in the past, and the US may continue to be the only actor that can bring both parties to the table and enforce concessions once they get there. A negotiated peace settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians is in the strategic interest of the United States. Such an agreement would contribute to regional stabilization and resolve a major source of resentment of US policy across the Middle East. This resentment is not only fodder for terrorist recruiters, but it hinders, harrows, and constricts US regional policy....
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360° Analysis / FBI / Gun Control / Newton / NRA / Politics / SPLC / United States / USAs US gun sales soar in anticipation of proposed curbs to gun ownership following the Newtown massacre, Leonard Weinberg and Matthew Feldman look at the narratives that fuel far right groups and warn of the potential dangers posed by anti-gun legislation. In the weeks following the Newtown, Connecticut shootings on December 14, 2012, there have been highly publicized appeals for Congress and the Obama Administration to enact measures prohibiting certain guns (e.g. assault rifles) and requiring background checks on those wishing to purchase firearms. Most notably, in the days after Adam Lanza’s massacre of twenty-six children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary,...
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360° Analysis / Activism / Journalism / Margaret Fuller / role of women / Transcendentalism / United States / Arts & CultureAmy Edelstein reflects on the influence of the Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) In the digital age, where anyone with a smartphone, tablet, PDA, twitter feed or wordpress account can become a journalist, it’s hard to imagine a time that marked the advent of what was to become an inseparable part of our education, our citizenry, and of the opinions that shape our interaction with the world around us: the words of the reporter, cultural critic, and eye witness commentator. But we can mark that time, and indeed historians have, with the prolific writings and social critiques of the American Transcendentalists: Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry...
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Best of the Month / Britain / Israel / Jordan / Mali / obama / Politics / United States / Europe / Focus Article / BRIC / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Asia / OceaniaFair Observer's five best articles for January. Apparently the world didn't come to an end. On the contrary, the new year is in full-swing. Barack Obama has been inaugurated for his second term in office, Israel and Jordan have held their parliamentary elections, David Cameron has spoken of a referendum over Britain's EU membership, and Mali has seen a French military intervention. As political unrest in the Arab world enters its third year, January has seen excerpts from our first book, The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction. To celebrate the end of the month, we share with you a selection of our best articles, and invite you to tell us what you think. From all of us at Fair...
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360° Analysis / Bahrain / Iran / Islamists / Israel / Morsi / obama / Politics / United States / Middle East / AfricaThe following is the fourth of a series of excerpts that Fair Observer will be featuring from its first book, The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction. Read the first excerpt here. The Arab Uprisings have changed the political landscape in the region and created a new reality for the international community. Earlier, “a soft bigotry of lowered expectations in the West and among Arab elites,” assumed that democracy was not possible in the region. Stability was championed over democracy using the specter of an Islamist threat as an excuse to promote strategic interests. Arab countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to popular aspirations. Arab populations, in turn,...