Arab

I reply to the April 30 Op-ed article by Mohamed Hakki. Will the Arabs ever think like Westerners? Mr. Hakki opened with a laudable, expansive denouncement of terrorism in order to soften our Western feelings and then commenced a vicious tirade against Israel and the United States as if we were the root cause of terrorism. It is well agreed that, even if Israel were not to exist at all, terrorism would still stalk us over the world; and, if the Arab states would absorb their brethren (as all the rest of the civilized world has done)

The "Arab solution" to the Kuwaiti crisis so desperately sought by the region's leaders seems as elusive today as it did the day Iraqi troops steamrollered into Kuwait. Despite all their state visits and all their intense phone calls to one another over the last five days, Arabs still have been unable to decide how to deal with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Their seeming indecision reflects their complex emotions over Iraq, Kuwait, the West and Israel. And with each passing day of indecision, there is an increasing likelihood of a Western solution undeterred by the mixed emotions that are inevitable any time a family member must be disciplined.

Outside Muhammed Sherdi's office window one recent afternoon, workers were erecting a carpet-walled stage, assembling rows of chairs, and fiddling with a sound system. Egypt's oldest opposition political party, the Wafd, was host to an antiwar demonstration - one sure to feature harsh condemnations of American aggression. Meanwhile, inside, Sherdi reminisced about the things - "movies, shopping at Kmart, cold beer and potato salad on Sundays" - that enhance his regular visits to the United States.

Arabs today are remembering what they refer to as al-nakba, the "uprooting" and "catastrophe" that befell the Palestinians when Israel was carved out of their homeland in 1948. Arabs are still mourning. But this very mourning has produced other catastrophes in the Arab world, throwing culture into a state of paranoia, opening doors to ruthless dictatorships and laying waste to economies. The psychological disorder afflicting Arab cultural life since 1948 has not been healed by any peace agreement.

The United States may be scoring in the war against terrorism, but it stands in danger of losing the hearts and minds of the Arab world. In a sawdust-strewn cafe in the Giza district of Cairo, just off the road to the Pyramids, Mahmouh al-Sharif, 38, a math teacher, pores over the weekend newspaper. The front page fairly screams with a lurid color photo of a badly burned victim of the air strike in Sudan. Below it are a photo of Monica Lewinsky and yet another of a demonstrator holding a poster that reads: "No War for Monica.

The rumor races through the streets of the Arab world: Madeleine Albright is Jewish. It is accepted, regardless of the fact that President Clinton's choice for secretary of state was born Catholic and is now Episcopalian. The religion rumor is one more unpleasant sign of what lies ahead as Albright tries to breathe new life into the Middle East peace process. At the same time, authorities on the region do not think she will have difficulty because of who she is. Or, in the case of the rumor, who she is not. "Any secretary of state would have a hard time simply because of the issues," said Richard Haass, who was director of Middle East affairs on the National Security Council during the Bush administration.

As Libyan rebels are pushed back by the forces of the mad Col. Moammar Gadhafi, we're all rooting for the underdog. Even though we know little about the rebels and their leaders, we assume they'd be an improvement over the crazed colonel. But that emotional tug doesn't justify the proposal by three influential senators - Republicans Mitch McConnell and John McCain, and Democrat John Kerry - that we set up a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Gadhafi from bombing his own people. As the Pentagon (which opposes the idea)

For someone who has covered the Arab world for 40 years, the middle-class Tunisian revolt was exhilarating. Especially gripping was the fact that the youthful women demonstrators were unveiled, and the young men did not wear beards. They talked about practical things such as reforming the economy and ending corruption. For a moment, one could dream. It almost seemed possible that Tunisia might produce the element whose absence has doomed so many Arab efforts to achieve democracy: a pragmatic political movement with concrete goals that is neither Islamist nor based on tribe or sect.

The elections in Palestine today are not just a historic opportunity for Palestinians and for Yasir Arafat, but for the whole of the Arab world for whom democracy is almost a forbidden fruit. If Egypt's election in December showed that too much of the modern Arab tendency is ever further toward dictatorship and absolutism, this vote, along with Algeria's recent presidential election, could well root the tree of liberty for the millions of would-be Arab democrats who believe the time has now come to construct open and pluralistic societies.

A series of important facts have been lost in the controversy surrounding Dubai Port World's purchase of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. This negligence has forced a narrowing of the debate surrounding its potential impact on the United States and the nation's security. The debate has also exposed a rather ugly xenophobic vein of post-9/11 American political culture. Opposition to the deal is being used as an opportunity for politicians to further their own domestic agendas by capitalizing on the prejudices and fears of the electorate.

JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister gave a cool reception Wednesday to a new Arab Mideast peace initiative, saying the conflict with the Palestinians was not about territory but rather the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. The remarks signaled trouble for Secretary of State John Kerry's new push for Mideast peace and risked reinforcing Benjamin Netanyahu's image as a hard-liner unwilling to make the tough concessions required for peace. Netanyahu has not commented directly on the Arab League's latest initiative, but his words questioned its central tenet - the exchange of captured land for peace - and appeared to counter a modified peace proposal from the Arab world that Washington and Netanyahu's own chief negotiator have welcomed.

It began with an idea for a summer camp - a handful of kids getting a taste of Arab music and language for a few weeks at the Morris Arboretum, in the troubled times after 9/11. From a tiny beginning - the first camp, 10 years ago, attracted 18 children - Al Bustan Seeds of Culture has flowered into something unique in the United States, an organization that: maintains a resident ensemble of first-rate musicians versed in classical Arab music; offers a professional performance and residency series throughout the year with internationally known guest artists; conducts educational programs for adults and children alike; works with the Philadelphia School District to bring Arab language and music to the schools.

Aaron Shneyer's contribution to mediating conflict in the Middle East began with 12 teens and a jam session in Jerusalem. The Georgetown University graduate brought together a dozen Israeli and Palestinian musicians as part of a Fulbright-mtvU project that used music to foster dialogue and understanding. The result is Heartbeat, a peace-building collaboration that has been exported to the United States and will find its way to Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley on Thursday evening.

By Moncef Marzouki The futurist Alvin Toffler used to say that when a society reaches a certain degree of development, democracy becomes a technical necessity, not simply an ethical one. But this rule didn't seem to apply to the Arab world. Industrialization failed, "modernity" arrived late due to colonization, and when a democratic wave destroyed dictatorships in Latin America and Eastern Europe, little happened in North Africa and the Middle East. Racists pointed to the wrong cause for this phenomenon, citing the culture.

CAIRO - The Palestinian prime minister warned Sunday that his government could fail to meet its obligations to its people because of a cash crunch, and urged Arab countries to deliver on promised aid. Salam Fayyad met with Arab League members to discuss ways to raise the $100 million they pledged earlier to his Palestinian Authority. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said seven countries have responded favorably, but he did not name them. League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo decided to dispatch a delegation to the region to raise the funds the Palestinian government needs to make ends meet.

Since its launch in 2006, Al-Jazeera TV's English-language news channel has racked up prestigious journalism awards for its reporting on international issues, including the Arab Spring uprisings. The problem: Hardly anyone sees Al-Jazeera English (AJE) because few cable TV operators carry it. Last week, Al-Jazeera's owner - the emir of the oil- and natural gas-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar - sought to change that. Al-Jazeera will pay an undisclosed sum - unconfirmed reports said $500 million - for Current TV, the little-watched but widely distributed cable network cofounded by former vice president Al Gore.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian self-rule government is close to being "completely incapacitated," largely because Arab countries have not delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in promised aid, the Palestinian prime minister said in an interview Sunday. If allowed to continue, the Palestinian Authority's unprecedented financial crisis will quickly double the number of Palestinian poor to 50 percent of a population of roughly four million, Salam Fayyad told the Associated Press.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian statistics bureau estimates that Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land by the end of the decade, a scenario that could have grave implications for Israel. The bureau said Tuesday that 5.8 million Arabs live in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. That compares to about 6 million Israeli Jews, according to Israeli data. It said that based on current birth rates, the two populations would be equal in 2016, and in 2020, Arabs would outnumber Jews by 7.2 million to 6.9 million.

A MALAYSIAN WOMAN cooks falafel, South Asian Biryani and even cheesesteaks in a restaurant at Bustleton and Harbison Avenues, the crossroads for Arab businesses in Northeast Philadelphia. "We have a diversity of customers all over, from Uzbekistan, from China, from Vietnam - just all over," said Moni Khan, who bought Al-Sham with her Bangladeshi husband last January. Arabic script artwork decorates the tangerine walls, an Islamic prayer time clock hangs near the register and an array of Arab desserts immediately entices customers when they walk in. Al-Sham is one of a handful of Arab restaurants and convenience stores on the two-block stretch of Bustleton that provide an important sense of community, a place for new immigrants to shop and come together.

'That's private. " "This is a situation in which there is no privacy. " That situation - investigated with many false starts and bogus clues - is the subject of Lucile Lichtblau's new play The English Bride , directed by Deborah Block for Theatre Exile. That situation is the interrogation of an Arab (J. Paul Nicholas) by an Israeli Mossad officer (Damon Bonetti). And the questioning of an English woman (Corinna Burns) who is/was the Arab's lover. And a flight canceled. And a terminal evacuated.