Voltaire Network

Opinion-editorials decyphered

Every day, the International Op-Ed section presents an overview and analysis of the positions of the major international decision makers and manipulators.

“Terrorism’s executioner”

by Louis Rene Beres

9 June 2005

Our world is “normally” silent in the face of evil. Israel, for its part, is not to choose between silence or complicity of political terrorism, but between being a victim or resorting to the use of force. The use of force is not inherently evil, and it is even indispensable in terrorism-related (…)

“Terrorists and organized crime join forces”

by Rollie Lal

9 June 2005

Terrorist groups and the organized crime networks are increasingly working together, strengthening their ability to inflict harm with conventional weapons today and, maybe, with nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the future.
Separated for a long time, the criminal and (…)

The terrorist pretext

by Voltaire Network

9 June 2005

The alleged terrorist threat, which the media has made eminently credible, allows for the implementation of anti-freedom legislation and strengthens the control structures of the population in any part of the world. Louis René Beres recommends that the Sharon government increases assassinations (…)

Arab Justifications of the Bush Administration

by Voltaire Network

6 June 2005

Due to the scandal created by the Newsweek article on the desecration of the Koran in Guantanamo, the international press has widely diffuses the positions of Arab analysts supportive of the “democratization” of the Arab world by Washington. Among these analysts, one finds the emergence of Saad (…)

“An essay in imperial villain-making”

by William Dalrymple

6 June 2005

By the end of the 90s, the hardliners who wanted a regime change in the East had a powerful ally in the State. The new president was conservative, an aggressive anti-French who wanted to turn his country into a world power with no rival at all. He thought he had to fight the Muslim regimes which (…)

“Bush country”

by Fouad Ajami

6 June 2005

Sometime ago, a Kuwaiti trader told me that George W. Bush has “created a tsunami in this region.” This man was tired of waiting for an internal reform, he wanted the situation to be changed and if foreign assistance was necessary, so be it. A Jordanian friend told me what was happening today in (…)

“In the end, Iraq will succeed”

by Abdullah II of Jordan

6 June 2005

We would like to find a solution to our dispute with Ahmed Chalabi. This is what Jalal Talabani has asked us and we are trying to find a solution. The problem is it is not a political dispute but an economic one; he owes money to the Jordanian people, not to his government. Therefore, a (…)

“Islam Can Vote, if We Let It”

by Saad Eddin Ibrahim

6 June 2005

During the last municipal elections in Saudi Arabia - the first democratic experience of the nation - some were concerned about the figures reached by the Islamists vs. their secular opponents. In fact, we witnessed a similar tendency in Turkey, Morocco, Iraq and an identical episode is to be (…)

“The Greenhouse Effect”

by Saad Eddin Ibrahim

6 June 2005

If everything turns out all right, the Israelis will very soon have left Gaza, but nobody knows what will happen to the abandoned settlements. To start with, those buildings should be destroyed but that doesn’t seem to be the top priority choice any longer and reflection is needed about that (…)

“We’re on board the Same Boat”

by Ali Gomaa

6 June 2005

The Muslim world expects that the new Pope will continue his predecessor’s tolerance and the line he had opened up to the Islam. One can speak of renovation of religious practices as being very important in the world in which we live. Studies have shown that what is being taught in Germany (…)

“There Will Be a Third Intifada”

by Ehud Barak

6 June 2005

The withdrawal is an important step in the right direction, but it is timorous. It must be supported, but it can be said that and clearly that it won’t solve anything: it is only the first page of a book that has numbers of chapters, some of which will be mortal. After that withdrawal, it will (…)

“Anti-Corruption Magistrates Say ‘Yes’ ”

by European Magistrates Against Corruption

3 June 2005

It has been almost ten years since several of us put forward the Geneva Appeal advocating that European justice put an end to impunity. That appeal was based on the fact that international investigations required years of work due to the limitations posed by the borders. Some countries allow (…)

“To vote ‘yes’ for Europe is to respect the environment”

3 June 2005

The issue of the environment is not prominent in debate in France on the Constitutional Treaty, not even among the Greens. Nevertheless, the French grant it great importance. In that sense, changes in our individual behaviors are indispensable, but international regulations are also required. In (…)

“To Give a Soul to the Union”

by Jean-Michel Lemétayer

3 June 2005

– FNSEA has never issued directives related to voting, and in that same sense, the Constitutional Treaty will not be an exception. But since the times in which we live do not allow for misrepresentation, I decided to speak personally about my decision to vote “yes.” I opted for this considering (…)

“Country people say Yes!”

by Eugène Schaeffer , Jean Salmon , Jo Giroud , Luc Guyau

3 June 2005

In the debate about the European Constitution, several professional authorities in charge of the field of agriculture have expressed in favor of the ratification of the Treaty.
Even more recently, some of us have decided to group this “plural” Yes in federations. More than 100 agriculture (…)

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