As the current situation in Palestine worsens, let Arabs not forget their past. Events that are portrayed as victories by Arab politicians are not always victories for the Arab people. Last month, the Arab world remembered one of its greatest defeats of the 20th century: the June 1967 war, which marked the end of the hope to wipe out Israel and the loss of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights.

As the current situation in Palestine worsens, let Arabs not forget their past. Events that are portrayed as victories by Arab politicians are not always victories for the Arab people. Last month, the Arab world remembered one of its greatest defeats of the 20th century: the June 1967 war, which marked the end of the hope to wipe out Israel and the loss of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights.

Liberals, of Arab and/or Muslim background, living either in the West or in the Arab Muslim world, please … wake up!

I do know you are there, I do read your articles, I do appreciate your ideas, your love and respect for freedom and life, but I feel really disappointed and embarrassed each time I am asked: “Where are they?”, “Don’t you think they are not organised?”, “Why do they hide?”

Liberals, of Arab and/or Muslim background, living either in the West or in the Arab Muslim world, please … wake up!

I do know you are there, I do read your articles, I do appreciate your ideas, your love and respect for freedom and life, but I feel really disappointed and embarrassed each time I am asked: “Where are they?”, “Don’t you think they are not organised?”, “Why do they hide?”

The war in Iraq has exposed fissures in the structure of that modern Middle Eastern state earlier camouflaged by Arab nationalism and Saddam's brutal rule. While Arab leaders speak of unity, the war has uncovered the clout of other power centers - ethnic, sectarian, regional, and tribal - that parallel the state and limit the power of central governments.

The war in Iraq has exposed fissures in the structure of that modern Middle Eastern state earlier camouflaged by Arab nationalism and Saddam's brutal rule. While Arab leaders speak of unity, the war has uncovered the clout of other power centers - ethnic, sectarian, regional, and tribal - that parallel the state and limit the power of central governments.

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The Arab League has backed the Suleiman presidency, which given the reality on the ground is a non-starter. According to Tony Badran, "It seems increasingly like the Syrians simply avoided criticism in Cairo by appearing to back the Arab consensus while at the same time winking to their Lebanese allies to create old-new hurdles. It afforded Syria, in their view, a measure of deniability."

Vive tra gli Stati Uniti e l'Egitto. E ogni volta che rientra in patria soffre nel vedere il suo paese soffrire. Khairi Abaza. La sua è la rabbia di un egiziano che lotta contro i regimi totalitari del Medio Oriente e contro un Occidente che non sa capire quel che accade.

In Egypt, the Jews' departure went hand in hand with the ouster of foreigners who had settled years earlier and turned Cairo into a capital of all-night cafes and open-air cinemas, where it was possible to hear people conversing in four or five languages -- French, English, Italian, Greek, Arabic -- in the same breath. According to Khairi Abaza, as many as a million Europeans once called Egypt home, every bit as much as Paris or London or Athens.

The visit's most shameful line was Pelosi saying, "The road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus." In other words, Lebanon can be fixed only if Syria agrees. Oh, sorry, just sold out Lebanon's independence from Syrian rule and betrayed the aspirations of most Lebanese. As the Lebanese analyst Tony Badran puts it: "This is 'hard-headed realism?' Eating dates, checking out carpets, and taking the official tourist tour with a regime that's killing American soldiers, is a sponsor of every kind of terrorist, stands accused of multiple political assassinations in Lebanon, and is seen as acting like an outlaw by almost every country on earth except Iran?"