Tag: Ataturk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic and itsfirst President, stands as a towering figure of the 20th Century. Among the great leadersof history, few have achieved so much in so short period, transformed the life of a nationas decisively, and given such profound inspiration to the world at large. The Greatest Leader of ALL Time: ATATURK Soldier, Diplomat, Statesman, Orator, Teacher, Scholar, Genius Proactive Ataturk Community

Why Turkey belongs to the EU

Sigurd Neubauer

Friday 27 March 2009 – 07:30

With its geographical location, at the crossroads of an East-West and North-South axis, Turkey has played a dominating geopolitical role from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the present. In recognition of Turkey’s strategic position, President Harry S. Truman was quick to incorporate Turkey into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As the alliance is celebrating its 60th anniversary, Turkey is again at a crossroad. This time, the choice facing the Turkish Republic is whether Ankara should continue its path towards becoming a full fledged member of the European Union, or if Turkey should adopt a “neo Ottoman” foreign policy brokering conflicts between Israel and Syria and between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Beyond its broad foreign policy implications, Turkey is also facing a significant internal identity crisis where traditional urban pro-Western elite are being challenged by a new and emerging conservative bourgeoisie originating from the Anatolian heartland. At the center of this power struggle, is the current ruling Islamic Development Party (AKP) led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vis-à-vis the Turkish military establishment.

Turkey’s powerful generals have long seen themselves as the “guardians” of secularism as they adhere to the principals of “Kemalism,” laid out by the Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). “Ataturk,” or “father Turk,” as his people called him, emerged on the political stage during the vanishing days of the Ottoman Empire. During these turbulent times, as pockets of Turkish populated settlements were threatened by increasing nationalism in the various regions of the empire, the young and ambitious army officer, Mustafa Kemal, was to become one of the most notable military leaders and statesmen of his generation.

Transition from Empire to Republic

From a small principality on the frontiers of the Islamic world at the turn of the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire became the most powerful state in the Islamic world stretching from central Europe to the Indian Ocean under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566). Following the long wars of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire declined as a world power in favor of the European mercantile powers. By the mid 18th century, what was left of the once mighty empire became known as the “sick man of Europe.” Despite countless reforms of the civil and bureaucratic structure, Ottoman political life continued under European tutelage.

Recognizing Turkey’s state of decay, Ataturk envisioned a strong, independent, and secular republic. According to noted Ataturk biographer, Lord Kinross: “Ataturk differed from the dictators of his age in two significant respects: his foreign policy was not based on expansion but on retraction of frontiers; his home policy on the foundation of a political system that could survive his own time.” Some of the republic’s early reforms were instituting a constitutional parliamentary system in 1923, followed by the introduction of the Swiss Civil Code in 1926. From a legal perspective, the Swiss Civil Code replacing traditional Sharia laws was an important step in the direction of westernization of personal, family, and inheritance laws. Other significant changes promoted by the Kemalists were adopting the Latin alphabet, western numerals, weights and measures, and gender equality.

Military and Democracy

The political system during the early Kemalist era remained a one party state, where no legal opposition was active until after World War II. Turkey has since come a long way in its democratization effort, despite brief military interventions in 1960, 1971, and 1980. Each time, the generals provided important exit guarantees that enhanced the military’s position, yet civilian control of the Republic has prevailed, as Turkey has become a competitive multiparty system.

With the reelection of the AKP in 2007, Prime Minister Erdogan has secured his base as he openly challenges Turkey’s ancient regime, on a verity of issues from the headscarf ban to, as the only NATO ally, inviting Iran’s controversial President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Istanbul. The notion that “Turkey has to follow an integrated foreign policy and cannot have priority with the EU at the expense of its relations with the Middle East—as advocated by senior AKP officials—is a clear break with Kemalist foreign policy. Yet at this critical juncture, it is important for Europe to fully embrace Turkey. Because of its strategic location and economic ties to continental Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea region, Turkey can fully complement the EU on a variety of issues from trade to security. In particular, Turkey can provide the European markets access to rich energy resources from the Middle East and Eurasia.

The battle for Eurasia

On the other hand, the Turkish government has shown increasing frustration, not only with U.S. policies towards the Middle East but also with the EU’s refusal to seriously consider its bid. Should Europe fail to embrace Turkey, this could be a fatal push of Turkey into the Russian orbit. Despite historical mistrust, Turkish-Russian economic ties have greatly expanded over the past decade, reaching $32 billion in 2008, making Russia Turkey’s largest trading partner. By taking advantage of cooling relations between Ankara and Washington, Moscow is determined to expand its sphere of influence over the black sea region and Eurasia. Through an aggressive trade and investment policy, Russia skillfully outmaneuvered the United States by closing its airbase in Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

In the great powers struggle for influence, Turkey is an indispensable piece, too precious for the West to lose. Instead of remaining a “Christian Club,” the European Union should overcome its historical fear of “the Turks” and recognize that as a NATO member, Turkey will prioritize its ties with the United States and the West; as an EU member, Turkey will continue to cherish democracy, liberalism, and secularism. Europe turning its back on Turkey could be the nail in the coffin for an occidental oriented foreign policy and a secular national identity.

Source: The Diplomatic Courier (USA), 25-03-2009

March 27, 2009
Turkey’s MIT shifts focus to foreign intel, re-defining priorities

Turkey’s the National Intelligence Organization re-defined 10 priority areas of global crisis regions affecting the fate of the international community.

Friday, 20 March 2009 15:19

Turkey’s the National Intelligence Organization re-defined 10 priority areas of global crisis regions affecting the fate of the international community.

Turkey’s the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) re-defined 10 priority areas of global crisis regions affecting the fate of the international community.

Turkish National Intelligence Organization shifts its focus to foreign intelligence. 10 critical areas that affecting the fate of the international community will be closely watched on “the economic, political, cultural and demographic aspects.”

MIT, according to the current changes in the global balance, re-defined its the priority areas. MIT, which continues to re-design its administrative structure, defined 10 critical areas affecting the fate of the international community. Caucasus, the Balkans, Asia-Pacific axis, the Middle East, Mediterranean, Aegean, Black Sea, Africa, the Red-Aden Gulf, the Caspian Basin will be closely watched on “the economic, political, cultural and demographic aspects.”

For this purpose, other than English, Arabic, Serbian, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Greek, Chinese, Bulgarian, Russian, Albanian and Bosnian languages are emphasized. MIT Undersecretary Emre Taner, in a statement dated January 5, 2007, stated that “to ensure the national strength and protection the most effective way is to configure the functions of intelligence and national security policies that will support national interests.”

Turkish newspaper Sabah reported the 10 strategic areas that MIT will focus on as following:

– Caucasus: Russia’s new strategy in the region, Georgia’s NATO membership bid, Turkey – Armenia – Azerbaijan relations, Nagorno-Karabakh issue,

– Balkans: The tensions between states in the former Yugoslav Federation, Kosovo’s independence, Serbia and Croatia’s EU membership process, integration projects and infrastructure investments in Macedonia and Albania to the EU membership, Greece’s investments in Balkan countries` finance and telecom companies.

– Far East and Asia-Pacific axis: U.S. and EU countries to increase economic competitiveness the region. China and Japan’s activities to become a regional power and movements in Afghanistan.

– Middle East: Developments in Iraq and Lebanon, the Israeli-Palestinian problem, Iran’s insistence on nuclear development, Syria’s stance in the region, possible government changes in Arabian Peninsula emirates.

– Mediterranean: Cyprus problem, the energy concentration in the Mediterranean. Egypt and the Greek Cypriot`s oil exploration in the Mediterranean continental shelf, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, Samsun-Ceyhan Pipeline,

– Aegean: Turkey-Greece FIR line (civil aviation flight information center), and the problems caused by the continental shelf,

– Black Sea: The search activities and rich oil resources in Eastern Black Sea as well as efforts to get domain in the Black Sea countries.

– Africa: Crisis in Burundi, Angola, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Congo and the civil war that they might dragged on. Turkey’s strategic opening out to Africa and developing relations in North African countries, with the Turkish contracting and investments in textiles,

– Red Sea-Gulf of Aden: Strategic control of the transition paths, the provision of oil and gas transfer. In this context, to send frigate to the Aden region,

– Central Asia and Caspian Basin: Oil and natural gas sharing, creation of new structures for potential new pipelines. Russia’s opening in the energy region. Energy agreements between Russia-China. Extraction and marketing strategies for oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin.

Source: www.worldbulletin.net, 20 March 2009

March 21, 2009
Only 25% of Britons believe evolution

EVOLUTION SURVEYS UNDER THE MONOPOLY OF THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP

An opinion poll was conducted in Britain. But the result came as a shock to Darwinists. The level of belief in the theory of evolution, in Darwin’s homeland, Britain, where Richard Dawkins’ atheist and Darwinist propaganda is most intense, emerged at a mere 25%. Britain’s best-known dailies immediately carried the story. This important and major development came as a real shock to Darwinists. It was the loudest declaration of Darwinism’s defeat.

The result of the survey, carried out nationwide on the Guardian website on 2 February, 2009, was announced as follows: “Only 25% of Britons believe Darwin’s theory of evolution”. This headline, which reflected the poll findings, was altered within a few hours.

This defeat being carried in the headlines was unacceptable to the Darwinist dictatorship. For that reason, the headline to the report carried in the publications in question was swiftly changed in a matter of hours. The new report did not repeat that the level of belief in Darwinism was very low. The poll findings were distorted. The genuine report, which was carried for a brief period of time, was suddenly changed. Once again, people had been deceived under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship.

The incident did not end there. The results of this poll in Britain must have been particularly unwelcome, for Darwinists lost no time in resorting to another method in order to cover them up. “We have conducted a new poll,” they said. They gave the result of the poll they claimed to have conducted among 2000 people to the press. Under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship the captions in the British press were swiftly altered. The British people were announced to be “evolutionist” by this false poll based on the opinions of 2000 persons.

The fact is that this was a dirty trick by the Darwinist dictatorship that has taken the whole world under its sway and deceived people for many years.

These intrigues have long been an effective technique for this sinister dictatorship that strives to spread Darwinist propaganda. Formerly, Darwinists used to draw pictures of imaginary ape ancestors, discover perfectly complex fossils of extinct life forms and claim that these were transitional fossils and maintain that a whole country was evolutionist, and people would duly believe them. That was because Darwinists kept the real scientific evidence carefully hidden away and nobody knew that Darwinism was a lie. They imagined that the equine series they saw in museums and the peppered moths they read about in school books were true, and were duly convinced because they knew nothing more. Whatever the Darwinist dictatorship said, went.

But then something happened that Darwinists never expected.

THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP WAS DEALT A BODY BLOW: BY ATLAS OF CREATION.

The fossils so carefully hidden away were suddenly revealed. THERE WERE 100 MILLION FOSSILS THAT PROVED CREATION. These all belonged to perfect, flawless and complex life forms, and many were living fossils. People realized that a tiger is the same today as it was 50 million years ago. A squid is the same today as it was 100 million years ago. And people also realized THAT NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL EXISTED. Most important of all, they realized THEY HAD BEEN DECEIVED. The scientific facts were before their eyes. There was now no way of deceiving people by holding back the scientific proofs. Unable to produce any scientific evidence, and thus forced to rely on propaganda alone, Darwinism was abandoned.

Demagoguery and propaganda are old Darwinist techniques. But that age is now over. It has no more influence over people who are now aware and have seen the scientific evidence. People are abandoning evolution in droves and turning to belief in Allah (God). This is now showing itself very clearly and with powerful evidence in all countries. That is why Darwinists are in such a panic and such despair.

Darwinism has been totally routed. It has been demolished. The Darwinist system that regarded people as ignorant and insignificant has realized that it can no longer deceive them. Nobody falls into the traps of the Darwinist dictatorship any more. They can make as much propaganda as they like, but nobody in the world really believes in Darwinism any more.

Mar 17, 2009

Source: www.harunyahya.com, Mar 17, 2009

March 18, 2009
Turkish Involvement Could Stimulate Middle East Development

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) seems intent on increasing Turkey's influence with such neighbors as Syria's President Bashar Assad (2nd right)

March 17, 2009

By Abbas Djavadi

In the Middle East, Turkey could play a leading role in resolving political conflicts; boosting economic cooperation and investment within the region; and supporting political, economic, and social reforms.

As the most democratic Muslim country in the Middle East, one with rich experience dealing with and adapting to Western institutions, Turkey is the best-suited Middle Eastern country to lead the effort to advance regional stability and development. The European Union and the international community should support Turkey in this role.

Ankara has demonstrated a consistent commitment to good relationships with all countries of the region, regardless of their domestic, regional, or international policies. Except for occasional military actions against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) pockets in northern Iraq that Ankara considers essential for its national security, Turkey has abstained from interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

After some years of hesitation, Ankara has begun improving relations with the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, a key factor in improving stability and security in that country. Turkey was also one of the first countries to contribute to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Turkish efforts over the last two years to mediate between Syria and Israel, the Lebanese groups, and, more recently, Palestinian organizations — as well as its offer to mediate between Iran and the United States — have met with limited success so far. But they have nonetheless underscored Turkey’s capability and potentially suitable positioning to act as a regional leader.

While primarily leaning toward the West in the past, the Turkish government (controlled by the Justice and Development (AK) party) has — especially over the last few years — improved its relations and image among the Muslim countries of the region, occasionally at the cost of Western reservations or objections.

Leading The Middle East

Boosting economic relations and investment between Middle Eastern countries would — especially if accompanied by relaxation of travel, residence, and work-permit limitations — gradually contribute to the overall improvement of living standards, education, and social services in the region. The result would be the mitigation of the actual and potential dangers of extremism and ethnic conflict.

With its experience with its own democratic reforms (free and fair elections, media, education, privatization, and modernization), Turkey is in a position to help other Middle Eastern countries implement reforms. Doing so could also help Ankara unblock its own reform process and move ahead with EU-required measures that have been bogged down considerably for the last two years.

If the Middle East were developing economically and socially as a region and countries there had direct and growing interest in cooperation and integration, there would be much less grounds for repression, terrorism, and war.

The modalities of EU involvement in such a regional initiative remain undetermined, but it seems evident that a leading role for Turkey would be one of the best guarantees of success. Many Turkish officials have expressed a desire for greater Turkish engagement in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Ankara has signaled Washington’s support for Turkey’s role in the Middle East, and EU officials have seconded that support. The time seems ripe to build on these initiatives in order to keep the Middle East process active even as Brussels and Washington are preoccupied with immediate concerns closer to home.

Abbas Djavadi is associate director of broadcasting with RFE/RL. The views expressed in this commentary, which is a summary of an address he gave at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Metropolitan University, Prague) are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Source: www.rferl.org, March 17, 2009

March 17, 2009
”AGGRIEVED DARWIN” PROPAGANDA IS A TRICK

A new piece of propaganda has recently entered the agenda in the Turkish and international pro-Darwinist press. It has persistently been claimed that reports about Darwin are censored and that “science is therefore under pressure.” Under headlines such as “They have sent Darwin to the shredder,” the Darwinist dictatorship tries to give the world the impression that Darwinism is being “aggrieved.”

But THIS IS AN UGLY TRICK BEING PLAYED BY THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP.

For some two centuries now, Darwinism has been under the protection of freemasons and atheist zionists, who first proposed it. This heretical ideology enjoys official protection in 95% of the states of the world. It is officially taught in schools. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES AIMED AGAINST OFFICIALLY PROTECTED DARWINISM ARE PREVENTED THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS. Even the most dangerous ideologies – fascism and communism – can be criticized. But it is impossible to criticize Darwinism. One can only find work in official institutions or get on in school by appearing to espouse Darwinism. Otherwise, the Darwinist dictatorship immediately goes to work. People who speak out against it are silenced, pressurized, removed from their posts and deprived of all resources. This fact, which has been repeated time and time again, IS SHAMELESSLY AND BLATANTLY APPLIED BY DARWINISTS.

Senior professors hurriedly removed from their posts for supporting the fact of Creation.

The world’s greatest and highest-ranking universities are Darwinist. The world’s best-known publishing organs and scientific journals are Darwinist. Laws in Christian European countries frequently place Darwinism under close protection. Darwinist masonic lodges have entered all institutions, schools and universities, and have enshrined the religion of Darwinism there. DARWINISM IS THE ONLY IDEOLOGY IMPOSED AND DETERMINEDLY PROTECTED ACROSS THE WORLD.

The Darwinist dictatorship has established such a dictatorship that not only official institutions and schools but also religious institutions have had to submit to this pressure. The way that churches have apologized to Darwin and that the Vatican has been pressurized into leading the way for Darwinist conferences are the results of this.

Under the dominion of the Darwinist dictatorship, there is no permission for the fact of Creation to be taught, to appear in scientific publications or even to be discussed. The Atlas of Creation is full of thousands of fossils, meaning thousands of pieces of scientific evidence. Yet not one of these appears in Darwinist publications, which appear under a guise of being scientific. Because since this scientific evidence proves Creation it is banned by the Darwinist dictatorship, which is itself run by the freemasons. Even the teaching of Creations in schools is aggressively prevented. The Darwinist dictatorship is afraid of students learning about the fact of Creation and does all in its power to prevent it.

The way that attempts are made use the idea of “aggrieved Darwin” to give the impression that Darwinists are being aggrieved IS A HUGE FRAUD AND TRICKERY. The Darwinist dictatorship intends to use this trick to muster support. This ideology, which cannot be questioned, rejected or criticized anywhere in the world, which dominates all official institutions and which constantly appears as a joke element in scientific publications, IS BY NO MEANS AGGRIEVED. This trickery is intended to lay the foundation for the deceptive idea that “Darwin has been censored on his 200th anniversary, so greater coverage needs to be given him.” The aim is to ensure greater Darwinist propaganda by hiding behind the idea of “You are under pressure, so we must give Darwin coverage.” This is a false, cheap and ugly trick, aimed against our public in order for Darwin to be brought onto the agenda time and time again.

But what matters is this: They can talk about Darwinism as much as they like, the result will still be the same. It was easy to deceive people with Darwinist lies before they had seen the truth. But people are now aware of the Atlas of Creation. All they need is to be aware of a few fossils within it. LIVING THINGS HAVE NEVER CHANGED. ONE HUNDRED MILLION FOSSILS PROVE THE FACT THAT living things have never changed in any way over millions of years. BUT THERE EXISTS NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL that might confirm Darwinism. In the absence of intermediate fossils, Darwinism has collapsed and it is no longer possible to espouse such a theory. That is the reason for the Darwinist panic not to allow Creation into schools and the way that proponents of Creation in official institutions are immediately silenced. Their aim is to prevent the emergence of evidence that proves Creation and discredits evolution. But with the Atlas of Creation their worst fears have come true.

PEOPLE NOW KNOW THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. They have now seen the Sun. Closing the curtains and saying ‘It is dark outside’ is not going to convince them. Everyone, even those who say “I support evolution,” is aware of one thing in the face of the scientific evidence: DARWINISM IS DEAD!

Mar 17, 2009

Source:

March 17, 2009
Turkey’s New Mission

Shlomo Ben-Ami

TEL AVIV – Ever since Turkey’s establishment as a republic, the country has oscillated between the Western-oriented heritage of its founder, Kemal Ataturk, and its eastern, Ottoman legacy. Never resolved, modern Turkey’s deep identity complex is now shaking its strategic alliances and recasting its regional and global role. Indeed, Turkey’s changing perception of itself has shaped its so-far frustrated drive to serve as a peace broker between Israel and its Arab enemies, Syria and Hamas.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s missionary zeal to replace Egypt as the essential regional mediator, and his violent tirades against Israel’s behavior in Gaza, looks to many people like an attempt to recover Turkey’s Ottoman-era role as the guarantor of regional peace and security. Its credentials for this role in the Middle East are by no means negligible.

Turkey is a true regional superpower, with one of the largest armies in the world. At the same time, it is the only Muslim country that, while no less worried than Israel about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, can maintain excellent economic and political relations with Iran, regardless of American displeasure. Of course, Syria is Iran’s ally, too, but no country in the region has the leverage with it that Turkey possesses. And Turkey’s diplomatic reach in the region is also reflected in its recent signing of a friendship treaty with Saudi Arabia, while maintaining excellent relations with Pakistan and Iraq.

Europe’s persistence in snubbing Turkey’s attempts to join the European Union, the rise of violent anti-Western popular sentiment in the wake of the Iraq war, and strained relations with the US – owing in part to the forthcoming Armenian Genocide Act – are major factors in Turkey’s change of direction. The civilizing efforts that Ataturk’s revolution directed inward and in favor of disengagement from the Arab and Muslim worlds are now being revisited. The Turkey of Erdogan’s dominant Justice and Development Party (AKP) appears to be seeking a new mission civilisatrice , with the Middle East and the former Soviet republics as its alternative horizons.

The uneasy challenge for Turkey is to secure its newfound regional role without betraying Ataturk’s democratic legacy. Turkish democracy and secular values have been greatly enhanced by the country’s dialogue with Europe and its American ties. Turkey can be a model for Middle Eastern countries if, while promoting its regional strategic and economic interests, it resists the authoritarian temptation and continues to show that Islam and democracy are fully compatible.

For Israel, the long overdue message is that its future in the Middle East does not lie in strategic alliances with the region’s non-Arab powers, but in reconciling itself with the Arab world. In the 1960’s, David Ben-Gurion’s fatalistic pessimism about the possibility of ever reaching a peace settlement with the Arab countries led him to forge an “Alliance of the Periphery” with the non-Arab countries in the outer circle of the Middle East – Iran, Ethiopia, and Turkey (he also dreamed of having Lebanon’s Maronite community as part of that alliance).

All of these countries did not have any particular dispute with Israel, and all, to varying degrees, had tense relations with their Arab neighbors. The myth of Israel’s military power, resourcefulness in economic and agricultural matters, and an exaggerated perception of its unique capacity to lobby and influence American policy combined to make the Israeli connection especially attractive to these countries.

The “Alliance of the Periphery” was a creative attempt to escape the consequences of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It reflected the yearning of the Jewish state to unleash its creative energies in economic and social matters, as it created space for an independent, imaginative foreign policy that was not linked to, or conditioned by, the paralyzing constraints of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Shlomo Ben Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister who now serves as vice-president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace, is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.

But the security that this scheme was supposed to produce could never really be achieved; the centrality of the Arab-Israeli conflict could not be attenuated. The Arabs’ capacity to maintain their pressure on Israel and to keep world opinion focused on the Palestinians’ plight made Israel’s quest for evading the consequences of the conflict, either through periodic wars or by forging alternative regional alliances, a futile exercise.

The Islamic revolution in Iran, the changes in Ethiopia following the end of Haile Selassie’s rule, the collapse of Maronite Lebanon, and Hezbollah’s takeover of that country left Turkey as the last remaining member of Israel’s Alliance of the Periphery. Turkey’s powerful military establishment may want to maintain close relations with Israel, but the widely popular change in Turkey’s foreign policy priorities, and the serious identity dilemmas facing the nation, send an unequivocal message that the alliance can no longer serve as an alternative to peace with the Arab world. From now on, it can only be complementary to such a peace.

Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Israeli foreign minister who now serves as the vice-president of the Toledo International Center for Peace. He is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.

© Project Syndicate 1995-2009

Source: www.guatemala-times.com, 03 March 2009

March 5, 2009