Category: Writing and publishing

Note on my Inbar interview

I have just written up and posted onto this blog a lengthy account of the interview I conducted with Efraim Inbar here in Jerusalem, on Sunday. I did it in the form of more or less straight news reporting, though with occasional injections of the first person– mainly, as a way to keep the account as lively and ‘immediate’ as possible. It does not contain my commentary, and has precious little analysis in it, either.
I wrote it in this form so that it could be republished as widely as possible as a useful account/exploration of the thinking of someone whose assessments will almost certainly be consulted by Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu once he has completed his task of coalition formation.
Commentary can come later.
Just two requests to anyone who does decide to republish the interview, whether in English or any language: First, as with all the material on JWN, this is published under a Creative Commons license, which means you must give full attribution to me and JWN (preferably with a link to JWN), and you can only freely republish it in not-for-profit contexts; for republication in any other context, a prior agreement on terms must be concluded with me.
Secondly, I’d really appreciate it if anyone republishing this could drop me a note telling me where else it’s appeared, if possible with a link to that other platform. Thanks!

My IPS pieces on a new blog; JWN blogiversary

A big thanks to readers who offered to help me aggregate and archive my developing corpus of weekly IPS news analyses!
However, once I sat down and thought about the task, I figured it would be just about as easy for me to do what I wanted as to explain to someone what it was I envisaged.
So after about 90 mins work, here it is!
I have been interested in doing this both for my own use– a handy archive I can draw on at will– as well as, as a service to other readers.
For example, there may well be lots of people interested in reading these weekly updates who might not have the energy to plow through the many, often idiosyncratic and varied (some might say scattershot) things that I publish here at JWN. Hard to believe, I know; but I’ve heard that might be the case… So if you know such people, you could just recommend they go over and check out the new blog. Even better, they could subscribe to its RSS feed.
Just one small warning: the appearance of that other blog may yet change radically. Im still playing with the “themes” there. So just don’t be surprised if it suddenly looks very different. The content will still be the same.
Another reason I chose to do the aggregating in that way, and in that place, is because I’m thinking I might migrate JWN over to WordPress sometime. It would be no big difference for you readers, since I’d keep the same now-venerable JWN domain name. So doing the new blog there gave me a bit of a feel for what it’s like editing and publishing in WordPress. Not too bad– though I don’t yet see how to do “Extended entries” there.
By the way, while we’re on the subject of new and old blogs, do you realize my sixth blogiversary here at JWN came and went on Feb. 6th and I didn’t even remember till now!!! That’s so sad. I’ve had a lot of other ‘versaries to think about so far this month: my son’s 31st, one daughter’s 30th, and my sister-in-law’s– well, okay, Emmy, I shan’t tell the whole world which of your birthdays that was. But many happy returns to all of you, and to JWN, anyway.
Gosh, I published that inaugura.l. post, Powell’s Poor UN Presentation six weeks before GWB invaded Iraq. What a lot has happened since then.

At IPS: ‘Mideast: A truce too big to fail?’

My latest news analysis for IPS, “Mideast, a truce too big to fail?”, went up on their website yesterday.
Doing these weekly pieces for them is an interesting experience so far. It provides a kind of running record of the “big” developments each week, as I see them, in Middle East war-and-peace issues. I think I need to find a way to aggregate them, and am trying to figure out the best way to do that. For now, maybe just paste each one as it comes out into either a special blog or a special category on this blog?
I truly don’t have time to do this right now. If anyone wants to volunteer to help, could you contact me? Thanks!

IPS articles from Syria and Washington, DC

I’ve been really busy these past couple of weeks– plus, figuring out too much new technology. So, to catch up a little, here are the last two pieces of News Analysis that I wrote for IPS:

Read and enjoy. Or not; it’s up to you.

My piece in the CSM on ending the Iraqi & Afghan wars

Here it is in today’s paper. (It’s also archived here.)
The headline is good (if not terribly snappy… but then, who needs snappy?): The U.N. can end these wars: It alone has enough clout to bring about peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the body of the piece I write:

    [V]ictory in Iraq and Afghanistan … will depend on defeating or defanging antigovernment insurgencies and helping midwife a governing system that:

      • Enjoys domestic political “legitimacy,” that is, it has the support of the vast majority of the country’s citizens,
      • Is sustainably able to deliver public security and other basic services to citizens throughout the whole country, and
      • Has the tools to resolve in nonviolent ways the still-unresolved and yet-to-emerge conflicts among its citizens.

    What we don’t want is a replay of what happened in Vietnam, where the US declared “victory” but then withdrew humiliatingly, under fire, leaving the victors free to enact brutal retribution against our former allies.
    Only one body can provide the leadership that’s needed to defeat the insurgencies in both Iraq and – over a longer time frame – Afghanistan. That is the United Nations. Though it’s far from a perfect institution, only the UN has the vital quality of worldwide legitimacy that allows it to mobilize global resources and expertise and make the tough decisions required in these two countries.
    Regarding Iraq, we need to ask the UN to urgently convene two negotiating forums. One would sort out the thorny political dilemmas that remain inside the country. The other would bring together Iraq, all its neighbors, the US, and perhaps also the Arab League to agree on a plan for the drawdown – or total withdrawal – of US forces in a way that will not result in Iraq’s neighbors moving in to exploit the resulting vacuum.
    Americans have a similar need for a greatly increased UN leadership in Afghanistan…

Anyway, go read the whole thing and tell me what you think.

HC writings on Hamas, 2006-2008

One strategy you can always pursue is to check out my writings on Hamas, both those published here on JWN and (links to) those published elsewhere, by going to the JWN main page and doing a site search for “Hamas” in the search box on the right
sidebar.

But here are some of my key writings on Hamas from March 2006 through
June 2008: