Articles

The war in Ukraine continues to be at the center of a wide-ranging debate, fueled in part by near-daily bombardments targeting key nerve centers on both sides, and more specifically the Russian and Ukrainian capitals. To better understand the various dimensions of this long-standing conflict, it is necessary to revisit the background and origins of what led to this (fratricidal?) war — examining the motivations and aspirations of the various parties involved, including the West (the United States and Europe, extended to all NATO member states with the exception of Turkey) — and also to recall the early stages of the Russian offensive and the failed attempts to achieve peace, or at least negotiations, bearing in mind that responsibility in this context is shared by many.

This Tuesday marks the sixth round of direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli delegations, held this time in a European capital — Rome — rather than Washington. From the very first day, an initial breakthrough: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced from Jerusalem that Israel is ready to "move forward" with the implementation of two "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, according to AFP. However, under the terms of the June 26 framework agreement, implementation of the zones must begin with an Israeli withdrawal. He described the process, led under US auspices, as the "only way forward." Also according to AFP, the Lebanese delegation "was instructed to demand the immediate start of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from two pilot zones before any further discussion," the Lebanese presidency had indicated on Monday evening.

In the second chapter of this series of texts on the grand sweep of History and the story of my son, Raphael, The Time of Repetition, the Time of Acceleration , I explored the return of the discourse of civilizational supremacy inherited from the sixteenth century, and its embrace by the advocates of a new civilization in which technologies such as artificial intelligence are destined to matter more than human beings. Yet in its cautiously optimistic conclusion, the text returned to Lav Diaz’s film Magellan and to the director’s decision to portray the figure of the Filipinos’ victorious resistance against the conquistadors, Lapu-Lapu, as though he were a specter rather than a historical figure who had truly existed.

On Monday, July 13, Yemen is dominating the regional news agenda as the fragile truce reached in April 2022 is coming under intense strain following an Iranian power play that has reignited the Yemeni front. This military gambit is attribuable to the continuing escalation in the conflict between Tehran and Washington, after the United States decided to reinstate the blockade it had previously imposed on Iranian ports. Specifically, the Yemeni government carried out strikes on the runways of Sanaa International Airport, which is under Houthi control, in an attempt to prevent an Iranian aircraft carrying a delegation from the Iran-backed Shiite group from landing. The delegation was returning from Tehran, where it had attended the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Despite repeated warnings from Yemeni authorities, who had instructed the group to return aboard a flight operated by Yemenia, the country’s national carrier, the delegation insisted on flying back on the Iranian aircraft, even though Yemeni airspace is closed to Iranian aviation. The aircraft nonetheless continued its flight despite the government’s objections, but reportedly landed in Hodeidah, the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port city in western Yemen.

“Why Did You Stop Writing?” I’ve been asked that question several times lately. I picked up my phone and asked Michel: “How do you write when you’re numb?” “One letter at a time,” he replied. And so the letters began to scatter across my imagination. I watched them come into being, only to refuse to become words. They gathered before me, never quite finding their place. Do you know how many words are born, one letter at a time? These very words are being written and read at this very moment. You and I bring the same words into existence. Time alone separates us. They are born and they die within the same breath. Between the one who writes and the one who reads, there may be nothing except that fleeting moment when they meet in a single word.

The funeral of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was one of the largest state funerals ever held in the Middle East. Popular emotion overwhelmed the official ceremony, transforming it into a spontaneous farewell as immense crowds accompanied their leader’s coffin to its final resting place in 1970. In November 2004, three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia, bid farewell to the Palestinian symbol Yasir Arafat. Paris honored him with the dignity reserved for monarchs, Cairo welcomed Palestine, while in Ramallah every official arrangement was overtaken by the sheer weight of popular grief. Palestinians carried the coffin on their own shoulders, their eyes overflowing with tears for the man who had forged their national identity. His passing was rendered even more poignant by Ariel Sharon’s reference to “the hand of fate.” The Palestinian people answered with unmistakable defiance: “Do not rejoice. Justice is on our side.”