With a substantial demand of military hardware, the conflict-ridden Middle East has become one of the most significant regions in the world’s arms market. Guests: 1. Dr. Ely Karmon, Senior researcher – The Institute for Counter Terrorism, IDC Herzliyah 2. Dr. Nir Boms – Research fellow, The Moshe Dayan center at Tel Aviv University Analyst: Amir Oren
Category Archives: Europe and the Middle East
A Moment of Truth in Geneva?
Tomorrow, February 15 2010, and for the first time since the 1979 revolution, the UN will review the human rights record of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The UPR (Universal Periodic Review) is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States. This recent UN tradition started in 2006 following the growing criticism of the lack of attention given to human rights at the UN. In response, the Human Rights Council was established. And now comes its first moment of truth.
Iran has been oppressed by the rule of tyranny since its birth in 1979 as an Islamic republic. Since then and despite countless attempts to condemn Iran for its gross violations of human rights and its persistent failure to amend its laws and actions, the human rights record in Iran remains deplorable and abysmal. Iran is in constant breach of international treaties and conventions that its government has ratified, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 (ICCPR); Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (CRC); and the customary binding declaration, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (UDHR).
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Europe’s Misspent Influence
By NIR BOMS
April 21, 2005 Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111405417240212947,00.html
“Politics is about changing things,” Javier Solana recently said, emphasizing that Europe has a leading role to play in promoting democracy in the world and particularly the Middle East.
Such rhetoric coming out of Europe begins to sound similar to President George W. Bush’s own vision of a “Greater Middle East”. Stressing the use of their “soft power,” Europeans like to make the point that they have long championed reforms and democracy in the region. Continue reading
Europe’s Core Values
Europeans need to initiate dialogue on core values in order to define identity
Terry Newman, Nir Boms
Europe is rapidly growing. Facing immigration, new member states and continued enlargement talks, Europe finds itself asking an old question again: What is Europe about? The answer has to do with values – with core European values that need to be expressed in the positive in order for them to be a driving force in a renewing Europe.
Europe needs to initiate dialogue on its core values in order to define and defend acceptable interpretations from the vulgar. Without this dialogue, words like tolerance, individual freedoms or respect for reason might lose some of their meaning. The label on the wine bottle will stay but the wine will go sour.