Inter Press Service

..."A ceasefire means more than stopping fire," said former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. "For Palestinians, it means actually being able to breathe and opening up the economy."... "Any effective truce will further enhance the sense of the futility of [U.S.-led] negotiations even though an improved security environment will create a more promising backdrop to those talks," said Daniel Levy... LINK

... "[Keeping the two-state solution alive] means saying it's all about settlements, it's all about not further eroding the situation in the territories, not further allowing the creation of an infrastructure of occupation," said former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, during a panel on Capitol Hill Monday sponsored by the New America Foundation think-tank.

"To the extent to which [a shelf agreement] is still part of the narrative of this administration, that is what should actually be shelved," he said, adding that Bush's vision was… more

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. . . "This is more and more becoming a Sunni-Shi'a conflict. It really does feel like Iraq," said journalist Nir Rosen in a conference call with analysts and reporters at the New American Foundation.

"Sunni militias, backed by the Future Movement, formed over the last year, and have been a complete failure, perhaps because they were fighting for money. They just disappeared and caused a great sense of betrayal and shock among Sunnis," said Rosen,… more

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. . . "These Sunni militiamen proved a complete failure, and America's proxies in Lebanon barely put up a fight despite their strident anti-Shiite rhetoric," noted Nir Rosen, a regional expert at the New America Foundation who described Hezbollah's offensive as "the death throes of the Bush plan for the 'New Middle East'."

"Now it is clear that Beirut is firmly in the hands of Hezbollah, and nothing the Americans can do will dislodge or weaken this popular… more

Pakistan: U.S. Reactions to Pakistani Election Results Are Mixed (Inter Press Service News)

..."[The Islamist parties] have been replaced by secular Pashtun nationalist parties who are hostile to the Taliban and who, at a minimum, will not allow the institutions of these provincial governments to be used by collaborators of the Taliban," Steve Coll, a South Asia expert and president of the New America Foundation, told an interviewer on public television Tuesday.

..."There is this notion that if… more

Super Tuesday Leaves Bruising Battles Ahead (Inter Press Service News)

"The Democratic Party can't tell what it wants to be," Steve Clemons, a political blogger and head of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, told IPS. ...

"[McCain] is likely to do a deal with Mike Huckabee and bring evangelicals along with Huckabee at the VP [vice president] ticket," said Clemons.

U.S./Cuba: Justice Not So Blind in Politically Charged Cases (Inter Press Service News)

...At an event last week, Leonard Weinglass, an attorney for the agents -- who are better known as the "Cuban Five" -- argued that the tough treatment given his clients exposed hypocrisy in the so-called "war on terror". Speaking at the New America Foundation, a centrist Washington think tank, he sought to contrast the treatment of his clients with that of Luis Posada Carriles and… more

War on Terror Moves East (Article by IPS's Jim Lobe in Asia Times) "The F-16s really can't be used for counter-insurgency in FATA," according to Steve Coll, author of the prize-winning history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and al Qaeda from 1979 to 9/11, "Ghost Wars" and president of the New America Foundation (NAF). "The F-16s are a symbol of what has been wrong with U.S. aid to Pakistan."  ...

"It would be political suicide for a Pakistani leader… more

Amid growing contention among Democratic presidential contenders about U.S. policy toward Iran, a senior Republican lawmaker has appealed to President George W. Bush to pursue "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks" with Tehran.

The appeal, which was sent to Bush by Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel two weeks ago, noted that Washington's diplomatic efforts to use economic pressure to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear programme were "stalling" amid "growing differences with our international partners" that are likely to continue widening.

"Unless there… more

A bipartisan group of eightformer top U.S. policy-makers sent a letter to President George W. Bush Wednesday, urging him to make sure that Arab states that do not currently recognize Israel will nevertheless participate in next month's Israeli-Palestinian conference.

The conference, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 15 in Annapolis, Md., should establish and endorse the contours of a permanent peace accord, according to the policy-makers.

Their letter also urged Bush to use the conference to launch Israeli-Syrian peace talks… more