October 31, 2012

In-depth

Washington’s Failure to Rein in UNRWA

Writing in Algemeiner, Asaf Romirowsky takes aim at the U.S. for the failure to implement the original plan to resettle Palestinian refugees.

In all these efforts, the concerns of the Palestine Arab refugees, as opposed to the interests of the West and Arab states, were pushed to the background. The envisioned $200 million from U.N. resolution 513 (VI) did not materialize. Reintegration, whether construed as resettlement or public works, was effectively dead, and UNRWA would henceforth concentrate on relief and later, in the 1960s, on education. A changing geostrategic situation in the Middle East, which included rising Egyptian nationalism and pan-Arabist fantasies, culminated in the 1956 Suez war, a conflict that, for the most part, ended sweeping regional development schemes by the West. 

Plus ça change, Egyptian Style

Cairo's hold over human rights NGOs operating in Egypt has not changed with the arrival of a democratically elected government, writes Ashraf Khalil in the American Interest. 

Some things still haven’t changed in Egypt, including the government’s obsession with controlling the local NGO community—and especially any kind of overseas funding its members might receive. In a very real sense, Egyptian history is repeating itself. Once again local NGOs and civil society groups are scrambling to make their budgets in the face of a bureaucracy that seems determined to choke off international funding. The problem, it turns out, wasn’t just Mubarak or his ministers; it was, and remains, a deeply entrenched security state and government bureaucracy that continues to view NGOs, and particularly human rights organizations, with hostility and suspicion.

Daily Digest

• Times of Israel: Israeli strike on Iran would be a relief to the Middle East, Netanyahu tells French paper
• Haaretz: Winds in Tehran are starting to shift
• Jerusalem Post: US Jewish groups launch hurricane recovery fund
• Ynet: 22 foreign groups call for EU ban on Israeli settler products
• New York Times: Israeli Defense Chief Says Iran Postponed Nuclear Ambitions
• Washington Post: Lingering questions about Benghazi
• Wall Street Journal: In Iran, Stocks Are a Haven As Economy Hits the Skids

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