Emmanuel Sivan

One can learn a lot about the liberal circles that have emerged from the revolutions in the Arab world from a cultural journal that began publication just before the uprisings started.

What are the roots of France's Muslim anti-Semitism, and how much danger are the country's Jews really facing? Ben Simon's new book reports from the field.

Though it was made almost 40 years ago, 'The Battle of Algiers' has been released anew for screening in the U.S. and Europe. The film, depicting the Algerian resistance to the French occupation, has made a comeback as a result of the intifada, the war in Iraq and world-wide terror.

"Culture, Civilization and Humanity" by Tarek Heggy, Frank Cass, 392 pages, £35.00.

"Dolphinarium: Terror Targets the Young," edited by Dmitry Radyshevsky and Polina Limpert, translated into English by David Gurevich and into Hebrew by Yelena Notkevitch, published by the Mikhail Chernoy Foundation, 138 pages, donations NIS 50.

A kind of collective political biography with a nod to psychology, tracing the nucleus of political power of an emerging nation

As defense minister, Barak surely realizes that if the 1990-92 crisis was the lowest point in our relations with the Americans since the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the situation today is much worse.

People on the street have no reliable info, unsurprisingly their impression is based merely on gut feeling.

Engineers are characterized by a greater intolerance of uncertainty, a quality evident among extremists.

Thirty years ago, Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said published his highly influential book 'Orientalism' in which he accused Middle Eastern studies of being nothing more than a tool in the hands of imperialism.

It is clear to the United States that the response on the North Korea issue is a presentation of objectives regarding Iran as well, for good or ill.

The committee, Marcus says, will be harsh in its judgment of the prime minister for "the rashness and lack of judgment that characterized Ehud Olmert."

This is the real story of Annapolis: a story of fierce personal emotions, disappointment, affront and desperation.

The Baath slogan "Syria as the focus of Arabism" has been painted by Assad with Muslim colors. Will this bolster his weakened legitimacy? Time will tell.

And over all these problems hovers a dark cloud, the Iranian menace controlled by a "Safawiyya regime," a blunt hint to the Safavid Dynasty that forcibly converted the previously Sunni Iran into a Shi'ite nation.

This last Jewish year saw a number of our country's leaders under suspicion and investigation and a few more indicted or convicted.

Ze'ev Schiff was a critical patriot who saw the social strength of a country under siege, imposed on the bases of truth and transparency. A man of the world and a son rooted in the country in which he grew up. What a shame he is gone.

In the Middle East as a whole, the discovery of the scope of the underground tunnel network in southern Lebanon and the pace of Hezbollah's rocket stockpiling have shaken the very foundations of the leaderships in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Emirates.

Inspired by the "caveat emptor" principle of Roman law, which sounds a note of caution for potential buyers, media consumers should heed the unwritten warning, "Reader beware."

Carrying out the disengagement is in Israel's interest because of the mess that the Jewish settlement policy in Gaza has brought it. In this context, Egypt is taking limited steps, which are dictated by interests of its own, while at the same time not decreasing the severity of the anti-Semitic attacks in its media.

If the United States has failed in its crusade to bring democracy to our region, it's only because it has ignored the lessons of the process of democratization in 19th century Europe.

The strategy of Al-Qaida, like that of European revolutionary terror at the end of the 19th century and in the 1970s, is based on a principle of "propaganda through deeds."

Ideas such as those held by Mohammed Atta and his supporters have been disseminated for at least a decade in pamphlets and audiotapes sold without interference in Islamic book stores and next to mosques in Europe. An ill wind is blowing among the Muslim circles in Europe. That is where the main problem lies, not in the hills of Afghanistan.

Even in terms of Realpolitik is it not in our interest to avoid a situation in which we have living on our border in overcrowded conditions a populace that lacks land reserves because we stole them from it?

The late Yehoshafat Harkabi, a former head of MI, used to say that the danger that lurks for every intelligence organization is the danger of the "cork": The head or heads of the organization makes himself/themselves its sole representative/representatives. He/they seal/s the fermenting bottle of which he/they is/are in charge.

Spain can withdraw its soldiers from Iraq, Miguel Moratinos can work on a solution to the conflict in the Middle East, and Spanish intellectuals can sing about the Christian-Muslim symbiosis that ostensibly existed in Middle Ages Andalusia. Yet none of this offers any remedy to the bitterness of the Moroccan immigrant exploited by his Spanish employers, rejected by his environment and often attacked.

The disengagement plan may end the draw in a conflict that is poisoning our lives. The fact that the initiative would be carried out by the father of the settlement enterprise would only grant it added validity.

The maintenance and consolidation of the settlements - as in the case of Netzarim - were made possible not only by the religious-pioneering idealism of their founders, but also, and indeed mainly, thanks to massive investments by Israel's governments.

The creation of a culture of the rule of law is not something that happens overnight. But precisely the media transparency in which the soldiers of the U.S. Army are acting could be helpful here, even if it is oppressive to the administration of President George W. Bush.