All Policy Analysis by David Schenker

Yesterday, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Yasir Arafat met with Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the Syria-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The meeting, which took place in Cairo, was the first between the estranged leaders in six years. Hawatmeh has been a waning force in Palestinian politics for

As Yasir Arafat seeks to unify secular Palestinian groups in advance of expected "final-status" talks--highlighted by his meeting this week in Cairo with representatives of George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)--important developments are also underway among Islamists. The main drama is being acted out in Jordan

President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak have vowed to recreate the personal partnership and strategic coordination that characterized the late Yitzhak Rabin's term of office. On the Palestinian track, however, much has happened since 1996 to change the nature of the Oslo process. New agreements -- over Hebron

On March 10, the Palestinian judicial system sentenced yet another security official to death -- the fourth such sentence in the past six months. That was an ironic way to end a week of festivities celebrating Palestinian democratic achievements, which had been kicked off by the Palestinian Authority's (PA) first

March 8, 1999, marks the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Syrian "revolution" -- the coup d'etat that installed the Ba'th Party as the preeminent force in Syrian politics. This anniversary comes just one month after Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad was re-elected to his fifth seven-year term of office, which will end

With media attention focused on the fractious nature of Israeli politics in advance of Israel's May elections, little attention is paid to the fractious nature of Palestinians politics, which could also witness a governmental overhaul in May. Whether or not the fateful date of May 4 passes with a Palestinian

As President Clinton prepares to depart later this week for Gaza to deliver an unprecedented address before members of the Palestine National Council, the looming issues of Palestinian Authority (PA) compliance and implementation of the security provisions detailed in the Wye River Memorandum have once again become the focus of

When Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian chief negotiator Mahmud Abbas met to discuss final status negotiations this week, one key player was absent: Jordan. But if the Jordanians' role was essential to bring the Wye River talks to closure, their participation in reaching a solution to the more

Today's meeting between Taliban representatives and U.S. officials to discuss the extradition of Osama Bin Ladin highlights the centrality of state-sponsorship and official safe-haven extended to the Saudi terrorist and his organization. In September and early October, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, unsealed two documents in

As Ambassador Dennis Ross begins a diplomatic mission to resurrect the dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, inside the Palestinian Authority, reverberations are still being felt from one of the most important political developments to take place since the PA's founding -- the Authority's first judicial executions. These executions, along with the

The August 20 bombing of Osama bin Laden's terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the alleged bin Laden-funded chemical weapons production facility in Khartoum, was a decisive and appropriate U.S. response to the atrocities in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and President Bill Clinton should be commended. Although Washington has, in

The U.S. cruise missile attacks on the Sudanese chemical weapons precursor plant and the Afghanistan terrorist camps raises questions about the future direction of U.S. policy on several fronts: the emphasis on state linkages to terrorism, the means used to counter proliferation, the role of law enforcement and military force

Saudi terrorist financier Osama bin Laden has posed a significant problem for the United States for some time. The extradition from Pakistan to Kenya this past weekend of Mohammad Saddiq Odeh, a reported Bin Laden associate, heightened speculation Bin Laden was involved in funding and planning the attacks on the

In the aftermath of the August 8, 1998, bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the United States has initiated investigation into who was responsible for the attacks, which wounded nearly 5,000 persons and killed 200, including 12 Americans. These bombings required extensive in-country infrastructure, logistical support and