I HAVE NEVER visited Bethlehem during normal times. I have never seen the city crowded with tourists. In fact, I have probably seen more Israeli soldiers at its checkpoints than pilgrims in Manger Square. My first visit was in 1997, just after Israel had sealed off the West Bank and[…]

THERE are many things that are misunderstood about the so-called “civil war” raging in the sands of Libya. Even if Gaddafi is stopped tomorrow and there is ceasefire, my fear is that the false impressions will remain. Firstly, the term “civil war” is misleading, because in reality “civil war” means[…]

The Libyan Diaries – Day One: A Journey Begins THE SUN sets in Giza as we drive out of Cairo, a Cairo that has changed after the 18-day uprising that unseated President Hosni Mubarak, ruler supreme for over 30 years. “There’s a nur (a light) here in Egypt now,” says[…]

THE streets of Old Jerusalem are labyrinthine. Their cobbled lanes hark back to an age when donkey-carts had right of way. Today, Israeli soldiers in olive-green fatigues patrol the Old City’s tangled shadows. And as quaint and peaceful as they may seem, and as normal as life may appear on[…]

MY visit to Libya in the late 1990’s was as Kafka-esque as the life and times of its then Brother Leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. It was in the era of the Lockerbie bombing sanctions, and getting to Libya was no camel ride. I’d been invited to attend a media conference[…]

IT has been many years since I last attended the State of the Nation address at Parliament. It was my first 7 pm session, and on this sultry February afternoon as I arrived for media accreditation, the usual blustery Cape Doctor had backed off from blowing everything away. As the[…]

THE poor will be the people of Paradise. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who was born poverty-stricken – and who lived a life of poverty out of choice – made a prayer that he would be raised amongst the poor on Resurrection Day. Of course, Islam has never scorned honourably earned[…]

IMAGES on Al-Jazeera of Egypt’s National Democratic Party’s headquarters going up in flames were of a Cairo I’d never seen before. The buzzing crowds on the corniche, trying to tip a troop carrier into the river, were not taking in the air for fun. For on most cool January winter[…]

WHEN Tunisia’s dictator of 23 years, Zine Abidine Ben Ali, scurried off into exile with over a ton of gold looted from the Banque de Tunisie worth 62 million dollars, the Arab world shook. Muammar Ghadaffi, Libya’s eccentric but oligarchic “Brother Leader” of 42 years, dispatched two fighter jets to[…]