UN not joined up but still being asked to do difficult things

Posted on May 10, 2007 | Elizabeth Sellwood | More on Conflict and security, Middle East, Terrorism | Comments Off

Noah Pollak’s National Review article, posted on Michael Totten’s blog today, reminds me of our internal debates during the Lebanon war last summer (when I was working for the UN) about peacekeeping options for south Lebanon.
Pollak’s article, subtitled “The UN organisation is ineffective as it is unaccountable” is a standard piece of UN-bashing. Pollak argues [...]

A bit more on van Creveld’s lessons

Posted on April 29, 2007 | Elizabeth Sellwood | More on Middle East, News, Terrorism | Comments Off

People involved with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - particularly Brits - tend to get a bit anxious when one compares it with Northern Ireland. Having read Alex’s post on van Creveld’s lessons from Northern Ireland (especially points four, five and six), however, I can’t ignore comments made today by the Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff, [...]

Palestinian democracy

Posted on April 27, 2007 | Elizabeth Sellwood | More on Middle East, News | Comments Off

Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with the Financial Times this week, was invited to reflect on the dilemmas of promoting democracy in the Middle East. Would the Bush administration continue to push for democratic elections, Rice was asked, even though it was now having to deal with elected militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine? Rice [...]

Schools not bombs?

Posted on April 24, 2007 | Elizabeth Sellwood | More on Middle East, News | Comments Off

Yesterday, in Jerusalem, the acting President of Israel Dalia Itzik offered some advice to Israel’s enemies on the 59th anniversary of Israel’s independence: “Our advice to you is replace your Katyushas and Qassams with computers and loving education, the smile of a boy that has a future, and neighbourliness”.
On the same day, in Gaza, Hamas’s [...]