The way government is supposed to work
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson hails the recent expansion of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as a bipartisan “legislative and moral victory.” Leaders in the Senate and House, like Joe Biden and Howard Berman, overcame the cynicism and tension in Congress during this divisive election year and delivered meaningful progress in America’s commitment to public health. According to Gerson, “This is the way government is supposed to work.”
In a similar vein, the USA Today column Common Ground debates the virtues of T. Boone Pickens’ bipartisan plan for energy independence. Without cooperation, Pickens has argued, the energy crisis will only worsen; “This has to be a bipartisan effort.”
Could peace break out for Israel and Syria?
Janine Zacharia of the International Herald Tribune explores the mutual strategic interests Israel and Syria have to make peace. Though the two states have been at a diplomatic standstill for eight years, there has been mounting “political will” towards resolution – Israel stands to gain from severed Syrian-Iranian ties and the cessation of Syria arms dealing with Hizbollah; Syria’s economy desperately needs US sanctions to end (echoes an article in today’s New York Times). Thus, perhaps now Israel and Syria can recognize their shared paths to peace and embrace a mutually beneficial solution.
On the heels of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia’s interfaith conference in Madrid earlier this month, Yale University is hosting a “Common Word” conference to encourage Christians and Muslims to “engage in more sincere discussions on peace rather than simply just ‘polite ecumenical dialogue.’” Though the conference began today, many of the leaders attending, including Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan and Sudan’s Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, have been engaging in closed-session workshops since Thursday. The flurry of activity already indicates how devoted attendees are to bridging Islam and Christianity “on an unprecedented level.”
The Harare handshake: Soft power, Africa style
Alan Cowell of the International Herald Tribune calls the handshake shared between Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare, South Africa an “iconic moment” that augurs a “new way of political interaction.” It is also a victory for a distinctly African diplomacy, he says. This triumph of African soft power, however, came at the grave price of human lives – as Cowell puts it, “An African solution, it seemed, required African pain.”
Though talks between leaders of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities have stalled since 2004, they have agreed to commence reunification talks on September 3, according to the United Nations. It remains uncertain whether the talks will bring about a united Cyprus for the first time since Turkish troops invaded the northern third of the island in 1974, but the prospect of peace seems all the more likely now as Turkey lobbies for membership in the European Union.
