{"id":1378,"date":"2002-03-31T23:05:18","date_gmt":"2002-04-01T04:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2002-03-31T23:05:18","modified_gmt":"2002-04-01T04:05:18","slug":"on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/","title":{"rendered":": On the Brink of War in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/arafatcompound.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"pic\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u201d border=\u201d0\u2033&gt;\n\n<\/p><tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<p>Many of us have spent the past weekend glued to the television, as one city after another is reoccupied by the Israeli military and wave after wave of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com%2F2002%2F0401%2Fp07s01-wome.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">suicide bombings<\/a>  hit major Israeli cities.  The week started hopeful enough, with a <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com%2Fnews%3Ftmpl%3Dstory%26u%3D%2Fnyt%2F20020328%2Fts_nyt%2Farab_delegates_endorse_saudi_s_mideast_peace_plan\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Saudi peace initiative<\/a> that would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.  However, things unraveled quickly as a devastating suicide bomb struck Netanya and Israeli tanks shelled Arafat\u2019s headquarters in Ramallah.  The <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com%2Fnews%3Ftmpl%3Dstory%26u%3D%2Fap%2F20020330%2Fap_to_po%2Fun_mideast_28\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">UN Security Council<\/a> (along with the US) called for Israel to pull out of Ramallah, but it fell on deaf ears.  Now, with another blast <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com%2Fnews%3Ftmpl%3Dstory%26u%3D%2Fnm%2F20020331%2Fwl_nm%2Fmideast_dc_1224\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">taking 14 lives<\/a> in Haifa (including some Arabs), and tanks <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com%2Fnews%3Ftmpl%3Dstory%26cid%3D514%26u%3D%2Fap%2F20020401%2Fap_on_re_mi_ea%2Fisrael_palestinians_2809\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">entering Bethlehem<\/a>, the ante has been upped again.  Where do things go from here?  There remains some hope, as the <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com%2Fnews%3Ftmpl%3Dstory%26u%3D%2Fap%2F20020331%2Fap_wo_en_ge%2Fmideast_world_reax_9\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">US and Europe<\/a> are pushing for an immediate meeting of Middle East leaders to implement a cease-fire, and soul searching continues on both the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com%2Fnews%2Fopinion%2Fcommentary%2Fla-000022593mar29.story%3Fcoll%3Dla%252Dnews%252Dcomment%252Dopinions\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Arab<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com%2F2002%2F03%2F30%2Fopinion%2F30BEIL.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Israeli<\/a> sides.       <\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the Saudi peace initiative, a spate of suicide bombings drive Israel to even harsher military action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: On the Brink of War in the Middle East<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite the Saudi peace initiative, a spate of suicide bombings drive Israel to even harsher military action.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\": On the Brink of War in the Middle East\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite the Saudi peace initiative, a spate of suicide bombings drive Israel to even harsher military action.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2002-04-01T04:05:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/arafatcompound.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/\",\"name\":\": On the Brink of War in the Middle East\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2002-04-01T04:05:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2002-04-01T04:05:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Despite the Saudi peace initiative, a spate of suicide bombings drive Israel to even harsher military action.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2002\/03\/on_the_brink_of_war_in_the_middle_east\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\": On the Brink of War in the Middle East\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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