Mainstream Weekly

The Story of ‘Palestine Papers'

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema — 2011-03-16T09:49:21Z

We didn't need the leaked Palestine Papers—more than 1600 internal Palestinian documents summarising negotiations with Israel over the past decade—to know that the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is all but dead. The absence of a Palestinian state after nearly twenty years of the peace process hardly tells a different story. What comes shining through from these documents, however, is the courage of the Palestinian leaders in offering far-reaching concessions to their (…)

- 2011

Israel's Shifting Strategy in Gaza Strip

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema — 2009-01-26T12:28:23Z

With the beginning of the ground offensive in Gaza Strip, the objective of ‘Operation Cast Lead' appears to have shifted subtly. Though the primary aim of the operation, as reiterated by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, is to force Hamas to cease targeting the civilian population in Israel, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni harbours more ambitious designs. She wants to create a ‘new security environment' in southern Israel. Does this mean ‘uprooting' the Hamas Government and reoccupation of (…)

- January 2009

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema — 2007-10-22T16:00:30Z

The Middle East peace process, that began with the signing of Oslo Accords (1993), as well as the various peace initiatives which were taken up prior to Oslo and after its collapse (2000), have focussed on the two-state solution to the conflict, based on the notion that partition is the best solution to conflicting territorial claims, nationalisms, or ethno-national conflicts where claim over land is an issue. Partition is firmly entrenched in the theory and practice of international (…)

- October 20, 2007

Sarkozy's ‘Mediterranean Union': What Does It Mean?

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema — 2007-07-07T17:19:00Z

Introduction
A proposal by the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, for setting up a Union of Mediterranean Rim Countries has struck both right and wrong notes at the same time. This initiative was raised by Sarkozy in a campaign speech in February, and was reiterated in his electoral victory address. Such a proposed Union would gather sixteen countries with varied political and economic systems—from the European, West Asian, and North African region of the Mediterranean rim area—into an (…)

- July 07, 2007

Contemporary Relevance of India's Position in Unscop

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema — 2007-04-24T15:21:00Z

Introduction
There is a discussion in several political and intellectual circles that a permanent solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is the source of instability in much of West Asia, must move away from the paradigm of a two-state solution to a new thinking based on several other possibilities such as religious, liberal, consociational, and post-nationalist lines. In the context of today's realpolitik, the Palestinian Question is caught in the maelstrom of the (…)

- November 11, 2006