By Neumann, Neomi

From the document: "As Palestinians and Israelis mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Oslo Accords, it is worth pausing to examine what remains of the original promise contained in the agreement (hint: something does remain). More than that, it is worth examining whether those remnants can survive the many challenges facing the Palestinian Authority, especially those likely to emerge 'the day after' President Mahmoud Abbas exits the stage. [...] In the three decades since Oslo, a litany of crises has eroded public trust in the very idea of conducting political dialogue in the spirit of those accords, including two Palestinian intifadas, the fallout from Israel's 2005 Gaza disengagement, and even the 2006 Lebanon war. A real window opened during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's tenure in 2006-08, but it eventually closed as well, whether because of Israeli politics or Abbas's hesitation. Today, the PA has survived to carry out its work in the civilian, economic, and political spheres. But its inherent weaknesses have grown starker, and the West Bank governance system is eroding both ideologically and functionally as a result of political dormancy, distrust from the Palestinian street, and the crowding of the resistance space. This year has already been the most violent under Abbas's tenure--as noted above, 181 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since January, while 30 Israelis and foreigners have been killed by Palestinian attackers from that territory and East Jerusalem. The dysfunction and violence have raised questions about the PA's ability to navigate future crises, including the day after Abbas leaves the scene."

Washington Institute For Near East Policy . 2023.. 8p.

By Shirley Hazzard

From the introduction: “Nations from time to time assume that it is allowable and inevitable for them to fall upon each other on some pretext or other.“ So the historian Jakob Burckhardt wrote, more than a century ago, at the onset of the Franco-Prussian War—warning that “the most ominous thing is not the pre­sent war, but the era of wars upon which we have entered.” In the same fateful year of 1870, Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand: “Within a century, shall we see millions of men kill each other at one go?* The acceleration and inco­herence of social and economic change, the transformations wrought by scientific discovery, the growth of populations, and of their enfranchised discontent—all these raised, in the minds of reflective men and women, a sense of moving toward some dread culmination, propelled by factors never before present in human etpcrience. Over these apprehen­sions, the discrepancy between the narrow thinking of states­men and the huge scale of the mounting crisis cast—as it does today—the shadow of a prodigious incongruity.”

NY. Viking Penguin. 1990. 196p.

By Colin Heston

It's politics as usual in New York City when Larry MacIver, world renowned criminologist, is tapped by NYC Mayor Ruth Newberg to save NYC from a second 9/11 attack. MacIver and his geeky assistant Manish Das must overcome FBI ineptitude, CIA intrigue and, most of all, the evil and ruthless Iranian terrorist Shalah Muhammud, to save the city. “…an engaging work of fiction for those interested in how terrorists, and those who seek to thwart them, might actually think about what they're doing…keeps the reader eagerly turning the pages right through to the end.” — Amazon reader review. “a fast-paced, captivating thriller. If you love reading terrorism fiction, you will find this story very appealing.” Readers’ Favorite.

NY. Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2020. 186p.

By Sylvester Sammie.

Linking High-level Accused to Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes in International Criminal Law focuses on the theoretical and practical perspectives taken by the ICTY, ICTR, and ICC. It seeks to answer the question of how high-level officials can and should be investigated and prosecuted for their role in the commission of sexual and gender-based crimes. The author examines the forms, types, and amount of evidence used to prove the role of these high-level accused in the commission of crimes by rank-and-file soldiers. As the accused are usually not present on the crime scene, the international criminal courts and tribunals must rely on individual criminal liability theories enshrined in Article 7 ICTY Statute, Article 6 ICTR Statute, and Articles 25 & 28 Rome Statute to connect them to the atrocities committed on the ground. 100 individual cases from the ICTY, ICTR, and ICC are examined and reveal that in most cases there was sufficient evidence to prove that sexual and gender-based crimes were committed. It was however much more difficult for the prosecutor to prove the role and responsibility of the high-ranked accused and the modes of liability charged. The author gives concrete recommendations on how to gather linkage evidence effectively, and to use the modes of liability accurately to prove the connection between the committed crimes, the broader context and the accused’s role.

Groningen: University of Groningen. 2021. 415p.