Rami G. Khouri at PostGlobal

Rami G Khouri

Beirut, Lebanon

Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune. An internationally syndicated political columnist and book author, he is also the first director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University and the Dubai School of Government. He was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006. He teaches annually at American University of Beirut, University of Chicago and Northeastern University. He has been a fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, Syracuse University and Stanford University, and is a member of the Brookings Institution Task Force on US Relations with the Islamic World. He is a Fellow of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Jerusalem), and a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School. He also serves on the board of the East-West Institute, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University (USA), and the Jordan National Museum. He was editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times for seven years and for 18 years he was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, Jordan, where he also served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archeology, history and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan, and often comments on Mideast issues in the international media. He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, NY, USA. Close.

Rami G Khouri

Beirut, Lebanon

Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper. more »

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Fatah Failed Repeatedly; Hamas Wasn’t There

It is not politically fair or intellectually honest to make a straightforward comparison between Hamas and Fatah in today's circumstances. Fatah has held power for nearly 40 years in the Palestinian national community, and Hamas has shared power for just over a year under conditions of an international financial and political boycott and an Israeli military and economic siege. We don't know what Hamas can or might do when it can exercise power under normal conditions.

We do know that Fatah failed miserably, and repeatedly, despite having many opportunities and much international goodwill. Its early successes in promoting the Palestinian national cause were negated by its incompetence after assuming limited power in the occupied territories after 1993.

It is also important to acknowledge the negative role of the U.S., Israel, Europe, Arab countries and others in allowing conditions in Palestine to reach their present state. Palestinian leaders did not act alone or in a vacuum all these years. Israeli colonization of Palestinian lands never stopped during the past century. No wonder the Palestinians have reacted with such violence and internal incoherence.

Being subjected to the world's longest military occupation and the most sustained colonization drive, carried out by Israel and supported by the U.S. and others, will do that to you.

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