Word: arab
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Born in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century, al-Hakim is known as the father of the Arab world’s dramatic tradition. His highly philosophical plays were not generally well received by action-hungry audiences; this became such a problem that al-Hakim began to describe his work as a “théâtre des idées,” more suitable for reading and study than for performance...
Thanks to all these precautions, Bush's foray into the West Bank passed without a hitch. But the real challenge for the presidential phalanx of bodyguards will come when his tour moves on to possibly more dangerous territory - Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - where Bush is even less popular. With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Bethlehem and Aaron J. Klein/Jerusalem
...problem, at least as seen from the Arab world, is that Bush's understanding of the Middle East and America's role in it differs greatly from the local perceptions, in three main areas...
...Helping the Palestinians. Bush should get some credit for officially supporting a Palestinian state in 2002. Arabs are skeptical that this is the landmark breakthrough the White House makes it out to be. As far as they are concerned, the U.N. voted for Palestinian statehood as long ago as 1947. Palestinians felt let down and rose up in the second intifada in 2000 when the Oslo Accords of 1993 failed to deliver the statehood they expected after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recognized Israel's borders within 78% of the original territory. Arabs cynically see Bush's endorsement of Palestinian statehood...
...pockets here and there who are grateful for Bush's call for liberty in the Middle East. The problem is that it is widely seen as being insincere at best and hypocritical at worst. Few doubt that toppling Saddam Hussein's dictatorship was more about breaking Arab military strength and projecting American strategic power than fighting terrorism, much less creating Iraqi democracy. While Iraq is no longer a one-man show, it will be a very long time before anyone considers the country, now dominated by Shi'ite Muslim gangs, Kurdish warlords and Sunni terrorists, emblematic of an emerging democracy...