What is epektasis? It is primarily about politics. But it is also about human rights, democracy, good governance, peace, justice and reconciliation. Epektasis.net deals with issues impacting the peoples of the Middle East - conflict backgrounds, symptoms, realities, fears and possible solutions - that are viewed through a dual Middle Eastern-European lens..
Inasmuch as possible, my articles adhere to the overarching Christian ethos of striving to 'stretch forward' (epekteinomenos in Greek, from St Paul in Phil 3:13) - politically, ecumenically and legally - the elements of peace, justice, reconciliation, dignity, non-violence and security.
Can Syria estop its disintegration? Woe betide us all if our political dishonesty or inertia sustains, or worse breeds, an executive dominance that Lord Hailsham, a former Lord Chancellor, described aptly in his BBC Dimbleby Lecture in 1976 as ‘elective dictatorship’.
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Obama was in Israel ... and also in Palestine & Jordan!
I always maintained that this was the wrong question and certainly the wrong expectation. President Obama came to Jerusalem for a different set of priorities.
Read moreWhat sort of a Pope? - HH Benedict XVI
So having skimmed over the last seven years of the Benedict papacy, let me now project to the future. After all, la totopapa or the bookmakers' lottery on the future choices of pope is already in full swing in Italy as much as across the world...
Read moreDo We Have a New Pope for a Renewed Church?
But I would suggest that Francis is quite conscious that he has a short time to leave his fingerprints on the papacy - either before he dies or retires like his predecessor - and is therefore determined to see those changes through.
Read morePolitical irony, existential cruelty!
However, it seems to me that a novel form of protest against illegal settlements has started to take root in Palestinian political culture. Whether it will last the course is another ambitious question.
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