Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected United States President Barack Obama’s peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel. Jewish settler leader in the West Bank criticized the president’s speech, saying that Israel can’t be safe under the 1967 borders.

President Barack Obama said that any peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on the 1967 borders. Both parties should agree with land swaps and this is an idea that Israel doesn’t want to hear.

There were some pro-Israeli points in President Obama’s speech, including his rejection of Palestinian plans to ask the United Nations for statehood recognition and his demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Palestinians remained mum about President Obama’s speech. According to the aides of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader would consult with other Arab and Palestinian leaders first before he would issue a statement.

In general, the Palestinians are satisfied with President Obama’s support of the 1967 borders as the basis of any peace negotiations. But there are points in the U.S. president’s speech that they didn’t like. Like how Obama rejected the Palestinian plans to ask the United Nations to vote for statehood in September. President Obama was also concerned about the participation of the Hamas in a Palestinian unity government.

The United States Department of Justice charged six Pakistani Americans for helping the Taliban based in Pakistan. Three of the people charged are already in custody, including two imams at mosques in southern Florida. The remaining three are still at large and currently in Pakistan.

The six people who were tagged as Taliban supporters are Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan; his sons Izhar and Irfan; his daughter Amina and her son Zeb; and Faisal Ali Rehman. Izhar and Hafiz are imams at mosques in Florida where they were arrested. Irfan was arrested in Los Angeles. Rehman, Amina, and Zeb are in Pakistan.

The six Pakistani Americans are charged for being supporters of the Pakistani Taliban. Aside from the conspiracy charges, Hafiz, Rehman and Zeb were charged for providing material support to the terrorist organization.

The Department of Justice said that Hafiz founded and controlled a madrassa, which is a religious school for Muslims. This madrassa is used by the Pakistani Taliban to train child terrorists to kill the U.S. troops in Pakistan.

As part of the evidence, the Department of Justice said they have tapes of Hafiz and Irfan in conversations that encouraged violence against the United States troops in Afghanistan and the Pakistani state.

Several Republicans expressed some criticism on President Obama’s time frame for military actions regarding Libya, as the U.S. and allies continue to bomb the country as part of the current operations in Libya.

Rep. Senator John McCain said he felt the president waited a bit longer than he should have, but that he still believes we should support both him and the troops in this endeavor. McCain, who is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added that he believed that had the U.S. taken action a few weeks ago before the UN put a cease fire into effect, then a no-fly zone may have been sufficient to stop Libya from going downhill.

McCain added that even still, Gadhafi is on borrowed time, and that eventually the U.S. will be able to defeat him because we are the most powerful country on Earth and Libya is merely a third or fourth rated power.

The U.S. was joined by forces from France and Great Britain in the current operation and was convinced Gadhafi wasn’t following the cease-fire that the U.N. put into effect, and are continuing the bombing of Libya military locations to encourage Gadhafi to obey the no-fly zone.

Another politician, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent,  voiced his opinion and also said he thought Gadafi needs to be taken out of power and that it wasn’t too late to do something about the problems in Libya.

McCain too, added, that it was only a matter of waiting and that the U.S. would be able to get the Libya leader out of office.

Suddenly ‘democracy’ seems to be the catchword for the people in the Arab and African world. The ruled want it desperately while the rulers hate the very mention of it. What happened in Tunisia and Egypt is also happening Yemen, Libya and Bahrain, to name a few.

The local citizenry is on the boil. They want rights and they want their voices to be heard. No longer are they willing to be mute spectators living on the promises and crumbs thrown their way by their ruling class. Lack of job opportunities worthy of their educational qualifications, poverty, rampant corruption and the ostentatious lifestyle of the rulers are giving rise to their seething anger. Individual dissent is impotent but the collective dissent has the force to make a change and this is what is happening.

The unprecedented protests in Sohar, an industrial town of Oman, in which many were reported killed, have observers worried. Will Egypt repeat in Oman? Just a spark is enough to ignite an uprising, as it happened in Tunisia and Egypt.  Oman has seen some peaceful protests in the past, so what happened in Sohar was no surprise but the level of violence was.

However, an important difference between Oman and other larger Arab nations is that the Omani ruler, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said is a genuinely popular monarch. His people are not calling for a change in the regime but their demands are for more jobs, controlling the ever increasing food prices and bringing to book some allegedly corrupt members of the government. One notable difference also, is that there is no sectarian divide unlike Bahrain.

To prevent the situation from becoming uncontrollable, due to the reported deaths of some protesters, the US has advised restraint, to engage in dialogue to find an amicable solution and commit to a road map for reforms.

Oman has long been a valuable ally of the US and what road Muscat will take towards ending the impasse and whether they will pay heed to the US advice will remain to be seen in the days to come.

The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced on Friday that the United States will move for “unilateral” sanctions against Libya. He said that these would involve cutting off the limited military cooperation with Libya and freezing the assets of Gaddafi and his four children that are held in the US.

Carney also confirmed US embassy operations have been suspended following the evacuation of the last US embassy personnel from the strife torn country. The US sanction is the “first step” to pressure the Gaddafi regime to “stop killing its own people”. He believes that Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy to rule his people.

This is not all. The United States is in tandem with European partners to impose additional sanctions and other multilateral actions against the current Libyan regime. The United States, also, “strongly supports” a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution that was passed on Friday condemning the human rights abuses. While calling for an international inquiry the US recommends suspending Libya the council.

President Obama briefed world leaders on U.S. plans. The President Obama spoke with leaders from the United Kingdom, France, and Italy on Thursday. He spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Friday and talked on measures to fix accountability on the Libyan government for its “unacceptable” violence on its people.

The US embassy was closed down sine die, after evacuating its personnel but can resume operations when normalcy returns. The evacuation would not have been a smooth affair, if not for the Libyan security forces that facilitated the operation, for which the US officials have been grateful.

The US Treasury Department, following the Swiss government’s move to block all Gaddafi’s assets in Switzerland, have advised all US financial institutions to exercise caution on the private accounts held by or on behalf of the Libyan politicians.

It is curtains for Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. After 18 days of obduracy, President Hosni Mubarak has resigned. The country’s new vice-president Omar Suleiman announced this, in a brief statement, on Friday.

Suleiman said that Mubarak has demitted the office of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Supreme Council of the armed forces will “run the state.”

As the news of his resignation broke out the huge gathering at Tahrir Square burst into celebration. The large multitude of protestors who had come to hold a rally, what they termed “Farewell Friday,” was elated as they got what they wanted, at last.

People power, once again, entered the textbooks of history. Mohamed El Baradei, the Egyptian Nobel Laureate, who played a key role in the protest and subsequent ouster of President Mubarak, said this was “the greatest day of my life”. He believed that there would be a “beautiful” transition of power now that “the country has been liberated after decades of repression,” he told The Associated Press.

Mubarak had passed most of the powers to Suleiman, on Thursday night before he left for Sharm el Sheikh. Suleiman announced the resignation as protesters marched on the Presidential Palace.

One reason that brought about the change in Mubarak’s stubborn stand of not resigning was that the army’s offer to lift the emergency laws and ensure free and fair elections had failed to appease the protesters.

All through the Egyptian military had shown remarkable restraint, a fact that was endorsed by some US officials. There had been a few cases of violence involving the army; however, the supporters of Mubarak were the major cause for the violence while the protesters were largely peaceful and non-violent.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has signed a decree forming a committee that will oversee constitutional amendments that were discussed during recent talks with opposition members, as the spirited public demonstration enters the third week.

Despite Mubarak’s assurance to the youth in Egypt that they will have the right to freedom of speech and that no one should worry about being arrested for speaking their minds the crowd at Tahrir square were not impressed. They stood their ground demanding Mubarak’s ouster.

Suleiman, the newly appointed Vice-President, has been holding talks with the dissidents. Many of the important members of the ruling National Democratic Party have resigned, including Gamal – Mubarak’s son and yet not all members of the opposition parties are okay with the talks.

There was a deceptive calm in Tahrir square on Tuesday– no Molotov cocktails and projectiles hurtling through the air. However, analysts say that the scene could suddenly turn volatile and have serious consequences for the protestors notwithstanding the assurance from President Mubarak.

Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at John Hopkins University says that since the protestors are all identifiable by the security services, they would be in grave danger should the present dispensation weather this revolution.

Mahmoun Fandy of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington feels that President Mubarak is stalling for time and “appears to be waiting it out” so that after a time the issue dies a natural death, public memory being short.

Some leading Egyptian personalities are of the view that the President should be allowed to complete his term in office. Even the Muslim Brotherhood, an officially banned Islamic organization, who were adamant on the President’s removal have agreed for talks to end the impasse.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and now a key opposition leader said there was “a huge question of credibility” as regards this government is concerned and he doubted its sincerity.

Egypt is America’s key ally in the Middle East and the US needs it to keep peace in the region especially with the smoldering relationship between Israel and major Arab nations. The US provides it with about $1.3 billion in military aid and millions in other economic assistance annually and therefore needs to watch the situation very carefully.

While both pro and anti-Mubarak protesters fight in Egyptian streets, the Christian minority is facing continuing persecution, which isn’t widely known to the general public.

Tom Doyle, director for E3 Partners, a Christian missionary organization working throughout Egypt and the surrounding area, and author of “Breakthrough: The Return of Hope to the Middle East,” told news media that his  coworkers on the ground reported that more Christians were killed outside Al-Minya, which is about 150 miles south of Cairo.

He said that since no police were available, no one was there that was willing to assist them. He added that family members were taking turns watching over their houses, as burglaries, rapes, thefts, and car stealing is getting to be routine.

Under Egypt’s constitutional rights, Christians can freely practice their religion.  Despite that, persecution has been widespread, as Muslim extremists look to keep them from asserting their rights. Twenty-three Christians were killed and 70 hurt when a suicide bomber attacked a Coptic Christian Church during a New Year’s Eve mass in Alexandria. Archbishop Raweis, the top Coptic cleric in Alexandria, said he didn’t approve of the  “a lack of protection.”

He reported that the church only had three soldiers and an officer in front to protect it. He added that he didn’t understand why they had so little security during a time when everything was so sensitive time and there were so many threats coming from Al Qaeda.

White House Press Secretary  Robert Gibbs was questioned earlier about the series of Christian murders all over the Middle East. Gibbs threw the question over to the State Department and added that he hadn’t heard about any established theory for all the attacks, and said that President Obama was aware of it all.

Christianity in Egypt can be traced back to the first century A.D. and Alexandria was an early center of Christianity. Until the Islamic conquest of Egypt during the seventh century, it was mostly Christian. Currently, the Christian minority only equals about 10 percent of the population of Egypt.

Doyle explained that with the uprising of the Muslim brotherhood, Christians are very worried about who may be the one that will take over for Mubarak. He added that it’s been said many times that there is a democracy, however, it’s only been a mask for authoritarianism.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded during the 1920s, demanded that Mubarak and Jordan’s new Prime Minister, step down today. Among the brotherhood’s members is Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 – the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri — who was in prison for three years on weapons charges after President Sadat’s was assassinated in 1981, as well as Hamas, which is the terror network behind the suicide bombings and the rocket attacks on Israel and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, who wants Israel destroyed.

Walid Phares told media that the group is the “mothership” for all the Jihadi beliefs and way of thinking, and can therefore say the Al-Qaeda of today and the majority of other jihadists today are came from influences from the Muslim Brotherhood.

When he was asked today the question on how the Obama administration would handle Egypt should the Muslim Brotherhood end up in charge, Gibbs said that he thought things were getting way ahead of themselves and he didn’t want to get into theoretical questions.

Whether or not that will be addressed by the White House, Egyptian Christians are afraid of what will happen to the already persecuted minority if the Muslim extremists take over.

On a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Dec. 3, President Obama, speaking to the crowd at the Bagram Air Force Base said that the Taliban is steadily losing its hold and now exercises control over fewer areas. This means that the Afghans had a greater chance of success in rebuilding their future. This was also a pointer to the fact that the US Afghan policy review is being revved up.

Officials in Washington are trying to figure out how the script will turn out. A detailed dossier that includes inputs from every department and all the agencies that are involved is being documented. This will help zero in on the workable and successful policies.

It is likely that many of the evaluations may not throw up any conclusions. It may be difficult to assess the effect of the increase in the US troop strength, mainly in the areas where they have been recently introduced. The same difficulty would also be felt in measuring success of the many programs of reconstruction and rehabilitation unless these are implemented over longer periods of time. Obviously, it takes time to show results.

The US strategy to provide the basic necessities to the Afghans has not made much headway as the Afghan government has been ineffective and incapable to do this. Development in the fields of education, health and transportation has been minimal and this erodes the confidence of the citizens. Besides, the Afghan government has failed to set up local courts and other legal institutions so the local populace turns to the Taliban to seek redress.

Despite the nine long years of conflict in this region, the success of the mission is clouded in doubts. But one thing seems clear that the US’s Afghan strategy seems to be failing.

When President Barack Obama took his trip to mumbai, he spoke at the Expo on democracy and open government. This event really highlighted citizen efforts to promote the government’s accountability throughout any situation that may arise. Obama’s administration stated that they would gladly contribute a total of $1 million towards efforts to share the best practicing. This $1 million would also go towards improved services and democratic accountability.

“In many ways India may be in a position to leapfrog some of the intermediate stages of government service delivery, avoiding some of the 20th century mechanisms for delivering services and going straight to the 21st,” Obama Stated. Technologists acknowledge India’s open government efforts and applaud their effort for working on their open government issues.

The Association for Democratic Reform has created an SMS service that allows Indians to type in their home zip code and obtain a text message on information on candidates for public office. This was done in order to promote more optimistic ways to promote election reform. The use of cell phones is the best way in current times to receive any information on the candidates who are running for office.

The web is a huge part of the political activity and getting the word out about candidates as well. A website has been created for the sole purpose of shedding light on rampant bribery throughout the country to help stop it. To this day the website has reached over 120,000 hits in as little as a couple months according to Samantha Power.

India is really making some chess moves that cannot topple down to yet another lost match. Many hopefuls for candidacy seek to use the technologies available in India in order to get their  nameout. This is why so many candidates have been ducking and dodging the whole bribery train that usually takes place about this time in India.