Sawsan al-Abtah
Professor at the Lebanese University at the Arabic Language and Literature Department and writer for Asharq Al-Awsat

Israel Endangers Jews

"As a Jew, I believe that Israel now puts my life in danger because it incites hatred against me and fuels anti-Semitism worldwide," Rony Brauman tells us. He comes from a long line of Zionists, and he was shaken by the suffering of the Palestinians, so much so that he suddenly realized that the…

Why Biden’s Biggest Challenge Is China

As the US was embroiled in disputes that defied all expectations about the election results, busy burying thousands of pandemic victims, and promoting magical vaccines, China managed to conclude the world’s biggest free trade agreement with its close and distant neighbors in November. Fifteen Asian…

The War over Vaccines

Arriving at an effective vaccine for the coronavirus remains a coveted prize and the path is long and painful. This is not to downplay the Pfizer and BioNtech (American-German) vaccine that the world has been cheering for and which caused invigorated the stock market, but to say that in the…

Digitization Is the Savior

Across the world, the need for social distancing will remain in place until 2022, according to an American academic report which warned that the virus will not die out and that we all have to is adapt to the situation. This assessment seems realistic, since developing a vaccine needs at least a…

Beyond the Face Mask

A French physician describes face masks as a strategic reserve that his country has wasted after it had stored millions of them for times of need. The US is no better, after Trump threatened revenge, saying that he won’t allow other countries to get the masks that his country needs. The US…

The Lebanese Carlos

More than twenty books have been written on Carlos Ghosn, and soon, another writer will go where nobody else has, in search of the secret behind Ghosn speaking very little about his father. The book published in French will discuss an aspect that Ghosn has scarcely discussed: his father’s…