Politics Reborn?

With the tumult of 2008 drawing to an explosive close in Gaza, my first hope for 2009 is that the international community, and particularly the newly elected Obama administration, will put sufficient pressure on Israel to meaningfully reinvigorate the Middle East peace process and end the persecution of the Palestinians. This requires courage, and also cooperation with the other powers of the quartet that hold at least some of the cards and a lot of the cash that can prise apart this particularly Gordian knot.

Significantly, the Russians are involved in this process, and it is another of my hopes for 2009 that this practice be extended to include many more spheres, with Russian difference of opinion or worldview welcomed and engaged with rather than ostracised and humiliated. This is essential if we are to resist the construction of a new Cold War-type conflict that leaves Europe caught in the crossfire of others' causes. There will still be plenty to fight about in the coming year, but, thankfully, for the first time in a generation, one of these things will be the politics of real social democracy, which have been rediscovered amid the ruins of turbo-capitalism. We need to seize this opportunity to make our case, and remake our world.

Lastly, I would like to see the England cricket team reclaim the ashes from Australia in this summer's edition of one of sport's most enduring contests!

This was originally published in The Prague Post on 31/12/2008