Callousness, selfishness, ruthlessness.

It is a recognition of the way in which terrorist organizations work, and their ruthlessness.

The philosophy of sumud is rooted in Palestinians implacable belief in the righteousness of their cause and the justness of their methods. It operates both passively and actively in Palestinian culture, demanding stubbornness and tolerating ruthlessness, violence, and duplicity.

Each made a different contribution, depending on country specific circumstances and conditions of German rule. But the Holocaust played out most gruesomely in Eastern Europe, owing to the sheer number of Jews in the region and the incomparable ruthlessness of the Nazi occupation regimes.

One word for all of this would be presidential, in the sense of competent, seasoned, and sobered by reality. But that word also connotes the fearsome qualities of ruthlessness and brutality that any honest portrayal of the office of President of the United States must include in our day.

The villain in this drama is Vladimir Putin, who has thrived on eight years of rapid growth generated by the market reforms of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Russia had a good chance to escape this international financial crisis, but, through his ruthlessness and ineptitude, Putin has rendered his poor country a prime victim.

President Hugo Chávez showed once again that he enjoys broad support among the nation s poor and desperate, and that he is miles ahead of his opposition in terms of political skill, cunning, and ruthlessness. Yet at the same time voter turnout is declining with each passing election under Chávez, and the questionable fairness of the electoral process has grown increasingly apparent.