From the Editors

Highlighting important stories on and off The Electronic Intifada.

Ali Abunimah debates Avika Eldar on Canadian radio

1 October 2007

Reality on the ground has many — once again — questioning the viability of a two-state solution and whether the controversial one-state proposal is even worth talking about. On 24 September 2007, EI’s Ali Abunimah appeared on the Canadian Brodcasting Corporation program, The Current with host Anna Maria Tremonti. Abunimah was invited to take part in a debate with Israeli journalist and political columnist for Haaretz, Akiva Eldar to discuss the feasibility, desirability and seeming impossibility of a one-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ali Abunimah discusses Hamas and Fatah on Worldview

31 July 2007

On Friday, 27 August 2007, EI’s Ali Abunimah appeared on WBEZ Chicago’s Worldview, on which he discussed with host Jerome McDonnell the events that have transpired since Hamas routed Fatah in the Gaza Strip last month. Since then, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has created a new government of dubious legality with technocrat and US darling Salam Fayyad. The US and Israel have offered aid money and sent 1,000 M-16 weapons through Jordan to bolster Abbas’s forces while Fatah security head Mohammad Dahlan has resigned.

Al Jazeera interviews EI's Ali Abunimah

Laila El-Haddad
3 July 2007

For nearly 20 years, the two-state solution has been promoted as the agreed framework for negotiations and ultimately peace to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But two decades on, it has failed to bear fruit. Co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and author of the book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, discusses his book with Al Jazeera’s Laila El-Haddad.

Division among Palestinians

19 June 2007

The following letter to the editor by EI co-founder Ali Abunimah was published by The Irish Times on 19 June 2007: As a Palestinian, I am appalled that the European Union and the United States have backed Mahmoud Abbas’s so-called “emergency government” in Israeli-occupied Ramallah. The Palestinian Basic Law makes no provision for such a development. Hamas, no matter what one thinks of it, won the January 2006 election fair and square. On the eve of its victory, it had already observed a one-year unilateral truce with Israel.

Audio/Transcript: Ali Abunimah and Laila El-Haddad on the situation in Gaza

15 June 2007

EI’s Ali Abunimah appeared on Democracy Now!, interviewed by host Amy Goodman, on Friday, 15 June 2007. He was joined by journalist and mother living in Gaza, Laila El-Haddad. Abunimah and El-Haddad discuss the current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as Hamas takes control over the Gaza Strip. The two discuss US and Israel’s involvement in the recent fighting between Fatah and Hamas which has been commonly referred to as a civil war.

Ali Abunimah discusses the recent fighting in Lebanon on Flashpoints

30 May 2007

EI co-founder Ali Abunimah was interviewed on Flashpoints Radio on Wednesday, 23 May 2007. He joined host Nora Barrows-Friedman to discuss the corporate media’s response to the refugee issue in Lebanon within the context of the latest fighting in Nahr al-Bared camp between the Lebanese military and Fatah al-Islam. Abunimah told Barrows-Friedman, “It’s amazing how much context is missing from the corporate media … I have seen them [Fatah al-Islam] portrayed in the US media as a Palestinian group, they are not a Palestinian group.”

Ali Abunimah discusses the persecution of Azmi Bishara on Flashpoints

9 May 2007

EI co-founder Ali Abunimah was interviewed on Flashpoints Radio on Monday, 7 May 2007. He joined host Nora Barrows-Friedman to discuss the persecution of Azmi Bishara, who recently resigned from the Israeli Kenesset and is now effectively living in exile, unable to return to his country. Abunimah told Barrows-Friedman, “The reason Israel announced the investigation when Bishara was outside the country, and then … announced that he could face the death penalty if he returned, was that Israel wants him out of the country because they do not want the Palestinian community in Israel to be galvanized around the message of democracy…”

Palestinian Right of Return: EI co-founder in Doha Debates on BBC

11 April 2007

The Palestinian right of return was overwhelmingly supported at the latest Doha Debate on March 28. The issue is seen by many as the most intractable barrier to a Middle East peace settlement. Yossi Beilin, a Knesset member and Chairman of the Meretz-Yachad party, and Bassem Eid, a long-time Palestinian human rights campaigner, argued for the motion. They were challenged by Israeli academic Ilan Pappe and Ali Abunimah co-founder of Electronic Intifada.net. Watch the latest Doha Debate: ‘This House believes the Palestinians should give up their full right of return’ on BBC World on April 14th and 15th.

AIPAC Alternative?

Philip Weiss
5 April 2007

Tapping into the restlessness among young left-wing Jews might be a place to start. “I meet these kids all the time on campuses all over the country,” says author Ali Abunimah. “This generation of young Jews is not as tied to the romantic Exodus story of their parents. They want a free and open debate about the rights and wrongs of supporting a country that privileges people based on arbitrary characteristics.” “The danger for AIPAC is that once Humpty Dumpty drops off the wall, you can’t put him together again,” says Abunimah. “And what is keeping the debate from happening now is political brute force. That’s what we see in the Obama case.”

Bassem Eid v Ali Abunimah

Comment is free
6 April 2007

The Palestinian Right of Return was considered 28 March 2007 at the Doha Debates, a public forum for dialogue and freedom of speech in Qatar. Yossi Beilin, a Knesset member and Chairman of the Meretz-Yachad party, and Bassem Eid, of the Palestine Human Rights Monitoring Group, argued for the motion that “the Palestinians should give up their full right of return.” Ali Abunimah, cofounder of The Electronic Intifada, and Israeli academic Ilan Pappe challenged the motion, which was rejected by almost 82 percent of the audience. The following is an email exchange between Bassem Eid and Ali Abunimah published on the Guardian’s Comment is free blog.

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