Opinion/Editorial

The world is being deceived into believing that political reforms can happen in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. As the Bush Administration continues to call for regime change in the Palestinian Authority, Israel is silently pursuing a violent strategy of establishing internment camps that imprison Palestinians from all walks of life. Sam Bahour writes from Ramallah/Al-Bireh.

Writing for EI, Hasan Abu Nimah says that the fact that an Arab country is targeted for destruction by the US, and that Jerusalem is granted to Israel as its capital is directly and closely linked to the sad reality of incompetence, loss of willpower, paralysis and defeatism that prevails in the Arab world.

On October 3rd, there was another hearing in the Tel Aviv trial of Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian politician and a leader of the Fatah organisation. The Israeli government carefully stage managed the event, allowing a right wing group innocently named “Organization of Terror Victims” access to disrupt the hearing while denying access to holders of the Israeli government press card. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery writes about the experience.

As the world looks on, Israel continues its violent campaign against the Palestinians with a bloody new attack in Gaza which killed thirteen people, four of them children. EI’s Ali Abunimah argues that as long as the UN and the international community react to Israel’s crimes only with words, they are in no position to make any demands of the Palestinian people.

EI’s Arjan El Fassed is leaving Palestine but still has something to get off his chest. His column was published today in The Jerusalem Post.

Israel is cheering on a US attack on Iraq. What does Israel have to gain from a war that is opposed by the whole world, and do sinister blueprints from Washington’s ultraconservative think tanks herald a frightening future for the Middle East? EI’s Ali Abunimah investigates.

As Israel jumps from one self-made crisis to the next, the State of Israel itself is in an alarming condition. Sam Bahour reports from under siege in Ramallah/Al-Bireh.

The Palestinian people are stuck between a brutal and lethal Israeli occupation, and leaders who have served them poorly. Hasan Abu-Nimah writing for EI, argues that root and branch reform is needed, but not the kind advocated by Israel and the United States.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding Israel ends its siege on Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah compound. EI’s Ali Abunimah argues that while the international community scrambles to respond to such artificial crises, the real issues are being ignored, and greater danger is to come.

Next week — from Monday through Wednesday — will mark the anniversary of yet other dark days in September. This horrific event occurred 20 years ago in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.