Hasan Abu Nimah

The Palestinian Authority is in a critical and untenable state, writes EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah. On the international front it is engaged in futile diplomacy designed to restore its reason for existence. Meanwhile on the home front, new allegations of corruption implicate prime minister Ahmed Qureia, Suha Arafat, the wife of the Palestinian leader, and Palestinian cabinet minister Jamil Tarifi. Yet neither Qureia’s nor Mrs. Arafat’s denials will do much to clear the thickening clouds of suspicion and mistrust that hang over the PA. Neither does the ongoing Palestinian parliamentary investigation offer much hope, in the light of earlier experience.

Apartheid South Africa, which Israel increasingly resembles in the eyes of the world, taught an important lesson: the nuclear weapons which the apartheid regime developed with Israeli assistance were no defence against a majority population struggling for its freedom. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah argues that none of the excuses for the world ignoring Israel’s weapons of mass destruction hold water, and Middle East disarmament should begin with the one state that possesses deployed nuclear weapons aimed at its neighbors.

For decades, Israel claimed that the creation of a Palestinian state would mean the “destruction of the Jewish state.” Now, Israel insists that not having a Palestinian state would mean annihilation. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah examines this apparent contradiction in the context of Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia’s recent “threat” that the Palestinians would abandon the two-state solution and call for a binational democracy in all of historic Palestine instead.

It is astonishing how little the Palestinian leadership learns from its past mistakes? asks regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah. The so-called “Geneva Accord” — an unofficial document agreed upon by former Israeli officials and Palestinians linked with the Palestinian Authority — is a new blunder that will do enormous harm to the Palestinian position, while doing nothing to extricate the Palestinian leadership from its sinking state. Abu Nimah looks at some the agreement in detail and looks at its provisions on key issues like land and refugees.

In a recent visit to Luxembourg, Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher voiced his grave concern over the fading promise of a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, based on two-state solution. What he said sounds more like a recognition of a harsh reality than what may otherwise be viewed as a warning to avoid the worst. Warnings of this kind were heard before, from prominent Arabs, Israelis and others. They were hardly heeded, or even taken seriously. Most of us assumed that such warnings were no more than good efforts to expose the dangers of Israeli procrastination, with the positive intent of urging parties to work harder for peace.

Israel’s flagrant violations of international law, and the United States’ use of its veto to block any action to restrain Israel and resolve its conflicts with its neighbors, is leading to the wholesale destruction of the UN system and a return of the law of the jungle, writes regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah.

To its standard list of revenge measures following the Haifa suicide attack, Israel added the novel step of bombing Syria. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, and EI co-founder Ali Abunimah write that this escalation by Israel will not save it from an existential crisis that is hurtling towards it like a runaway train.

The resignation of the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, should surprise no one. The whole scheme was no more than an artificial arrangement intended to serve far more hidden, dangerous purposes than those sanctimoniously declared. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah analyzes why Abbas failed, and considers the chances for a successor to do any better.

The two devastating bomb attacks in Baghdad and Jerusalem last week have further confirmed the fragile nature of measures taken so far to deal with the two complex issues of Palestine and Iraq. It was particularly shocking, and deeply agonising to realise that even the United Nations’ Baghdad headquarters would not be spared the evil of those whose main interest, it seems, is only to spread death, destruction and total chaos. The United Nations, and the many noble people who fell victim in the senseless, horrendous attack had no reason to be there other than to help the Iraqis overcome the suffering of the war, and provide them with much needed assistance to rebuild their shattered country and battered society. Yet, argues regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, the lesson of these atrocities is once again that occupation breeds chaos, violence and endless resistance.

Recently, we have been witnessing a raging debate about the separation wall which Israel has been building around itself, to prevent further Palestinian “suicide attacks.” But the wall will also include the settlements and the bypass roads built during the interim period under the Oslo accords, to link them with Israel (the interim period which was ostensibly intended to build confidence, not additional annexation facts on the ground), and the land which Israel claims is necessary for security, therefore slicing huge chunks of Arab Palestinian lands to add to Israel as a purely illegal unilateral measure. Hasan Abu-Nimah comments.