US President George W. Bush’s administration is considering economic measures to prevent Israel from building its separation wall in the occupied West Bank. The proposed punishment is to subtract from US loan guarantees for Israel $1 for every dollar Israel spends on building the barrier inside the West Bank. However, the administration appears to be split. Israel, meanwhile has announced plans for major new settlements in the occupied territories. EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the pre-election political scene in Washington, and assesses the chances of real US pressure on Israel to move forward on the road map. Read more about Washington is being toothless on Israel
“We are unwavering in our commitment to nonviolence. Due to these beliefs, we oppose the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. As a result we have come under heavy fire in the Occupied Territories and in the media. Israeli officials and several right-wing Israeli and American pundits have embarked on a campaign to discredit ISM, by attempting to equate ISM’s principled and active support for Palestinian rights with terrorism.” Tom Wallace and Rakhika Sainath recently wrote this op/ed in The Jerusalem Post.Read more about Occupied peoples have the right to resist
The road map for Palestinian-Israeli peace is in trouble. With the Palestinian and Israeli leaders visiting Washington in quick succession, the Bush administration has a chance to stop it from running into a ditch. Palestinians have made significant progress toward fulfilling their commitments. Yet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shows little sign of reciprocating. The respected Association of Civil Rights in Israel has just issued its annual report condemning the army for abuses of Palestinians. “Most of the abuses,” the report states, “occur not as a result of operational necessity on the part of the army, but from vindictiveness on the part of soldiers, who receive implicit approval to denigrate the dignity, life and liberty of innocent Palestinians.” All of this goes on today. At the Aqaba summit in June, President Bush promised he would “ride herd” to keep the peace process on course. This is the time to show that wasn’t just Texas tough talk, and ensure that this rare opening is not lost. Read more about Does the road map for peace have a chance?
Palestinian Academic Khalil Shikaki, in consultation with the Palestinian Authority (PA), set out to gauge Palestinian refugees’ reactions to the solutions to the refugee problem offered at the Taba talks in 2001. The idea, most likely, was to give the PA a sense of their bargaining position. Unfortunately, many people have taken the results of this poll out of context, and deemed it the final judgement on what Palestinian refugees want. It is no such thing and was never meant to be. Read more about Refugee Poll Confusion
The time is now right for the United States to start sending monitors to the region to watch and help with the implementation of the whole of the Road Map up to 2005 and the creation of a viable, sovereign, independent Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel. Then perhaps, just perhaps, we will see the end of the longest occupation in history. Read more about The Road Map
Despite the declaration of a unilateral Palestinian ceasefire with Israel, and the frequent meetings between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the “road map” for peace is in serious trouble. This is because the Bush administration, the plan’s chief sponsor, has allowed Israel to reinterpret it so that it is gutted of the elements that offered hope of progress. Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah explain in this commentary in The Financial Times. Read more about The holes in Israel's road map
Israel’ Ariel Sharon seems set to escape accountability once again for his role in the 1982 Beirut massacres of Palestinian refugees and Lebanese citizens. This is because the US has bullied Belgium into abrogating the law that gave victims a chance at justice. As EI’s Ali Abunimah explains, this setback is only part of a global effort by the Bush administration to derail international justice. Read more about From Brussels to Guantanamo, the US obstructs justice
Mahmoud Abbas was chosen by the United States as an unelected, alternate Palestinian leader who could be bullied and bribed into doing what Yasir Arafat failed to do earlier. Abbas is now anxiously and willingly treading exactly the same path of surrender and obedience that Arafat trod before him. Except, in Abbas’ case, it will not take him as long to reach the same dead end in which Arafat finds himself. As Israel makes new threats against Arafat himself, regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah explains why. Read more about Humiliating Arafat
“Perusing the Middle East map today, we find a region strewn with populations traumatized by decades, if not centuries, of suffering. Unless they are helped in overcoming their traumas, all talk of peace that does not begin with a search for justice and an honest acknowledgement of past wrongs is a waste of time.” Political scientist George E. Irani and EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani emphasize the need for a moral and legal basis for peace-making in the Middle East in the pages of Beirut’s Daily Star. Read more about Needed: A new cognitive road map for peace
“It is true, and it must be recognised, that without immense US pressure, the Sharon government would not have endorsed the roadmap. But it is also true that by endorsing the dozen or more reservations that Israel conditioned its acceptance upon, Washington has rendered the Israeli acceptance of the roadmap meaningless. What followed from that point on has been totally futile, obstructive, even dangerously counterproductive.” Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about The road to peace needs no map
