Opinion/Editorial

On violence and the Intifada

Ali Abunimah 22 January 2003


For decades, the unbearable cost of the occupation was borne almost exclusively by the Palestinians. Today it is falling a little more evenly. This is the grim political calculus that ensures there is enough support to keep suicide attacks going, while Israel’s collective punishment of the entire population, and assassinations of political leaders, ensure there is always a sufficient supply of hopeless volunteers ready to fulfill any mission in revenge. EI’s Ali Abunimah argues that attacks on Israeli civilians must stop, but that it is a mistake to believe that these attacks are what stand in the way of peace. 

For a nuclear-free Middle East

Karen Asfour 20 January 2003


The wheels of war roll on and it appears the world is getting closer to some type of armed conflict in the Middle East. In this environment, Israel’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons present a real but often overlooked threat to the region. In this contribution to EI, Karen Asfour assesses Israel’s weapons of mass destruction programs and argues that Israel’s refusal to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty is a key obstacle fuelling instability in the region, and preventing movement towards a nuclear-free Middle East. 

An unacceptable helplessness

Edward Said 17 January 2003

The clash of civilisations that George Bush and his minions are trying to fabricate as a cover for a preemptive oil and hegemony war against Iraq is supposed to result in a triumph of democratic nation-building, regime change and forcible modernisation a l’americaine. Meanwhile, the soul-and-body destroying situation in Palestine worsens all the time. Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, Edward Said urges an Arab alternative to the wreckage that is about to engulf our world. 

This conference won't help the Palestinians

Adrian Hamilton 14 January 2003

“Like schoolboys in an unruly fifth form, the Palestinians have been told that they have to prove that they can be properly behaved before they can expect to get any privileges,” writes The Independent’s Adrian Hamilton. Casting a critical eye on the London conference on Palestinian reform, Hamilton argues that, “It is simply wrong to lead them to believe that the reason Washington doesn’t sympathise with their case and the Israelis reject it is because their leadership is poor or their administration corrupt, however true that may be.” 

"Israel won't let us reform"

Yasser Abed Rabbo 13 January 2003

“Yes, Palestinians are expected to reform, but no, we are not supposed to succeed at it. The truth is that Israel’s purported interest in reform is merely an attempt to divert the world’s attention from the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel’s 35-year occupation of Palestinian territory and the denial of Palestinian freedom.” Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of culture and information, explains why Israel’s “catch-22” policies prevented him from attending an important conference in London. 

Israel's academic freedom defended, while Palestine's is destroyed

Ali Abunimah 10 January 2003

Following the January 5 suicide attacks, which killed over twenty people in Tel Aviv, Ariel Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin announced that Israel would shut down three Palestinian universities. Meanwhile, a mere statement by the administrative council of the prestigious University of Paris-VI has caused an uproar in Europe over alleged “boycotts” of Israeli academics. EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the controversy. 

The futile diplomacy of buying time

Hasan Abu Nimah 2 January 2003

“It is amazing that the U.S. invests effort and political capital in establishing an objective — an end to the occupation so that two states, Israel and Palestine, can live side by side — and then invests extra efforts into diluting, undermining and avoiding anything that could bring this closer.” Occasional EI commentator Hasan Abu Nimah writes about the diplomacy of buying time. 

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