The recent attacks on an Israeli hotel and the firing of missiles on an Israeli plane taking off from Mombassa, Kenya, indicate again that terrorism has neither been defeated, exhausted nor even intimidated by the loudly acclaimed American-led “war on terror.” On the contrary, terrorist activities seem to be gathering strength, spreading faster and hitting harder than the most cynical assessments predicted. Hasan Abu Nimah, in this contribution to EI, explains why America’s failure to distinguish among the difference causes of violence is making things worse. At the same time, he warns Palestinians not to allow their just cause to be hijacked by those who carry out atrocities against civilians. Read more about Back to square one: the derailed "war on terror" after the Mombasa attacks
This is the Big Secret, which Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, Jr., and Ariel Sharon do not want you to know: There are no Jews, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Israelis, or Americans in this world. There are only human beings. They cannot be boxed in, excluded out, extra-judicially killed, illegally imprisoned, economically disenfranchised, collectively deported, silently tortured, or buried in mass graves without risking a further descent into the wreck where all of us now live. Read more about Salvaging the Wreck
I loath Binyamin Netanyahu, and therefore I hoped that he would be elected leader of the Likud. I am sorry that Sharon won the primary election instead. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery comments. Read more about Why Does the Leopard Hide his Spots?
Maintaining a website offering information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a pro-Palestinian perspective, my e-mail in-box is regularly filled with ‘advice’ about how the Palestinians should manage their Intifada. Some recent messages have bemoaned the decision by Palestinian military groups to fire mortars at Israeli settlements. EI’s Nigel Parry comments. Read more about The message of the mortars
No matter what the case, whether it is a 53-year-old British UNRWA official, or an 8-year old-boy standing next to his house, the lie is always the same. The victim was a “terrorist” or appeared to be a “terrorist,” who with a cell phone, a rock, his bare hands, or even a pepsi bottle full of solvent, threatened the lives of heavily armed occupation troops riding around in 65-ton Merkava tanks in the middle of a refugee camp. EI’s Ali Abunimah writes about Israel’s killing of a senior UN official in Jenin and what it tells us about violence throughout the Occupied Territories. Read more about Death and Lies in Palestine
“It seems that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Zionism as a nationalist ideology, and US support for Israel are still topics that many scholars prefer to keep at arm’s length, and given what I learned from some younger colleagues attempting to teach college classes about the Middle East in respected US institutions of higher learning, it is no wonder. ” A report from the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association by EI’s Laurie King-Irani. Read more about Combining Activism and Academia: A Moral Imperative
Ambassador Hasan Abu-Nimah surveys the Palestinian-Israeli situation five months after President Bush’s famous “vision” was announced, and on the eve of another Israeli election. He writes, “It is astonishing that there are still many around who would warn against the grave risk of losing Sharon because the alternative could be Netanyahu, or would hope that a Labour victory would instantly remove the barricades from the way of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace; they had pinned their hopes on Barak before, but do not seem to have learned the lesson. How many more precious years do we need to spend switching from a seeming “dove” to a seeming “hawk” in a futile process of trial and error, while our people’s suffering continues, before we realise that until and unless we take the initiative ourselves, we will continue to long for the mirage and count disasters.” Read more about What is happening in Palestine?
EI’s Ali Abunimah writes that a two-state solution is still possible, but only if Israel stops undermining it and immediately seizes the far-reaching offers of the Palestinians and the Arab states.
Sadly, though, the political field in Israel looks unlikely produce anyone who will seize this golden opportunity. Therefore, Israel will likely miss the boat on the two-state solution, and Palestinians and Israelis will have to think about what it will be like to live together in one state, and more importantly how to get there peacefully because no road map exists. Read more about Two States or One?
Since last Sunday, a question has been running around in my head and troubling my sleep: What induced the young Palestinian, who broke into Kibbutz Metzer, to aim his weapon at a mother and her two little children and kill them? Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery attempts to answer a difficult question. Read more about Kibbutz Metzer: Grasping at the "why?"
A US war with Iraq may reshape the Middle East, and will certainly have an impact on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hasan Abu Nimah, who frequently contributes to EI, turns his attention to Iraq and considers whether the new UN resolution brings war closer or pushes it away. What does this mean for the UN and how should Iraq and Arab states react to stave off the threat of a catastrophic conflict? Read more about The UN's Iraq Resolution: What does it mean?
