As Israel heads towards a new election, what prospect is there that Israel’s Labor party can offer a real alternative to Sharon? EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the positions of three leading lights of Israel’s “peace camp,” Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and Shlomo Ben Ami. Find out why he thinks they are calling for the resumption of a journey along a road that leads only to a dead end, with no new ideas and no incentives for Palestinians who want true reconciliation and coexistence to build a peace front with them. If this is the case, what possible solutions lie on the horizon? Read more about Sharon's Appendix: The bankruptcy of Israel's "Peace Camp"
Many important voices have come out to express fear that the “two-state solution” for the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is fast fading. The consequences, they warn, are horrifying, not only for the Palestinians, for whom statehood is a national aspiration, but also for Israelis. Hasan Abu Nimah examines this development and what its true consequences may be. Read more about Conflict in Palestine: a tale of two states
If everyone involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Sharon, Arafat, the US, the Europeans and the Arab states all say they want peace, then why is there no peace? Hasan Abu Nimah tells The Electronic Intifada the answers. Read more about What is needed is a real peace plan for a change
Just as the Israeli occupation to suppress the entire Palestinian population has taken on new shapes and forms in the absence of any international considerations, Israeli settlers are camouflaging this latest round of land confiscation with a facade of environmental issues, namely a solid waste landfill site on the eastern front of the Palestinian West Bank town of Al-Bireh. Walid Hamad, Mayor of Al-Bireh writes about the problem. Read more about Settlers and Trash
The new US “road map” to peace in the Middle East presented by US Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns is nothing but a placebo for the Palestinians and the world community amidst war talk and sabre-rattling in Washington, DC. The new plan is not an adequate response to Palestinian and international demands that Israel immediately end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Sam Bahour and Israeli Michael Dahan weigh in. Read more about Another road map to nowhere
There is little controversy about the facts: last Thursday, in an IDF action in Rafah, at least eight Palestinians were killed (the number will probably climb, since some of the wounded were severely hurt). Five of those killed were woman and children. Almost fifty people were wounded - many of them children who had just left their school after lessons. Who is to blame? asks veteran Israeli activist Uri Avnery. Read more about The Chain of Command
How real is the threat of population transfer in Palestine-Israel today, asks Terry Rempel, the research coordinator at BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights in this contribution to EI? The fact is that population transfer is ongoing, with or without a US-led war against Iraq, through the revocation of residency rights, destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes over the past two years among other measures. As pro-transfer rhetoric heats up in Israel and the US heads towards war what are the prospects for outright ethnic cleansing? Read more about Of war and population transfer
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. Read more about Reform by Imprisonment
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. Read more about The Jerusalem blow -- another reminder of need for urgent change
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. Read more about What a Show!
