In my name, and in the name of Jewish people throughout the world, an indigenous population was almost completely expelled. Village names have been removed from the map, houses blown up, and new forests planted. In Arabic, this is called the Nakba, or catastrophe. In Israel, this is called “independence.” Hannah Mermelstein comments. Read more about This land was theirs 

Last week in The Guardian’s Comment is Free, Lee Marsden wrote about how Republican US presidential candidate John McCain has managed to pick up the support of Christian Zionist heavyweight John Hagee. While Hagee praises McCain’s position on Israel, McCain himself is presumably happy to receive the endorsement of a man whose Christians United for Israel organization links up with thousands of potential voters. Ben White comments on a different strain of American evangelicals seeking to counter the impact Christian Zionists have on US foreign policy. Read more about The other evangelicals 

Last week’s attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot should not surprise critics in the West. Palestinians are fighting a total war waged on us by a nation that mobilizes against our people with every means at its disposal — from its high-tech military to its economic stranglehold, from its falsified history to its judiciary that “legalizes” the infrastructure of apartheid. Resistance remains our only option. Hamas founder Mahmoud al-Zahar comments. Read more about No peace without Hamas 

Muhammad Jaradat looks at the history that shaped the Palestinian Return Movement, the obstacles and challenges it faced — both internal and external — and its achievements towards the revitalization of the Palestinian consensus about the centrality of the right of return for the future of the Palestinian people and peace in the region. Read more about Reflections on the Palestine return movement 

When I came to learn of the fate that befell the Palestinians, I was shaken to the core and most particularly when I read eye-witness accounts of a massacre of Palestinian villagers that occurred a month before Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence. This was at Deir Yassin, a quiet village just outside Jerusalem, which had the misfortune to lie by the road from Tel Aviv. South African minister Ronnie Kasrils recalls the massacre that happened there 60 years ago and observes that the killing of Palestinians has continued uninterrupted. Read more about Sixty years after Deir Yassin 

For months, even before most Americans had heard of Senator Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, prominent pro-Israel activists were hounding Obama over Wright’s views on Israel and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In January, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, demanded that Obama denounce Farrakhan as an anti-Semite. The senator duly did so, but that was not enough. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about The senator, his pastor and the Israel lobby 

Last week, Fatah and Hamas officials held direct talks for the first time since Hamas’ June takeover of Gaza. Mediated by Yemeni officials in the capital, the talks led to the recently announced “Sana’a Declaration.” However, it is unclear whether these talks, like those that preceded the Gaza takeover, will result in reconciliation and national unity. Ziyaad Lunat comments for EI. Read more about The high road to freedom 

Now that Kosovo is the newest independent state to emerge out of the ruins of the former Yugoslavia parallels are being drawn between the Balkans and the Middle East. One response to this development came from Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who said that as she does not mind if the Palestinians follow the Kosovars and declare statehood; what worries her is that Palestinians will demand equal rights with Israelis. Miko Peled comments for EI. Read more about Transforming Israel 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech to the Israeli Knesset was lauded as historic, as she spoke of her country’s “shame” for the Holocaust. EI Contributor Raymond Deane subjects Merkel’s words and German reactions to them to a searing analysis. Deane argues that with her distortions, omissions and indifference to their plight, Merkel covers up the reality that it is the Palestinians who are paying the penance for Germany’s past crimes. Read more about Scapegoat upon scapegoat: Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset