A source who works directly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ ministers in the unelected and illegal “emergency government” of Salam Fayyad in Ramallah wrote to me that “Abbas has explicitly ordered the Rafah border to close and remain closed with the purpose of strangling Hamas.” The source, who was motivated to speak out by his outrage, but requested anonymity because he fears reprisals, added that Abbas “is ready to see his own people die for his political games.” Ali Abunimah comments on the effects of Abbas’ policy of colluding with Israel. Read more about Mahmoud Abbas' war against the Palestinian people
Last month the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the US and Israel were considering a revival of the “Jordan option.” In spite of the fervent denials emanating from Amman, the report caused a rash of speculation and concern among Palestinians. Many fear that if implemented it would mark the end of hopes for an independent Palestinian state. Resurrecting the Jordan option, in which the West Bank and possibly Gaza would be united in a political and economic confederation with Jordan, demonstrates not just the poverty of ideas in Washington and Israel, but their desperation as well. Osamah Khalil comments for EI. Read more about Deconstructing the Jordan option
While in Paris a few weeks ago, whenever the Middle East came up EI contributor Saifedean Ammous would be met with the traditional refrains of classical anti-Americanism: “they have no culture and deal with the world as if it had no culture,” “they have no morality in their foreign policy,” “they go to war for oil and money” and so on with inane over-simplified stereotypes. Soon after would come the cackle of self-righteous pride: “we Europeans are different,” “we want our foreign policy based on a concept of morality,” “we attempt to promote justice in the world and fix up the mess left behind by the Americans.” Read more about European hypocrisy
There is an interesting problem with selling the “Iran as Nazi Germany” line. If President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really is Hitler, ready to commit genocide against Israel’s Jews as soon as he can get his hands on a nuclear weapon, why are some 25,000 Jews living peacefully in Iran and more than reluctant to leave despite repeated enticements from Israel and American Jews? EI contributor Jonathan Cook asks, what is the basis for Israel’s dire forecasts — the ideological scaffolding being erected, presumably, to justify an attack on Iran? Read more about Israel's Jewish problem in Tehran
Despite the media’s fixation on Hamas and Bush’s renewed interest in “peace,” the truth of the matter is that nothing has changed on the ground for the Palestinians. Each week Israel rolls its tanks into the West Bank and fires its missiles on Gaza. These are specific attacks on people that will be recorded as statistics; the stories of those affected will never be told. Sonja Karkar writes for EI. Read more about One week in July
The contents of school textbooks in Palestine/Israel have often been the cause of controversy, normally when a report is published purporting to reveal “shocking revelations” about the alleged indoctrination of Palestinian schoolchildren. Last week, however, it was Israeli textbooks in the spotlight, as the Ministry of Education approved a new textbook with a difference. EI contributor Ben White finds that the inclusion of the term “Nakba” in Israeli textbooks is a perfect opportunity to see how the event is viewed in “official” discourse in the West and within Israel itself. Read more about The Nakba in Israeli textbooks and official discourse
The following is a speech delivered by activist Smadar Lavie at a rally against the demolition of 30 families’ homes in Kfar Shalem, Israel, 7 July 2007: No one has ever forced the kibbutzniks or the residents of the spiffy neighborhoods erected on the ruins of Palestine’s Nakba villages to keep on living in the precarious indeterminacy typical of Kfar Shalem. Mizrahim were forced to make Kfar Shalem their home from 1948 on, so that the Palestinians would have no place to return to, and for 60 years. Now the Mizrahim too are forced to vacate this land, their homes, in favor of the Ashkenazi real estate barons. Read more about Dry twigs
Today, Palestine and the Palestinians are divided as never before. The West Bank and Gaza are geographically and politically separated, divisions which are exacerbated by the political rift between Fatah and Hamas and the specter of civil war. Meanwhile, stateless Palestinian refugees are largely disconnected from their brethren in Palestine and the Diaspora, as well as from any semblance of a representative national movement. EI contributor Osamah Khalil argues that the time is ripe for Palestinians to reclaim their national movement by demanding the dissolving of the PA and the reviving of the PLO. Read more about Reclaiming Palestine
In the last few weeks, university presidents across the US and Canada have rushed to issue statements about the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions by the British University and College Union. They view this boycott as a serious violation of academic freedom. Yet, given the general failure of these leaders to comment on any number of infringements of academic freedom that have occurred in recent years, one might be excused for concluding that university presidents prefer to remain above the political fray and reserve their office for grave and important but non-controversial pronouncements on tsunamis. Read more about The ivory tower behind the Apartheid Wall
