Opinion and analysis

Remember Durban

Arjan El Fassed 22 September 2003

Two years ago EI’s Arjan El Fassed attended the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). At that time he was part of the Palestinian delegation at the NGO Forum. Two years after the conference, Israel’s apartheid policies have only deepened and become systematic and widespread. 

What the fatality statistics tell us

Amira Hass 3 September 2003

Against the background of shock and disgust at the mass terror attack on the Jerusalem bus on August 19, and the fear of advanced Qassam rocket attacks, the government of Israel energetically renewed its policy of targeted killings. From August 21 through yesterday, September 1, Air Force fighters killed 11 Hamas activists in six targeted assassinations in crowded central locations. Four other Palestinians were killed in those actions, among them a young girl and an old man, and dozens were injured. The threatened revenge attack has not occurred. Is this not proof that targeted killings are the way to go? Amira Hass writes in Ha’aretz. 

Who Violated Hudna?

Gideon Levy 18 August 2003

The next terror strike is on its way. You don’t need to be an expert on terror, or a compulsive gambler, to foresee that Islamic Jihad will try very soon to avenge the death of Mohammed Sider  the head of the organization’s military wing in Hebron. 

A failed Israeli society collapses while its leaders remain silent

Avraham Burg 29 August 2003

The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly, writes Avraham Burg, former speaker of Israel’s Knesset from 1999 to 2003. 

10 years after Oslo, question of single state unavoidable

Ali Abunimah 12 September 2003


The crisis represented by the Abbas resignation may actually signal the end of the era in which hopes for peace were predicated on the division of the land between an Israeli and a Palestinian state. If this is the case, argues EI’s Ali Abunimah, we will have to embrace a “South African solution”—bringing Palestinians and Israelis together in one political entity where they enjoy equal rights and freedom. We should be under no illusion that embracing the one-state solution is an easy choice for Palestinians, let alone Israelis. On the contrary, it entails a political movement of immense complexity and against powerful opposition. Yet this struggle may soon, if it has not already, become unavoidable. 

The Palestinians after September 11

Ali Abunimah 11 September 2003

Immediately after the 11 September 2001 attacks, American news channels repeatedly aired footage of a tiny group of Palestinians celebrating. Israel’s supporters tried to spin these images as proof that the Palestinians were a barbaric people and as much enemies of the US as of Israel. For Palestinians — who naturally shared the horror of the rest of the world — it was a particularly anxious moment, and many feared that after the thousands killed in the attacks, they would be the “second victims” of September 11. Two years on, EI’s Ali Abunimah asks whether the worst fears were realized and if the attacks made any fundamental difference to the dynamics of the Palestine conflict. 

The quick rise and fall of Mahmoud Abbas

Hasan Abu Nimah 10 September 2003


The resignation of the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, should surprise no one. The whole scheme was no more than an artificial arrangement intended to serve far more hidden, dangerous purposes than those sanctimoniously declared. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah analyzes why Abbas failed, and considers the chances for a successor to do any better. 

Israel's Assassination Policy Triggers Latest Suicide Bombings

Steve Niva 2 September 2003


Palestinian suicide bombings are vicious and grave abuses, clearly war crimes under international law for intentionally killing civilians. They have also been a strategic disaster for Palestinian national aspirations, souring the Israeli public on peace and damaging the Palestinian cause in the court of world opinion. Nevertheless, it is nearly impossible to avoid concluding that the current Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has either deliberately provoked a number of them or at least undertaken actions that would clearly risk them. Either way, it is complicit in the deaths of scores of Israeli citizens. Steve Niva comments. 

Another reason to build the fence: Separating Israel from the West Bank will help prevent attacks such as yesterday's bus bombing

20 August 2003


Since Israel began building a security fence to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank, Palestinians have labelled the project an “apartheid wall.” According to the Electronic Intifada, a popular Web site for pro-Palestinian activists, this is because the fence is “a colonial project that embodies within it the long-term policy of occupation, discrimination and expulsion.” The Post argues that our description of Israel’s Wall as “a colonial project” was “nonsensical” and that Israel is building the Wall “to protect its citizens from terrorists based in the West Bank”. 

CAMERA's half-baked attack on Cook

Nigel Parry 30 August 2003


In the rare event of articles critical of Israel breaking into the mainstream US media, a flood of denunciations from letter writers and Zionist lobby groups usually follows. Editors insist that their coverage is not affected by such tactics. But the truth is that these well-financed groups believe it is worth investing huge amounts of time, energy, and money in organising these campaigns. On 27 May 2003, a commentary piece by British journalist Jonathan Cook, entitled “A cage for Palestinians: A 1,000-kilometer fence preempts the road map”, was published in the International Herald Tribune. EI’s Nigel Parry looks at one instance of the lobby in action.