It appears that all the Lilliputians managed to do so far is to delay the giant for a few months. But these months were crucial. Today the Lilliputians are no longer tiny people. It started with thousands of small organizations, scattered around the globe and communicating over the Internet - organizations which are connected by a shared sense that if things go on like this, the human race will destroy itself. Tanya Reinhart writes in Yediot Aharonot. Read more about The Lilliputians are no longer tiny people
George Bush and Tony Blair’s burst of enthusiasm for Palestine and the ‘road map’ is a transparent attempt to stretch the sticking plaster of a Middle East settlement over the gaping wound of the Iraq crisis. But what the Palestinians need is an end to occupation, not bogus statehood writes Ahmad Samih Khalidi in The Guardian.Read more about This is a road map to nowhere
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, together with the entire Israeli peace and human rights movement, mourns the death in Gaza of Rachel Corrie and extends its condolences to her family, friends and comrades in the International Solidarity Movement. Read more about Honor Rachel, End House Demolitions
“Rachel Corrie died for the sins of all High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions who have neglected to discharge their legally binding obligations to protect human rights and prevent impunity for confirmed rights violators. It should not fall on the shoulders of college seniors from Olympia, Washington to rectify the tragedies that nation states helped to create and are obligated to prevent.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani traces the sources of Rachel Corrie’s courage to the principles of International Humanitarian Law while noting that her murder highlights the urgency of halting Israeli impunity. Read more about Of broken bodies and unbreakable laws
“The Israeli bulldozer that ran over and killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, in the Gaza Strip today had killed before. A few weeks ago, on March 3, an Israeli bulldozer killed a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman, Nuha Sweidan, while destroying the house next door in a dilapidated Gaza refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses said that Mrs. Sweidan, 33, bled to death under the rubble as she cradled her 18-month-old daughter. Her unborn baby also died.” Steve Niva, a faculty member of Evergreen State College, makes an important call for action. Read more about Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes
Mahmoud Abbas (“Abu Mazen”)
Under intense pressure, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has appointed a Palestinian “prime minister.” EI’s Ali Abunimah writes that popular objections to this move stem both from the notion of introducing a “prime minister” in the context of an endless foreign military occupation, and the notoriously corrupt character of the person Arafat chose for the job. Read more about Why Israel is so excited about "prime minister" Abu Mazen
“To be an Arab in Israel is also to suffer from a qualitatively different kind of discrimination: a racism that is unknown to anyone who can claim to be an “ethnic Jew,” or, in the case of the Russian Christians, a “social Jew.” The discrimination is not just structural but ideological: it is the negation of the Arab citizen’s right to an identity as an Israeli. It is felt in the absolute exclusion of the minority from all aspects of the Zionist nation-building programme.” Jonathan Cook exposes the logical and methodological flaws in the writings of former Israeli government minister Professor Amnon Rubinstein. Read more about Amnon Rubinstein's lazy -- and misleading -- math
To the extent that the recent military acts in the territories are debated in Israel at all, the debate almost solely revolves around the question whether or not it is possible to end the Palestinian terror this way. The Palestinians, as human beings, simply do not exist. Tanya Reinhart writes in Yediot Aharonot.Read more about The Palestinians don't even have weather
Israel is good at floating vague ideas that grow in their generosity and magnanimity if they are rejected but quickly prove empty of any meaningful content if accepted, writes regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, who recently visited Washington and found a number of dangerous myths about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict alive and well. Read more about Myths and Disasters
Leading pro-Israeli organizations in the United States have pointedly refused to condemn Ariel Sharon’s inclusion in his new government of the National Union alliance parties whose members ran for election on a platform openly advocating the “transfer” – or ethnic cleansing – of the Palestinians. EI’s Ali Abunimah phoned up the leading US pro-israel groups, AIPAC and ADL to find out why they were remaining silent about policies that fit the international legal definition of genocide. Read more about AIPAC, ADL refuse to condemn inclusion of ethnic cleansers in new Israel government
