Opinion and analysis

Armed with principles

Ali Abunimah 22 April 2003


At the beginning of Israel’s crackdown on the Palestinians, we could anguish at the deaths of strangers, like 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durra, or the innocent Israeli teenagers murdered in 2001 by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv discotheque. Almost two years later, with victims mounting, no one has the emotional capacity to mourn for so many. But the killing of Corrie, and the shooting of Avery and Hurndall, renew for me the sense of personal anguish at the fate of strangers. EI founder Ali Abunimah comments on recent events. 

U.S. must probe death In Gaza

Stanley Heller 20 April 2003

“None of these people would have gotten hurt if they had minded their own business and closed their eyes to the shootings of Palestinians. Yet I’ve talked with ISM activists in New Haven who are certain that their work is vital. When they’re around, Israeli soldiers shoot less and the international news media pay more attention. That saves lives.” Stanley Heller of the New Haven, CT Middle East Crisis Committee sends a letter to the editor of his local paper. 

Policing the academy

Joseph Massad 13 April 2003

Joseph Massad, in this contribution to EI, writes about an intense campaign by supporters of Israel against academics who criticize Israel and against academic freedom itself. While the pro-Israel lobby’s campaigns to discredit people who criticise Israel had decreased in relative terms after Oslo, they were revived after the failure of the Camp David talks and the eruption of the second Intifada. The lobby and its individual manifestations have become rabid in their campaigns of discrediting offenders to the point that they have become embarrassing to many Americans who support Israel. 

Meanwhile, in Palestine...

Omar Karmi 30 March 2003

The US appears to be the only country in the world that fails to realize the centrality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for Middle East peace. It appears that the road map this administration is navigating by will take it to Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Riyadh before it realizes that all roads lead to Jerusalem. That’s a long route to take. 

War in Iraq and Israeli occupation: A devastating resonance

Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish 28 March 2003


For almost three years Arabs have been subjected to daily images of Palestinians being killed by Israeli occupation forces in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They see the United States not only doing nothing to stop this, but continuing to supply Israel with high-tech weapons, particularly Apache attack helicopters. Now they see those same Apache helicopters bringing war to Iraq. The spectacle of an American occupation of Iraq may dovetail in the minds of many with the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and be seen as an American extension in Iraq of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. EI’s Ali Abunimah and ADC Communications Director Hussein Ibish ask what it will take to mitigate the damage. 

Rachel

Ghassan Andoni 25 March 2003

This is the first time in which I could sit behind the computer and write about the tragic murder of Rachel. Since that happened many of us at the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) have lived through really hard times. What added to my sadness and grief is being the one who received and went through almost all of what was written about Rachel’s tragedy. Ghassan Andoni writes from Beit Sahour. 

Time for better decisions to be made on Palestine-Israel

Ziad J. Asali 24 March 2003

The sad fact is that the issue of Palestine has become the latest “last refuge of scoundrels.” The rest of us, unencumbered by divine certitude about the future and open to reason and compromise, have found it harder to have a public voice and space. It is our task to reclaim both. ADC president Ziad J. Asali offers an overview of the bigger picture. 

The Lilliputians are no longer tiny people

Tanya Reinhart 19 March 2003

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. 

This is a road map to nowhere

Ahmad Samih Khalidi 19 March 2003

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.