Routine and empty condemnations of violence serve a moral purpose, but do nothing to end the carnage of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives. In this contribution to EI, Hasan Abu Nimah argues that such condemnations are the politically easy alternative to recognizing the roots causes of the violence and taking the action necessary to end it. Read more about Empty statements won't stop the violence 

Following the January 5 suicide attacks, which killed over twenty people in Tel Aviv, Ariel Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin announced that Israel would shut down three Palestinian universities. Meanwhile, a mere statement by the administrative council of the prestigious University of Paris-VI has caused an uproar in Europe over alleged “boycotts” of Israeli academics. EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the controversy. Read more about Israel's academic freedom defended, while Palestine's is destroyed 

The double suicide bombing at the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv yesterday evening is dominating headlines internationally. The attack resulted in at least 23 deaths, and over 100 injured, many very seriously. Israel’s predictable response is to tighten the military occupation over Palestinians. Jaggi Singh reports. Read more about The Tel Aviv suicide bombing and illegal foreign workers 

“It is amazing that the U.S. invests effort and political capital in establishing an objective — an end to the occupation so that two states, Israel and Palestine, can live side by side — and then invests extra efforts into diluting, undermining and avoiding anything that could bring this closer.” Occasional EI commentator Hasan Abu Nimah writes about the diplomacy of buying time. Read more about The futile diplomacy of buying time 

The Israeli voter has a rare opportunity to find out how the right-wing government looks to the world when the rouge provided by Shimon Peres and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has been wiped off. Israel’s image in December 2002 is beginning to be reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s after he took off his mask. Akiva Eldar writes in Ha’aretz. Read more about A right-wing government without makeup 

The recent attacks on an Israeli hotel and the firing of missiles on an Israeli plane taking off from Mombassa, Kenya, indicate again that terrorism has neither been defeated, exhausted nor even intimidated by the loudly acclaimed American-led “war on terror.” On the contrary, terrorist activities seem to be gathering strength, spreading faster and hitting harder than the most cynical assessments predicted. Hasan Abu Nimah, in this contribution to EI, explains why America’s failure to distinguish among the difference causes of violence is making things worse. At the same time, he warns Palestinians not to allow their just cause to be hijacked by those who carry out atrocities against civilians. Read more about Back to square one: the derailed "war on terror" after the Mombasa attacks 

This is the Big Secret, which Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, Jr., and Ariel Sharon do not want you to know: There are no Jews, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Israelis, or Americans in this world. There are only human beings. They cannot be boxed in, excluded out, extra-judicially killed, illegally imprisoned, economically disenfranchised, collectively deported, silently tortured, or buried in mass graves without risking a further descent into the wreck where all of us now live. Read more about Salvaging the Wreck 

Maintaining a website offering information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a pro-Palestinian perspective, my e-mail in-box is regularly filled with ‘advice’ about how the Palestinians should manage their Intifada. Some recent messages have bemoaned the decision by Palestinian military groups to fire mortars at Israeli settlements. EI’s Nigel Parry comments. Read more about The message of the mortars