Ambassador Hasan Abu-Nimah surveys the Palestinian-Israeli situation five months after President Bush’s famous “vision” was announced, and on the eve of another Israeli election. He writes, “It is astonishing that there are still many around who would warn against the grave risk of losing Sharon because the alternative could be Netanyahu, or would hope that a Labour victory would instantly remove the barricades from the way of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace; they had pinned their hopes on Barak before, but do not seem to have learned the lesson. How many more precious years do we need to spend switching from a seeming “dove” to a seeming “hawk” in a futile process of trial and error, while our people’s suffering continues, before we realise that until and unless we take the initiative ourselves, we will continue to long for the mirage and count disasters.” Read more about What is happening in Palestine?
EI’s Ali Abunimah writes that a two-state solution is still possible, but only if Israel stops undermining it and immediately seizes the far-reaching offers of the Palestinians and the Arab states.
Sadly, though, the political field in Israel looks unlikely produce anyone who will seize this golden opportunity. Therefore, Israel will likely miss the boat on the two-state solution, and Palestinians and Israelis will have to think about what it will be like to live together in one state, and more importantly how to get there peacefully because no road map exists. Read more about Two States or One?
Since last Sunday, a question has been running around in my head and troubling my sleep: What induced the young Palestinian, who broke into Kibbutz Metzer, to aim his weapon at a mother and her two little children and kill them? Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery attempts to answer a difficult question. Read more about Kibbutz Metzer: Grasping at the "why?"
A US war with Iraq may reshape the Middle East, and will certainly have an impact on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hasan Abu Nimah, who frequently contributes to EI, turns his attention to Iraq and considers whether the new UN resolution brings war closer or pushes it away. What does this mean for the UN and how should Iraq and Arab states react to stave off the threat of a catastrophic conflict? Read more about The UN's Iraq Resolution: What does it mean?
As Israel heads towards a new election, what prospect is there that Israel’s Labor party can offer a real alternative to Sharon? EI’s Ali Abunimah examines the positions of three leading lights of Israel’s “peace camp,” Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and Shlomo Ben Ami. Find out why he thinks they are calling for the resumption of a journey along a road that leads only to a dead end, with no new ideas and no incentives for Palestinians who want true reconciliation and coexistence to build a peace front with them. If this is the case, what possible solutions lie on the horizon? Read more about Sharon's Appendix: The bankruptcy of Israel's "Peace Camp"
Many important voices have come out to express fear that the “two-state solution” for the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is fast fading. The consequences, they warn, are horrifying, not only for the Palestinians, for whom statehood is a national aspiration, but also for Israelis. Hasan Abu Nimah examines this development and what its true consequences may be. Read more about Conflict in Palestine: a tale of two states
If everyone involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Sharon, Arafat, the US, the Europeans and the Arab states all say they want peace, then why is there no peace? Hasan Abu Nimah tells The Electronic Intifada the answers. Read more about What is needed is a real peace plan for a change
Just as the Israeli occupation to suppress the entire Palestinian population has taken on new shapes and forms in the absence of any international considerations, Israeli settlers are camouflaging this latest round of land confiscation with a facade of environmental issues, namely a solid waste landfill site on the eastern front of the Palestinian West Bank town of Al-Bireh. Walid Hamad, Mayor of Al-Bireh writes about the problem. Read more about Settlers and Trash
The new US “road map” to peace in the Middle East presented by US Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns is nothing but a placebo for the Palestinians and the world community amidst war talk and sabre-rattling in Washington, DC. The new plan is not an adequate response to Palestinian and international demands that Israel immediately end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Sam Bahour and Israeli Michael Dahan weigh in. Read more about Another road map to nowhere
There is little controversy about the facts: last Thursday, in an IDF action in Rafah, at least eight Palestinians were killed (the number will probably climb, since some of the wounded were severely hurt). Five of those killed were woman and children. Almost fifty people were wounded - many of them children who had just left their school after lessons. Who is to blame? asks veteran Israeli activist Uri Avnery. Read more about The Chain of Command
