Clayton Swisher

Book Review: "One Country"

Clayton Swisher 6 January 2007


Ali Abunimah, the increasingly prominent 34-year old Palestinian-American activist and writer, never shies away from confronting those who support Israel at the expense of Palestinians. Abunimah’s intellectual insurgency continues in his first book, the recently published One Country, a provocative and well-written account attacking the same failure of imagination that delivered to the world the present Arab-Israeli calamity. Originally the basis for an academic presentation he delivered at St. Anthony’s College at Oxford in 2004, One Country powerfully advocates the creation of a “united, democratic state in Palestine-Israel.” 

Just Returned from Lebanon: TARFU

Clayton Swisher Washington, DC 13 July 2006


12 July 2006 — Even before the Lebanese-based Hezbollah took two Israeli prisoners of war today, I ended my trip to Beirut last week with the feeling that, beneath the beautiful, vibrant country there remained serious political tectonic plates waiting for any excuse to slip. I had conversations and visits over a two week period with Lebanese people of all stripes — from the pro-democracy/anti-Syrian political elite to Hamas to the downtrodden Palestinian refugees to the average Mohammad — and I left with the unmistakable impression that American interests are screwed.