Presenting his last report to the UN Security Council in December 2006 outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan lamented that the ‘greatest irony’ in the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict was that there was “no serious question about the broad outline of a final settlement.” The only thing that was needed was a “new and urgent push for peace”. This simple assertion has become somewhat of an ‘article of faith’ among seasoned diplomats and policy analysts. Annan’s summary of the contours of a final settlement, however, is more specific than the Road Map, referring specifically to a solution for refugees “consistent with the character of States in the region.” Read more about 'Known Knowns' and 'Unknown Unknowns': the UN and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Thanks to the Israeli press, people in Israel are informed regularly about their government’s mistreatment of the 4.5 million Palestinians under their rule. Most of the information regarding the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of its people is well documented and accurately reported in the Israeli press. But even the most serious offenses are given a “kosher” stamp, so to speak, once the word “security” is attached to them. There are ample examples of this, but few are as striking as the one provided in the March 23rd issue of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. Read more about Torture: Read it in the Israeli press 

The Arab League peace initiative is back in play after an Israeli and American-imposed five-year hiatus. The return to the previously shunted aside proposal comes only because the Bush administration has utterly fouled the region — from the bloody sectarian turmoil of Baghdad to the tsunami of human waste that recently swept through part of northern Gaza — and has evidently concluded there is now a better hope of “fixing” Israel and Palestine than Iraq. In an ironic twist, the Bush administration claim that the road to Middle East peace runs through Baghdad has been inverted by the total collapse in Iraq. Read more about Style or substance following Riyadh summit? 

At its Annual General Assembly in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (28 March 2007) the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists Aosdána debated two motions concerning Palestine presented by Margaretta D’Arcy, playwright and veteran political activist, and the composer Raymond Deane — who was a founding-member and former chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Read more about Irish artists' academy debates boycott motion 

CAIRO, Mar 30 (IPS) - Another diplomatic row has erupted between Cairo and Tel Aviv after a documentary film aired on Israeli television in February claimed that Israeli forces had executed hundreds of unarmed Egyptian prisoners of war (POWs) in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to express “Egypt’s anger” over the revelations, but critics from across the political spectrum decried the step as inadequate. Read more about Alleged POW Killings Spark Egypt-Israel Diplomatic Row 

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described “pro-Israel” groups, according to an IPS investigation. Abbreviated versions and segments of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film’s connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel. Read more about Film on "Radical Islam" Tied to Pro-Israel Groups