How many Palestinians in the occupied territories actually voted in the January 9 election for president of the Palestinian Authority? Many major media organizations are reporting a turnout close to 70 percent. In fact the turnout was well below 50 percent as EI’s Ali Abunimah explains. The distinction between registered and unregistered voters is crucial to understanding the actual turnout figure, but it is a distinction the media have failed to grasp. Read more about Media grossly exaggerate Palestinian voter turnout 

Once again, the media and the international peace process industry have declared that it is an “historic day” for the Palestinian people. The occasion this time is the election of Mahmoud Abbas as head of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied territories. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah reflects that in the ghost-written screenplay that the Palestinians are being forced to act out, the election is “good news.” This means that any information that interferes with this agreed narrative that we are at the cusp of a new era of peace, democracy and reform has to be carefully filtered out of public view. Read more about Yet another historic day 

Supporters of Israel have often accused Arab states of cynically exploiting the Israeli problem and the suffering it has caused the Palestinians to distract their own populations from domestic troubles. But if this has occurred, others, far beyond the region have also found the conflict a useful tool for their own selfish purposes. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is the latest leader to brazenly exploit this tragedy, write EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah. Having caused massive harm to his country’s reputation and credibility by allying it with Bush’s illegal Iraq invasion, Blair has sought to mitigate the political cost by repeatedly playing the Palestinian card. Read more about A parade of charlatans 

The Palestine Liberation Organisation has, over decades, committed many strategic blunders that continue to reverberate today, especially as its leadership seems poised to commit yet more, if granted the opportunity. The essence of the failed PLO strategy is that it put the priority of having a state under PLO leadership ahead of liberating the land from Israeli occupation. The PLO’s relentless emphasis on the establishment of a state has gradually marginalized all the central causes of the conflict. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah look at the failure of PLO strategy in recent decades and warn that the Palestinians may yet face the mother of all disasters. Read more about The mother of all disasters? 

EI co-founder Ali Abunimah writes about a visit to a family of elderly Palestinians refugees who have been given sanctuary in a Montreal church for nearly a year, after the Canadian government ordered them deported: “What was so shocking and moving about the situation Ayoubs find themselves in, in their church basement room in Montreal, is how reminiscent it is of the conditions they fled in Ain el Hilweh refugee camp.” Read more about Ain el Hilweh in the heart of Montreal 

Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian resistance leader imprisoned by Israel, has caused an uproar by reversing his earlier decision not to run for president of the Palestinian Authority. His candidacy has provoked some very negative reactions that cast serious doubt on the sincerity of those who have long been calling on the Palestinians to speed up democratization and reform as a way to advance the peace process. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah and co-founder Ali Abunimah look at the dispute and examine why there is so much hostility from peace process professionals to Barghouti taking part in a free election. Read more about Is Marwan Barghouti right to run? 

The first priority for Palestinian leaders now must be to defend their people against Israel’s relentless colonization and violence and not to negotiate with Israeli guns to Palestinian heads. They must formulate a national strategy to regain Palestinian rights enshrined in UN Resolutions, clearly explain this strategy, and organize Palestinians and allies everywhere to struggle for it. Palestinians should seek to emulate the success of the African National Congress that freed South Africans from apartheid by confronting and defeating injustice, not seeking to accommodate it, writes EI co-founder Ali Abunimah. Read more about What Palestinians should do now 

Had we awakened to a John Kerry victory, anyone seriously concerned about the conflicts in Palestine and Iraq would have faced the stark reality that Kerry offered nothing substantially different from President George W. Bush in either situation. Yet that provides little consolation for seeing Bush re-elected, as the desire to see him defeated had little to do with support for Kerry. What many wanted was accountability - to see the author of so many disastrous policies thrown out. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah examines what Bush’s victory means for the Middle East. Read more about Bush, America and the Middle East