If former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had merely been a diplomat or an academic offering a controversial viewpoint, then interrupting his 15 October speech at University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall would certainly have been an attempt to stifle debate. But confronting a political leader suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity cannot be viewed the same way. Ali Abunimah comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Why I disrupted Olmert
The uproar over the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) collaboration with Israel to bury the Goldstone report, calling for trials of Israeli leaders for war crimes in Gaza, is a political earthquake. The whole political order in place since the 1993 Oslo accords were signed is crumbling. As the initial tremors begin to fade, the same old political structures may appear still to be in place, but they are hollowed out. This unprecedented crisis threatens to topple the US-backed PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, but it also leaves Hamas, the main Palestinian resistance faction, struggling with fateful choices. Ali Abunimah comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about After Goldstone, Hamas faces fateful choice
Just when it seemed that the Ramallah Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas could not sink any lower in their complicity with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the murderous blockade of Gaza, Ramallah has dealt a further stunning blow to the Palestinian people. The Abbas delegation to the United Nations in Geneva (officially representing the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization) abandoned a resolution requesting the Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone’s report on war crimes in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action. Ali Abunimah comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Abbas helps Israel bury its crimes in Gaza
The summit between US President Barack Obama with and Palestinian and Israeli leaders in New York signaled the complete and terminal failure of Obama’s much vaunted push to bring about a two-state solution. Although the “peace process” will continue to go through sterile motions, the future of Palestine/Israel is actually being decided elsewhere. Ali Abunimah comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Obama's peace effort has failed but our struggle continues
From 1994 to 2006, more than eight billion US dollars were pumped into the Palestinian economy, making Palestinians the most aid-dependent people on earth. The PA received this aid ostensibly to build Palestinian institutions, improve socioeconomic development and support the creation of an independent state. The result however is that Palestinians are more destitute and aid-dependent than ever before, their institutions are totally dysfunctional, and their state remains a distant fantasy. Read more about Liberation, not a fictitious Palestinian "state"
Much of the debate about US President Barack Obama’s push for Middle East peace resembles the proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty. But even a full glass is not very useful if you need to fill an entire reservoir. The constant focus on process and gimmicks has obscured the reality that a workable two-state solution is almost certainly unachievable. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Why Obama's peace process is still going nowhere
A recent meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israel lobby leaders was designed to assuage American Jewish anxiety over US pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction. But rather than using American leverage to require Israel to comply with international law, the Obama administration is actually offering it more rewards at the expense of Palestinians and Arab states. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Obama's prizes for Israel are not "pressure"
In a major policy speech on 25 June 2009, Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, tried to do what may be impossible: present the Islamist Palestinian resistance organization as a willing partner in a US-led peace process, while holding on to his movement’s political principles and base. This is the dilemma that every Palestinian leadership, and perhaps almost every liberation movement, has eventually had to confront. It is a choice, as political scientist Tamim Barghouti has pointed out, between recognition and legitimacy. Ali Abunimah analyzes. Read more about Hamas' choice: Recognition or resistance in the age of Obama
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a peace plan so ingenious it is a wonder that for six decades of bloodshed no one thought of it. Some people might have missed the true brilliance of his ideas presented in a speech at Bar Ilan University on 14 June, so we are pleased to offer this analysis. Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah comment. Read more about Netanyahu's "brilliant" peace plan
Once you strip away the mujamalat — the courtesies exchanged between guest and host — the substance of President Obama’s speech in Cairo indicates there is likely to be little real change in US policy. It is not necessary to divine Obama’s intentions — he may be utterly sincere and I believe he is. It is his analysis and prescriptions that in most regards maintain flawed American policies intact. EI’s Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Obama in Cairo: A Bush in sheep's clothing?
