“As soon as US Secretary of State Colin Powell sat down I decided to seize the moment to go and speak with him. I had been stewing in my seat, listening to Powell give an address to the packed banquet hall in which he offered Arab-Americans and Arab people no positive message, except for pro forma declarations of how valued Arab-Americans are as a part of US society.” EI’s Ali Abunimah recounts a brief encounter at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) annual convention on 14 June, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Photos by Nigel Parry. Read more about My (almost) conversation with Colin Powell 

One week after the Aqaba summit, the Israeli-Palestinian death toll climbed into the dozens with no sign of the violence slowing. EI’s Ali Abunimah says that Sharon and Hamas have formed a strategic partnership against peace, but blame for the disaster does not stop with them. Read more about Enough blame to go around 

Israel is doing everything possible to derail the road map, and the Palestinians’ Mahmoud Abbas is powerless to stop them. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah argues that more concessions from a leader who already made too many will neither halt the bloodshed nore bring peace with justice. Read more about As the Road Map unravels... 

Following the 4 June Aqaba summit between President Bush and Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the US media fell quickly into the pattern of ignoring or severely downplaying Israeli attacks on Palestinians, and playing up Palestinian counterviolence as a threat to a budding “peace process.” The media, rather than correcting the record, simply amplify the distortions. Palestinians are unjustly blamed for ‘reigniting’ a cycle of violence that in reality never paused for a single day. EI’s Ali Abunimah reports. Read more about US media ignore Israeli violence after Aqaba summit 

The occupation of Palestine has festered for thirty-six years too long. Despite Canada’s official position that Israel must withdraw from all the land it occupied in 1967, the Canadian government has done nothing as Israel illegally installed entire cities on the territory it stole by force. Now, under the guise of security, the Israeli government is building a multi-billion dollar prison wall that will effectively annex up to 40 per cent of the West Bank, yet Canada remains silent. Gordon Murray from ISM Canada comments. Read more about Thirty-six years of silence 

President Bush’s two days of Middle East summitry are being hailed in the United States as a diplomatic and political triumph. And indeed even by bringing Arab and Israeli leaders to Sharm al-Sheikh and Aqaba, Bush did more than many people thought was possible. But, writes EI founder Ali Abunimah, the elation is likely to be short lived as the carefully crafted final statements by Bush, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinians’ Mahmoud Abbas paper over the lop-sided concessions made by each side. Read more about The Road Map: Where next after Aqaba? 

With the twin summits in Sharm Al Sheikh and Aqaba underway, many believe that the likelihood of a major breakthrough in the efforts to break the cycle of Israeli-Palestinian violence and resuming serious talks towards a settlement are realistic. Yet while optimism may be justified in the short run, regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah argues that it is only a matter of time before the whole scheme falls apart right in front of everybody’s wide open eyes. Read more about The Road Map -- a matter of time