Much debate on conflict in the Middle East is beset by contradictions and unanswered questions. In his second book, Nazareth-based English author Jonathan Cook seeks to cut these Gordian knots, and in the process proposes an uncompromisingly grim diagnosis of what is happening in the world’s most unstable region, and why it is happening. Raymond Deane reviews for EI. Read more about Book review: "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations"
January 2008 saw a tightening of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ routing of Fatah there the previous June. Palestinians in Gaza have been cut off from the outside world and Israel has banned or severely restricted the import of basic needs such as fuel, medicine and medical equipment, food, school supplies and cement. In January, electricity cuts lasted more than 12 hours per day as lack of fuel forced the closure of the region’s sole power plant.The above slideshow is a selection of images related to the breaking the Gaza siege in January 2008 taken by MaanImages photographer Wissam Nassar. Read more about Photostory: The month in pictures, January 2008
When I agreed to participate in the Turin Book Fair, which I have done before, I had no idea that the “guest of honor” was Israel and its sixtieth birthday. But this is also the sixtieth anniversary of what the Palestinian call the Nakba: the disaster that befell them that year, when they were expelled from their villages, some killed, women raped by the settlers. These facts are no longer disputed. So why did the Turin Book Fair not invite Palestinians in equal numbers? Tariq Ali comments. Read more about Why I will not participate in the Turin Book Fair
There are lots of “One Issue Voters” out here: those who decide to support a candidate based on the sole criterion of abortion, or taxation, or gun control, or crime. For those of us who fall into the “Pro-Palestinian Rights” category of One Issue Voter-hood, it’s a particularly lonely and dispiriting time. It’s as though there’s this big progressive celebration going on, but we haven’t been invited. Laurie King-Irani comments. Read more about The loneliness of the One-Issue Voter
“His very name scatters fire through ice,” wrote Byron of an 18th-century revolutionary leader, and so it has always been with the name of that extraordinary Palestinian, George Habash. Habash died an impoverished refugee in enforced exile in Amman last weekend. What, then, can this revolutionary of a bygone area provide us with now to address today’s bleak geopolitical predicament? Karma Nabulsi comments. Read more about Rebel from a bygone era
Israeli leaders, incensed that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had not resurrected the felled border wall and stopped the Gazans from entering, began suggesting that they would relinquish control of the strip altogether, leaving Egypt responsibile for the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza. “We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side, we lose responsibility for it,” said Israel’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai. “So we want to disconnect from it.” Read more about Israel threatens further supply cuts to Gaza
The immensity of the overwhelmingly peaceful movement of Palestinians in and out of north Sinai indicated that another reality is possible and indeed necessary in the Arab world. Occupation in Palestine cannot be successfully challenged if the Arab world does not wake up to the fact that anything but more actions of a similarly massive, popular nature are not encouraged. Acceptance of a continued oppression of Arab popular movements is tantamount to acceptance of Israel’s siege of Gaza. Serene Assir comments from Egypt. Read more about Another world is necessary
UNITEDNATIONS, 29 January (IPS) - The 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to lose its credibility once again as it prepares to impose a third set of sanctions on Iran while failing to pass any strictures on Israel for its continued heavy-handed repression of Palestinians in Gaza. “Many ask whether the UNSC still has any credibility left,” says Mouin Rabbani, contributing editor to the Washington-based Middle East Report. Read more about Security Council loses credibility over Iran, Israel
JERUSALEM, 30 January (IRIN) - Vulnerable refugees in the Gaza Strip could soon be without an important source of protein, as canned meat has not been imported into the enclave in recent days and supplies from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, are about to run out, a UN official who requested anonymity said on 30 January. “Canned meat is a major part of our food parcels, and is the only source of protein in the UNRWA food package,” Christopher Gunness, an UNWRA spokesman told IRIN. Read more about Snow further complicates relief supplies to Gaza
I lived more than half of my life in the US and I never felt the alienation that I felt on the day I read George Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary who passed away last week, labeled as a “terrorism tactician” in a front page obituary in The New York Times. What do you when they want to convince you that a kind and gentle man you met and respected as a person is a terrorist when you know otherwise? As’ad AbuKhalil reflects on George Habash as a model of revolutionary struggle. Read more about George Habash's contribution to the Palestinian struggle
