Demands from Israel’s chief commander this month that all Israeli citizens should be required to perform national service has turned the spotlight on a rarely discussed group of soldiers: members of Israel’s Palestinian minority. Though no official statistics are available, an estimated 3,000 of Israel’s 1.3 million Palestinian citizens have broken one of their society’s …
Continue reading “Call for Universal National Service Raises Uncomfortable Questions in Israel”
What did the U.S. government know about the "secret" Iranian nuclear research facility at Qom and when did it know it? That’s the question that isn’t on everyone’s lips, as the chatter about Iranian "intransigence" on nuclear issues reaches a crescendo in the run-up to Oct. 1, the date negotiations with Tehran are scheduled to …
Continue reading “September ‘Surprise’”
Sometime in 1846, Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail because he refused to pay his taxes. This was his way of opposing the Mexican-American War as well as the institution of slavery. A few years later he published the essay "Civil Disobedience," which has since been read by millions of people, including many …
Continue reading “Palestinians and Israelis Follow Thoreau, but Is Anyone Watching?”
Eight months after Barack Obama launched his presidency by promising a speedy push for Palestinian-Israeli peace, that effort has stalled badly. And there are now growing fears that the top levels of Obama’s peace team are torn by internal disagreements that may undermine the whole peace effort. Some of these problems were on view during …
Continue reading “A Week of Dimming Mideast Peace Prospects”
It’s unsustainable, says William Pfaff
EAST JERUSALEM — Almost a year ago a barely noticed event took place in Sawarha, a Palestinian neighborhood in the Israeli-occupied part of the city. On that November day, Israeli Jerusalemites were voting in a new mayor and a new city council. On that same day, in this neighborhood home to 25,000, people were ignoring …
Continue reading “Jerusalem Palestinians Defining Their Own Future”
BI’ILIN, West Bank – Eight children between the ages of 10 and 17 were arrested and detained by Israeli soldiers during military raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in the northern West Bank cities Nablus and Qalqilia. Defense for Children International (DCI) Palestine has released a statement that the number of children detained in Israeli …
Continue reading “More Palestinian Children Getting Jailed”
While Israeli officials claimed a major win in U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to shelve his long-held demand for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, some analysts here believe it may yet prove a Pyrrhic victory for the hard-line government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The decision, announced at …
Continue reading “Has Netanyahu Out-Maneuvered Obama or Vice Versa?”
Philip Giraldo wonders if Americans want to hear her
JERUSALEM – "Nobody can usurp the right to determine the fate of the nation on their own – not the Palestine Liberation Organization, nor anyone else. It is the will of the Palestinian people that must determine our future," declares Hamas political leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was speaking Sunday at the onset of …
Continue reading “US Pushing Beyond Settlement Freeze” 
