Steven J. Rosen’s defamation lawsuit against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is now entering a critical phase. A series of cross-filings stakes out the critical court terrain. Rosen intends to show that obtaining and leveraging classified U.S. government information in the service of Israel is common practice at AIPAC. He claims it was …
Continue reading “Steve Rosen Accuses AIPAC of Espionage”
How much did the boycott of South Africa actually contribute to the fall of the racist regime? This week I talked with Desmond Tutu about this question, which has been on my mind for a long time. No one is better qualified to answer this question than he. Tutu, the South African Anglican archbishop and …
Continue reading “Against the Israel Boycott”
The Barack Obama administration — perhaps the president himself — will reportedly be launching a new round of authoritative Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations sometime during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session, which is scheduled to start in New York on Sep. 15. So far, most media attention has focused on the administration’s ongoing tussle with Israeli …
Continue reading “Can Final Peace Deal Overcome Settlements Roadblock?”
JERUSALEM – It’s not so much the proverbial making a mountain out of a molehill, but Israel finds itself climbing out of a stinky dung heap and onto a slippery diplomatic minefield. The new story began with a story – by all accounts a false, libelous, and unsubstantiated news report emanating from the occupied Palestinian …
Continue reading “Israeli-Swedish Row Heats Up”
EAST JERUSALEM – Israel’s continued policy of Judaizing East Jerusalem in order to establish facts on the ground before the future of that part of the city is decided has left dozens of Palestinians homeless and sleeping on the streets. Hundreds more are at risk, amid allegations of document forgery by Israeli settlers who have …
Continue reading “Israeli Settlers Push Palestinians to Sleep on the Street”
Jonathan Cook on PLO openness
CAIRO — The specter of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for the Middle East haunted the U.S.- Egyptian summit this week. In the run-up to President Hosni Mubarak’s first Washington visit in five years, both the Egyptian leader and his senior aides categorically rejected an undeclared U.S. offer to guarantee defense of the region against atomic …
Continue reading “Egypt Rejects US Nuclear Umbrella”
RAMALLAH – The Islamic resistance movement Hamas’s rule of Gaza is facing protracted political and military opposition from within Gaza, other Palestinian territories and abroad. On Saturday a guerrilla group put down the fiercest military challenge to Hamas rule since it took over the coastal territory in the June 2007 coup when it overthrew a …
Continue reading “Embattled Hamas Shows its Moderate Face”
In an echo of restrictions already firmly in place in Gaza, Israel has begun barring movement between Israel and the West Bank for those holding a foreign passport, including humanitarian aid workers and thousands of Palestinian residents. The new policy is designed to force foreign citizens, mainly from North America and Europe, to choose between …
Continue reading “US Turns Blind Eye to Israel’s New Separation Policy”
The ancient port of Acre is now the object of a fierce battle. The Arab inhabitants of the town want the port to bear the name of an Arab hero, Issa al Awam, a general under Saladin, the Muslim leader who defeated the Crusaders. The municipality of Acre, which of course is dominated by the …
Continue reading “Abridged Histories of the Holy Land” 
