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”
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”
TZIPORI, Israel — Amin Muhammad Ali, a 74-year-old refugee from a destroyed Palestinian village in northern Israel, says he only feels truly at peace when he stands among his ancestors’ graves. The cemetery, surrounded on all sides by Jewish homes and farms, is a small time capsule, transporting Mr Muhammad Ali — known to …
Continue reading “Israel Begins Sell-Off of Refugees’ Land”
JERUSALEM — Has the just-ended Fatah party convention, concluded in a cavalcade of personnel change, affected the prospects for a two-state solution that might finally resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Even more than the dramatic shift of power from the old guard of politicians who had returned from exile to the middle-aged generation that grew up …
Continue reading “Suddenly, It’s Advantage Fatah, and a Solution”
Ira Chernus on the peace process
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is taking new measures to warn Palestinian civilians about impending aerial attacks. This comes in response to questions raised over whether Israel had complied with international laws during its 2006 war in Lebanon and the Gaza offensive earlier this year. Human rights groups have expressed concern that pamphlets dropped by …
Continue reading “New Israeli Plan to Warn Civilians of Impending Attacks”
BETHLEHEM — Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is fighting for its very survival as the movement faces implosion, and attacks from all sides. The issues have come to the fore at the sixth revolutionary council of the party that began in Bethlehem Tuesday. In turn the survival of the Fatah-affiliated …
Continue reading “Peace in Balance as Fatah Fights for Survival”
BREJ, Gaza — Tens of thousands of children in Gaza are still suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following Israel’s three-week bombing December-January. Several crisis counseling teams run by international organizations and NGOs have been carrying out intervention program aimed at helping Gaza’s most vulnerable put the pieces of their lives back together. But …
Continue reading “Gaza’s Traumatized Children Struggle to Rise Again”
JERUSALEM — Six months after Israel’s devastating assault on Hamas, its south-western border with Gaza has not been as quiet in a decade — only two rockets in the past six weeks on Israeli towns. Yet, the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza continues to haunt Israel. The World Health Organization is charging that Gazans …
Continue reading “Israel Prepares for War Over WHO Gaza Reports”
JERUSALEM — "Reckless," "cavalier," "unscrupulous," "petty politician, not statesman"…these and such epithets applied to Benjamin Netanyahu by friends and foes alike — not that he ended up with many friends — when he was first Israel’s Prime Minister back in the late 1990s. Re-elected in February, Netanyahu seemed aware of the question on everyone’s lips …
Continue reading “The Old Bibi Is Back” 
