JERUSALEM – As President Obama on Wednesday initiates the ninth U.S. attempt in the last 30 years to bring about a final Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, expectations are low and pessimism is high. It’s precisely why the talks may just succeed. That, however, may be overly optimistic. Even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is genuine …
Continue reading “Middle East: Pessimistic About Peace, Yet…”
Sherri Muzher on the one-state solution
GAZA CITY – Just off Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City’s main thoroughfare, in a narrow, sandy alley way is a little second-hand clothing shop. In the dimly lit store, with only intermittent electricity for some hours a day at best, sits a single battered and aging sewing machine. This is where Khaled Nassan, a father …
Continue reading “Gazans Stitching Together a Living, Somehow”
AZZUN ATMA, Northern West Bank – For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. "I tried to get a special visitor’s permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was …
Continue reading “In Palestine, Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings”
A growing number of activists is contradicting the claims of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the Gaza Freedom Flotilla debacle in May, including a large faction of both Israeli and U.S. Jews. This faction was evidenced by the distinguished array of Jewish scholars, journalists and professionals who contributed to Moustafa Bayoumi’s new book, Midnight …
Continue reading “New Book Assembles Eyewitness Accounts from Mavi Marmara“
Jonathan Cook wonders why 1948 records are locked up
RAMALLAH — A bruising battle of will is taking place between Israeli security forces and Palestinians recently made homeless after two Palestinian villages were razed and hundreds left homeless. During the last few weeks over a thousand heavily armed Israeli riot police, soldiers and police, at times accompanied by helicopters and bulldozers, have clashed with …
Continue reading “Homeless Bedouins Take On Israeli Forces”
GAZA CITY – Outside the battered Civil Defense station in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya region, Mohammed Zidan, a seven-year veteran of fire-fighting and rescue services, stands on crutches in front of battered Civil Defense vehicles. Zidan, 31, lost his right leg during the 2008-2009 Israeli war on Gaza. He is one of more than 30 Civil …
Continue reading “Injured Workers Man Gaza’s Battered Services”
Last summer, a tight consensus formed in Washington around Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plans to build up state-like institutions in the West Bank and revive the territory’s sagging economy from the lingering effects of the Second Intifada. But the strategy – while still overwhelmingly popular in the West a year into its …
Continue reading “Palestinians Remain Split, US Doesn’t Adjust”
CAIRO – Israel’s deadly assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month has led to mounting international pressure to end the ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident, say local analysts, has also served to bolster the position of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which has governed the strip since 2007. "Israel’s …
Continue reading “‘Mediterranean Intifada’ Helping Hamas” 
