Mahmoud Abbas is fed up. Last week he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. I understand him. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama. A year ago, when Obama was elected, he aroused high hopes in the...
Demolitions Continue in East Jerusalem
OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM – "Make sure your father gets this," the municipal inspector tells a 10-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the al-Bustan quarter of Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood right under the shadow of the...
Knocking Our Heads Against a Wall in Palestine
In the face of an outraged Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed off on her congratulation of Israel for merely pledging to limit settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Previously, President Barack Obama, originally appearing to be much...
Remembering Yitzhak Rabin
A year before the Oslo agreement, I had a meeting with Yasser Arafat in Tunis. He was full of curiosity about Yitzhak Rabin, who had just been elected prime minister. I described him as well as I could and ended with the words: "He is as honest as a politician...
Israelis Targeting Grassroots Activists
EAST JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities are increasingly targeting and intimidating nonviolent Palestinian grassroots activists involved in anti-occupation activities who are drawing increased support from the international community. Several weeks ago masked Israeli...
Security Council Urged to Take Up Gaza War
Pressure has been building on the UN Security Council to address the impact of the Gaza war on civilians in advance of its meeting Wednesday to discuss the Middle East. "The Security Council has a historic opportunity to uphold the principle of civilian...
Rift Developing Between PA and Fatah
RAMALLAH - An increasingly isolated and unpopular Palestinian Authority (PA) has again made a 180-degree turn in the Goldstone report fiasco as it tries to fend off mounting criticism from all and sundry, including its own organization. On Sunday, Palestinian...
Muslims See Victory at al-Aqsa
EAST JERUSALEM - Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday. But the Islamic...
Cold War’s Ghost Blocks Mideast Peace
And you thought "don't ask, don't tell" was a U.S. law on gays in the military that Barack Obama has promised to change. As it turns out, the same phrase plays quite a different role in the Middle East, where Obama seems to have no intention of changing it at all....
Palestinian Voices of Gloom Get Louder
ABU DIS, Occupied West Bank - Three Israeli soldiers, automatic rifles slung across their shoulders, are questioning a group of Palestinian builders. The top floors being added to the concrete house that lies right alongside Israel's security wall, which divides off...