News Category: Op-Ed

The 16,076-document leak bombshell that cable television station al-Jazeera dropped on Sunday on an unsuspecting Middle East will have major repercussions for weeks to come. It is likely to deal a death blow to an American-led peace process already on life support, and hasten the end of the Palestinian Authority created by the 1993 Oslo accords.

The Other Jonathan

Israel prime minister recently appealed for the release of Jonathan Pollard from an American jail. Just a week later, Israel sent Jonathan Pollak to jail. Although they share a first name and almost all of a last name, the two men could not be more different.

Jonathan Pollard is an American who was paid to spy for Israel. He got a life sentence in 1987 because of the damage he'd done to national security. Israeli governments first claimed he was a rogue operator, then embraced and naturalized him, and then began clamoring for his release.

An Irrelevant House?

Some members of the United States House of Representatives may not know too much about international affairs, but they certainly know what they don’t like: a Palestinian state that is not fully supported and endorsed by Israel in direct negotiations.
 


The Devil’s in the Discourse

Three aspects of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Saban Center speech on Friday have escaped general notice. First, though she spoke boldly of asking "tough questions and expecting substantive answers" on the core issues of the conflict, the process will not culminate in a "just, lasting and comprehensive peace" as Clinton claimed, but rather a framework agreement. What is a framework agreement?

The Return of Plan “B” and the Death of the Peace Process

Last week marked a low point in the Obama administration's attempts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Following the administration's announcement that it was ending efforts to secure a 90-day extension of Israel's limited moratorium on settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced "Plan B" for resolving the conflict.

Israel’s Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the misplaced priorities of the George W. Bush administration, the Carmel fire has similarly exposed the reality of Israel's domestic and foreign policy priorities.

Defending Palestinian Solidarity

The Electronic Intifada, the online publication about Palestine that I co-founded in 2001, finds itself at the centre of a storm as a pro-Israel group applies pressure to have a grant from a Dutch foundation withdrawn.

This assault on our freedom of conscience is about much more than our website. It is part of a well-coordinated, escalating Israeli government-endorsed effort to vilify individuals and cripple organisations that criticise Israel's human rights record and call for it to respect Palestinian rights and international law.

The ‘Peace Process’ won’t go away

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barely had time to enjoy the way the WikiLeaks revelations seemed to bolster his case for an attack on Iran when a catastrophic fire raged through northern Israel. Both events swept talk of peace talks off the front pages, buying Netanyahu more time to deal with the US push for the resumption of direct negotiations. That push continues even though some reports claim Israel turned down the incentives the US offered for a three-month settlement moratorium intended to entice the Palestinian Authority (PA) to come back to the table.