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Month: May 2008

Syria, Israel in Indirect Turkey Talks
ANKARA – Turkey is holding talks separately with Israeli and Syrian negotiation teams in a bid to pave the ground for the resumption of direct negotiations for the first time after a eight-year hiatus. "Syria […]

Running out of Time, and Friends
By Deepak Tripathi I cannot help thinking that the recent trip of President Bush to the Middle East was a spectacular failure. In Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt – in every country he visited and […]

When Free Speech Doesn’t Come Free
By Remi Kanazi Free speech is not without consequence. In the United States, for example, criticism of Israel is tantamount to heresy. Former US President Jimmy Carter felt a societal backlash last year after the […]

Egypt and Lebanon: Two Strikes, One Reality
By Alberto Cruz On April 6th a general strike was called in Egypt. One month later, on May 7th, another one was called in Lebanon. The causes were the same in both countries: calls for […]

Israel’s Game of Assassination
By Stuart Littewood Some readers will remember the 1969 film The Assassination Bureau, a tongue-in-cheek romp based on Jack London’s unfinished novel. The setting is the turn of the century a hundred years ago, a […]

Breathless in Gaza
By Ola Attallah GAZA CITY – Six-year-old Ahmed was playing with his brother outside their Gaza house when his little face suddenly turned blue and he fell to the ground. "Mom, dad, help," screamed his […]

Peace Process: Has Annapolis Lost Its Appeal?
By Ben White They are a rare breed, but you can still find them, in positions of political power and newspaper opinion pages. Their motives are mixed, but they have one thing in common; they […]

Recognition of Israel: Rediscovering History
By Dan Lieberman The 60th anniversary of the state of Israel prompted reviews of the post World War II declarations that resulted in the formation of a nation that had no name until David Ben […]

Talk To Hamas: Ex-Israel Brass
CAIRO – Former Israeli army and security officials have recommended talks with Hamas for a long-term ceasefire, warning against any large-scale offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip, Haaretz reported on Sunday, May 18. "Non-public negotiations […]

With Friends Like These
By Uri Avnery Lately we are flooded with friends. The Great of the Earth, past and present, come here to flatter us, to fawn on us, to grovel at our feet. "God, save me from […]

Israel at 60: Birthday Dedication
By Hasan Afif El-Hasan The Zionists and their supporters read the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within the context of success in establishing the State of Israel; but the facts suggest it is a history […]

Another Ominous Bush Bash
By Ira Glunts In a talk eerily reminiscent of his “Axis of Evil” speech, President George W. Bush told the Israeli Knesset on May 15 of his commitment to vanquish any group that opposes his […]

Did Hezbollah Thwart an Attack on Lebanon?
By Franklin Lamb in Beirut This week Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief Major General Amos Yadlin complained to the Israeli daily Haaretz that "Hezbollah proved that it was the strongest power in Lebanon… stronger than the […]

The Anti-Chavistas
By Stephen Lendman Who said crime doesn’t pay? Read on. The Washington-based Cato Institute is all about "Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace," or so says its web site. It’s been around since 1977 preaching […]

This Is Not About Lebanon
By Aijaz Zaka Syed Contrary to what some of my friends suspect, I hate to go on and on about the Middle East and the games big powers play in this part of the world. […]

Remembering Al Nakba in the Occupied Territories
By Kim Bullimore This year marks the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba, the catastrophe, which saw the destruction of Palestinian society and the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians from their historic homeland. […]

We Will Be Back: Refugees
BEKAA CAMP, Jordan – Wael Ismail does not have a single memory of his country. Like thousands of Palestinian refugees, he was born in diaspora. Still, he yearns for the day he returns to a […]

60 Years of Denial
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Don’t ask for what you never had,’ is the underlying message made by supporters of Israel when they claim Palestine was never a state to begin with. The contention is, of course, […]

The Ongoing Nakba, and the Struggle for Return
By Rich Wiles and Nidal Al Azzeh The events of 1947-49, and specifically 1948 itself, are known as Al Nakba – the Catastrophe. It was the time of the forced expulsion of at least 750,000 […]

Black Sky Commemorates Nakba
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – As world leaders descend on Israel to celebrate its 60th birthday, thousands of black balloons, kites and flags will darken the sky above occupied East Jerusalem) as Palestinians commemorate the loss of […]

The Young Have Not Forgotten
By Rifat Audeh "The old will die and the young will forget." — David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, commenting on the dispossessed Palestinian people kicked out of their homes by Israel. Well, it is […]

Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years
By Jeff Halper Israeli Independence Day 2008, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the rise of the Jewish State on the ruins of Palestinian society, should be cause more for sober reflection and reevaluation than for […]

Gaza’s Grounded Fishermen
By Motasem Dalloul GAZA CITY – Khalid Abu-Reyalla, a 45-year-old father of 10, hasn’t made enough money from fishing since 2000, but life has been particularly difficult for the past several months. "I can hardly […]


Clinton’s ‘Final Solution’ to the Persian Problem
By Robert Weitzel "To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it…An evil unchecked is the prelude to genocide." – Dr. Mordechai: The Ezekiel Option There are over 70 […]

Politicizes Tragedy in Burma
By Ivan Eland From the administration that used the 9/11 tragedy to violently pursue an unrelated vendetta against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, we get Round Two. After a cyclone devastated portions of Burma (which the despotic […]

From Nakba to Two-state Chimera
RAMALLAH – Sixty years after Israel was created on the rubbles of their country and after two decades of fruitless negotiations, Palestinians are losing faith in the long-touted two-state solution. "Israel’s maximum offers don’t meet […]

Palestine: The Crime of Partition
By Ron Forthofer After WWII, political pressure increased for a Jewish state instead of a homeland in Palestine. This pressure was due in part to the terrible guilt felt by people in the U.S. and […]

Lebanon: Choufeit’s Bloody Pentecost
By Franklin Lamb in Choufeit, Lebanon In the lower Chouf village of Choufeit with its panoramic view of Beirut’s closed airport (which will likely stay closed for 4 or 5 more days as a Hezbollah […]

Re-igniting Lebanon’s Internal Fire
By D. Elias Akleh Reports about the latest Lebanese conflict talked only about the symptoms of the conflict and ignored its root causes. The Lebanese political infrastructure was deliberately formed, since its independence in 1943, […]