American media usually report on Israeli military assaults in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Gaza as if the US is an innocent, neutral party to the conflict. In fact, a majority of Americans have told pollsters for decades that they want the United States to be neutral in the...
Earlier this week, an Israeli military official evoked “a worst-case scenario” conducted by three Israeli infantry brigades that would amount to crushing Gaza on the ground rather than just bombarding it. Some observers have noticed that the current...
Hillel Schenker reflects on a joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony and what it means for independence and freedom for both peoples. On May 7 at 9 pm, I joined at least 10,000 people in Tel Aviv’s Park Hayarkon for the 14th annual Israeli-Palestinian joint Alternative Memorial Ceremony....
Regional players in the Middle East are looking for the next Palestinian leader in a bid to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A possible long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is proving to be much more than an effort to end escalating violence that threatens to spark yet another war...
A narrator in The New York Times abuses the notion of narrative when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When The New York Times observes contemporary history unfolding, it uses its reputation as a “newspaper of record” to demonstrate its philosophical hauteur. Describing the...
This is why Palestinians marched to the border of Gaza and Israel, says Omar Shaban in Gaza City. On March 30, tens of thousands of Palestinians headed toward the Gaza-Israel border in what became known as the Great Return March. The reason for this was not the decision to move the US Embassy to...
All too predictable violence has again broken out between the Israelis and Palestinians, but this time with no mediator and, therefore, no possible good end for either side. Their conflict is so familiar, so predictable. The Book of Ecclesiastes sums it up prophetically: “The thing that hath...
Israel needs an enduring strategy that includes Hamas as a valid partner for peace. With heated debates about the progress of reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, it is vital to revisit one of the crucial issues regarding the latest Gaza conflict: the demilitarization of the...
Trials and tribulations of children in Gaza, as witnessed by health professionals Peter Smith and Catherine Thick. Childhood in Gaza is scarred by oppression and distress. In 1991, Israel ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 37 states: "No...
Ariel Sharon probably helped doom the whole enterprise of Israel. Arik Scheinerman, who became Ariel Sharon, was from a Russian family that emigrated to Palestine at a time when Palestinians had been deprived of the right to set immigration policy into their own country. He would go on powerfully...
Hamas seems to be in real trouble at the moment. The party-militia Hamas, a distant offshoot in Palestinian Gaza of the Muslim Brotherhood, has seldom been on the sunny side of the street. But a combination of difficult political choices has left it more isolated and more broke than...
Does Hamas hold a unified position on the use of violence for resistance? A crucial player in the conundrum that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hamas has always been a controversial actor. It was founded in 1987 by late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in...
Call it a coup or not, but Egypt now has Mubarakism without Mubarak. This is the second of a three part series. Read part one here. In the case of Mohammed Morsi, the media campaign against him and the Muslim Brotherhood, most prominently on CBC and ONTV satellite channels (both owned by members...
Over the past five years, humanitarian health workers Peter Smith and Catherine Thick have visited the Gaza Strip and the West Bank numerous times, providing health clinics and witnessing the everyday lives of the local population. The suffering they have seen in Gaza has prompted them to share...
Over the past five years, humanitarian health workers Peter Smith and Catherine Thick have visited the Gaza Strip and the West Bank numerous times, providing health clinics and witnessing the everyday lives of the local population. The suffering they have seen in Gaza has prompted them to share...
