Obama Still Does Not Understand the Middle East Part II
As I mentioned in the first installment of this blog piece, given Obama’s Middle East speech it is more than evident by more than just timing he does not understand the Arab World. His inability to go past generic US slogans of freedom, human rights, and economic opportunity shows his sticking to the status quo … Read more
Nakba Day Protests over the Weekend
I apologize to all readers of this blog for I have no posted anything in some days. I was shot in the head by the Israeli Army or Border Police at a peaceful protest in the West Bank village of Al-Nabi Saleh with a metal tear gas canister at close range. If you are interested in … Read more
Israeli Minister Calls for Re-Occuppying West Bank, is this a Step towards One State?
Yesterday Yisrael Katz, Minister of Transport, called on Israel to reoccupy the West Bank if the Palestinians declare statehood in September in the UN. Now this is not news per se as every month, regardless of the statehood vote, an Israeli minister makes this call. Some argue for an annexation, and some argue for a reoccupying. … Read more
Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz’s Jerusalem Post Article
(Twenty minutes after finishing this post, this article was published stating the UN is following a very similar argument) I was reading the news, looking for something to write about and among the 1000s of article regarding Bin Laden this and Bin Laden that I came across this article by Alan Dershowitz. If you are lucky enough to not … Read more
Fayyad unable to pay PA employees because of Israel’s withholding of due funds
It was reported today that Salam Fayyad the Palestinian Prime Minister will be unable to pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority workers (viewed here) at their full wage for this month. This is a result of Israel’s withholding of Palestinian taxes due to them under the conditions of Olso and can be viewed here. As the article explains … Read more
Is the Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation as threatening as the Israeli Government makes it out to be?
With the buzzing news surrounding the reconciliation deal struck between Fatah and Hamas there seems to be the usual nay-sayers to a just peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. These nay-sayers include the US Congress, Lieberman, Netanyahu, and Barak, or simply the US and Israeli governments. After the signing of the unity agreement Lieberman pronounced … Read more
Palestinian Prisoner’s Day
To give recognition to all those Palestinians in Israeli prisons, April 17th, 1974 was declared Palestinian Prisoner’s Day. The day is April 17th because the first prisoner swap was done on this day releasing Mahmoud Hijazi from an Israeli jail. Since the occupation began over 650,000 Palestinians have been in Israeli jail and is sometimes used … Read more
Book Review “Gaza in Crisis” by Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky
I completed this book yesterday so I figured I would give a review to people who like to read books about the Middle East and Palestine in particular. It takes two prominent authors Ilan Pappe (author of A History of Modern Palestine, the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, etc) and Noam Chomsky (Hegemony or Survival, Manufacturing Consent, … Read more
Israeli public knowledge of Gaza
I am a news/information masochist, I admit it. It may be because there is a lack of news outlets I agree with politically or simply because I like to anger myself. This said I was doing my 2nd run of Jerusalem Post articles yesterday and found this article. Now admittingly the Jerusalem Post is generally the … Read more
A Third Palestinian Intifada?
I will be honest, as a Marxist who believes in revolution (not by violent means) my leftist antenna goes up every time I hear the word Intifada not used in a context of ways to achieve some form of parity with the Israelis. Within Hebrew University, and it seems Israel at large, the two Intifadas are treated … Read more
