For years, the U.S.-led peace process has focussed its energies on the roughly 40 percent of the West Bank in which the PA operates, while basically ignoring Gaza and East Jerusalem—the former because it was ruled by Hamas, an officially designated foreign terrorist organisation, and the latter because of its sensitivity to Israel. In the meantime, both […]
The re-election of Khalid Mesha’al, the “relative pragmatist” leader of the Gaza-based Palestinian faction Hamas, is very likely to raise hope that the two most prominent Palestinian political groups may shortly join forces, now that the chances of peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis could be at their doorstep. Read Here – Gulf […]
President Obama‘s visit to the Middle East next month is widely billed as an earnest attempt to double down on diplomacy and revive the moribund peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against the president. Doves on both sides quietly cede that it would take a miracle to get the two sides back […]
In the summer of 1993, I was granted a rare scoop as a Palestinian journalist: an exclusive interview with the prime minister of Israel at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, the first ever given to a reporter working for a leading Palestinian newspaper. Midway way through the one-hour meeting, I asked Rabin for his vision as […]
On Tuesday, a Palestinian medical team cranked open the West Bank grave of former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, took samples of his remains, and handed the evidence over to European experts to determine whether Arafat was poisoned — by Israel, the theory goes — before his death in 2004. “This will bring closure,” Arafat’s widow observed, “We […]
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU’S fixation with Iran’s nuclear programme has had one positive side-effect—for the Israeli prime minister, at least. While Iran occupies centre-stage, fewer people badger him about the long-stalled Israel-Palestine peace process. Meanwhile, more homes are being built in Israeli settlements deep within the Palestinian West Bank, placed there deliberately to thwart the possibility of […]
looking beyond borders 