Author's Posts
The Strip is already occupied: The two Gazas that Israel cannot break
November 16th, 20230 The ongoing discussions on the Israeli military objectives in Gaza are largely focused on whether Israel is planning a long or a short-term military reoccupation of the Strip. Israelis themselves are fueling this conversation, with 41 percent of Israelis wanting to leave Gaza following the war and another 44 percent wanting the Gaza...
Time to listen: What is Gaza telling us about Palestinian priorities
November 2nd, 20230 Gaza has changed the political equation in Palestine. Moreover, the repercussions of this devastating war are likely to alter the political equation in the entire Middle East and to re-center Palestine as the world’s most urgent political crisis for years to come. Since the establishment of Israel, facilitated by Britain and...
The Gaza manifesto: Why America’s old Middle East is crumbling
November 1st, 20230 History will not forgive those who have remained silent, exhibited or expressed “balanced” positions — or worse, defended Israel’s ongoing genocide in an already besieged, impoverished and overcrowded Gaza. This is not a cliché declaration, a desperate attempt aimed at jolting the world, especially the Western world, to show...
A day to remember: How the “Al-Quds Flood” altered the relationship between Palestine and Israel forever
October 11th, 20231 Regardless of the precise strategy of the Palestinian group Hamas, or any other Palestinian movement for that matter, the daring Palestinian military campaign, deep inside Israel, on Saturday, October 7, was only possible because Palestinians are simply fed up. 17 years ago, Israel imposed a hermetic siege on the Gaza Strip. The...
The Gaza war is lost: But will Netanyahu concede?
October 11th, 20232 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had often boasted about the readiness of his army to deal with, and to eliminate all threats to Israel's “security.” The Israeli military, too, has contributed to the Israeli hasbara that Tel Aviv would be able to face several threats at all fronts, from Gaza, to the West Bank, to Lebanon...
Ghosts of the past: For Israel, war on UNESCO is an existential battle
September 28th, 20230 Jericho does not belong to the Palestinians alone. It belongs to the whole of humanity. For Israel, however, the recognition by UNESCO of Jericho as a “World Heritage Site in Palestine” complicates its mission of erasing Palestine, physically and figuratively, from existence. The decision was described by Israel’s foreign...
Humiliation vs. self-respect: The untold story of the abuse of Palestinian women in Hebron
September 13th, 20230 The humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) on July 10 was not the first such episode. Sadly, it will not be the last. Indeed, the stripping of five women in front of their children, parading them naked around their family home and then stealing their jewelry by an Israeli...
Friend or foe? Russia’s West Jerusalem consulate is very worrying
August 23rd, 20230 Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, a global cold war has also kicked in. As a strong ally of Washington and the home of a massive constituency of Russian, Ukrainian and East European Jews, it was only natural that Tel Aviv would be at the heart of the global conflict. When the war began, Israel was then ruled by an odd...
Palestinians welcome China’s new Middle East role, but it is not mediation they need
August 16th, 20230 It is feasible for China to continue playing an important role in mediating Middle East conflicts. In fact, it already has. In the case of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, however, mediation is hardly the issue. Even before Beijing successfully managed to achieve reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran last April, Chinese...
Balancing act is over: Israeli protests are not about democracy, but ideology
August 2nd, 20230 The late Israeli commentator Uri Avnery wrote, “I am increasingly worried that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle… is assuming a more and more religious character.” At first glance, the statement may seem baffling. If Israel is a “Jewish State” that serves as a “homeland” for all Jewish people, everywhere, does it not...
U.S. and Israel: Is the “unbreakable Bond” finally breaking?
July 26th, 20230 Israeli President Isaac Herzog added nothing of great value in his speech at the United States Congress on July 19. His was the typical language. He spoke of a “sacred bond”, touted the shared experience between both nations as “unique in scope and quality”, and celebrated the great, common “values that reach across...
The war to save Mahmoud Abbas: Is Netanyahu pushing for Palestinian civil conflict?
July 19th, 20230 This is the perfect opportunity for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to exit the stage. But he will not. Abbas’ brief visit to the devastated Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank on July 12 demonstrated the absurdity and danger of the PA and its 87-year-old leader. As he walked, Abbas struggled to...
Jenin is just the start: Did Palestinians finally bury the ghosts of the past?
July 13th, 20230 The deadly Israeli invasion of Jenin on July 3 was not a surprise. Also, unsurprising is the fact that the killing of 12 Palestinians, wounding of 120 more and the destruction of nearly 80 percent of the Jenin Refugee Camp’s homes and infrastructure will not make an iota of a difference. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
“We will not surrender”: The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin
June 29th, 20230 By Ramzy Baroud On June 19, a large Israeli military force raided the northern Palestinian town and refugee camp of Jenin from multiple directions. Not only did the raid fail, it backfired, and it also created a precedent in Israel’s decades-long war on the ever-rebellious Palestinian region. Israel killed eight Palestinians and...
Prophets of doom: Kissinger and the “intellectual” decline of the West
June 9th, 20230 It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers? Every major global conflict that involved the U.S. and its NATO allies in the past had......
A man without a strategy: How Netanyahu is provoking armed Intifada in the West Bank
June 9th, 20230 After signing a military decree on May 18, allowing illegal Israeli Jewish settlers to reclaim the abandoned Homesh settlement located in the northern Occupied West Bank, the Israeli government has informed the U.S. Biden administration that it will not turn the area into a new settlement. The latter revelation was reported by Axios on...
“Not on our dime!”: Why U.S. Democrats are growingly challenging Israel
May 24th, 20230 Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed “unbreakable bond” with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. Following the provocative “Flag March” on May 18, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the Occupied......
Lying about lying: Why we must revisit the definition of “fake news”
April 4th, 20230 The phrase “fake news” continues to be deployed routinely in U.S. politics. In a polarized political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organizations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is “fake news” for Republicans, and much of what appears in...
Xi’s “chilling” remarks: A multipolar world offers challenges and opportunities to the Middle East and Africa
March 29th, 20230 The final exchange, caught on camera between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian host and counterpart, Vladimir Putin, sums up the current geopolitical conflict, still in its nascent stages, between the United States and its Western allies on the one hand, and Russia, China and their allies, on the other. Xi was...
Mass protests and false hope: Israel’s supreme court is no friend of the Palestinian people
March 16th, 20230 As hundreds of thousands, throughout Israel, joined anti-government protests, questions began to arise regarding how this movement would affect, or possibly merge, into the wider struggle against the Israeli military occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Pro-Palestine media outlets shared, with obvious excitement, news about...
Victory is defeat: Palestinian children’s art exposes Israel’s cultural genocide
March 10th, 20230 The following text tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting for, and what pro-Israelis are fighting against: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” That was the summary of a news report......
True champions of humanity in Türkiye and Syria: We thank you
February 22nd, 20230 On February 7, a funeral was held in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. It was one of numerous such funerals to be held on that day across Syria and Türkiye, following a devastating earthquake that killed and injured thousands. Each one of these funerals represented two seemingly opposite notions: Collective grief and collective...
Palestine is my cause: Arabs reaffirm support for Palestinians, rejection of the occupation
February 2nd, 20230 By Ramzy Baroud The latest Arab Opinion Index 2022 is yet more proof that Arab societies are diverse in every possible way, from their assessment of their economic situation and living conditions to their take on immigration, state institutions and democracy. With one single exception: Palestine. Seventy-six percent of all......
Israel was never a democracy: So why is the West lamenting end of “liberal” Israel?
Even before the new Israeli government was officially sworn in on December 29, angry reactions began emerging, not only among Palestinians and other Middle Eastern governments, but also among Israel’s historic allies in the West. As early as November 2, top U.S, officials conveyed to Axios that the Biden administration is “unlikely...
Lions’ Den is not a fleeting phenomenon: On Palestine’s looming armed revolt
December 24th, 20220 Just when Israel, and even some Palestinians, began talking about the Lions’ Den phenomenon in the past tense, a large number of fighters belonging to the newly-formed Palestinian group marched in the city of Nablus. Unlike the group’s first appearance on September 2, the number of fighters who took part in the rally in the Old......
