‘The Donald Trump I know’: Abbas’ U.N. speech and the breakdown of Palestinian politics
February 25th, 20200 A precious moment has been squandered, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had the chance to right a historical wrong by reinstating Palestinian national priorities at the United Nations Security Council on February 11, through a political discourse that is completely independent from Washington and its allies. For a long...
Crisis and opportunity: The ‘Deal of the Century’ challenge for Palestinians
February 5th, 20200 After several postponements, President Trump has finally revealed the details of his Middle East plan, dubbed “Deal of the Century”, in a press conference in Washington on January 28. Standing triumphantly beside Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must have surely understood that the timing of the announcement, only...
Trump’s Israel-Palestine “peace” plan violates international law
February 1st, 20200 By Stephen Zunes, Truthout Donald Trump’s long-awaited “deal of the century” between Israel and Palestine essentially gives Israel’s far right coalition government everything it wanted. This Middle East “peace” deal allows Israel to annex vast stretches of the Palestinian West Bank (which has been under...
The newly formed Lebanese cabinet deserves a chance
January 24th, 20200 By Ghassan Michel Rubeiz* A popular uprising forced the resignation of the Lebanese prime minister and his cabinet last October. But a strong self-serving government and a very unpopular parliament are still operating with full force. The uprising has a long way to go to achieve its aspirations for a radical change in the political...
The jeopardy of media bias against Palestine
January 22nd, 20200 Jeopardy! is an American television game show that has been on the air for decades, with nearly 8,000 episodes to date. It is a trivia competition that quizzes contestants on general knowledge, and they receive cash rewards for each correct response. In a recently broadcasted episode recorded a few months ago, one question asked...
A third choice for the Lebanese crisis
January 16th, 20200 How did Lebanon end up on the brink of financial collapse? A country that many have called in the past the Switzerland of the Middle East and the birthplace of Khalil Gibran and Kamel Al-Sabbah. With the third largest shipping company (CMA-CGM) in the world belonging to a Lebanese family, the country benefits from one of the richest...
Fixing the system is up to all of us
January 15th, 20200 You no doubt remember the old line attributed to Ben Franklin when he was asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it!” Well, I’ve noticed an interesting thing in recent years: It’s got bi-partisan appeal. Last fall, for instance, within a few weeks of each other,...
It’s never been more important for every Michigander to be counted in the U.S. Census
January 15th, 20200 The census impacts everyone from seniors to students, kids and parents and our local businesses and neighborhoods. Participating in the census is a civic duty as important as voting to our democracy. To help get the word out, the state of Michigan has launched the Be Counted campaign to communicate the importance of completing the...The assassination of Soleimani reflects U.S. desperation in the Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo By killing top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, American and Israeli leaders demonstrated the idiom “out of the frying pan into the fire.” President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both politically and legally embattled — the former has just been impeached...
After Whitmer’s visit, Benson’s trip to Israel is another slap in the face
December 21st, 20190 This week, another prominent member of the Michigan government, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat and public figure who has shown support for the Arab American community, with the community reciprocating that support, took a publicized trip to Israel. After the outrage sparked by last month’s Israeli trip by Governor...
Local physician disgusted by president’s attacks on healthcare
December 12th, 20190 By Dr. Maissa Hider As a physician who has dedicated her career to helping the sick and those in need, I’m disgusted by Donald Trump’s attacks on healthcare and his failure to take action on prescription drug prices. While this president promised healthcare for all and lower prescription drug prices, the only thing we’ve...
Money, power and turf: Winning the Middle East media war at any cost
December 11th, 20190 It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose only goal is to serve their specific,...
How do we keep our democracy healthy?
November 20th, 20190 Representative democracy is based on a simple premise. It’s that ordinary citizens can make satisfactory judgments on complex public policy and political issues — or at least grasp them well enough to decide who should be dealing with them. But the significance of that premise isn’t simple at all. It means that our country’s...
How Western media bias allows Israel to get away with murder in Gaza
November 20th, 20190 An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when.” The answer came on...
A lesson for the Palestinian leadership: Real reasons behind Israel’s arrest and release of Labadi, Mi’ri
November 13th, 20190 The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri, from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of......
Haley Stevens should focus on serving her constituents in Michigan, not Israel
November 8th, 20191 This week, four members of the United States House of Representatives sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General expressing their "concern about the continuing, serious violations of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the resulting threat our ally Israel faces on its northern border." Resolution 1701 led to...
Microsoft should not fund Israeli spying on Palestinians
November 6th, 20190 The act of Palestinian activists covering their faces during anti-Israeli occupation rallies is an old practice that spans decades. The masking of the face, often by Kufyias — traditional Palestinian scarves that grew to symbolize Palestinian resistance — is far from being a fashion statement. Instead, it is a survival technique,......
It’s election time: Exercise your right and perform your duty
November 2nd, 20190 The following editorial is a collaboration between our newsroom and our editorial board: Voters from Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Inkster, Hamtramck and many of the surrounding communities in Southeast Michigan will go to the polls this Tuesday to exercise their constitutionally protected right and to perform their duty of voting on...
She deserves our support: Betty McCollum wants the U.S. to stop subsidizing torture of Palestinian children
October 23rd, 20190 In December 2018, a 17-year-old Palestinian teen, Ayham Sabah, was sentenced by an Israeli military court to 35 years in prison for his alleged role in a stabbing attack targeting an Israeli soldier in an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Sabah was only 14-years-old when the alleged attack took place. Another alleged...
The last lifeline: The real reason behind Abbas’ call for elections
October 16th, 20190 The call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for elections in the occupied territories is a political ploy. There will be no true, democratic elections under Abbas’ leadership. The real question is: Why did he make the call in the first place? On September 26, Abbas took on the world’s most important political...
Administrative torture: Free Heba al-Labadi, a Jordanian citizen in Israeli prison
October 9th, 20192 On August 20, Heba Ahmed al-Labadi fell into the dark hole of the Israeli legal system, joining 413 Palestinian prisoners who are currently held in so-called administrative detention. On September 26, Heba and seven other prisoners declared a hunger strike to protest their unlawful detention and horrific conditions in Israeli prisons.......
The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa must lead the way
October 3rd, 20190 On September 16, I visited South Africa, a country where many Palestinians have always felt welcomed, if not overwhelmed by the degree of genuine and meaningful solidarity. While having the honor to address many audiences in six, major cities, I have also learned a great deal. An important and sobering lesson is that while apartheid...
Apartheid made official: Deal of the Century is a ploy and annexation is the new reality
September 23rd, 20190 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving quickly to alter the political reality in Palestine, and facing little or no resistance. On September 10, Netanyahu declared his intentions to annex swathes of Palestinian land adjacent to the Jordan River, an area that covers 2,400 square kilometers, or nearly a third of the......
With friends like Israel, who needs enemies?
September 20th, 20190 In April of 2018, the Associated Press reported that the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it had detected unauthorized cellular phone surveillance devices operating in Washington, DC. Commonly known as “StingRays,” the devices are designed to mimic cell phone towers. Essentially, when a StingRay is activated it...
‘Justice is indivisible’: Screams of Israa Ghrayeb should be our wake-up call
September 13th, 20190 The death of Israa Ghrayeb has ignited furious reactions regarding the so-called “honor-killings” in Palestine and throughout the Arab world. It also wrought confusion with respect to the jurisprudential foundation of such crimes, which are often committed in the name of protecting the honor of the family. Israa, a 21-year-old......
