July 19th, 20230This 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...
October 8th, 20220Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid threw a wrench into the works when he declared from the United Nations General Assembly podium, “An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children.”
The statement took many...
September 4th, 20220“There was no Massacre in Jenin” was the title of a Haaretz editorial on April 19, 2002, one week after Israel ended its deadly onslaught on the besieged Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The unwarranted conclusion by Haaretz, other Israeli media and, ultimately, numerous Western outlets was not the outcome of a...
July 28th, 20220To judge U.S. President Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a “failure” in terms of activating the dormant “peace process” is simply a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate even a nominal desire to push for negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian...
May 30th, 20220The Nakba is back on the Palestinian agenda.
For nearly three decades, Palestinians were told that the Nakba — or Catastrophe — is a thing of the past. That real peace requires compromises and sacrifices, therefore, the original sin that has led to the destruction of their historic homeland should be entirely removed from any...
April 17th, 20221There is a reason why Israel is insistent on linking the series of attacks carried out by Palestinians recently to a specific location, namely the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. By doing so, the embattled Naftali Bennett’s government can simply order another deadly military operation in Jenin to reassure its citizens...
October 31st, 20210When Joe Biden was declared the winner in the U.S. elections last November, expectations in Ramallah were high. A Biden administration, compared to the brazenly pro-Israel Trump administration, would surely be much fairer to Palestinians, was the conventional wisdom at the time.
Hence, unsurprisingly, Palestinian Authority President...
October 3rd, 20210The political division in Palestinian society is deep-rooted and must not be reduced to convenient claims about the “Hamas-Fatah split”, elections, the Oslo accords and subsequent disagreements. The division is linked to events that preceded all of these, and not even the death or incapacitation of the octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas will...
July 8th, 20210“The Palestinian Authority’s days are numbered.” This assertion has been oft repeated recently, especially after the torture to death on June 24 of a popular Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, 42, at the hands of PA security goons in Hebron (Al-Khalil).
The killing — or “assassination” as some Palestinian rights groups...
June 3rd, 20210The political discourse of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, is similar to that of an ineffectual king who has been isolated in his palace for far too long. The king speaks of prosperity and peace, and tirelessly counts his innumerable achievements, while his people are dying of starvation outside and...
April 27th, 20210NEW YORK — On Tuesday, an international rights watchdog accused Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians — and against its own Arab minority — that amount to crimes against humanity.
New York-based Human Rights Watch published a 213-page report, which it said was not aimed at comparing...
January 12th, 202102020 will go down in history as the year that terminated the American-sponsored “peace process.” While 2021 will not reverse the monumental change in the U.S. attitude and objectives in Palestine, Israel and the Middle East, the new year presents Palestinians with the opportunity to think outside the American box.
The previous...
December 10th, 20200No one seemed as excited about the election of Joe Biden being the next president of the United States as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. When all hope seemed lost, where Abbas found himself desperate for political validation and funds, Biden arrived like a conquering knight on a white horse and swept the Palestinian...
November 17th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Biden had a “warm conversation” with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Tuesday. Netanyahu referred to Biden as president-elect in a statement after the talk.
Netanyahu had acknowledged and congratulated Biden’s electoral victory early on, but had refrained from calling him president-elect...
November 14th, 20200“If we are going to live another four years with President Trump, God help us, God help you and God help the whole world.”
These were the words of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh during a virtual meeting with European legislators on November 3. While some may agree with Shtayyeh’s assessment, such...
October 1st, 20200It is abundantly clear that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has underestimated the seriousness of the challenges facing Palestine and the Palestinians.
The rushed agreement between his party, Fatah, and Hamas in Istanbul on September 24, and the Palestinian leader’s speech at the 75th session of the U.N. General...
February 25th, 20200CAIRO - Egypt’s state-run television announced on Tuesday that the country’s former leader and autocrat Hosni Mubarak died at the age of 91. After a presidency that spanned three decades, long-time U.S. ally Mubarak was ousted by mass popular protests as part of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.
Egypt’s State TV said Mubarak...
January 28th, 20201WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Trump and his hard-line, right-wing ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday. The plan has been preemptively rejected by Palestinians, who see no signs in the plan of an end to Israeli occupation and illegal settlements. Netanyahu, on...
January 26th, 20190The "State of Palestine" has officially been handed the chairmanship of the G-77, the United Nations' largest block. This is particularly significant considering the relentless Israeli-American plotting to torpedo the Palestinian push for greater international recognition and legitimacy.
It is now conclusive that the main mission for...
August 13th, 20180The father of 11-year-old Abdul Rahman Nofal contacted me, asking for help. His son was shot in the leg during Gaza's "Great March of Return" protests. The Strip's dilapidated health care system could not save the little boy's leg, as it was later amputated.
His father, Yamen, himself a young man from the Buraij Refugee Camp in...
July 1st, 20180AMMAN/WASHINGTON — Four Arab states have backed the U.S. plan for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, regardless of the position of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli newspaper reports.
The Israel Hayom daily interviewed officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan who...
May 25th, 20180Sixty Palestinians were killed in Gaza on May 15, simply for protesting and demanding their Right of Return as guaranteed by international law.
Fifty more were killed since March 30, the start of the “Great March of Return”, which marks Land Day.
Nearly 10,000 have been wounded and maimed in between these two...
May 4th, 20180RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee on Friday, as the veteran leader sought to renew his legitimacy while installing loyalists who he hopes will eventually continue his mission.
The expected reappointment...
March 30th, 20180The "deal of the century" is a farce. We suspected that, of course, but, upon his return from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in more detail why the long-anticipated plan of the administration of President Trump has no basis in reality.
Netanyahu told his cabinet that there are "no concrete details" to...
February 23rd, 20180As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad "inspired by the flavors of Palestine", a controversy ensued. Israel's supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine.
In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist —...
January 5th, 20180UNITED NATIONS — President Trump said in tweets on Tuesday that the United States may withhold future aid payments to Palestinians, accusing them of being "no longer willing to talk peace" with Israel.
Trump said that Washington gives Palestinians "HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and gets no appreciation or respect. They don't...
