Archive for September, 2012

Sep 30 2012

The sad truth about US attitudes to Palestinians

Published by under Articles,US-Middle East

By Daoud Kuttab
For the second time in less than three months a leader of a major US party stereotypes Palestinians in racists and anti peace terms. The revelation of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy attitudes towards Palestinians sheds light on the gap between declared policies and the truth. In Jerusalem this summer Romney described to his fat cat funders that Palestinian culture is the reason that they are so much inferior to Israelis/Jews because the latter’s per capita is much bigger than that of Palestinians. No indication was made that Palestinians live under a four decade old military occupation.
A similar stereotypical attitude was expressed last May when Romney addressed his funders in the US. A secretly taped conversation at a fundraiser with the Republican nominee shows a total rejection by Romney to his party’s and the general US and world policy in support of a two state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Continue Reading »

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Sep 09 2012

How Palestinians Can Engage the West

Published by under Articles,Palestinian politics

By Daoud Kuttab

Anyone following the Palestinian struggle for liberation understands that the only path to success today is through a concerted, holistic, non-violent approach.

Palestinian leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, have been repeatedly and consistently opposing any violent solution and supporting acts of popular non-violent resistance. Recently, they even succeeded in convincing the leaders of the Islamic Hamas movement to utter the words “popular resistance,” even if Hamas has not acted on them.

Using non-violence requires a high degree of discipline, and sophisticated media and public relations approach. The entire premise of this form of struggle is based on the need to win the hearts and minds of one’s opponents, as well as of those in countries that are supporting one’s adversaries. Continue Reading »

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